- 4 months ago
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CreativityTranscript
00:00I hope they're graduates of a good medical school is what I really hope.
00:05But seriously, Frank, we would say that, like Tinseltown Rebellion, that's your new album, we're going to hear about it.
00:10You've blasted Catholic girls, Jewish girls, the music business, America.
00:14You think it's cheap and tawdry and trashy. Isn't that how you see very much what you see in America today?
00:20Well, I'd say that's a gross oversimplification of my views.
00:23Besides that, I did not blast Jewish girls, and I did not blast Catholic girls.
00:27I only made editorial comments about the behavior.
00:30All right, and what were the comments, for example, with respect to Catholic girls?
00:32Well, in the context of the album that the Catholic girls song appeared in,
00:37it was a song about the girls that were supposed to be functioning at a certain Catholic youth organization meeting
00:42wherein they were indulging in certain acts that were supposed to function in the plot of the larger...
00:48Certain sexual acts?
00:50Yeah.
00:50All right, and what about Jewish girls? What was your beef against them?
00:54No beef.
00:54You say you wanted to find a certain kind of Jewish princess.
00:58No, it's a song about Jewish princesses and the type of behavior that allows them to be a Jewish princess.
01:03And what is that behavior?
01:06Uh, play the record on the air.
01:08But I mean, you think they're self-indulgent and spoiled and have an unwarranted sense of their own importance?
01:13Is that what you think?
01:14No. I don't think so.
01:16I think that it's a matter of the way they want to make themselves look and the type of behavior that they want to have.
01:22Right. You're deaf on drugs, aren't you? You're against drugs.
01:25Right.
01:25Why?
01:26I don't think they're good for you.
01:28Right. And in fact, you fired members of your band, the mother of invention, who have used them.
01:32Correct.
01:32Tell me why.
01:33Because people who use drugs often have a hard time doing normal things.
01:37That's right. A paradox, ladies and gentlemen, on our show, going across the United States, right into your living rooms,
01:44we'll be back with Frank Zappa, one of the great social satirists of the 20s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s,
01:51and who knows, into the 21st century, right after this time out.
01:55See you in just a minute.
01:56The Tinseltown Rebellion
02:05Now, there's some very, very interesting lyrics, and I would like to read some of them to you.
02:09Did you know that in Tinseltown, that's Hollywood, right?
02:12Yeah.
02:12Hollywood, as they say out here, the people there think substance is a bore.
02:17And if your new wave group looks good, they'll hurry on back for more.
02:21Of leather groups and plastic groups, and groups that look real queer, the Tinseltown aficionados come to see and not to hear.
02:29That's pretty explicit, isn't it?
02:31Yeah.
02:31In other words, what are we saying?
02:33That the lyrics have the intellectual consistency of toothpaste, that guys just want to make money, the record guys?
02:38Is that what you're telling us?
02:39No, basically what that song is about is the new wave scene in Los Angeles, as opposed to things that happen in other cities.
02:46Now, in New York, is it more legitimate?
02:48In New York, you can go to clubs and see groups of having a prayer of getting a record contract, aren't playing in the club to get a record contract.
02:55They're just there to play their music, and some of them are very strange, and they're very interesting.
03:00Frank, our show is going, as I say, I always tease across the country, most of the people are not like me or you in the sense they're family.
03:07Of course, you're family, but a little more straight-oriented.
03:09What are we saying to them? Look into that camera, if you would.
03:12What are you saying to the people? That there's too much fraudulence in our lives? That there's too much phonyism?
03:19What are you really saying about America?
03:21The emperor is not wearing any clothes.
03:23And what does that mean?
03:24Well, draw your own conclusion.
03:27Let me quote to you from something that I prepared for Newsweek magazine, which they have since rejected.
03:34I wrote this little article for the section in there that's called My Turn, and the name of the article was Say Cheese.
03:41And the whole idea of the article is, we as a nation have chosen cheese as a way of life.
03:46Of everything that we choose to do, we always settle for something that's cheesy because of some economic expedient.
03:52And we're too eager to believe, when people tell us that budget cutting is the way to salvation,
03:59that all we have to do is cut the budget of something and everything will be okay.
04:03This is wrong.
04:04And we're not concerned enough about the quality of our lives.
04:07And yet, Frank, you live in the Beverly Hills area.
04:09No, I don't.
04:10Well, but you live in West Los Angeles.
04:12You live in a nice area is what I'm getting at.
04:14You have a, you're part of this business.
04:18Why wouldn't you move out of the business or reject it?
04:21Because this is the business that I belong in.
04:23That's an absurd question, of course.
04:24It's like saying a writer who doesn't write, like Judith Kranz should stop writing.
04:27I mean, that's ridiculous.
04:30That is plainly ridiculous what I just said.
04:34Frank, I sense, though, that there is a deep, permanent, irreversible cynicism in you.
04:41And I wish that I could have other people catch some of it.
04:43Yes, well, we've caught it today.
04:45And what does it stem from?
04:47Does that mean that young Frank Zappa was an innocent and was hurt by somebody or rejected?
04:53No, it's only a matter of logic.
04:55You know, it takes you, if you keep your mind awake and don't use drugs to stultify everything that's useful inside of your brain,
05:02you'll soon find out that most of what people tell you is not true.
05:05Do you think that most young people are full of self-pity and vacuous dreams?
05:09Well, that's a nice way of saying it.
05:11But Philip Wiley says that in Generation of Vipers, he says that young people, generally speaking,
05:16and that's the group to whom you primarily speak, are full of self-pity and vacuous dreams,
05:20that most young people do not know the value of hard work, of survival, of intelligence, of logic,
05:26the qualities that you put in.
05:27Well, this is very true in the United States, but I don't think that it's true all over the world.
05:31Well, we're talking about this country. That's the one we primarily care about.
05:33Do you think that most young people are a little soft, honestly?
05:36Very soft.
05:37You think they're soft?
05:38Very soft.
05:38In the sense they don't have the toughness to make it?
05:40No, in the sense that they don't have the toughness to just face up to themselves
05:45before they face up to the rest of the world.
05:47I once met a kid who was a very bright kid.
05:49He said this, that we're so trend-conscious in this country that if beanies with propellers on top were popular,
05:55you would find a large crowd buying them. Do you believe that?
05:59Yes.
05:59And as we're very trendy, I mean, whatever works, I mean, there's no insanity.
06:03You cannot get a large crowd to support.
06:06Yeah, but it's not the trend that's at fault.
06:08You know, I think the trends serve a useful function
06:10because anything that entertains people and brightens their lives is worthwhile.
06:15But when that is all that your life consists of, there you have a problem
06:19because this country was founded as an industrial society, and I think that's good.
06:24Frank, who are your musical heroes?
06:25Well, I used to like Johnny Guitar Watson, his old records, and Clarence Gate, Mouth Brown.
06:34I like Edgar Vares, Igor Stravinsky, Anton Webern.
06:39Is there anyone more contemporary like Bob Dylan or the Beatles or the Rolling Stones?
06:42Well, there are individual songs by each of those people that you've named that I like,
06:48but I'm not a pop consumer.
06:50Hard to believe of Frank Zappa as a family man you are.
06:53How many children do you have?
06:54Four.
06:55And how old are they?
06:56They range in age from a year and a half to 13.
06:58Are you a strict father?
06:59Absolutely.
07:00Really?
07:00You know, for example, if they were to date or go out, they have to be home at a certain time?
07:04Well, they're not really at the dating stage yet, but they do go out, and we do expect them home.
07:08I can imagine if Frank Zappa was at the door and your daughter's 13 and a half,
07:13and when she starts to date and you come to the door,
07:16you're going to give the guy the old evil eye, aren't you?
07:19Not necessarily.
07:20It depends on what kind of a guy he is.
07:22Besides, my daughter has very good taste.
07:23Are you a loving man?
07:25Absolutely.
07:26Are you affectionate?
07:27Very.
07:27Can you cry?
07:29If I have to.
07:29But, I mean, do you see yourself as a...
07:31I mean, do you see yourself as a...
07:34I think you are a very loving man.
07:35I really mean that.
07:37Well, I'm a sensitive person.
07:39Good.
07:39Well, so am I.
07:40We're all so sensitive.
07:41Everybody weep, okay?
07:44This is not the time or the place for sensitivity, however.
07:47Who is your greatest political hero?
07:52That's really a tough one.
07:54I'm not too fond of too much of what I've seen happen in the United States,
07:57but I think that Harry Truman would come the closest to being one of my favorites.
08:01What about your family?
08:02Were you close to your family?
08:04Not really.
08:05You were not.
08:05I'm pretty close with my mother, but, you know, in general with the rest of my relatives.
08:09Do you have any brothers and sisters, Frank?
08:10Yes.
08:11And are they in the music business?
08:12No.
08:13They're not.
08:13Are they pretty straight, do you think, or what do they do?
08:16Well, let's see.
08:16One of my brothers works at McDonald's.
08:18Another one works for McGraw Hill in the college textbook division,
08:21and my sister is going to college.
08:23She sings and plays the guitar, but she's not in the music business yet.
08:27All right, ladies and gentlemen, we've heard from Frank Zappa.
08:29Frank, say goodbye to the American people.
08:31Is there any message you want to leave them with?
08:33The emperor is not wearing any clothes.
08:35The emperor is not wearing any clothes.
08:37What is he wearing?
08:39It's kind of pink.
08:41A little bit soft.
08:43It's not clothes.
08:45All right, friends.
08:47And as for me, I'll be back to button up the show with the postscript you've been waiting for.
08:53We'll see you after this timeout.
08:54Thanks a lot, Frank.
08:56Thanks very, very much.
08:57See you later.
08:57See you later.