Camille Paglia reviews Miles’ latest biography on Frank Zappa: “Miles calls Zappa a ‘cold nihilist’ who felt no real emotions for anyone. Along with ‘cynicism and misanthropy,’ he detects Catholic guilt and ‘deep-seated problems with women.’ Zappa was ‘stuck in a 50’s time warp’ — yet the bold feminist Germaine Greer was a Zappa fan.”
(NY Times, registration required, bugmenot to the rescue)
7 thoughts on “Paglia on Zappa”
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I’ve known Miles since my days working at the East Village Other, he was a mainstay of
England’s IT [International Times] among other things. He and Frank knew each other well, Frank trusted him, still Miles knows him well enough, and I trust his judgements. Whether that counts for anything or not, that’s my thought. Anyway, he did credit me for material which is always nice. One of these days I’ll just have to have a few beers with him when next I go to merry ‘ole England. Miles has many books on pop culture figures, his bio of Allen Ginsberg is VERY good indeed!
But what we really want to know David: have you met Camille Paglia? ;)
I once shared a hot tub with Camille Paglia. I found her to be a cold nihilist, a cynic and misanthrope, with deep-seated problems in general. She is unable to differentiate review from synopsis.
No, but I wrote her a few letters over the years (and I do have copies of them). She’s written about FZ before, and that’s why I wrote but somehow I suppose I wasn’t famous enough for her…what’s your idea, Barry?
Isn’t there a reference somewhere where fz says how he often cried when watching movies, which would be not bad for someone who felt no real emotions.
From Zappateers site
I sent this note to Barry Miles. I have received no reply. If this is any indication, this book is a mess. It may sound like I’m a bit touchy, but, folks, it’s hard enough to make a go of it as a musician without stuff like this. At least this will set the record straight for the affz readers.
Dear Mr. Miles,
It has been brought to my attention that you made reference in your book “Zappa” to my participation in the re-recording of the bass tracks for the album “We’re only in it For the Money”. On page 236 you said: “Even worse was the way barrow borrowed the Knack’s ‘My Sharona’ riff for ‘Flower Punk’. barrow was 20 years younger than Zappa and didn’t realize that ‘My Sharona’ was not recorded until 12 years after “We’re only in it For the Money”. It was a punk song rather than from the hippie period, so the psychedelic pastiche was destroyed”
This small paragraph is full of inaccuracies. First, it is total fiction to say that I borrowed the Sharona riff. Every note that I played for Zappa in the studio was
approved by or dictated by him. It was his idea to insert the Sharona riff. It happened to be a little ongoing joke at the time because I was a friend of the Knack’s drummer, Bruce Gary. Frank had fun inserting that riff in several of his arrangements. If you think that a bass player has free reign to play whatever he wants on a Zappa master recording, you don’t know much about how he worked in the studio! He controlled every detail. I did come up with a lot of my own ideas and parts over
the years, but they always had to pass his scrutiny. This was not one of them.
Second, I am about 11 years younger than Frank, not 20. I was a teen in the 60’s and “We’re only in it For the Money” was my first favorite Mothers album, so I was well aware of when it was released.
Third, because I was acquainted with Bruce Gary of the Knack, I was also quite aware of when ‘My Sharona’ was released.
Fourth, I was therefore obviously quite aware that ‘Sharona’ came long after “We’re only in it For the Money”. How can you possibly imagine that I would not have had such a basic awareness of something like that? You have no idea what I did or did not “realize”. How can you justify putting this in your book? On what evidence do you base this assertion?
Oh yes, and by the way, the Knack was a new wave band, not a punk band.
I do not appreciate the way you blamed me for something most Zappa fans (including me) didn’t like, the re-recordings for “We’re only in it For the Money”. Now many people will probably believe that what you describe is true: it is not. Please correct these mistakes in any future printings of the book.
I look forward to your reply.
Arthur Barrow
Hey Art ! thanks for dropping by; we fully take on board what your saying – even though it’s not specifically adressed to us KURsters.
I seem to remember you at Wembley Arena 1980 dropping in a few lines from Gary Numan’s “Cars” – although I can’t remember which song it was used in – got a resounding cheer from the audience though.