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What people are saying about My Brother Was A Mother...
"Frank Zappa's younger sister, Patrice 'Candy' Zappa, has put together a fond rememberance of her big brother. "My Brother
Was a Mother: A Zappa Family Photo Album" (California Classics) features more than 60 previously unpublished candid shots
of the Zappa clan. The author recounts growing up in Baltimore with her father, a barber, and brother Frank, who'd go on to
become the frontman for the Mothers of Invention."
-- New York Post, Feb. 17, 2003
"This is a very funny book ... Absolutely great pictures ... You won't be disappointed."
-- United Mutations' The Big Note Files, Mar. 10, 2003
"My Brother Was A Mother: A Zappa Family Photo Album (published by California Classics Books) is
aptly titled -- reading this new book by Patrice "Candy" Zappa, Frank Zappa's baby sister, is a lot like stumbling across
a Zappa family photo album forgotten and stashed away in an attic. Not only are there more than sixty previously unpublished
family photos, but they are illuminated by Candy Zappa's insights into what it was like to grow up with the iconoclastic guitarist,
composer, and social critic.
"As Candy Zappa remarks in her introduction to the book, 'You couldn't get any closer to knowing what it was like to grow
up in the Zappa household unless you had been there right beside me.'
"Fans of the late musician may not have even been aware that he had a nuclear family. During his lifetime Zappa (who died
of prostate cancer in 1993) preferred to turn the spotlight away from them. As a result, more people were familiar with Zappa's
children than they may have been
with his parents, Francis and RoseMarie Zappa, and his three siblings, Bobby, Carl, and Candy.
"After reading My Brother Was A Mother, however, no one will ever be likely to forget this fascinating family and their
heartwarming story, told with humor and honesty by Candy. She recounts the childhood of her immigrant father Francis Zappa,
who spent his early days in Baltimore working in his father's barber shop; tells the hilarious tale of her mother RoseMarie
Zappa, who broke off a going-nowhere relationship with a boorish hockey player, then met Francis and consequently changed
the course of musical history; and, of course, describes what it was like growing up with an older brother who "loved to blow
things up" and who became obsessed with music at an early age.
"My Brother Was A Mother isn't only for Frank Zappa fans; it's a must-read account of an archetypical Italian-American
family struggling to come to terms with their genius son in the turbulent '50s and '60s. And Candy Zappa has the pictures
to prove it!"
Patrice 'Candy' Zappa has performed with numerous bands on both the East and West Coasts and Europe. She lives in Valley Village,
California. She will be promoting MY BROTHER WAS A MOTHER jointly with California Classics author Nigey Lennon, whose
book Being Frank: My Time With Frank Zappa is being reissued in June.
Being Frank: My Time With Frank Zappa was released in 1995.
Musician/author Lennon maintained a personal and professional relationship with Zappa during the period which is general agreed
to have been the composeršs most creative and she invests her recollections with considerable musical and emotional insight.
The new edition has been updated.
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