Bill Carbone
November 21, 2008
Wow, heavy. I've interviewed people on both sides of this (Andre and Dweezil) and have got to say that it's ugly and it ain't going to change. Andre has had personal run ins with Dweezil and (imho) posted some irresponsibly angry letters around the web which have made him Zappa Estate Enemy #1.

Still though, his note about about FZ (am I allowed to use those initials here?) borrowing from everyone is well taken. Certain parties, like Captain Beefheart, say that he did a lot more borrowing than he ever admitted.

The whole thing really shows what a complicated character Frank was. He was so into protecting his intellectual property as a brand, but so against brands and commercialism in general. Complicated indeed.

 

Mike M.
November 21, 2008
It sounds like a shit show, that’s for sure. Bill, I’m interested in seeing the other side of this that explains why it’s so problematic for Project/Object or any Zappa cover band to perform his music.

I brought this up in my interview with Phil Lesh, but the conversation went in a different direction. I was curious to hear his take on people making a living playing his music. Apparently, he and the rest of GD, doesn’t mind. The legacy and continued longevity of a musician’s work throughout history has a lot to do with it being carried on and being passed down/reinterpreted through live performance. I remember a friend mine’s primary reason for supporting Dead cover bands was that he felt the music had that amount of importance. He drew the correlation between symphonies playing Beethoven’s music over a hundred years after his death. Same should be true with the Dead and Zappa - people should be listening to them forever. I always thought that was an interesting way of looking at it.

I think FZ tributes, such as Project/Object, adds a significant amount to the importance of this music. I’m interested in hearing the other side of this to examine its complicated nature. But my initial impression is that this is more of shit flinging show.

 

Grizz
November 21, 2008
God, can Gail be more of a CUNT?

 

Bill Carbone
November 21, 2008
Well, what Dweezil said amounted to roughly (this is a paraphrase, I've got the original transcript at home and will have to dig it up) "They can't be trusted to do Frank's music correctly." He said something to me along the lines of "They do a little of song x but then take out a hard section and ZPZ doesn't do that." One thing I remember Dweezil saying, and he felt it passionately and wholeheartedly, was "who are we to mess with Frank's charts?"

I think it's interesting because Dweezil is essentially making an argument that messing with a FZ chart is akin to a conductor fiddling with a Beethoven score; that these are total artifacts. I know FZ felt that way on one level, but he messed with his charts before EVERY tour - they never went out and played a song just like it was last year, and sometimes the adjustments were huge. So, in effect Dweezil is arguing that the only person with the right do change anything was Frank, and he's dead, so now it has to be played just like it was in year X, and only he and ZPZ can do it.

I love both groups. ZPZ is unbelievably tight and pulls things off that I can only dream of playing. Still though, the thing I miss in their shows is the spontaneity. Zappa shows were a freaking circus. For me part of what made the great Zappa bands so unbelievable was the way they played the hardest thing you've ever heard and made fart jokes at the same time as if to say "Yeah, this shit is so unreal that we have to have a sense of humor about it." The sense of humor on the ZPZ stage is forced, as if to replicate the exact FZ sense.

On the other hand P/O isn't quite as tight but the shows are LIVE. They play so well, and when Ike AND Ed Mann are in the band how can one really question authority? Those guys were there, they were cracking the jokes AND playing the runs of 32note quintuplets in 17/8.

But in the end, why not just let it all go down? GZ's quest is so much more like Tipper Gore's that Frank hated so much. I just don't understand how she thinks she's losing money over it. Zappa fans (myself included) are total collector nut jobs and there's no way we're not going to buy every release and go see every show by both groups.

While I'm in no position to say so, I can't help it: I've got to think FZ is twitching in his grave over this one.

 

LMB
November 21, 2008
So interesting, Bill. Thanks for sharing that.

 

G-Zap
November 21, 2008
Fight the power!!!!! I'm starting a Zappa cover band tonight. We're only playing the G chords from every song. Cause that's all we know how to play. But we will have the fart jokes. So go ahead, Gail. Do your worst!!!!!!

 

Adam
November 22, 2008
Sucks this got so ugly. Gail is going too far and beyond for something stupid, but I also have heard about a ZPZ show where Andre had to be physically removed from the soundbooth because he was intentionally trying to cause a scene. Both sides have moved beyond logic. Also heard the Zappa estate contacted Phish in the mid-90's about them playing Peaches in Regalia.

 

Agent Moosehead
November 24, 2008
Typical.

This is like Yoko telling Billy Preston that he's not allowed to play "Get Back" anymore - and that only SHE and Sean Lennon are allowed to when moving forward.

 

Anderstine
November 26, 2008
So sad, so very sad. If this has to do with cash, even worse. As we all know Frank would be proud to see and hear his material "nicely displayed" for one and all.
PS I've found it most unusual that Dweezil does not allow any 'bands' to be myspace friends at the Zappa Plays Zappa site ? Is he unaware that musicians made up a larger than average group of fans than other artists ?
F--- Me Runnin'
Stine

 

Noodles
November 30, 2008
FRANK IS DEAD. Get over it and move on! Gail is like some creepy "Hand of Frank" from the grave. Are Beethoven or Bo Diddley spinning in their graves because someone, somewhere isn't playing their music as they would have liked? Shit, poor Elvis will never rest in peace, then. Get a grip. What happens when the music goes into the public domain in the future? OMG, no control! Heaven forbid the School of Rock kids try to learn and play Frank's music. I guess they will learn that not all music is for the masses - well, maybe for a price.

 

KFGaetano
January 7, 2009
What's the ugliest part of your body?
What's the ugliest part of your body?
Some say your nose
Some say your toes
But I think it's your mind
I think it's your
Or possibly your attorney!

 

michaelton
February 2, 2009
There's no way that FZs music will survive without newer/andor/younger groups of musicians picking up on it.This requires the someetimes unpleasant truth that said musicians may also tend to bastardize arrangements from time to time.FZ certainly was guilty of that in a large way when interpreting with the music of others,so whats the big deal?

 

chuck shibley
May 28, 2009
People,get a life;frank was right,kids wouln't know music if it came up and bit them on their ass!Its his music,get over it.

 

Keef
August 30, 2009
I stopped buying anything to do with Zappa years ago because Gail's a bitch.

 

Joe
October 14, 2009
Dweezil's right. His mother IS a space cadet!

 

Mac
January 12, 2010
If Gail Zappa farts in the woods does it make a noise?

 

Mac
January 12, 2010
Hey, it's me again. Seriously, will the day come when we can no longer say "Frank Zappa" out loud? Will Gail start offering Frank's soiled underwear for sale on the ZFT website? Will Dweezil make more absurd and laughable comments about people "making a living off of songs that aren't theirs"? This stuuf reminds me of the story Wayne Kramer once told about his running into Rob Tyner in New York City in the early 1980s, and his asking Rob to come over and lay down some vocals for some new songs Wayne had written. Tyner apparently said something along the lines of "What do I get paid, motherfucker? After all, this is the 1980s, and I want my money."

I honestly don't believe that any of this is about "artistic purity" or any of that phony, grandiose garbage. This is, pure and simple, a control issue. I think the Zappa family is feeling a bit threatened by other people feeling that they Frank Zappa's music is "theirs", too. Face it: there ain't a Zappa left alive that has anything even close to Frank's amazing and incredible gift. So, I guess they're feeling that they'd better milk it for as long as they're able. The whole thing is pathetic, parasitic, and pathological, if you ask me, not to mention needlessly belligerent. Has anyone seen Dweezil's nasty and dismissive blog entry regarding Ray White's departure from ZPZ? Now, granted, Ray perhaps shouldn't have quite the way he did, and maybe it disrupted the group, but to dismiss him in a taunting blog post like that is sort of disrepctful, and only serves to illustrate just how nasty the Zappas can be. Ray was a longtime member of Frank's band, and bit of regret and sadness at his departure -- even if Ray mishandled the situation -- would been more fitting and decent. Dweezil seems to think Ray White is just an unnecessary piece of shit, and who cares if he leaves. It's really sad.

 

Roop298
February 17, 2010
This is all getting a bit out of proportion.
To be fair to Gail, surely she has to honour Frank's wishes and ensure that any presentations of the music follow the score as it was written?
Don't artists have to contact the copyright owner of a song before they can perform or record an arrangement of any song? So why is she/the ZFT wrong?
Isn't it simply more difficult with Zappa material because he wrote the lyrics as well as the music.
As to copyrighting a moustache: well that's just stoopid.

 

Andre Cholmondeley
August 11, 2010
Interesting dialog. Just to set the record straight, as it has countless other times by eyewitnesses & production people at the Ottawa Festival in question -- when I was removed from the MONITOR area (not sound booth), I was completely unaware of Dweezil's requests to "ban" me from the stage. So - any flare-ups on that evening were COMPLETELY unintentional and actually , quite blindsided me. My boss on that evening -- Adrian Belew -- has corroborated this on his blog. He had been told of this "Ban" but sadly, chose not to tell me. The rest of the evening lies at the feet of Dweezil's employees.