Rose wrote: 1. Joni Mitchell was Motorhead's "strange new gi > rlfriend", circa 1967.2. She sat in with the Mothers at the Fillmore East on > > who the feck is Motorhead?
Motorhead was / is: Jim "Motorhead" Sherwood was an old LA-area high school buddy of Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet). He was a quasi-member of the Mothers of Invention since, hmmm, around '63 / '64 / '65. Originally employed as a roadie, he eventually began playing tambourine, singing, "snorking" (making strange vocal noises) and playing brilliantly ugly free improv sax fulltime with the Mothers around '67. He could never play 'properly', but had a really nice naive attitude that certainly worked with the Mother's political stance: ugly music = ugly society. When Frank torpedoed the Mothers in '69, Jim went too.......but he occasionally turned up in later projects, like 1981's You Are What You Is - snorking and noodling on sax. He is currently an electrician (I understand) living in L.A.- according to the recent-ish BBC documentary about Zappa. Jim was one of the many members of the Mothers that lived in Zappa's house in Laurel Canyon around 67/68/69, so I wouldn't be surprised if the Joanmeister met him there. I'd love to ask her about the GTOs, Brian Wilson/ Beach Boys, Alice Cooper, and all the other LA freaks at the time. For those looking for more info on FZ....Motorhead.....and even a little bit of Joni, check out the very excellent Splat's Zappa Page: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~splat/zappapage.html Kind Regards: Tom (Any other Beefheart fans amongst the Jonilistas?)
