NO COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL David Walley Outerbridge and Lazard

I was once party to the production of a concert featuring Frank Zappa & his Mothers of Invention, just a few days before they recorded the Fillmore East album. On the afternoon of the Big Day, I was at the hotel checking out last-minute arrangements with a few of the Mothers. (Frank was somewhere else; probably off looking for pennies in the street, one Mother ventured.)

Anyway, one of them (whom I’ll not mention, because someday he might be out of work and Frank might have further use for him) rummaged through his suitcase and produced a little baggie filled with boo. Immediately, one of the other Mothers jumped up and positioned himself guard-like next to the door. “Oh gosh,” I exclaimed, “I thought Frank was against the usage of drugs, especially in his own band.” “Well, he is,” said the Mother with the boo, “but, you know, sometimes you’ve just gotta humor Frank ...”