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1972 January
No 9
Frank Zappa: portrait of the
artist as a businessman
Interview by Rob Partridge & Paul Phillips, 5 pp
THE first thing
we want to establish is what the American music industry was like when you first
recorded in the mid-sixties. Was it equipped to handle a band like the Mothers
of Invention?
In the United
States at the time the Mothers began, the top musical figures were the Beatles,
Herman and the Hermits, the Byrds, Dave Clark and the Rolling Stones. Apart from
the Byrds there wasn't much in the way of American acts. That was the general
trend of the music business – nice attractive young lads playing attractive,
pleasant, listenable semi-cosmic pop
music. Most of the guys in the
Mothers of Invention were unattractive old lads and we had an immediate
merchandising problem. Consequently the public, because it was orientated to
mass attractiveness, found it hard to project into our vibes. (read
more)
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