One point that Frank didn't mention is that when he was signed, there were literally hundreds of record companies. Now there are 3, maybe 4, huge conglomerates. Back then you had some options.
He was so articulate, funny, brilliant, and he really knew what he was talking about. On top of that he was an amazing composer, a great guitarplayer and singer and an amazing musician. One of the greatest men of all time.
Frank was an Icon. Frank had guts, brains & mad skills. Many of us miss him greatly. Check his CD called "Guitar" (no words), it will change your life! lol a MUST, for guitar players.
@SwordInAir Because people who don't think they know best are more likely to make happy mistakes - like releasing albums by the Mothers of Invention. There is not a chance in hell that Zappa would be signed today, or if signed, to a deal longer than a single album. Back in the day, there were such things as "prestige artists" - people who didn't sell millions, but the label was proud to represent. Now, it is only about the money - screw art.
It's SO funny how they beep out "Masturbation"! How uptight this show was! ROTFLMAO! Frank Zappa is and always was right. 100%. I miss that guy a LOT. We need more people like him. Or at least kind of like him.
I watch Zappa Interviews and they MAKE SENSE I listen to the music and it makes sense.. I think Zappas are Important in this world!..what are your other favorite things that SIR Franko Zappa managed to do with himself?
No, there's a statute in Bad Doberan Germany where they have the yearly Zappa festival known as Zappanale. I've never seen it myself, but it featured in the movie "Rock School" (NOT to be confused with the movie starring Jack Black).
The video is as it was originally aired on TV. The broadcaster cut in bits of Zappa's video for "G-Spot Tornado" - for no particular reason. The only change I made was to take several interview clips interspersed in the original show and put them together.
That's contrary to what Frank said in this interview. He is actually saying that we were better off when those MBA business types were the record executives. They didn't understand music and thus took greater chances. It was when the "hip" non-business types took over the record industry that it was decided that they understood what was "hip" and "cool".
Reminds me of the movie They Live when they were in the homeless camps and there were TVs playing with pirate TV channels of dudes warning every body of alien takeover. Frank told the truth.
Following up... I don't believe Zappa had any particular responsibility to his former band members, no matter what hard, early years they shared. For one, he never sold enough records to afford to keep a band on the payroll between tours. And, for another, there are few items one can put on a rock music resume more impressive than "former Zappa player" - something that indicates you can play rings around anyone else. Most ex-Zappa players are still making a living playing Zappa music.
what does masturbation mean? lol Zappa was so talented and intelligent in so many ways.I still can't beleive he's gone. thanks for posting anything on Zappa is worth watching and learning from and of course his music was so great.the video was one one of the greatest inventions to keep the past present to learn and enjoy from!!!
We are in the Information Age right now. The fact that someone can produce a CD for a couple thousand dollars and make it accessible to the masses is a good thing. There is more variety in music now then there ever has been. I posted that comment 4 months ago but im willing to rehash this conversation. Executives are less relevant now.
In the recent news from the UK there was a story of a still employed man celebrating his 101st birthday and he drank and smoked all his life! The singer Perry Como smoked 4 packs of cigarettes a day and he lived until he was 84! The fact that a person smokes doesn't mean they'll contract cancer or die from cancer at an early age.Also the smokers who do die from cancer die from cancer of the mouth,throat or lungs not of the prostate gland!
he's so right about record companies these days,there was a time when groups like the Stooges and the Sex Pistols,got record deals,-I recently heard of band bragging kind of that some of their material just so happened to get listened to by the prez of Geffen,and then all of a sudden they were back on a label,without hardly trying. I thought to myself-I don't think you want the prez. of a record company being into your band if your kids-then I thought it' s probly more like he knew it'd sell.
Frank was actually getting into some serious economic politics in Czechoslovakia a year before he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. The United States government threatened the Czech government and forced them to stop associating with Zappa. Frank wasn't afraid to criticize the US government and they weren't happy about that.
A lot of original music now is created, produced, released and sold by musicians themselves--a contemporary phenomenon thanks to the Internet. Most of what is put out by major labels now is, as Otto so poetically put it, "barfy lame pussy swill". I believe Frank would have approved of the current trend totally. But--I'd love to hear his take on, for example, Bush, Cheney, Gonzales...we need a voice like Zappa's in the pop culture now more than ever!!!!!
@Practical Skeptic Basically he saw the media and corporate music industry for what is was. Pretty much everything he said in that interview is woefully apparent today.
I recall even Billy Joel using the word "masturbate" in one of his early songs...can't remember which...it was jarring the first time you heard it...but then just became part of the song..
We have enough people like him. But you won´t see them on TV in these days. People just hang around on forums or youtube comment side, because more and more become ancioux about what happens if they go out on the streets. I´m one of them and i´m not proud...
It's a mess with UA-cam, because sometimes your comments simply disappear or they appear in positions where you didn't comment - completely out of the context. That's confusing !
Probably not. Zappa had so much respect for Ertegun that he named one of his sons after him. But he was the type of record executive will to release things that he didn't completely understand, and was willing to stand by music that he believed in and give an artist more than a single chance. Albert Grossman, the founder of Bearsville Records, probably fit that stereotype more closely, but still allowed artists to experiment and even fail.
Jim, I'm really not sure if yr joking and looking to see how many reactions you'll get. On one hand, there really is great profundity to your comment about direct human interaction, on the other there's the pure absurdity of suggesting the internet's responsible for destroying great art. The net's the ultimate niche market and the fact that you'd make such a comment in an area which keeps Zappa's obscure yet brilliant notions alive is funny indeed. I applaud yr brilliant sense of irony! :-D
I disagree. Zappa was a serious composer who worked with rock musicians rather than classical musicians for one reason - they were cheaper. He spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to get his serious works performed, and all the orchestras seemed to care about was overtime and tea breaks. Only later was he taken seriously enough that orchestras wanted to perform his work rather than look at him as a mark to be fleeced. By favorite of his works is The Yellow Shark and G-Spot Tornado.
I read Frank's book once ("The Real Frank Zappa Book") and I sometimes wondered if the CIA or FBI was somehow responsible for his untimely death? Like Frank could have been slipped some radioactive isotope in his food or drink?
Someday he will be taught in school like Mozart and Beethoven, maybe a hundred years from now. Hell maybe even like Nostradamus, except his prophecies had a higher rate of coming true.
you need to check what side your on, this is a new era of enlightenment. We are liberating art. We are on Zappa's side. Why should some record exec be deciding what the kids are listening to! The internet allows for people all over the world to be influenced by great art.
I'm not saying smoking doesn't cause cancer,it does,but not in every case plus smoker's contract mostly lung,mouth or throat cancer not prostate cancer. My original specualtion,was that maybe the FBI/CIA eliminated the controversial Zappa by poisoning him with a radioactive substance that caused his prostate cancer rather than "accepting" someone else's contention that Franks's smoking was to blame for his prostate disease!
It's silly to think that every word said by a character in one of Frank's songs is expressing Frank's opinions. Hollywood screenwriters write about murderers all the time without personally endorsing murder.
Yeah, but who's the real artist in this portrayal? Zappa or the censor? I support cinematic verisimilitude as much as the next bloke, but you gotta ask who is more influential, the guy who has the audacity to say 'masturbation' or the guy who has the audacity to think he can control what goes into the public's ears?
The broadcaster. I'm half tempted to find a recording of Frank saying "masturbation" and dubbing it over the beep. But I'm too dedicated to cinematic verisimilitude to alter the original artistic intention of the censor.
is the word "Masturbation" censored? I don't get it. Zappa is just talking about not to exclude "words" because a bunch of XV Century brains wants to do that. Zappa was one of the best composers and also one of the best thinkers of the XX Century. And the guy putting those "blips" was a thoughts killer.
HE REALLY TELLS IT LIKE IT IS...cigar chomping old guys in charge DID foster more musical freedom within the "mainstream" !...today it's MUCH TOO controlled. (however, there are still some genuine FREE artists out there...probably starving)...even many so-called independent artists are trying to emulate the mainstream medias' tactics/musical styles.
@jimlovesearth2 The internet helped music flourish I have no idea what you're talking about. The internet allows even the smallest most specific niches of music to see the light of day, and lets its fans find it easier. Record labels are not necessary for music production anymore. As far as no scene goes, you must have no friends because there are still many "scenes" and much social interaction taking place around music. Many people (myself and many friends included) go to live shows, etc.
Years of sucking in carcinogens and carbon monoxide is supposed to have no ill effects? Are you claiming that Frank's cancer was completely unrelated to daily consumptions of a cancer-causing substance?
Smoking? Bad for you? What the fuck... I guess I just never knew. No one ever talks about how smoking is bad for you. Ever. Maybe I should quit! But then the cool kids wouldn't like me...
The PMRC won. They even bleeped out "masturbation" which is not and has never been a dirty word. "Ass" is also bleeped out because it's such an ugly animal. I've never heard anyone bleep out "donkey" before....
That would be my critique of him as well, his songs are so poorly mixed, and they're almost proudly poorly mixed, I don't think he ever met a digitally produced track he didn't like. And his whole appearance of big loud bright colors remind me of my hipster kids I know but would rather not hang out with.
i disagree. human interaction is abundant on the internet despite your apparent contempt of it (perhaps out of a conservative view?). it is also, as you said before, a fertile ground for ideas, ideologies and different people to mix and create together. I myself, without it, would of never even heard of this fellow, Frank Zappa, and many others. besides, at it's very least the internet allows for people in the same vicinity to find each other easily in the real life.
One point that Frank didn't mention is that when he was signed, there were literally hundreds of record companies. Now there are 3, maybe 4, huge conglomerates. Back then you had some options.
He was so articulate, funny, brilliant, and he really knew what he was talking about. On top of that he was an amazing composer, a great guitarplayer and singer and an amazing musician. One of the greatest men of all time.
FRANK WAS ACTUALLY A HERO of MUSIC!!!!
Whenever I am bored and have had a few beers, I just type "zappa interview".
Frank was an Icon. Frank had guts, brains & mad skills. Many of us miss him greatly.
Check his CD called "Guitar" (no words), it will change your life! lol
a MUST, for guitar players.
He's right on about those "reprogramming" places. Some of those places were outright gulags - you can read about them on fornits.com.
@SwordInAir Because people who don't think they know best are more likely to make happy mistakes - like releasing albums by the Mothers of Invention. There is not a chance in hell that Zappa would be signed today, or if signed, to a deal longer than a single album.
Back in the day, there were such things as "prestige artists" - people who didn't sell millions, but the label was proud to represent. Now, it is only about the money - screw art.
postingoldtapes agreed
postingoldtapes absolutely! Apostrophe is a work of Genius.
It's SO funny how they beep out "Masturbation"!
How uptight this show was! ROTFLMAO!
Frank Zappa is and always was right. 100%. I miss that guy a LOT. We need more people like him. Or at least kind of like him.
I watch Zappa Interviews and they MAKE SENSE I listen to the music and it makes sense.. I think Zappas are Important in this world!..what are your other favorite things that SIR Franko Zappa managed to do with himself?
No, there's a statute in Bad Doberan Germany where they have the yearly Zappa festival known as Zappanale. I've never seen it myself, but it featured in the movie "Rock School" (NOT to be confused with the movie starring Jack Black).
frank zappa was extreme. and everything he said was absolutely true.
"Don't get any of the wet stuff on ya." quote of the day
The video is as it was originally aired on TV. The broadcaster cut in bits of Zappa's video for "G-Spot Tornado" - for no particular reason. The only change I made was to take several interview clips interspersed in the original show and put them together.
Frank Zappa is the most genius person ever. hail frank. The world of music misses you....
Having the word "masturbation" being censored speaks absolute volumes.
A good video from a good man.
That's contrary to what Frank said in this interview. He is actually saying that we were better off when those MBA business types were the record executives. They didn't understand music and thus took greater chances. It was when the "hip" non-business types took over the record industry that it was decided that they understood what was "hip" and "cool".
Come back Frank we miss you.
Reminds me of the movie They Live when they were in the homeless camps and there were TVs playing with pirate TV channels of dudes warning every body of alien takeover. Frank told the truth.
He seems REALLY happy.
Following up...
I don't believe Zappa had any particular responsibility to his former band members, no matter what hard, early years they shared.
For one, he never sold enough records to afford to keep a band on the payroll between tours.
And, for another, there are few items one can put on a rock music resume more impressive than "former Zappa player" - something that indicates you can play rings around anyone else.
Most ex-Zappa players are still making a living playing Zappa music.
Just keep the torch alive, people.
what does masturbation mean? lol Zappa was so talented and intelligent in so many ways.I still can't beleive he's gone. thanks for posting anything on Zappa is worth watching and learning from and of course his music was so great.the video was one one of the greatest inventions to keep the past present to learn and enjoy from!!!
We are in the Information Age right now. The fact that someone can produce a CD for a couple thousand dollars and make it accessible to the masses is a good thing. There is more variety in music now then there ever has been.
I posted that comment 4 months ago but im willing to rehash this conversation. Executives are less relevant now.
In the recent news from the UK there was a story of a still employed man celebrating his 101st birthday and he drank and smoked all his life! The singer Perry Como smoked 4 packs of cigarettes a day and he lived until he was 84! The fact that a person smokes doesn't mean they'll contract cancer or die from cancer at an early age.Also the smokers who do die from cancer die from cancer of the mouth,throat or lungs not of the prostate gland!
he's so right about record companies these days,there was a time when groups like the Stooges and the Sex Pistols,got record deals,-I recently heard of band bragging kind of that some of their material just so happened to get listened to by the prez of Geffen,and then all of a sudden they were back on a label,without hardly trying. I thought to myself-I don't think you want the prez. of a record company being into your band if your kids-then I thought it' s probly more like he knew it'd sell.
I never thought the word condom was beeped out.
Frank was actually getting into some serious economic politics in Czechoslovakia a year before he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. The United States government threatened the Czech government and forced them to stop associating with Zappa. Frank wasn't afraid to criticize the US government and they weren't happy about that.
Frank Zappa, a man ahead of his time.
A lot of original music now is created, produced, released and sold by musicians themselves--a contemporary phenomenon thanks to the Internet. Most of what is put out by major labels now is, as Otto so poetically put it, "barfy lame pussy swill". I believe Frank would have approved of the current trend totally. But--I'd love to hear his take on, for example, Bush, Cheney, Gonzales...we need a voice like Zappa's in the pop culture now more than ever!!!!!
hes one cool fella
You're, we're more right now more than ever.
@Practical Skeptic Basically he saw the media and corporate music industry for what is was. Pretty much everything he said in that interview is woefully apparent today.
I recall even Billy Joel using the word "masturbate" in one of his early songs...can't remember which...it was jarring the first time you heard it...but then just became part of the song..
We really need you now Frank, can somebody please post the full uncensored version with full wank text. Thanks in advance.
With a magazine? Rolled-up? One could get a VERY painful paper cut that way.
Remember what Frank said:
"Rock journalism is people who can't write interviewing people who can't talk for people who can't read."
Frank Zappa is speaking a lot of common sense here.
every word of it is all true.
We have enough people like him. But you won´t see them on TV in these days. People just hang around on forums or youtube comment side, because more and more become ancioux about what happens if they go out on the streets. I´m one of them and i´m not proud...
It's a mess with UA-cam, because sometimes your comments simply disappear or they appear in positions where you didn't comment - completely out of the context. That's confusing !
zappa is d king of word
The Zappa family has stopped it after a journalist had given Dweezil the information during his Germany tour, that the "Zappanale existed.
So true.
Probably not. Zappa had so much respect for Ertegun that he named one of his sons after him. But he was the type of record executive will to release things that he didn't completely understand, and was willing to stand by music that he believed in and give an artist more than a single chance.
Albert Grossman, the founder of Bearsville Records, probably fit that stereotype more closely, but still allowed artists to experiment and even fail.
ya, I didn't get those inserted images at all...I thought maybe the poster did it?..or was an accident?
Perhaps SvsDrums and MsPatty 1952 should get a room.
Telling it like it is......
@jimlovesearth2 helll yeeeeea brotha
good post
im not gonna use your keyboard...EVER
what's the song from the beginning?
What a funky grandpa he would have been, haha! (yes, that's how I prefer to remember the dead, with a smile on my face)
Yowzaa!
Jim, I'm really not sure if yr joking and looking to see how many reactions you'll get. On one hand, there really is great profundity to your comment about direct human interaction, on the other there's the pure absurdity of suggesting the internet's responsible for destroying great art. The net's the ultimate niche market and the fact that you'd make such a comment in an area which keeps Zappa's obscure yet brilliant notions alive is funny indeed. I applaud yr brilliant sense of irony! :-D
The Albert Einstein of music.
cigar chomping old guys...haha.
my comments are all in the wrong place...very frustrating...
yeah so true
Why the fuck did they censor the word "masturbation"?
That's complete bullshit.
And I'm proud to be Lithuanian for that reason
I swear!!!! I guess it was a 'BANNED' word in the 80s... lol
I disagree. Zappa was a serious composer who worked with rock musicians rather than classical musicians for one reason - they were cheaper. He spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to get his serious works performed, and all the orchestras seemed to care about was overtime and tea breaks. Only later was he taken seriously enough that orchestras wanted to perform his work rather than look at him as a mark to be fleeced. By favorite of his works is The Yellow Shark and G-Spot Tornado.
I read Frank's book once ("The Real Frank Zappa Book") and I sometimes wondered if the CIA or FBI was somehow responsible for his untimely death? Like Frank could have been slipped some radioactive isotope in his food or drink?
Someday he will be taught in school like Mozart and Beethoven, maybe a hundred years from now. Hell maybe even like Nostradamus, except his prophecies had a higher rate of coming true.
Im guessing early to mid 80's
Why is the word masturbation beeped out?
you need to check what side your on, this is a new era of enlightenment. We are liberating art. We are on Zappa's side. Why should some record exec be deciding what the kids are listening to! The internet allows for people all over the world to be influenced by great art.
I'm not saying smoking doesn't cause cancer,it does,but not in every case plus smoker's contract mostly lung,mouth or throat cancer not prostate cancer.
My original specualtion,was that maybe the FBI/CIA eliminated the controversial Zappa by poisoning him with a radioactive substance that caused his prostate cancer rather than "accepting" someone else's contention that Franks's smoking was to blame for his prostate disease!
believe me, most of us know.
Right on. Hundreds of dinky little labels..but GREAT music
I just watched the crossfire where he debates safe sex. O.o
Hmm, Jee, looks like the Central Scrutinizer got his mitts on this one..!
M A S T U R B A T I O N !
Ahh I feel better now!
Both of whom Zappa might have liked.
It's silly to think that every word said by a character in one of Frank's songs is expressing Frank's opinions. Hollywood screenwriters write about murderers all the time without personally endorsing murder.
Yeah, but who's the real artist in this portrayal? Zappa or the censor?
I support cinematic verisimilitude as much as the next bloke, but you gotta ask who is more influential, the guy who has the audacity to say 'masturbation' or the guy who has the audacity to think he can control what goes into the public's ears?
god bless frank
@lolusernames isn't it funnier that they censored the word "masturbation"?
The broadcaster. I'm half tempted to find a recording of Frank saying "masturbation" and dubbing it over the beep. But I'm too dedicated to cinematic verisimilitude to alter the original artistic intention of the censor.
Why did they censored "white stuff" near the end of the movie (4:13)? Totally unnecessary
I wonder what he would say about USA and the climate.
LoL
wow. 'masturbation' is bleeped out but he can say 'sex' a billion times. what does THAT tell you bout the censors? x$
is the word "Masturbation" censored?
I don't get it. Zappa is just talking about not to exclude "words" because a bunch of XV Century brains wants to do that.
Zappa was one of the best composers and also one of the best thinkers of the XX Century.
And the guy putting those "blips" was a thoughts killer.
O have noticed that as well, hope this comment skips into the correct slot !
Who is responsible for the BEEPS covering the beautiful word MASURBATION ?
so true the music buisness is suffering but also cause of bad music today!
3:35 Hahaha, he's referring to aids in case you younguns were wondering.
HE REALLY TELLS IT LIKE IT IS...cigar chomping old guys in charge DID foster more musical freedom within the "mainstream" !...today it's MUCH TOO controlled. (however, there are still some genuine FREE artists out there...probably starving)...even many so-called independent artists are trying to emulate the mainstream medias' tactics/musical styles.
@jimlovesearth2 The internet helped music flourish I have no idea what you're talking about. The internet allows even the smallest most specific niches of music to see the light of day, and lets its fans find it easier. Record labels are not necessary for music production anymore. As far as no scene goes, you must have no friends because there are still many "scenes" and much social interaction taking place around music. Many people (myself and many friends included) go to live shows, etc.
@jimlovesearth2 Yeah you tell people to kill the internet by making a comment on youtube? That just proved why the internet will never go away.
Years of sucking in carcinogens and carbon monoxide is supposed to have no ill effects? Are you claiming that Frank's cancer was completely unrelated to daily consumptions of a cancer-causing substance?
they censored the word masturbation. Land of the free indeed.
Smoking? Bad for you? What the fuck... I guess I just never knew. No one ever talks about how smoking is bad for you. Ever. Maybe I should quit!
But then the cool kids wouldn't like me...
Aww...I take it back kid. But man oh man is Dan Deacon annoying, but to each his own.
The PMRC won. They even bleeped out "masturbation" which is not and has never been a dirty word. "Ass" is also bleeped out because it's such an ugly animal. I've never heard anyone bleep out "donkey" before....
who the fuck censured this....didn't they learn anything from Zappa?!?!?
Bleeping 'masturbation'? WTF? Thank fuck I don't live in a place with such censorship.
They bleeped out the word "masturbation?" Are you kidding me? When was that word considered obscene?
i think he listened to just 3 songs of punk and 2 of metal....too lazy perhaps
That would be my critique of him as well, his songs are so poorly mixed, and they're almost proudly poorly mixed, I don't think he ever met a digitally produced track he didn't like. And his whole appearance of big loud bright colors remind me of my hipster kids I know but would rather not hang out with.
i disagree. human interaction is abundant on the internet despite your apparent contempt of it (perhaps out of a conservative view?).
it is also, as you said before, a fertile ground for ideas, ideologies and different people to mix and create together.
I myself, without it, would of never even heard of this fellow, Frank Zappa, and many others.
besides, at it's very least the internet allows for people in the same vicinity to find each other easily in the real life.
omg, it bleeped masterbation..
lol, hes complaining about censorship, and the video is literally censored