Holiday Inn
The Holiday Inn is an American hotel chain, founded in 1952, whose headquarters are in Atlanta, Ga., but whose hotels are found all over the world.
Between 1961 and 1969, they also had their own record label, Holiday Inn Records. It was launched by record producer Sam Phillips.
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Frank Zappa
Whenever Frank Zappa and The Mothers were on tour, Holiday Inn was one of the hotels they often stayed in. He would reference the Holiday Inn a few times in his songs, always in a dismissive manner.
References to Holiday Inn in Frank Zappa's work
- "The Holiday Inn Motel Chain"
- What Kind Of Girl Do You Think We Are?: "Ever been to a Holiday Inn? Mna-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaa... Magic Fingers in the bed (Picture it!) Wall-mounted TV screens. Coffee-Host plugged into the bathroom wall. Formica's really keen!..."
- "This Is Neat": " This is about the neatest Holiday Inn I've seen in days."
- What Will This Morning Bring Me This Evening?: "Thirty days on the fucking road. I don't believe it, man. I can't believe it. Another night at a fucking Holiday Inn, another night."
- The Holiday Inn can be seen from the window in David McMacken's artwork on the album cover of Over-Nite Sensation. He said: "All of the other items - the Holiday Inn, the food, maps and oozing TV - represent the doldrums of being on the road." [1]
Frank Zappa about the Holiday Inn
"Well, you do but it all depends on how alert you are. You can check into a Holiday Inn and do nothing but sleep; I go there and make use of it. I've noticed that Holiday Inns have physically deteriorated over the last 15 years. We don't stay in 'em anymore; we try to avoid 'em as much as possible. The history of rock 'n' roll is almost like the history of the deterioration of the cheap workmanship in the original construction of the Holiday Inns. Every year, you can go back to the same hotel and watch things fall apart. It's like being a part of history till it gets to the point it's so disgusting that you don't wanna stay there anymore. We switched over to Howard Johnson's in some places."- Zappa Busy As Ever While Coming Out of Joe's Garage, interview by Michael Davis, Record Review, February 1980.
In the interview Zappa, 79/8 (1979), Zappa: Now And Then... (1986) and The Real Frank Zappa Book, Zappa dismissed the urban legend that he ever ate shit on stage, by concluding: "For the records, folks: I never took a shit on stage, and the closest I ever came to eating shit anywhere was at a Holiday Inn buffet in Fayetteville, North Carolina, in 1973."
"I believe we were in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the girl, the cockapoo, and Perellis were in a Holiday Inn, and, uh, it was discovered that the cockapoo had worms, and this was Sunday. So, in an emergency effort, he wanted to do something about the dog's worms, and called a veterinarian. I don't know how he managed to do all this, but the net result was, they recommended that they give the dog a Fleet enema ... in the bathtub. (...) It's one of those prepackaged chemical enemas that you buy at the store. By the way, Fleet enemas are manufactured in Lynchburg, Virginia. (laughter) (...) So, they wound up (laughs) filling this bathtub with dog do-do and worms, (much laughter) in Ann Arbor, Michigan."
" - Frank Zappa, They're Doing the Interview of the Century, Part 3, September 1990.
Arthur Barrow about the Holiday Inn
What about Zappa staying at different hotels because he was afraid of getting busted for drugs?
Arthur Barrow: "I don't think it because he was afraid of being busted. I think it was because he wanted to stay in a fancy hotel, but didn't want to pay for us to stay in one."
So you guys were literally miles apart?
Arthur Barrow:"Any time we were in a place like London, Paris or New York, Frank would stay at some ritzy place and we'd be at a Holiday Inn or something. It was never really much of a band hanging out. I do remember on some of the first tours, there were times when we would go back to Frank's room after the show and listen to the board tapes of the night's performance."
That sounds more like a sense of congregation. Did you guys feel like a band?
Arthur Barrow:"Almost, at times. But it's never really a band with Frank. I suppose it was more so than it was on the 1988 tour when Frank was staying in separate hotels all the time."
- All Bass Players Are Failed Ukulele Players, T'Mershi Duween, #27-28, October-November 1992, interview by Tom Brown and Steve Greeno (under the pseudonym Sleve Uunofski).
See also
- What's A Mother To Do?
- They're Doing the Interview of the Century, Part 3 (in which Zappa describes his bodyguard John, who "liked to fuck Holiday Inn maids with hairy legs.")
