Re: Frank Zappa

Michael M. Butler (butler@comp-lib.org)
Mon, 28 Dec 1998 14:52:40 -0800

You know, I'm wondering if something hasn't gotten lost in the retelling.

Specifically, I wonder if someone in the chain of hearsay substituted "capitalist" for some other word that Frank used. I know he had little respect for hypocrites and the self-important. And a lot of the people who work and play in the tops of skyscrapers qualify.

Greg, _The Idiot Bastard Son_ is perfectly germane: "...the child will thrive and grow, and enter the world of liars and cheaters and people like _you_, who smile and think you know what this [the song--MMB] is about... You think you know everything--maybe so--the song we sing--do you know?--we're listening..."

MMB
Another Frankophile

At 05:11 PM 12/28/98 -0500, you wrote:
>In a message dated 98-12-28 13:02:34 EST, retroman@together.net (Michael S.
>Lorrey) wrote:
>
>> Frank was sticking his head out the window yelling up at the skyscrapers,
>> yelling,"You capitalist bastards!!!" (it was around 11pm). This from a guy
>> paying $100 an hour for a limo, who flew first class and was staying at
the
>> presidential suite at the Olympic Hotel, and was playing to several sold
>out
>> crowds while in town.
>
>This seems strange to me, coming from a guy who reacted to the record
>industry's reluctance to distribute his work by creating his own successful
>record company and then, in the last ten years of his life, sponsored a
series
>of travelling lecture shows by western business executives to teach
>entrepreneurial skills in post-Soviet Russia. Of course, this was the same
>man who wrote "The Idiot Bastard Son" and advised us not to eat the yellow
>snow . . .
>
> Greg Burch <GBurch1@aol.com>----<burchg@liddellsapp.com>
> Attorney ::: Director, Extropy Institute ::: Wilderness Guide
> http://users.aol.com/gburch1 -or- http://members.aol.com/gburch1
> "Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must
> be driven into practice with courageous impatience."
> -- Admiral Hyman G. Rickover
>