Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words Page #4

a peculiar way of making sure

that your expenses always

exceed your profits.

It's very...

You know how they do that, don't you?

Yeah, I know how they do that.

And don't you get a feeling that now,

with your records moving up in the charts,

you're moving into

the establishment very much?

I don't know.

- I've been hearing that.

- Do I look like

I'm moving into

the establishment very much?

Before that, you never got your music

heard by anybody, isn't that correct?

- Absolutely true.

- Okay.

- Nobody cared.

- Nobody cared.

- And now...

- And they still don't care,

- but they pay for it.

- Right.

Well, you know who's buying

the albums, don't you?

Yes, I do.

I've examined my market rather thoroughly.

And who's buying it?

- That's none of your business.

- Okay.

But then, isn't it...

The minute you look at you,

don't you get a feeling

that you're part of the hippie establishment?

- Just because of the looks.

- Maybe.

I'm not talking about what

you say or do, or how you play.

You're very packaging oriented, aren't you?

Yeah. I think everybody is, to a degree.

That you look, when somebody

sees you for the first time,

as part of the hippie establishment.

- Or worse.

- Or worse, right?

Yes. Yeah.

All right, let me ask you this, Frank.

You want to be a serious musician, I assume.

I've always wanted to be a serious musician.

And where are you going from here,

besides the bizarre that

you're doing at this point?

I mean, where are you going to go from here,

and what do you want to achieve,

at this point now?

Well, I think one thing

that I'd like to do is to not work.

- Not work.

- Yes.

- In any field? Not write?

- For a while.

I'd like to write, but that's not work.

Meaning composing isn't working.

No.

Well, isn't that what you're going to do

for a livelihood, eventually?

People don't compose for a livelihood,

especially in the United States.

The composition end of

my musical experience

started in high school,

when I heard an album by Edgard Varse.

I said, "Boy, that sounds great.

"I have to write some of that."

I also got ahold of an album

called The Rite of Spring.

It was on a little cheapo label.

Little $1.98 thing.

And that excited me, too.

I thought, "Boy, if anybody

could make a missing link

"between Edgard Varse and Igor Stravinsky,

that'd be pretty nifty."

And then somebody turned me on

to an album of music

by Anton Webern, and I said, "Wow!

"If anybody could get a missing link

between Igor Stravinsky, Anton Webern,

"and Edgard Varse, that'd be really spiffy."

Then I heard what some of

the stuff sounded like that I'd been writing,

and it was so ugly

that I decided to go backwards

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