# Frank Zappa talking about Progressive Rock



## PresenTense (May 7, 2016)

MTV interview1984

Interviewer: We're doing an hour show on progressive rock. First of all it might take us an hour to define progressive rock. Nobody seems to have been able to… Do you have a definition for it.

Frank: Well I would say that the general definition - it's not mine - I would presume that people would accept this definition: I would say that progressive rock is anything that doesn't sound like regular rock. Regular rock is everything that sounds like itself. All songs that sound the same. Everything on MTV. Everything on the radio. That's "rock." Progressive rock is stuff that doesn't sound like that.

Interviewer: Some of the bands that we're going to be highlighting in this show are Procol Harum, Traffic, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Genesis, ELP, Yes, King Crimson, Devo. Do you have any comments on any of these bands?

Frank: Is that progressive rock?

Interviewer: Well?

Frank: I wouldn't say so.

Interviewer: You consider none of these bands progressive rock?

Frank: Name them again.

Interviewer: Procol Harum?
Frank: No
Interviewer: Traffic?
Frank: No
Interviewer: Pink Floyd? 
Frank: Sometimes
Interviewer: Jethro Tull
Frank: Sometimes
Interviewer: Genesis
Frank: Sometimes
Interviewer: ELP
Frank: Sometimes
Interviewer: Yes
Frank: Sometimes
Interviewer: King Crimson
Frank: Sometimes
Interviewer: Devo
Frank: No.. 
Interviewer: Why?

Frank: I wouldn't describe them as progressive rock

Interviewer: You?

Frank: I wouldn't describe myself as progressive rock either. In fact a lot of the time it's not rock and roll at all, it just happens to be consumed by rock and roll audiences.

Interviewer: Do you think that you as a musician have had any influence on any of the bands that we just went through?

Frank: That's always a possibility


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Video has been removed due to copyright infringement.


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## polaci (Jul 10, 2015)

You can find the whole interview on youtube by searching 'Frank Zappa - Interview - 12/8/1984 - unknown (Official)'.
Progressive rock part starts at 5:45.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

thanks Polaci (and PresentTense)
here's the visible one:






At 9:45 he's talking about the musicians he likes, and I can't understand the name he says between Chopin (!!! I would never said Zappa was a fan of Chopin) and Webern (and I don't know who Alan Wolf is)


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

He said Howlin' Wolf, the blues singer. He also mentioned Purcell and Stravinsky. He was pretty picky, so there may heve been a few pieces by Chopin he liked.

He obviously wasn't too interested in discussing progressive rock. Especially with an MTV person. There are much better interviews to be found in print or video.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Frank interviewed at the airport in my hometown, August 1984. This was right after he filmed the Does Humor Belong In Music video at Jones Beach. He was here to play the New York State Fair.


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## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

Kind of surprised at all the interest in Zappa, lol The last 15 years or so haven't been able to reconcile the lyrics with the music. When you listen to Pekka Pohjola for instance, I don't see how the interest in Zappa remains. I think Zappa has a personality that some people just really like, others are turned off by.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

regenmusic said:


> Kind of surprised at all the interest in Zappa, lol The last 15 years or so haven't been able to reconcile the lyrics with the music. When you listen to Pekka Pohjola for instance, I don't see how the interest in Zappa remains. I think Zappa has a personality that some people just really like, others are turned off by.


Each to his own, I like Frank for his music- the Lyrics were for the most part just a novelty side shoot which are sometimes amusing and sometime not


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

The best Zappa interview I remember was a 4 hour interview by Dutch Co de Kloet and Michael Fahres for Supplement on VPRO-radio broadcasted in 1990. I have it on tape somewhere. It should also be available through this link but I see it's not available at present (maybe later?): http://www.vpro.nl/speel~POMS_VPRO_216427~co-de-kloet-in-gesprek-met-frank-zappa-nos-1990-zappa-the-supplement-tape~.html

Co de Kloet/MIchael Fahres have done many great interviews, so I'll share this one with Brian Eno:


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Pohjola didn't care for Zappa's brand of humor!


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## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

I didn't see any humor. Sounds like Zappa asked him to be in his band and he said "No. Too much BS." Jobson quit for the same reason. I think a lot of people just call Zappa as they see him (or Eno if you're into spirituality and believe in God as Eno has become quite pompous about the atheism stuff of late). One of the things I do for a living is rare book sales. I live with 4000 books, and have been doing this since 1998. This gives me a healthy skepticism about modern gods.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Any strong willed musician with their own ideas will want to do their own music. But getting into Zappa's band didn't hurt anyone's career. I heard Jobson play in 2012 with John Wetton. His keyboard rig was way too loud. I really couldn't see the point of subjecting listeners to that knid of obnoxious volume.

At any rate, I listened to Pekka's Magpie album this morning. Very good stuff! Too bad the alcohol got him.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

regenmusic said:


> I didn't see any humor. Sounds like Zappa asked him to be in his band and he said "No. Too much BS." Jobson quit for the same reason. I think a lot of people just call Zappa as they see him (or Eno if you're into spirituality and believe in God as Eno has become quite pompous about the atheism stuff of late). One of the things I do for a living is rare book sales. I live with 4000 books, and have been doing this since 1998. This gives me a healthy skepticism about modern gods.


Zappa believed in no one (except maybe Varese) and nothing was sacred to him- I think we need more of that today.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

I would be surprised if Zappa was very familiar with the music of most of the bands he was asked about — except for the stuff it was impossible to avoid hearing — although it did occur to me long ago that The Grand Wazoo might be, in part, a parody of King Crimson's Lizard. He was busy and had lots of other music to listen to.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Zappa toured with bands such as Gentle Giant, and Mahavishnu Orchestra, so he heard the music first hand.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

starthrower said:


> Zappa toured with bands such as Gentle Giant, and Mahavishnu Orchestra, so he heard the music first hand.


But those bands weren't asked about in the interview.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

EdwardBast said:


> But those bands weren't asked about in the interview.


Does that really matter...................


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Does that really matter...................


Exactly! What did he say? "I'm not a rock music consumer" Stupid MTV interview, so he gave one word answers.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)




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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Does that really matter...................


Well, no. ? I've seen the interview. It was just my impression that they were asking the wrong guy if they were looking for in depth analysis of prog rock bands. My point was that working musicians often stay aloof from other bands in their peripheral vision, and sometimes don't engage in typical fan or consumer behavior like record collecting. My brother only bought records when he needed to take things down that his bands were covering. Now bands that were out on the frontiers, like Mahavishu, everyone paid attention to.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

EdwardBast said:


> Well, no. ? I've seen the interview. It was just my impression that they were asking the wrong guy if they were looking for in depth analysis of prog rock bands. My point was that working musicians often stay aloof from other bands in their peripheral vision, and sometimes don't engage in typical fan or consumer behavior like record collecting. My brother only bought records when he needed to take things down that his bands were covering. Now bands that were out on the frontiers, like Mahavishu, everyone paid attention to.


Apart from their first Album I find Mahavishu boring


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Apart from their first Album I find Mahavishu boring


I thought there were some good cuts on Birds of Fire as well but I was never that interested in them. I just noted their influence as seen, for example, in the number of bands that featured violinists in the few years after their birth - Crimson, Van der Graaf, Zappa and probably others - and the number starting to routinely employ complex meters and hyperactive drummers. I found the whole Sri Chinmoy connection and the religious overtones laughable - made me want to hear Cosmic Derbis every time as an antidote.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

EdwardBast said:


> I thought there were some good cuts on Birds of Fire as well but I was never that interested in them. I just noted their influence as seen, for example, in the number of bands that featured violinists in the few years after their birth - Crimson, Van der Graaf, Zappa and probably others - and the number starting to routinely employ complex meters and hyperactive drummers. I found the whole Sri Chinmoy connection and the religious overtones laughable - made me want to hear Cosmic Derbis every time as an antidote.


Zappa was before _Mahavishnu with __*Hot Rats *__in Oct 1969,__ which featured _electric violinists Don Sugarcane Harris and Jean-Luc Ponty. 
Mahavishnu Orchestra Didn't start up until July 1971...............


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

VDGG had violin? I don't think Mahavishnu had any influence on Crimson. But the stupid thing about these interviews is that the interviewer knows nothing about Zappa's music, so they ask him about everything else.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

starthrower said:


> VDGG had violin? I don't think Mahavishnu had any influence on Crimson. But the stupid thing about these interviews is that the interviewer knows nothing about Zappa's music, so they ask him about everything else.


Oh, I am in complete agreement that the interviews are almost universally stupid and I love to see Zappa deflate them with common sense, plain speech and ridicule. The Aussie interview posted above was a good example - and it was heartening to see the audience coming in at the end and making the cold contempt Zappa exuded explicit, especially the guy who said something like: Zappa is an individual and you are trying to package him as a social phenomenon, as a revolutionary.

Yes, VDGG had violin and cello (on Vital, for example) - not sure for how long. Fripp did an interview of McLaughlin for Guitar Player magazine(!) in which the admiration was obvious. I think that Crimson was definitely influenced by Mahavishnu, at least with respect to instrumentation and probably some other features as well. I suspect Fripp compared the lean, clean power of Mahavishnu with the baroque (in the original sense, not the musical one) and classically influenced symphonic sound of all Crimson to that point and said: I want something more like that. By the way, I have always found Crimson far more interesting than Mahavishnu, for their superior composition, more adventurous improv, and general imagination and content.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I think the second Mahavishnu band gelled better than the first. Apocalypse is my favorite record. The first band was bound to self destruct. Too many forceful musical personalities that weren't in agreement about the direction of the music.


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