“He knows how he wants it to be. So if somebody else thinks they know better, they don’t”: What Frank Zappa couldn’t stand from musicians in his band
Equally renowned for his groundbreaking music and exacting standards, Frank Zappa held his band members to strict expectations and wasn’t shy about letting them go if they didn’t meet them.
In an interview with American Musical Supply, Dweezil Zappa — musician and son of the man himself – shares how his father would react when a musician in his band did not stick to the score.
“Well, obviously, if they were not pulling their weight and then also doing things that could get them in trouble, if they were doing extracurricular things, that was… His phrase was, ‘Window or aisle, how would you like to return home?’”
READ MORE: “He walks in with a guitar not in the case… like a superhero walking up the steps”: Dweezil Zappa on the night Eddie Van Halen showed up at his dad’s home and played Eruption
Dweezil explains that Zappa’s demand for precision often clashed with musicians who wanted to inject their own interpretation into the parts.
“So there were a lot of times when people would try to overstep their bounds and do too much while comping or start changing voicings on parts,” he says [via Ultimate Guitar]. “And he’d be like, ‘No, no. You have to do this.’ And if they would continue to do that, because that was their ‘I’m expressing myself.’ It’s like, ‘Well, the window or aisle?’”
The guitarist likens his father’s approach to that of a classical conductor, where precision was everything.
“But consider it in the context of an orchestra,” he continues. “If an orchestra has people that are supposed to be in their lane, playing their part, and then suddenly they start changing their stuff, that’s not what the composer intended. They’re playing what’s on the page, and it’s supposed to be done…to everybody works to get the right emotional content out of things.”
“And my dad wrote his music as if the rock band was the orchestra, and this is all notated, and it’s really arranged. He knows how he wants it to be. So if somebody else thinks they know better, they don’t. That’s not what he’s asking for. And so, that’s why they got fired.”
In related news, Frank Zappa’s daughter Moon Unit recently reflected on her peculiar childhood, and the strangeness that came with growing up as the child of an artist regarded as a “genius”.
“There’s this strange dichotomy of my father being called a genius and the fact that he didn’t even make sure [his children] knew how day-to-day [life] worked,” she told The Independent. “He didn’t invest in our educations or our futures. He didn’t even say, ‘How are you doing?’ to his kids. This is outrageous to me. If that’s what genius is about then, pah! No thank you!”
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
