Great Throughts Treasury
This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Frank Zappa, born Frank Vincent Zappa
American Composer, Singer-Songwriter, Electric Guitarist, Record Producer and Film Director releasing more than 60 albums with the band The Mother of Invention and as a solo artist
"Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid."
"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture."
"Yeah, I tell them to change the channel if they see some guy in a brown suit with a telephone number at the bottom of the screen asking for money."
"You can’t be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer."
"You can't always write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say, so sometimes you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whipped cream."
"You have just destroyed one model XQJ-37 nuclear powered pansexual roto-plooker....and you're gonna have to pay for it."
"You know, people are basically shitty. It’s when they prove it over and over again that it gets obnoxious."
"You drank beer, you played golf, you watched football - WE EVOLVED!"
"You say your life's a bum deal 'n yer up against the wall. Well, people, you ain't even got no deal at all. 'Cause what they do in Washington. They just takes care of Number One. An' Number One ain't you. You ain't even Number Two!"
"You got to play 'Dinah Mo Hum' a lot of times to get one of these. ( in reference to his then brand new million dollar home studio.)"
"You've got to be digging it while it's happening 'cause it just might be a one shot deal."