#billy james

1973 - Saxophone Giants - Jazz Showcase - Chicago

Billy James: Necessity Is ... The Early Years of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention (2001)

There have been countless books written about musical iconoclast Frank Zappa and I've read (almost too) many of them, but Billy James' Necessity Is … is the only one focused specifically on his original group, The Mothers of Invention.

Thus named because The Motherf***kers wasn't passing muster with record label A&R reps (and, as we know "necessity is the mother of invention"), the ever-expanding freaks who backed Zappa between 1964 and 1970 were, unlike most of his future groups, a lot more than sidekicks.

Rather, they were true Freak accomplices, who quickly evolved from basic rock and R&B combo to a free-form proposition able to play and improvise jazz, soul, doo wop, psychedelia, classical, and avant-garde music at their taskmaster conductor's beck and call.

At the same time, the band's irreverent approach to it all and Frank’s brutally cynical intellect were so innovative and unprecedented that their musical and personal antics influenced countless future bands and contemporaries -- even The Beatles, whose Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band The Mothers parodied, in turn, with We're Only in it for the Money, pictured above.

So, if names like Ray Collins, Roy Estrada, Jimmy Carl Black, Don Preston, Bunk and Buzz Gardner, Billy Mundi, Art Tripp, Euclid James 'Motorhead' (no umlauts) Sherwood, Ian and Ruth Underwood, Flo and Eddie, elicit your fond affection, this book is for you.

James interviews many of them, finally giving them a chance to tell their stories, their perspectives, and to reminisce about each album, each wild adventure, each other, and, of course, their brilliant and (now and then) beneficent dictator, Frank Zappa.

Featured Record:

The Mothers of Invention: We’re Only in it for the Money (1968)