Don Paulsen interviews FZ - Revision history

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Jason.Kreitzer at 21:44, 17 August 2021

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 '''I've never really seen anywhere this any kinda how the whole group as a whole got together. How did all that come about?
 <br>
-Well, the group got together. We were working in Pomona at a place called ''The Broadside'' which is a dismal bar and [[Jimmy Carl Black|Jim]] had just come out from [[Kansas]] the, our drummer. There's two Jim's in the band now. Jim Black had just come out from Kansas and got together with [[Roy Estrada|Roy]] the bass player and they'd been working terrible jobs in orange county, which is a terrible place to live unless you belong to the John Birch party,
+Well, the group got together. We were working in [[Pomona]] at a place called ''The Broadside'' which is a dismal bar and [[Jimmy Carl Black|Jim]] had just come out from [[Kansas]] the, our drummer. There's two Jim's in the band now. Jim Black had just come out from Kansas and got together with [[Roy Estrada|Roy]] the bass player and they'd been working terrible jobs in orange county, which is a terrible place to live unless you belong to the John Birch party,
 '''Yem
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 '''uh, no ahh –<br>
-Well, let's see, he lived and died in New York. He died last February, his birthday is today as a matter of fact, the 22nd. He was born in the 1800's in Paris. He lived at 188 Sullivan Street and a lot of the people in the Village knew him.
+Well, let's see, he lived and died in New York. He died last February, his birthday is today as a matter of fact, the 22nd. He was born in the 1800's in [[Paris]]. He lived at 188 Sullivan Street and a lot of the people in the Village knew him.
 '''hmmp<br>

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 '''How has it been selling by the way?<br>
-It's selling very well. In fact [[MGM Records|MGM]] thought that they'd spent too much money on it already and were gonna let it die. But it started selling again and it kept on selling and now they don't know what it is. I went down there the other day and I went into the sales cheese office saying 'You guys are fucked, you don't know what you're doing, you've got [[The Beatles]] on your hands and you're sitting there with your thumb up yer ass and you don't know what you're doing, man' and he looked at me like I was crazy and I said y'know, 'You sold 'em like this after one week,' I said 'when we first came to New York, there was no extra hype, there was 5000 sales all over the country and forty of em in a town the size of a pumpkin in Wyoming!' It was really unbelievable. Cuz they been just letting it alone.
+It's selling very well. In fact [[MGM Records|MGM]] thought that they'd spent too much money on it already and were gonna let it die. But it started selling again and it kept on selling and now they don't know what it is. I went down there the other day and I went into the sales cheese office saying 'You guys are fucked, you don't know what you're doing, you've got [[The Beatles]] on your hands and you're sitting there with your thumb up yer ass and you don't know what you're doing, man' and he looked at me like I was crazy and I said y'know, 'You sold 'em like this after one week,' I said 'when we first came to [[New York]], there was no extra hype, there was 5000 sales all over the country and forty of em in a town the size of a pumpkin in [[Wyoming]]!' It was really unbelievable. Cuz they been just letting it alone.
 '''How have people been finding out about the album?<br>
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 '''What do you know of your following?<br>
-We have quite a ... strong following and uhh ... it's pretty big. There was this one kid who drove all the way from New Jersey on a motorcycle in the rain to see one of the shows at the Balloon Farm man, and he was practically eating my shoes.<laughing> I said, 'What is this?' I y'know, we made a record, we put it out there, I didn't think anybody knew, we come from California y'know and we come out here and there's this guy from New Jersey, goin' out of his mind. He says 'All the kids from over there really dig you man.' So we're being surprised everyplace we go. We went to University, We went to Michigan State and went across the street to do a little hype like we have done in the past, and 400 kids come blasting in there for autographs man in a store about as big as this office and the guy had the albums all over the store. This is, was ... blowing my mind. They're out there, though.
+We have quite a ... strong following and uhh ... it's pretty big. There was this one kid who drove all the way from [[New Jersey]] on a motorcycle in the rain to see one of the shows at the Balloon Farm man, and he was practically eating my shoes.<laughing> I said, 'What is this?' I y'know, we made a record, we put it out there, I didn't think anybody knew, we come from [[California]] y'know and we come out here and there's this guy from New Jersey, goin' out of his mind. He says 'All the kids from over there really dig you man.' So we're being surprised everyplace we go. We went to University, We went to Michigan State and went across the street to do a little hype like we have done in the past, and 400 kids come blasting in there for autographs man in a store about as big as this office and the guy had the albums all over the store. This is, was ... blowing my mind. They're out there, though.
 '''I hope it grows more. I hope you get above ground to the point that the radio stations answer to the public demand.<br>

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 '''heh<br>
-In the world's smallest Greenwich Village Kitchen. [Louder into the mic] We have a new routine that we're going to unveil shortly that deals with American blues bands. Now let's get this straight. It is not necessarily logical that if you learn all your favorite guitar solos off a bunch of old records and play them yourself under the influence of a vast quantity of drugs that you have soul. Now I may be wrong about this, but I just kinda feel that it's really stupid to pretend like that. Ah, there's something basically aberrated about this sort of american blues band. You get a bunch of little white boys who want to play a type of Negro music with which they might identify but ahh, I don't feel they are competent to ahh, to -- they shouldn't play that shit, man. It's not their bag, really, and they're kidding themselves and they're doing a disservice to the music scene in general and to the colored people who they -- you know what it's like? The guy says, 'Oh MAN, I'm gonna play SO funky and we're gonna go down there-' and these colored guys are gonna come in there and say 'Hey, you guys do pretty good for white boys,' and they wait for that. I've seen 'em, man and it's disgusting. They wait for some old man, they wait for the janitor to come up and say, 'Yeah, I remember when I was back down on the levee and you guys err really sound, yessir!' and I don't know who's putting who on. But I bet the janitor will wait around for a group like that to come around so he can put 'em on and then go away some place and listen to Archie Shepp.
+In the world's smallest Greenwich Village Kitchen. [Louder into the mic] We have a new routine that we're going to unveil shortly that deals with American blues bands. Now let's get this straight. It is not necessarily logical that if you learn all your favorite guitar solos off a bunch of old records and play them yourself under the influence of a vast quantity of drugs that you have soul. Now I may be wrong about this, but I just kinda feel that it's really stupid to pretend like that. Ah, there's something basically aberrated about this sort of american blues band. You get a bunch of little white boys who want to play a type of Negro music with which they might identify but ahh, I don't feel they are competent to ahh, to -- they shouldn't play that shit, man. It's not their bag, really, and they're kidding themselves and they're doing a disservice to the music scene in general and to the colored people who they -- you know what it's like? The guy says, 'Oh MAN, I'm gonna play SO funky and we're gonna go down there-' and these colored guys are gonna come in there and say 'Hey, you guys do pretty good for white boys,' and they wait for that. I've seen 'em, man and it's disgusting. They wait for some old man, they wait for the janitor to come up and say, 'Yeah, I remember when I was back down on the levee and you guys err really sound, yessir!' and I don't know who's putting who on. But I bet the janitor will wait around for a group like that to come around so he can put 'em on and then go away some place and listen to [[Archie Shepp]].
 '''ha! and then go on and laugh at the white boys.<br>
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 [[Category:Interviews with Zappa]]

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 Y'know? In the middle of that, Ray Elliott from Them comes walking in and he DID demolish my house. Walked over a coffee table, just -- ploosh. We put him in a cab and wheeled him out. And so, I didn't know that it had effected Eric that much but I started reading all of these things that it must have really blown his mind [laughs].
-'''Ah, oh! one other thing uhh Barry, you're friends with Barry Goldberg, in here the other day and who says that you and Mike Bloomfield and a few other people were on Sunday the other day.<br>
+'''Ah, oh! one other thing uhh Barry, you're friends with [[Barry Goldberg]], in here the other day and who says that you and Mike Bloomfield and a few other people were on Sunday the other day.<br>
 mm-hmm, yeah it's a

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 '''Wow.<br>
-What happened was from the first day we went into the studio, the first tune we cut was [[Anyway The Wind Blows]].
+What happened was from the first day we went into the studio, the first tune we cut was [[Any Way The Wind Blows (The Track)|Any Way The Wind Blows]].
 '''MM-hmm<br>

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:18, 7 October 2021
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−	''This is the transcription of a recorded interview with [[Biography\|Frank Zappa]] conducted on December 22, 1966 by [[Don Paulsen]].''	+	''This is the transcription of a recorded interview with [[Biography\|Frank Zappa]] conducted on December 22, 1966 by [https://www.discogs.com/artist/2236533-Don-Paulsen Don Paulsen].''

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 '''yeah<br>
-and squeaked the octave? yeah. Ok, simultaneously though I became aware of the presence of real music uhh, got ahold of an album that I read about in ... Look magazine I believe. It was a big article they did on [[Sam Goody's Record Store| Sam Goody's Record shop]]. Said Sam Goody sells records that nobody else would buy, 'these people in New York are really crazy', y'know
+and squeaked the octave? yeah. Ok, simultaneously though I became aware of the presence of real music uhh, got ahold of an album that I read about in ... Look magazine I believe. It was a big article they did on [[Wikipedia:Sam Goody|Sam Goody's Record Store| Sam Goody's Record shop]]. Said Sam Goody sells records that nobody else would buy, 'these people in New York are really crazy', y'know
 '''mm-hmmm<br>

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 '''ha! and then go on and laugh at the white boys.<br>
-Yeah well I think it's gonna -- it's aberrated and well then maybe one of these days they'll get wise to themselves. OK! the [[Eric Burdon]] Recording Sessions. AHA! On July 4 1966 on what you might describe as a moment's notice, I was asked to manufacture on behalf of [[Tom Wilson]] for [[The Animals]], a musical organization from England, a set of arrangements. I was told just to go in there and tell 'em what ya want and ah they'll play it. ok. Well, I got to the studio at eleven o'clock and I'm the only one there. Then Tom Wilson comes in and he's 'Uh, Where are the animals?' and I said, "Gee, I don't know Tom."
+Yeah well I think it's gonna -- it's aberrated and well then maybe one of these days they'll get wise to themselves. OK! the [[Eric Burdon]] Recording Sessions. AHA! On July 4 1966 on what you might describe as a moment's notice, I was asked to manufacture on behalf of [[Tom Wilson]] for [[Eric Burdon|The Animals]], a musical organization from England, a set of arrangements. I was told just to go in there and tell 'em what ya want and ah they'll play it. ok. Well, I got to the studio at eleven o'clock and I'm the only one there. Then Tom Wilson comes in and he's 'Uh, Where are the animals?' and I said, "Gee, I don't know Tom."
 '''What is this a ten o'clock?<br>