Zappa
Barry Miles
Ten years after his death, Frank Zappa continues to influence popular 
culture. With almost one hundred recordings still in print, Zappa 
remains a classic American icon. Scores of bands have been influenced by
 (and have shamelessly imitated) his music, and a talented roster of 
musicians passed through Zappa's bands. Now comes the definitive 
biography of Zappa by Barry Miles, best-selling author of Hippie and 
Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now, who knew Zappa personally and was 
present at the recording of some of his most important albums. Miles 
follows Zappa from his sickly Italian-American childhood in the 1940s 
(his father worked for the military and was used to test the 
effectiveness of new biological warfare agents) to his youthful pursuit 
of what was a lifelong dream: becoming a classical composer. Zappa 
brings together the many different personalities of this music legend 
together for the first time: the self-taught musician and composer who 
gained fame with the "rock" band the Mothers of Invention; the political
 antagonist who mocked presidents while being invited by Vaclav Havel to
 represent Czechoslovakia's cultural interests in the United States, and
 Zappa the family man who was married to the same woman for over thirty 
years.