Frank Zappa explains the "liberal media bias" trick

[90-percent]

And this clip is from the mid 80's. "Nice trick".

The well worn "liberal media bias" has served Conservative Corporate Propagandists for DECADES now.
If you repeat a big lie long enough it becomes true.

Yet another example of my good taste in life long hero's. He had all this stuff figured out in High School!


-90% Jimmy

[Glamrock]

1. Man was a genius.

RIP Frank.

[dhill926]

3. yes he was....

what a loss...

[lambchopp59]

2. There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe

And they vote

[Glamrock]

4. I'm sooooo stealing THAT!

[lambchopp59]

6. Um, that's a Zappa quote, 1971 if I'm not mistaken, give him credit

https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/frank_zappa_161538
Had we have had men with brains in office continually there would be fast trains running all over this country by now, everywhere.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

8. Nope. It's adapted from Harlan Ellison before Zappa wrote it in 1989

That "brainyquote" site frequently gets quotes wrong.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harlan_Ellison

The other one is the one entrepreneurs have misappropriated to emboss on buttons and bumper stickers: The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity.
(I don't so much mind that they pirated it, but what does honk me off is that they never get it right. They render it dull and imbecile by phrasing it thus: "The two most common things in the universe are..."
(Not things, you insensate gobbets of ambulatory giraffe dung, elements! Elements is funny, things is imprecise and semi-guttural. Things! Geezus, when will the goyim learn they don't know how to tell a joke.

Introduction to Blast Off : Rockets, Robots, Ray Guns, and Rarities from the Golden Age of Space Toys (2001) by S. Mark Young, Steve Duin, Mike Richardson, p. 6; the quote on hydrogen and stupidity is said to have originated with an essay of his in the 1960s, and is often misattributed to Frank Zappa, who made similar remarks in The Real Frank Zappa Book (1989): "Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe."

Quote Investigator found a specific occurrence from Ellison in 1985:
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/01/09/hydrogen/

The earliest evidence located by QI appeared in the 1985 volume “An Edge in My Voice” by Harlan Ellison which primarily consisted of a set of columns written between 1980 and 1984.

[90-percent]

9. Thank you I'm in favor of historical accuracy

There's a meme attributed to FZ that is something he would never have said;

"So many books, so little time."

He was a fierce advocate for libraries "Drop out before your mind rots from exposure to our mediocre educational system and go to the library and educate yourself, if you've got any guts".

But............

He has said that he doesn't like to read cuz it makes him sleepy. I do not think he was a book of the month club member.

-jim

ps - a veracity check of my sig line zappa quote would be helpful. I hope he did say it, but if not, I will change it cuz I don't like trafficking in FAKE NEWS

[Bernardo de La Paz]

12. I could find no source of your sig line other than the scanned newspaper article you have seen.

It could be a fake, though it probably is not.

No mention of it here, which you may have also seen:

http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:461714/FULLTEXT02.pdf
Music, Mind and the Serious Zappa
The Passions of a Virtual Listener
Ulrik Volgsten
Stockholm University
• Studies in Musicology 9
1999/2009



And of course your Original Thread from July 2013. I could only find one parallel reference from that date, a forum thread elsewhere. And Google Groups which references your DU thread.

[Ferrets are Cool]

5. Frank was a genius in so many ways, not just musically...

if you go back and listen to his "political" viewpoints, he was so precognitive. I adore the man, his music and his views.

[KPN]

7. Wish he were still around to expose

all of the outrageous silliness occurring in our lives today here in America ... as only he could.

[mountain grammy]

10. Frank spoke the truth..

[BlancheSplanchnik]

11. Love and miss him. So brilliant, so creative.

The world lost one of its more unique geniuses...goddamn pancreatic cancer. 😪

[Mr.Bill]

13. I remember back in the day

Zappa's music was so unique, even offbeat, that most people I knew thought he was a heavy drug user. Many artists, writers, musicians, etc. in history were intoxicated in some way, so I guess that's a fair assumption to make. But in Zappa's case, it was far from the truth. He was straight arrow sober, and it was me and my circle of friends who were so intoxicated we couldn't recognize it.

If he was alive today, he would probably be a Senator.