Paul Buff Presents The Pal And Original Sound Studio Archives: The Collection

Miles: Can you please tell me what sort of musical activities you were involved in before you formed The Mothers?

FZ: I had a recording studio in Cucamonga, California.

Miles: Was this a sort of private thing?

FZ: No, it was supposed to be, you know, open to the public announced [?] some and I would sell studio time, but there were nobody out there who wanted to make records.

Miles: So you never made any masters out there?

FZ: Well, I made a lot of masters, but I didn't make masters of other people, you know, like people coming in off the street to use it as a commercial studio. Most of the masters that came out of it were either of overdubbed things that I made myself, or tracks involving Ray Collins who was the original lead singer for the group. Before we actually had a group, I was working with him—I produced some stuff on him.

Miles: Yeah, none that was ever issued?

FZ: Well, no. I took the masters to town, and shopped them around, and nobody picked up on them. However, before I owned the studio— The guy who had it before me was a guy named Paul Buff, and he had made masters of both Ray Collins and myself, and some of those were issued.

Miles: Yeah, I think Bob Keane put out some on Del-Fi.

FZ: Yeah, there's one called "How's Your Bird," and "The World's Greatest Sinner" was on the other side. And also I made some tracks and wrote some material for a couple of other acts at that time. One of them was released on Del-Fi with a group called The Heartbreakers. It was two fourteen year old Mexican kids who sang one side that was called "Cradle Rock," and the other side was "Everytime I See You" (sorry I can't remember what the name was). And we also leased a couple of masters to Art Laboe at Original Sound.

Miles: Who was in there?

FZ: One of them was called "Mr. Clean" by Mr. Clean, and the other one was "Grunion Run," which was released under the name of The Hollywood Persuaders. The A-side of "Grunion Run" was "Tijuana Surf" which became a number one record in Mexico for about ten months straight. It sold volumes down there.

Miles: That was yourself and Ray?

FZ: No that was, uh . . . "Grunion Run" was me and Paul Buff. And then Ray and I wrote a song called "Memories Of El Monte" which was recorded by The Penguins, and that was released on Original Sound.

Miles: There was nothing else before then?

FZ: There were a couple of releases on an extremely low-budget label.

GZ: Can I take this plate? This is cream.

FZ: Thanks, yeah, ok.. The label was called Vigah!, V-I-G-A-H, and there is several things out on that. One of them, the first record I ever made, was called "Breaktime," by a group called The Masters, which was me and Paul Buff and Ronnie Williams, who was playing drums and bass on the thing. It was an overdub deal. And then the next . . .

Miles: What date was it, about?

FZ: Ah, that was '62 or '63. See what else we have . . . We made a record with a local disc jockey from San Bernardino, named Brian Lord, who could do a Kennedy imitation. And we recorded a record called "The Big Surfer," which had a very strange punch line to it. And we took it in— we released it on Vigah!, and it was getting a lot of play in San Bernardino because the guy was a disc jockey. So we took it in to Capitol, and offered it to them. And they bought the master right away. They gave us 800 dollars up front for it.

Miles: Who was that who bought it?

FZ: Jim Economides. And they never released it, because one of the lines in there had something about— for winning our dance contest you get to be the first members of the peace corps to be sent to Alabama. About a week after they bought the master, Medgar Evers got shot. So, it was just too hot to release, you know.

Miles: Where was this Vigah! label based? In San Bernardino?

FZ: No, Vigah! was just a name that we cooked up for the stuff that was made there, in Cucamonga.

Miles: And as it was your label, you . . .

FZ: No, it was Paul Buff's label, you know, because he owned the studio at that time. I was just a creep that used to hang around there. And we also recorded a parody of Paul & Paula, called Ned & Nelda, which was— One side was "Ned & Nelda," and the other side was "Surf Along With Ned & Nelda."

Miles: So you made mostly comedy and satiricals?

FZ: Yeah.

Miles: [...]

FZ: Yeah, well even before that, because prior to the time I had access to a recording studio, I would rent tape recorders from a local hi-fi shop on the weekends. And, for about five bucks for a weekend, I'd have all my friends over to the house, and we improvised plays and stuff. I still have a lot of those tapes.

Miles: You should put them out, yes . . .

FZ: I wish I could. I don't know whether there's really a market for some of that kind of humor. I also did research, where I would interview people. Get their life stories. Some of the most grotesque events of the century.

Miles: Right, what sort of . . .

FZ: Well, the story of Ronnie and Kenny . . . Like Kenny saved his piss in these mason jars out at the back of his house until black things started growing in it and increased in size and swam around in the jars, and [...] knew what it was. And his brother Ronnie who saved his snot on the window of his room. I have them telling about these things. And . . .

Miles: What, were these locals . . .

FZ: They were kids who lived in Ontario. Ronnie was the guitar player on the first record. You know, they're just— If I met somebody and they looked like they had a story to tell, I would just say, hear it!

Miles: And this guy had these black things?

FZ: Yeah, you want to hear him tell about it?

Miles: Yeah, that's pretty weird . . .

FZ: Hold on.

Miles: [...]

FZ: I don't know, but at one time we delivered to Bob Keane masters for— You know the album Lumpy Gravy? You know the last tune on Lumpy Gravy goes da-ta-daa, da-ta-ta da-ta-taa, and a little bongo fill, da-da-dada-dada-dada-diddy-diddy . . . it's called "Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance," and it's in the We're Only In It For The Money album . . . We took that very same master that's on Lumpy Gravy, because it was recorded in '62 or '63, and took it to him. And he sat on it and never released it. And we got it back.