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Drama on 4: Frank Zappa and Me

Frank Zappa and Me

06/05/2014

BBC Radio 4 - Drama on 4, Frank Zappa and Me

In 1967, a young English secretary had a life-changing encounter with musician Frank Zappa

In 1967, a conservative English secretary had a life-changing encounter in a London hotel with the charismatic American musician, Frank Zappa. By Matt Broughton.

In 1967 Pauline Butcher, a conventional English secretary, was sent to a London hotel on a typing assignment. The client turned out to be avant-garde American musician Frank Zappa. Frank asked Pauline to type out the lyrics of his album, Absolutely Free, a task she found extremely baffling. Out of this chance encounter, and unlikely meeting of minds, a friendship quickly grew, and Pauline was invited to go and work for Frank in Los Angeles, where the regular visitors to his log cabin in the Hollywood Hills included Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton and Captain Beefheart. It was the height of the Summer of Love which would soon come to a violent end when Charles Manson soured the hippie dream. But it would be the rise of the Women's Liberation Movement that finally led Pauline to follow her own path.
Adapted by Matt Broughton from Pauline's memoir 'Freak Out - My Life with Frank Zappa.'

Directed by Kate McAll
A BBC Cymru Wales Production.

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