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 1974
May
Vol.3 No.27
(1) The Grand
Wazoo Speaks
Interview by Ed Baker, 6 pp
(2) Plucking the nirvanic musical chord with Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart
By Dean Graham, 2 pp
(1)
Dean and I drove into Grand Valley Friday morning, still not quite believing
that we were going to see Frank Zappa. I mean I knew it all right, but it wasn't
quite real yet. After first going to the wrong Holiday Inn, we finally got the
right place and sat waiting for the "press conference" to begin. There were a
bunch of people with tape recorders and cameras and one guy with video
equipment. He was asked not to use it and he put it away. Mr. Big Shot from
Grand Valley College came around to make sure that everyone was on the list.
Everybody wasn't, but since there were only about 14 people there instead of the
10 on the list, nobody was made to leave. Most of the people were either running
tape machines or taking pictures. Basically there were four of us asking
questions, although Dean asked 2 or 3, the TV reporter who asked the first
questions asked one more, and one other guy asked one or two. I didn't get all
the names and so they haven't been identified in the interview. Almost everyone
asked several good questions and one dumb one. For that reason they'll probably
be both disappointed and happy that their names aren't listed here. I would like
to thank Michelle Fonda for providing me with a copy of a tape of the interview.
Finally in walked Frank Zappa himself. He was smaller than I had expected, his
features less intense than they have looked in most of the pictures I've seen.
His hair was uncombed from a night of sleep, and his eyes were very clear and
gave him a more youthful look than I'd expected. He was smiling. After a bit of
musical chairs for the benefit of the machines present, the interview began. (read more)
(2)
There I sat, bored and depressed at the Brewery in East Lansing, waiting for my
childhood idle to sweep me away into a new life of excitement, stimulation and
nirvanic exhaltation. And then, lo and behold, straggling across the stage came
Captain Beefheard himself! Hope poundingly surged to my brain! This time the
musical nirvanic chord would be plucked! Captain Beefheart would lead us all to
a new revelation! And then I found myself....
Two days later, bored and depressed, in a Holiday Inn lobby in Grand Rapids,
waiting to talk with Frank Zappa. Boy, I was really hoping this time. I mean,
between seeing Captain Beefheart and talking with and seeing Zappa in the course
of 48 hours, I was hoping for some new revelation to snake out and smash into my
stream of consciousness. A new goal from the perfect gurus of the universe. And
then, lo and behold, Frank pooped into the lounge! My god! He's a mere human
too! (read more)
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