Original subtitles

It works Iike this. If you take any kind of a meIody,

I don't care if it's Hawaiian music, or whatever it is,

and you pIay it with a Fuzztone guitar and a certain kind of a drum beat,

peopIe wiII caII it rock 'n' roII.

But what you got is a Hawaiian song, so how are you going to categorise it?

He took different styles of music, put them together,

and pointed out that

there aren't really rules about them, you know.

They've been set up, but we don't have to abide by them.

He established a category of his own.

You know, ''Zappa''.

That's the way l saw him, as a composer.

Not necessarily of one or another kind of music,

but he wrote all the time.

lt was the harmony, the instrumentation,

the sheer force of the personalities of the people who played it,

including humour, a lot of humour.

He was completely ahead of his time.

Years, decades ahead of his time. l think his...

Even now, l think his music is still ahead of its time.

Frank Zappa was the mad scientist of music, period.

He was the Mozart of the 20th century.

He was a free thinker,

and he was... He had an incredible intellect.

He was a very quiet person

who really put everything into his work.

So in that way it was almost like having a monk for a father.

A monk with a lust for groupies.

The pairing of Over-Nite Sensation and Apostrophe,

which is inevitable, because they were essentially made at the same time

with most of the same musicians,

it's really a turning point for him, because at that point,

he really connected with an audience that stayed with him for the rest of his life.

He was playing the guitar amazingly,

he was singing, he was funny,

he was sarcastic, he was right-on,

the music was, you know, unique.

When you listen to his music, and you listen to the way it's produced,

and the things that are being done, you realise, there are no boundaries for him.

He just completely wanted to do nothing more

than to just engulf himself in his art.

He made the music for himself,

and if everybody else liked it, that was great.

l played those songs over and over,

and it was like discovering,

in a different way, that your father was the coolest person on the planet.

My first recommendation to anybody, who hasn't heard Frank's music is,

listen to Apostrophe and Over-Nite Sensation,

because it has everything you could ever want.

lt's got the rock, jazz, funk, the attitude and the humour, all at once.

l started writing

so called ''serious music'', or non-rock 'n' roll music,

about the time l was 1 4,

and l didn't write anything that even resembled rock 'n' roll,

or rhythm and blues until l was 20.

l liked Var�se's music from the minute that l heard it,

and l just thought that it was beautiful, you know.

And l couldn't understand it when my mother would start screaming at me

to take it in the other room, because it bothered her while she was ironing,

and l always said, ''But listen to the siren.''

He just comes from so many different areas and mixes it aII together.

You've got the Var�se influence and the Stravinsky influence,

and you've got the old R&B and the doo-wop influence.

Anybody whose influences are Johnny 'Guitar' Watson and Edgar Var�se,

l'll sign up.

From the first time l met him, all the way through,

he was always writing music or drawing music,

or playing music.

When you start to look at his career in perspective,

you get this incredible sense of...

He was way beyond a man on a mission.

l don't know how he did it,

he wrote so much music and he got so many great musicians to play on it

and he somehow found a way to pay for it,

and owned all of his master tapes.

You know, I aIways knew that I Iived with a composer, who IuckiIy

was abIe, through rock 'n' roII,

to be abIe to afford his habit,

which was writing music, writing dots on paper.

The facility to write these charts,

and to conduct like he did...

When we recorded Freak Out!, when I got to the session,

there were aII these, you know, first-caII studio musicians.

There was some extra percussion, and there was a French horn, and who knows what.

Comes time to record and Frank steps on a podium, of aII things,

and he conducts these guys, with the certainty of...

I mean, this guy couId reaIIy do it.

So l said, ''Where'd you learn all this stuff, man?''

He says, ''Oh, l went to the library.''

He grew up as a teenager seeing things like McCarthyism

and, you know, seeing the civil rights disputes all over the country.

And, you know, the somewhat United States of America

was not what they were telling you.

The guy was so on it.

For me it had reaI purchase.

And you know, he was right at the time, I mean, that's for darn sure,

I mean, Iike, what he was putting down, that was part of the deaI.

lt wasn't just getting up there and playing, you know, guitar instrumentals.

That's why he called himself, an American composer,

because his work as a composer,

his work as a performer, guitarist and band leader,

it was all based on this notion

that he had the right to say what he wanted,

when he wanted and how he wanted.

He didn't just slap down the establishment, he slapped down the hippies.

He slapped down the phoney hippies... Everybody was fair game.

That's what l liked, was the fact that l was fair game.

You know, he never really chose a side.

The residency at the Garrick in 1967 was crucial,

because it gave him a laboratory

to work on not just the music itself,

but the notion of performance, and interacting with the crowd.

l was stunned to see a couple of kettledrum on stage for a rock concert.

You just never saw that. And a vibraphone,

and just again, the strangest-looking people l'd ever seen,

making beautiful music.

The way that Frank had put the show together and the way...

lt had the different elements, but it was just a feel about the show.

lt was extremely creative,

it wasn't a rock 'n' roll show, it wasn't a pop show, it wasn't...

lt was just music.

Frank's soIos were Iike sonic scuIptures.

He never did the same thing twice,

unless it was a particular melody line that was integral to the song.

The one thing that's been consistent about the aIbums that I've put out

is that each one appears to go in a different direction.

But if you look a little bit closer, it's all part of one continuous whole,

and that's the way it's designed.

People don't

always concentrate on his musicianship.

There's a lot of talk about his bands, you know, over the years.

What great musicians he had in his bands.

But a lot of times he's overlooked as the sort of centre of that.

First of all, you don't have great musicians like that if they don't respect you.

The band for Over-Nite Sensation was put together,

and they were touring in the early part of '73

and then they went into the studio and recorded those records.

We'd worked stuff on the road and we worked stuff in rehearsal.

l mean, rehearsals were intense and,

you know, five days a week, you know, six hours a day,

and so when the band went on the road, we were ready to go.

Probably some of the most fun l've ever had in my life

was being on the road with Frank.

We had aIready become a band.

l mean, we had been on the road playing, and so all of a sudden

we knew instinctively what Frank wanted.

All the stuff we did for Over-Nite Sensation,

l think we knew everything.

l don't think we worked anything out

in the studio at the time.

lt's kind of funny, 'cause l hear it now, and it reminds me, almost,

of some of the guitar stylings of Mark Knopfler, on SuItans of Swing.

These kind of little licks, and it's a little unusual for Frank,

those little phrases.

Over-Nite Sensation was musically very appealing to me.

l mean, it was like... lt was like, you know,

Frank was a little jazz-oriented, but it was also rock and roll,

and it, like, blended that really nice. l always liked that about that.

He had an abiIity to

write a song fiIIed with so much information.

You know, he really looked at using a rock band

in the same way that he would use an orchestra.

See, in there, you can hear a little bit of violin,

which you wouldn't normally hear.

lt's melted together within the horns.

Another great texture idea

that Frank was so brilliant at with his arrangements.

There's a little violin again.

He got the most action out of the least number of guys,

and he's got George there with the synthesizer,

who can sort of fill a million roles.

lt was a young instrument then, but still it would blend with brass.

When you sit down to learn this stuff,

you just are constantly amazed, thinking,

''Wow, l didn't even know that was in there.''

And if you take it out, that's the thing that really made it

have that special thing, that he would call, ''the eyebrows''.

So, this is a great sort of counterpoint-type thing,

where you have a call-and-response answer,

and this special

vibraphone mysterioso chord

is so brilliant in there.

lf you go back, Joe,

and l pull that out, it'll have a completely different feel.

lt'll still sound good,

but when l add it back in, the texture...

lt's very science fiction,

TwiIight Zone,

but, you know, you really can't point to too many other songs

or too many other musicians who had the ability to write that way

and include those things in their songs.

Frank had this very exquisitely delicate

approach at times to orchestration.

You know, whether it was with the rock band,

or with an orchestra, he can be very delicate.

And the same thing with his guitar playing.

But at the same time, he can be tremendously visceral.

So what we're hearing now is Frank's solo all by itself.

And you can hear the little wah-wah action going on, but it's...

lt's not the kind that you would hear like on

you know, Super FIy or Shaft.

You know, he's using it as a really...

Just a notch filter to give it some character.

Real honky.

He did that a lot. He used to like to have that real mid-rangy sound.

He had specific EQs built into his guitar,

that allowed him to get exactly the right mid-range frequencies

to cut through the particular arrangement.

His guitar playing, a lot of the times, sounded like razor blades,

you know, especially when he played an SG.

Coming up, we're gonna hear the crazy vocal of Ricky Lancelotti.

Really an interesting guy.

Ricky was reaIIy crazy.

And Frank found these characters I don't know where,

but he wouId find these peopIe

and bring them in and they wouId do just the most incredibIe thing.

lt's just funny to hear the lkettes

under these circumstances.

Well, you know what's so great though, is...

Just what Frank makes them sing, you know.

Just the words on this one and other songs they ended up singing on,

you know, on other records.

It's just...

lt's just so funny to hear what is the ''soul sister'',

like the epitome of that sound,

but singing about this monster, this Zomby Woof.

And the whole part that didn't get used.

''Don't bite me! Don't kick me!''

lt's just funny.

Well, l was quite surprised, you know,

when l went to the studio

and he says, ''Napoleon, this is Tina Turner.''

And l said, ''Oh, great. How're you doing?''

''You know, and she's gonna be singing with you.'' And l went, ''Oh, really?''

Bolic Sound is where we did those tracks and you know,

that was lke Turner's studio, and...

Yeah, l remember it kind of being funky.

Yeah, l remember that place.

l almost don't know what to say about that, you know.

That's 30 years ago. That's like a haze.

But overall, l can remember spending hours.

The main thing is we not only rehearsed for hours,

but we recorded for hours.

There were no limits and there were no restrictions.

He was willing to try whatever was necessary to get the sound.

And that's kind of the way it worked, every day around the cIock.

And rehearsaIs were pretty much the same way.

I mean, this was a commitment. This was not, Iike, you just joined a band

and, ''I'II see you guys next week when we're on tour. ''

You joined a band and you...

This was a serious commitment, a commitment to excellence.

lf you try and sing a complicated text...

l mean, a complicated text

is not a collection of words that are readily apparent, you know.

lf you start talking about ''the leaves'', ''the love'', ''baby'', those things,

words you've already heard a million times,

the text doesn't matter,

because you can take those words and sing them melismatically.

You know, turn them all over the place

and people can still follow the contour of the idea.

But if you're talking about

concepts, or using phrases which are unfamiliar,

it's hard to get that information across

if you're singing elaborate musical lines at the same time.

I do that every once in a whiIe just to be nasty,

but most of the time, if the idea is out there somepIace, I try and taIk it.

You have to think about what's going on sociaIIy at the time, you know, in the worId.

And l think that's why

a lot of focus and interest in transcendental meditation,

maybe Maharishi.

Don't trust anybody who's that short,

and who tries to go through customs with $80,000 worth of wristwatches.

You know, maybe that's why people think that there's a lot of affection,

and that's Frank, that's him.

You know, it's nothing cute about it. He'd... He changes his character to do that.

Frank's voice is excellent on that.

l just love his tone.

If you're gonna have to write words to a song

and you don't identify with most of the rest of the Iyrics

that are coming out, you know...

Writing songs about how the Ieaves feII down so niceIy on that October day,

and then the wind bIew them and then the...

lt rained and then you fell in love, your heart broke and then

stuff came out the side of your mouth,

because you were lonely and that kind of stuff.

That's not my idea of a good time.

So, if l have to write lyrics

because people like to hear the human voice attached to instruments,

l'll write about things that interest me

and have an honest reflection of my point of view.

So, l'll tell them the same way l feel. l think gurus bite it.

These vocals didn't make the record.

Frank could play the blues with the best. His technique was excellent.

And he was very creative as a guitarist. I mean, I Ioved pIaying behind Frank.

We'd come back from dinner or something

and he'd sit down and just blow you away with

you know, riffs, or something, or a concept.

And you'd stand back and go, ''How does that guy think of all of that?''

Frank just had an ear for writing a really hooky, great riff.

l mean, take a song like

one of his more simplified songs, like I am the SIime.

It's about teIevision.

But it's about teIevision in a specific way.

It's about how you are being manipuIated.

And you are just so wantonly open

for any suggestion

that's coming off of that television.

And people view TV

the way they view print material, like newspapers.

lf you read it, it must be real,

and if they tell it to you on TV, it must be real.

It seemed Iike he was aIways at work, you know, even when we were, you know,

on the aeropIane or on a bus or waiting at the airport or whatever.

I mean, he was... There was aIways something going on in his mind

as to what is the next thing going to be, you know, and...

And he did like to document things.

So, just about everything that l think we did was recorded in some fashion or another.

I try and remember which concerts I Iiked out of the tour.

And I Iisten to those first

and then I find the parts of the concerts that I think are exceptionaI

and I cut those out, and make a buiId reeI

and then I go back and Iisten to parts of other concerts

that I think might have contained individuaI, wonderfuI events.

And then l keep collating this

and l have one section of tapes, that are just accumulation reels.

So he always lived in, sort of,

an ocean of projects that were in a circle around him,

you know, that he could just pick up that tape over there

and when he was, you know, not interested in this thing any more,

he just couldn't think about it any more, and then he'd start working on something else.

So, lot of things got...

Well, it was a winnowing process in many ways,

but a lot of things got moved from one project to another.

There was always so much, always. He was never at rest.

There was always more and more and more music.

And once the music was done, it didn't stop there.

For another tour, he wouId take that same piece

and pIay it compIeteIy differentIy.

Like St Alfonzo's Pancake Breakfast got more and more and more eIaborate,

as we did more and more shows and he added more and more parts to it.

So it was over a period of time.

lt wasn't written just the way it appeared on the album.

This is just such a classic Frank line

written for percussion.

Let's bring in some other instruments.

Some nice Who Are The Brain PoIice? bass parts,

that really didn't make it to the record at that level.

See, stuff like that, if you stop it and go back,

those are the really cool elements that...

lt's almost, like, cartoon-esque,

the way he'll create one phrase,

and talk about it and sing about it in a voice

and then answer it with this filigree with the musicians.

But it's got a personality and a sense of humour. lt just brings it to life.

Many of the parts that Frank wrote for me just suited me perfectIy.

It's the music that I wouId have written for myseIf, if I had that taIent.

Frank knew how to do that for me.

l think he knew how to do that for, really, everybody.

There's a piece that was inserted into the Apostrophe album

as part of St AIfonzo's Pancake Breakfast.

lt's called RoIIo Interior, and this was the lead sheet that l was given.

And if you can see that every single chord that's in here

is marked B flat 2, C2, F sharp 2, D flat 2... Everything is a two-chord.

And what that means to Frank is,

he would take a triad. This is a triad.

A three-part chord consisting of one, three and five.

The first, third and fifth degree of the scale.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

There's your tonic triad.

He would lose the third and move it down to the second.

And there is the definitive Zappa sound.

As in, for instance...

All two-chords.

RoIIo does not have one triad in it. lt's all two chords.

So, that's an example of that, and notice the absolutely gorgeous manuscript.

l mean, and this was Frank writing it down as fast as he could.

WeII, three mistakes.

One for each decade that l've been away from the music

and the instrument.

lt's something that l felt compelled to learn on guitar, just because

it's so much a part of Frank's compositional style.

The rhythms, the melody of it, the way it all comes together

with a sense of humour. But it's graceful and

it's just difficult as all hell.

l can only say that he was very funny.

My impressions of him, obviously, were from the point of view of a kid.

So, l found his lyrics to be very embarrassing.

And the subject matter seemed to ruffle a lot of feathers.

So, l didn't enjoy the nervous tension in my stomach if we were in public places.

But he had fans that were so enthusiastic about him.

And very emotionally so.

And, so l know that was very important to them and very impactful.

l discovered Frank's music in the middle of discovering a lot of other things in life.

And it's quite an assault.

l learned about what l would expect to get

if l ever got on the road in a rock band.

lf there's one thing l like, it's erotic activity.

This being the best of all possible worlds,

the rock 'n' roll industry, ladies and gentlemen,

it affords opportunities for things like that.

Well, my basement may be great for working on tapes

and cutting film, and sitting there and planning arcane procedures

over vast 10-year periods and so forth.

lt's not quite the same as going on the road, you know what l mean?

l think it's fair to say that everything that Frank wrote

was about his own personal experience and then some calculated guesswork.

Dinah-Moe Humm is close to my heart simply because...

l mean, a song about trying to make a girl come is...

Who wouldn't like that? And who would write one? You know.

Makes a guy wanna stiffen up his thumb and use it.

As far as Iyrics go, he knew that they were something that peopIe Iiked.

It wasn't his favourite. He Iiked music without Iyrics.

You know, on the one hand you end up

doing a song Iike Dinah-Moe Humm for instance.

And, that... The horror is that you... That's, like, the most madly requested one.

And you have to do that for the rest of your life, you know.

Big mistake.

Oh, be careful about the songs that become the classics.

He was like, ''Oh my God!''

And then it's too bad it was so long. lt could've been a shorter one.

And then it would be less painful to have to do so often.

Okay, here she comes, right here.

This is such a funny concept.

lt's so perfect for the times.

The fact that you gotta get out of it to get yourself into it.

And, clearly, people have confused that as a sentiment coming from Frank,

'cause he never was involved in taking drugs.

He always told people not to take drugs.

Sex and rock 'n' roll.

What was that other word? Drugs? Well, there was no drugs in Frank Zappa's band.

Over-Nite Sensation is much more focused on,

well, in many ways, sex.

Lead vocals by Lurch, ladies and gentlemen.

That's still an effect that can't be created in the digital world.

You can't take a vocal and... Or an instrument

and record it at a slow speed, and then pitch it back up,

the way you can with an analogue machine.

Frank caIIed one night and said,

''Do you wanna paint an aIbum cover for me?''

And then he expIained to me what the concept was to Over-Nite Sensation.

'Cause he wanted to do a, you know,

a Dutch master painting with all the symbols being of rock 'n' roll,

and being on the road, and the two-headed roadie,

you know, and what his sexual frustrations were.

And the grapefruit was his sexuaI object.

Frank was, you know, very gifted visuaIIy, artisticaIIy, musicaIIy.

I mean, he was the kind of person that you couId, you know, bring an idea to,

and, who just jumped on it. You know, had the gift for doing art.

And had the gift for expanding on the idea.

Frank Zappa's newest LP, Apostrophe!

That's right, you heard right. With Nanook Rubs lt.

Don't Eat The Yellow Snow,

Cosmik Debris and many more.

Frank Z. and Apostrophe!

You know, Zappa was such an amazing musician

that he was abIe to bring aII these amazing musicians around him,

and have a reaI musicaI thing.

Yet, stiII, sort of, you know, take the piss out of things, or be funny.

Somehow, he managed with all the intelligence, all the humour,

all the irony, all the amazing musicianship...

Always managed to not be pretentious.

lt almost gets to this point where you start saying,

''Exactly what couldn't he do?'' l mean, you look at video.

He was just as innovative in the video area as he was in the audio area.

There's that... The video, Sledgehammer, that was so-caIIed innovative.

You know, Peter GabrieI sang back in '87 or...

Frank did this back 10 years earIier.

The tunes on Over-Nite Sensation are some of my favourite, they really are.

The introduction to Montana, l mean... lt was... Ruth and l had this sort of

introduction that we did, that was always fun to do with her.

And then, dropping into the groove at the vocal.

You know, just this contrast of tempo and whatnot.

And then, just the whole lyric of Montana is just hysterical.

lt's... Nothing like it in the world.

That's one of the all time classics

because that was like a perfect piece of music.

You know, back in the day, you know, with jazz, and with this,

this type of rock music that Frank invented, there was extended soloing.

So artists can get into a space, where you never get into, in a studio.

You never get into anywhere, except when you're doing these extended improvisations.

And it's a fugue-like state.

And stuff starts happening. You're creating in the moment.

His favourite way to compose was in the moment, with a guitar.

So, you know, you set it up, you have a really well-rehearsed band.

And the band is happening, and everybody does what they're supposed to do.

Then you have this moment which beIongs to you,

and you go for what they used to joke about.

I remember a conversation with Frank and Beefheart

where they were taIking about the perfect note.

And the perfect note is reaIIy the onIy one

that is possibIe to pIay, that is absoIuteIy correct.

l've always loved artists who had their own space in this life.

He really embodied something unique in music.

And l think, in today's world,

which seems to be musically so homogenised,

almost no chances are ever taken.

Things are based on the least common denominator.

This guy was way over on the other side.

And l remember one time, he says, ''Alice, either you get it, or you don't get it.''

And the people that got it, they got it, and they loved it.

And the people that didn't get it, that's okay, they weren't supposed to.

l don't think that you'd be able to look back,

and lump him in with anybody else.

l think he created a genre.

He just really was very creative and he enjoyed the process of being creative.

And he didn't feel like there were any boundaries

that should constrict what he was able to do.

Almost every person within those bands, whatever generation you choose,

they were characters in a story that Frank was orchestrating and writing.

Far in the future, the music will still be there.

And people will wanna play it. lt's just so much fun.

He really brought it down to a level that made it truly accessible to anyone

who took the time to pay attention. You know?

And it was funny.

To me, absurdity is the only reality.

Basically, it looks like they ran tape

and ran it until they got their master take of Dirty Love,

which happened about maybe 1 2 minutes into the reel.

So they rewound the tape to record Dinah-Moe Humm.

So when Dinah-Moe Humm ends, this is what happens.

This sounds like it's a live in-studio band take.

Yeah, you've got the bleed. Frank singing live in the room.

There's a certain point when he says that he wants them to play it faster.

Yeah, it's coming up, because this take is going to end,

and then we'll hear some studio chatter.

-Here it comes, the end. -Almost sounds like that little keyboard part.

That little keyboard part almost sounds like Staying AIive.

Okay, here we go, here comes the master.

Nice special effect.

Eight and nine.

Lead vocals by Lurch, ladies and gentlemen.

Yeah, you know what's funny?

ls that's still an effect that can't be created in the digital world.

You can't take a vocal or an instrument

and record it at a slow speed and then pitch it back up

the way you can with an analogue machine. There's a certain quality to that

that just can't be achieved in the digital world.

There's always some sort of artefact in the digital world

with a harmoniser or something

when you try to change the register of the instrument.

And so Frank was always doing stuff

in changing the pitch of vocals and other instruments,

and it's just so funny to... To hear it.

l mean, people on other records did it, the Beatles did it on a lot of stuff,

but it's funny to hear Frank with that super-low Lurch voice.

Tina.

They'll come in on these little answers, yeah?

No, we're in solo land now.

-Solo land. -l'll go back to the top of the solo.

Where... What tracks is he on for his solo? On seven and eight?

-Eight and nine. -Fuzz guitar is five, wah-fuzz guitar is seven.

That's it.

That's a mike that's further back in the room.

They both are.

That could be the Pignose.

There's this weird sound in there somewhere, that sounds like a chain.

Roll it back.

lt sounds like there's some weird percussion thing,

like some dragging of a chain or something.

-That's right, that's right. -There?

-Right there, yeah. -l don't know where that is.

l want to hear what that is.

Yeah. l remember hearing that on the record, too.

-There it is. -Right there.

-lt's probably their jewellery. -lt's on the girls' track.

Who knows what.

lt's probably jewellery and them doing something like this

and it's just being picked up on the mike.

-Well, it made the record, that's for sure. -Yeah.

Then you hear Frank...

You can hear him in there with his vocal

that's been sped up, with the ladies.

That's it.

Hello.

All right, we're still fixing things here,

and you know, when it's ready to go, it's ready to go.

ln case you didn't notice, ladies and gents, we're making a movie here tonight

and it's possible that later on in the programme,

if we have something like audience participation,

you'll be illuminated and...

You know, it's really nice to work in a nightclub, you know.

lt's been so long since l've actually seen anybody in the audience.

You know, when you play a concert, there's about 20 yards and it's all black, you know.

But you guys look pretty good.

l'll introduce the members of the group now.

This is Bruce Fowler on trombone.

Napoleon Murphy Brock on tenor sax

and vocals.

Ruth Underwood on percussion.

Ralph Humphry on drums.

Chester Thompson on drums.

Tom Fowler on bass.

George Duke on keyboards.

And l'm Zach Glickman.

We're going to open up with a song about dental floss.

The name of this song is Montana.

lt tells the poignant tale

of one man's quest for a horse about this big,

a bush of floss,

the wide open prairie,

and the sincere hope that the background vocals will be in tune.

All right.

Now there's this one section here

that basically what happens is it turns into a...

The rest of the reel is blank, but at the very end of the reel

we find a section of Nanook Rubs It

that was razor-bladed out and put at the end of the reel.

So this is a section of Nanook Rubs It that no one's ever heard,

coming up.

One, two, three.

We had no instruments that could compete with electric instruments.

There were no such things as electric marimbas.

And so l was able to get tremendous satisfaction

from doing some recording with him,

but the idea of travelling, of being a member of the band,

was something that seemed completely out of reach,

for so many reasons, and not the least of which was

that we didn't have the technology for it.

And then one day, he said to me,

''You know, you could make your marimba electric,''

and described to me about Barcus Barry and transducers,

and l thought, ''Well, this sounds just wonderful.''

And then when he said, ''What they do is they drill into each bar.''

As soon as he said drill,

you know, you'd be drilling into my body

because l owned at that time one marimba,

the one that l had since l was 16 years old.

And to drill into that, that was just not going to happen.

But Frank was so clever, he said,

''l'll get my vibraphone done if you get your marimba done,''

and l thought, ''You know, if he's going to take a chance with his vibraphone'',

and l know he'd had that for a very long time, ''l'll do it.''

And so we travelled.

We were able to travel with those instruments.

lt was extraordinary.

l'll never forget the day that we plugged it in for the first time.

l'm technically very challenged.

l don't know, l still don't understand, really, how it worked

and, thank God, he had very...

You know, we had a lot of people that were good at that stuff.

But they got it ready and Frank handed me a mallet and said, ''Okay.''

And l just went like that and it was deafeningly loud

and he looked positively gleeful.

He looked almost maniacal, like, you know,

''Now l can rule the world. l've got all the percussion at my disposal.''

Because Frank was a percussionist, did you know that?

He was a percussionist.

And now finally he had mallets that could travel, too.

So it was an extraordinary thing.

And then, of course, he insisted that it would become,

that it would be made in quadraphonic sound,

which in those days was state of the art, you know, inconceivable.

So, he had me play scales or arpeggios up and down the keyboard

and sure enough it travelled around you.

lt was just, it was incredible.

l've seen him happy on a number of occasions,

but that day was special.

That was, you know, almost like Dr Frankenstein

in the 1931 James Whale picture.

You know, ''lt's alive, it's alive.'' And it was.

Welcome to the vault.

Many different types of media in this vault.

Stuff from 1955

to the current types of storage media and audio types.

This is the earliest digital tapes from the '80s.

And up here we have lots of

16 and 35 millimetre film and audio mag.

And against this section here,

we have lots and lots of one-inch video tapes.

This is what Frank archived

a lot of stuff to and mastered a lot of his projects on.

Nowadays it's Digibeta or HD technology,

but then it was one-inch analogue.

Here we have the original Freak Out! reels,

dated March 8th, 1966,

about 40 years ago.

And they're half-inch four-track.

And they play great and they sound great.

And this is just a digitised backup, just in case,

kind of stick in there with it.

These are the original

two-inch 16-track masters

for Hot Rats, Peaches En RegaIia, part three.

And these tapes are also in great condition.

Here are the original track sheets recorded on Scotch.

We love Scotch because Scotch, over time, will continue to play.

We do not need to bake it.

Good stuff.

And for the purposes of this special,

these are the main mamas.

These right here would be the 16-track

original two-inch masters for Over-Nite Sensation.

This is the original for Dirty Love, Dinah-Moe Humm,

recorded March 19th and 20th, 1973,

and this is Barry Keane's handwriting at Bolic Sound.

And this particular reel

is marked ''YeIIow Snow, build reel 1 .''

For side one of Apostrophe,

basically what Frank did is, he made razor-blade edits

on the original two-inch as opposed to making edits on a mixed down tape.

So unfortunately what happened was,

there were two types of tape formulations used to make this master tape.

And this section here, you're going to have to come in real close,

l don't know if the lighting's good,

but this section here is of a darker colour and this section is a different type of tape.

And this type of tape would not play.

So we had to take this off, bake this, splice it back together

and et voiI�,

we have a clean transfer of this master tape.

Don't Eat The YeIIow Snow.

Tapes like this, right here,

are some of the Studio Z tapes from the early '60s.

This one containing I Was A Teenage MaIt Shop.

Let me give you an example of what these little suckers look like.

Frank's original, Frank's handwriting.

These were intriguing to me.

l think that the older the tapes are, the more intrigued l am by them.

l just find that

going back to their early days is such a discovery,

a lot of discoveries to be made.

l mean, all the show tapes from the '70s and the '80s,

they'll always be there and they are always going to be good,

but this stuff is the most obscure

and it's always an adventure to find out what really does lie on all these tapes.

ln the back here is the original film reels to Baby Snakes.

And a little bit down the way is all the Roxy stuff,

Roxy performances, original negatives.

These are the original Beefheart reels

to Trout Mask RepIica, eight-track one-inch.

Recorded at Whitney Recording Studios.

Dick Kunc's handwriting

who was a long time engineer for Frank in the '60s.

What else is great, actually, are these tapes right here which l'm real excited about,

even though it really has nothing to do with what we are talking about,

but these are Live at the Whisky, 1968, one-inch eight track.

And there was a supposed record that Frank put together from these tapes,

but it never came out.

But there are many things like this in this room

that is just waiting to be preserved,

documented and, hopefully, released some day, if it's good enough.

Lots of stuff here.

You know what's cool about a lot of older recordings

and especially Frank's when we put these tapes up?

You can basically put the faders at a relative position, you know,

''zero'', in the business, would be, you know, at unity gain,

but l'm going to put them just below that

and you can see that the song basically mixes itself

because they put so much attention to detail

on keeping just the right parts in the song,

and it's already blended.

So let's start it and let's see what it sounds like.

Here it comes.

l like the really skanky little guitar sound he's got,

that's got a little phaser on it.

Here's a good place to hear that guitar again.

That's very groovy right there, you know.

Reminds me of Pat Harrington's Schneider character on One Day At A Time.

There, you can definitely hear Tina Turner on this.

Sounds like a U47 and 1 1 76 compressor.

lt's funny.

''She was buns up, kneeling l was wheeling and dealing''

Go back to that, Joe.

-You want to go back to that? -lt's coming right now.

Okay.

That phrase, you want to stop it real quick?

That phrase was lifted by Steven Tyler in an Aerosmith song.

So, obviously this song has far-reaching...

A far-reaching fan base.

But he actually got permission to use it, but you know, he...

He used it in his own fantastically lecherous way and it's...

lt's nice to have, to have that quote, you know, elsewhere.

But, yeah, what's funny when you hear all this stuff,

you know, slightly differently balanced than the actual mix,

there are so many groovy little keyboard parts in it

and it's as if they got Stevie Wonder playing the little clav parts

and it's obviously, you know, George Duke,

but there's some...

There's just so many cool little elements that make this

have a really good groovy feel to it.

So it's not just a joke song.

To actually play the song, you have to have a really good feel,

you have to be a good player to make it work, you know.

Otherwise, it would fall into this sort of...

l don't know, more...

-Cheech and Chong mentality. -Yeah, a little bit of a Cheech and Chong,

but, you know, just the overall... l guess what l'm trying to say

is the execution of these elements

is so top-notch by these great players

that it still has integrity, musically,

even if there is something incredibly silly or stupid on top of it.

And that's, again, you know, a testament to Frank's arrangement skills.

He would look at what he had to work with

and find the best in all of the players,

and l'm not just talking about their technical ability.

lf they had certain proclivities and sense of humour,

he would push them in a direction to include that in the music

and it could be instrumentally, or it could actually be with vocals,

or improvisational things that happen in songs,

but that's what must have been so much fun about working with Frank.

People think of him

as, you know, this crazy taskmaster,

and l'm sure that he was, when it came to his strict music

that was, you know... That he composed and it was written on paper,

but l'm sure they all got up to a lot of fun times

on the road and in the studio just making the music.

-Got some sound effects coming up here. -Yeah.

But, you know, what's funny is

in some way, you could think of this as the precursor to rap.

You know, it's a song with a monologue in it.

''Right here on the floora.''

-Hey, that's not in the record. -Yeah.

-lntroducing the concept of the pygmy pony. -That's right.

That's pretty cool.

l wonder why this was edited down.

You know, it's...

lt's a long outro.

-Straight to tape with those effects, huh? -Yeah.

Wouldn't that stuff be done post, normally, nowadays?

Just depends. You know the thing about it is

in those days you committed your ideas to tape

because you had a finite amount of tracks and you knew that,

''Well, if l have, you know, five or six tracks

''that l want to make a blend of all these elements together

''and l need some effects on them,

''l've got to do that and either

''moult them down to a stereo pair or one mono track

''and then l have to use the same tracks l used to record all that stuff

''to record some other stuff.''

So in that case they would probably have had to have thought about

all of the effects and things they wanted to add and commit to that.

But now you have the option of, you know, multiple different kinds of effects

that you could audition at any point.

But still l think

it's probably a better way to make a record,

is to commit to the idea.

'Cause there's... There's a lot of stuff that becomes rather sluggish

when you have 150 tracks on a song, you know.

And everybody's guilty of it on a computer 'cause it's so easy to do.

Oops!

What was that, the...

-A little stop in the action? -No idea.

Oh, well, we'll edit that out.

-This is the end of the tune. -Yeah.

Speciality vocals there.

lt's just so funny to hear all this.

Just the tone of the instruments.

-The electric pianos and... -Try track five for a second here.

Okay.

A little ARP.

lt's pretty funny.

More harmony to the...

lt's just a nice little cycle.

The ending you never got to hear on the record.

That's right.