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California Classics Books, Los Angeles
1995
ISBN: 1-879395-55-X
Pages: 154
Language: English Category: About
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Nigey Lennon says she wrote and sang the backing vocal lines to "Dirty Love", but that she sounded too white, so they were re-recorded by "Mrs. Ex-Big R&B Singer". She never reveals this singer's name, but she does mention that "A few years later, Mrs. Ex-Big R&B Singer left her husband, struck out on her own, and became a household name singing Top 40 pop. A feature film was even made about her life and struggles." Let's see, who could it be? She also writes about "Mr. Dip", whom I assume is Ricky Lancelotti. One case where she provides a name that FZ omitted is when she reveals that Ray Collins was the Mother who said that Zappa should go to Big Sur and take acid with someone who believes in God. I was fairly skeptical when I started reading the book. "How come I've never heard of her before?" But by the end I figured she must be real. While I'd take some of what she says with a grain of salt, that didn't stop me from enjoying the book. (The same goes for Watson's Negative Dialects of Poodle Play.) It's nice to read something by someone who knew FZ personally, though inevitably it suffers to a certain degree from the "He was great when I knew him, but he was never as good afterwards" syndrome. (The opposite, of course, is the "Everything he ever did was flawless" fan mentality.) I just wish someone would write a book who was still on good terms with FZ until the end. Did I read somewhere that Matt Groening was working on a book? The detail on hidden aspects of Zappa's personality, sexual life, and most interestingly, seduction technique, are given an unprecedented exposition...nothing I've ever read before goes into this stuff. It's written all lovingly and respectfully, I think (although still not enough to keep Zappa's widow from getting pissed off, I'm guessing). She's a hell of a good writer, too. Perhaps her style and expressions are a bit pretty well. Most importantly, she is a musician herself with enough background to talk very effectively about the nature of Zappa's musical genious. One thing I really like about the book is its candidness and intelligence. It does not sink into blind fan worship and follow some "company line" of presenting the status quo image of Zappa (as in Victor Bokris' book on Keith Richards). Anyone who was a fan of Zappa's in the early 70's will recognize that stamp of authenticity in her description of the scene at that time. Admittedly there's not much in there for those readers who admire Zappa's later period (say post 1980) primarily, since the book covers only the period of the seventies and the author has a preference for Zappa's music of that period. There are few fans out there, I think, who fully appreciate the totality of Zappa's output, so the book should not be dismissed on that basis. Being a Zappa fan in the early 70's was a statement in itself; to openly like Zappa's music really set you apart as a non-conformist and made you a little odd. Nigey's book really captures that feeling dead-on, I think. What's more, she writes extremely well. So, while I honor your right to think of Nigey's book as an "ugly kiss and tell book", I'm surprised that that's all you see in it. Anyway, today I asked Ray Collins about her. He remembers her. He knew of the book but hadn't read it yet. He imagined (wrongly) that the book goes into sensationalistic details of their (NL & FZ's) physical relationship. So I don't think there can be any doubt that Nigey Lennon was involved with FZ in more or less the way she claims to have been. Whether "Andy" is about her or not remains open to debate. I asked Howard Kaylan what he... .... On the subject of Nigey he said that he vaguely remembers her, but not in the context of a musician. He does not remember her ever being on stage with The Mothers and that her connection with Zappa was more social than musical. August 25, Community Theater, Berkeley August 26, Convention Center (?), Seattle August 27 or 28, Spokane August 30, Seattle September 1 or 2, Portland October 1, Memorial Auditorium, Sacremento "In addition "The Tour also hit Chicago and Denver, and a few more midwest cities as well as Miami and, I think, Atlanta. I left the tour in New York on Oct.12 and the next stop was Toronto, followed by several other Canadian venues, and then to Europe (and fire 'n chains)..." And Mark Volman played rhythm guitar. The lead-on act was the Persuasions, who were on Straight at the time. I don't remember any dedication, but I was sixteen at the time. ...... Make no mistake: I'm convinced that Lennon WAS around and she DID have a personal/sexual relationship with Zappa. But I *suspect* that her book greatly exaggerates her *musical* relationship with FZ. Sit and write about something that happened with you fifteen or twenty years ago. After you made your best show the story to people with whom you parted that experience and I'm sure 9 against 1 that the common reaction would be - God, you put EVERYTHING wrong, buddy. It's just a way the memory works. So without diaries, letters, long cross-inteviews with the witnesses (and often very unpleasent discoveries:-)) etc all you could produce would be sort of FICTION no matter what your real intentions were. And as with any fiction the only thing that's count is - style - emotions authenticity I would give Nigey A+ for both. And if you want something else, well take Walley, Slaven, and if you could filter Carlo-Marlo prols shit as easy as me Watson is also one of the best. If I remember correctly, Zappa ostensibly hired her as a substitute guitarist in the event that one of the other band members (Mark Volman, I guess) was ever too stoned to play. She never says in the book that she actually got on stage with them, I don't think (it's been at least a year since i read the book) It's fairly common knowledge now that the girls singing on "Overnite Sensation" were Tina Turner and the Ikettes. Why Nigey doesn't mention them by name baffles me. The girls remained anonymous on the album because Ike Turner hated the songs and didn't want to be associated with them. Now he's playing gigs in casinos in New Mexico. Serves him right. >Why did FZ make no mention of her in TRFZB? Zappa makes almost no mention of any aspect of his personal life in that book, except in very general terms. Personally, I thought the book (Nigey's) needed to go through the typewriter one more time. It raises as many questions as it answers and is confusing in parts. And I really don't understand why she attempts to hide the identity of a lot of the people in the book, yet she talks about others with little regard to what they might think. When Nigey's writing about someone other than herself, she's actually pretty good. She wrote a decent book about Mark Twain. Mark Twain in California (1982, Chronicle Books) Alfred Jarry: The Man with the Axe (illustrated by Bill Griffith) (1984, Panjandrum Books; reprinted 1990, Last Gasp) Bread and Hyacinths: The Rise and Fall of Utopian Los Angeles (with Paul Greenstein and Lionel Rolfe) (1992, California Classics Books) The Sagebrush Bohemian: Mark Twain in California (Paragon House, 1990; paperback published 1993, Marlowe and Co.) Being Frank: My Time with Frank Zappa (California Classics Books, 1995) So Ms. Nigey Lennon, released at last the CD of her own music - Reinventing The Wheel. And three songs of the total 15 on the aforementioned artifact were sung by Frank's own youngest sister Patricia 'Candy' Zappa, Any Way The Wind Blows including. That's right, you heard it right. Patricia 'Candy' Zappa! All details can be found here http://www.nigeylennon.com |
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