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He quickly dished out guest tickets to his performance later that night at Garrick Theater on Bleecker Street, where his band The Mothers of Invention had a 6-month engagement. Upon hearing the names of the Los Angeles eateries that served as hang-out meccas for west coast counterculture, Zappa’s ears pricked. They started shouting “Canter’s!” and “Ben Frank’s” at him. Strolling through Greenwich Village, a number of Californian girls noticed a young Frank Zappa on the street. It is New York City in the summer of 1967.
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Such is the tale we will unfold in this article, leading to one of the most fruitful collaborations between a musician and a visual artist, with multiple iconic album covers thrown in for a good measure. Unplanned, seemingly uneventful experiences in people’s lives that lead to unexpected results. Some moments in music history are serendipitous. 6 Frank Zappa’s Album Covers by Cal Schenkel, part 1: the 1960s.
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