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 1975
December 17
(No 229)
A Matter Of
Taste
Interview by Rob Fixmer, 10 pp
I caught part of your interview on Radio Free Madison the other night. You
sounded like you were either under the weather or pissed off. I couldn't tell
which.
Look, you go to a radio station, you got two guys who are sort of inept at
conversation, and neither one of them has any questions. I've got to spend
almost an hour there talking to them, and while they're playing records they're
trying to figure out what to ask you. In the first place, they're not even
interested in the answer, and in the second place they are just trying to cover
their asses 'cause they're radio personalities. They're the – quote, unquote –
"stars," so whenever you do a talk on a radio station it's a real weird
situation. And then we went over to WISM. (Ed. note: WISM is a top forty AM
station)
How did that go?
That was great! I was a disc jockey for a while. (changing to a deep, resonant
dj type voice) I was talking like this and everything!
I got visions of Centerville from 200 Motels in your description of your
reception in Yugoslavia: You know, with the images of the barbed wire fences and
all.
Yea, there was a hint of that there. Quite a bit of the time we were just
following orders. Even in the dining room. The guy who was the maitre d'
wouldn't let us order anything. It was really hard to get anything good to eat.
Why?
Well, first of all your jacket wasn't right. So you change your jacket and your
pants aren't right, and your hair ain't right, and this ain't right, and that's
wrong, or you don't have a meal ticket. Or if you do have a meal ticket, it's
got the wrong date on it. And if you ask any questions everybody's just
following orders.
What's the story? Is everybody there on a meal ticket?
Well, we had meal tickets because we were guests of the government.
Was Yugoslavia the only so-called Iron Curtain country you visited on this tour?
They poo-poo the idea of that being an Iron Curtain country. They don't approve
of the term. I suppose because they are the most liberal of all the
"Bloc" countries. (read
more)
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