Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Frank Zappa Quotes

Frank Zappa Quotes

  • On a personal level, Freaking Out is a process whereby an individual casts off outmoded and restricting standards of thinking, dress, and social etiquette in order to express creatively his relationship to his immediate environment and the social structure as a whole.
    • Liner notes for the album Freak Out! (27 June 1966)
  • My solos are speech-influenced rhythmically; and harmonically, the're either pentatonic, or poly-scale oriented. And there's the mixolydian mode that I also use a lot...But I'm more interested in melodic things I think the biggest challenge when you go to play a solo is trying to invent a melody on the spot.
  • Drop out of school before your mind rots from exposure to our mediocre educational system. Forget about the Senior Prom and go to the library and educate yourself if you've got any guts. Some of you like Pep rallies and plastic robots who tell you what to read. Forget I mentioned it. This song has no message. Rise for the flag salute.
    • Liner notes for the album Freak Out! (27 June 1966)
  • Scientology, how about that? You hold on to the tin cans and then this guy asks you a bunch of questions, and if you pay enough money you get to join the master race. How's that for a religion?
    • Concert address to audience at the Rockpile, Toronto (May 1969)
  • I consider that the building materials are exactly the same as what anybody else makes the thing out of. It's just the way they look at those materials is perhaps a narrower perspective. Time and those waves are at the disposal of anyone who wants to use them.
    • As quoted in No Commercial Potential : The Saga of Frank Zappa (1972) by David Walley, p. 3
  • I think it's really tragic when people get serious about stuff. It's such an absurdity to take anything really seriously ... I make an honest attempt not to take anything seriously: I worked that attitude out about the time I was eighteen, I mean, what does it all mean when you get right down to it, what's the story here? Being alive is so weird.
    • As quoted in No Commercial Potential : The Saga of Frank Zappa (1972) by David Walley, p. 4
  • Information is not knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is not truth. Truth is not beauty. Beauty is not love. Love is not music. Music is the best…
  • I think that if a person doesn't feel cynical then they're out of phase with the 20th century. Being cynical is the only way to deal with modern civilization, you can't just swallow it whole.
  • Being interviewed is one of the most abnormal things that you can do to somebody else. It's two steps removed from the Inquisition.
  • I'm probably more famous for sitting on the toilet than for anything else that I do.
    • Interview on Nationwide (1 July 1983)
  • I'll tell you what classical music is, for those of you who don't know. Classical music is this music that was written by a bunch of dead people a long time ago. And it's formula music, the same as top forty music is formula music. In order to have a piece be classical, it has to conform to academic standards that were the current norms of that day and age ... I think that people are entitled to be amused, and entertained. If they see deviations from this classical norm, it's probably good for their mental health.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.