So love Lady B, thank you for this interview ❤💙💜🧡💜💙❤ Thank you Mark for giving her time and the opportunity to share part of her story, which is still being written! Lady B is a gem. A spicy gem! 😘 And a beautiful soul.
OK Mark great interview...I played some with Bianca way back in the day when I was with Gideon...she's a beautiful person and a huge talent fantastic singer..
Thank you for another great interview, Mark. Lady B opened my eyes to how a song makes you FEEL versus simply enjoying the music, and she certainly has a voice with feeling. Wow!!
The bionic vocals of Lady Bianca! I was in the audience at the Boston Zappa gig that may have pushed Bianca over the edge, prompting her to leave the tour just a few weeks later. Calls out from the audience for Bianca to take her clothes off and her immediate reply was epic! Lady Bianca was 23 years old at that time and SMOKING!! The audience was wrong to call out like that, and the kind of lyrics that Bianca was called upon to sing would make any decent person cringe. It wasn't meant to be, but I was lucky to be able to see this goddess of the bionic vocals along with my hero musician. Blessings to you, Lady Bianca!!
I really enjoyed this interview! Lady Bianca is so talented and such a Great Lady! Her Billy Holiday stylings are right on. When she mentioned meeting Mavis I assume it was Mavis Staples, correct? That was a bit unclear. Thanks for these interviews Mark. I met you once in Knoxville some years ago, when you fronted the band with Charlie Baty and Anson. THAT was a great show!
Ahmet brought me here. He had Diva on Rocktails. At 31:40 is "Zappa called me." "In 1976 I got a call from FZ. Zappa said, "Do you play keyboards?" "Yes." (I said very softly) "What do you want me to play?" "Just play with the band and learn these lyrics." I decided I would sing with all my might and play piano so he would hire me. Yep. And he did, and that was beginning of my apprenticeship with a genius.... From the start of the tour it was uncomfortable with the sexual and sexist nature of some of Zappa's lyrics and attitudes, along with calls for her to remove her clothes from audience members. To one particularly odious oaf at the show in Boston she retorted "Tell your mama to take HER clothes off and while she's got 'em off, tell her to suck a rat's dick." Which was not appreciated: "Frank was not pleased with me at all; he didn't like my comment to that person in the audience - and told me so". Around halfway through the tour, she decided to leave the band. Zappa said she was fired but she insists they parted amicably: I did not feel I had to be humiliated by taking off my clothes or letting Frank use me as a prop on his show. I feel that my vocals and musicianship should have sufficed. That is why I left, it was my choice.... I was on good terms with Frank when I left. As a matter of fact I returned to see some of his performances when he was in town. We kinda laughed about the whole thing. But it wasn't funny at the time. It was a mutual agreement, because he wanted to make me do more degrading things on stage than just display my talent. I thought my musicianship should have been enough. And then again I don't know why I had to leave, it just was something that did jive with him. I was a little too conservative at that time, and still am a little. [He wanted] like put his guitar on my body . . . things like that ... I thought I shoudn't have to if Ray and Eddie and Pat and Terry didn't, we were a band all of us.
So love Lady B, thank you for this interview ❤💙💜🧡💜💙❤ Thank you Mark for giving her time and the opportunity to share part of her story, which is still being written! Lady B is a gem. A spicy gem! 😘 And a beautiful soul.
❤❤❤
Zappa fan here. This is a great conversation, and I love the singing. The Billie Holiday imitation was superb
OK Mark great interview...I played some with Bianca way back in the day when I was with Gideon...she's a beautiful person and a huge talent fantastic singer..
Thank you for another great interview, Mark. Lady B opened my eyes to how a song makes you FEEL versus simply enjoying the music, and she certainly has a voice with feeling. Wow!!
The bionic vocals of Lady Bianca!
I was in the audience at the Boston Zappa gig that may have pushed Bianca over the edge, prompting her to leave the tour just a few weeks later.
Calls out from the audience for Bianca to take her clothes off and her immediate reply was epic!
Lady Bianca was 23 years old at that time and SMOKING!!
The audience was wrong to call out like that, and the kind of lyrics that Bianca was called upon to sing would make any decent person cringe.
It wasn't meant to be, but I was lucky to be able to see this goddess of the bionic vocals along with my hero musician.
Blessings to you, Lady Bianca!!
Such a charming, delightful woman. And been a fan of her records for decades.
Great interview! I always heard sauch dreadful things about Van Morrison. Cool, that Bianca liked him
Thank you both!
I really enjoyed this interview! Lady Bianca is so talented and such a Great Lady! Her Billy Holiday stylings are right on. When she mentioned meeting Mavis I assume it was Mavis Staples, correct? That was a bit unclear. Thanks for these interviews Mark. I met you once in Knoxville some years ago, when you fronted the band with Charlie Baty and Anson. THAT was a great show!
Mavis Staples
Ahmet brought me here. He had Diva on Rocktails. At 31:40 is "Zappa called me." "In 1976 I got a call from FZ. Zappa said, "Do you play keyboards?" "Yes." (I said very softly) "What do you want me to play?" "Just play with the band and learn these lyrics." I decided I would sing with all my might and play piano so he would hire me. Yep. And he did, and that was beginning of my apprenticeship with a genius....
From the start of the tour it was uncomfortable with the sexual and sexist nature of some of Zappa's lyrics and attitudes, along with calls for her to remove her clothes from audience members. To one particularly odious oaf at the show in Boston she retorted "Tell your mama to take HER clothes off and while she's got 'em off, tell her to suck a rat's dick." Which was not appreciated: "Frank was not pleased with me at all; he didn't like my comment to that person in the audience - and told me so".
Around halfway through the tour, she decided to leave the band. Zappa said she was fired but she insists they parted amicably: I did not feel I had to be humiliated by taking off my clothes or letting Frank use me as a prop on his show. I feel that my vocals and musicianship should have sufficed. That is why I left, it was my choice.... I was on good terms with Frank when I left. As a matter of fact I returned to see some of his performances when he was in town. We kinda laughed about the whole thing. But it wasn't funny at the time.
It was a mutual agreement, because he wanted to make me do more degrading things on stage than just display my talent. I thought my musicianship should have been enough. And then again I don't know why I had to leave, it just was something that did jive with him. I was a little too conservative at that time, and still am a little. [He wanted] like put his guitar on my body . . . things like that ... I thought I shoudn't have to if Ray and Eddie and Pat and Terry didn't, we were a band all of us.
Philly ‘76.?