from frank zappa, the real frank zappa book
let's get into show business. at one time there was a place
called the pal recording studio in (don't
laugh) cucamonga, california. it
was established by an amazing gentleman named
paul buff. while serving [in the military], he decided to learn electronics, so
that when he got out he could apply what he had learned and build his own
recording studio. he got out,
rented a place at 8040 archibald avenue and set out to change the direction of
american popular music.
he didn't have a mixing console, so he built one- out of an old 1940's
vanity. he removed the mirror and,
right in the middle where the cosmetics would have gone, installed a metal plate
with boris karloff knobs on it. he built his own homemade, five-track,
half-inch tape recorder- at a time
when the standard in the industry was mono. (i
think only les paul had an eight-track then. buff was able to overdub in the
same way les paul could, but in a more primitve way.)
he wanted to become a singer-songwriter, so he listened to all the latest
hit records, figured out what the hooks were and, through a mysterious process,
created his own little hook-laden replicas.
he taught himself how to play the five basic instruments of rock and
roll:
drums, bass, guitar, keyboards and alto saxophone- then taught himself how to
sing. he made master tapes of finished songs, then drove into hollywood and
atempted to lease them to capitol, del-fi, dot and original sound.
some of these tunes actually became 'regional hits.' "tijuana
surf" (with
paul multitracking himself) became a long-running number-one record in mexico,
i wrote and played guitar on the b side, an instrumental called "grunion
run." it was released on
original sound under the name of, the hollywood persuaders.
i worked with him for about a year until he got into financial trouble
and
was in danger of losing his studio. so, remember the really cheap cowboy movie
that my high school english
teacher wrote the script for in 1959? after
endless delays, run home slow (starring mercedes mccambridge) was completed and
scored in 1963. i even got paid for
it- not all of it, but most of it. i
took part of the money and bought a new guitar, and used the rest to 'buy' pal
records from paul. in other words,
i agreed to take over his lease and the rest of his debt.