Ryko is celebrating its first 20 years with a compilation disc that includes Frank Zappa, David Bowie, John Cale and Bill Hicks. Juicy details of the last twenty years can be found here, written by none other than Ryko founders Don Rose, Arthur Mann and Rob Simonds.
3 thoughts on “Happy Birthday Rykodisc”
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Good reading.
“Having Frank Zappa call to tell me that we have to recall all Mothers of Invention CDs in the stores immediately because he was being sued by some former band members.”
I hadn’t heard that story before, but it doesn’t surprise me. The business of being FZ has certainly helped the survival of the lawyer industry.
I have many mixed feelings about Ryko, but it is interesting to read their story and look back. Innovation is great stuff, until the suits discover it, run it through the blender, homogenize and pasteurize it.
Remember the internet? Wanna buy some ad space?
One more interesting thing (to me, anyway)…
I have only scanned the article, and may have missed something, but it seems there is no mention of ZFT, Gail or other family members associated with the Zappa part of the Ryko story. Maybe it’s only because of space limitations, but my evil mind is making more of the apparent omission than it might deserve.
oops…I said I wasn’t going to waste my time ripping on them anymore. Did I break a promise? Not the first time, won’t be the last. Gotta go. Call anytime.
No, no mention of them in this article from what i saw. There’s also other people choosing not to mention them: “Candy” Zappa in her book “My Brother was a Mother”, and the same goes to Nigey Lennon on “Being Frank: My Time with Frank Zappa”. Mmmh…