My Musical Evolution – Part 107 Academy Days On The Bus

The Weekly schedule at prep school was a little different. We had half days on Wednesdays. To make up for it, we had classes on Saturday mornings. Yes everybody had to do sports or activities which I ended up liking very much. Due to the population and geography of the Lakes Region Conference it meant that teams had to travel sometimes hours away to compete. Hence the half days. We didn’t have Friday night lights, it was Wednesday and Saturday afternoons.

I don’t recall which sport I was in when I first heard of Frank Zappa but I do know it was a sports bus. Somebody [it would be nice to know who] brought a Frank Zappa tape. Reverse engineering the track listing, I eventually determined that it was Sheik Yerbouti. My first exposure to Frank that I recall was Jewish Princess. Zappa was funny, gross and used bad language, all the things that a young teenage boy would like. I made a mental note to check into Frank. So when the next Columbia House catalog came around, I found Joes Garage Act I.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. What I got was a bunch of funny songs wrapped around this Orwellian story about a boy, a girl and music being illegal. It was funny and Zappa can play that guitar.

Years later, I would discover this trend where it appears that every Frank Zappa fan knows two others that don’t necessarily know each other.

Joe’s Garage

Catholic Girls