Last Interview?
Dan B.
include discussion of 'CPIII' perhaps, and did it focus primarily on
music, or societal issues at least, or was it just a cancer-focus thing
(hopefully not!). I'm sure somebody's got this available on the
Net--forgive my procrastination in not searching this out properly.
Jon Naurin
>On Sun, 24 Jan 1999, Knut Skogstad wrote:
>> This is probably one of the last (4 months before his death):
>>
>> http://www.planetzappa.com/articles/tore/zappaarticle.html
>Jesus Christ does that picture make me sad.
Believe me, it's nothing compared to the interview in the Slonimsky
documentary. I was only able to watch it one and a half time.
- Jon
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Knut Skogstad
This is probably one of the last (4 months before his death):
http://www.planetzappa.com/articles/tore/zappaarticle.html
Knut
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Don Van Vliet
Tal
>
>"Dan B." wrote:
>>
>> Anybody know the date and situation of FZ's last major interview? Did it
>> include discussion of 'CPIII' perhaps, and did it focus primarily on
>> music, or societal issues at least, or was it just a cancer-focus thing
>> (hopefully not!). I'm sure somebody's got this available on the
>> Net--forgive my procrastination in not searching this out properly.
>
>This is probably one of the last (4 months before his death):
>
>http://www.planetzappa.com/articles/tore/zappaarticle.html
A beautiful interview.
I think his contribution for the Slonimsky documentary was videotaped in
October. He could hardly speak by that time. It was pretty short.
Yours,
--Tal
_______________________
e-mail: an...@cidanka.nl
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It Never Entered My Mind
wrote:
>A beautiful interview.
Okay. Ripped from the web page for the people:
-You'll probably never see me on stage again. LOS ANGELES: His
eyes are tired. He shuts them often and hides his face in his
hands.The wasting disease has been rough with the legendary
Frank Zappa, 53. The cancer has spread to the bone. -You'll
probably never see me on stage again, he says when I meet him
in his home in Los Angeles.
It's an incredibly warm August afternoon in Los Angeles. Close
to 35 degrees centigrade, sticky and a trying humidity. Still
Frank Zappa is dressed as if it was a cold autumn night. He
wears a pair of thick, black trousers, black boots and a black
jacket over the black t-shirt. He's thin and has a face marked
by the disease. -I have my good days and my bad days, he
explains. -Today I'm OK, yesterday was alright. But tomorrow I
could be terrible again. And when I have my bad days I can't
even get out of bed.
The cancer has spread: Zappa first noticed he wasn't well in
the late eighties. The cancer started in the prostate, but
seemed to be beaten by the treatment he received at the time.
In 1991 that proved to be wrong. The disease was back and this
time it has spread to the bone. The prognosis is not good.
-If the disease will kill me in a short perspctive I can't
tell. All I can do is to hope that it will not be the case.
Frank Zappa is one of the greatest in modern music. A genius
the historybooks of the future will place on the same pedestal
as Duke Ellington and Bob Dylan as well as the masters of the
classical scene. He's a bizarre avantgardist, a provocateur as
well as a straight forward rock-musician. He's repertoire
embraces everything from seemingly simple pop-songs to
symphonic productions. His catalogue contains more than 70
titles.
Rarely gives interviews: Zappa almost never do any interviews.
Especially not since his health changed for the worse. And the
few that he's still giving comes about at very short notice. He
can't say from one day to the other how he's gonna feel, and it
never happens anymore that he schedules any appointments with
journalists. I get my clearance for this interview four hours
before it's going to take place. Still I'm informed that the
interview may be postponed, if Zappas health rapidly gets
worse.
-I do this for two reasons, he says when I'm finally sitting
next to him. -First; I got out of bed this morning and second;
it's been a long time since I met a Swedish journalist.
-I know I've always had a very faithful audience in Sweden. I
get a lot of letters from fans. And on my tours I've been
treated very well in your country.
Zappas hair is long and tied up in a pony tail. The classic
moustache and the little string on his lower lip is replaced by
a huge grey beard, that conceals his hollow cheeks.
Planned to be president: When I made an interview with Frank
Zappa back in April of 1991, he seriously considered to be a
candidate in the coming presidential election. He had been in
contact with campaign-experts, was working on a political
program and had thought of the billionaire Ross Perot as his
vice president candidate.
-That was before anyone really had heard of him. But it ended
up with him running his own campaign, and me in a hospital bed.
So it was the disease that forced you to pull out? -Yeah,
unfortunately. A presidential election would have been an
interesting experience. And Perot did show, at least he did
that, that there was a need for a candidate from outside the
predominant system.
Did Perots candidature mean anything for the future? -That
question will be easier to answer in 1996, by the next
election. If Clinton and the Democratic party is unsuccessful
with their politic, I don't take for granted that the American
people wan't a republican president again. We had that for
twelve years before Clinton, and they fucked up then. So if
Clinton misses his opportunity a lot of people will take a look
outside the establishment, for something new?
Will Clinton be unsuccessful? -Things can go bad. And I mean
bad. The United States is going through a period of
reorganization and structural rationalization. The cold war is
over and now they don't know what the fuck to do with the arms
industry and the gigantic military machinery. I don't feel any
sympathy for the system but I feel for the people who works on
the bases and in the industry. And if we can't find a way out
of this trap we're facing a really serious situation.
A lot of projects ahead: Frank Zappa might have been forced to
give up politics in practice, but his opinions no illness in
the world can take away from him. And he also continued his
musical work during the period of bad health. As always the
very productive Zappa has a whole bunch of projects running.
Shortly the album "Yellow Shark" is released, a recording from
September of 1992 made by the German Ensemble Modern with Frank
himself as the conductor. The CD will be released together with
a 60 page booklet Zappa just recently completed.
-I have a workroom here in the house, he says with a gesture to
the upper floors. When I have the strength I work there or in
the studio down here.
"Civilization Phase III" is another project Zappa is working
on. Hopefully he will be able to release it next year. It's an
opera that to 90 percent contains computer-composed and
-performed music "overdubbed" by the Ensemble Modern. The opera
has no singing, but human voices. From the beginning the plans
where to premiere the piece at the Opera house in Vienna in
June next year. But due to circumstances "Civilization Phase
III" will never be performed from stage. Zappa also has
produced Ensemble Moderns interpretations of
percussion-avantgardist Edgar Vareses music. Zappa also sat in
when the Irish folkband The Chieftains and aged crooner and
ladies-man Tom Jones recorded "Tennessee Waltz" in his studio.
And we can look forward to another album put together from old
tapes, "The Lost Episodes".
-I have a lot of other stuff in the process as well. But
nothing I wanna talk about yet. The worst thing about this
disease is that it stops me from working the way I wan't to.
And if I cannot work, I'm not happy?
Do you dream of going on tour again? -It isn't likely to ever
happen, so why think or dream about it.
Zappas home is located way up in the Los Angeles hills, close
to Beverly Hills and with a remarkable view over the city. It
doesn't look much from the street, but whorls up in several
storeys.
-We've lived here since 1969 and rebuilt a lot since then.
Proud over his children: -"We" are wife Gail and the children
Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet and Diva. One of few times Zappas sad
eyes brightens up is when we speak of the band Z put together
by Dweezil and Ahmet.
-You should see Ahmet on stage. He's not only a great singer
but also a fantastic performance-personality. Both he and
Dweezil are good at what they do and they are happy doing it.
So what else can you do but encourage them.
The interview is coming to an end and Zappa laughs when he
tells me he misses the famous swedish mustard herring. I tell
him that the IKEA department store south of LA, by the freeway
towards San Diego, sells Mustard herring as well as many other
different kinds of preserved herring.
Footnote: Four months after this interview was written, an
early december morning, my wife woke me up. She just heard on
the morning news that Frank Zappa was dead. It didn't come as a
surprise. But how do you prepare? We all miss Zappa and his
sharp intellect and we dream of all the good music he had ahead
of him. But thankfully we have a gigantic back catalogue to
return to again and again and again. I'm proud I had the
opportunity to meet the man.
Article & Picture: TORE LUND, tore...@swipnet.se
Bill
>
> "Dan B." wrote:
> >
> > Anybody know the date and situation of FZ's last major interview? Did it
> > include discussion of 'CPIII' perhaps, and did it focus primarily on
> > music, or societal issues at least, or was it just a cancer-focus thing
> > (hopefully not!). I'm sure somebody's got this available on the
> > Net--forgive my procrastination in not searching this out properly.
>
> This is probably one of the last (4 months before his death):
>
> http://www.planetzappa.com/articles/tore/zappaarticle.html
>
> --
Thanks, I'd never seen this!
Two comments:
1) I'd have to take exception with the assertion that
FZ rarely gave interviews. He's among the most interviewed music
figures I can think of.
2) That picture of Frank is heart-rending. Very similar to the picture
of Spence Chrislu w/ FZ in the background when Spence was written up in EQ.
Bill
It Never Entered My Mind
wrote:
>2) That picture of Frank is heart-rending. Very similar to the picture
>of Spence Chrislu w/ FZ in the background when Spence was written up in EQ.
Similar to the picture in Apocrypha, of course...and also, to the
picture in the Yellow Shark CD.
Dan B.
Bill
>
Not really. His skin and eyes are quite different from those pics - as is
his weight.
Knut Skogstad
Bill wrote:
>
> 2) That picture of Frank is heart-rending. Very similar to the picture
> of Spence Chrislu w/ FZ in the background when Spence was written up in EQ.
>
> Bill
Do you have a scan of this?
Knut
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To reply: Remove NOSPAM from the e-mail address.
"Stupidity has a certain charm, ignorance does not"
Frank Zappa
Patrick Neve
> "Dan B." wrote:
> >
> > Anybody know the date and situation of FZ's last major interview? Did it
> > include discussion of 'CPIII' perhaps, and did it focus primarily on
> > music, or societal issues at least, or was it just a cancer-focus thing
> > (hopefully not!). I'm sure somebody's got this available on the
> > Net--forgive my procrastination in not searching this out properly.
>
>
> This is probably one of the last (4 months before his death):
>
> http://www.planetzappa.com/articles/tore/zappaarticle.html
>
Jesus Christ does that picture make me sad.
Patrick Neve
> >
>
> > 2) That picture of Frank is heart-rending. Very similar to the picture
> > of Spence Chrislu w/ FZ in the background when Spence was written up in EQ.
> > Bill
>
> Do you have a scan of this?
> Knut
I'd also like very much to read the interview.
-Splat
It Never Entered My Mind
wrote:
>> >2) That picture of Frank is heart-rending. Very similar to the picture
>> >of Spence Chrislu w/ FZ in the background when Spence was written up in EQ.
>>
>> Similar to the picture in Apocrypha, of course...and also, to the
>> picture in the Yellow Shark CD.
>
>Not really. His skin and eyes are quite different from those pics - as is
>his weight.
Maybe so .... nevertheless, Zappa was still able to get some nooky,
even at the advanced stage of his illness.
I don't think that aspect whittles down too much even in illness for
the average individual, but I might be wrong.
Bill
>
> Bill wrote:
> >
>
> > 2) That picture of Frank is heart-rending. Very similar to the picture
> > of Spence Chrislu w/ FZ in the background when Spence was written up in EQ.
> >
>
> Do you have a scan of this?
>
> Knut
Sorry, no. Didn't even buy the issue.
Bill
Hoodoo
>This is probably one of the last (4 months before his death):
>
>http://www.planetzappa.com/articles/tore/zappaarticle.html
Thanks for posting that link.
Out of curiosity, does anyone know when in FZ's last days was the
Today Show (I hope it wasn't Good Morning America or something
other than Today) interview. I remember not being at work that
day, watching the show, and, being depressed at the way he
looked.
--
===================
»òó«»òó«»òó«»òó«
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«ÒÓ»«ÒÓ»«ÒÓ»«ÒÓ»
Please remove the obvious pest deterrent
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Dennis Versteeg
wrote:
>Patrick Neve writes:
>
>>On Sun, 24 Jan 1999, Knut Skogstad wrote:
>
>>> This is probably one of the last (4 months before his death):
>>>
>>> http://www.planetzappa.com/articles/tore/zappaarticle.html
>
>>Jesus Christ does that picture make me sad.
>
>Believe me, it's nothing compared to the interview in the Slonimsky
>documentary. I was only able to watch it one and a half time.
>
> - Jon
Yes, that was really hard to watch. It truly made me sad.
dennis
Dennis Versteeg
<nospa...@online.no> wrote:
>
>This is probably one of the last (4 months before his death):
>
>http://www.planetzappa.com/articles/tore/zappaarticle.html
thanks for the link.
very moving, espcially the photo.
dennis
Dennis Versteeg
<nospa...@online.no> wrote:
What's written on Frank's shirt in the photo?
Something about finding the government with his dick?
dennis
Mats Erwö
> What's written on Frank's shirt in the photo?
>
> Something about finding the government with his dick?
>
> dennis
Frank´s shirt in the photo...!!!
"I trusted the government. Now my dick glows in the dark"
Mats
User855161
in fact it may well have been (it was conducted in late October). The interview
was by Ben Watson, and I believe the relevant points of the interview can also
be read in Watson's overly verbose "Negative Dialectics Of Poodle Play"
book--SP
John Henley
<hoodooB...@newnorth.net> wrote:
> Thanks for posting that link.
>
> Out of curiosity, does anyone know when in FZ's last days was the
> Today Show (I hope it wasn't Good Morning America or something
> other than Today) interview.
It was in the summer sometime, maybe June.
It _was_ the "Today" show. When the clip was
over, Katie Couric said to the interviewer - whose
name I forget exactly, I think it was Jamie Gangel
- "It looks like he was a tough interview," meaning
it was hard to get decent answers to her questions,
but Gangel took her to mean that his physical
condition made it hard for both of them to sit and
talk.
.
John Henley
Austin TX
Hoodoo
><hoodooB...@newnorth.net> wrote:
>> Out of curiosity, does anyone know when in FZ's last days was
the
>> Today Show (I hope it wasn't Good Morning America or something
>> other than Today) interview.
>
>It was in the summer sometime, maybe June.
>
>It _was_ the "Today" show. When the clip was
>over, Katie Couric said to the interviewer - whose
>name I forget exactly, I think it was Jamie Gangel
>- "It looks like he was a tough interview," meaning
>it was hard to get decent answers to her questions,
>but Gangel took her to mean that his physical
>condition made it hard for both of them to sit and
>talk.
Thanks. I was really shocked at how bad Frank looked and you
could just see how much pain he was in. Seeing him with his full
grey beard was disheartening with his emaciated face. I'm glad I
got to see the interview that morning but it wasn't very
uplifting.
Bill
Patrick Neve
> In article <78gc33$meq$1...@curly.newnorth.net>, "Hoodoo"
> <hoodooB...@newnorth.net> wrote:
>
> > Thanks for posting that link.
> >
> > Out of curiosity, does anyone know when in FZ's last days was the
> > Today Show (I hope it wasn't Good Morning America or something
> > other than Today) interview.
>
> It was in the summer sometime, maybe June.
I've got May 14th.
Any more info to this (or any other video clip) will be duly noted and
cataloged for public consumption at:
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~splat/videography.html
> It _was_ the "Today" show. When the clip was
> over, Katie Couric said to the interviewer - whose
> name I forget exactly, I think it was Jamie Gangel
> - "It looks like he was a tough interview," meaning
> it was hard to get decent answers to her questions,
> but Gangel took her to mean that his physical
> condition made it hard for both of them to sit and
> talk.
Michael Pierry
That is fucking awesome.
--
"Is that a wheel of cheese in your pocket or are you... um... some kind of
lumpy person?" - Matt Baume
Tal
(About Today show)
>Thanks. I was really shocked at how bad Frank looked and you
>could just see how much pain he was in. Seeing him with his full
>grey beard was disheartening with his emaciated face. I'm glad I
>got to see the interview that morning but it wasn't very
>uplifting.
Believe me, you don't want to see the Slonimsky tape. I had tears in my eyes
when I saw that one.
Hoodoo
wrote:
>Hoodoo heeft geschreven ...
>(About Today show)
>>Thanks. I was really shocked at how bad Frank looked and you
>>could just see how much pain he was in. Seeing him with his full
>Believe me, you don't want to see the Slonimsky tape. I had tears in my eyes
>when I saw that one.
Nope, I've never seen it. Someday, maybe.
====================
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Phydoux 3
In article <78j04e$k5j$1...@reader2.wxs.nl>, "Tal" <tal...@cidankaSPAM.nl> writes:
>Believe me, you don't want to see the Slonimsky tape. I had tears in my eyes
>when I saw that one.
Tell me about this, never heard of it.
Phy
Dennis Versteeg
It's part of a documentary about Slominsky. I saw this once.
Frank is interviewed for about a minute lying in his bed.
He looked very ill. I can't remember what he exactly said, I was very
distracted by the images.
Dennis
Drew
>Believe me, it's nothing compared to the interview in the Slonimsky
>documentary. I was only able to watch it one and a half time.
>
That was sad, first time I had seen Zappa not in control. It shook me too.
Uncle Remus
Where are these available?
--Uncle Remus
d...@SPAMBLOCKERapk.net
Drew
The underground. The Slonimsky piece was on public TV, I think my copy is
2nd gen. 1st gen for the Today show.