i love Zappa's complete discography but i always preferred the original Mothers of Invention line-up 1965-1969 R.I.P. (Rest In Peace) Frank Zappa, Jimmy Carl Black, Ray Collins and Jim Sherwood R.I.P. (Rot In Prison) Roy Estrada
Just want to add to the positive vibes here: I've never heard of Terkel until now, but his appreciation for, and understanding of, what Zappa was doing impresses me a lot. Gotta find and read his works. Thank you for posting this, every interview with Frank is full of great quotes and thought-provoking asides. The Present Day Composer Refuses To Die.
I do agree that this is a great interview and interviewer, but it still sounds at times like an interviewer attempting to inject additional agenda/meaning into Frank's ideas. For instance, the introductory bit about "Who Are the Brain Police" wherein he is trying to assert more meaning into the concept of "plastic" than there really is. Or at least, attempting to inflate it with additional socio-political import. Also, in the bit about Frank's audience and relationship with his fans and their relationship with music. Now, mind you, the misguided questions and leading assertions *do* elicit outstanding responses from Zappa and for that reason, I'd say that T. was a fantastic interviewer. I would love to hear more interviews from this interviewer.
WFMT, at the time, was the premier "Classical" broadcast station in Chicago, so, they ( the engineers) knew their s**t. It was one station that never "over modulated" the transmitter to put out a very clean sounding signal. Wikipedia states that, " In 1964, Hi Fi/Stereo Review readers voted WFMT the best station in Chicago in terms of audio quality"
Studs had a weekly interview show on a Chicago classical music radio station and also was a lover of folk music. I listened all the time but not as far back as 1968. Studs was like Howard Stern in that he did long interviews where had done his research and listened intently. It shows here. In fact his books were simply interviews of regular people. So pleased to find this interview on YT.
Studs is wayyyy better than Stern, and I say that as a Stern fan. Studs was an actual interviewer, Howard used to be okay but now he just asked psychiatric questions and has other people come up with the decent questions
Great interview with Terkel. I listened to Terkel's radio show every day in the mid to late 1970s. He authored several great books and did readings of some of the great authors. His passing was a great loss.
what a wonderful interview. it’s inspiring that Frank would have wanted to survive a nuclear catastrophe. and I really dig that “Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance” is framed as a piece of genuinely positive music, and not instead as a sarcastic parting shot.
Frank had roughly 25 years of life left after this interview and he crammed as much of his creativity and forward thrust into his remaining projects as possible.
,,, being globally fixated on th' lyrical aspects of wuttEVA same with FZ ... one of the most sentient and inspiring thinkers/voices i.g. ,, extrem.y well matched with mr. terkel! ... such an outstanding interview ... thanx n kudos for the up-load! ...
Funny..I was very unhappy in school learned NOTHING ..got high alot..listened to music.had Zappa tapes .. FIRST CONCERT EVER. saw him five times before ever becoming a singer lyricist ,decades later...keys.self taught all
I read John Taylor Gatto and started to understand so much about schoolings plan to dumb us down in general. The individuals who are bored and don't easily fall in line and fit in there are the ones who often the most creative and just need the freedom to follow what motivates them in their own heart and soul. Zappa is a really great example of independence and creativity to rise above the oppression enforced on us everywhere we look. My life has changed in great ways since I learned Gatto's message
@@charlesbogle6544 Maybe that's why I mostly preferred drawing comics in class to the actual class material. Comics which most teachers found just as offensive as most students found hilarious. There were a few notable exceptions, though. A couple of my teachers were like-minded or simply tolerant and let me be. Also, certain subjects, like science and astronomy, I was too passionate about to see ever being mis-taught to my peers, who were just learning about them from someone who maybe wasn't interested enough to do a decent job. This either made me fast friends with the teacher and worked to the benefit of everyone, or expose one or more embarrassing limitations in the curriculum, which wasn't always respected. In a few cases I got thrown out for disruption, and I was usually okay with that.
If Terkel got any of the song names or lyrics right I must have missed it, which is unfortunate given that Terkel seems to be genuinely interested in and respectful of Zappa in most other ways.
Who cares if hair is long or short or sprayed or partly greyed, we know that hair ain't where it's at; there will come a time when you won't even be ashamed if you are fat. That's today! There are so many fat people around, they're not even ashamed, they don't even panic about their big fat gut?! They just get married and have big fat babies who grow up to clog up the streets and hallways and doorways and act like they were an immaculate conception and a benefit to society. Real-deal consumers; they eat anything on a plate and who knows what they do in the dark?
I would become a big Zappa fan a little over a year after this interview was conducted with author Terkel when I was a high school freshman. But despite his intelligence, wit and powers of observation I think he in many ways was smugly and to some extent willfully out of touch with many things in the world. He mentioned the lousy acoustics in hockey rinks and so forth, but as the years went by, as everyone knows, stage equipment greatly improved and recording techniques became more refined. The last time I saw him was on his final tour in 1988, and you could pretty much hear everything. But four years earlier, in 1984, when I saw him play the Tower Theater in Philly the sound coming through his sound system was harsh with an emphasis on the mid to upper middle EQ range, which was was the fault of his sound guys working the board. And I assume they were doing pretty much exactly what Frank would have wanted. But by that time playing clubs and small halls was obviously untenable. Despite all that it’s still very interesting listening to this interview.
i love Zappa's complete discography but i always preferred the original Mothers of Invention line-up 1965-1969
R.I.P. (Rest In Peace) Frank Zappa, Jimmy Carl Black, Ray Collins and Jim Sherwood
R.I.P. (Rot In Prison) Roy Estrada
Ditto! That group just had a rare certain vibe all the others lacked.
Just want to add to the positive vibes here:
I've never heard of Terkel until now, but his appreciation for, and understanding of, what Zappa was doing impresses me a lot. Gotta find and read his works.
Thank you for posting this, every interview with Frank is full of great quotes and thought-provoking asides.
The Present Day Composer Refuses To Die.
,,, if i remember right T. also did one superb dylan-interviev approx. '65 ...
I do agree that this is a great interview and interviewer, but it still sounds at times like an interviewer attempting to inject additional agenda/meaning into Frank's ideas. For instance, the introductory bit about "Who Are the Brain Police" wherein he is trying to assert more meaning into the concept of "plastic" than there really is. Or at least, attempting to inflate it with additional socio-political import. Also, in the bit about Frank's audience and relationship with his fans and their relationship with music. Now, mind you, the misguided questions and leading assertions *do* elicit outstanding responses from Zappa and for that reason, I'd say that T. was a fantastic interviewer.
I would love to hear more interviews from this interviewer.
Mr Chicago
Very amazing in touch
Wow!!! Zappa interviewing with the legendary Studs Terkel(!?!?!)... waaaay back in 1968?!?! This is wonderful!
Wonderful interview just now found it. 74 years old man remembers Frank Zappa and his first album. 🙏😎❤️ Thank you Frank.
I think this is the best Zappa interview I've ever heard. Studs was an excellent interviewer. This was a very informative interview.
The sound quality of this recording is remarkable considering it was recorded in 1968.
Good tape that is kept well beats all.
Sounds just like a Telefunken U47
That's what happened when someone preserves a tape properly
WFMT, at the time, was the premier "Classical" broadcast station in Chicago, so, they ( the engineers) knew their s**t. It was one station that never "over modulated" the transmitter to put out a very clean sounding signal. Wikipedia states that, " In 1964, Hi Fi/Stereo Review readers voted WFMT the best station in Chicago in terms of audio quality"
Studs had a weekly interview show on a Chicago classical music radio station and also was a lover of folk music. I listened all the time but not as far back as 1968. Studs was like Howard Stern in that he did long interviews where had done his research and listened intently. It shows here. In fact his books were simply interviews of regular people. So pleased to find this interview on YT.
Studs' books are amazing. "Hard Times" is one of my all time favorite books.
Studs is wayyyy better than Stern, and I say that as a Stern fan.
Studs was an actual interviewer, Howard used to be okay but now he just asked psychiatric questions and has other people come up with the decent questions
Great interview with Terkel. I listened to Terkel's radio show every day in the mid to late 1970s. He authored several great books and did readings of some of the great authors. His passing was a great loss.
Love the seriousness of Frank in this interview. We share the same birthday....🎶
Cool !!!
Me to
Delicious muffin remnants.
Awsome intervieuw. Great quality. One of the best Zappa intervieuws.😎
Obvious that Frank seems relaxed with this interviewer.
Zappa, ahead of his time, and missed.
Good interview. Thank you.
It's so great what Zappa says about the sound of electric amplified music in arenas and halls.
Miss you, Frank!
what a wonderful interview. it’s inspiring that Frank would have wanted to survive a nuclear catastrophe. and I really dig that “Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance” is framed as a piece of genuinely positive music, and not instead as a sarcastic parting shot.
Frank had roughly 25 years of life left after this interview and he crammed as much of his creativity and forward thrust into his remaining projects as possible.
Thanks for posting this.
"People who vote are the ones in charge..." - FZ
You can tell Studs Terkel has done his homework before doing this interview (maybe he was actually a Zappa aficionado, who knows?).
Never knew about this one! Thanks for uploading.
,,, being globally fixated on th' lyrical aspects of wuttEVA same with FZ ... one of the most sentient and inspiring thinkers/voices i.g. ,, extrem.y well matched with mr. terkel! ... such an outstanding interview ... thanx n kudos for the up-load! ...
Studs Terkel, author of Working.
Master of,
"The Air Sculpture"
Thank you , new sub here from Quebec !
Merci beaucoup !
/-c
Zappa's voice is so different before his trauma at Montreux.
His “trauma” occurred in December of ‘71 in London (not Montreux) when he was pushed into the orchestra pit and seriously injured.
@@charleswinokoor6023 correct!
@@charleswinokoor6023 Why did you put trauma in quotes?
Funny..I was very unhappy in school learned NOTHING ..got high alot..listened to music.had Zappa tapes .. FIRST CONCERT EVER.
saw him five times before ever becoming a singer lyricist ,decades later...keys.self taught all
I read John Taylor Gatto and started to understand so much about schoolings plan to dumb us down in general. The individuals who are bored and don't easily fall in line and fit in there are the ones who often the most creative and just need the freedom to follow what motivates them in their own heart and soul. Zappa is a really great example of independence and creativity to rise above the oppression enforced on us everywhere we look. My life has changed in great ways since I learned Gatto's message
@@charlesbogle6544 Maybe that's why I mostly preferred drawing comics in class to the actual class material. Comics which most teachers found just as offensive as most students found hilarious. There were a few notable exceptions, though. A couple of my teachers were like-minded or simply tolerant and let me be. Also, certain subjects, like science and astronomy, I was too passionate about to see ever being mis-taught to my peers, who were just learning about them from someone who maybe wasn't interested enough to do a decent job.
This either made me fast friends with the teacher and worked to the benefit of everyone, or expose one or more embarrassing limitations in the curriculum, which wasn't always respected. In a few cases I got thrown out for disruption, and I was usually okay with that.
2nd Concert Ever
This is the best interview of frank I ever heard. He's less than 25 here this must be before the 68 riots in Chicago because they don't mention it
He would’ve been 27 here.
If Terkel got any of the song names or lyrics right I must have missed it, which is unfortunate given that Terkel seems to be genuinely interested in and respectful of Zappa in most other ways.
You can hear Frank's voice is higher, before it changed when he was pushed off stage in London a year later.
3 years later
It sounds lower to me. I've never understood his maintaining that his voice was made lower by that fall.
Frank❤
The NAACP funded The Ramblers!? I've never heard that one!
Now every band is playing to a cd on stage. Can you imagine Hendrix or Zappa doing that? Music does not pay.
prescient libertarian talking points from a musical genius
It's Studs Terkel, no shit
Isn't Studs Terkel an author ?
Quite the renowned one, at that. He also did quite a bit of radio over the years. The man was/is a Chicago institution.
You just might be right.
Frank was soooo trying to communicate sanely to a post literate world
Who cares if hair is long or short or sprayed or partly greyed, we know that hair ain't where it's at; there will come a time when you won't even be ashamed if you are fat.
That's today! There are so many fat people around, they're not even ashamed, they don't even panic about their big fat gut?! They just get married and have big fat babies who grow up to clog up the streets and hallways and doorways and act like they were an immaculate conception and a benefit to society. Real-deal consumers; they eat anything on a plate and who knows what they do in the dark?
REAL
DEAL
CONSUMERS
Frank knew his culture too well...
This comment is very funny, but very literal
I would become a big Zappa fan a little over a year after this interview was conducted with author Terkel when I was a high school freshman.
But despite his intelligence, wit and powers of observation I think he in many ways was smugly and to some extent willfully out of touch with many things in the world.
He mentioned the lousy acoustics in hockey rinks and so forth, but as the years went by, as everyone knows, stage equipment greatly improved and recording techniques became more refined.
The last time I saw him was on his final tour in 1988, and you could pretty much hear everything.
But four years earlier, in 1984, when I saw him play the Tower Theater in Philly the sound coming through his sound system was harsh with an emphasis on the mid to upper middle EQ range, which was was the fault of his sound guys working the board.
And I assume they were doing pretty much exactly what Frank would have wanted.
But by that time playing clubs and small halls was obviously untenable.
Despite all that it’s still very interesting listening to this interview.
31:05 - 31:28
We had a 24 year old high school student.
That's right, one of the least attractive Black Felmales I've ever met.
@4:45
Frank, incredible musician, horrible in regard to his situational awareness regarding political theater.
D'huh?
This is the best interview of frank I ever heard. He's less than 25 here this must be before the 68 riots in Chicago because they don't mention it
He was 27.