Frank Zappa
“The ‘Original’ Group”
FZ: They had existed as a group called the Soul Giants. They had a leader named Davy Coronado who played tenor sax, and I was brought in as a substitute guitar player because, uh, Ray Collins, who was the lead singer with this group, had had a fight with the other guitar player and had beaten him up and, uh, they had a job, a weekend job, and Ray called me and asked me to come down and substitute. And so, after playing with them and, uh, enjoying the experience and liking what I heard, I suggested that we develop, uh, original material and try and make records. Davy Coronado, who, um . . . Well, he was absolutely correct, he said, "If you try and play original material, you'll get fired." Because in order to keep a job in a bar band in those go-go days, you had to just play what was on the radio or these stupid little dance songs. He said, you know, "I can't do this, uh . . . You know, I need to earn a living." And so he left and I convinced the guys to learn some original songs and Davy was right, we got fired, every place we worked we got fired. But eventually we got a record contract, and I don't know whatever happened to Davy.