Signs Of The Times - Revision history

Spider of Destiny at 11:38, 12 July 2026

2026-07-12T11:38:13Z

Spider of Destiny at 21:33, 1 July 2026

2026-07-01T21:33:18Z

Spider of Destiny at 21:34, 6 June 2026

2026-06-06T21:34:42Z

Jason.Kreitzer at 20:08, 14 September 2021

2021-09-14T20:08:26Z

Jason.Kreitzer at 03:46, 13 August 2021

2021-08-13T03:46:30Z

Jason.Kreitzer at 01:25, 24 July 2021

2021-07-24T01:25:38Z

Propellerkuh at 13:23, 26 May 2012

2012-05-26T13:23:25Z

Spider of Destiny at 01:51, 15 October 2011

2011-10-15T01:51:21Z

Spider of Destiny at 15:19, 13 December 2010

2010-12-13T15:19:14Z

PropellerGLV at 07:53, 4 May 2007

2007-05-04T07:53:25Z

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-[[Image:Anton_Corbijn_1991.jpg|frame|Anton Corbijn, 1991]]
+[[Image:Anton_Corbijn_1991.jpg|frame|Photo by [[Anton Corbijn]], 1991]]
 <blockquote>'''Frank Zappa is going to run for President. Bob Guccione Jr., reads his lips.'''
@@ Line 42: / Line 42: @@
 Well, I kept doing it. I'm sure there were a few people in America who did it, but you never heard it, because the bulk of what you heard is what you saw. The beginning of the '80s gave us MTV, and music changed and switched from an audio to a video medium.
-[[Image:Anton_Corbijn_1991_2.jpg|frame|Anton Corbijn, 1991]]
+[[Image:Anton_Corbijn_1991_2.jpg|frame|Photo by [[Anton Corbijn]], 1991]]
 '''For better or worse?<br>
 For worse, because I believe that the way music is to be consumed is through your ears, and it shouldn't be too important whether the person performing it looks like a model.

@@ Line 108: / Line 108: @@
 '''Really?<br>
-Yeah. I've called two political consultants in Washington and we're just gonna do a little feasibility study to see what it would take. The idea is to run as a nonpartisan candidate and urge other people around the country to not only run but resign from the Democratic and the Republican parties because the Democrats stand for nothing except "I wish I was a Republican" and the Republicans stand for raw, unbridled evil and greed and ignorance smothered in balloons and ribbons. So that's really not much of a choice and it's nauseating to watch Democrats make speeches because they all wish they were Republicans.
+Yeah. I've called two political consultants in Washington and we're just gonna do a little feasibility study to see what it would take. The idea is to run as a nonpartisan candidate and urge other people around the country to not only run but resign from the Democratic and the [[Republican Party|Republican parties]] because the Democrats stand for nothing except "I wish I was a Republican" and the Republicans stand for raw, unbridled evil and greed and ignorance smothered in balloons and ribbons. So that's really not much of a choice and it's nauseating to watch Democrats make speeches because they all wish they were Republicans.
 '''What do you think your chances'll be?<br>

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:34, 6 June 2026
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	[[Category:Interviews with Zappa]]		[[Category:Interviews with Zappa]]
		+	[[Category:1991]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:08, 14 September 2021
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	Spin, July 1991<br>		Spin, July 1991<br>
−	Interview by [[Bob Guccione Jr]].<br>	+	Interview by [[Wikipedia:Bob Guccione Jr.\|Bob Guccione Jr.]].<br>

@@ Line 83: / Line 83: @@
 '''Did you find any punk musically good? What about the [[wikipedia:The Clash|Clash]]?<br>
-One of my favorite punk records was "[[Gidget Goes to Hell]]" by the [[Suburban Lawns]] – I thought that was good.
+One of my favorite punk records was "Gidget Goes to Hell" by the [[Suburban Lawns]] – I thought that was good.
 '''Did you ever make any punk records?<br>

@@ Line 7: / Line 7: @@
 <blockquote>'''Frank Zappa is going to run for President. Bob Guccione Jr., reads his lips.'''
-The image of [[Frank Zappa]] as a mad scientist has, like a stubborn vine, so entwined itself through the garden of rock'n'roll mythology that its origin is completely indiscernible. But when I meet him in the dark living room that appears to be the center of the Zappa universe, he is dressed in a T-shirt and beach pants, and his long gray-streaked hair and moustache accentuate the intensity of his eyes and he looks more like a wizard in exile.
+The image of [[Biography|Frank Zappa]] as a mad scientist has, like a stubborn vine, so entwined itself through the garden of rock'n'roll mythology that its origin is completely indiscernible. But when I meet him in the dark living room that appears to be the center of the Zappa universe, he is dressed in a T-shirt and beach pants, and his long gray-streaked hair and moustache accentuate the intensity of his eyes and he looks more like a wizard in exile.
 His most famous song is "[[Don't Eat The Yellow Snow]]," released back when the '70s still had credibility, and the most familiar Zappa record isn't even his, it's his daughter [[Moon Zappa|Moon Unit]]'s "[[Valley Girl]]," which he collaborated on. Yet a generation that not only didn't grow up on his music but were mostly not even born when he first became popular has accepted his place of prominence. Like an ambassador, he means something, stands for something strong and resolute, but this generation is not really sure how and exactly why.
@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 '''Is education really out of reach now in this country? Are we twenty years away, a whole generation away, from repairing education in this country?<br>
-No, we're further than that. Because in a way, I would agree with [[George Bush]] in that education in America needs to be reinvented, but certainly not in the way he would imagine it. Because the biggest problem we're facing right now is that education needs to be imparted to a post-literate generation. People who have no feeling whatsoever for a book or any data on a printed page, which should be worrisome to anyone who publishes a magazine.
+No, we're further than that. Because in a way, I would agree with [[George H.W. Bush|George Bush]] in that education in America needs to be reinvented, but certainly not in the way he would imagine it. Because the biggest problem we're facing right now is that education needs to be imparted to a post-literate generation. People who have no feeling whatsoever for a book or any data on a printed page, which should be worrisome to anyone who publishes a magazine.
 '''It is.<br>

@@ Line 144: / Line 144: @@
 Oh yeah. How could I make things any worse than what they already are?
-'''The least that could happen is that a lot of consciousnesses could be raised. Zappa: Well, here's the least that could happen. You know what the other guys are going to say before they say it. And television is an entertainment medium. Now, you don't know what I'm going to say. Now you're in the middle of an election year and it's real dull. Do you think they would send someone over to talk to me every once in a while just to liven things up a bit?
+'''The least that could happen is that a lot of consciousnesses could be raised.<br>
 I'm not going to debate these guys. As far as I'm concerned, they don't exist. Why should I sit there and talk over their bullshit. These guys want to sit there and riddle you with statistics. And what do you know? You're watching a debate at home and you're like, "Oh yeah. He knew a lot of numbers." Total horseshit.

@@ Line 79: / Line 79: @@
 It gives me some kind of perspective of how long we've been doing these things. At least forty to forty-five years.
-'''What did you think of punk?<br>
+'''What did you think of [[punk]]?<br>
-Well I liked the attitude of punk, I didn't necessarily like it from a musical standpoint; it is anti-musical. The whole idea was we're gonna play shitty and fast and so what? The so what part I always like. But anybody who's against music I don't like. I don't like people who smash instruments. I don't like the abuse of things that could produce beautiful results.
+Well I liked the attitude of [[punk]], I didn't necessarily like it from a musical standpoint; it is anti-musical. The whole idea was we're gonna play shitty and fast and so what? The so what part I always like. But anybody who's against music I don't like. I don't like people who smash instruments. I don't like the abuse of things that could produce beautiful results.
 '''Did you find any punk musically good? What about the [[wikipedia:The Clash|Clash]]?<br>
@@ Line 92: / Line 92: @@
 '''What do you think about the sexism in heavy metal, and in Andrew Dice Clay routines, and in rap? How do you relate that to the criticism against you in the past, the way you allegedly depicted women in your songs?<br>
-I don't think there's anything wrong with depicting women the way I depict them. I think I depict them in a rather accurate way. Because women are not perfect. But the bulk of my songs are about men and the stupid things that men do. And they never complain. So, is it because the men are so inferior – which then proves the women's point, that they're so fucking stupid they don't know what to do, or they're too lazy to complain – or is it because the women think they really should get special treatment and they should be treated with kid gloves, like Israel sort of? You could never say anything bad about Israel or people would say you're anti-Semitic. If you happen to say that Israel behaves like Nazi Germany toward the Palestinians, which happens to look like quite a fact when you see a videotape of what's actually going on, people go "Oh, you're anti-Semitic." You know, it's not true. The same way, if you say "Women do this thing that's stupid or that thing that's stupid," you should say it. It's a journalistic medium as well as a musical medium.
+I don't think there's anything wrong with depicting women the way I depict them. I think I depict them in a rather accurate way. Because women are not perfect. But the bulk of my songs are about men and the stupid things that men do. And they never complain. So, is it because the men are so inferior – which then proves the women's point, that they're so fucking stupid they don't know what to do, or they're too lazy to complain – or is it because the women think they really should get special treatment and they should be treated with kid gloves, like [[Israel]] sort of? You could never say anything bad about [[Israel]] or people would say you're anti-Semitic. If you happen to say that [[Israel]] behaves like Nazi Germany toward the Palestinians, which happens to look like quite a fact when you see a videotape of what's actually going on, people go "Oh, you're anti-Semitic." You know, it's not true. The same way, if you say "Women do this thing that's stupid or that thing that's stupid," you should say it. It's a journalistic medium as well as a musical medium.
 '''What's the thing you've been most criticized for, in sexist terms?<br>

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 '''Is education really out of reach now in this country? Are we twenty years away, a whole generation away, from repairing education in this country?<br>
-No, we're further than that. Because in a way, I would agree with [[wikipedia:George H. W. Bush|George Bush]] in that education in America needs to be reinvented, but certainly not in the way he would imagine it. Because the biggest problem we're facing right now is that education needs to be imparted to a post-literate generation. People who have no feeling whatsoever for a book or any data on a printed page, which should be worrisome to anyone who publishes a magazine.
+No, we're further than that. Because in a way, I would agree with [[George Bush]] in that education in America needs to be reinvented, but certainly not in the way he would imagine it. Because the biggest problem we're facing right now is that education needs to be imparted to a post-literate generation. People who have no feeling whatsoever for a book or any data on a printed page, which should be worrisome to anyone who publishes a magazine.
 '''It is.<br>
@@ Line 58: / Line 58: @@
 And the unfortunate aspect is that I know there's white suburban rage, but there is no voice for it. I believe they do have things that they are pissed off about, but I don't think they've found a vehicle to express it, because if the white suburban kid decides to do rap, then he's not using his voice, he's Just shouting through somebody else's rented megaphone. And it's not too unique or original, and at one point, if you do that, it's like you're copying off someone else's commercial gimmick. And it takes away from the authenticity of whatever else you have to say.
-'''You've gotten involved in doing business in Czechoslovakia. What has failed in Eastern Europe?<br>
+'''You've gotten involved in doing business in [[Czechoslovakia]]. What has failed in Eastern Europe?<br>
 The United States government.
@@ Line 83: / Line 83: @@
 '''Did you find any punk musically good? What about the [[wikipedia:The Clash|Clash]]?<br>
-One of my favorite punk records was "Gidget Goes to Hell" by the Suburban Lawns – I thought that was good.
+One of my favorite punk records was "[[Gidget Goes to Hell]]" by the [[Suburban Lawns]] – I thought that was good.
 '''Did you ever make any punk records?<br>
@@ Line 98: / Line 98: @@
 '''Do you think the outcome of the censorship movement can ultimately be meaningful?<br>
-Let me point out something about democracy. Does anybody remember how Hitler took over Germany? He was voted in. People said, Yeah, he's got the right message for us. Now when you have democracy, there's always the possibility that the guy who could turn out to be the biggest menace to the planet could just get voted in. And the place where it's most likely to happen is here, because of the media saturation, the illiteracy rate of the population, the social desperation of the population. Hitler came to power because things weren't so good.
+Let me point out something about democracy. Does anybody remember how [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] took over Germany? He was voted in. People said, Yeah, he's got the right message for us. Now when you have democracy, there's always the possibility that the guy who could turn out to be the biggest menace to the planet could just get voted in. And the place where it's most likely to happen is here, because of the media saturation, the illiteracy rate of the population, the social desperation of the population. Hitler came to power because things weren't so good.
 All we have to do is look at the early days of the Reagan administration and see how these factors converged. First of all, he owed a big favor to all the fundamentalist Christians and the television evangelists who helped him one way or another get elected. Forget about the October Surprise, he also had the help of these other groups. Then there was that depression. Americans like to believe in miracles, they like to believe in magic and when they consume religion it's not on philosophical level, it's on a miraculous level. Jesus can do things for you. It's about goods, it's about the transference of goods and services from the cloud to your living room. You're broke, you lost your job in the early days of the Reagan administration and instead of watching Madonna on TV you're seeing these guys teaching prosperity theology. If you send your money, you gotta prove to Jesus that you really care, and he'll reward you tenfold. It's like buying a lottery ticket.
@@ Line 148: / Line 148: @@
 I'm not going to debate these guys. As far as I'm concerned, they don't exist. Why should I sit there and talk over their bullshit. These guys want to sit there and riddle you with statistics. And what do you know? You're watching a debate at home and you're like, "Oh yeah. He knew a lot of numbers." Total horseshit.
-'''How do you define yourself as a musician? I was listening to on the way over here. The Best Band You Never Saw. I heard part [[wikipedia:Spike Jones|Spike Jones]], part [[wikipedia:Kurt Weill|Kurt Weill]], part [[wikipedia:The Mahavishnu Orchestra|Mahavishnu Orchestra]] – many things.<br>
+'''How do you define yourself as a musician? I was listening to on the way over here. The Best Band You Never Saw. I heard part [[Spike Jones]], part [[Kurt Weill]], part [[wikipedia:The Mahavishnu Orchestra|Mahavishnu Orchestra]] – many things.<br>
 The thing I do is build things. And I have to participate in their manifestation. That's why I had to become a band leader and a guitar player. I would have been happy to just write it and turn it over to someone else. But they don't play it if you give it to them. I learned that when I first started to compose it.

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 '''Is education really out of reach now in this country? Are we twenty years away, a whole generation away, from repairing education in this country?<br>
-No, we're further than that. Because in a way, I would agree with [[wikipedia:George H. W. Bush|George Bush]] in that education in America needs to be reinvented, but certainly not in the way he would imagine it. Because the biggest problem we're facing right now is that education needs to be imparted to a postliterate generation. People who have no feeling whatsoever for a book or any data on a printed page, which should be worrisome to anyone who publishes a magazine.
+No, we're further than that. Because in a way, I would agree with [[wikipedia:George H. W. Bush|George Bush]] in that education in America needs to be reinvented, but certainly not in the way he would imagine it. Because the biggest problem we're facing right now is that education needs to be imparted to a post-literate generation. People who have no feeling whatsoever for a book or any data on a printed page, which should be worrisome to anyone who publishes a magazine.
 '''It is.<br>
-And if you have to teach people basic things that they will need in order to function normally, forget about achieving greatness, or even competing with Japan and Germany. Just to function, how are you going to do it if people can't read, refuse to read, and are so adapted to receiving data from optical and audio sources. I think you have to meet them halfway and install equipment into classrooms that are going to be able to deliver data into the language that the kids already understand. Costs money. And when you've got a state like California, with such a huge educational system willing to take up the twelve billion dollar deficit out of the schools, it also tells you something about the parentsthat would allow that to happen. Because obviously the parents don't give a fuck, 'cause they didn't enjoy school that much themselves. And giving the choice between paying more taxes and just hoping that it gets better and letting the "education President" take care of it, I mean, everybody is sticking their head in the sand.
+And if you have to teach people basic things that they will need in order to function normally, forget about achieving greatness, or even competing with Japan and Germany. Just to function, how are you going to do it if people can't read, refuse to read, and are so adapted to receiving data from optical and audio sources. I think you have to meet them halfway and install equipment into classrooms that are going to be able to deliver data into the language that the kids already understand. Costs money. And when you've got a state like California, with such a huge educational system willing to take up the twelve billion dollar deficit out of the schools, it also tells you something about the parents that would allow that to happen. Because obviously the parents don't give a fuck, 'cause they didn't enjoy school that much themselves. And giving the choice between paying more taxes and just hoping that it gets better and letting the "education President" take care of it, I mean, everybody is sticking their head in the sand.
 '''Do you think somewhere along the line, it serves the powers that be, the pervading government for the last ten years, to have education dilapidate to where people don't think enough to really challenge?<br>
@@ Line 102: / Line 102: @@
 All we have to do is look at the early days of the Reagan administration and see how these factors converged. First of all, he owed a big favor to all the fundamentalist Christians and the television evangelists who helped him one way or another get elected. Forget about the October Surprise, he also had the help of these other groups. Then there was that depression. Americans like to believe in miracles, they like to believe in magic and when they consume religion it's not on philosophical level, it's on a miraculous level. Jesus can do things for you. It's about goods, it's about the transference of goods and services from the cloud to your living room. You're broke, you lost your job in the early days of the Reagan administration and instead of watching Madonna on TV you're seeing these guys teaching prosperity theology. If you send your money, you gotta prove to Jesus that you really care, and he'll reward you tenfold. It's like buying a lottery ticket.
-It's always the freeflow of information which is the major threat to the American way of life. To right-wing guys, there's nothing more dangerous than free access to information. And you know what that stems from? It stems from the beginfling of Christian theology, when Adam and Eve were in the garden, how did we get into trouble? It wasn't because it was an apple, it was the fruit of the tree of knowledge, so the essence of Christianity is, nobody gets to be smarter than God and access to knowledge and ownership of knowledge damns you. Knowledge itself is the work of the devil. We must not have knowledge and what leads to knowledge? Information. Nip it right there, nip it in the bud.
+It's always the freeflow of information which is the major threat to the American way of life. To right-wing guys, there's nothing more dangerous than free access to information. And you know what that stems from? It stems from the beginning of Christian theology, when Adam and Eve were in the garden, how did we get into trouble? It wasn't because it was an apple, it was the fruit of the tree of knowledge, so the essence of Christianity is, nobody gets to be smarter than God and access to knowledge and ownership of knowledge damns you. Knowledge itself is the work of the devil. We must not have knowledge and what leads to knowledge? Information. Nip it right there, nip it in the bud.
 '''What would it take to puncture the apathy of the average American, especially with elections coming up? Campaigns for that election will start in less than a year.<br>