What's in a Name?
By the time
Freak Out! was edited and shaped into an album Wilson had spent twenty-five or thrity tousand dollars of MGM's
money - a rediculous sum in those days, even for a double
LP, (in fact I believe
Freak out! was
the first rock double LP.)
We were then informed that they couldn't release the record - MGM
executives had convinced themselves that no
DJ would ever play a record on the
air by a group called
"The Mothers" (as if our name was going to be
The Big Problem.)
They insisted that we
change it, and so the stock line is:
"Out of Necessity, we became the Mothers of Invention."
Freak Out! by
"The Mothers of Invention" finally hit the
street. Listeners at the time were convinced that I was up to my eye-brows in chemical refreshment. No way. As a matter of fact, I had several arguments whith they guys in the band who
were into '
consciousness altering entertainment products'. The whole thing blew up at a
band meeting when Herb Cohen wanted to get rid of Mark Cheka. Cohen said we couldn't continue to give Mark a percentage, but he wanted to take over since, basically, Mark didn't know
squat about management business.
"Well, as long as we're cleaning house here," some of the guys though,
"Let's get rid of that Zappa asshole too." Yes,
folks, some members of
the band wanted me to
go away and leave them alone because (
don't laugh)
I wasn't using drugs.
The
classic line of the meeting was delivered by Ray Collins:
"You need to go to Big Sur and take acid with someone who believes in God."
This is an excerpt from
The Real Frank Zappa Book by
Frank Zappa and Peter Occhiogrosso. This is a wonderful book, for anyone, whether you are a
Frank Zappa fan or not, whether you
love the guy or think he is a
sick talentless
fringe artist, the
book is great, and I suggest it to
anyone.