Zappa — The Lost Interview


Barry, our most kind and benevolent webmaster, posted this seven part interview in July, 2008. However, when I sought it out both here at KUR and on the web, I came head-on to many dead links. Seems as though certain parties, which shall go nameless, have been quite busy on YouTube having particular Zappa-related material removed (It seems to me that it won’t be too long when finding anything Zappa-related on YouTube will be either (a) impossible, or (b) costly).

Information Is Not Knowledge describes it as such:

The total interview runs about an hour and covers music politics and popular culture from 1950s through 1990. This interview was never released. It was recorded in 3 segments 1990 in LA, but never completed as a final project. Intended to be kind of retrospect of what happened to the personal growth and idealism of 60’s as it whitewashed into the self indulgence of the 70s and 80s and the corporatism of America. It was never completed upon his death.

Fortunately, I was able to track down live links to Zappa’s Lost Interview. “Part 1: Early Influences” and “Part 2: McCarthy, Elvis & Racism” are above, respectively. The rest are as follows:

Part 3: The Presidential Elections(09:52 min.)
Part 4: Beatles, Stones & Censorship(09:31 min.)
Part 5: Hendrix, UFOs & Sex(09:52 min.)
Part 6: Problems with Democracy(09:36 min.)
Part 7: Message to the Future(00:53 min.)

Watch ’em before they’re gone for good.

Opium, Morphine, Heroin

Illegal Drugs: Opium, Morphine, Heroin Pt. 1

The recent awarding of Heath Ledger a posthumous Oscar for The Dark Knight made me think about his accidental death from “acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine” as reported by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of New York. This made me think of how deeply the use, and abuse, of opiods have become a part of global and popular culture: in history, art, music.

This three part documentary (Part 2, Part 3), which first appeared on the History Channel as “Hooked: Illegal Drugs”, shows the history of Opium and how it evolved into Morphine and Heroin, from a completely legal substance to an illegal one.