FRANK ZAPPA

I am the girl who was living with Frank Zappa when we were arrested for pornography and suspected sex perversion. I was 19. This is hardly anything a person would willingly list on their resume, but since I continued to have a relationship with Frank until the year before his death it gives me a unique perspective from which to write a few words about Nigey Lennon's book, "Being Frank-My Time With Frank Zappa" which is now an e-book available on Amazon.com and Scribd.Since I had read it over two months ago, I took it along with me to re-read this week on a trip downtown. Sitting quietly on the subway I noticed the woman across from me glaring and rolling her eyes. Frank provoked outrage most of his life, but it seems the author's photo of herself sitting on a toilet on the back of the book (an obvious homage to Frank's own Potty Poster) follows in that tradition. Nigey's self-effacing, sometimes self-deprecating humor translates to the cover art as well as the content within. She was both a band member and Frank's lover many years ago as a teenager and speaks with distinctive clarity and humor about her dual role in his life during the 200 Motels Tour.Descriptions of Frank's penetrating gaze, quirky mannerisms and unique lexicon notwithstanding, this is not a memoir culled from the journal of a young fan. They are those of a seasoned, clever writer whose gift for small detail and conversation reveals a fertile memory with an inspired vocabulary. Because she is also a musician and composer, the passages about Frank's intricate compositions are scholarly, and offer substance to what might have been a romantic tell-all in someone else's hands.I asked Nigey (whom I have never met in person) how she managed to write this witty, informative book with such an authentic voice so many years later. She replied "It was much easier than any other book I have written, agonizing over every word. It flowed out of me like "automatic writing". For me, it was a gift, like having Frank alive again if only for the few nights I spent reading it. (If only THAT were possible).