Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words

1

How does this camera look?

Is it nice?

Okay, how about this?

How about saying, "Hi, this is Frank Zappa.

"I guess... I... I guess you

don't have anything better

"to do tonight, huh?"

I mean, assuming that

they've flicked on the set

and they're sitting there, absorbing the rays.

"Well, you might as well sit back

and watch Take Off, then."

All of that?

Yeah.

You don't have to say

the stuff about the rays.

That's parenthetical.

Say it again?

Something like, "Hi, this is Frank Zappa.

"I guess you don't have

anything better to do tonight, huh?"

Yeah. Ready?

Hi.

This is Frank Zappa.

I guess you don't have anything

better to do tonight, huh?

That's why you're watching Take Off.

Huh?

Nothing better to do, huh?

Hello, we're talking with Frank Zappa,

a musician, filmmaker,

an independent thinker,

and a personal favorite of mine,

who's been in rock music

for almost two decades.

Well, I'm about to get sick

From watching my TV

Been checking out the news

Until my eyeballs fail to see...

Zappa is the leader of perhaps

the roughest and farthest-out group

in the scene today, the Mothers of Invention.

Is anybody's guess...

And ever since 1967,

he has left an explosive trail of music

that has had one constant throughout:

biting social commentary.

You're being victimized right now.

Do you know it?

That trouble coming every day

No way to delay that trouble

Coming every day...

You have a classical background.

That intrigues me. Are you doing...

Not really. I'm just... You know?

Frank Zappa is one of the most controversial

modern composers and musicians.

Zappa is perhaps most famous for a style

of musical satire

involving lavatorial expletives

and outrageous happenings.

Those are the same people who say,

"Yeah, he eats sh*t on stage

and steps on baby chickens."

The distorted mirror through which

we experience ourselves

and the neurotic, perverted

society that man has created.

On his street would take a turn...

The guy who sat on the toilet seat,

some kind of hairy monster from the '60s.

Well, let's face it, I sit on a toilet seat,

and so do you.

The only problem is that

somebody took my picture while I was there.

Every time I hear 'em

Sayin' that there's no way to delay

That trouble comin' every day...

Zappa is irreverent.

Some people think he is downright offensive.

What about this suggestion?

But I guarantee you this,

he absolutely will not bore you

and he very well may surprise you.

Well, hello.

F*** the union.

Well, what does it all add up to?

What is Frank Zappa about?

Well, I don't think that anybody

has ever seen the real Frank Zappa,

because being interviewed

is one of the most abnormal things

that you can do to somebody else.

It's two steps removed from the Inquisition.

All right. Are you rolling?

- Yep.

- What?

You okay? We can start? Okay.

It seems that the business thing

is usually the thing that

drags most artists down,

but I hear you're quite a great businessman.

Well, how have you managed

to survive so long?

Well, it is just a matter...

It's a matter of survival

more than success.

I have survived for 17 years.

Successfully? Survived?

I'm still in the business, that's something.

Are you happy?

Sure. I love what I'm doing.

I have the best job in the world.

If you had to define your job,

how would you define it?

I'm an entertainer.

Pure and simple.

Right.

Do you think the kind of entertainment

that people are craving now is much different

than it was when you first emerged?

No. I don't think so.

There's several different kinds of people

who listen to what we do.

You can't please 'em all.

I mean, there are some people that

only like the earliest albums,

and they think they're really true fans,

but actually they're just f***ed, you know?

They're just these snotty little people

who don't really understand what's going on.

These are the people

who know everything they know

about me from Rolling Stone magazine.

People just crave those early albums

and don't know anything about

what we're doing today.

Does that upset you? Obviously, it's...

Well, I hate to see anybody

with a closed mind on any topic.

So, I just feel sorry

that they're missing out on a lot of good stuff

that's happened since 1967.

Your mothers and fathers

are all drinking beer...

Watching...

They're watching Roller Derby,

and then they change the channel.

And then they see you guys on the floor,

and they say, "Oh, boy, they're really sick."

I think I might be calling you something

that most of America wouldn't call you.

They'd look upon you as an exploiter.

Why an exploiter?

An exploiter of a... Of a... Of a revolution...

Someone hoping to sell tickets to a concert

on the basis of a social revolution.

Did we ever advertise

that we were going to promote a revolution,

display a revolution, discuss a revolution,

or have anything to do

with a revolution at a concert?

In many ways, you epitomize the revolution.

Well, that has nothing to do with the means

by which we advertise a concert.

We advertise that we're coming there to play.

The word gets around.

Plastic people

You gotta go

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Plastic people

You gotta go...

Hey, that sounds like sh*t.

Frank, a few questions

that we'd like to ask you this evening

come from high school students

in southeast Pennsylvania.

And the first question

that we'd like to ask you is,

how did you start out in the music business,

and how old were you

when you first got started?

Well, the first time I ever

got paid for playing music

was when I was 15.

And I started off as a drummer,

and before I actually had a drum set,

I used to play...

I was rehearsing with

this rhythm and blues band.

We used to rehearse over

at this preacher's house,

and since I didn't have any drums at all,

I had to borrow two pots from the kitchen,

and I used to put them

between my legs, like bongos,

and play on them with the drumsticks,

and that's how I started off.

I was reading about the first time

you ever composed a piece of music.

And I don't know if it was

really a piece of music,

but you actually went and you ruled out

the way it should look,

and you started drawing

the notes on the page...

That was a pretty great story.

- Well...

- What inspired you to do that?

I always thought music looked nice on paper,

and since I had a kind of interest in art

when I was a kid, I could draw pretty good.

I used to draw dollar bills

and things like that.

They were the wrong color,

so I couldn't pass 'em,

'cause all I had was pencils and white paper.

You know, I couldn't get the green right.

But...

I figured, well, if I could

just draw those things on the paper,

then you hand it to a musician,

and a musician knows how to read it,

and then he can play it, so that's what I did.

And then I started drawing music.

I hadn't the faintest idea

what it sounded like.

So the music came before the lyrics.

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