David Dugle:

KTUH-FM in Honolulu. Good evening, Frank.

FZ:

Hello, there.

[...]

David Dugle:

What do you listen to, Frank? That's something that I've always wanted to ask you.

FZ:

I listen to rhythm & blues and classical music.

David Dugle:

Really? Any particular favorites?

FZ:

In either category? Well, let's see. Last piece of classical music that I listen to is an album called Leonard Bernstein's Greatest Hits. I put that on because the kids like to jump around to it.

David Dugle:

Todd Rundgren has got a new version of "Something's Coming" which came out really good, I thought.

FZ:

What is that?

David Dugle:

It's from West Side Story.

FZ:

Oh, yeah.

David Dugle:

He's done an updated version of it. Pretty cool. What songs you're gonna be playing tomorrow night?

FZ:

Want me to recite the complete list for you?

David Dugle:

Certainly.

FZ:

Well, our program start off with "Stink Foot" and then wends its way into "Dirty Love," and it goes from that into a new instrumental called "Filthy Habits." And then after "Filthy Habits" it goes into "How Could I Be Such A Fool?," "No Heart," and "I'm Not Satisfied." And then it goes into another new song called "Black Napkins."

David Dugle:

"Black Napkins"? What's that about?

FZ:

Oh, it's an instrumental of a particular variety. And after "Black Napkins" there is "Advance Romance" and then another new song called "Baby, Don't You Want A Man Like Me?" And then after that it's "The Legend Of The Illinois Enema Bandit." And then there's an extremely moronic kind of a song that everybody will enjoy called "Lemme See Your Thumb." And then the song that features our drummer, little skinny Terry Ted Bozzio, in something that is nostalgic to the nth degree of all folk rock songs that you've ever heard in your life, it's got all the "Dunt-da-dunt dunt-dunt-da-dunt," and all that crap, and it's called "Tryin' To Grow A Chin." And then after that it goes into uh, a blues kind of a song called "The Torture Never Stops," and then it goes into . . .

David Dugle:

Sounds like a long show. How long does all this got? Two hours?

FZ:

Oh, it's more than two hours.

David Dugle:

Really?

FZ:

Yeah. There's no breaks in it, it just go straight to.

David Dugle:

Give the people their money's worth.

FZ:

Oh, it'll make them jump up and down.

David Dugle:

Your last show really did, God, that's great. Uhm, who we got in the band this time? You had Jean-Luc Ponty and George Duke and a whole bunch others last time.

FZ:

Oh, they've all drifted back into the jazz world. This time we have André Lewis, from the world of soul, on keyboards; Napoleon Murphy Brock, who some of you might know because he spent a lot of time here working at the fabulous new Red Noodle club, which is where I discovered him; and uh, little skinny Terry Ted Bozzio on drums; and Roy Ralph Moleman Guacamole Guadalupe Hidalgo Estrada on bass.

David Dugle:

Oh! Mr. Estrada is back.

And, uhm, you used to play here in the islands several years back too, uh?

FZ:

Ah, yeah. One of our first jobs away from home was at a club called Da Swamp—I think it's now called the Lemon Tree.

David Dugle:

Ah, except that they tore it down and they made it into an ABC discount store now.

FZ:

Fantastic! Gets what it needed all along. Did they tear down the Surfboard Motel that was in the back?

David Dugle:

Ah, yeah, there's been a lot of reconstruction going on down in that area.

FZ:

That would need it too. Yeah. We got a package deal. We got to work in that club for a few weeks and stay at the lovely Surfboard Motel.

David Dugle:

Yeah, right there on the white styrofoam [...] for wiki-waki!

FZ:

Yeah, it was— It was hurting.

I think we played some kind of an outdoor show here at the college. That was in 1965.

David Dugle:

Ah. That's a long time back. That's about the time of Freak Out! then, no?

FZ:

That's right. We had just recorded Freak Out! As a matter of fact I was mixing uh— Just finishing the mix on side four at six o'clock in the morning and I walked out of the studio and got in a car and went to the airport and came here. And then we stayed here for a couple of weeks. And, uh . . .

Oh, let me tell you the story about what happened the first day that I got here.

We got— Heh, heh, heh, ewww . . . We got to Hawaii and I've been up all night long and I was fried. And I got off the plane and I was really excited to be here because the weather was so nice and everything, so I looked around and looked at this grubby place where we're gonna work and looked at my grubby room at this Surfboard Motel. I went out, got something to eat and walked around a little bit. I was really excited about coming to Hawaii because it was, you know, like a big time 'cause we're on the road for the first time, you know.

David Dugle:

What, this is the first place that you played outside of L.A.?

FZ:

Yeah. It was the first job that we had outside of Los Angeles—it was that club. We had done one promotional tour in the States, which took us to such picturesque spots as Washington, D.C.; Detroit, Michigan; Dallas, Texas; and one other place in between, I forget. And we just went doing the television shows and then came back. But we hadn't work any concerts outside of Los Angeles. The first thing that we did was here.

So anyway, after getting adjusted to what was going on I thought, you know, I was just like a native after about four hours. I get my shorts on and everything. So went in—we had a little rehearsal that afternoon and we played the job in the club. And I noticed that they had put a photograph of the group outside of the club and had had it on display for a short time prior to our arrival.

Well, unbeknowst to me, this girl, who should be known as Wonder Woman, had walked by and seen this photograph stuck in that little window and had picked me out as a victim, you see? Now, I so didn't know anything about what kind of club this was—I mean, there was hardly any girls ever came in this place. So it was all sailors of the world.

And the first night that we played there we were playing such wonderful tunes as "Help, I'm A Rock" and "You Didn't Try To Call Me," and the audience was like—There is a table of sailors from New Zaeland who still had their little sailor hats on, but their shirts were off and they're really drunk and they were dancing with each other. And the only girls around there were the bar maids, and they were there only under duress, you know, and it was dismal.

All of a sudden out of the woodwork comes Wonder Woman. All she's wairing is a piece of cloth. Period. You know, that's it. Hair streaming down from underneath of her arms and about a foot and a half long off her legs. And she comes wailing into this bar playing some extremely loud finger cymbals, and just jumps there and dominates this empty dance floor. And trots around a little bit and I'm going, "Yoooo-hoo!"

So we take an intermission and I went out and talk to her, I say, "You know, that's a really nice pair of finger cymbals that you have."

So anyway, to make a long story short, she wanted to show me the sites, the picturesque sites of Hawaii itself, and after the job was over about two o'clock in the morning we went walking around on the beach and so forth. And wound up getting a sleeping bag and going down sleeping in that park that's down the street from—

David Dugle:

Kapiolani.

FZ:

Yeah. So we sacked out in this park and I remember as soon as the sun came up I heard this little crinkling and rustling, sort like . . . over by the side of the bag. And I looked over and a little Japanese gentleman—perhaps a gardener—had walked over and put a paper bag with two cups of coffee in it down by the sleeping bag and just walked away and never said anything.

David Dugle:

Fantastic.

FZ:

That was the first thing that ever happened to me in Hawaii. Now wasn't that fun?

David Dugle:

Yeah. And you wouldn't have that happen to you in L.A., probably.

FZ:

No, no. If the guy would've come up first he would have robbed you then he would have beaten you and you would have been arrested for disturbing the peace.

David Dugle:

Great.

FZ:

If you hadn't choke to death on the atmosphere first.

David Dugle:

Really.

[...]