Posted on 08/09/2002 5:23:09 AM PDT by Bill Rice
Zappa Fest Descends on German Town
Aug 8, 2:41 PM (ET)
By DANIEL CONNOLLY
BERLIN (AP) - Living in communist East Germany, Wolfhard Kutz used all kinds of schemes to smuggle in his beloved Frank Zappa records: secretive rendezvous with West Germans at highway rest stops. Hidden compartments in his car doors. Accomplices who sneaked albums across borders.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Kutz could pursue his passion openly, and created a fan club: the Arf Society, a reference to Zappa's Barking Pumpkin record label.
Thanks to the group, the little town of Bad Doberan, in an economically depressed area near the Baltic Sea, has become the unlikely site of an annual Zappa festival. This week, the town also dedicated a bronze bust of the late American musician in its central square.
The image, of Zappa in the 1970s, "represents him as a rebel and avant-gardist," said Kutz, 47. "That's the way we want to hold him in memory."
The town council initially was skeptical, Kutz said, but gave in after some hard lobbying - and an Arf Society pledge to pay about $10,000 to build and care for the monument. He said the council hopes Zappa will draw tourists.
The town of 12,000 is already something of a magnet for Zappa freaks. Last weekend, the 13th annual Zappanale festival included bands from the United States, Sweden, France and Hungary, and a German-language play called "All About Frank."
The festival started in 1990 when Kutz threw a party and found a band that could play a few Zappa songs. This year, he said, some 2,500 people showed up for each of the three days. Eleven former Zappa band members played, and two of Zappa's siblings attended.
"It was incredible to see that kind of outpouring of love and respect for Frank," said Candy Zappa, Frank's 51-year-old sister, by telephone from California's San Fernando Valley. She attended the festival with her brother Bob.
"If I'd have known as a little girl living with him that I would grow up and come to a foreign city and see posters of my brother sitting on a toilet, I wouldn't have believed it," she said, referring to a well-known Zappa image that was used as this year's festival poster.
Frank Zappa died of cancer in 1993. Kutz, who owns companies that install cable and antenna systems, saw him perform live once. Kutz had become hooked at age 16 when he heard Zappa's 1969 album "Burnt Weeny Sandwich," which remains his favorite.
"It was because we were especially restricted, and Frank Zappa strove for freedom and democracy," Kutz said.
Zappa - a cult favorite in the United States for his quirky, irreverent and often off-color lyrics (tunes like "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow,""Dancin' Fool" and "Valley Girl") - had a significant following behind the Iron Curtain.
Czech President Vaclav Havel said after his death: "Frank was a friend of our newly emerging democracy ... a friend of our country."
Vilnius, capital of the former Soviet republic of Lithuania, already boasts a monument to Zappa, erected in 1995.
For Kutz, smuggling the Western records into communist East Germany and selling copies on the black market was an act of defiance that could have cost him dearly. After the fall of the communist regime, Kutz found in his secret Stasi police file that he had been under surveillance, and 21 people informed on his activities.
"I was shadowed my whole life," he said.
Now, Bad Doberan Mayor Hartmut Polzin, 45, said he supports the festival and new monument, although he doesn't personally see the appeal of the music.
"I have to say I'm not the biggest fan."
On the Net:
www.arf-society.de
www.doberan-web.de/zappa/
Music - yet another freedom that we as Americans have just taken for granted.
""It was because we were especially restricted, and Frank Zappa strove for freedom and democracy," Kutz said.
I wasn't sure exactly where to post this, but I know there are many other Frank Zappa fans at FR.
Help, I'm a rock!
You're probably wondering why I'm here
Am so I, so am IJust as much as you wonder about me being in this place
That's just how much I marvel at the lameness on your face
You rise each day the same old way
And join your friends out on the street
Spray your hair and think you're neat
I think you're life is incomplete
But maybe that's not for me to say
They only pay me here to playI wanna hear a caravan with a drum solo!
You're probably wondering why I'm here
Am so I, so am I
Just as much wonder about me staring back at you
That's just how much I question the corny things you do
You paint your face and then you chase
To meet the gang where the action is
Stomp all night and drink your fizz
Roll your car and say gee-wiz!
You tore a big hole in your convertible top
What will you tell your mom and pop?Mom, I tore a big hole in the convertible
You're probably wondering why I'm here
Am so I, so am I
Just as much as you wonder if I mean just what I say
That's just how much I question the social games you play
You told mom you're stoked on Tom
And went for a cruise in Freddy's car
Tommy's asking where you are
You bogied all night in a cheezy bar
Plastic boots and plastic hat
And you think you know where it's at?You're probably wondering why I'm here
Not that it makes a heck of a lot of difference to ya
I've now got 63 of his 74 cds. (Not counting the "Beat the Boots" series.)
Here's Frank's Complete Discography - Pretty impressive!
BTW - If anyone has #6, #23, #43, #51, #61, #62, #68, #74, or the "Beat the Boots" series from this discography link, drop me a line. Let's swap.
I guess it's like the French and Jerry Lewis. There's no accounting for taste.
I love Jazz From Hell. But "The Adventures of Gregory Peckory" remains my alltime fave.
Slowly aging, very hip, young people, bump!
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