Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words Page #9

When the lies get so big

And the fog gets so thick

And the facts disappear

The Republican trick

Can be played out again

People, please tell me when

We'll be rid of these men

Just who do they really

Suppose that they are?

And how do they manage to travel as far

As they seem to have come?

Were we really that dumb?

People, wake up

Figure it out

Religious fanatics

Around and about

The courthouse, the statehouse

The Congress, the White House

Criminal saints

With a heavenly mission

A nation enraptured

By pure superstition

Is everybody happy?

Very few rock musicians

have been as controversial as Frank Zappa,

but there is no controversy about his talent

or about his role

as a rock-and-roll innovator.

So today, we will be at home

with Frank Zappa.

Frank, how are you this morning?

Boy, you know, I don't like

to get up this early, that's for sure.

You got a Grammy for Jazz from Hell.

Is it... Does that mean anything extra to you?

Well, I think that it's, you know, living proof

that the whole process is a fraud.

This is a little plastic joke, the Grammy itself.

I got it for a song called Jazz from Hell,

which I'm convinced nobody has ever heard,

and I don't know why they

gave me a Grammy for this song.

It was the most obscure track on a CD

called Jazz from Hell.

We're in a different part of the house.

Looks like you've got

an entire studio set up there.

That's right.

- You may...

- I'll just walk over here.

- Yeah, yeah, let's look around a little bit.

- Yeah.

There's something you're sitting by now

that I'm not even sure how to pronounce it.

Can you explain it?

Well, it's a machine called a Synclavier,

which is...

This is the machine that produced

that Grammy award-winning song

Jazz from Hell.

That some... That everyone is humming

-on the way to work this morning.

- Yeah.

What... What does the machine do?

How does it work?

Well, it allows you to

perform on the keyboard.

You could play a composition

on the keyboard

which is then stored

in the computer memory,

and then you edit what you played,

or you can type in information

on this keypad here

and edit what you played.

The sequence that's in here now

sounds like this.

Okay, let's say you happen

to think that that was

really a good groove, and you wanted to

have that played by something

other than a drum set.

Just go to the back again

and look for some other kind of

a noise to play it back.

How about...

Let's take Spastic... Spastic Droopers is okay.

Do you ever think the electronics

and the microchips can kind of

get in the way, though,

of the actual true music itself,

or what you're really trying to get at?

No, actually it improves it by

subtracting the human element,

which is the most unreliable part

of doing music.

I thought that was supposed to be

part of the creative process though.

Employing musicians? Hell, no.

10:
30 a.m. one of the most influential

personalities of the rock world

steps out of the plane,

the 49 year old Frank Zappa.

Never before, in 25 years in rock-and-roll

have I gotten off of an airplane

and seen anything like that.

- How long have you been waiting for this?

- My whole life.

I am here to see my prince.

I feel so tired, but so happy to be in Prague,

but I'll bet

I don't feel as happy as you do

to have a brand new country.

And I give you my congratulations

on your political success.

What I would say to Zappa?

We started playing his music in 1972

with our band "Elektrobus"

and were hunted by the police for that.

When we were interrogated the cops told us:

We will take your Zappa away,

you will not spread his ideology here.

Obviously they looked at him

as a political ideologist,

kind of an anti-communist leader

of an ideologically alternative group.

Today president Vclav Havel

welcomed Frank Zappa

the leading representative

of rock music at the castle.

The friendly and informal atmosphere

was supported by the fact

that the president

knew Zappa's music very well.

Is Mr. Havel the first president

you've met in your life personally?

Yes.

There's no official title.

In fact, I don't think

they've ever invented a name

for what it is that I expect

to be doing for them.

They want me to help them to develop trade,

tourism and things in the cultural field.

Even if I'm doing something

like a business deal,

it is a type of composition.

I view the whole thing as composition.

Mr. Zappa, can you tell me

what this contract is about?

It is to release records, CDs, and cassettes

of my music, in Czechoslovakia,

for the first time.

Legally.

I've been playing music in

the United States for 25 years.

Most people in that country

don't even know what I do,

and they would be shocked

to see these people

standing here, listening to me, right now.

They would think you are crazy.

You have a lot of fans here,

so if you f*** up it in America,

so, then, you can rely on

your Czech listeners.

Can you sing the number?

Frankie!

Love of my life

I love you so

Love of my life

Don't ever go

I love you only

Love, love of my life

You know, they won't play this

on the radio in America.

Love of my life

I love you so...

Took Ike's watch like they always do...

Draws

There's two things

you ought to consider here.

One is the possibility

that the whole body of my work

- is one composition.

- Right.

And only separated into individual tracks,

so to speak, because I'm

releasing it on records,

and it takes me years to put it together.

But, if I was all done,

and you stuck it all together,

it's one composition, basically.

And a theme that started off in,

you know, on the first record,

could just as easily occur, later on, with

no... No reason other than,

since the whole mass of work

is one composition,

why can't you recapitulate a theme

that started off years ago?

I wound up with a style of music

that has snorks, burps,

and dissonant chords,

and nice tunes and triads

and straight rhythms

and complicated rhythms,

and just about anything, in any order.

Right.

And the easiest way

to sum up the aesthetic would be,

anything, anytime, anyplace,

for no reason at all.

And I think with an aesthetic like that,

you can have pretty good latitude

for being creative.

What is wrong with it?

- No, no...

- No.

In my band, when somebody

would make a mistake

of that magnitude,

it's called a "strong wrong," so...

But other than that, it sounded really good.

You know, to some,

Frank Zappa is a legend in rock music.

To others, he's a bizarre performer

with a penchant for lascivious lyrics.

But what few realize is that he's also

a serious and respected classical composer.

Today Show national correspondent,

Jamie Gangel,

is here this morning

with a rare interview with Frank Zappa,

an interview that almost didn't happen,

because Frank Zappa is also quite ill.

- Jamie, how's he doing?

- He's not doing well.

He's been suffering from prostate cancer

for a number of years,

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