ARTICLE ABOUT Frank Zappa FROM SOUNDS, December 4, 1971 | My Things - Music history for those who are able to read.
A nice interview that is actually the second part of the last one with Zappa that I posted here. Enjoy!
The time is right, thinks Frank Zappa, to unleash on an unsuspecting public the long-awaited nine-album anthology of Mother`s music, together with a 30-page booklet. It`s set for release next March.
A year ago, I asked Zappa when he`d ben releasing the set, and he said: "In about five or 10 years when they assume more historical importance." Things have obviously moved a lot faster than he`d expected.
The nine albums go right through from 1962 to now, and none of the material has been released before. A lot of it`s live, and about 20 per cent of it is live versions of stuff that`s been on other albums.
"There`s a lot of improvisation," says Zappa. "The old group`s strongest point was collective improvisation, where the group itself would put together a piece on stage from nothing. There`s some good examples of that. A lot of it was recorded in Europe – there`s a bunch of stuff from the Festival Hall concert we did here in `68, some stuff from the Albert Hall in `69, quite a few American concerts, some stuff from Copenhagen. And then from the most recent Mothers there`s some things we recorded on the last tour.
The anthology will obviously be of great interest to people who already know the Mothers, and who`ve followed them through from the early days, but Zappa feels that an important reason for putting it out will be to give people who have only picked up on them recently a chance to find out about their history.
We got on to talking about the way the Press had treated the Mothers in general, and the film in particular. Zappa does feel a bit ill-used, especially in America, though there "200 Motels" has had better reviews than here.
Was that how he saw the job of reviewers?
"That`s what it usually comes down to. Most of them don`t really do the formal service of saying `this, this, and this could have been improved` – and be able to say it because they know something about the medium in a technical way. It`s usually so subjective that it doesn`t deal with technicalities at all. They don`t perform a service for the artist – it might be handy to have someone who knew what a mix was supposed to be – listen to an album and say: "I don`t like that mix because there`s not enough of this or there`s too much of that.
How much did criticism affect him, especially put-downs based on half-grasped ideas?
"Well, it depends on the person who`s doing it, and the generalised intention behind why they might say what they say. Talking about the film, I made it for people to enjoy, so if nobody enjoys it then it affects me – I should feel I had failed in my duty as an entertainer, because it`s supposed to provide a pleasurable experience for the audience that sees it. But anyway audiences vary in their sense of humour, and it`s especially un-natural when people who write about films go to see them in the presence of other people who write about films.
"You`re there with all the other people in your trade of film writing or music writing, or whatever it is, and everyone`s there to be who he is, or do what you do, and the general attitude is `Oh, let`s see what we can enlighten the world with about this Zappa movie.` I`ve been to a lot of screenings with Press and watched the reactions, and I`ve also been to theatres where the film`s been on display for a regular audience – and there`s a big difference.
In one way and another, the things Zappa`s thinking and talking about at the moment tend to relate to his films – this one, and the new project "Billy The Mountain" (see last week`s SOUNDS). When he gets back from this tour he has to finish off the script, music, and organisation for that, write the book for the anthology, edit live recordings they`ll be making of their British dates in December.
He`ll also be playing guitar on a few sessions that the Turtle/Mothers are doing to complete a double Turtles` album for Bizarre. Come to think of it, now Jim Pons is with them on bass, the present Mothers are almost Turtles in disguise.
Ah, yes the comedy group. That`s something which has grown out of Press reviews – in America for a long time the Mothers seemed to be regarded in the same way as the Barron Knights were seen here – and they stress it a lot in the film. The point is, of course, that they`re musicians who happen to enjoy being funny as well, but people seem to find this hard to accept. Even, apparently, their former bass player, Jeff Simmonds couldn`t take the combination. Was his leaving the group really as it was shown in a cartoon sequence in the film?
It`s a combination of approaches that the Mothers seem to have come to terms with, but did he ever feel that the comedy sometimes took away from the music?
"Only in as much as some people can`t comprehend certain musical aspects of the group, so the comedy predominates for them. I do it because there are certain things that strike me as funny, and I like to share that with people who are similarly interested. I don`t see any reason to go on stage and treat the whole thing as a solemn affair – life is too short.
But he never felt tempted to tone down the funnies so people would get more directly to the music?
"No. I`m certainly not going to throw away the enjoyment that I have out of having humours sensations on stage in order to accommodate someone who doesn`t have a sense of humour.
This number of Sounds also contains articles/interviews with these people: Deep Purple, Rikki Farr, Bob Dylan, Nicky Hopkins, Bunk Johnson, Country Joe and the Fish, Steve Marriott, Ian Hunter, Roy Harper, Emitt Rhodes, Charlie Wills, Melanie.