LOL I love this guy. It's like "yeah let's get Frank Zappa on our show, this should be a nice fair debate" and then he gets up there and just straight rails on the industry for 20 mins and completely destroys everyone.
Besides being the most important musical genius of our time, Frank was a major troubadour for free speech. We owe him much more than most will ever know. So if he sounds arrogant, it's because you don't "get" him. He was a voice of Reason.
Yes, Frank shows great patience and intelligence, but I think this is also a great example of how people from different points of view used to be able to sit down and talk without resorting to diatribe. I thought the moderator did a good job too.
I love how in all the interviews from this time period, they threw Frank in with a group of people who ALL disagree, yet he makes them all look silly every single time. RIP
When I first heard Mr. Zappa talk about these social issues I didnt want to believe what he was saying. Now I know he was ahead of his time. Thanks Frank for fighting the good fight.
I remember when I was teenager, bands would push to get the parental advisory stickers on their albums even if there wasn't a reason just so they could get more hype. A lot of my friends had the "Parental Advisory" sticker on their backpacks and the door of their bedrooms and whatnot.
Intelligent. Articulate. Ideologically precise. AMAZING composer and performer. The man was a pure genius in every possible sense of the word. (Born in Baltimore, too. REPRESENT BABY) Oh, and Go Ravens.
I've been listening to Slayer, Pantera, Metallica, Megadeth....ect, since I was 13. At 32, I have yet to kill anyone, sacrifice an animal, and I'm raising my children to be good morally sound individuals! Music is entertainment, no more, no less! You don't like it, don't listen to it!
Frank blindsides all parties in this discussion by forcing the discussion to follow the specific facts of the bill they are discussing. All but Frank are attempting the modern norm, which is to fluff the hype in broad political terms pandering to the bias of the listener. It has become an established fact that the tyranny of concision will demand that what passes for debate will be a contest in pandering to prejudice. I'd put Frank's contribution here up against every single Presidential debate ever televised, and all "point counter-point" discussions on the tube. Al Franken gives me the same feeling on the floor of the Senate. Side note: Why was Frank censored for saying the same word the host read in the opening sequence?
imagine if frank zappa was still alive today, imagine what he'd have to say about everything. imagine how he would use the technology we have now, anything he imagined he would be able to create.... total mood kill, fuck cancer
"Good evening, I'm Dinah Moe Humm. Tonight on School Beat we have a debate between Frank Zappa, Bobby Brown, my sister and yours truly about ... " that's who they really were ; ）
Jim Hodson had it right at 6:28 -- record companies ended up putting warning stickers on albums that didn't even require it. The same album will sell better with a sticker than without. As Frank said, face saving PR all around.
People wanting to control what others think or feel. Why not, *gasp*, allow others to choose what works for them? Btw...pretty sure Jack the Ripper and Adolf Hitler didn't listen to heavy metal or Prince etc.
If there's one thing, I've learned from this show, it's that hairdos can be made from spray foam... ;-) Such a shame that Frank is not with us anymore...
it's amazing that this shit was happening in the 1980's. it blew my mind when it happened back then -- 30 years after McCarthy and here it was happening in front of me. know this though: this whole controversy was not a big deal in the context of American life at that time. no one really gave a shit...well except the media who needed the story for ratings. the stickers actually helped SELL records back then. it's how RAP MUSIC blew up. LOL!! nice interview though.
“Supreme Court says pornography is anything without artistic merit that causes sexual thoughts; that's their definition, essentially. No artistic merit, causes sexual thoughts. Hmm. . . . Sounds like . . . every commercial on television, doesn't it?”-quote by a dead hero you should already know.
Frank exudes intelligence. A student of mine had their parents censor the music the student can listen to by allowing their kid to buy Weird Al albums. The kid got the tune...with Al's humor/'easier' lyrics. I thought that was a happy medium for controlling what their kid hears & letting their kid hear today's music/sound. The kid was happy with it all too. I love Weird Al (he & I are the same age and I remember hearing him on Dr. Demento when we were in high school) and I love Frank Zappa. Dynamo Hum, baby! :o)
That lady hosting is great. She's trying to be impartial and neutral, but she brought up the nepotistic advantage that the senator's wives would have, and dropped few really sly digs in. And Frank is still brilliant in that he can pronounce the word "stupid" in the most infantile way, like a child in a school playground, and reference cow flops but without degrading his argument, or even opening himself up to be criticised for it. It takes a lot of intelligence to be able to pull off being that dumb.
***** Yes, however Feynman loved to party. He (Feynman) would have tried spiking Zappa's drink (Zappa didn't do drugs). If Zappa caught him, he would have blamed it on Quantum Physics ...
at 1:40 into the video she stops short and says "I only read the ones i could read aloud"... Already she is censored... In order to convey the 'weight' of her message, and to start the discussion she needs an example, but is only able to convey it by adding that she could not repeat it. Irony.
Did you notice that towards the end the lady in the blue dress said that some folk will never be old enough to decide for them(our?)selves? I suppose you folk will say "awesome";-)
Hahaha his expression is funny at 0:49 :P. Anyways, I am not extremely familiar with frank but somehow when I heard that name a couple of years ago it sounded very familiar for some reason. I think my father knows about him although I'm not sure. He's a great guy and I admire him so much, some people think he's just an asshole but his honesty and candid personality make him come off as a prick, or arrogant. But sometimes the people you're surrounded with make you act like one. Frank was a great guy and even though I don't know much about him or his music I am somehow attached to him, sadly he is long gone. I wish he was still alive, I wonder what he would think and say of the world as it is today. Probably not much different I guess, Frank said many things that have come true today, and were active in his days but not as prominent.
Right. The first rule of censorship in the American system is you don't call it censorship. That's why the lady from the PTA very early on in the debate tries to distance herself from the term censor. Once that label is attached to her, she's lost the debate because the PTA has a history of supporting the First Amendment. Notice that she immediately goes on the defensive once he connects the PTA to the First Amendment at 18:25 and starts talking in terms of "consumer information" and pretends she's perfectly happy with the status quo.
I've heard much of frank's opposition state how many millions of copies of prince, motley crue, twisted sister etc have been sold, but how many people spend their money on things they DONT WANT....r.i.p. frank
I was twenty in 1986. Darling Nikki got no airplay that I can recall. But Purple Rain was a massive album, that's for sure. Ah ... just read Tipper Gore was particularly offended by Darling Nikki, so that makes sense. What are you going to do? Kids are going to listen to their older brother's/sister's records. Say their was an age limit, like 16 perhaps. All that would have done was make kids "shoulder tap" someone 17 or older to buy the record/CD for them. Like your older brother buying you beer. And then you'd be busting record store cashiers for selling to minors. It would have been a mess. Glad it didn't happen.
Well, it's been 30 years since those spine curving, pornographic lyrics were hurled upon the world, and the generation that grew up with them are doctors, lawyers, accountants, dentists, actuaries, and architects. The US didn't collapse under the assault of Prince and Two Live Crew. But we are about broken by terrible fiscal and monetary policies. Maybe if the people had gotten themselves more in a twist about the ramping up of corporo-fascism instead of music, we'd be a better place today.
17:38 - "which came first, the chicken or the egg?" I solved this one a couple of years back. Still a little late given the context I guess. The egg came first. Before the chicken species came the pre-chicken species which also laid pre-chicken species eggs. The pre-chicken species then evolved into the chicken.
I think before this show, some guy involved with the program said, "What do you want yourself labeled as?" And he replied, "National Treasure." I believe that Mr. Behind-The-Scenes intentionally added that extra "R."
in my country there is a stand up showmen said once when they criticize his shows and films contains too much bad words and bad example to kids he said this "are those kids that stupid to take it as sample my films words why they should not inspire to be a movie director or kind of artists instead? there are no wrong things in my works maybe there is something wrong with your kids and way of you raising them "
15:56 "My point of view comes from the point of view of all kids." Dear god look at her and listen to what she's saying; how on earth does she claim to represent kids.
While I do agree with Frank that there should never be government censorship ever, I have a hard time believing that Frank actually believes that music has zero affect on the psychology of its listener. Every popular music style has along with it an aesthetic and lifestyle that is contagious. However, there is nothing objectively immoral about certain behaviors contained in those lifestyles. Doing drugs, fucking, wearing certain clothes and acting a certain way is not criminal.
Frank should of ended this by having these 3 people locked up in a ward for going on air looking the way they do and saying what they said. It's insane behaviour.
I find zappa to be rather intelligent, just because he is not a religious man of any sort does not mean he is stupid. It just means he is not ignorant.
I wrote " Lyre Lyrics" for Frank in 1980. He said..." at 3 hours and 10 minutes its too short ! " I turned it into a PhD on Phyto-Hydrophobic Utilization in Marine Hull Applications.
Frank, with those puritan, fanatic, narrow-minded people rational and logical reasoning doesn't work. Perhaps right for this fact we need to challenge them with provocative art and artefacts. Anyway thanks a lot for all you did in your life, music misses you.
This was in 1986, before the internet and cell phones. MTV was on and MTV is all about exploitation. Before mtv, spring break was hardly known about. Mtv steps in and commercializes it mainly by highlighting the sexual escapades of college kids letting it all hang out for a week. Even medieval artist painted naked women and sexual depictions. Prince's lyrics about a woman masturbating in a hotel lobby is just fantasy. I've been in many hotels and I have never seen anything like that. We all know it doesn't happen in real life. Sex and violence sells. I wonder how many of the women complaining about this watch soap operas and/or read romance novels?
"The violence: Brought on via lyrics in the music'. What a crock. Frank so effectively debated this and I think 'censorshit' in music is bogus...don't blame the music. What about all the people who listened to that music who did not turn to crime? Percentage-wise, almost all listeners did NOT become inspired to do crimes due to the music they listened to. In fact, I believe most criminals already had a predisposition to evil and crime before they even heard certain songs. Some might seek OUT songs they misinterpret as matching and condoning their skewed view of the world but that is a PERCEPTION- problem not a lyric-problem.To say music INSTIGATED their evil is preposterous.In fact, has anyone even claimed the music "MADE them do it"? And if so, PROVE it. Criminals LIE and shift blame all the time. Sick minds will read anything they want into anything they are exposed to. People have freedom of will and sane people are not finding encouragement, inspiration to condone evil in external stimuli. People are not THAT impressionable as to be inspired to do crime BECAUSE of lyrics in songs . Can't blame the music for activating the evil any more than blaming any number of things in a sick person's mind they encounter; they key element is the sick mind.. So many other circumstances manifest evil..beginning with stimuli surrounding circumstances of faulty upbringing and abuse in and around the home-life.Most criminals already have a propensity for crime and evil. So for those demented individuals, they find inspiration in ANY lyrics because they twist the meaning around as some form of justifying their sickness. Operative word: TWIST. Skew. Misinterpret or through pre-existing mental illness, read into music as instructional much as they would hear "instructions via the radio" or read some non-existent "meaning"/ interpretation they see in in signage on the street or a headline in a newspaper, song on radio, art in gallery, words in the BIBLE... as skewed instructional order to go on some murder-spree. Key is they are already sick and will read imagined meaning into ANY stimuli they come across.(not to mention imagined voices or barking orders via an imagined dog:Son of Sam) So many serious crimes committed by killers and child abusers who were deeply immersed in the church. (Are these people gonna call for banning/condemning these elements also as violence-inspiring? Of course not. Hypocrites.) Lots listened to hymns and country music too. If someone has a propensity for violence, they will find twisted symbolism, meaning and encouragement and inspiration in ANY music or movies or games, books, art etc...it's all how their twisted minds process and relate to that particular external stimuli.Twisted people will seek out and find anything in ANY media etc to inspire them to do their crimes.But don't blame the art...blame the sickos who are processing and interpreting that stimuli as defining and substantiating their activity in perpetuating their own ...sickness, It's a mental health / sick-perception -issue..not a music issue.If someone has a propensity for evil , they will find imaginary-misinterpreted "meaning" in ANYTHING that they are exposed to. (I'll bet you, somewhere on the planet, a serial-killer loved THIS "dangerous" song.) Louis Prima - Enjoy Yourself (It's Later Than You Think) - JazzAndBluesExperience
Witnessing the erosion of your First Amendment. The depletion of your Constitutional Amendments are proceeding at a governmentally approved rate. Fear not, TV has the answer. We are from the government, and we are here to help - sorry bout the No Knock Warrant. And nothing but love and kisses to our Industrial Military Complex along with our heavenly approved governmentally truthful media. Thank Frank - rip
