Free eBook Cosmic Debris: The Collected History Improvisations of Frank Zappa download

Russo has compiled an enormous amount of information on Zappa's life, career, and work. The Zappaphile will find numerous details and sidebars to fill evenings of reading and curiosity. The problem with 'Cosmik Debris' is that it reads like a vast compilation facts and tidbits. The author will seamlessly jump from a storyline to a sidebar with little relevance or no relevance, as if he cannot leave anything out. The book is difficult to read because of this overflow of information--it is more like a misguided reference guide.

I have read the following books about Frank Zappa:
THE REAL FRANK ZAPPA BOOK by Frank Zappa and Peter Occhioigrosso
NO COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL: THE SAGA OF FRANK ZAPPA by David Walley
COSMIK DEBRIS: THE COLLECTIVE HISTORY AND IMPROVISATIONS OF FRANK ZAPPA by Greg Russo
BEING FRANK: MY TIME WITH FRANK ZAPPA by Nigery Lennon
With the exception of BEING FRANK, all were well written, interesting, thought provoking and worthwhile reading material.
Each of these books (again with the exception of BEING FRANK) creates a picture of Frank Zappa. Each shows a different dimension of the same person. COSMIK DEBRIS is unlike the two because it provides greater technical details. For example, Russo provides the greatest degree of information regarding the business and artistic aspects of Zappa's life and musical history. He shows how classical artists had an impact on Zappa's musical proclivities, but explains historical linkages based on the artistical/musical techniques. For years, I've been attempting to explain Zappa to a friend in Maine who is a classical pianist. I don't think she understood me until I gave her some passages to read from COSMIK DEBRIS.
COSMIK DEBRIS provides an important dimension into the understanding of this artist that none of the other books do. It is more technical than the others are. However, and most importantly, it is a critical addition to everyone's Frank Zappa library.

A thorough examination of the Zappa ouevre. A little bit heavy on detail and there is a palpable distate for Gail Zappa. Details such as street addresses make a detailed tour of zappaland possible. For fans, a must purchase.

I have, in the past, collected most if not all of the zappa books. I have read the Negative Dialetics, Electric Don, MOTHER! and a host of other semi famous books - not to exclude FZ's own book on himself... they all have good parts and not so good parts... but this particular book is pretty impressive.
It has a detailed account of each release, the people that FZ ran into, most of the silly stories of encounters. And the best part, the author does not seem to have an opinion of the subject. This makes the reading easy to read... a lot of the books mentioned earlier, either tried to paint FZ as a communist or a socialist or this or that, and the agenda they had writing the book really disjointed the writing.
So, if you are looking for a good book to read about frank and what he did music wise, entertainment wise, this is a very good place.
However, I am not knocking the other books, they were, at the very least, entertaining. I enjoyed reading them. They are all worth the purchase price (Maybe not Negative Dialetcts Of Poodle Play).
have fun!

There's a great amount of information in this book, as well as plenty of photos, records and advertisements that I've never seen. BUT it's pretty frustrating-in some cases the reproductions of these ancient articles are simply unreadable. The back cover says: read the Look article that turned Zappa on when he was kid-yeah-well it was scanned and reproduced so f'ing small you can barely SEE it. The same goes for the back of the famous Varese lp. And this isn't the only example. It's so frustrating to see these encouraging headlines and not be able to read the text. Why reproduce it all? And while I'm the subject, Mr. Russo mentions in his introduction that he does not buy bootleg records, trade them or even reference them. Okay that's fine, but why is it acceptable for him to reprint any news article he wants? Is it because a bootlegger is trying to make money? Oh that's different-I get it. Yeah, uh huh. The actor observer theory: when you do it its wrong but when I do it, I have a "reason".
Mr. Russo relates just the facts, he makes a list and you just assume that it's correct. His narrative is simple and his "conceptual continuity" of the albums rather stiff. There's a great deal of information here, it's obviously a labor of love but it really needs an editor. Is there any reason for a list of all these cover bands? I think it's interesting to see the cover bands that existed while FZ was alive-but after his death, y'know, who cares? Starting on page 77 Chris Samson explains the difference between 19th century classical music and 20th century classical music. And he does it in a language that non-musicians can understand. It's fascinating actually and probably the most important part of the book. It's obvious that Mr. Russo loves Zappa and overall he's done a good job. Maybe in the next edition the graphics can be enlarged, or at least darkened. It's a good book for the Zappa freak wanting this stuff on a shelf, just parts of it could be better, the author said somewhere that the book is a "work in progress". Okay, well fix it.