PFM
Premiata Forneria Marconi, often shortened to PFM, was an Italian progressive rock band, founded in 1970. By singing in English, they managed to have success outside their home country. Through Emerson, Lake & Palmer, who saw them perform while they were touring in Italy, PFM was signed to their own label, Manticore Records. Soon the group played major concerts in the United Kingdom, Canada and the US, often as opening act for famous bands, like Little Feat, Peter Frampton, Aerosmith, The Allman Brothers Band and The Beach Boys.
Frank Zappa
"Jaco Pastorius used to come over after recording with Joni Mitchell during the day. We’d be hanging out with lots of musicians, like Jaco or Frank Zappa. I think they liked PFM because we were different." - Franz Di Ciccio. [1]
In his 1998 autobiography, PFM - Due Volte Nella Vita, lead singer Franz Di Ciccio recalled: "Zappa was very charmed by our band and we had a mutual respect for each other. He even invited us to come to his rehearsals and if Zappa invites you to rehearsals, it means that he respects you as a musician." In 1978, when Di Ciccio heard Zappa was in London, he asked him whether he wanted to translate the Italian-language lyrics of their upcoming album Passpartù in English. ""He received me at his hotel, in a huge suite. (...) We said goodbye and I showed him the lyrics to 'Passpartù' written by Gianfranco Manfredi. They were very ironic and told quite surreal stories. Among others were 'I Cavalieri del tavolo cubico', 'Sulla mosca e sui dolci', 'Tramo le trame blu', 'Svita la vita'... We had taken this trend, but we weren't very satisfied. I explained to Frank that I'd like to involve him in giving the album a new direction. He nods, but obviously wants to know what has already been done. I start to translate 'I Cavalieri del tavolo cubico'. At a certain point he looks at me strangely. 'Cubic? But wasn't it the round table?'. 'Yes, but this is an ironic transposition of that story...'. He looks at me a little surprised and then says seriously: 'Yeah! I see...'." Di Ciccio gradually realized Zappa couldn't follow him and probably thought he was crazy. Particularly when he wanted to make one of his songs a tribute to a man from Louisiana named Halifax, of whom he had heard was the inventor of blues music. Much to his embarrassment, Zappa said: "I've never heard it. Nobody invented the blues, you know? The blues was born for its own sake, it was born like any other thing. I don't know anyone who says: hey, I invented this thing, this thing is mine." As Di Ciccio remembered: "I made myself very small, but then, of course, it all ended in laughter." Eventually, the PFM-Zappa collaboration never came to fruition, because each had too busy schedules. Di Ciccio recalled that they should've waited six months, but couldn't afford it at the time. [2] [3]
In the interview I Hate Playing In England by Hugh Fielder for Sounds, 9 September 1978, Zappa said PFM was one of the groups he was currently listening to. [4]
