The Two Frank Zappas
By Andy Goberman
NEW YORK – We recently had the opportunity to speak with a visiting Frank Zappa, who is very busy being not only the creative, freak behind the Mothers, but a business mogul as well.
Bizarre Records and Straight Records are his two labels, and while Frank's music may be filled with teen-age euphemisms (and lack of euphemisms), he speaks soft, intelligent and grammatical English, and seemed willing to expose his businessman half. He has also tamed his hair to a certain extent, which strengthened our impression (after digging his music) that there must be two Frank Zappas.
So we talked to the tamed Frank Zappa, and it didn't take long to see that even if he talks about them in the vernacular of the trades, his plans are more bizarre than straight insofar as standard music business procedures are concerned. For instance, Frank feels that the Mothers are basically a live group, "but their available records are about a year behind what they are doing on stage." And since he has learned how to record the band live, the artistic Zappa would like to bring their product up to date by marketing a five-record set of live performances.
However, the hard-headed businessman Zappa has been informed by his associates (and readily admits) that the idea is extremely impractical. But you get the feeling that he really doesn't believe it. He also has a complete history of the Mothers on tape, which he would also like to release. As a matter of fact, he would like to release an album a week.
New Career Aspect
But back to Zappa number one. He had just returned from the University of Tennessee in Marysville, where he spoke (a paid engagement) on music, revolution and his movie, "Uncle Meat." This is a new aspect of his career which has just recently started to open up. He is also preparing a new Captain Beefheart album on the Straight label, called "Trout Mask Replica."
Another of his projects is N.T. & B. Advertising (Youth Market Consultants), and here we got a glimpse of the 1,000 horsepower Zappa. N.T. & B. (don't ask what it stands for), according to Frank, does "grotesque artwork, absurd copywriting, off-the-wall concepts, record covers and freak maps." It is run by artists Cal Schenkel and John Williams. Zappa writes copy and calls himself an "account exec." They are doing record covers for Straight, Biazarre and a number of outside companies.
Even though Frank is a businessman, too, the crusading artist Zappa would still like to flood the market with Mothers product, because he feels (and who can deny it?) that the Mothers are among the groups today who really have something to say. So we left laden with all the Mothers' latest albums (so we could catch up), and the unavoidable feeling that we should spread the word, too.