Name: Frank and Moon Zappa Talk "Valley Girl" | Letterman
Uploaded: 2023-02-24T23:17:51.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Frank and Moon Zappa Talk "Valley Girl" | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-02-24. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Frank and Moon Zappa Talk "Valley Girl" | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-02-24. Transcript available.

Welcome back to the program. My next two guests are the first father and
daughter team we've ever
had on this television program. The father made a name for himself in the late
60s as the leader
of the Mothers of Invention, and the daughter, certainly. You can applaud that,
absolutely.
The daughter is currently making a name for herself as the person who
introduced
Valley Girls to the rest of the world. Please welcome Frank and Moon Zappa.
You folks, you in particular, I'm guessing, Frank, have quite a following here
in the audience,
and we're very pleased to have you here. Let me ask, I know you get tired
probably discussing your
family's sons and daughters' names and so forth, but originally you named Moon
Moon Unit, right?
Right. And now you've dropped the unit? No, I've kept the unit. It's still on
her brush today.
Still on the, and what exactly was going through your mind when you named her
Moon Unit?
Well, actually it was a choice between that or Motorhead. I told that.
It was, now, now I saw your son, or one of your sons, on the Today Show this
morning,
and his name is Dweezil. Dweezil.
Now, these are, well, I don't mean to be disrespectful, but these are peculiar
names for children.
I don't think so.
Has, has it been a problem for you, Moon, being known as Moon Unit?
Uh, no, not really. When I was little, I wanted to change my name to Beauty
Heart or Mary,
but, uh, I think that, I like my name.
Yeah. Uh, and what about, uh, uh, the names of the other?
Dweezil, Amit, and Diva.
Yeah, Amit and Diva. Now, I know, I, uh, I was reading that Amit actually
wanted to change his name for a time, didn't he?
Yes, he did.
Yeah, to what?
Rick.
Rick.
You see, when people called him Amit, when he, when people called him Amit,
they called him Amit Vomit,
and then when he changed his name, when he changed his name to Rick, they
called him Rick.
So he changed it back again.
But actually, you know, they should just call him Amit the d***.
Because as he matures, I'm sure that that's what will stick with him.
You get the sense that all hell has broken loose here, and, uh...
Quite a bit of heck, perhaps.
Yes. Now, tell me about your father as a, as a father.
I mean, he is a, a musical and, um, sociological phenomenon, and a legend, and
a little strange,
or at least used to present himself that way.
What was he, or what is he like around the house, and...
Well, you know, the usual, say, no mask, his...
No, he's, he's a normal guy.
I mean, really.
Now, what about, uh, when you bring friends...
That's interesting now, huh?
When you, when you bring friends over to the...
How old are you?
Do you mind?
Fourteen.
Fourteen.
So, will you bring, uh, boys home to meet, uh, your dad?
Is that strange or not?
Yes, he, he...
I bring them home, and, and Frank looks at them, shakes their hand, asks, asks
them questions,
and, you know, if they're okay, you know, it's all right.
Yeah, now, what, now, what, uh, do you, what constitutes okay for you?
Have you, I mean, anybody not make the cut?
Well, she had a guy over the other, the other day that I didn't like too much.
I wouldn't want him either.
Well, I, I wouldn't want to embarrass him by...
By singling him.
Describing him, yeah.
Yeah, uh, so, so...
But that's the only one that she's brought to the house that I didn't like.
Yeah.
And only because he was, uh, like a wise guy type.
Kind of a, yeah.
Smart mouth?
A nerd.
A nerd.
Uh, uh, now this, uh, this, uh, collaboration between the two of you,
have you ever worked together before on a project?
Yeah, on the last album.
Uh-huh.
Uh, and that was the one before the, the single that's so popular now?
That's right.
Yeah, and do you want to be a singer, Moon?
No.
I want to, uh, be an actress.
I'm looking at scripts now.
Um, I can sing if, if, uh, it's necessary.
I'd like to do a musical or a Hawaiian punch commercial or perhaps...
I'd like to be a singer.
Me too.
How about you?
Right.
Perhaps be an Encino housewife.
Uh-huh.
So these, these are all lofty ambitions and, uh...
Welcome back to the show.
This is the, uh, most recent, uh, Frank Zappa album,
Ship Arriving, Too Late to Save, A Drowning Witch,
from which, uh, Valley Girls is taken or is on,
or whatever they say when it's included in, in the album.
Uh, explain to us, again, I'm, uh, you must be tired of this explanation,
but tell us about how this, uh, came to be.
Either one of you.
This is a toss-up question for 20 points.
Oh, well, uh, I was qualified for the job and, uh, you know,
I've been to parties, bar mitzvahs.
I know what I'm doing, so...
Now, by, by qualified for the job,
you mean this song is about your peer group, right, essentially?
Uh, well, anybody who, uh, knows what the Valley's about and, uh...
You've been there.
I have been to the San Fernando Valley.
And experiences it and, uh, can let others experience it as well.
Uh-huh.
And, and what is it about?
It's something to share with the world.
Yeah, what, in, in your estimation, what is the Valley about, Frank?
Well, you see, I don't want to break the hearts of a lot of people
who really like this record, you know,
because I hate the San Fernando Valley.
I mean, it's perhaps one of the most disgusting places
on the face of the earth.
And I wrote this song about the values of the people
in the San Fernando Valley.
Uh-huh.
But it turned out to be cute,
and so everybody thinks it's cute.
Okay, it's a nice cute record.
Now, now, for people who may not know what, uh,
if you could just talk like these people talk,
do you mind, or...
Sell them from real estate.
Well, like, okay, take this house over here, for example.
You notice it's got, like, a little picket fence.
It's so cute.
There's, like, vines growing over everything.
I don't know what the flowers are called,
but, like, they're so awesome!
Awesome!
So it's just, uh, just airheads is what you're saying, pretty much.
Yeah, yeah.
Uh, and what I read about the record,
you just, you got her out of bed at midnight
and said, come down here,
and did you just ad-lib what's on the record, or...?
Yes.
Yeah, and, uh, the, uh, results have been overwhelming
successfully for you folks.
Ridiculous.
Ridiculously so.
Um...
Now, when, when you were, uh,
in your earlier stages of your career,
you did some, as far as public appearances,
you did some interesting things,
audience participation, you know.
Yep.
That's right.
You got marines out of the audience and on stage?
Yes.
Which is a good place for marines.
Uh, now, what, once you get them on stage,
what do you do with them?
Well, you're talking about something that happened in 1967
at the Garrick Theater
in the middle of the, uh, the Vietnam War,
and what happened was, uh,
there had been a murder in, in the village,
and, uh, I think a marine had been killed,
and somebody had spread this rumor
that the hippies had done it.
So all the marines were coming into the village,
the rumor had it,
to murder people with long hair.
Remember when all that stuff was popular to do?
And so we were rehearsing one day,
and, uh, these three marines came in
in full-dress uniform in the afternoon,
and I figured, well, if this was the hit squad,
they wouldn't be dressed up,
and they were just fans.
Yeah.
And they were hanging out for a while,
and, uh, we talked to them after the rehearsal
and asked them, uh, if, uh,
they knew any good songs
and if they wanted to come on the stage.
So they said that they knew
House of the Rising Sun,
and everybody must get stoned.
So I said, well, that's really good.
We'll warm up.
We'll learn the songs,
and you go across the street
to the Tin Angel and get drunk
and come back when the show starts.
So they did.
And when they came back,
they sang the two songs,
and then I said to the audience,
um, well, let's hear it
for the United States Marines,
and we got this large doll of a child
and said, uh,
how would you like to, uh,
show these people
what you would do with this,
uh, in your normal daily work?
And they ripped it apart on stage
with musical accompaniment,
and then after they'd finished that,
I showed the pieces of the broken doll
to the audience.
There's a lot of people crying out there.
Yeah.
So, uh, yeah, that's...
Well, you know,
there's a reason for doing things like that,
and by the time the media gets a hold of it
and people try and explain it
over and over again,
it turns out to sound like
something weird to do,
but, uh...
Yeah, it still sounds like something...
Well, no, in the context of the times,
I understand it,
but, yeah.
Yeah, for instance...
It was pretty sick back then,
wasn't it?
Now, uh, another time,
you actually got yourself
kind of roughed up
in London, right?
Yeah, I was, uh,
attacked by a crazy person.
And, uh,
the crazy person was
unhappy with you
or just crazy?
Well, who knows
about crazy people.
Yeah, that's true.
For sure.
But I spent, uh,
a couple of months
in the hospital
and a year in a wheelchair,
and, uh,
that was not too fun.
Yeah, yeah.
And you never found out
what the motive for this was?
Well, he told two different stories
when they caught him.
The first thing,
the first story he told was,
uh, uh,
see, what happened was
I was working in a theater
that had an orchestra pit
15 feet deep
with a concrete floor
and a bottom,
and they didn't have it
covered over.
And, uh,
the security guards
that were hired
by the theater
were off to the side
smoking some marijuana
at the end of the show
just as we were doing
the encore,
so they weren't
paying any attention.
And this guy came out
of the audience
and he knocked me
into the orchestra pit.
So he told the press
that, uh,
I had been making eyes
at his girlfriend
and he was jealous.
That was one story.
I couldn't even see him
or the,
I don't even know
what the guy looks like today.
I didn't see him
or his girlfriend
because the lights
were in my eyes.
And then after that
he said,
well, uh,
we weren't giving him
enough value
for his, uh,
ticket dollar.
That was the second story.
that he gave.
So I don't know.
For his entertainment dollar.
Uh,
C. Moon,
your father has had
a very difficult life
and, uh,
we're going to pause.
Again,
we'll return
to talk more about this
with, uh,
Frank and his daughter Moon.
Frank Zappa
and his daughter Moon Zappa
are here.
I wanted to ask you
about your friends
in the Valley.
How do they react
to your success
by, uh,
introducing them
to the world?
Well,
most of my friends
don't speak Valley.
they prefer to speak
English,
but those
that I, uh,
imitated
are, uh,
flattered
because if there's
one thing Valley girls
love,
it's attention.
And, uh,
You're making
a lot of money
on this,
I hope, huh?
Uh, and Frank,
it was a pleasure
meeting you.
I've been an admirer
of yours for many,
many years,
and I know you wanted
to, you had a greeting
for someone here.
Yeah, ready?
Happy birthday, George!
And George?
George,
George has quite
a following of his own,
apparently.
That's right,
George is a cool guy.
He was there
when it was all happening.
And George will be
when it's...
75.
75.
Well, again,
and for me, George,
happy birthday, too.
Look for the UPS truck
coming by
with a lovely gift.
Thank you very much, folks.
I know you're very busy.
I appreciate you being here.
Frank Moon,
nice meeting you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.