Freak Out! My Life with Frank Zappa is a 2011 book by British author Pauline Butcher, which is an account of the four years (1967–1971) she was rock and roll musician Frank Zappa's secretary.[1]
Butcher was a 21-year-old secretary whose firm sent her to type up the lyrics from Zappa’s second album, Absolutely Free, for the free London newspaper, International Times.[2] After arriving in California, Butcher first helped Zappa work on a book on politics, helped manage a group of female musicians Zappa founded, and managed the correspondence with his fans.
In 2008, Butcher began to write her memoir; she used as source material her mother's detailed letters. Her mother had kept them in a shoe-box for 40 years.[3] They were letters Butcher wrote while living in California.
Reviewers asserted Butcher brought a different perspective to the study of Zappa's work than other members of Zappa's entourage. A review in Critics at large described Butcher as a "a cultured and fashionable secretary out of Swinging London," and characterized her book as "a reverse of Pygmalion".[4] Jim Caligiuri, writing in the Austin Chronicle, concluded his review saying, "Offering deeply personal glimpses of Zappa, Butcher's coming-of-age story is so captivating and vividly told that many will be surprised to discover it's her first book."[5]
According to Deborah Orr of The Guardian, the book "captures a particularly intense experience of a very brief, yet enormously influential, period in the evolution of western womanhood ... the interstitial time between 'sexual liberation' and 'women's liberation'".[1]
The Telegraph published an excerpt from the book.[6]
During an interview in 2012, Butcher spoke about taking the advice of a writing mentor who was at the BBC; she was told to "write something that no one else could write.".[3] She worked to develop a script for a series based on her time with Zappa, only to learn that the BBC had approved a documentary about Zappa which would be hosted by Germaine Greer. When she was advised the BBC would not fund two Zappa projects, she decided to publish a book with her research.
References
edit- ^ a b Deborah Orr (3 October 2011). "Frank Zappa, his groupies and me". The Guardian (UK). Retrieved 11 December 2017.
- ^
Nicola Stanbridge (22 September 2011). "Remembering Frank Zappa in "Freak Out! My Life with Frank Zappa"". PRI. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
They met by chance in 1967. Zappa was in London and needed someone to type up the lyrics for a new album he was coming out with.
- ^ a b
Richard Metzger (30 March 2012). "'Freak Out! My Life with Frank Zappa': An interview with author Pauline Butcher". Dangerous Minds. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
First-time author Butcher has a novelist's eye for detail, seems to be blessed with an elephant's memory and had the extreme good fortune that her mother kept all of her letters from 40 years ago so that she could draw from them.
- ^
"Beauty & the Beast: Pauline Butcher's Freak Out! My Life With Frank Zappa". Critics at large. 20 December 2011. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
Pauline Butcher, on the other hand, is not only an accountable part of the Zappa clan from 1967 to 1972, she has written a candid and vividly entertaining story of an unlikely meeting between a cultured and fashionable secretary out of Swinging London and a composer who set out to make himself and his band look anything but fashionable.
- ^
Jim Caligiur (16 December 2011). "Rock & roll books from Austin to Beijing". Austin Chronicle. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
Even so, Freak Out! gives the onetime English secretary and part-time modeling instructor the opportunity to tell her insider's view of the head Mother, one that's revelatory and keenly perceptive.
- ^ Georgia Dehn (9 December 2011). "Pauline Butcher remembers life as Frank Zappa's personal assistant". The Telegraph. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
- ^ ""Mr Zappa? I'm afraid I only speak English"". BBC Radio. Retrieved 11 December 2017.