Frank Zappa
I was in art class in my senior year of high school in 1969, and we were supposed to go outside and draw trees or something. A good friend and I jumped in his VW bug and drove to his house not far away, and he played me ‘We’re Only In It For The Money’ by the Mothers of Invention. Life-changing - I only needed to hear that once and I was a big fan of FZ and got all the earlier stuff I’d missed: ‘Freak Out’ and ‘Absolutely Free’.
On April 27, 1969, I went to my first rock concert. It was at Baltimore Civic Center (I was living in Silver Spring at the time), and it was the Mothers, Country Joe and the Fish, Ten Years After, and Buddy Miles Express. I really don’t remember much about the show. Also saw him later that year at the Laurel Pop Festival.
The next time I saw FZ was in Berkeley in early 1974 where I took some of these, and again late in 1975, when he toured with Captain Beefheart supporting.
And I never saw FZ after that - he did not come to San Francisco very often.
Full Frame
Berkeley Community Theater, Berkeley, CA, 02/16/74
Paramount Theater, Oakland, CA, 02/16/74
