Zappa: A Biography, Barry Miles

A frank Frank story, and an in depth look at how he created his music and his roots in strange Californian dust bowl towns as incongruous to his output as he was to them. This reads like a musicians deep dive into the drives and dreams of another musician they adore, worth reading to understand the kind of musical mind that would create The Black Page.

Growing up we'd very gradually be able to get our grubby little mitts on any of his work, and would be sharing 5th-generation tape copies of some of the more hard to find releases. If you have the bandwidth, reading this and listening to his work chronologically from his early Mothers of Invention output would pay dividends. After that, have a listen to:

• Shut Up And Play Yer Guitar with a young Stevie Vai, and Terry Bozzio on drums amongst a host of top notch musicians.
• Bongo Fury with Captain Beefheart... "The muffin man, is seated at the table in the laboratory of the utility muffin research kitchen..." the voices and the music.
• Joe's Garage a musical in many acts, and meat thwacking toilet seats.
• The Best Band You've Never Heard from the best band you've never heard.
• Lather with an umlaut, has Black Page #1, a version of A Little Green Rosetta and Revised Music For Guitar & Low Budget Orchestra which are lovely.