The Mothers of Invention &#; Conflicted Histories
As time has passed since the publication of The Real Frank Zappa Book, and more interviews of original band members have emerged whose individual recollections contradict was had been written (and often taken as factual history) &#; it further sheds light on the complexity of this band, and the need for an ongoing, objective, and scholarly view of the Mother&#;s history from those who were actually there (well beyond the usual pop culture biographies and rock critic hokum), the musicians themselves.
Some of these conflicted histories can be read in the following transcribed interviews conducted by Steve Moore with Don Preston, Jim Pons, and Jimmy Carl Black:
Interview with Don Preston (January, ):
SM: In &#;The Real Frank Zappa&#; bio, Zappa writes that he decided to disband the Mothers when he saw Duke Ellington &#;begging for a ten-dollar advance.&#; I have a hard time believing that story. Did you see that happen?
DP: I think I read that, too, but that&#;s not what happened. A lot of stuff in that book is bull shit. It was just his imagination. There were a number of reasons why the Mothers disbanded. One of them was
Jeff Simmons composer / arranger
Jeffrey Lael Simmons is an American rock musician, best known as a former member of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention.
Simmons provided bass, guitar, vocals and harmonica for Mothers of Invention during and He left the Mothers in early just prior to the filming of Motels (where he was replaced by Ringo Starr's chauffeur Martin Lickert). Simmons later returned to the Mothers occasionally during the period of to Zappa and Mothers albums he appeared on include Chunga's Revenge (), Waka/Jawaka () and Roxy & Elsewhere ().
In later years Zappa released a number of archival recordings that feature Simmons including You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 1 (), You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 6 (), and Playground Psychotics (). Simmons also appears in the Zappa movie The True Story of Frank Zappa's Motels (). Numerous Zappa bootleg recordings from the same era also feature Simmons.
Simmons's music career began in Seattle. In he became a member of the local group Blues Interchange which soon changed its name to Easy Chair. The group self-financed their only recording, released by the regional Vanco label in The 12" one-sided, three-song
The longtime bassist for Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention, Jeff Simmonsalso issued a rare solo LP for Zappa's Straight imprint, the cult classic Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up. Born and raised in Seattle, Simmonsfirst earned local notoriety as the singer/guitarist for Indian Puddin' & Pipe, a popular Pacific Northwest psychedelic band that in signed with producer Matthew Katz's San Francisco Sound label. Katz-- the infamously unscrupulous manager of Moby Grape, It's a Beautiful Day, and other luminaries of the San Francisco psych scene -- structured his contracts so that different lineups could appear under a given group's name anytime and anywhere he desired, and he ultimately bestowed the Indian Puddin' & Pipemoniker on a rival Seattle act previously known as the West Coast Natural Gas. Left without legal recourse, Simmonsand his bandmates (guitarist Peter Larson, bassist Phil Kirby, and drummer Albert Malosky) returned to Seattle and rechristened themselves Easy Chair, issuing their one-sided, self-titled debut LP on the Vanco label in After another name change, this time to Ethiopia, the group opened for the Mothers of Inventionin Seattle and later appeared alongsid
jeff simmons
From "A Guide To Straight Label Records & Compact Discs" by Dean R. Hegerty,
"Triple-threat musician (multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter) Jeff Simmons first came to the attention of Frank Zappa as a member of the Seattle-based group Ethiopia (formerly Easy Chair) when they opened for the Mothers Of Invention at a concert in Seattle. They were signed by Bizarre, and were part of the legendary Bizarre "Gala Pre-Xmas Bash" on December 6 & 7, (along with The Mothers, Wild Man Fischer, The GTO's, and Alice Cooper) at the Shrine Exposition Hall in Santa Monica. Soon afterwards, they broke up.
Simmons was then signed to Straight to do not one, but two albums. One was a mostly instrumental (of 14 tracks, only two have vocals) soundtrack for the obscure biker film "Naked Angels". Although it contains mainly fuzz-guitar jams and keyboard-dominant workouts, there is at least one track, 'Camper Dream', that reminds one of a typical Zappa/Mothers track of the time () with its tape-speed trickery and overall weird, warped sound.
Jeff's other Straight album was a more conventional rock album, "Luc
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