Bob and his father, Renè, were leaving the Royal Albert Hall in an inspired state. They had just attended a Mothers of Invention concert.
Dobbs: I’m very happy to have finally had the opportunity to introduce you to Frank Zappa after all these years of telling you stories about my adventures with him.
Renè: Yes, your friendship with him makes more sense now. I can see how he’s going to help us in our plans. He may be at the start of a career that will do for music what Finnegans Wake did for literature. He reminds me of both Wyndham Lewis and James Joyce, a mixture of their sensibilities, but in an American context. I get a better sense of American culture watching and listening to Zappa.
Dobbs: Yes, I can see that. For example, when the band did that little skit about “taking progress and putting it under a rock.” If you think of a “rock” as representing electric software and “progress” as representing the old linear, industrial hardware, then Frank’s got it right about the present state of American, and consequently, global culture.
Renè: Yes, he’s a Mozart/Beethoven for our satellite culture. It was a wonderful concert–even for an old man like me.
