Frank Zappa 89-12 - Revision history

Spider of Destiny at 21:47, 23 July 2026

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Spider of Destiny at 21:44, 6 June 2026

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Jason.Kreitzer at 00:28, 1 May 2026

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Jason.Kreitzer at 01:27, 16 September 2021

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Jason.Kreitzer at 22:21, 21 July 2021

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Spider of Destiny at 21:20, 17 November 2020

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Spider of Destiny at 19:08, 10 December 2018

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Propellerkuh at 05:01, 7 May 2007

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Propellerkuh at 10:15, 6 May 2007

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Propellerkuh at 06:22, 5 February 2007

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 [[Image:HT-89-12.jpg|frame|]]
-Frank Zappa has played on every major stage in the world – including a September 1985 command performance before a Senate Hearing Committee to discuss the Parent's Music Resource Center's proposal to put warning stickers on rock albums with "questionable" content. Needless to say, FZ was not amused. He is influenced as much by what happens in the world around him as he is by his powerful musical vision. Frank spoke with HIGH TIMES recently ... here's what's on his mind now.
+Frank Zappa has played on every major stage in the world – including a September 1985 command performance before a Senate Hearing Committee to discuss the Parents' Music Resource Center's proposal to put warning stickers on rock albums with "questionable" content. Needless to say, FZ was not amused. He is influenced as much by what happens in the world around him as he is by his powerful musical vision. Frank spoke with HIGH TIMES recently ... here's what's on his mind now.
 '''Do you think censorship is an issue in everybody's life?<br>
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 Americans keep watching these award shows, but why? There is a trend in Europe right now towards US-packaged award shows being turned down by the national networks. I just heard that Spain was offered some big US musical award show. They said, "We don't want it."
-'''So what did you do with your Grammy award?<br>
+'''So what did you do with your [[Grammy Awards|Grammy award]]?<br>
 It's sitting next to the television set in my basement so people can say, "What is that?" I tell them it's a joke.

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 '''People get AIDS ...<br>
-The second time I did a CNN show called ''Cross Fire,'' the debate topic was "Does Rock Music Cause AIDS?" I was debating Rev. Jeff Ling of the PMRC. Their logic was this: Rock music makes people want to have sex, and sex gives you AIDS. Pretty thin, huh? They set up the question and I just said, "No." There was a big silence, then they had to figure out what to do with the other 29 minutes of the show. I haven't been invited back since.
+The second time I did a CNN show called ''Cross Fire,'' the debate topic was "Does Rock Music Cause AIDS?" I was debating Rev. [[Jeff Ling]] of the PMRC. Their logic was this: Rock music makes people want to have sex, and sex gives you AIDS. Pretty thin, huh? They set up the question and I just said, "No." There was a big silence, then they had to figure out what to do with the other 29 minutes of the show. I haven't been invited back since.
 '''Why do you think they're not playing your records?<br>
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 '''What do you think about how drugs are integrating into society and where they're coming from?<br>
-Think of it this way – ou know where pot comes from, right? It comes from the ground. Did it ever occur to you that designer drugs are not things that just come springing out of the ground? They're not natural. Some scientist had to build them. The construction of these designer drugs requires sophisticated equipment. Now the guy who's growing marijuana, or the cocaine rancher in South America, he's not a scientist. He's a businessman-farmer combination. All these weird new chemicals come from professional places. It probably wasn't just a little hobby that started in the laboratory because you don't get to use the laboratory whenever you want. Somebody said, "Make me this. Make me XTC, make me PCP, make me LSD. Here is your contract, here is the money, hire the people, invent this drug. Deliver it to me on this date. If you can, we will then do experiments." The experiments to find out what these chemicals will do to human beings can't be conducted on goats and sheep. You have to do the experiments on people. Unfortunately, in America you have a society that contains a large number of people who are willing to take part in these experiments. They actually pay to take these chemicals that have been created for some unknown purpose. I think that before you stick a chemical in your body, you should think about where it came from and who's really getting the benefit.
+Think of it this way – you know where pot comes from, right? It comes from the ground. Did it ever occur to you that designer drugs are not things that just come springing out of the ground? They're not natural. Some scientist had to build them. The construction of these designer drugs requires sophisticated equipment. Now the guy who's growing marijuana, or the cocaine rancher in South America, he's not a scientist. He's a businessman-farmer combination. All these weird new chemicals come from professional places. It probably wasn't just a little hobby that started in the laboratory because you don't get to use the laboratory whenever you want. Somebody said, "Make me this. Make me XTC, make me PCP, make me LSD. Here is your contract, here is the money, hire the people, invent this drug. Deliver it to me on this date. If you can, we will then do experiments." The experiments to find out what these chemicals will do to human beings can't be conducted on goats and sheep. You have to do the experiments on people. Unfortunately, in America you have a society that contains a large number of people who are willing to take part in these experiments. They actually pay to take these chemicals that have been created for some unknown purpose. I think that before you stick a chemical in your body, you should think about where it came from and who's really getting the benefit.
 '''In your book you came up with this great thing on AIDS and how it was probably missionaries sticking people with unsanitized needles ...<br>

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 '''Somebody up there doesn't like me.<br>
 By Elin Wilder<br>
-High Times, December 1989<br>
+[[High Times]], December 1989<br>

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 People presume that drugs actually give social benefit to them. I've said this for years; drugs are bad for you, don't use them. You want to commit suicide? Go ahead. It's your business. So long as you don't interfere with my life, don't drive your car into me, don't come after me with a stick. As the planet gets more crowded I think we have to examine how far we will go to accommodate the way other people live and which personal freedoms we're going to be willing to give up in order to control the way other people live. I think we have to make a serious analysis of this problem. I'm not a dope fiend. I do what I do because it comes out of my imagination. The human body is, in fact, a chemical factory. My behavior, and the way I think, is the result of the chemicals that go into my body. These chemicals include coffee, cigarette smoke, and peanut butter. Now, if you think I'm weird, and you want to be weird, too, then drink coffee, smoke cigarettes, and eat peanut butter.
-I encountered another variation of that on the ''[[Frank Zappa Interview By Jane Pauley|Today Show]],'' with [[Jane Pauley]]. I don't know whether she intended to make it come out that way, but it was like, you play the guitar, how could you be a good father? As if the two concepts are mutually exclusive. And I reminded her I had just come from Spain, where you get respect if you play the guitar. In the United States, if you play a guitar you're doing the work of the devil. Or you're Public Enemy No. 1. Something's wrong here. And to actually have it verbalized that way on network television! You know, "You play the guitar and still you have these nice children." I had to jump up and down about that.
+I encountered another variation of that on the ''[[Frank Zappa Interview By Jane Pauley|Today Show]],'' with [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0667111/ Jane Pauley]. I don't know whether she intended to make it come out that way, but it was like, you play the guitar, how could you be a good father? As if the two concepts are mutually exclusive. And I reminded her I had just come from Spain, where you get respect if you play the guitar. In the United States, if you play a guitar you're doing the work of the devil. Or you're Public Enemy No. 1. Something's wrong here. And to actually have it verbalized that way on network television! You know, "You play the guitar and still you have these nice children." I had to jump up and down about that.
 '''What do you think about how drugs are integrating into society and where they're coming from?<br>

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 '''Why was labeling records such a big deal?<br>
-Well, my theory is that it was the ground floor of [[Albert Gore]]'s presidential campaign. I'm sure there were other aspects to it, too, because there was a link between what the [[PMRC]] did and the fundamentalist right that helped launch this crusade. There's some hanky-panky going on there.
+Well, my theory is that it was the ground floor of [[Al Gore|Albert Gore]]'s presidential campaign. I'm sure there were other aspects to it, too, because there was a link between what the [[Parents Music Resource Center|PMRC]] did and the fundamentalist right that helped launch this crusade. There's some hanky-panky going on there.
 '''Then what would you suggest to someone who wants to follow in your footsteps to do something different musically and still maintain some sort of integrity, given the restraints that are on them by the music industry and what's going on in the country in general?<br>
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 '''People get AIDS ...<br>
-The second time I did a CNN show called ''Cross Fire,'' the debate topic was "Does Rock Music Cause AIDS?" I was debating Rev. Jeff Ling of the [[PMRC]]. Their logic was this: Rock music makes people want to have sex, and sex gives you AIDS. Pretty thin, huh? They set up the question and I just said, "No." There was a big silence, then they had to figure out what to do with the other 29 minutes of the show. I haven't been invited back since.
+The second time I did a CNN show called ''Cross Fire,'' the debate topic was "Does Rock Music Cause AIDS?" I was debating Rev. Jeff Ling of the PMRC. Their logic was this: Rock music makes people want to have sex, and sex gives you AIDS. Pretty thin, huh? They set up the question and I just said, "No." There was a big silence, then they had to figure out what to do with the other 29 minutes of the show. I haven't been invited back since.
 '''Why do you think they're not playing your records?<br>

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:20, 17 November 2020
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	You keep talking about it and maybe one or two people who hear it are willing to talk about it to somebody else, and you hope it spreads that way. I don't think you can expect more than that. There are no miracles here.		You keep talking about it and maybe one or two people who hear it are willing to talk about it to somebody else, and you hope it spreads that way. I don't think you can expect more than that. There are no miracles here.
	[[Category:Interviews with Zappa]]		[[Category:Interviews with Zappa]]
		+	[[Category:1989]]

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 It's really easy. All you have to do is decide you don't want to be one of those guys. You don't make as much money, but you can certainly live well enough.
-'''It's a bizarre thing – you ask kids what they want to be when they grow up, or what they want to do, and their answer is, "I want to make money." In a survey among high school students, more kids said Donald Trump was their hero than anybody else.<br>
+'''It's a bizarre thing – you ask kids what they want to be when they grow up, or what they want to do, and their answer is, "I want to make money." In a survey among high school students, more kids said [[Donald Trump]] was their hero than anybody else.<br>
 Yeah, but on the other hand, let's deal with it as a fact of life in America. I think that's a very good indicator of the failure of US education. Now if you add these two facts together, Donald Trump is the idol of American teens, and that teens can't read, write, or do arithmetic, what do we have?