Coming clean, at 44 I am alas too young to have been able to see the great man live.
My intro was through my brother in law (13 years my sr) when at 14 he decided I should listen to Bongo Fury. I had just graduated from “now this is what I call music” into Beatles and Hendrix and he felt I might appreciate it.
The Muffin Man blew my teenybopper mind and it changed my life, literally. It was the moment I realised that music can touch you in the most deep/viceral way and it made me decide to pick up guitar, then bass.
I have branched out into all types of music, from Grunge to Metal to Jazz, my record collection can most def be labelled eclectic. But it has one constant, one thin red line connecting it all ....... Zappa.
A fan boy anecdote: When he died in ‘93 I was at uni, but worked in a pub part-time and was working an 8 hour shift “the day after”. Much to the dismay of most customers I played only Zappa that day, but I didn’t care. Zappa, THE Zappa was no more and he deserved a tribute.
😁