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Downloaded from
YTS.MX

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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

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Uh, I'll just show you a chord.

4
00:00:33,250 --> 00:00:34,599
Yes.

5
00:00:34,773 --> 00:00:36,123
And we just set up a rhythm
on one chord

6
00:00:36,297 --> 00:00:39,474
and I'll start doing something.
Make it up.

7
00:00:39,648 --> 00:00:40,823
That's good.

8
00:00:40,997 --> 00:00:42,303
Tell me a little bit
about the stage.

9
00:00:42,477 --> 00:00:43,956
Yeah. It's-- look,
it's not going to--

10
00:00:44,131 --> 00:00:46,698
it won't be professional.
It'll just be music.

11
00:00:46,872 --> 00:00:47,873
Okay.

12
00:00:48,048 --> 00:00:49,484
Homemade hoopla.

13
00:01:40,709 --> 00:01:43,799
This is the first time
that I've had a reason

14
00:01:43,973 --> 00:01:47,063
to play my guitar
in three years. So...

15
00:01:56,203 --> 00:02:00,076
I'm sure you already know it,

16
00:02:00,250 --> 00:02:01,991
but this is just the beginning

17
00:02:02,165 --> 00:02:04,602
of your new future
in this country.

18
00:02:11,043 --> 00:02:15,265
And I hope that your new future
will be very perfect.

19
00:02:15,439 --> 00:02:16,701
Very perfect.

20
00:02:23,665 --> 00:02:26,102
And as you confront
the new changes

21
00:02:26,276 --> 00:02:27,625
that will take place,

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00:02:27,799 --> 00:02:31,455
please try
and keep your country unique.

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00:02:31,629 --> 00:02:33,979
Don't change
into something else.

24
00:02:34,154 --> 00:02:35,503
Keep it unique.

25
00:02:43,119 --> 00:02:46,383
And now, I will try
and tune my guitar.

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00:03:17,240 --> 00:03:19,111
Lardner: Many have always
considered Frank Zappa

27
00:03:19,286 --> 00:03:20,678
a rock legend.

28
00:03:20,852 --> 00:03:22,114
And one of his friends tonight
told me

29
00:03:22,289 --> 00:03:23,986
that he wrote
and composed music

30
00:03:24,160 --> 00:03:25,683
to the very end.

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00:03:26,075 --> 00:03:27,598
He was known for elaborate,
unconventional songs,

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00:03:27,772 --> 00:03:29,165
often with raunchy lyrics.

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00:03:29,339 --> 00:03:30,949
The social commentary
in his songs

34
00:03:31,123 --> 00:03:32,516
targeted the music industry,

35
00:03:32,690 --> 00:03:34,779
the educational system,
and politics.

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00:03:34,953 --> 00:03:37,173
Reporter: In America, Zappa
was denounced by the Church,

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00:03:37,347 --> 00:03:39,088
had his concerts broken up
by the police,

38
00:03:39,262 --> 00:03:41,308
and his records banned
by radio stations.

39
00:03:41,482 --> 00:03:43,266
Lardner: His wife and all four
children were with him.

40
00:03:43,440 --> 00:03:45,094
They are together tonight

41
00:03:45,268 --> 00:03:47,357
at their Laurel Canyon area
home with friends.

42
00:03:47,531 --> 00:03:49,838
Frank Zappa, dead at 52.

43
00:03:50,012 --> 00:03:51,143
Back to you.

44
00:04:15,298 --> 00:04:16,560
Rolling?

45
00:04:16,734 --> 00:04:18,083
And... yes.

46
00:04:19,389 --> 00:04:21,783
Okay. This aisle here

47
00:04:21,957 --> 00:04:24,786
is where some
of the best-known titles lurk.

48
00:04:24,960 --> 00:04:27,005
Here's stuff from the Hot Rats.

49
00:04:28,746 --> 00:04:32,663
Here's the original 24-track
masters of "Dinah-Moe Humm,"

50
00:04:32,837 --> 00:04:37,233
"Dirty Love," "Montana,"
"Inca Roads," "RDNZL."

51
00:04:37,973 --> 00:04:40,671
Shut Up n' Play Yer Guitar,
Joe's Garage.

52
00:04:42,325 --> 00:04:44,022
Here's Sheik Yerbouti.

53
00:04:46,286 --> 00:04:49,593
Tinsel Town Rebellion,
Drowning Witch, Utopia.

54
00:04:54,598 --> 00:04:56,687
Oh, here's Eric Clapton
when he came over to my house.

55
00:05:00,082 --> 00:05:01,518
Wild Man Fischer.

56
00:05:02,171 --> 00:05:03,433
Captain Beefheart,

57
00:05:03,607 --> 00:05:05,740
a little jam in the basement.

58
00:05:07,959 --> 00:05:09,526
And around here,

59
00:05:10,614 --> 00:05:12,529
down this darkened aisle,

60
00:05:13,008 --> 00:05:15,576
is a collection of videotapes

61
00:05:15,750 --> 00:05:19,188
from when I borrowed
my father's 8mm camera

62
00:05:19,362 --> 00:05:20,885
and made a bunch of movies.

63
00:05:44,039 --> 00:05:46,868
I became obsessed
with editing.

64
00:05:47,216 --> 00:05:50,350
And I would edit just because I liked to edit.

65
00:05:51,873 --> 00:05:55,616
I would splice any 8mm film
that was in the house

66
00:05:55,920 --> 00:05:57,574
to anything else.

67
00:06:06,757 --> 00:06:08,411
When I was little...

68
00:06:08,933 --> 00:06:11,675
I didn't have too much interest
in music at all.

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00:06:11,849 --> 00:06:14,504
When I was about,
say, five or six years old

70
00:06:14,678 --> 00:06:17,028
up until the time
I was about 13,

71
00:06:17,202 --> 00:06:19,509
I was interested in chemistry

72
00:06:20,423 --> 00:06:22,469
and especially in explosives.

73
00:06:23,818 --> 00:06:26,603
I-- I learned how to make
gunpowder when I was six.

74
00:06:28,388 --> 00:06:30,955
At that time,
my father was working

75
00:06:31,129 --> 00:06:33,218
at a place on the East Coast

76
00:06:33,393 --> 00:06:35,395
called the Edgewood Arsenal.

77
00:06:35,786 --> 00:06:37,962
Edgewood Arsenal is where
they made poison gas

78
00:06:38,136 --> 00:06:39,486
during World War II.

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00:06:40,574 --> 00:06:42,314
Presenter: At Edgewood Arsenal,
Maryland,

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00:06:42,489 --> 00:06:44,926
the Army Chemical Corp
developed the machinery

81
00:06:45,100 --> 00:06:46,971
for producing the nerve gas GB,

82
00:06:47,145 --> 00:06:49,321
which had been developed
by Nazi Germany.

83
00:06:49,496 --> 00:06:53,543
And the nerve gas VX, which was developed in England.

84
00:06:54,892 --> 00:06:58,505
There is enough gas there
and enough gas coming

85
00:06:58,679 --> 00:07:00,332
of the nerve gas variety

86
00:07:00,898 --> 00:07:06,556
to cause the death
of 681,481,000 persons.

87
00:07:09,690 --> 00:07:11,343
Everybody that lived
in the project

88
00:07:11,518 --> 00:07:14,956
had to have gas masks
in their house

89
00:07:15,130 --> 00:07:17,785
in case the tanks
of mustard gas broke.

90
00:07:18,002 --> 00:07:20,788
So the-- the toys
that I remember growing up with

91
00:07:20,962 --> 00:07:25,227
were the little chemical beakers
that my father would bring home

92
00:07:26,010 --> 00:07:29,231
and the gas masks that were
hanging in the hall closet.

93
00:07:29,492 --> 00:07:30,972
And I used to wear that out
in the yard

94
00:07:31,146 --> 00:07:32,408
and run around in it.

95
00:07:32,582 --> 00:07:33,757
And I thought
it was a space helmet.

96
00:07:54,386 --> 00:07:55,866
I had a lot of asthma.

97
00:07:56,563 --> 00:07:57,912
I was very ill.

98
00:07:58,478 --> 00:08:00,784
Almost cacked out a few times from the climate back there.

99
00:08:01,176 --> 00:08:02,743
And so, he was looking
for a place

100
00:08:02,917 --> 00:08:04,701
where I wouldn't be
constantly folding up

101
00:08:05,049 --> 00:08:07,095
and a place where he could earn a better income.

102
00:08:07,269 --> 00:08:10,098
And so, he took a position at the Naval Postgraduate School

103
00:08:10,272 --> 00:08:13,057
in California,
teaching metallurgy.

104
00:08:15,799 --> 00:08:18,628
The last experimentation
that I did with explosives

105
00:08:18,802 --> 00:08:20,630
was when I was about
15 years old.

106
00:08:21,501 --> 00:08:24,460
I'd mixed up
this quantity of powder

107
00:08:24,982 --> 00:08:27,768
which consisted of, uh,
regular black powder

108
00:08:27,942 --> 00:08:30,161
and then flash powder,

109
00:08:30,335 --> 00:08:33,904
which is 50 percent zinc
and 50 percent sulfur,

110
00:08:34,078 --> 00:08:35,689
mixed with sugar,

111
00:08:35,863 --> 00:08:38,343
and attempted to set fire
to the high school

112
00:08:38,518 --> 00:08:39,693
that I was attending.

113
00:08:47,483 --> 00:08:50,268
It always seemed to me that if you could get a laugh

114
00:08:50,442 --> 00:08:51,879
out of something,
that was good.

115
00:08:52,053 --> 00:08:53,707
And if you could make life
more colorful

116
00:08:53,924 --> 00:08:55,839
than it actually was,
that was good.

117
00:08:56,013 --> 00:08:58,233
So, any artist
or individual who worked

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00:08:58,407 --> 00:09:01,236
in those two directions
was doing something good.

119
00:09:04,413 --> 00:09:06,720
My family was really poor.

120
00:09:07,416 --> 00:09:08,939
Not only that, they didn't
like music too much.

121
00:09:09,157 --> 00:09:11,638
So I didn't really come
into contact

122
00:09:11,812 --> 00:09:15,859
with musical expression
until 14 or 15 years old.

123
00:09:16,164 --> 00:09:20,821
And my parents were opposed
to any involvement in music

124
00:09:20,995 --> 00:09:22,953
that I might be interested in.

125
00:09:23,258 --> 00:09:26,957
But I remember this magazine
article about Sam Goody.

126
00:09:27,131 --> 00:09:29,917
Was saying what a wonderful
merchandiser he was

127
00:09:30,091 --> 00:09:31,875
because he could even sell
an album

128
00:09:32,049 --> 00:09:34,051
that had this ugly music on it.

129
00:09:34,225 --> 00:09:36,314
The writer described this
as, like,

130
00:09:36,488 --> 00:09:38,229
literally the most
frightening thing

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00:09:38,403 --> 00:09:39,970
that a human being
could listen to.

132
00:09:40,231 --> 00:09:43,278
This evil, vile album.

133
00:09:44,148 --> 00:09:46,107
The description was something that stuck with me,

134
00:09:46,281 --> 00:09:47,804
and then a few months later,

135
00:09:48,109 --> 00:09:51,547
I actually saw the album
in a store and bought it.

136
00:09:53,505 --> 00:09:55,159
It was because of that
Varèse album

137
00:09:55,333 --> 00:09:56,857
that I read about
in a magazine.

138
00:09:57,031 --> 00:09:58,728
And hearing "Ionisation,"

139
00:09:58,946 --> 00:10:01,339
that I--
writing orchestra music.

140
00:10:04,952 --> 00:10:07,041
I had no interest
in Beethoven, Mozart,

141
00:10:07,215 --> 00:10:08,651
or any of that kind of stuff.

142
00:10:08,869 --> 00:10:10,305
It just didn't sound
interesting to me.

143
00:10:10,479 --> 00:10:12,046
I wanted to listen to the man

144
00:10:12,220 --> 00:10:15,266
who could make music
that was that strange.

145
00:10:15,919 --> 00:10:17,573
Because the role
of the percussion

146
00:10:17,747 --> 00:10:20,141
in most classical music
is you wait a long time,

147
00:10:20,315 --> 00:10:22,534
and then somebody goes ping
with a triangle.

148
00:10:23,231 --> 00:10:25,712
To me, that was all boring.

149
00:10:26,277 --> 00:10:28,105
But in Varèse's music,

150
00:10:28,279 --> 00:10:31,369
the percussion was playing
an integrated melodic part.

151
00:10:31,543 --> 00:10:32,849
And it was in the foreground.

152
00:10:33,023 --> 00:10:34,634
And since I liked drums,

153
00:10:34,808 --> 00:10:36,940
it was a pleasure for me
to listen to it.

154
00:10:39,987 --> 00:10:41,379
I thought it was fantastic.

155
00:10:41,728 --> 00:10:43,338
I couldn't understand why people just didn't love it

156
00:10:43,512 --> 00:10:44,644
the minute they heard it.

157
00:10:50,127 --> 00:10:51,825
High school in Lancaster

158
00:10:51,999 --> 00:10:54,262
wouldn't be equivalent to high school any place else

159
00:10:54,436 --> 00:10:56,525
because Lancaster
was a small town,

160
00:10:56,699 --> 00:10:58,919
and very few people
in the area

161
00:10:59,093 --> 00:11:00,921
liked rhythm and blues music.

162
00:11:04,054 --> 00:11:05,839
And the rest of 'em
were kind of white-bread,

163
00:11:06,013 --> 00:11:07,884
Elvis Presley fanatic types.

164
00:11:09,277 --> 00:11:11,714
And I don't even remember
how I met Don.

165
00:11:11,888 --> 00:11:15,457
But he had dropped out
of school by that time

166
00:11:15,631 --> 00:11:18,112
and spent most of his time
staying at home

167
00:11:18,286 --> 00:11:20,331
listening to rhythm
and blues records.

168
00:11:21,028 --> 00:11:23,857
So, I used to hang out
over there after school

169
00:11:24,205 --> 00:11:27,164
and listen to
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown

170
00:11:27,338 --> 00:11:29,776
and Guitar Slim,

171
00:11:30,515 --> 00:11:31,908
Elmore James,

172
00:11:32,953 --> 00:11:34,215
Lowell Fulson,

173
00:11:34,824 --> 00:11:37,740
and Johnny "Guitar" Watson
R&B records

174
00:11:37,914 --> 00:11:39,699
till three o'clock
in the morning.

175
00:11:41,570 --> 00:11:43,050
Went out of my way
to get ahold

176
00:11:43,224 --> 00:11:44,660
of the rhythm and blues
records.

177
00:11:44,834 --> 00:11:46,488
And it was very hard to obtain

178
00:11:46,836 --> 00:11:48,882
because most of the white music stores didn't stock it.

179
00:11:49,056 --> 00:11:50,274
And, uh...

180
00:11:50,710 --> 00:11:52,581
I just heard that music
and I liked it

181
00:11:52,755 --> 00:11:54,235
and couldn't understand
why other people didn't like it

182
00:11:54,409 --> 00:11:55,540
as much as I did.

183
00:11:58,630 --> 00:12:00,458
When I first picked up
the guitar, I said,

184
00:12:00,632 --> 00:12:04,332
"How in the world could anybody get any sound out of this thing

185
00:12:04,506 --> 00:12:06,900
other than
the open string sound?"

186
00:12:07,074 --> 00:12:08,684
I couldn't conceive
of what the frets were for.

187
00:12:08,858 --> 00:12:10,991
But when rhythm and blues
came along

188
00:12:11,165 --> 00:12:13,471
and I heard examples
of blues guitar playing,

189
00:12:13,645 --> 00:12:15,735
I thought that it was something I really wanted to do.

190
00:12:15,909 --> 00:12:17,824
So, I just taught myself
how to do it.

191
00:12:17,998 --> 00:12:19,739
Once I figured out
that the pitch changed

192
00:12:19,913 --> 00:12:21,392
when you put your finger down on the fret,

193
00:12:21,566 --> 00:12:22,916
I was hell on wheels.

194
00:12:50,378 --> 00:12:53,294
I had my first group playing other people's material

195
00:12:53,468 --> 00:12:55,862
when I was about 16 or 17.

196
00:12:56,036 --> 00:12:57,167
It was called The Blackouts.

197
00:12:57,341 --> 00:12:59,866
A racially mixed ensemble.

198
00:13:00,910 --> 00:13:04,653
Which did not go down well
with the, uh, cowboys

199
00:13:04,827 --> 00:13:06,742
and other bigots
who lived in this area.

200
00:13:06,916 --> 00:13:09,963
And, uh, we managed to play
several jobs,

201
00:13:10,137 --> 00:13:12,617
but the school
and the city authorities

202
00:13:12,835 --> 00:13:15,098
were against having it performed because it was regarded

203
00:13:15,272 --> 00:13:17,622
as a threat to the decency
of the community.

204
00:13:25,630 --> 00:13:27,502
I started writing
orchestra music

205
00:13:27,676 --> 00:13:30,026
before I ever wrote
a rock and roll song.

206
00:13:30,592 --> 00:13:33,290
And then didn't try writing
any rock and roll

207
00:13:33,464 --> 00:13:34,944
until I was in my 20s.

208
00:13:36,598 --> 00:13:39,514
And as long as a person
has to earn a living

209
00:13:39,688 --> 00:13:42,430
and if he happens to be a person who makes music,

210
00:13:43,823 --> 00:13:46,521
he's going to have to do
something to generate
an income.

211
00:13:48,653 --> 00:13:51,091
And the more humiliating
the conditions

212
00:13:51,265 --> 00:13:53,963
under which the income
is generated,

213
00:13:54,398 --> 00:13:56,313
the more the music suffers.

214
00:13:58,750 --> 00:14:00,404
I did earn my living
as a commercial artist

215
00:14:00,578 --> 00:14:03,059
for a little while.
I did greeting cards.

216
00:14:03,233 --> 00:14:06,236
I wrote advertising copy for
the place I was working for,

217
00:14:06,410 --> 00:14:09,544
called the Nile Running
Greeting Card Studio.

218
00:14:10,545 --> 00:14:13,374
I talked 'em into letting me do my own line of greeting cards

219
00:14:13,548 --> 00:14:15,028
on an experimental basis,

220
00:14:15,202 --> 00:14:17,639
and one of 'em was, uh,

221
00:14:17,813 --> 00:14:20,381
"Captured Russian photo
shows evidence

222
00:14:20,555 --> 00:14:22,905
of Americans' presence
on Moon first."

223
00:14:23,471 --> 00:14:24,864
And you open it up,
and there's a picture

224
00:14:25,038 --> 00:14:27,040
of a lunar crater
with "Jesus Saves"

225
00:14:27,214 --> 00:14:28,258
inscribed on it.

226
00:14:30,608 --> 00:14:33,002
You are to hang by the neck until you are dead.

227
00:14:33,220 --> 00:14:35,222
I'll see you in hell.

228
00:14:37,920 --> 00:14:40,314
And they don't take me
seriously, do they?

229
00:14:40,488 --> 00:14:43,012
They're only reporters.
They're all the same, God.

230
00:14:43,186 --> 00:14:45,928
I had scored a couple
of films about that time.

231
00:14:46,102 --> 00:14:48,191
The one that I got paid for,

232
00:14:48,365 --> 00:14:50,237
I went out and bought
a good guitar
and, uh, took over

233
00:14:50,628 --> 00:14:53,588
the debts and the assets
of a recording studio

234
00:14:53,762 --> 00:14:56,765
in a town called
Cucamonga, California.

235
00:14:59,202 --> 00:15:00,987
I'm living in this studio.

236
00:15:01,161 --> 00:15:03,163
It doesn't have a bathtub.
It doesn't have a shower.

237
00:15:03,337 --> 00:15:04,991
Doesn't have hot water.

238
00:15:05,165 --> 00:15:07,123
I don't have anything to eat
except peanut butter,

239
00:15:07,297 --> 00:15:09,865
instant mashed potatoes,
and coffee.

240
00:15:10,039 --> 00:15:11,780
I go around gathering up
pop bottles

241
00:15:11,954 --> 00:15:13,521
so I can buy cigarettes.

242
00:15:13,782 --> 00:15:15,175
But I've got all
the electronic stuff I need

243
00:15:15,349 --> 00:15:17,003
to make recordings.

244
00:15:19,657 --> 00:15:21,094
Well, I've had long hair.

245
00:15:21,311 --> 00:15:23,096
It was shorter than Beatle hair.

246
00:15:23,923 --> 00:15:26,142
So, there was a certain amount of resentment

247
00:15:26,316 --> 00:15:28,928
in the community for
my presence there at the studio.

248
00:15:29,406 --> 00:15:34,194
And this mysterious 13.50 an hour recording studio

249
00:15:34,368 --> 00:15:36,674
was, uh, bad
for their community.

250
00:15:37,110 --> 00:15:40,374
So, they designed to, uh,
get me out of there.

251
00:15:42,071 --> 00:15:44,769
Eventually this guy came to me and said

252
00:15:44,944 --> 00:15:48,251
that he was a used car salesman and that he and the boys

253
00:15:48,425 --> 00:15:50,558
were having a party
next Wednesday

254
00:15:50,732 --> 00:15:53,430
and they would like to have
a stag film made.

255
00:15:53,604 --> 00:15:55,215
And I said, "Are you kidding?"

256
00:15:55,389 --> 00:15:57,695
He said, "Well,
we have about 100 dollars."

257
00:15:57,869 --> 00:15:59,523
And I said,
"Well, I can't make you a movie

258
00:15:59,697 --> 00:16:02,613
for 100 dollars, but how
would you like a nice tape?"

259
00:16:03,179 --> 00:16:06,269
So, that night,
we manufactured a tape,

260
00:16:06,443 --> 00:16:09,446
which was supposed to be
sex on tape,

261
00:16:09,620 --> 00:16:12,449
but there's absolutely no sex involved in this thing.

262
00:16:12,797 --> 00:16:15,409
But suddenly, the next day,

263
00:16:15,626 --> 00:16:18,760
the door swings open
and vice squad officers

264
00:16:18,934 --> 00:16:21,589
from the San Bernardino
Sheriff's Department

265
00:16:21,763 --> 00:16:22,851
come blasting in there.

266
00:16:23,112 --> 00:16:24,722
Pictures. Flash bulbs,

267
00:16:24,896 --> 00:16:26,724
and it was right out
of a bad movie.

268
00:16:26,986 --> 00:16:28,813
They took every tape,

269
00:16:28,988 --> 00:16:32,817
every piece of film
in the studio as evidence.

270
00:16:33,688 --> 00:16:34,994
And I went to jail.

271
00:16:42,436 --> 00:16:44,612
They sentenced me
to six months in jail

272
00:16:44,786 --> 00:16:46,701
with all but ten days suspended

273
00:16:46,875 --> 00:16:48,659
plus three years' probation.

274
00:17:10,942 --> 00:17:13,554
That's the kind of stuff
I had to put up with

275
00:17:13,728 --> 00:17:16,165
living in small-town
environments.

276
00:17:17,862 --> 00:17:19,690
I don't have anything
against small towns.

277
00:17:19,864 --> 00:17:22,302
I think they're wonderful if you like that kind of stuff.

278
00:17:23,129 --> 00:17:25,566
But it's very difficult
to do the kinds of things

279
00:17:25,740 --> 00:17:28,047
that I do
in a small-town situation.

280
00:17:29,178 --> 00:17:33,269
And the only thing I wanted to do was write music.

281
00:17:33,965 --> 00:17:37,099
And so, if I was ever
going to hear what I wrote,

282
00:17:37,360 --> 00:17:39,232
I would have to put
a band together.

283
00:18:45,124 --> 00:18:48,039
All right. This is a song that we've been work-- working on

284
00:18:48,214 --> 00:18:51,304
in secret for a... a while now.

285
00:18:51,478 --> 00:18:53,088
Going to make an attempt
to record it.

286
00:18:53,262 --> 00:18:54,568
If we mess it up,
we'll just stop

287
00:18:54,742 --> 00:18:55,786
and do it over again.

288
00:18:55,960 --> 00:18:57,484
It doesn't have a name yet.

289
00:18:57,962 --> 00:19:01,575
But, uh, doesn't really
need one.

290
00:19:03,925 --> 00:19:05,535
He was a such a genius
in his writing,

291
00:19:05,709 --> 00:19:07,233
and he knew so much
about all the old music.

292
00:19:08,059 --> 00:19:10,018
He was able to marry
all of that together, man.

293
00:19:10,192 --> 00:19:13,152
It was-- I... I haven't heard
anything like it

294
00:19:13,761 --> 00:19:15,328
before or since.

295
00:19:17,460 --> 00:19:19,375
Whatever brought you
to Hollywood?

296
00:19:20,463 --> 00:19:23,031
I came in search of Bob Dylan.

297
00:19:23,423 --> 00:19:26,556
And, uh, I came to see
the Lovin' Spoonful.

298
00:19:26,730 --> 00:19:29,559
And I came to get away
from my father, mainly.

299
00:19:29,733 --> 00:19:31,518
And then we started
living on the streets here

300
00:19:31,692 --> 00:19:34,347
because he wasn't too happy
about the overall situation.

301
00:19:44,052 --> 00:19:45,662
So, one night
we came in there,

302
00:19:45,836 --> 00:19:47,186
expecting to see our favorites,

303
00:19:47,360 --> 00:19:48,883
the Grassroots
and Billy Preston,

304
00:19:49,100 --> 00:19:50,189
and lo and behold,
after two weeks,

305
00:19:50,363 --> 00:19:51,799
they changed the bill.

306
00:19:51,973 --> 00:19:53,583
And there was a group
called Mothers playing.

307
00:19:59,285 --> 00:20:01,025
The main thing I remember

308
00:20:01,200 --> 00:20:03,158
is that they played a song
that was 20 minutes long.

309
00:20:03,637 --> 00:20:07,467
And everybody was getting tired dancing in the middle of it.

310
00:20:09,077 --> 00:20:11,688
And on the second set
that you played,

311
00:20:11,862 --> 00:20:14,561
you played a song called
"How Could I Be Such a Fool?"

312
00:20:14,735 --> 00:20:16,302
And I remember listening
to that song

313
00:20:16,476 --> 00:20:17,955
and thinking
I'd never heard it before.

314
00:20:18,129 --> 00:20:19,827
And I was really surprised.

315
00:20:20,001 --> 00:20:22,656
I started thinking to myself,
"God, did he write that?"

316
00:20:22,830 --> 00:20:24,484
And when I figured out
that you had,

317
00:20:24,658 --> 00:20:26,007
'cause I asked you
after you came off stage,

318
00:20:26,181 --> 00:20:27,530
I was going,

319
00:20:27,835 --> 00:20:29,315
"My god, he's got talent.
I don't believe it."

320
00:20:36,583 --> 00:20:38,149
Do you think that
perhaps you might, uh,

321
00:20:38,324 --> 00:20:40,282
in a year or two be
the new musical messiah?

322
00:20:40,456 --> 00:20:42,328
As in the Beatles and Presley

323
00:20:42,502 --> 00:20:45,156
ten years ago and ten years
before that? Whoever it was.

324
00:20:45,331 --> 00:20:48,421
I can honestly say
that I do not think so.

325
00:20:52,860 --> 00:20:54,905
The Mothers of Invention.

326
00:21:06,439 --> 00:21:10,007
Bunk: I... I don't remember,
in all the years with Frank,

327
00:21:10,225 --> 00:21:13,010
hearing too many bands
that had horns.

328
00:21:13,707 --> 00:21:16,144
Guitar players, you know,
all over the place.

329
00:21:16,318 --> 00:21:19,408
Not too many, uh,
bands had horns.

330
00:21:20,975 --> 00:21:22,759
But, you know, at the
same time,

331
00:21:22,933 --> 00:21:25,371
I didn't hear any other bands

332
00:21:25,849 --> 00:21:29,113
playing Stravinsky or classical music or anything.

333
00:21:29,288 --> 00:21:31,986
So, uh, that was fairly unique.

334
00:21:32,160 --> 00:21:34,031
And that made me feel good

335
00:21:34,205 --> 00:21:36,904
about what we were doing
musically.

336
00:21:41,300 --> 00:21:44,651
I'm not a weirdo or any of
these other things.

337
00:21:44,868 --> 00:21:47,262
But when you get around
other people

338
00:21:47,436 --> 00:21:51,701
that are just naturally
funny and do weird things,

339
00:21:52,267 --> 00:21:56,097
I ended up just feeling
very comfortable.

340
00:21:56,489 --> 00:21:59,056
It was exciting
in the beginning.

341
00:21:59,230 --> 00:22:00,536
It truly was.

342
00:22:01,058 --> 00:22:05,715
But of course,
it was musically difficult.

343
00:22:07,238 --> 00:22:09,632
Some nights, Frank would jump up into the air

344
00:22:09,806 --> 00:22:12,809
and come down,
and he would expect us

345
00:22:12,983 --> 00:22:15,595
to know what song
he was gonna go into.

346
00:22:16,378 --> 00:22:18,249
You know, a perfectionist here,
you know.

347
00:22:19,642 --> 00:22:22,863
That made an impression that, jeez, well, you know...

348
00:22:23,037 --> 00:22:27,433
So, it became our duty...

349
00:22:28,129 --> 00:22:31,262
to engage in, uh,
these kind of things

350
00:22:31,437 --> 00:22:33,830
that-- that--
that would make him laugh.

351
00:22:36,224 --> 00:22:38,661
The band wasn't specifically

352
00:22:39,009 --> 00:22:42,143
anything other
than Frank's ideas.

353
00:22:43,100 --> 00:22:46,669
And each show
was like a composition.

354
00:22:47,540 --> 00:22:50,194
And they happened
because the band

355
00:22:50,369 --> 00:22:52,762
is following his direction.

356
00:22:55,939 --> 00:22:57,158
You know, I used to think,

357
00:22:57,332 --> 00:22:58,725
"Okay, he's called me here,"

358
00:22:58,899 --> 00:23:00,422
and I don't mean
in the early days,

359
00:23:00,596 --> 00:23:02,076
I mean in full flower
of playing with him.

360
00:23:02,381 --> 00:23:04,295
We'd talk for a minute,
and then there isn't even

361
00:23:04,470 --> 00:23:06,907
a "Thanks for coming by"
or "Okay, see you later."

362
00:23:07,081 --> 00:23:08,778
He would just turn
the other way,

363
00:23:08,952 --> 00:23:10,867
and I would be waiting
for him to turn back to say,

364
00:23:11,041 --> 00:23:13,522
"Oh." But if he turned back, it would be, "You still here?"

365
00:23:13,696 --> 00:23:15,350
You know, it's like,
I was dismissed

366
00:23:15,524 --> 00:23:17,221
without even being dismissed.

367
00:23:17,396 --> 00:23:19,528
And you could interpret that
as being, you know,

368
00:23:19,702 --> 00:23:22,444
what a fucking self-centered
asshole.

369
00:23:22,792 --> 00:23:26,274
But I think that he was just
so single-mindedly

370
00:23:26,448 --> 00:23:28,798
needing to get his work done.

371
00:23:31,497 --> 00:23:33,890
Bunk: In the four years
I was with Frank,

372
00:23:34,064 --> 00:23:37,590
he shook my hand once
and said, "Good job."

373
00:23:39,635 --> 00:23:44,597
I don't ever remember Frank
embracing somebody.

374
00:23:46,425 --> 00:23:50,211
Maybe that was his environment
when he was growing up.

375
00:23:51,560 --> 00:23:55,999
So, I kind of accepted that
as...

376
00:23:58,088 --> 00:24:00,961
"Don't get too close, okay?"

377
00:24:01,440 --> 00:24:03,267
And, uh, I didn't.

378
00:24:05,531 --> 00:24:08,708
I must say, this is
a rather unprecedented
response

379
00:24:08,882 --> 00:24:10,449
for the bullshit that we do,
so sit down

380
00:24:10,623 --> 00:24:12,407
and we'll do some more
if you like it.

381
00:24:20,197 --> 00:24:22,852
So...
so, it was in April of 1966.

382
00:24:23,505 --> 00:24:26,203
It was at Los Angeles Airport, actually.

383
00:24:26,595 --> 00:24:30,251
I was working as a secretary
at the Whisky,

384
00:24:30,425 --> 00:24:32,949
and there was another girl
doing filing.

385
00:24:33,123 --> 00:24:34,908
And little did I know

386
00:24:35,082 --> 00:24:37,127
that she actually lived
with Frank.

387
00:24:37,301 --> 00:24:38,607
She shared a house with him.

388
00:24:38,781 --> 00:24:40,609
And she got a phone call.

389
00:24:40,957 --> 00:24:42,350
And it was Frank.

390
00:24:42,524 --> 00:24:45,353
And he said, "Come pick me up."

391
00:24:46,267 --> 00:24:48,095
The night that I went
to pick you up at the airport,

392
00:24:48,269 --> 00:24:49,705
and when I told you that
I was bringing

393
00:24:49,879 --> 00:24:51,098
this lovely young thing with me

394
00:24:51,272 --> 00:24:53,143
because she was
a lovely young thing.

395
00:24:53,317 --> 00:24:54,493
And you needed
to get some action.

396
00:24:54,667 --> 00:24:56,233
And you said, "No, come alone."

397
00:24:56,407 --> 00:24:57,844
And so, I said, "Okay."

398
00:24:58,018 --> 00:24:59,802
So, I took her with me
to the airport.

399
00:24:59,976 --> 00:25:01,717
And then we brought you home.
We went and got those steaks,

400
00:25:01,891 --> 00:25:03,937
and I gave her
my black slip to sleep in.

401
00:25:04,111 --> 00:25:05,591
And you guys slept in my room

402
00:25:05,939 --> 00:25:07,244
'cause I had the only double
bed in the house.

403
00:25:07,418 --> 00:25:09,029
- Mm.
- And I slept on the couch.

404
00:25:09,203 --> 00:25:10,421
And you waited and took her
to work at the Whisky

405
00:25:10,596 --> 00:25:11,858
in the morning.

406
00:25:12,467 --> 00:25:14,556
It was that weekend,
and... and she called

407
00:25:14,730 --> 00:25:16,079
on the phone. You said,

408
00:25:16,340 --> 00:25:17,733
"Tell her if she wants to fuck
to come over."

409
00:25:17,907 --> 00:25:19,387
And I said,
"Huh, I can't say that to her.

410
00:25:19,561 --> 00:25:21,215
You'll have to say it yourself."

411
00:25:21,389 --> 00:25:23,130
And so you did.
And then she came over

412
00:25:23,304 --> 00:25:25,872
and you guys were on the couch fucking.

413
00:25:47,328 --> 00:25:49,896
One thing
that I'm very clear about

414
00:25:50,070 --> 00:25:51,941
is I married a composer.

415
00:25:52,115 --> 00:25:54,248
I don't know about whatever
he is to anybody else,

416
00:25:54,422 --> 00:25:57,425
but to me he was a composer.

417
00:25:57,686 --> 00:26:01,081
And you have to be
out of your mind

418
00:26:01,298 --> 00:26:04,780
to begin with to take it on.

419
00:26:05,520 --> 00:26:07,304
There's no guarantee
that you're ever going to be

420
00:26:07,522 --> 00:26:08,958
able to earn an income.

421
00:26:09,132 --> 00:26:11,874
No one cares about
what composers do.

422
00:26:12,048 --> 00:26:14,442
And everything is against you.

423
00:26:14,616 --> 00:26:18,968
Absolutely everything
is against you,

424
00:26:19,142 --> 00:26:21,710
which makes the odds
pretty fantastic.

425
00:26:23,277 --> 00:26:25,801
The guy who came
to see us, Tom Wilson,

426
00:26:25,975 --> 00:26:28,456
was having a good time
with some girls.

427
00:26:28,848 --> 00:26:31,459
And he was dragged
to the Whisky a Go Go

428
00:26:31,720 --> 00:26:33,330
to witness one of our songs,

429
00:26:33,504 --> 00:26:36,203
which happened to be a blues
kind of a number.

430
00:26:37,117 --> 00:26:40,076
He said, "Oh. White blues band. Okay, we'll sign them,"

431
00:26:40,599 --> 00:26:42,470
and signed the group

432
00:26:42,644 --> 00:26:44,733
and then went right back
to the girls.

433
00:26:46,430 --> 00:26:48,432
Bunk: I don't think Wilson

434
00:26:48,607 --> 00:26:50,739
heard a lot of the other things

435
00:26:50,913 --> 00:26:54,134
because when we went
into the studio,

436
00:26:54,308 --> 00:26:56,397
he was totally surprised.

437
00:26:56,571 --> 00:26:58,399
And I'm sure he wasn't sure

438
00:26:58,617 --> 00:27:01,141
whether this was
going to sell or not.

439
00:27:01,750 --> 00:27:03,317
And we were out there.

440
00:27:11,934 --> 00:27:13,588
This is a number
we always play

441
00:27:13,762 --> 00:27:15,764
when people ask us
to play more.

442
00:27:15,938 --> 00:27:17,418
Because we know
that after we play this,

443
00:27:17,592 --> 00:27:20,726
they couldn't possibly
ever want to hear us again.

444
00:27:25,339 --> 00:27:26,688
We're going to play
a piece of music

445
00:27:26,862 --> 00:27:28,603
that was written
by Edgar Varèse,

446
00:27:28,908 --> 00:27:30,518
called "Octandre."

447
00:27:43,749 --> 00:27:45,228
Do you consider
that your group

448
00:27:45,402 --> 00:27:47,056
is just as talented
and as skilled as, say,

449
00:27:47,230 --> 00:27:48,884
men from a symphony orchestra?

450
00:27:49,058 --> 00:27:50,886
Oh, I... I think
there are definitely things

451
00:27:51,060 --> 00:27:53,454
that this group of musicians
can do that you...

452
00:27:53,759 --> 00:27:56,457
you wouldn't be able to find
symphony musicians to do.

453
00:27:56,631 --> 00:27:58,067
Because not only
do they manipulate

454
00:27:58,241 --> 00:27:59,678
their instruments
with great skill,

455
00:27:59,852 --> 00:28:01,244
but they have to do it all
from memory.

456
00:28:01,418 --> 00:28:03,943
And they have to do it
with choreography.

457
00:28:04,508 --> 00:28:05,858
You insist on very high

458
00:28:06,032 --> 00:28:07,555
and exacting standards.

459
00:28:08,034 --> 00:28:09,426
Yeah. I have to insist on them.

460
00:28:09,862 --> 00:28:11,167
I don't always get them,
but I have to insist on them.

461
00:28:11,341 --> 00:28:12,734
I think if you shoot
any lower than that,

462
00:28:12,908 --> 00:28:14,475
you're going to wind up
with something sleazy.

463
00:28:14,649 --> 00:28:15,868
So, we try and-- like,

464
00:28:16,042 --> 00:28:17,347
the parts
are real complicated,

465
00:28:17,521 --> 00:28:18,740
so if you don't stay on it

466
00:28:18,914 --> 00:28:20,437
and make sure
everything is right

467
00:28:20,786 --> 00:28:22,701
you don't get
an accurate performance.

468
00:28:23,919 --> 00:28:25,486
Bunk: Man, we would go in

469
00:28:25,660 --> 00:28:28,794
for a minimum eight,
ten, twelve hours.

470
00:28:28,968 --> 00:28:31,144
I mean, you know,
drinking black coffee.

471
00:28:31,318 --> 00:28:33,015
He wouldn't stop.

472
00:28:33,189 --> 00:28:35,757
I mean, it was, you know,
it's like, "God."

473
00:28:36,453 --> 00:28:38,238
It didn't matter
if it was Christmas

474
00:28:38,412 --> 00:28:39,848
or Thanksgiving
or whatever, man.

475
00:28:40,022 --> 00:28:42,024
We were going to rehearse
and, you know,

476
00:28:42,677 --> 00:28:45,332
make sure that we were ready
to-- to play the music

477
00:28:45,506 --> 00:28:49,466
because he was just writing
all the time. All the time.

478
00:28:49,640 --> 00:28:52,426
So, we were always
introducing stuff.

479
00:28:52,948 --> 00:28:54,428
It was, uh,

480
00:28:54,602 --> 00:28:57,300
a very unusual approach,
I think.

481
00:29:44,391 --> 00:29:46,915
But we were never
that popular in Los Angeles.

482
00:29:47,220 --> 00:29:50,701
Our market really wasn't
the peace, love,
hippie type people.

483
00:29:51,050 --> 00:29:52,573
That wasn't our market.

484
00:29:52,747 --> 00:29:55,402
Hippies did not like us
because we didn't do

485
00:29:55,576 --> 00:29:57,099
the things
that they approved of.

486
00:29:59,449 --> 00:30:00,973
Compared to New York,

487
00:30:01,147 --> 00:30:03,149
Los Angeles is a very conforming community.

488
00:30:04,541 --> 00:30:05,978
When we moved to New York

489
00:30:06,152 --> 00:30:07,631
there was virtually
no scene at all.

490
00:30:07,806 --> 00:30:09,372
There was no
long-haired anything there.

491
00:30:09,546 --> 00:30:11,722
People looked at us
like we were from Venus.

492
00:30:23,734 --> 00:30:26,085
A lot of people
have associated you,

493
00:30:26,259 --> 00:30:28,435
rightly or wrongly,
with the drug culture

494
00:30:28,609 --> 00:30:30,916
that came into being in the
'60s about the same time

495
00:30:31,090 --> 00:30:32,787
as your music
first became prominent.

496
00:30:33,440 --> 00:30:35,572
First of all,
I have nothing to do
with the drug culture.

497
00:30:35,746 --> 00:30:37,270
I don't use drugs,

498
00:30:37,531 --> 00:30:39,489
and I don't advise other people to use drugs.

499
00:30:39,881 --> 00:30:41,752
And a lot of the things
that I think are wrong

500
00:30:41,927 --> 00:30:43,363
with the society today

501
00:30:43,580 --> 00:30:46,540
are a direct result
of people using drugs.

502
00:30:47,933 --> 00:30:50,065
It's so prevalent
that if you don't use drugs,

503
00:30:50,239 --> 00:30:51,632
people think you're weird.

504
00:30:55,636 --> 00:30:57,464
The Beatles
played in Hamburg,

505
00:30:57,638 --> 00:30:59,858
and they had their way
with this club

506
00:31:00,032 --> 00:31:01,468
for months on end.

507
00:31:01,642 --> 00:31:03,818
And in a similar way,
Frank had the Garrick.

508
00:31:03,992 --> 00:31:05,472
You get to work out
what you want to do.

509
00:31:05,646 --> 00:31:07,430
You get to experiment
with the audience.

510
00:31:07,604 --> 00:31:10,651
You get to really be intimate with an audience.

511
00:31:12,305 --> 00:31:14,742
That really helped Frank
to perfect

512
00:31:14,916 --> 00:31:17,701
what he could get away
with on stage.

513
00:31:19,529 --> 00:31:21,792
The attention
to the theatrical side grew

514
00:31:22,097 --> 00:31:23,490
when we moved to New York

515
00:31:23,664 --> 00:31:25,753
and had to do
a show every night.

516
00:31:26,797 --> 00:31:29,104
The bulk of what could be
classified

517
00:31:29,278 --> 00:31:31,628
as theater of cruelty took
place at the Garrick Theater

518
00:31:31,802 --> 00:31:33,065
in '67.

519
00:31:33,717 --> 00:31:37,721
And that was a unique situation because it was the same people

520
00:31:37,896 --> 00:31:40,028
who kept coming back
to the theater all the time.

521
00:31:40,986 --> 00:31:43,597
It was part of, uh, this little routine that we had

522
00:31:43,771 --> 00:31:45,251
with the two
or three hundred people

523
00:31:45,425 --> 00:31:47,557
that made up the audience
at the Garrick.

524
00:31:48,994 --> 00:31:50,517
Bunk: We'd get out and play,

525
00:31:50,691 --> 00:31:53,085
and Frank would start
abusing people in the audience,

526
00:31:53,259 --> 00:31:55,217
you know, or calling people up.

527
00:31:55,391 --> 00:31:58,264
Or turning his back
on the audience, saying,

528
00:31:58,568 --> 00:32:01,484
"You know, let's run through
this," and ignoring them.

529
00:32:01,658 --> 00:32:02,921
And they-- they loved it.

530
00:32:07,708 --> 00:32:11,538
For Frank,
his measure of success

531
00:32:11,755 --> 00:32:15,020
is how close did you get

532
00:32:15,846 --> 00:32:17,631
to the realization

533
00:32:17,805 --> 00:32:23,419
of the idea that you first heard
the first time you heard it?

534
00:32:23,767 --> 00:32:27,467
If you get anywhere near that,
you can call it a success.

535
00:32:27,641 --> 00:32:29,686
But most of the time,
you never even get close.

536
00:32:29,948 --> 00:32:31,558
'Cause you have to rely
on all these other people

537
00:32:31,906 --> 00:32:33,647
to do all this other stuff.

538
00:32:34,648 --> 00:32:37,085
You know, people like musicians
and things like that.

539
00:32:40,480 --> 00:32:42,525
To do the kind of music
theater that we were doing,

540
00:32:42,699 --> 00:32:44,397
you needed people
who weren't afraid

541
00:32:44,571 --> 00:32:47,661
to act up on a stage
and do ludicrous things.

542
00:32:48,488 --> 00:32:50,794
'Cause that was part of
what the music was saying

543
00:32:51,012 --> 00:32:52,709
that the whole world
was absolutely absurd,

544
00:32:52,883 --> 00:32:55,103
and so, here it is.
We're giving it back to you.

545
00:32:55,538 --> 00:32:58,411
In fact, if we hadn't left Los Angeles,

546
00:32:58,672 --> 00:33:01,240
we would have just evaporated
after the first album.

547
00:33:01,849 --> 00:33:03,503
Band member:
One, two, three.

548
00:33:32,836 --> 00:33:35,491
I was a percussion major
at Juilliard.

549
00:33:35,665 --> 00:33:37,145
I mean, this was back
in the...

550
00:33:37,885 --> 00:33:40,453
the times of dynasties
in music.

551
00:33:41,802 --> 00:33:43,586
I thought that I would love it,

552
00:33:44,065 --> 00:33:46,459
and all of that derailed for me,

553
00:33:46,633 --> 00:33:48,113
it just crashed and burned,

554
00:33:48,461 --> 00:33:51,290
when I heard my first
Frank Zappa concert.

555
00:33:51,855 --> 00:33:53,553
I just suddenly realized,

556
00:33:53,727 --> 00:33:55,729
"I don't want to be
a timpanist in an orchestra.

557
00:33:56,251 --> 00:33:57,948
And I don't want to be
a triangle player

558
00:33:58,123 --> 00:33:59,298
in an orchestra."

559
00:33:59,515 --> 00:34:01,561
To have to sit
in the back row on stage

560
00:34:01,735 --> 00:34:03,693
to play my three triangle notes.

561
00:34:03,954 --> 00:34:06,087
That was not anything that
appealed to me

562
00:34:06,261 --> 00:34:09,177
from the moment
I heard Frank's music.

563
00:34:09,351 --> 00:34:12,137
And it's not that I was
inexperienced as a listener

564
00:34:12,702 --> 00:34:16,054
with other popular music
or music theater or any of that.

565
00:34:17,707 --> 00:34:19,709
Frank embodied everything.

566
00:34:19,883 --> 00:34:24,540
Everything that showed me
in that one concert

567
00:34:24,801 --> 00:34:26,586
that I wanted to do that.

568
00:34:28,979 --> 00:34:31,852
I would sit in my orchestration
classes at Juilliard

569
00:34:32,113 --> 00:34:33,941
in my baroque history.

570
00:34:34,115 --> 00:34:37,771
These classes taught
by the greatest people on Earth.

571
00:34:38,380 --> 00:34:41,079
One day, I was in one
of the piano practice rooms

572
00:34:41,253 --> 00:34:43,690
and I was absolutely
not even allowed to be there

573
00:34:43,907 --> 00:34:45,866
because "That's just
for the pianists."

574
00:34:47,041 --> 00:34:50,392
And there I would be,
trying to recall the melody

575
00:34:50,566 --> 00:34:52,438
or the melodic shape of "Oh No."

576
00:34:53,569 --> 00:34:55,093
Nobody was there.

577
00:34:55,267 --> 00:34:57,660
And on this fabulous
grand piano,

578
00:34:57,834 --> 00:35:01,055
I played that piece
to the best of my recollection.

579
00:35:01,229 --> 00:35:04,450
And I can't tell you,
probably within 30 seconds,

580
00:35:04,624 --> 00:35:07,322
an officer of the school
came in.

581
00:35:07,496 --> 00:35:08,802
"What are you doing?"

582
00:35:09,107 --> 00:35:11,370
"I'm just playing
this beautiful music."

583
00:35:11,674 --> 00:35:13,720
"Doesn't sound like any music
you're supposed to be playing
here."

584
00:35:14,416 --> 00:35:16,201
And I said,
"It's 20th-century music.

585
00:35:16,418 --> 00:35:18,116
What are you talking about?
It's by a living composer."

586
00:35:18,942 --> 00:35:19,943
"Get out."

587
00:35:22,946 --> 00:35:25,601
And if you were to hear
that piece on the piano,

588
00:35:25,775 --> 00:35:27,777
it could live in a
concert hall.

589
00:35:27,951 --> 00:35:30,867
It was that type of music
that he could produce

590
00:35:31,041 --> 00:35:34,262
that was a product of
everything that was in him.

591
00:35:34,567 --> 00:35:36,525
But you couldn't
really categorize it.

592
00:35:37,178 --> 00:35:39,311
You couldn't say, "Oh yeah,
that's rock and roll,"'cause it
wasn't.

593
00:35:39,485 --> 00:35:41,051
"It's jazz."
No. It really wasn't.

594
00:35:41,226 --> 00:35:42,662
"It's pop music."
No. Not at all.

595
00:35:43,141 --> 00:35:44,490
Well, what the hell is it?

596
00:35:45,360 --> 00:35:46,535
It's Zappa.

597
00:35:52,759 --> 00:35:54,978
And I knew
that it had changed my life.

598
00:35:55,153 --> 00:35:56,676
That's the thing.

599
00:35:57,155 --> 00:35:58,808
I didn't live my life and
then look back on it and go,

600
00:35:58,982 --> 00:36:01,550
"Yeah. That was
the life-changing moment."

601
00:36:01,724 --> 00:36:05,075
I walked out of that theater,
and I was actually disoriented.

602
00:36:05,250 --> 00:36:08,470
I... my whole world
had been shaken up.

603
00:36:10,472 --> 00:36:13,649
And Frank recently came back
from a town near Brussels

604
00:36:13,823 --> 00:36:16,652
where they had a kind
of a European pop festival.

605
00:36:16,826 --> 00:36:19,046
How did you communicate
with these kids

606
00:36:19,220 --> 00:36:21,527
who speak Walloon,
who speak Flemish,

607
00:36:21,701 --> 00:36:24,007
who speak, uh,
sort of a dialect of French?

608
00:36:24,182 --> 00:36:26,836
- What did...
- I only talked to them once.

609
00:36:27,185 --> 00:36:28,490
Murray: What did you say?

610
00:36:28,664 --> 00:36:30,318
I said, "I'm really glad
that you... you guys

611
00:36:30,492 --> 00:36:32,929
had a pop festival in spite
of the French government."

612
00:36:33,887 --> 00:36:35,149
It's really very square.

613
00:36:35,323 --> 00:36:36,672
It's just very depressing,
you know,

614
00:36:36,846 --> 00:36:39,066
to think of what Paris
used to be famous for...

615
00:36:43,723 --> 00:36:44,854
Go ahead, bleep it.

616
00:36:45,028 --> 00:36:46,682
Oh, Frank.

617
00:36:49,685 --> 00:36:51,905
Well, in the past Paris
was famous for its...

618
00:36:52,079 --> 00:36:53,341
But now it...

619
00:36:55,604 --> 00:36:57,389
Frank, you're going to kill
the tourist business

620
00:36:57,563 --> 00:36:58,999
as far as the French
are concerned.

621
00:36:59,173 --> 00:37:00,522
I hope so.

622
00:37:00,914 --> 00:37:02,829
Fr-- France ought to get
its... ...together.

623
00:37:05,962 --> 00:37:08,400
Bunk: You know,
when you look at stuff now,

624
00:37:08,574 --> 00:37:10,445
I mean, e... everything goes.

625
00:37:10,619 --> 00:37:12,099
And it also brings to mind,

626
00:37:12,273 --> 00:37:14,841
because we played
with Lenny Bruce,

627
00:37:15,102 --> 00:37:20,455
you know, how difficult it was
in terms of your language, uh,

628
00:37:20,629 --> 00:37:23,023
that people would not accept.

629
00:37:24,024 --> 00:37:25,939
Lenny Bruce had a-- an
incredible impact,

630
00:37:26,113 --> 00:37:27,593
an incredible influence.

631
00:37:28,376 --> 00:37:31,858
But, you know, Frank's
influence was really, really
strong.

632
00:37:32,162 --> 00:37:36,036
And-- and it instantly just,
like, made a beeline

633
00:37:36,210 --> 00:37:40,040
for the most influential
archetypes and figureheads

634
00:37:40,214 --> 00:37:44,000
in rock music. You know, if you listen toSgt. Pepper.

635
00:37:44,174 --> 00:37:45,698
It was obvious
that the Beatles knew

636
00:37:45,872 --> 00:37:47,743
what... what was going on
with Frank.

637
00:37:47,917 --> 00:37:51,399
They've explicitly said that
Sgt. Pepperwas our attempt

638
00:37:51,573 --> 00:37:53,009
to make our own Freak Out!

639
00:37:54,707 --> 00:37:56,535
And the inner spread
of the album,

640
00:37:56,709 --> 00:37:59,233
whether Frank liked it or not, was powerful and iconic,

641
00:37:59,407 --> 00:38:01,322
and... and, you know,
the... the record company

642
00:38:01,496 --> 00:38:03,585
were not wrong
in terms of making an impact.

643
00:38:03,759 --> 00:38:04,978
It definitely made an impact.

644
00:38:05,152 --> 00:38:07,415
But Frank didn't think of it.

645
00:38:07,589 --> 00:38:09,765
So there's a part of him
that just bristled

646
00:38:09,939 --> 00:38:12,333
because it wasn't his baby,
you know.

647
00:38:12,507 --> 00:38:15,162
And the second album,
he put his foot down.

648
00:38:15,336 --> 00:38:17,425
Not only was he in charge
of... of the artwork

649
00:38:17,599 --> 00:38:20,385
and he did his own collage
on the back cover,

650
00:38:20,733 --> 00:38:22,996
but if he had had the time
and inclination,

651
00:38:23,170 --> 00:38:26,652
he could have continued on doing his own album artwork.

652
00:38:26,826 --> 00:38:28,393
And... and it would have been
fascinating.

653
00:38:29,568 --> 00:38:33,615
But I think when Cal Schenkel crossed his path

654
00:38:33,963 --> 00:38:36,314
and he saw somebody
that got what he was doing

655
00:38:36,618 --> 00:38:39,317
and could capture it
and could also focus on it

656
00:38:39,491 --> 00:38:41,580
exclusively while,
you know, Frank would look

657
00:38:41,754 --> 00:38:43,799
over Cal's shoulder and say,
"Try that, try that."

658
00:38:44,365 --> 00:38:46,672
Frank just hands him his head, and you get just amazing cover

659
00:38:46,846 --> 00:38:48,021
after amazing cover.

660
00:38:48,326 --> 00:38:49,849
And that-- it's beautiful

661
00:38:50,066 --> 00:38:51,633
'cause they built
a world together.

662
00:38:52,025 --> 00:38:55,681
Those album covers plays
into that thing of feeling

663
00:38:55,855 --> 00:38:58,248
like you're part
of an alternative movement.

664
00:39:12,393 --> 00:39:15,309
There had already been two otherSgt. Pepper parodies

665
00:39:15,483 --> 00:39:18,312
by the time
that our package was ready.

666
00:39:18,486 --> 00:39:22,185
And MGM was panic stricken

667
00:39:22,360 --> 00:39:24,623
that they would be sued
by The Beatles

668
00:39:25,188 --> 00:39:26,755
and wanted legal assurance

669
00:39:26,929 --> 00:39:28,714
that The Beatles
weren't going to harm them

670
00:39:28,888 --> 00:39:30,455
for putting this package out.

671
00:39:30,803 --> 00:39:34,197
And all the legal gyrations
took about 13 months.

672
00:39:43,381 --> 00:39:45,034
I know
I talked personally

673
00:39:45,208 --> 00:39:46,906
to McCartney at one time
and said that, you know,

674
00:39:47,080 --> 00:39:48,777
"The record company
is panic stricken over this,

675
00:39:48,951 --> 00:39:51,040
and can you do anything
to help me?"

676
00:39:51,693 --> 00:39:53,521
And it was like he was on the other end of the line, taking the phone and going,

677
00:39:53,782 --> 00:39:56,394
"You mean,
you talk about business?"

678
00:39:57,786 --> 00:40:00,746
Like, "Oh, we have lawyers
who do that."

679
00:40:01,355 --> 00:40:04,750
He just had no interest in participating in a discussion

680
00:40:04,924 --> 00:40:06,534
of the legal ramifications

681
00:40:06,708 --> 00:40:08,536
of a parody
of theSgt. Pepper cover.

682
00:40:09,102 --> 00:40:11,670
That was at a time when it was very, very unfashionable

683
00:40:11,844 --> 00:40:14,063
to be a businessman
or even to have any contact

684
00:40:14,237 --> 00:40:15,717
to the world of commerce.

685
00:40:16,283 --> 00:40:18,328
I mean, people were living
in a dream world.

686
00:40:18,503 --> 00:40:20,069
How did they expect
to earn a living

687
00:40:20,243 --> 00:40:23,333
doing their music if they didn't have some idea

688
00:40:23,508 --> 00:40:24,987
that the people
who were distributing it

689
00:40:25,161 --> 00:40:26,946
were only there
to steal from them?

690
00:40:28,338 --> 00:40:31,559
Most of the artists that I knew were too busy getting ripped.

691
00:40:33,039 --> 00:40:34,823
If you just got high
and went out

692
00:40:34,997 --> 00:40:38,174
and did your groovy music and, you know, then there were

693
00:40:38,348 --> 00:40:40,786
business people who took care of that other stuff.

694
00:40:47,836 --> 00:40:49,969
It's time for a revolution
but probably not in the terms

695
00:40:50,143 --> 00:40:51,536
that people imagine it.

696
00:40:53,407 --> 00:40:55,365
The thing that's wrong today
is that the... the people

697
00:40:55,540 --> 00:40:59,108
who are in control of the media
and the government

698
00:40:59,282 --> 00:41:01,937
and, you know, things
that... that run the lives

699
00:41:02,111 --> 00:41:04,244
of the average person
in the street,

700
00:41:04,766 --> 00:41:06,028
they aren't doing
a good job of it

701
00:41:06,202 --> 00:41:07,726
'cause they don't really care.

702
00:41:08,204 --> 00:41:09,858
Why don't you run
for president?

703
00:41:10,032 --> 00:41:11,817
I thought about it
a number of times before.

704
00:41:11,991 --> 00:41:14,167
And then the thing
that always holds me back

705
00:41:14,384 --> 00:41:16,952
is that what would it feel like
to actually be the president,

706
00:41:17,126 --> 00:41:19,215
you know, and have to stay
in Washington DC

707
00:41:19,389 --> 00:41:22,480
in a house for four years?
That'd be pretty grim.

708
00:41:33,403 --> 00:41:37,973
A lot of what we do
is designed to annoy people

709
00:41:38,147 --> 00:41:40,498
to the point where they might, just for a second,

710
00:41:40,672 --> 00:41:42,587
question enough
of their environment

711
00:41:42,761 --> 00:41:44,110
to do something about it.

712
00:41:47,679 --> 00:41:49,332
As long as they don't feel
their environment,

713
00:41:49,507 --> 00:41:50,943
they don't worry about it.

714
00:41:51,117 --> 00:41:53,249
They're not going to do
anything to change it.

715
00:41:53,423 --> 00:41:54,903
And something's got to be done

716
00:41:55,077 --> 00:41:58,211
before America scarfs up
the world and shits on it.

717
00:42:21,060 --> 00:42:22,757
I wasn't
in the United States

718
00:42:22,931 --> 00:42:25,151
when Moon was born.
I was on the road.

719
00:42:25,325 --> 00:42:26,892
As I walked out the door
to get on the bus,

720
00:42:27,066 --> 00:42:30,548
I said, "Well, if it's a girl, name it Moon,

721
00:42:30,722 --> 00:42:32,027
and if it's a boy,
name it Motorhead."

722
00:43:42,228 --> 00:43:44,143
Reporter: In California,
actor Ronald Reagan

723
00:43:44,317 --> 00:43:46,058
and Mrs. Reagan arrive
to cast their votes

724
00:43:46,232 --> 00:43:47,929
in the state's primary
election.

725
00:43:48,321 --> 00:43:50,584
He's the Republican nominee
for governor.

726
00:43:50,758 --> 00:43:52,891
It's his first
political contest.

727
00:43:57,635 --> 00:44:00,246
Reagan was the governor
of California.

728
00:44:01,116 --> 00:44:06,687
And there was a freak
contingent starting in
LA at the time.

729
00:44:07,253 --> 00:44:11,605
And in those days, if you had long hair in this town

730
00:44:11,953 --> 00:44:13,476
and you were driving a car,

731
00:44:13,651 --> 00:44:15,522
it was such
an infrequent occurrence

732
00:44:16,131 --> 00:44:18,046
that people would actually
wave to each other.

733
00:44:18,307 --> 00:44:20,570
That's how...
what a tigh-- what a small

734
00:44:20,745 --> 00:44:22,616
and tight community it was.

735
00:44:23,965 --> 00:44:25,706
Well, Frank was considered

736
00:44:25,880 --> 00:44:28,274
by everyone on the strip and all the people in the clubs

737
00:44:28,448 --> 00:44:31,843
to be sort of the--
I mean, the ersatz Pied Piper

738
00:44:32,017 --> 00:44:33,366
of Laurel Canyon.

739
00:44:33,671 --> 00:44:35,585
He was right in the center
of it in the log cabin,

740
00:44:35,760 --> 00:44:37,892
which was Tom Mix's old cabin

741
00:44:38,197 --> 00:44:40,416
with his horse buried
under the bowling alley.

742
00:44:40,590 --> 00:44:41,940
People can't believe
these kind of things.

743
00:44:42,114 --> 00:44:44,029
With Houdini's house
right across the street.

744
00:44:44,203 --> 00:44:47,510
And he... he was this
centrifugal force

745
00:44:47,902 --> 00:44:49,251
of Laurel Canyon.

746
00:44:49,904 --> 00:44:51,558
Any kind of rock star,

747
00:44:51,732 --> 00:44:53,168
especially the British guys
who came to town,

748
00:44:53,342 --> 00:44:56,345
wanted to meet Frank.
So, we would,

749
00:44:56,519 --> 00:44:58,217
you know, meet these
rock stars,

750
00:44:58,391 --> 00:44:59,609
and they right away would say,

751
00:44:59,784 --> 00:45:01,524
"C... can we meet Zappa?"

752
00:45:01,699 --> 00:45:03,657
So, of course, Jagger was there, the Stones,

753
00:45:03,831 --> 00:45:05,659
and all the local bands too.

754
00:45:05,833 --> 00:45:07,139
But Jeff Beck, I mean.

755
00:45:07,443 --> 00:45:09,097
Any... anybody you can think of at that time.

756
00:45:09,271 --> 00:45:13,101
It was the center
of the world at that point.

757
00:45:27,899 --> 00:45:31,163
Frank suggested,
since he had started
a record label,

758
00:45:31,337 --> 00:45:35,123
that we actually
become our own group.

759
00:45:35,471 --> 00:45:37,038
It was very ra-- unusual.

760
00:45:37,212 --> 00:45:38,866
I mean, there were no rock--
girl rock bands at all

761
00:45:39,040 --> 00:45:41,956
or rock groups.
We didn't play any instruments.

762
00:45:43,001 --> 00:45:46,395
And he wanted us just to
capture our lives in
Laurel Canyon,

763
00:45:46,569 --> 00:45:47,962
on the Strip.

764
00:45:48,180 --> 00:45:49,572
He thought
we had something to say.

765
00:45:50,269 --> 00:45:53,707
He always liked to preserve
moments in time.

766
00:45:54,752 --> 00:45:57,667
Uh, what kind of, uh, girls
are these groupies?

767
00:45:57,972 --> 00:45:59,931
Well, not all of 'em
are groupies, you know.

768
00:46:00,105 --> 00:46:02,411
Some girls that will readily
admit that they are groupies

769
00:46:02,585 --> 00:46:04,936
have a very special
sort of mentality, you know,

770
00:46:05,110 --> 00:46:07,721
and they... they aspire
to that position.

771
00:46:07,895 --> 00:46:10,855
But there are other girls
who would never admit
that they are groupies,

772
00:46:11,029 --> 00:46:13,335
but who function
in that capacity anyway.

773
00:46:13,509 --> 00:46:15,511
And the...
what about, uh, your wife?

774
00:46:15,685 --> 00:46:17,731
I mean, does she like it?

775
00:46:17,905 --> 00:46:19,515
Well, she's become
accustomed to it

776
00:46:19,689 --> 00:46:21,126
over a period of years.

777
00:46:24,259 --> 00:46:25,608
Well, early, early days,

778
00:46:25,870 --> 00:46:28,611
I did not notice
any messing around.

779
00:46:29,482 --> 00:46:31,266
When... when Moon
was a little baby,

780
00:46:31,440 --> 00:46:32,833
and then she got pregnant
with Dweezil,

781
00:46:33,007 --> 00:46:35,009
and she insisted
they leave that scene.

782
00:46:35,183 --> 00:46:36,271
I remember that.

783
00:46:36,489 --> 00:46:37,664
Okay, that's it.

784
00:46:37,882 --> 00:46:39,492
She... she was having
another kid.

785
00:46:39,709 --> 00:46:43,365
And, uh, you know,
I don't think she liked it.

786
00:46:43,975 --> 00:46:45,759
She didn't. In fact,
I know she didn't like it,

787
00:46:46,281 --> 00:46:48,022
but she knew about it.

788
00:46:48,675 --> 00:46:50,633
I'm a human being,
you know.

789
00:46:51,199 --> 00:46:52,679
I like to get laid.

790
00:46:53,985 --> 00:46:56,639
I mean, is... you have to be realistic about these things.

791
00:46:56,814 --> 00:46:59,425
You go out on the road, you strap on a bunch of girls,

792
00:46:59,599 --> 00:47:00,730
you come back to the house,

793
00:47:00,948 --> 00:47:02,210
you find out
you've got the clap.

794
00:47:02,732 --> 00:47:04,082
What, you're going to keep it
a secret from your wife?

795
00:47:04,256 --> 00:47:06,345
You know.
So, I come back there, I said,

796
00:47:06,519 --> 00:47:08,564
"Look, I got the clap.
Go get a prescription."

797
00:47:08,738 --> 00:47:11,263
So, she goes out and gets
some penicillin tablets.

798
00:47:11,437 --> 00:47:13,482
We both take them,
and that's it.

799
00:47:14,832 --> 00:47:17,182
She grumbles every once
in a while, but, you know,

800
00:47:17,835 --> 00:47:19,314
she's my wife.

801
00:47:19,793 --> 00:47:23,579
And he did include her in... in almost everything

802
00:47:23,753 --> 00:47:25,016
that... that he was doing.

803
00:47:25,233 --> 00:47:27,409
She was right there
at all times.

804
00:47:27,583 --> 00:47:29,107
All right. Now what
do you want to do about...

805
00:47:29,281 --> 00:47:30,630
I'll tell you the secret

806
00:47:30,804 --> 00:47:32,371
to keep maintaining
a relationship,

807
00:47:32,545 --> 00:47:36,549
apart from the hideous
uh, occupational hazards

808
00:47:36,723 --> 00:47:39,639
that in-- that are specific
to rock and roll,

809
00:47:39,857 --> 00:47:43,599
um, which can throw you
for an-- take you

810
00:47:43,773 --> 00:47:48,213
on an emotional rollercoaster
if you let it from time to time.

811
00:47:48,387 --> 00:47:49,431
But...

812
00:47:50,258 --> 00:47:53,044
the main thing is don't have
those conversations.

813
00:47:54,219 --> 00:47:57,048
So, Frank does what he does,
and I do what I do.

814
00:48:00,181 --> 00:48:03,271
You know, I used to--
had an expression
in my own mind about it.

815
00:48:03,489 --> 00:48:05,186
A polarity of passions.

816
00:48:06,579 --> 00:48:08,102
Two different worlds there,

817
00:48:08,276 --> 00:48:10,365
and it's sometimes
very uncomfortable

818
00:48:10,539 --> 00:48:13,325
because he couldn't fucking wait
to get out of the house

819
00:48:13,499 --> 00:48:14,761
and go on the road.

820
00:48:15,327 --> 00:48:17,895
But then, he was also
very happy to come home

821
00:48:18,069 --> 00:48:19,635
just to feel safe again.

822
00:48:24,727 --> 00:48:26,120
One of the reasons
why I said,

823
00:48:26,294 --> 00:48:27,861
"Let's get the fuck
out of here,"

824
00:48:28,209 --> 00:48:31,082
because Manson had set up shop in the mountain behind us

825
00:48:31,256 --> 00:48:32,648
at the log cabin.

826
00:48:34,128 --> 00:48:36,957
There was this trail
that was maybe ten feet

827
00:48:37,131 --> 00:48:38,306
from the bedroom window,

828
00:48:38,741 --> 00:48:41,048
and every morning,
I would see their feet

829
00:48:41,527 --> 00:48:43,007
cruising around
the neighborhood.

830
00:48:43,833 --> 00:48:45,226
They were creepy.

831
00:48:47,315 --> 00:48:48,969
I mean, the thing
about the '60s,

832
00:48:49,665 --> 00:48:51,798
you just know stuff.

833
00:48:52,320 --> 00:48:54,322
You don't know why you know it, but you just know it.

834
00:48:54,496 --> 00:48:56,890
You feel it. It's... it's just in the air.

835
00:48:57,064 --> 00:48:58,761
And I remember that.

836
00:48:59,066 --> 00:49:01,286
Reporter: The family's leader,
Charles Manson,

837
00:49:01,460 --> 00:49:03,549
denied that they were
a violent group.

838
00:49:04,028 --> 00:49:06,769
I don't know if previous
generations felt that.

839
00:49:07,422 --> 00:49:09,033
But I know we did.

840
00:49:09,903 --> 00:49:12,036
Whoever was alive then did.

841
00:49:28,791 --> 00:49:30,837
Alice: The way we met was that
I met Miss Christine

842
00:49:31,011 --> 00:49:32,404
from the GTOs.

843
00:49:32,752 --> 00:49:34,580
And they knew we were looking for a contract,

844
00:49:34,754 --> 00:49:36,843
and... and they knew Frank was just starting his own label.

845
00:49:37,452 --> 00:49:41,152
And we were this little band
coming to LA to try to make it.

846
00:49:41,717 --> 00:49:44,285
Not knowing that he was going
to be our savior.

847
00:49:44,851 --> 00:49:47,071
Every record company
turned us down

848
00:49:47,245 --> 00:49:48,594
except for Frank.

849
00:49:49,160 --> 00:49:50,291
It was weird.

850
00:49:50,552 --> 00:49:52,163
He had the freaks,

851
00:49:52,424 --> 00:49:54,992
and he had the very,
extremely intelligent

852
00:49:55,427 --> 00:49:57,995
and the very artsy people
behind him.

853
00:49:58,256 --> 00:50:00,562
And then there was the whole
middle that didn't get it.

854
00:50:12,879 --> 00:50:17,797
You formally disbanded
the Mothers in 1969. Why?

855
00:50:19,277 --> 00:50:21,061
Because it was a disaster.

856
00:50:21,453 --> 00:50:22,628
We were doing a tour.

857
00:50:22,802 --> 00:50:24,847
The tour wasn't successful.

858
00:50:25,370 --> 00:50:28,851
At the beginning, I took 400 dollars out of my bank account

859
00:50:29,026 --> 00:50:30,201
so I could eat.

860
00:50:31,202 --> 00:50:32,768
And by the time the tour
was over,

861
00:50:32,986 --> 00:50:34,466
after paying everybody
and everything,

862
00:50:34,640 --> 00:50:36,816
I was 10,000 dollars in debt.

863
00:50:37,121 --> 00:50:39,514
And it just seemed to me
that this was not the--

864
00:50:40,167 --> 00:50:42,256
a lifestyle
I wished to continue.

865
00:50:42,909 --> 00:50:45,738
Hey. That sounds like shit.

866
00:50:48,523 --> 00:50:51,396
Want to get a level on this
before we actually make it?

867
00:50:54,051 --> 00:50:56,749
Bunk: When we first went out
to play, after the concert,

868
00:50:56,923 --> 00:50:59,752
we wanted to know if we were
actually going to get paid.

869
00:51:00,970 --> 00:51:03,103
There was always that kind of,

870
00:51:03,277 --> 00:51:06,150
"Wow.
What's going on financially?"

871
00:51:06,976 --> 00:51:09,979
So, we didn't even get
a two-week notice.

872
00:51:10,154 --> 00:51:12,025
And... and I remember saying,

873
00:51:12,243 --> 00:51:14,245
"I just bought a new Chevy,"
whatever.

874
00:51:14,419 --> 00:51:15,942
You know. So, no.

875
00:51:16,116 --> 00:51:18,423
It was totally out of the blue.

876
00:51:19,119 --> 00:51:20,425
Totally.

877
00:51:23,428 --> 00:51:25,952
I think that
Frank realized, "Wow.

878
00:51:26,126 --> 00:51:27,910
I just wanted
to create something,

879
00:51:28,085 --> 00:51:29,825
and I wanted to make
a statement artistically,"

880
00:51:29,999 --> 00:51:32,176
but there's people
relying on you.

881
00:51:32,350 --> 00:51:34,395
There's people expecting
paychecks.

882
00:51:34,569 --> 00:51:37,529
And then Frank is like, "This isn't fun for me anymore.

883
00:51:37,703 --> 00:51:40,271
I don't want to feel as though
I'm responsible

884
00:51:40,445 --> 00:51:41,881
for the-- the happiness
and livelihood

885
00:51:42,055 --> 00:51:43,578
of... of a bunch
of other people."

886
00:51:45,406 --> 00:51:47,452
"All I want to do
is... is make statements

887
00:51:47,626 --> 00:51:50,107
and see how they sound."

888
00:51:52,152 --> 00:51:55,329
The new format that I'm working with now is...

889
00:51:55,634 --> 00:51:57,723
that if I want to form a group
called The Mothers of Invention

890
00:51:57,897 --> 00:51:59,768
I'll stick anybody in it
that I want to.

891
00:51:59,942 --> 00:52:03,337
It's just whoever happens
to be right for the type of work

892
00:52:03,511 --> 00:52:04,860
that we're doing.

893
00:52:05,209 --> 00:52:06,819
Like, for instance,
if I'm going to do a concert

894
00:52:06,993 --> 00:52:08,734
with a symphony orchestra
and I don't necessarily

895
00:52:08,908 --> 00:52:11,389
want to do a lot of vocals
with the orchestra,

896
00:52:11,563 --> 00:52:13,042
then I don't bring the vocals.

897
00:52:13,434 --> 00:52:16,176
Or I... I have, uh,
occasion to play a job

898
00:52:16,350 --> 00:52:18,004
with a small group,
like four or five pieces,

899
00:52:18,178 --> 00:52:19,571
where I'm just going
to play the guitar,

900
00:52:19,745 --> 00:52:21,442
I'll bring along
an instrumentation

901
00:52:21,616 --> 00:52:23,270
- likeHot Rats.
-Uh-hmm.

902
00:52:23,444 --> 00:52:25,490
So, I-- it gives me
a little bit more

903
00:52:25,664 --> 00:52:27,753
artistic flexibility,
you might say.

904
00:52:28,362 --> 00:52:30,408
Most of what occurred
after that,

905
00:52:30,669 --> 00:52:33,019
the groups were not
as permanent.

906
00:52:33,889 --> 00:52:36,065
They didn't have the same
kind of personality

907
00:52:36,240 --> 00:52:37,241
as the early Mothers.

908
00:52:38,764 --> 00:52:42,202
The one that followed on
after that 1969 batch

909
00:52:42,376 --> 00:52:44,030
was the group
with Mark and Howard.

910
00:52:44,204 --> 00:52:45,597
And it had an identity.

911
00:52:45,771 --> 00:52:48,339
- Oh, you're so professional.
- Oh, okay.

912
00:52:48,513 --> 00:52:51,864
The way you get to travel
to all those exotic places.

913
00:52:52,343 --> 00:52:56,085
Do you really have a hit single
on the charts with a bullet?

914
00:53:31,208 --> 00:53:32,992
They had been in a group
called The Turtles,

915
00:53:33,166 --> 00:53:34,863
but I guess The Turtles
had broken up.

916
00:53:35,255 --> 00:53:36,735
And I had done a concert

917
00:53:36,909 --> 00:53:38,302
with the Los Angeles
Philharmonic,

918
00:53:38,476 --> 00:53:40,391
and they came to the concert.

919
00:53:40,782 --> 00:53:42,393
And we decided that
I would put together

920
00:53:42,567 --> 00:53:44,177
another touring band
called the Mothers

921
00:53:44,351 --> 00:53:46,571
and go out
and do amusing things.

922
00:53:50,357 --> 00:53:51,402
Hey!

923
00:54:25,044 --> 00:54:26,393
We were redefining

924
00:54:26,567 --> 00:54:28,308
the expectations
of entertainment.

925
00:54:28,482 --> 00:54:29,962
But it seemed to me
there was no reason

926
00:54:30,136 --> 00:54:31,790
why that audience
shouldn't experience

927
00:54:32,007 --> 00:54:33,531
some of the things
that had already happened

928
00:54:33,705 --> 00:54:36,360
since 1920
in musical development.

929
00:54:36,534 --> 00:54:38,362
Things that they were
completely unaware of

930
00:54:38,536 --> 00:54:41,365
just because they were
a "rock audience"

931
00:54:41,539 --> 00:54:44,193
and therefore deprived
of musical experience.

932
00:54:44,368 --> 00:54:46,587
It wasn't being presented
to them in any kind

933
00:54:46,761 --> 00:54:49,024
of music appreciation class
in school.

934
00:54:49,677 --> 00:54:51,897
Unfortunately,
there were some people

935
00:54:52,071 --> 00:54:55,770
who thought that it was bad because nothing should change

936
00:54:55,944 --> 00:54:57,816
real rock and roll.

937
00:54:57,990 --> 00:55:00,862
And anybody who would interfere with that kind of aesthetic

938
00:55:01,036 --> 00:55:04,518
was viewed as a threat and needed to be disposed of.

939
00:55:05,214 --> 00:55:08,348
And basically, my career
has been...

940
00:55:09,480 --> 00:55:12,178
year after year,
waiting to be disposed of.

941
00:55:41,425 --> 00:55:43,383
How do you know
about success?

942
00:55:44,036 --> 00:55:45,559
How do I know
about success?

943
00:55:45,733 --> 00:55:46,952
I don't know.

944
00:55:48,693 --> 00:55:50,172
I watched The Beatles
in the '60s.

945
00:55:50,347 --> 00:55:51,739
I guess that's success.

946
00:55:54,133 --> 00:55:56,222
Hey. Sit down
and cool it for a minute

947
00:55:56,396 --> 00:55:57,963
so I can hear
what we're going to do.

948
00:55:58,267 --> 00:56:00,661
And for-- and for those of you
in the band who have no idea

949
00:56:00,835 --> 00:56:03,577
what's about to happen,
this is in A minor.

950
00:56:03,751 --> 00:56:04,926
And it's not standard...

951
00:56:05,100 --> 00:56:06,580
You pretty much couldn't find

952
00:56:06,798 --> 00:56:08,843
a... a more pristine example
of somebody

953
00:56:09,017 --> 00:56:10,845
at the absolute pinnacle

954
00:56:11,019 --> 00:56:13,021
of mainstream musical
success...

955
00:56:13,979 --> 00:56:16,634
who decides,
"Wow. This is bullshit."

956
00:56:17,504 --> 00:56:19,114
I'd just like to say hello.

957
00:56:20,028 --> 00:56:24,990
And so, when Lennon and Zappa finally crossed paths...

958
00:56:27,688 --> 00:56:32,301
in some ways, it gave John and Yoko's artistic expression

959
00:56:32,476 --> 00:56:35,740
a framework that they never
really enjoyed

960
00:56:36,044 --> 00:56:37,829
in any other context.

961
00:56:38,003 --> 00:56:40,179
And in some ways,
makes more sense

962
00:56:40,353 --> 00:56:43,051
when the imprimatur of Frank
and the Mothers

963
00:56:43,225 --> 00:56:44,357
are surrounding them.

964
00:57:00,895 --> 00:57:04,986
Alice: I really think Frank was
afraid to have a hit record.

965
00:57:06,248 --> 00:57:08,816
Because I think Frank could have
written hit records all day.

966
00:57:09,948 --> 00:57:13,560
And he purposely sabotaged
a lot of his records.

967
00:57:15,344 --> 00:57:16,868
It was interesting
'cause everybody

968
00:57:17,042 --> 00:57:18,913
was going for the hit record,
and he never did.

969
00:57:20,915 --> 00:57:23,527
That makes absolutely
no sense to me.

970
00:57:25,267 --> 00:57:28,923
But I don't disagree with it
because I... I think

971
00:57:29,097 --> 00:57:31,186
that that's probably correct,
but I don't think Frank was--

972
00:57:31,404 --> 00:57:36,627
had any interest whatsoever
in writing an-- any hit tunes.

973
00:57:37,802 --> 00:57:40,239
That's not even on his radar.

974
00:57:42,720 --> 00:57:43,895
This man...

975
00:57:44,461 --> 00:57:47,376
was just a walking mass
of contradictions,

976
00:57:47,638 --> 00:57:50,467
and yet... now I'm going
to contradict myself.

977
00:57:50,641 --> 00:57:52,120
At the same time,

978
00:57:52,338 --> 00:57:54,340
he was very consistent
with those contradictions.

979
00:58:02,783 --> 00:58:05,264
Do you see any commercial
potential in it?

980
00:58:05,525 --> 00:58:08,441
I sure as hell hope so.

981
00:58:11,662 --> 00:58:14,403
From 200 Motels
he expects the worst reviews

982
00:58:14,578 --> 00:58:16,667
of any movie ever put out.

983
00:58:17,798 --> 00:58:22,063
His intention is to create
a piece of film so bizarre

984
00:58:22,324 --> 00:58:25,937
and parts of it
so full of bullshit

985
00:58:26,894 --> 00:58:29,941
and other parts of it
so technically perfect

986
00:58:30,115 --> 00:58:32,465
that the people are going
to leave the theater, going...

987
00:58:32,639 --> 00:58:35,076
"I didn't understand it at all. What's he doing?

988
00:58:35,250 --> 00:58:37,470
What's-- what's the message?
What's he trying to say?"

989
00:58:37,644 --> 00:58:39,864
Well, that's the message.

990
00:58:40,342 --> 00:58:41,996
Martin walks over in here.

991
00:58:42,170 --> 00:58:44,172
You just come over and stand
near the side of the organ

992
00:58:44,433 --> 00:58:46,044
and watch from the background.

993
00:58:46,218 --> 00:58:47,872
Just the whole idea
that it is Frank Zappa

994
00:58:48,046 --> 00:58:49,569
and The Mothers of Invention

995
00:58:49,874 --> 00:58:51,528
has always given us
something to talk about.

996
00:58:51,745 --> 00:58:55,923
You know, Frank is, you know,
our boss, and so there's always

997
00:58:56,097 --> 00:59:00,058
that kind of management/worker
relationship.

998
00:59:00,754 --> 00:59:02,756
It's all very temporary.

999
00:59:02,974 --> 00:59:06,760
And, uh,
that's the way it works.

1000
00:59:06,934 --> 00:59:09,371
And you just--
you just never know.

1001
00:59:09,546 --> 00:59:11,852
I mean, like,
it isn't the final stay

1002
00:59:12,026 --> 00:59:13,637
for any of us.

1003
00:59:13,811 --> 00:59:14,725
You know, like,
this isn't the final Mothers

1004
00:59:14,899 --> 00:59:16,291
Frank will have.

1005
00:59:16,596 --> 00:59:19,120
It's hard to say
how long we will be together.

1006
00:59:20,513 --> 00:59:22,950
So, they see that you're getting
Martin back there and everybody.

1007
00:59:23,124 --> 00:59:24,561
You're waking them all up.

1008
00:59:25,692 --> 00:59:29,391
Steve: My perspective of it has changed through the years.

1009
00:59:30,131 --> 00:59:32,525
Because when I was in it,

1010
00:59:33,352 --> 00:59:36,094
I was a tool for the composer

1011
00:59:36,268 --> 00:59:38,444
and... and as--
is all of his musicians.

1012
00:59:38,662 --> 00:59:42,927
And he used his tools,
uh, brilliantly.

1013
00:59:43,884 --> 00:59:46,887
It's like, whatever you can do that's interesting and unique,

1014
00:59:47,061 --> 00:59:48,802
it's going to be exaggerated

1015
00:59:49,455 --> 00:59:54,286
and used as he deems fit
for his music.

1016
00:59:57,202 --> 01:00:01,902
Frank would often appear
to be cold, aloof,

1017
01:00:02,076 --> 01:00:06,864
and not personally involved
with his trained monkeys

1018
01:00:07,038 --> 01:00:09,040
as once he joked about.

1019
01:00:09,214 --> 01:00:11,085
We're just all
trained monkeys, right?

1020
01:00:11,259 --> 01:00:14,262
He's the circus ringleader
or whatever.

1021
01:00:14,959 --> 01:00:21,139
But I want to tell you that
he had great feelings for us.

1022
01:00:21,879 --> 01:00:24,316
He was-- he was human.

1023
01:00:24,490 --> 01:00:27,406
There were times
when I didn't feel

1024
01:00:27,624 --> 01:00:28,973
that he was so much.

1025
01:00:29,147 --> 01:00:31,758
And I did feel
he was cruel at times.

1026
01:00:31,932 --> 01:00:34,674
But he was a passionate man.

1027
01:00:34,848 --> 01:00:37,851
And he developed real love,

1028
01:00:38,025 --> 01:00:40,245
I'm not going to say equally
for everybody.

1029
01:00:40,419 --> 01:00:45,076
But the people that he loved, he kept bringing back

1030
01:00:45,816 --> 01:00:49,036
over and through
many of the bands.

1031
01:00:49,210 --> 01:00:50,864
Many of the tours.

1032
01:00:56,043 --> 01:00:57,958
Frank was very loyal
to the people

1033
01:00:58,176 --> 01:00:59,960
that had helped him
along the way

1034
01:01:00,134 --> 01:01:02,267
even if they were
the worst motherfuckers.

1035
01:01:02,833 --> 01:01:06,358
He would, um, go out of his way
to help them.

1036
01:01:07,272 --> 01:01:11,493
And I can count on one hand
the friends that he truly

1037
01:01:11,668 --> 01:01:13,539
would spend time with.

1038
01:01:14,714 --> 01:01:18,587
He was pretty forgiving
for someone that he knew,

1039
01:01:18,762 --> 01:01:20,677
but if he didn't know you,

1040
01:01:21,416 --> 01:01:22,809
one chance, that's it.

1041
01:01:22,983 --> 01:01:24,115
Done.

1042
01:01:24,506 --> 01:01:26,900
You know, so he could be
hardcore as well.

1043
01:01:36,301 --> 01:01:37,998
First of all,
he was not injured.

1044
01:01:38,259 --> 01:01:40,087
He was attacked.

1045
01:01:43,961 --> 01:01:46,398
This myth about him
falling off the stage,

1046
01:01:46,572 --> 01:01:48,356
that didn't happen.

1047
01:01:48,530 --> 01:01:52,883
Some idiot attacked him
and threw him off the stage.

1048
01:02:01,021 --> 01:02:03,632
And I know a lot of people know something happened to you,

1049
01:02:03,807 --> 01:02:05,460
and essentially, it was that

1050
01:02:05,634 --> 01:02:09,029
a person of somewhat demented condition, apparently,

1051
01:02:09,203 --> 01:02:10,814
had pulled you off the stage

1052
01:02:10,988 --> 01:02:12,772
at a place called the Rainbow Theatre in London.

1053
01:02:13,991 --> 01:02:16,210
And you were knocked unconscious
and pretty seriously injured.

1054
01:02:16,384 --> 01:02:17,603
And I know you were
in a wheelchair

1055
01:02:17,777 --> 01:02:19,257
a long time after that.

1056
01:02:19,518 --> 01:02:21,694
Uh, there's been a lot of talk
about some of things

1057
01:02:21,868 --> 01:02:24,653
that happened to the Mothers
as a result of that accident,

1058
01:02:24,828 --> 01:02:27,526
but I'm wondering what,
if anything, it did to you.

1059
01:02:27,700 --> 01:02:28,962
Did it affect your thinking?

1060
01:02:29,223 --> 01:02:30,834
Did it change
any of your perspectives?

1061
01:02:31,008 --> 01:02:32,444
Oh, certainly. Of course.

1062
01:02:32,618 --> 01:02:34,359
It helps you to find out
who your friends are.

1063
01:02:36,361 --> 01:02:38,537
Try sitting in a wheelchair
for nine months.

1064
01:02:38,711 --> 01:02:40,321
You'll find out
who your friends are.

1065
01:02:43,498 --> 01:02:44,978
The point that I was
in the hospital,

1066
01:02:45,239 --> 01:02:46,632
you have a bunch of guys

1067
01:02:46,850 --> 01:02:48,547
who earn their living
from touring.

1068
01:02:48,721 --> 01:02:50,114
And I was unable to tour
for the bulk of that year.

1069
01:02:50,679 --> 01:02:52,594
So, I'm used to being active
and traveling around

1070
01:02:52,769 --> 01:02:54,553
and having a good time.

1071
01:02:54,901 --> 01:02:57,512
And so, if you're sitting there
and you are an invalid

1072
01:02:57,774 --> 01:03:00,602
against your will, uh,
it does change your outlook

1073
01:03:00,777 --> 01:03:01,908
a little bit.

1074
01:03:32,330 --> 01:03:34,854
The nose
is the important part

1075
01:03:35,986 --> 01:03:38,597
when you're making
a Zappa head.

1076
01:03:39,946 --> 01:03:42,427
'Cause no one else
has one like it.

1077
01:03:45,691 --> 01:03:49,260
It doesn't have ears,
but that's because

1078
01:03:49,434 --> 01:03:52,263
they wouldn't be seen
once you get the hair on.

1079
01:03:55,005 --> 01:03:58,530
But the hair is actually
the... the simpler part

1080
01:03:58,704 --> 01:04:00,575
of this whole thing.

1081
01:04:01,228 --> 01:04:06,625
You can see here
how easily the hair goes on.

1082
01:04:11,108 --> 01:04:13,850
How did you find the animator, Bruce Bickford?

1083
01:04:14,241 --> 01:04:16,548
I was sitting here
with a broken leg,

1084
01:04:16,722 --> 01:04:18,463
and he climbed over my fence

1085
01:04:18,637 --> 01:04:20,813
with two reels of film
under his arm.

1086
01:04:21,335 --> 01:04:22,641
Now, this is tough
'cause the fence

1087
01:04:22,815 --> 01:04:25,470
used to be pretty high,
but he made it.

1088
01:04:28,255 --> 01:04:30,823
I hitchhiked
up to Laurel Canyon

1089
01:04:30,997 --> 01:04:33,043
and then found his house.

1090
01:04:35,001 --> 01:04:38,526
We looked at the stuff,
and he was impressed

1091
01:04:38,700 --> 01:04:41,529
by the number of figures
that I could sustain

1092
01:04:41,703 --> 01:04:44,141
in animation in one shot.

1093
01:04:45,882 --> 01:04:48,928
As far as I can tell,
he's the best ever.

1094
01:04:49,711 --> 01:04:51,539
And he wanted to know
if I could help him.

1095
01:04:51,713 --> 01:04:53,846
I was sitting in the basement, and here's this guy

1096
01:04:54,020 --> 01:04:55,152
with this footage.

1097
01:04:55,979 --> 01:04:57,719
And he's been on my payroll
ever since.

1098
01:05:00,853 --> 01:05:02,942
Motherfucker throws Frank
off the stage,

1099
01:05:03,116 --> 01:05:04,770
and whether Frank
likes it or not,

1100
01:05:04,944 --> 01:05:07,207
that's a huge marker
for a new phase.

1101
01:05:07,381 --> 01:05:08,992
He's got to convalesce.

1102
01:05:09,166 --> 01:05:10,950
And what do you do
if you're Frank Zappa

1103
01:05:11,124 --> 01:05:13,997
with that brain
and you can't move?

1104
01:05:14,171 --> 01:05:15,520
And you can't get up?

1105
01:05:15,868 --> 01:05:17,739
He's got a restless,
creative mind,

1106
01:05:17,914 --> 01:05:19,219
so he's going to start
creating.

1107
01:05:20,046 --> 01:05:22,135
Ladies and gentlemen,
I suppose you've noticed

1108
01:05:22,309 --> 01:05:23,702
that this is a clay forest,

1109
01:05:23,876 --> 01:05:25,312
and the forest has been
manufactured

1110
01:05:25,486 --> 01:05:26,705
for your edification

1111
01:05:26,879 --> 01:05:29,186
by none other
than Bruce Bickford.

1112
01:05:29,360 --> 01:05:31,405
Bruce, would you please tell us
what's going on

1113
01:05:31,579 --> 01:05:32,972
on this table over here?

1114
01:05:33,233 --> 01:05:35,801
Well, all you have to do
is just move it

1115
01:05:35,975 --> 01:05:37,585
a very slight amount.

1116
01:05:38,673 --> 01:05:40,371
And then you take the picture.

1117
01:05:40,588 --> 01:05:43,896
And you move it again.
And just keep going.

1118
01:05:44,070 --> 01:05:46,290
And you can pick up speed
after a while.

1119
01:05:46,464 --> 01:05:49,597
On making sure each time
that you get your fingers out

1120
01:05:49,771 --> 01:05:53,297
from in front of the lens
before you take the picture.

1121
01:05:54,037 --> 01:05:56,256
That's all you got to know.

1122
01:05:58,867 --> 01:06:01,958
Uh, at times, he...
he was stubborn.

1123
01:06:03,002 --> 01:06:04,612
We were gonna make a movie,

1124
01:06:04,786 --> 01:06:10,488
and all he could think about
was control. His control.

1125
01:06:11,837 --> 01:06:15,884
He had some emotions
that ran deep

1126
01:06:16,363 --> 01:06:18,626
that he wouldn't express.

1127
01:06:20,802 --> 01:06:25,764
Bunk: I just accepted everything
rather than questioning

1128
01:06:25,982 --> 01:06:28,114
why are you like you are?

1129
01:06:28,288 --> 01:06:31,204
But I could see the workaholic,

1130
01:06:31,813 --> 01:06:35,687
and that was where his joy
was coming from.

1131
01:06:37,297 --> 01:06:40,387
I think that Frank didn't,
like, express himself

1132
01:06:40,605 --> 01:06:43,564
as directly in terms
of his own emotions.

1133
01:06:44,826 --> 01:06:48,004
I don't think he saw that
as his purpose.

1134
01:06:50,180 --> 01:06:52,486
He had so much talent.

1135
01:06:53,009 --> 01:06:55,707
It defied everything.

1136
01:07:00,668 --> 01:07:03,889
When something cataclysmic
happens in your life,

1137
01:07:04,803 --> 01:07:07,066
there's any number of ways
you can deal with it.

1138
01:07:07,240 --> 01:07:08,937
You can just go,
"Oh, my god, why me?"

1139
01:07:09,155 --> 01:07:11,244
and be capsized.

1140
01:07:11,418 --> 01:07:14,813
Or you can say, "Well, I got no choice in the matter here.

1141
01:07:14,987 --> 01:07:16,597
Something has changed."

1142
01:07:16,902 --> 01:07:18,991
He's not going to continue
employing a group

1143
01:07:19,165 --> 01:07:20,688
while he's convalescing,

1144
01:07:20,862 --> 01:07:23,648
so that version
of the Mothers scatters,

1145
01:07:24,257 --> 01:07:25,650
starts doing their own things.

1146
01:07:25,824 --> 01:07:28,827
And as soon
as he's able to write,

1147
01:07:29,610 --> 01:07:32,004
wheel to the rehearsal studio, get some of the horn players
in there,

1148
01:07:32,178 --> 01:07:34,441
put the charts in front of him, hear what things sound like,

1149
01:07:34,963 --> 01:07:37,792
end up with a stack
of new compositions,

1150
01:07:37,966 --> 01:07:41,057
go out on the road,
surprise people yet again.

1151
01:07:42,232 --> 01:07:44,321
Let me tell you something.
Do you like monster movies?

1152
01:07:44,843 --> 01:07:46,062
Anybody?

1153
01:07:46,671 --> 01:07:49,326
I love monster movies.

1154
01:07:50,501 --> 01:07:53,895
I simply adore monster movies
and the cheaper they are,

1155
01:07:54,113 --> 01:07:56,420
the better they are.
All right?

1156
01:07:58,117 --> 01:07:59,814
And this is "Cheepnis" here.

1157
01:08:00,076 --> 01:08:01,773
One, two, three, four.

1158
01:08:39,463 --> 01:08:41,726
I want to tell you
one more time.

1159
01:08:42,292 --> 01:08:43,771
I want to thank you

1160
01:08:43,989 --> 01:08:45,860
because I really
appreciate this.

1161
01:09:05,097 --> 01:09:08,579
Thank you, thank you. Thank you.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.

1162
01:09:08,753 --> 01:09:11,973
Thank every one of you.
And good night.

1163
01:09:19,155 --> 01:09:22,419
Scott: I think at every point
in his life,

1164
01:09:22,593 --> 01:09:24,638
he was trying to do
the best thing

1165
01:09:24,986 --> 01:09:27,989
that he could
to have no regrets.

1166
01:09:28,903 --> 01:09:35,301
But what was Frank
honestly trying to do?

1167
01:09:35,867 --> 01:09:40,698
He didn't give a shit
about the immediate...

1168
01:09:41,046 --> 01:09:44,615
world of his-- of his
attempting to function

1169
01:09:44,789 --> 01:09:46,660
in the way that he chose
to function, which was

1170
01:09:46,834 --> 01:09:49,228
"If I'm alive,
I've got to be in the studio.

1171
01:09:49,402 --> 01:09:52,188
I've got to be
at the music paper."

1172
01:09:53,058 --> 01:09:54,364
My desires are simple.

1173
01:09:54,538 --> 01:09:55,887
All I want to do is get
a good performance

1174
01:09:56,061 --> 01:09:57,323
and a good recording

1175
01:09:57,715 --> 01:09:59,369
of everything that I ever wrote
so I can hear it.

1176
01:09:59,543 --> 01:10:00,848
And if anybody else
wants to hear it,

1177
01:10:01,022 --> 01:10:02,198
then that's great too.

1178
01:10:03,808 --> 01:10:05,853
Sounds easy,
but it's really hard to do.

1179
01:10:07,072 --> 01:10:09,988
Steve: Frank was a slave
to his inner ear.

1180
01:10:10,206 --> 01:10:12,164
So, he heard things
a particular way,

1181
01:10:12,338 --> 01:10:14,340
and then he tried to manifest them in the world,

1182
01:10:14,558 --> 01:10:15,950
but there were limitations.

1183
01:10:16,124 --> 01:10:18,997
And... there's financial
limitations to a degree

1184
01:10:19,171 --> 01:10:21,652
when you're dealing
with orchestra pieces.

1185
01:10:21,826 --> 01:10:24,437
And there's performance
limitations, you know?

1186
01:10:24,611 --> 01:10:27,875
You can just write something
that somebody can't play,
you know.

1187
01:10:28,311 --> 01:10:31,531
But the music needed to
resemble what he was hearing

1188
01:10:31,705 --> 01:10:33,011
in his head.

1189
01:10:33,707 --> 01:10:36,667
So, this led to a lot of... I think suffering on his part

1190
01:10:36,841 --> 01:10:39,191
due to the inadequacies
and limitations of others,

1191
01:10:39,365 --> 01:10:41,585
you know.
Sorry, Frank.

1192
01:10:44,327 --> 01:10:46,024
We rehearse all the time.

1193
01:10:46,894 --> 01:10:49,288
Every day before we play,
we rehearse.

1194
01:10:49,506 --> 01:10:51,116
We'll... we'll rehearse, uh,

1195
01:10:51,290 --> 01:10:54,337
before this tour,
we rehearsed for three weeks

1196
01:10:54,989 --> 01:10:58,297
four days a week,
five hours a day.

1197
01:10:58,950 --> 01:11:01,605
Steve: A lot of people think,
"Oh, he was very demanding."

1198
01:11:02,083 --> 01:11:03,824
No more demanding than anybody

1199
01:11:03,998 --> 01:11:06,218
that has a job
that they need to do.

1200
01:11:06,392 --> 01:11:10,048
But it would be really
difficult for a musician in
Frank's band

1201
01:11:10,222 --> 01:11:12,964
if he was asking you to do
things that you couldn't do.

1202
01:11:13,399 --> 01:11:15,271
But he always asked you
to do things

1203
01:11:15,445 --> 01:11:18,448
that he believed you can do,
but maybe you didn't.

1204
01:11:21,146 --> 01:11:24,323
"Black Page" was a piece
of music that Frank wrote.

1205
01:11:25,411 --> 01:11:28,980
It's probably, um,
at the foref...

1206
01:11:29,154 --> 01:11:30,590
forefront of innovation

1207
01:11:31,199 --> 01:11:34,507
in regard to
rhythmic polymetric notation.

1208
01:11:36,074 --> 01:11:39,164
No doubt. No doubt. Because
there's certain rhythmic

1209
01:11:39,338 --> 01:11:41,253
situations in that piece

1210
01:11:41,862 --> 01:11:44,865
that are extraordinarily
complex,

1211
01:11:45,344 --> 01:11:46,780
but the important thing

1212
01:11:46,998 --> 01:11:48,956
is it sounds like
a beautiful piece of music.

1213
01:11:49,130 --> 01:11:50,567
It's unique.

1214
01:11:50,871 --> 01:11:52,003
It's a comp-- and it's nothing
like anything else

1215
01:11:52,177 --> 01:11:54,832
in his catalog.
This is Frank, you know.

1216
01:11:55,006 --> 01:11:58,749
And so, the "Black Page"
is this piece of music

1217
01:11:58,923 --> 01:12:00,533
that was like this, um,

1218
01:12:00,707 --> 01:12:03,319
phenomenon to me
and to many others.

1219
01:12:19,160 --> 01:12:22,903
There was no doubt
that there was a person

1220
01:12:23,077 --> 01:12:26,864
who could write music,
fantastic music,

1221
01:12:27,081 --> 01:12:29,388
who cared
that it be played properly.

1222
01:12:31,390 --> 01:12:33,305
And what I'm hearing

1223
01:12:34,045 --> 01:12:36,264
was put on this earth for me.

1224
01:12:36,482 --> 01:12:37,614
It was for me.

1225
01:13:06,904 --> 01:13:08,427
That music is there

1226
01:13:09,907 --> 01:13:12,692
for as long as we have
any kind of, uh,

1227
01:13:12,866 --> 01:13:14,607
appreciation for the arts.

1228
01:13:15,695 --> 01:13:17,958
The music that Frank made
I think will last.

1229
01:13:27,141 --> 01:13:28,447
Producer: You guys
fucking nailed that.

1230
01:13:31,537 --> 01:13:33,278
Yeah. That was good.

1231
01:13:36,281 --> 01:13:38,805
Now that you are becoming a successful man

1232
01:13:38,979 --> 01:13:42,156
on-- in the music scene,
what consequences

1233
01:13:42,418 --> 01:13:44,071
could this probably have
for you?

1234
01:13:44,245 --> 01:13:45,682
I don't think about it.

1235
01:13:45,856 --> 01:13:47,074
A lot of times, the people...

1236
01:13:47,988 --> 01:13:50,034
like what you do
for the wrong reasons.

1237
01:13:51,514 --> 01:13:53,777
Live from New York,
it's Saturday Night.

1238
01:13:57,433 --> 01:13:59,609
No, I don't do drugs.

1239
01:13:59,783 --> 01:14:03,526
I just don't like the effects
it has on some people.

1240
01:14:06,398 --> 01:14:07,617
What do you mean, man?

1241
01:14:07,834 --> 01:14:09,227
What do you mean
you don't do drugs?

1242
01:14:09,401 --> 01:14:11,098
Frank Zappa doesn't do drugs?

1243
01:14:11,272 --> 01:14:12,360
I don't believe it.

1244
01:14:13,144 --> 01:14:14,319
Uh, well,
that was their idea

1245
01:14:14,493 --> 01:14:16,190
of something funny.

1246
01:14:16,452 --> 01:14:17,888
I think they actually did it
just to make fun of me,

1247
01:14:18,149 --> 01:14:19,411
you know, because you know

1248
01:14:19,585 --> 01:14:21,152
what their orientation
is all about.

1249
01:14:21,979 --> 01:14:24,242
You didn't get high
with the original Mothers?

1250
01:14:24,416 --> 01:14:26,157
- No.
- What about Freak Out!,man?

1251
01:14:26,374 --> 01:14:28,507
You mean, you were straight
when you wrote Freak Out!?

1252
01:14:28,725 --> 01:14:30,466
Oh my, God! Oh, my God!

1253
01:14:30,683 --> 01:14:35,253
Ah, wow, man,
that's such a mind blower.

1254
01:14:35,645 --> 01:14:38,648
I thought the whole skit
sucked myself, and, uh,

1255
01:14:38,822 --> 01:14:40,519
I was just stuck doing it.

1256
01:14:40,693 --> 01:14:42,565
They wouldn't let me
write anything for the show.

1257
01:14:42,782 --> 01:14:44,392
What is your function
on this planet?

1258
01:14:44,567 --> 01:14:46,612
I am a musician.

1259
01:14:46,917 --> 01:14:48,092
One, two, three, four.

1260
01:14:50,529 --> 01:14:54,359
Ladies and gentlemen.
Frank Zappa.

1261
01:15:36,401 --> 01:15:37,794
There was a part of him

1262
01:15:38,272 --> 01:15:39,665
that even though he had a lot of people's attention,

1263
01:15:39,883 --> 01:15:41,885
of feeling cynical
about the fact that,

1264
01:15:42,059 --> 01:15:43,539
yeah, all these people are... are looking,

1265
01:15:43,713 --> 01:15:45,149
but they don't know
what they're seeing.

1266
01:15:51,198 --> 01:15:53,331
Sometimes truth,
when you put truth up,

1267
01:15:53,505 --> 01:15:55,768
really quickly,
like "Here's the truth,"

1268
01:15:55,942 --> 01:15:59,250
uh, it's like, uh,
uh, um, daylight to a vampire.

1269
01:15:59,424 --> 01:16:00,730
You know what I'm saying?

1270
01:16:00,904 --> 01:16:02,732
Some people are used
to avoiding truth.

1271
01:16:02,993 --> 01:16:05,430
When someone puts it
right on the table,

1272
01:16:06,039 --> 01:16:07,824
don't bring that plate
out here again.

1273
01:16:08,041 --> 01:16:10,087
And don't play the music
that the guy that eats off

1274
01:16:10,304 --> 01:16:11,654
that plate on the radio.

1275
01:16:12,698 --> 01:16:14,613
He don't-- not only thinks,
he discerns.

1276
01:16:15,440 --> 01:16:18,225
We got to keep this guy
under check, you know?

1277
01:16:18,399 --> 01:16:19,531
'Cause he can't be out there.

1278
01:16:19,705 --> 01:16:21,707
And that's just my eyes
seeing it

1279
01:16:21,881 --> 01:16:23,753
as a Black man in America.

1280
01:16:24,057 --> 01:16:25,624
Anybody that comes
from the outside,

1281
01:16:25,798 --> 01:16:29,672
or so-called outside,
with ideas and new thoughts,

1282
01:16:30,324 --> 01:16:33,240
and you see this unknown hand
just go like this

1283
01:16:33,458 --> 01:16:34,677
and brush you aside.

1284
01:16:36,679 --> 01:16:38,419
In those days,
record companies

1285
01:16:38,594 --> 01:16:41,292
had a lot
more control over artists.

1286
01:16:41,858 --> 01:16:44,904
Typically, what a record company
would do is like sort of,

1287
01:16:45,122 --> 01:16:46,645
they would get it--
they were getting closer

1288
01:16:46,906 --> 01:16:49,430
and closer to 360 deals,
which means they own

1289
01:16:49,648 --> 01:16:51,824
all the parts of you
around your asshole

1290
01:16:52,085 --> 01:16:54,740
and everything else
that goes with.

1291
01:16:55,219 --> 01:16:57,177
So, Frank wanted to do
a box set.

1292
01:16:57,395 --> 01:17:00,180
They said, "No, nobody can do box sets. That's insane."

1293
01:17:00,398 --> 01:17:02,487
So then he took
the box set apart

1294
01:17:02,661 --> 01:17:04,445
and made four albums out of it.

1295
01:17:04,620 --> 01:17:06,491
He went over to Warner's,
and he just handed them over

1296
01:17:06,665 --> 01:17:08,624
and said, "Okay,
we're-- I'm done.

1297
01:17:08,841 --> 01:17:10,974
That's the end of my contract.
Here's your four albums."

1298
01:17:11,670 --> 01:17:16,414
And that changed everything
from that point on.

1299
01:17:16,632 --> 01:17:19,286
But more than that,
he's the first artist to go

1300
01:17:19,504 --> 01:17:20,853
completely independent.

1301
01:17:21,375 --> 01:17:22,855
You know,
we set up our own label.

1302
01:17:23,769 --> 01:17:27,207
As Frank and Gail get into the Zappa Records phase,

1303
01:17:27,381 --> 01:17:29,601
and you know, one of the first
albums that come out,

1304
01:17:29,949 --> 01:17:33,431
Sheik Yerbouti, which
is a very successful album.

1305
01:17:33,605 --> 01:17:36,434
And it's got crowd-pleasing,
really filthy shit on it.

1306
01:17:36,695 --> 01:17:39,393
But-- you get into the subject matter on that record,

1307
01:17:39,567 --> 01:17:42,353
and it's still dark. He's still in that dark place.

1308
01:17:42,614 --> 01:17:44,268
Almost every song on
that record

1309
01:17:44,442 --> 01:17:47,271
is just like attacking
a specific group of people.

1310
01:18:24,482 --> 01:18:28,921
You always were a renegade
against the music business.
Why?

1311
01:18:29,139 --> 01:18:30,793
Because most of what the music business does

1312
01:18:30,967 --> 01:18:32,490
is not musical.

1313
01:18:32,882 --> 01:18:33,883
How many lawsuits
do you have out now, Frank?

1314
01:18:34,057 --> 01:18:35,623
Probably about nine.

1315
01:18:35,972 --> 01:18:37,451
Nine lawsuits against
some of the most famous

1316
01:18:37,713 --> 01:18:39,323
record companies
in Los Angeles.

1317
01:18:39,627 --> 01:18:40,890
That's true.

1318
01:18:41,238 --> 01:18:42,456
What do you think
is the reason

1319
01:18:42,674 --> 01:18:44,197
that Warner Brothers
didn't pay you?

1320
01:18:44,763 --> 01:18:46,634
They're a bunch of assholes,
of course.

1321
01:18:49,812 --> 01:18:52,466
Steve: Besides the incredible freedom

1322
01:18:52,640 --> 01:18:54,991
of his creative perspectives,

1323
01:18:55,731 --> 01:18:58,864
his business perspectives
were very independent.

1324
01:18:59,212 --> 01:19:00,736
I mean,
he started his own label

1325
01:19:01,432 --> 01:19:04,827
back in the day
when this was relatively new

1326
01:19:05,001 --> 01:19:06,916
and he was sort of
at the forefront in a sense,

1327
01:19:07,090 --> 01:19:09,222
and that was very vital
to their, you know,

1328
01:19:09,527 --> 01:19:11,094
organization and their income.

1329
01:19:12,617 --> 01:19:16,839
By 1982, we had started
a small mail-order company,

1330
01:19:17,056 --> 01:19:18,492
and we did, like,

1331
01:19:18,666 --> 01:19:20,277
a million dollars' worth
of sales.

1332
01:19:20,886 --> 01:19:23,497
For us, that was good business because you only had to sell

1333
01:19:23,671 --> 01:19:25,717
a quarter as many records
really to make

1334
01:19:25,935 --> 01:19:27,414
the same amount of profit.

1335
01:19:27,632 --> 01:19:29,286
This is where all the fan mail
comes in.

1336
01:19:29,460 --> 01:19:31,201
This is where I read it,
and if you don't believe me,

1337
01:19:31,418 --> 01:19:33,420
look around you. There's boxes,
and I read everything.

1338
01:19:36,336 --> 01:19:38,121
In retrospect, people think you're a genius.

1339
01:19:38,295 --> 01:19:40,950
But while it's happening,
you're just,

1340
01:19:41,602 --> 01:19:43,082
"Okay, now what?"

1341
01:19:43,561 --> 01:19:46,869
And it's just an-- an idea
comes to you,

1342
01:19:47,043 --> 01:19:48,522
and then you go for it.

1343
01:19:50,481 --> 01:19:51,395
Good evening.

1344
01:19:52,004 --> 01:19:54,615
I'm here tonight
to announce my intention

1345
01:19:54,833 --> 01:19:56,487
to seek
the Republican nomination

1346
01:19:56,661 --> 01:19:58,402
for President
of the United States.

1347
01:19:58,619 --> 01:20:00,273
With the onset of Reaganism

1348
01:20:00,447 --> 01:20:02,014
and what was happening
in the country at that time,

1349
01:20:02,188 --> 01:20:04,364
in some ways, I think
that drew Frank out

1350
01:20:04,538 --> 01:20:07,019
of the more solipsistic
darkness

1351
01:20:07,237 --> 01:20:09,413
of what was happening
in his career.

1352
01:20:10,153 --> 01:20:11,981
This is the dawning
of the dark ages again

1353
01:20:12,242 --> 01:20:13,547
as far as I'm concerned.

1354
01:20:14,070 --> 01:20:16,072
Never have the arts been
in such bad shape

1355
01:20:16,289 --> 01:20:17,508
in the United States.

1356
01:20:20,119 --> 01:20:25,081
This is
the Central Scrutinizer.

1357
01:20:26,038 --> 01:20:27,735
As you can see,

1358
01:20:27,953 --> 01:20:32,044
music can get you
pretty fucked up.

1359
01:20:33,916 --> 01:20:38,311
Take a tip from Joe,
and get a good job.

1360
01:20:42,838 --> 01:20:46,580
The business of music
is all about this fake list

1361
01:20:46,754 --> 01:20:49,366
of who sold what.

1362
01:20:50,497 --> 01:20:54,023
The whole idea of selling
large numbers of items

1363
01:20:54,197 --> 01:20:56,329
in order
to determine quality to it

1364
01:20:56,503 --> 01:20:58,549
is what's really repulsive
about it.

1365
01:21:00,986 --> 01:21:03,162
MTV's Top 20
Video Countdown is sponsored

1366
01:21:03,336 --> 01:21:05,730
by Burger King
and by Three Musketeers.

1367
01:21:09,386 --> 01:21:10,648
The record industry decided

1368
01:21:10,822 --> 01:21:12,650
this is the wave of the future.

1369
01:21:13,346 --> 01:21:16,523
And they started signing
only groups who look good.

1370
01:21:17,133 --> 01:21:21,093
And the whole idea
was making picture music.

1371
01:21:22,573 --> 01:21:25,750
When the music business
was still sort of about

1372
01:21:25,924 --> 01:21:27,534
recording songs,

1373
01:21:27,708 --> 01:21:29,406
you could have a hit record

1374
01:21:29,623 --> 01:21:33,236
if it caught on in one
of 10,000

1375
01:21:33,410 --> 01:21:35,325
different radio stations
in America.

1376
01:21:36,326 --> 01:21:40,591
Now, instead of having 10,000 chances to make a hit,

1377
01:21:41,635 --> 01:21:43,159
you got one.

1378
01:21:43,724 --> 01:21:45,988
That's one small step for man,

1379
01:21:47,641 --> 01:21:50,427
one giant leap for mankind.

1380
01:22:12,666 --> 01:22:15,756
Steve: Even in the most ugliest
chord he ever wrote,

1381
01:22:16,540 --> 01:22:19,238
there's always a ray of hope
in there, you know.

1382
01:22:21,284 --> 01:22:24,940
As an entertainer,
I'm responsible for delivering

1383
01:22:25,114 --> 01:22:27,812
the best of what I can do
to the audience

1384
01:22:27,986 --> 01:22:29,640
that has bought a ticket
to see it

1385
01:22:29,814 --> 01:22:31,424
or buys a record to hear it.

1386
01:22:31,642 --> 01:22:32,817
And what about your friends?

1387
01:22:32,991 --> 01:22:34,688
Your neighbors? Your family?

1388
01:22:34,950 --> 01:22:36,473
Well,
I don't have any friends.

1389
01:22:36,690 --> 01:22:39,128
I have a wonderful wife
and four children.

1390
01:22:39,345 --> 01:22:40,825
I like them.
They're my friends.

1391
01:22:40,999 --> 01:22:42,087
So, your wife is your friend?

1392
01:22:42,261 --> 01:22:43,262
Right.

1393
01:22:43,784 --> 01:22:46,352
When you're not working,
do you just sort of

1394
01:22:46,874 --> 01:22:48,702
cut yourself off
from the rest of the world

1395
01:22:48,876 --> 01:22:51,096
and you're with your family?

1396
01:22:51,270 --> 01:22:52,924
Well, when
I'm not touring, I'm at home.

1397
01:22:53,098 --> 01:22:55,535
I have a studio in my house.
I do my recording there.

1398
01:22:55,709 --> 01:22:57,885
And when I'm done
doing that part of my work,

1399
01:22:58,060 --> 01:23:00,018
I go off on the road
and travel around

1400
01:23:00,192 --> 01:23:01,367
and do this kind of stuff.

1401
01:23:04,849 --> 01:23:06,416
They're here.

1402
01:23:11,899 --> 01:23:14,250
It's coming at you.

1403
01:23:47,674 --> 01:23:50,025
The kids didn't get
to see that much of him.

1404
01:23:50,982 --> 01:23:52,505
Just the way it goes.

1405
01:23:52,723 --> 01:23:55,508
He was on a mission,
and he was going to accomplish

1406
01:23:55,682 --> 01:23:57,119
that mission no matter what.

1407
01:23:58,120 --> 01:23:59,599
Well, the sweet thing
about "Valley Girl"

1408
01:23:59,773 --> 01:24:01,340
is that it was Frank and Moon in the studio.

1409
01:24:01,558 --> 01:24:02,950
Them, you know, connecting.

1410
01:24:03,125 --> 01:24:05,170
Undoubtedly having
a good time

1411
01:24:05,388 --> 01:24:08,565
even though it was the result
of Moon, you know,

1412
01:24:08,739 --> 01:24:11,220
putting a note under, you know,
Frank's studio door, saying,

1413
01:24:11,394 --> 01:24:13,874
"Hi, my name's Moon.
I live in the same house as you.

1414
01:24:14,745 --> 01:24:16,877
Uh, j-- just in case
you're-- you're interested,

1415
01:24:17,139 --> 01:24:18,575
I do this Valley Girl voice."

1416
01:24:22,318 --> 01:24:24,102
It was nearly 15 years ago

1417
01:24:24,276 --> 01:24:26,061
when the Beach Boys
brought national attention

1418
01:24:26,235 --> 01:24:27,758
to California girls.

1419
01:24:27,932 --> 01:24:30,108
These days, another kind
of California girl

1420
01:24:30,369 --> 01:24:32,371
is being immortalized on record.

1421
01:24:32,763 --> 01:24:34,243
There's a song
getting heavy airplay

1422
01:24:34,417 --> 01:24:36,506
on Southern California
rock stations

1423
01:24:36,680 --> 01:24:38,160
called "Valley Girl."

1424
01:24:51,260 --> 01:24:53,262
Hi. You're probably wondering
what we're doing right now.

1425
01:24:53,436 --> 01:24:55,568
Well, you see,
we have this problem.

1426
01:24:55,742 --> 01:24:57,222
We have this record
called "Valley Girl,"

1427
01:24:57,396 --> 01:24:58,832
and all these assholes
keep calling up

1428
01:24:59,006 --> 01:25:00,834
and asking for interviews
and photographs.

1429
01:25:01,008 --> 01:25:02,401
So, in the middle of the night,

1430
01:25:02,619 --> 01:25:05,448
we have to sit on the roof
and stand out here

1431
01:25:05,622 --> 01:25:07,276
and move around
and do dumb things

1432
01:25:07,450 --> 01:25:10,322
so that the world's
most famous photographer,

1433
01:25:10,496 --> 01:25:14,065
Norman Seeff, can take pictures
of this crap for Lifemagazine.

1434
01:25:14,239 --> 01:25:15,849
That's what we're doing here.

1435
01:25:20,767 --> 01:25:22,769
"Valley Girl"
was a very unusual accident

1436
01:25:22,943 --> 01:25:24,336
in the US.

1437
01:25:24,728 --> 01:25:27,774
We were a small label
distributed through CBS.

1438
01:25:28,035 --> 01:25:29,602
Nobody at CBS had any idea

1439
01:25:29,776 --> 01:25:32,083
that that thing would catch on the way it did.

1440
01:25:32,779 --> 01:25:35,434
The way it happened
was my daughter took

1441
01:25:35,608 --> 01:25:37,915
an acetate of "Valley Girl"
to a station in Pasadena

1442
01:25:38,176 --> 01:25:40,483
called KROQ, and as soon as they played it,

1443
01:25:40,657 --> 01:25:43,094
the phone started ringing, and it became an instant hit.

1444
01:25:43,268 --> 01:25:44,574
People loved it right away.

1445
01:25:44,835 --> 01:25:46,489
Like, oh, my God.

1446
01:25:47,098 --> 01:25:48,969
Meanwhile,
I'm in Europe on a tour.

1447
01:25:49,144 --> 01:25:51,450
I don't even know
I've got a hit record.

1448
01:25:51,885 --> 01:25:55,019
In 1982, you couldn't walk
around in the United States

1449
01:25:55,193 --> 01:25:57,369
without hearing something about "Valley Girl."

1450
01:25:57,717 --> 01:25:59,284
Next on Channel Five,
it's awesome

1451
01:25:59,458 --> 01:26:00,677
'cause we're going to, like,

1452
01:26:00,851 --> 01:26:02,113
crank with the whole
Zappa family.

1453
01:26:02,287 --> 01:26:03,506
For sure.
Totally on evening news...

1454
01:26:03,680 --> 01:26:04,898
And that was his first big hit.

1455
01:26:05,290 --> 01:26:06,639
His only big hit.

1456
01:26:08,119 --> 01:26:11,862
But it really came out of Moon

1457
01:26:12,341 --> 01:26:14,125
wanting to spend time
with her dad.

1458
01:26:16,910 --> 01:26:18,564
What's happening
in the future now?

1459
01:26:18,738 --> 01:26:20,175
Have you-- Are you planning
a follow-up right away

1460
01:26:20,349 --> 01:26:22,046
to cash in on the, uh,

1461
01:26:22,264 --> 01:26:23,613
the audience's receptivity,
or...

1462
01:26:23,787 --> 01:26:25,354
No. As a matter of fact,
the next thing

1463
01:26:25,528 --> 01:26:28,618
that I'm going to do is go out
to, um, Cal-Arts tonight

1464
01:26:28,835 --> 01:26:31,011
and hear a couple of piano
players give a performance

1465
01:26:31,273 --> 01:26:33,971
of some of my orchestra music.

1466
01:26:40,847 --> 01:26:44,634
So, there's "Valley Girl." A success, mainstream success.

1467
01:26:44,808 --> 01:26:47,680
But to Frank, it's like,
"Okay, what can I do now?

1468
01:26:47,854 --> 01:26:49,116
I've got people's attention."

1469
01:26:49,334 --> 01:26:52,032
One. Two. Three.

1470
01:26:56,776 --> 01:26:58,648
From everything I'd heard,

1471
01:26:58,822 --> 01:27:00,998
and heard about Zappa,

1472
01:27:01,868 --> 01:27:05,655
it just seemed like
he should write for Kronos.

1473
01:27:05,916 --> 01:27:08,005
Yeah.
So, if we can play those longer,

1474
01:27:08,179 --> 01:27:09,659
I think that will be
more effective.

1475
01:27:09,833 --> 01:27:11,530
How l-- uh, what length?

1476
01:27:11,704 --> 01:27:13,967
Hank: I have a quarter note
tie into...

1477
01:27:14,141 --> 01:27:16,535
- Oh, I see.
- It's very strange sheet music.

1478
01:27:16,709 --> 01:27:19,016
I think the first time we spoke

1479
01:27:19,190 --> 01:27:20,757
was after a concert.

1480
01:27:21,323 --> 01:27:25,240
I'm thinking '82, '83.

1481
01:27:25,588 --> 01:27:28,373
Shortly after that
is when he began to write,

1482
01:27:29,635 --> 01:27:31,507
uh, the new piece for us.

1483
01:28:04,235 --> 01:28:08,500
I always appreciated the fact
that he taught himself.

1484
01:28:09,414 --> 01:28:11,155
He went to the library
as a kid,

1485
01:28:11,329 --> 01:28:14,201
and he just checked out books
and stayed there and learned.

1486
01:28:14,376 --> 01:28:16,900
For me, that's been a big inspiration.

1487
01:28:17,857 --> 01:28:19,685
When I think
of Zappa's life's work,

1488
01:28:20,077 --> 01:28:23,036
I'm reminded of Charles Ives,

1489
01:28:23,210 --> 01:28:25,561
Harry Partch, Sun Ra.

1490
01:28:26,170 --> 01:28:28,955
These are American
experimentalists

1491
01:28:29,129 --> 01:28:32,132
that totally reimagined
the way music

1492
01:28:32,307 --> 01:28:34,918
might be heard,
might be composed.

1493
01:28:36,311 --> 01:28:38,922
And Zappa belongs
in that tradition.

1494
01:29:37,676 --> 01:29:39,069
I still write orchestra music.

1495
01:29:39,243 --> 01:29:40,505
But, you know,
nobody will ever hear it.

1496
01:29:42,028 --> 01:29:43,029
You sure?

1497
01:29:43,203 --> 01:29:45,249
Well, I don't wanna say never,

1498
01:29:45,423 --> 01:29:47,643
but, uh, the chances
of the music being played

1499
01:29:47,817 --> 01:29:51,037
are not very good because every
time we start negotiating

1500
01:29:51,211 --> 01:29:53,039
with somebody about having
a performance of it,

1501
01:29:53,213 --> 01:29:55,390
all these problems arise,
and it always comes down

1502
01:29:55,564 --> 01:29:58,044
to how much money they're
willing to spend to do it.

1503
01:29:58,218 --> 01:30:00,873
Because it-- we've had some
offers from orchestras who say,

1504
01:30:01,047 --> 01:30:02,309
"Yeah, we'd love to play it,

1505
01:30:02,484 --> 01:30:03,963
but we'll give you two
rehearsals."

1506
01:30:04,137 --> 01:30:05,878
And it's impossible to play it
in two rehearsals.

1507
01:30:06,052 --> 01:30:07,358
You just can't do it.

1508
01:30:07,532 --> 01:30:08,925
And I would rather not have
it played

1509
01:30:09,099 --> 01:30:11,449
than to have somebody
play it wrong.

1510
01:30:11,667 --> 01:30:13,799
Reporter: Tomorrow night, the London Symphony Orchestra

1511
01:30:13,973 --> 01:30:16,454
are giving a concert at their
home at the Barbican Centre.

1512
01:30:17,194 --> 01:30:19,109
The program of orchestral music they'll be playing

1513
01:30:19,283 --> 01:30:21,241
is music written
by the celebrated

1514
01:30:21,416 --> 01:30:23,156
American rock star
Frank Zappa.

1515
01:30:23,635 --> 01:30:25,898
Robin Denselow has been looking at the least known

1516
01:30:26,072 --> 01:30:28,684
and the least commercial side of Zappa's art.

1517
01:30:29,249 --> 01:30:31,774
Robin: Frank Zappa has been
quietly writing pieces

1518
01:30:31,948 --> 01:30:35,342
for a full orchestra alongside his rock work for years.

1519
01:30:35,604 --> 01:30:37,170
For their first
ever performance,

1520
01:30:37,344 --> 01:30:39,434
he's using the London
Symphony Orchestra.

1521
01:30:39,608 --> 01:30:43,133
The conductor, Kent Nagano,
was chosen by Zappa.

1522
01:30:43,307 --> 01:30:45,701
Do you expect
to actually make any money

1523
01:30:45,875 --> 01:30:47,572
out of the concert
and the recordings

1524
01:30:47,746 --> 01:30:48,921
that you've come here to make

1525
01:30:49,139 --> 01:30:50,575
- with the LSO?
- No. No.

1526
01:30:50,749 --> 01:30:52,316
Why then do you do it?

1527
01:30:52,534 --> 01:30:55,493
Well, I think that any artistic
decision that is based on

1528
01:30:55,667 --> 01:30:57,756
whether or not you're going
to make money is not really

1529
01:30:57,930 --> 01:31:00,977
an artistic decision.
It's a business decision.

1530
01:31:01,630 --> 01:31:03,762
And there are a lot of things
that I can do

1531
01:31:03,936 --> 01:31:05,285
to earn a living

1532
01:31:05,460 --> 01:31:07,026
and a lot of things that I have
already done

1533
01:31:07,200 --> 01:31:09,333
to earn a living,
which have produced the amount

1534
01:31:09,507 --> 01:31:11,944
of, uh, capital needed
to do this project.

1535
01:31:12,118 --> 01:31:15,382
I came here to spend money
on an English orchestra

1536
01:31:15,557 --> 01:31:18,081
to record my music
so I can take it home

1537
01:31:18,255 --> 01:31:19,865
and I can listen to it.

1538
01:31:20,039 --> 01:31:22,912
And if somebody else likes
that kind of stuff,

1539
01:31:23,086 --> 01:31:24,783
I will make it available
on a record

1540
01:31:24,957 --> 01:31:26,742
so that they can hear it.

1541
01:31:26,916 --> 01:31:29,484
That is my part of the public
service of spending the money

1542
01:31:29,658 --> 01:31:31,355
to make this event happen.

1543
01:31:31,529 --> 01:31:33,183
No foundation grant,

1544
01:31:33,357 --> 01:31:35,011
no government assistance,

1545
01:31:35,185 --> 01:31:36,578
no corporation,

1546
01:31:36,752 --> 01:31:38,014
no committee.

1547
01:31:38,188 --> 01:31:41,191
Just a crazy guy
who spent the money

1548
01:31:41,365 --> 01:31:45,369
to hire English musicians
to do a concert at the Barbican

1549
01:31:45,543 --> 01:31:48,764
and make an album
for Barking Pumpkin Records.

1550
01:31:49,155 --> 01:31:52,245
How do you get the London
Symphony Orchestra

1551
01:31:52,419 --> 01:31:53,333
to do your stuff?

1552
01:31:53,508 --> 01:31:55,771
- You pay them.
- Yeah.

1553
01:31:56,119 --> 01:31:58,556
But isn't this a really
prestigious organization?

1554
01:31:58,730 --> 01:31:59,862
Of course.

1555
01:32:00,079 --> 01:32:01,298
So, you pay them a lot
of money.

1556
01:32:01,472 --> 01:32:03,169
- Yeah.

1557
01:32:03,343 --> 01:32:06,433
It's just as serious to write
a song like "Valley Girl"

1558
01:32:07,217 --> 01:32:10,437
as it is to write the ballet
called Mo 'N Herb's Vacation.

1559
01:32:10,612 --> 01:32:13,571
To me, they're equally
serious problems in music.

1560
01:32:15,965 --> 01:32:18,228
Unless they have sufficient time to rehearse it,

1561
01:32:18,402 --> 01:32:20,273
the chances of an absolutely
perfect performance

1562
01:32:20,447 --> 01:32:21,884
are not good.

1563
01:32:22,232 --> 01:32:23,886
Now, uh,
how close did you get?

1564
01:32:24,060 --> 01:32:26,541
I would say that we're up
to about 75% on this record.

1565
01:32:26,715 --> 01:32:29,805
Conductor: So, you could you
take a look, please, at 159?

1566
01:32:31,589 --> 01:32:34,984
Robot: The inhabitants here
do not have the intelligence

1567
01:32:35,158 --> 01:32:37,160
to be utilized anymore.

1568
01:32:37,813 --> 01:32:39,815
So, man built me.

1569
01:32:40,946 --> 01:32:42,687
Human beings are expensive.

1570
01:32:43,383 --> 01:32:46,778
If given the choice between not making music at all

1571
01:32:46,952 --> 01:32:49,781
or making music in a medium
that a person can afford,

1572
01:32:49,955 --> 01:32:52,392
I will make music in a medium I can afford.

1573
01:32:53,132 --> 01:32:55,091
Ergo, the machine.

1574
01:32:57,310 --> 01:33:00,357
I had bought the Synclavier
and started doing

1575
01:33:00,531 --> 01:33:02,620
all the composition
in that medium

1576
01:33:02,794 --> 01:33:04,796
because you can write it
the way you want,

1577
01:33:04,970 --> 01:33:06,842
and you get to conduct it also.

1578
01:33:07,016 --> 01:33:10,236
Even have it executed at any speed or any amplitude.

1579
01:33:10,410 --> 01:33:12,978
You can control all the nuances
of the performance.

1580
01:33:13,849 --> 01:33:15,502
I would rather do it myself

1581
01:33:15,677 --> 01:33:17,853
than give it to somebody else to do.

1582
01:33:33,433 --> 01:33:34,739
Okay, Ahmet.

1583
01:33:35,914 --> 01:33:39,048
Stop the game, and I want to--
and have him get some

1584
01:33:39,222 --> 01:33:40,615
pictures of you with the clay.

1585
01:33:41,267 --> 01:33:43,530
I don't have any clay.
Thanks.

1586
01:33:43,705 --> 01:33:45,532
There's 1,000 pounds of it
around here someplace.

1587
01:33:45,707 --> 01:33:47,665
There's 1,000 pounds
right behind you, Ahmet.

1588
01:33:47,839 --> 01:33:49,101
Don't lie.

1589
01:33:58,110 --> 01:33:59,329
What do you want me to build?

1590
01:33:59,503 --> 01:34:00,591
Whatever you want.

1591
01:34:19,305 --> 01:34:21,917
It's not easy
to keep converting capital

1592
01:34:22,091 --> 01:34:24,876
from doing other things
and to reinvesting in it

1593
01:34:25,050 --> 01:34:26,922
to doing that kind of stuff
because there's no way

1594
01:34:27,096 --> 01:34:28,837
that the music
that I'm working on

1595
01:34:29,011 --> 01:34:30,752
is gonna pay its own way.

1596
01:34:33,580 --> 01:34:35,582
But I would rather do it
this way than to rely on

1597
01:34:35,887 --> 01:34:39,282
a government or to rely on,
uh, you know,

1598
01:34:39,456 --> 01:34:41,545
a king or a duke or somebody
who, you know,

1599
01:34:41,719 --> 01:34:43,765
wants to take drastic action
if he doesn't approve

1600
01:34:43,939 --> 01:34:45,201
of your work of art.

1601
01:34:45,549 --> 01:34:46,898
You know, forget that.

1602
01:34:47,986 --> 01:34:50,859
Do you still think that
music students in universities

1603
01:34:51,033 --> 01:34:53,383
are studying a dead language
in a dead institution

1604
01:34:53,557 --> 01:34:56,299
by dead professors,
and would you explain why?

1605
01:34:57,866 --> 01:34:59,389
Well, yes.

1606
01:35:02,479 --> 01:35:05,612
Because a lot of times, uh,
composers will come to me,

1607
01:35:05,787 --> 01:35:07,832
and they'll say,
"Well, what do I do?"

1608
01:35:08,006 --> 01:35:09,704
And I tell them,
"Get a real estate license

1609
01:35:09,878 --> 01:35:12,837
because if you expect to write
music in the United States,

1610
01:35:13,011 --> 01:35:14,883
what are you gonna do
for a living?"

1611
01:35:15,448 --> 01:35:17,842
If you want to be a composer
in the United States,

1612
01:35:18,016 --> 01:35:20,192
you must write for the media.

1613
01:35:20,366 --> 01:35:22,238
You can't just write music
because you're writing music.

1614
01:35:22,412 --> 01:35:24,414
You have to have some other
kind of a job

1615
01:35:24,588 --> 01:35:25,937
to support your habit.

1616
01:35:26,111 --> 01:35:29,549
And, uh, it's a sad story,
but it's true.

1617
01:36:14,594 --> 01:36:17,249
This is ABC NewsNightline.

1618
01:36:17,641 --> 01:36:20,383
Reporting from Washington,
Ted Koppel.

1619
01:36:20,557 --> 01:36:22,167
A lot of people,
and they are becoming

1620
01:36:22,341 --> 01:36:23,647
increasingly vocal,

1621
01:36:23,821 --> 01:36:26,215
find the songs
and the rock video performances

1622
01:36:26,389 --> 01:36:28,304
that go with them offensive.

1623
01:36:28,478 --> 01:36:30,436
Reporter: One group of parents
has heard more than enough.

1624
01:36:30,610 --> 01:36:32,177
The Parents Music
Resource Center

1625
01:36:32,351 --> 01:36:34,397
wants a labelling system
for albums and tapes,

1626
01:36:34,571 --> 01:36:36,399
much like movies
are rated today.

1627
01:36:36,573 --> 01:36:38,140
Later this month,
a Senate committee

1628
01:36:38,314 --> 01:36:39,576
will hold hearings
on the question.

1629
01:36:39,750 --> 01:36:41,534
A tribute to the clout
of the center,

1630
01:36:41,708 --> 01:36:43,493
whose members include
Susan Baker,

1631
01:36:43,667 --> 01:36:45,582
wife of Treasury Secretary
James Baker.

1632
01:36:45,756 --> 01:36:47,627
Susan: "Guess you could say she
was a sex fiend.

1633
01:36:47,802 --> 01:36:50,674
I met her in a hotel lobby,
masturbating with a magazine."

1634
01:36:51,022 --> 01:36:52,763
Reporter: Frank Zappa is one
of the few rock artists

1635
01:36:52,937 --> 01:36:54,983
to come out openly
against the labeling effort.

1636
01:36:55,157 --> 01:36:57,072
I mean,
if it looks like censorship

1637
01:36:57,246 --> 01:36:59,204
and it smells like censorship,
it is censorship

1638
01:36:59,378 --> 01:37:01,119
no matter whose wife
is talking about it.

1639
01:37:01,293 --> 01:37:02,425
It's censorship.

1640
01:37:02,642 --> 01:37:04,340
The analogy you draw is a...

1641
01:37:04,644 --> 01:37:07,169
Frank was being called
upon by Ted Koppel and CNN

1642
01:37:07,343 --> 01:37:08,692
and Larry King

1643
01:37:08,866 --> 01:37:10,650
and a lot of mainstream
news outlets

1644
01:37:10,825 --> 01:37:12,696
to come on and talk
about this stuff.

1645
01:37:13,175 --> 01:37:15,612
Well, he had cleaned up his act sartorially so much

1646
01:37:15,786 --> 01:37:18,658
that he was no longer visually the freak from the '60s.

1647
01:37:18,833 --> 01:37:21,618
He was somebody that understood that "If I'm gonna do battle

1648
01:37:21,792 --> 01:37:23,446
with these people,
I need to like, uh,

1649
01:37:23,620 --> 01:37:25,100
come to them on their turf."

1650
01:37:25,274 --> 01:37:26,753
And they're taking a right
away from him.

1651
01:37:26,928 --> 01:37:30,148
Frank became
the go-to person for comments

1652
01:37:30,322 --> 01:37:32,411
to deal with record rating
because nobody else

1653
01:37:32,585 --> 01:37:34,326
in the record industry
showed up.

1654
01:37:34,849 --> 01:37:36,633
I think that they're probably
concerned about airplay,

1655
01:37:36,807 --> 01:37:38,504
and they're probably concerned
about their careers,

1656
01:37:38,678 --> 01:37:40,593
and they're probably concerned
about, uh, you know,

1657
01:37:40,767 --> 01:37:42,160
taking a chance and opening
their mouth.

1658
01:37:42,334 --> 01:37:44,075
But I don't speak for them.

1659
01:37:44,249 --> 01:37:46,077
I don't speak for the rest
of the record industry.

1660
01:37:46,251 --> 01:37:48,471
I speak as a private citizen,

1661
01:37:48,645 --> 01:37:52,518
as a middle-aged Italian
father of four.

1662
01:37:52,692 --> 01:37:55,434
I got concerns here
about what's gonna happen

1663
01:37:55,608 --> 01:37:58,568
to the right to have free speech
and right to assemble

1664
01:37:58,742 --> 01:38:00,831
and the right to have somebody
use your own words

1665
01:38:01,005 --> 01:38:03,399
against you
in a legal situation.

1666
01:38:03,790 --> 01:38:05,880
And nobody is sticking
their neck out to say

1667
01:38:06,054 --> 01:38:07,577
that it's all a bunch of crap.

1668
01:38:09,231 --> 01:38:11,581
Mr. Zappa, thank you very much
for being with us.

1669
01:38:11,973 --> 01:38:13,191
Please proceed.

1670
01:38:14,062 --> 01:38:17,630
I've got an idea for a way
to stop all this stuff

1671
01:38:17,804 --> 01:38:21,069
and a way to give parents
what they really want,

1672
01:38:21,243 --> 01:38:23,680
which is information,
accurate information,

1673
01:38:23,854 --> 01:38:25,856
as to what is inside
the album.

1674
01:38:26,552 --> 01:38:30,165
I have no objection
to having all of the lyrics

1675
01:38:30,861 --> 01:38:35,083
placed on the album
routinely all the time.

1676
01:38:35,692 --> 01:38:38,260
I think your suggestion is, uh,
is an intriguing one

1677
01:38:38,434 --> 01:38:39,957
and might really be a solution.

1678
01:38:40,218 --> 01:38:42,133
I think your suggestion
is a good one

1679
01:38:42,307 --> 01:38:43,743
that they print those words.

1680
01:38:44,179 --> 01:38:45,528
That would go a long way

1681
01:38:45,702 --> 01:38:47,486
to satisfying
everyone's objection.

1682
01:38:47,660 --> 01:38:49,445
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Hawkins.

1683
01:38:50,489 --> 01:38:52,056
Frank would say
it was a failure

1684
01:38:52,230 --> 01:38:54,102
because it still ended up with the Parental Advisory sticker

1685
01:38:54,276 --> 01:38:55,799
on the thing.

1686
01:38:55,973 --> 01:38:57,757
But I think he made
a difference there.

1687
01:38:58,019 --> 01:39:00,369
There were times
that I wished that he could

1688
01:39:00,543 --> 01:39:02,371
modulate his approach
a little bit

1689
01:39:02,545 --> 01:39:04,068
with a little bit less anger.

1690
01:39:04,242 --> 01:39:06,114
Sex equals sin.

1691
01:39:06,288 --> 01:39:09,247
But that anger resulted
in some wonderful moments

1692
01:39:09,421 --> 01:39:11,380
like theCrossfire
with James Lofton.

1693
01:39:11,554 --> 01:39:13,077
Do you think
the founding fathers

1694
01:39:13,251 --> 01:39:15,340
really had the First Amendment,
that they gave us

1695
01:39:15,514 --> 01:39:18,387
the First Amendment to defend
songs that glorify Satanism

1696
01:39:18,561 --> 01:39:20,215
and incest and suicide?
Do you really believe that?

1697
01:39:20,389 --> 01:39:21,956
- Absolutely.
- You really believe that?

1698
01:39:22,130 --> 01:39:23,218
- Yeah, I believe it.
- You're an idiot then.

1699
01:39:23,392 --> 01:39:24,784
- Yeah?
- You're an idiot.

1700
01:39:25,002 --> 01:39:25,872
Well, I'll tell you what.
Kiss my... [bleep]

1701
01:39:26,047 --> 01:39:27,222
How do you like that, buddy?

1702
01:39:27,396 --> 01:39:28,745
Well, take your teeth out.

1703
01:39:28,919 --> 01:39:31,182
I was surprised
to see you heading the protest.

1704
01:39:31,617 --> 01:39:33,315
Why wasn't someone like Prince

1705
01:39:33,489 --> 01:39:35,056
involved with you in that?
I mean...

1706
01:39:35,230 --> 01:39:36,753
He should have been
involved in it,

1707
01:39:36,927 --> 01:39:39,190
but I think that it's his right
to keep his mouth shut.

1708
01:39:39,451 --> 01:39:41,149
It's also
Bruce Springsteen's right

1709
01:39:41,323 --> 01:39:43,586
to keep his mouth shut
and anybody else

1710
01:39:43,760 --> 01:39:45,631
that they went after.
They never attacked my lyrics.

1711
01:39:45,805 --> 01:39:47,024
They attacked those people.

1712
01:39:47,198 --> 01:39:48,460
They even went after
Michael Jackson.

1713
01:39:48,634 --> 01:39:50,114
But you fought real hard
for these people,

1714
01:39:50,288 --> 01:39:51,507
and it was never
your music involved.

1715
01:39:51,681 --> 01:39:52,769
That's the thing
that shocked me.

1716
01:39:52,943 --> 01:39:54,423
It's the principle of the thing.

1717
01:39:54,727 --> 01:39:56,207
We live in a country where
we're supposed to be free.

1718
01:39:56,381 --> 01:39:57,904
Take a look at what happened
in China.

1719
01:39:58,079 --> 01:39:59,732
You got a bunch of kids there
who want democracy.

1720
01:39:59,906 --> 01:40:01,212
They don't even know what it is.

1721
01:40:01,386 --> 01:40:03,519
We supposedly have it here,
what do we do?

1722
01:40:04,215 --> 01:40:06,391
Sit around and go,
hmm, hmm.

1723
01:40:06,565 --> 01:40:08,698
"Let somebody else take care
of it for me."

1724
01:40:29,284 --> 01:40:30,850
Scott: From the very beginning,

1725
01:40:31,199 --> 01:40:33,331
there wasn't literally
anything like it.

1726
01:40:33,897 --> 01:40:37,379
As musicians, that was the way
that we spoke to each other.

1727
01:40:37,553 --> 01:40:40,382
Like, instead of quoting movies,
we quoted Zappa.

1728
01:40:43,950 --> 01:40:45,604
Scott: And it wasn't until
I started playing with him

1729
01:40:45,778 --> 01:40:49,956
that I realized that
he was fucking with America

1730
01:40:50,131 --> 01:40:51,784
as much as he was fucking
around with music.

1731
01:40:51,958 --> 01:40:54,918
Like, America
was just another canvas

1732
01:40:55,092 --> 01:40:56,615
for him to do his shit on.

1733
01:40:56,789 --> 01:40:59,444
This is working here.
Hello, which one's working?

1734
01:40:59,705 --> 01:41:00,706
None.

1735
01:41:05,798 --> 01:41:07,148
This is censorship.

1736
01:41:10,064 --> 01:41:12,588
Scott: How did he see himself
in a world

1737
01:41:12,762 --> 01:41:14,764
that was literally going mad?

1738
01:41:15,112 --> 01:41:16,722
He saw the big picture.

1739
01:41:17,375 --> 01:41:20,161
I cannot imagine in any way

1740
01:41:20,335 --> 01:41:22,989
it could keep a man
like him down.

1741
01:41:23,164 --> 01:41:25,949
If anything, he would battle up

1742
01:41:26,123 --> 01:41:29,692
until the last drop
of his blood was shed.

1743
01:41:30,084 --> 01:41:32,086
Overrun by orcs,
he doesn't give a shit.

1744
01:41:33,174 --> 01:41:36,177
You cannot live your life
as if you are

1745
01:41:36,351 --> 01:41:39,441
about to not be able to do
your life anymore.

1746
01:41:39,702 --> 01:41:40,572
You know?

1747
01:41:46,839 --> 01:41:48,624
Czechoslovakia today
became the latest

1748
01:41:48,798 --> 01:41:50,713
of the countries
of Eastern Europe once held

1749
01:41:50,887 --> 01:41:53,194
so tightly in the Soviet grip to throw off

1750
01:41:53,368 --> 01:41:55,283
its hardline Communist yoke.

1751
01:42:01,332 --> 01:42:02,855
I guess it was
about a year before

1752
01:42:03,029 --> 01:42:04,988
the Velvet Revolution,
when I was visited here

1753
01:42:05,162 --> 01:42:07,164
by a Czech composer.

1754
01:42:07,730 --> 01:42:09,384
And through the interpreter,

1755
01:42:09,558 --> 01:42:13,605
he indicated that he wanted
to play some of my music

1756
01:42:13,779 --> 01:42:16,652
and wanted me to come to Prague
for the concert,

1757
01:42:16,826 --> 01:42:19,394
and I thought, well,
the chances of me doing that

1758
01:42:19,568 --> 01:42:22,745
were pretty unlikely because Czechoslovakia was pretty grim.

1759
01:42:23,049 --> 01:42:25,443
And the next thing I knew,
they had this revolution,

1760
01:42:26,052 --> 01:42:28,272
and this composer
was a member of parliament.

1761
01:42:29,360 --> 01:42:31,971
And I'd already made four trips to the Soviet Union

1762
01:42:32,146 --> 01:42:34,583
and had been trying to develop some East-West

1763
01:42:34,800 --> 01:42:35,888
international trade.

1764
01:42:36,062 --> 01:42:37,673
Boy, is it cold here.

1765
01:42:37,847 --> 01:42:41,633
And I arranged to come to
Prague on my way

1766
01:42:42,243 --> 01:42:44,593
back to the United States
from Moscow.

1767
01:42:44,854 --> 01:42:47,204
And it was during
my Prague visit,

1768
01:42:47,378 --> 01:42:49,250
I proposed to them
that if they needed

1769
01:42:49,424 --> 01:42:51,339
some sort of representation
in the West

1770
01:42:51,513 --> 01:42:55,995
to help them get investment or whatever they needed to do,

1771
01:42:56,170 --> 01:42:58,259
that I would be interested
in doing that.

1772
01:43:01,218 --> 01:43:03,133
So, when I got off the plane, there was 5,000 people

1773
01:43:03,307 --> 01:43:05,396
waving at me.
And, uh, you know,

1774
01:43:05,570 --> 01:43:08,051
never before in my life had I seen anything like that.

1775
01:43:08,312 --> 01:43:10,793
Get off the plane,

1776
01:43:10,967 --> 01:43:12,577
and, you know,
there's a lot of people,

1777
01:43:12,751 --> 01:43:14,666
but there's no police,
and there's no bodyguards.

1778
01:43:14,840 --> 01:43:16,755
There's no nothing.
Just people waving at you.

1779
01:43:16,929 --> 01:43:19,628
That's nice until you go
through the airport

1780
01:43:19,889 --> 01:43:21,412
and they start piling on you.

1781
01:43:21,804 --> 01:43:24,285
And to get from the door of the airport to the minibus

1782
01:43:24,459 --> 01:43:26,374
that was going to take us
to the hotel

1783
01:43:26,548 --> 01:43:28,289
took about 40 minutes.

1784
01:43:30,421 --> 01:43:32,510
Gary: When Frank was there,
it was like, Frank was

1785
01:43:32,815 --> 01:43:34,077
the President
of the United States

1786
01:43:34,251 --> 01:43:35,339
coming to visit.

1787
01:43:37,036 --> 01:43:39,430
And Frank was trying
to figure out

1788
01:43:39,604 --> 01:43:41,867
why was everyone there
so happy to see him?

1789
01:43:43,086 --> 01:43:47,003
And evidently,
in Czechoslovakia,

1790
01:43:47,177 --> 01:43:49,832
when young kids
played rock music,

1791
01:43:50,006 --> 01:43:51,399
the police would tell them,

1792
01:43:51,573 --> 01:43:53,009
"Turn off
that Frank Zappa music."

1793
01:43:54,663 --> 01:43:56,447
And all of a sudden,
here's Frank Zappa.

1794
01:43:58,319 --> 01:44:01,147
He was a symbol of this freedom,

1795
01:44:02,540 --> 01:44:04,499
which is incredible
when you think about it.

1796
01:44:05,151 --> 01:44:06,675
He had that kind of effect.

1797
01:44:08,720 --> 01:44:11,636
It was like the king
of freedom had showed up.

1798
01:44:11,854 --> 01:44:14,160
I mean, Frank was shocked.

1799
01:44:23,735 --> 01:44:25,171
Kathleen: Rock musician
Frank Zappa,

1800
01:44:25,346 --> 01:44:26,869
who's always been something
of a maverick,

1801
01:44:27,043 --> 01:44:29,001
has just returned from a trip
to the Soviet Union

1802
01:44:29,175 --> 01:44:31,874
and Czechoslovakia.
And in Prague,

1803
01:44:32,048 --> 01:44:33,571
he met with Václav Havel,

1804
01:44:33,745 --> 01:44:35,747
now the President
of Czechoslovakia.

1805
01:44:35,921 --> 01:44:37,749
He also visited
the Czech parliament

1806
01:44:37,923 --> 01:44:40,404
and was named
the Czech Cultural

1807
01:44:40,578 --> 01:44:42,493
and Trade Representative
to the United States.

1808
01:44:43,059 --> 01:44:44,278
And Frank Zappa joins us
this morning.

1809
01:44:44,452 --> 01:44:45,757
- Good morning.
- Good morning.

1810
01:44:45,931 --> 01:44:47,585
Twenty years ago,
did you think that

1811
01:44:47,803 --> 01:44:49,674
- this would be your occupation?
- No.

1812
01:44:49,848 --> 01:44:51,720
What are the job specifications?

1813
01:44:51,894 --> 01:44:54,549
I'm supposed to represent them
for trade,

1814
01:44:54,723 --> 01:44:58,117
for tourism,
and for cultural matters.

1815
01:44:58,988 --> 01:45:00,294
Only rock business?

1816
01:45:00,816 --> 01:45:02,121
No, no, it's got nothing
to do with rock and roll.

1817
01:45:02,992 --> 01:45:04,472
Kathleen: So, is this
Frank Zappa the businessman

1818
01:45:04,646 --> 01:45:06,256
who's coming to the fore
and not the rocker?

1819
01:45:06,822 --> 01:45:08,432
Well, let's say that
Frank Zappa the rocker

1820
01:45:08,606 --> 01:45:11,957
has been pretty much excluded
from US broadcasting.

1821
01:45:12,131 --> 01:45:14,917
So, Frank Zappa the rocker
will now do something else.

1822
01:45:16,005 --> 01:45:18,877
It turns out that, uh,
when he had testified

1823
01:45:19,095 --> 01:45:20,923
before Congress, uh,

1824
01:45:21,097 --> 01:45:22,794
our fine Secretary of State
at the time, James Baker,

1825
01:45:22,968 --> 01:45:25,057
his wife had been involved
in the, uh,

1826
01:45:25,231 --> 01:45:28,539
little Washington clubs
going to save the world.

1827
01:45:28,844 --> 01:45:31,629
And James Baker
went to Czechoslovakia,

1828
01:45:31,803 --> 01:45:33,457
and he had told
the Czech government

1829
01:45:33,631 --> 01:45:35,067
that if they wanted
anything to do

1830
01:45:35,241 --> 01:45:36,504
with the United States
government anymore,

1831
01:45:36,895 --> 01:45:38,854
if they wanted aid or help
or anything

1832
01:45:39,507 --> 01:45:41,335
that they would have to get rid of this association

1833
01:45:41,509 --> 01:45:42,727
with Frank Zappa.

1834
01:45:47,689 --> 01:45:51,345
Our primary purpose is to educate and inform parents

1835
01:45:51,519 --> 01:45:53,172
about this alarming trend,
as well as

1836
01:45:53,347 --> 01:45:56,175
to ask the industry
to exercise self-restraint.

1837
01:45:56,524 --> 01:45:59,091
Some say there's no cause
for concern.

1838
01:45:59,265 --> 01:46:00,745
We believe there is.

1839
01:46:04,227 --> 01:46:05,620
Thank you.

1840
01:46:05,837 --> 01:46:06,969
When we were
on the road in '88,

1841
01:46:07,143 --> 01:46:08,840
he was already feeling poorly.

1842
01:46:09,014 --> 01:46:11,930
But, you know, he had been told
it was various other conditions,

1843
01:46:12,104 --> 01:46:13,932
various and he was--
he was trying

1844
01:46:14,106 --> 01:46:15,673
different ways to deal with it.

1845
01:46:15,847 --> 01:46:18,023
But, you know, he was getting
sicker all the time.

1846
01:46:18,633 --> 01:46:21,766
He retired
from the concert stage

1847
01:46:22,114 --> 01:46:25,161
at the same time that his
illness was coming on.

1848
01:46:27,076 --> 01:46:28,773
We sat in the--
in the control room,

1849
01:46:28,947 --> 01:46:29,992
and he...

1850
01:46:31,428 --> 01:46:32,647
he said, uh,

1851
01:46:33,169 --> 01:46:34,344
"Well, like, you know,
I've got some news for you."

1852
01:46:34,518 --> 01:46:35,911
And I said, "What?"
And he said,

1853
01:46:36,085 --> 01:46:37,565
"I've just been diagnosed
with prostate cancer."

1854
01:46:37,739 --> 01:46:39,915
And he sat back
and took a huge drag off

1855
01:46:40,132 --> 01:46:42,483
his cigarette
and looked resolute

1856
01:46:42,657 --> 01:46:45,268
and, you know,
and somewhat, you know,

1857
01:46:45,442 --> 01:46:48,402
like, you know, "Fuck that."
You know, like it's,

1858
01:46:48,576 --> 01:46:49,925
uh, you know,
"I've just been diagnosed

1859
01:46:50,099 --> 01:46:51,796
with prostate cancer."
He knew the--

1860
01:46:51,970 --> 01:46:53,972
what the effect of those words
were going to be,

1861
01:46:54,146 --> 01:46:56,845
but he also gave off
this attitude of...

1862
01:46:57,019 --> 01:46:59,413
"It's not gonna stop me
from doing what I have to do."

1863
01:47:17,387 --> 01:47:20,390
And politically,
I am in the process of, uh,

1864
01:47:20,564 --> 01:47:24,612
doing what we call
a feasibility study to see,

1865
01:47:25,177 --> 01:47:27,484
uh, if it's possible for me
to run for President

1866
01:47:27,658 --> 01:47:29,834
of the United States
against George Bush.

1867
01:47:31,749 --> 01:47:33,795
That's quite a comment.

1868
01:47:34,883 --> 01:47:36,058
You feel there's a chance?

1869
01:47:36,493 --> 01:47:39,322
Uh, yes.
Not a good one

1870
01:47:39,496 --> 01:47:41,672
because, you know, he has more balloons than I do.

1871
01:47:41,846 --> 01:47:43,631
Makes a lot of sense.

1872
01:47:43,805 --> 01:47:46,851
The next time I interview you, I may be calling you

1873
01:47:47,025 --> 01:47:49,463
Mr. President
instead of Mr. Zappa.

1874
01:47:51,290 --> 01:47:52,466
Maybe.

1875
01:47:54,772 --> 01:47:56,165
Do any of these things work?

1876
01:48:00,822 --> 01:48:02,345
Uh, we're here
to make a statement

1877
01:48:02,519 --> 01:48:03,999
on behalf of our family.

1878
01:48:05,304 --> 01:48:07,785
Although Frank was looking
forward to being here

1879
01:48:07,959 --> 01:48:09,918
and really intended to be here,

1880
01:48:10,179 --> 01:48:12,529
unfortunately, he's not here.

1881
01:48:13,487 --> 01:48:15,837
As many of you know,
he's been diagnosed

1882
01:48:16,011 --> 01:48:18,230
by journalists as having cancer.

1883
01:48:19,275 --> 01:48:22,191
We'd like you to know
his doctors have diagnosed

1884
01:48:22,365 --> 01:48:26,456
prostate cancer, which he's
been fighting successfully,

1885
01:48:27,152 --> 01:48:30,460
and he has been feeling well
and working too hard

1886
01:48:30,634 --> 01:48:32,114
and planned to attend...

1887
01:48:34,464 --> 01:48:36,031
You're a legendary workaholic.

1888
01:48:36,205 --> 01:48:37,554
-Are you able to work?
- Not anymore.

1889
01:48:37,728 --> 01:48:39,948
Not anymore.
Tell me.

1890
01:48:40,383 --> 01:48:43,778
Uh, basically on a good day,
I can go 9:30 to 6:30.

1891
01:48:45,214 --> 01:48:46,520
It's really slowed you down.

1892
01:48:46,694 --> 01:48:49,653
- Yeah.
- Has being sick affected

1893
01:48:49,827 --> 01:48:51,829
your music, what kind of music
you're writing?

1894
01:48:52,003 --> 01:48:53,004
No.

1895
01:48:54,223 --> 01:48:57,661
Can you tell me a little bit
about how you've been doing?

1896
01:48:58,444 --> 01:49:00,272
- Uh, fair.
- Fair?

1897
01:49:00,446 --> 01:49:02,057
Yeah. Good days, bad days.

1898
01:49:02,231 --> 01:49:04,189
More bad days
than good days?

1899
01:49:06,148 --> 01:49:07,149
Yeah.

1900
01:49:12,154 --> 01:49:14,243
Let's do it.
Tell her to hurry.

1901
01:49:16,724 --> 01:49:18,421
Yeah, she's got to cover up
the results

1902
01:49:18,595 --> 01:49:20,641
of my botched transfusion here.

1903
01:49:26,472 --> 01:49:27,430
Ready?

1904
01:49:38,920 --> 01:49:41,400
He is diagnosed,
and he really,

1905
01:49:41,575 --> 01:49:43,577
uh, started working in earnest.

1906
01:49:44,142 --> 01:49:47,581
And that in some ways, I think, was intentionally

1907
01:49:47,755 --> 01:49:50,932
a summing up while he was ill in the last couple years.

1908
01:50:34,062 --> 01:50:36,412
Steve: One of the things
that Frank loved

1909
01:50:36,847 --> 01:50:40,372
was musicians that really loved what they were doing,

1910
01:50:40,546 --> 01:50:44,899
and enjoyed playing

1911
01:50:45,073 --> 01:50:48,119
to the best of their ability
and took great pride

1912
01:50:48,424 --> 01:50:51,035
in the composer's music.

1913
01:50:51,862 --> 01:50:54,256
There was not enough
through the years.

1914
01:50:54,473 --> 01:50:56,780
You know, Frank dealt
with orchestras that were,

1915
01:50:56,954 --> 01:51:00,131
you know, basically paid
and came in

1916
01:51:00,305 --> 01:51:03,091
and did their job just by,
"Okay, here's another chart."

1917
01:51:03,265 --> 01:51:05,746
But then through the years,
the-- his music

1918
01:51:05,920 --> 01:51:08,096
as it started touching
more younger people

1919
01:51:08,270 --> 01:51:10,576
who were growing up
and taking up instruments,

1920
01:51:11,403 --> 01:51:13,623
some of them had a deep desire

1921
01:51:14,015 --> 01:51:17,496
to play Frank's music that way.

1922
01:51:18,584 --> 01:51:21,849
So, when Frank discovered
the Ensemble Modern,

1923
01:51:22,545 --> 01:51:26,984
this is a group of musicians that wanted to play his music

1924
01:51:27,898 --> 01:51:30,466
on a level that was yet
to be achieved.

1925
01:51:34,035 --> 01:51:36,820
When the final event
is put together,

1926
01:51:37,168 --> 01:51:40,302
I will make some structure
out of what worked

1927
01:51:40,476 --> 01:51:41,695
during the rehearsal.

1928
01:51:43,609 --> 01:51:45,568
At the end of the day,
you'll have it on paper.

1929
01:51:46,003 --> 01:51:47,352
And you'll be able to read it.

1930
01:51:47,526 --> 01:51:48,440
Okay?

1931
01:51:51,182 --> 01:51:54,795
Okay, so watch, and I'll just
move the pitch around the room.

1932
01:52:13,378 --> 01:52:15,511
And instead of just playing
your note, style the note.

1933
01:52:15,685 --> 01:52:18,166
Put some sort of different
vibrato rates on it, you know,

1934
01:52:18,340 --> 01:52:20,211
your-- that's the one note
you have in life.

1935
01:52:20,385 --> 01:52:22,213
You're really gonna play
the shit out of it.

1936
01:52:22,648 --> 01:52:25,347
And your big chance to be
a star with one note.

1937
01:52:25,521 --> 01:52:26,609
Here we go.

1938
01:52:42,016 --> 01:52:44,018
He worked lots of different

1939
01:52:44,192 --> 01:52:45,802
projects simultaneously.

1940
01:52:46,194 --> 01:52:49,501
But that shifted when it was
becoming more obvious

1941
01:52:49,675 --> 01:52:51,939
that he wasn't gonna have
the time that he needed.

1942
01:52:52,113 --> 01:52:55,420
And then I think he set up priorities himself.

1943
01:52:55,986 --> 01:52:58,597
Went too fast.
Da-da, da-da.

1944
01:53:03,385 --> 01:53:05,735
There's nothing weird
about the tempo relations.

1945
01:53:05,909 --> 01:53:08,694
There's nothing science fiction
about this tempo.

1946
01:53:11,872 --> 01:53:13,395
Yeah.

1947
01:53:13,787 --> 01:53:15,484
You make decisions
about what you can finish,

1948
01:53:16,137 --> 01:53:17,878
what's really important
to finish,

1949
01:53:18,574 --> 01:53:21,142
which, you know,

1950
01:53:22,012 --> 01:53:24,145
is another kind
of composition.

1951
01:53:28,627 --> 01:53:29,977
I see what it is.

1952
01:56:11,660 --> 01:56:13,836
I had written a letter
that I had hand-delivered

1953
01:56:14,010 --> 01:56:15,098
to the house

1954
01:56:15,881 --> 01:56:18,449
when I really thought I was not going to see him again.

1955
01:56:19,973 --> 01:56:21,713
It was essentially...

1956
01:56:22,323 --> 01:56:25,804
a letter of love and
gratitude...

1957
01:56:31,158 --> 01:56:33,334
for everything he had done
in the world.

1958
01:56:33,987 --> 01:56:35,858
And not just the world of music

1959
01:56:36,641 --> 01:56:38,513
and not just my little life

1960
01:56:39,253 --> 01:56:40,819
but the world.

1961
01:56:42,386 --> 01:56:43,344
And so...

1962
01:56:44,432 --> 01:56:47,565
I asked him to read it
after I would leave.

1963
01:56:47,739 --> 01:56:49,785
Of course, he opened it right while I was there.

1964
01:56:50,829 --> 01:56:54,224
He read it, and he said, um,

1965
01:56:54,920 --> 01:56:56,487
he was not effusive.

1966
01:56:56,661 --> 01:56:58,185
I didn't expect him to be,
but he said,

1967
01:56:58,359 --> 01:57:00,883
"That is really, really nice."

1968
01:57:01,623 --> 01:57:03,190
And he hugged me.

1969
01:57:03,364 --> 01:57:05,757
And he looked like he was
in so much pain,

1970
01:57:05,931 --> 01:57:07,194
and he hugged me.

1971
01:57:20,511 --> 01:57:22,644
But nothing.
It fucking sucked.

1972
01:57:27,431 --> 01:57:29,346
Before Frank died, he said,

1973
01:57:29,520 --> 01:57:31,087
"Sell everything, and get out of this business.

1974
01:57:31,261 --> 01:57:33,220
It's hateful, and take,
you know,

1975
01:57:33,394 --> 01:57:35,700
go get a house at the beach,
and have a good time."

1976
01:57:37,485 --> 01:57:40,792
So, there you have it
in a nutshell.

1977
01:58:04,425 --> 01:58:05,556
Thank you.

1978
01:59:32,121 --> 01:59:34,558
You got
an extraordinary reaction.

1979
01:59:34,732 --> 01:59:37,692
I mean,
20-minute standing ovation.

1980
01:59:38,736 --> 01:59:40,869
How do you feel about that?

1981
01:59:41,043 --> 01:59:42,914
Well, uh,
there's no accounting for taste.

1982
01:59:43,088 --> 01:59:44,568
Oh, come on.

1983
01:59:44,742 --> 01:59:46,222
You must have been thrilled.

1984
01:59:46,614 --> 01:59:49,834
I was. I was happier
that they did that

1985
01:59:50,008 --> 01:59:51,445
rather than throw things
at the stage.

1986
02:01:36,941 --> 02:01:38,029
We were loud.

1987
02:01:39,248 --> 02:01:40,380
We were coarse.

1988
02:01:41,990 --> 02:01:43,513
And we were strange.

1989
02:01:45,036 --> 02:01:48,257
And if anybody in the audience ever gave us any trouble,

1990
02:01:48,953 --> 02:01:50,433
we'd tell them to fuck off.

1991
02:07:17,891 --> 02:07:22,025
This is the
Central Scrutinizer.

1992
02:07:22,591 --> 02:07:25,420
Joe has just worked himself

1993
02:07:25,681 --> 02:07:28,205
into an imaginary frenzy

1994
02:07:28,379 --> 02:07:30,120
during the fade-out

1995
02:07:30,294 --> 02:07:32,601
of his imaginary song.

1996
02:07:33,558 --> 02:07:36,692
He begins to feel
depressed now.

1997
02:07:36,866 --> 02:07:40,696
He knows the end is near.