Interview with Robert Hunter and Greg Anton, August 25, 1997

Nancy Germany, take one (Catalina)

xian

I wanted to go back to Nancy Germany. Was it Catalina that came out of that one?

Greg

No.

RH

Chance in a Million.

xian

Chance in a Million, right. OK, but, the title Theme from--

RH

Catalina came from the soundtrack that Greg did for a dramatic live stage presentation of the Pawn Broker --some very, very fine music from that. What became Catalina was in that.

Greg

Yeah, but actually before that it came from a thing that I was working on with Donna Godchaux. I actually I played that song on the piano and she sang along. She just scat sang. There weren't any lyrics to it. We recorded a Front Street. It was very melodic. Then we used it on the soundtrack, and then I gave those changes to Hunter, and he put put the lyrics to Catalina to it. And that's that's how we found Judge.

The Catalina One-Word Judge Audition Story

xian

You had a talent search or something, didn't you?

Greg

It was unintentionally like that. The word got out that Hunter was writing lyrics for us and a lot of people thought they were the person to sing them and wanted the gig.

you just made one word into a song

Martín knew this guy, Judge, and called me up one day. He said "Hey man, I've got this guy that's got a set of pipes. You've got to hear this guy's voice," and I said, "Forget it, man." I said, "I have had singers coming out of my ears. I'm taking a break. No more auditions, no more, not right now." I was really burning out on it because it was a lot of people.

So naturally, Martín being the way he is, he just shows up at my house with this guy. I'm sitting at the piano. I've just come from Hunter's house and I have this little shred of paper: a song with one word, basically. Martín walks in with this guy, and he goes, "Hey, Greg, you gotta hear this guy sing, man. Give him something to sing to." So I was kind of pissed off and said, "OK, wise guy. You want to sing? Here's a song that's got one word. Let's hear you make it a song." The guy goes, "Cat-alina!" and I practically fell over backwards! It was so strong when he sang that word, and I said, "Wow, you just made one word into a song!" As it turned out, it's one of the band's very favorite songs.

xian

It's kind of a signature tune, I think.

Greg

Yeah.

What about the "More Instrumentals" Crowd?

xian

There's been a little bit of discussion on the mailing list. From some people who've been seeing the band a long time one of the regular complaints is that they want more instrumentals. They want to hear the old stuff. They take pains not to blame Judge, know, but they sort of focus on him as the guy singing the lyrics.

Greg

My experience of it is different. I'm always surprised to hear that comment, because we do so much playing. We play Home on the Range, which has a whole bunch of words, and no matter how many words there are in the song, we still play four times as long. We do all the lyrics, we do this gigantic long jam, and then maybe come back to the lyrics, depending on the song. There's so much playing on almost all of our vocal tunes. there's so much instrumentation built around the lyrics. When we play Pits of Thunder, there's so much playing in that, and then eventually we repeat the last verse to close the song. We do that every time. But sometimes we really stretch out, some times more than other times.

xian

I've noticed that. They've put some sound clips up on the Zero web site, some from the album but also some live cuts so people can compare,and I listened to the Pits of Thunder, which is under five minutes on the album, right? It's very concise, though it still has that wide open groove. There's a live version from somewhere on the web site that's about 15 minutes long.

Greg

Really?

it wouldn't be the Net if people didn't take contrary views

xian

And about five minutes into it, it's still the drum solo to introduce the song! So right there you could fit the album track three times into that live version of it.

Greg

So for people who say, "more instrumentals," that song is as long as any regular band's instrumental song would be. There's as much jamming on it.

RH

It wouldn't be the Net if people didn't take contrary views to what you've decided to present to them.

Greg

I personally like some of the concise songs, like Horses. We do a sax solo in the middle, and we do a guitar solo outro, but it's fairly brief. It's just presented as a song, as a ballad. I love playing that song, I love playing Catalina, I love playing Roll Me Over. I like playing ballads, on the drums, and I like the words, and I love listening to them. As many times as I've heard them I still like listening to them.

Nancy Germany, take two (The Burning Question)

xian

Let me see if I can get back to just one stupid question, but it's just something that has plagued me, and it's Nancy Germany. The title of that song is Theme from Nancy Germany?

Greg

Yeah.

xian

What does that mean? Is that like the theme from a movie, or is that just an imaginary title, or what?

Greg

With instrumental songs, you get a name by somebody making a joke or whatever. We first played that song in the studio. The first Zero recording we did was me and Steve. I played piano and drums and he played bass and lead, and we came up with the core, the main five or eight instrumental songs (some of which Hunter's since written to). So, we were in a studio, working, and Steve was watching some old news clip on TV, some old World War II news reel. They're talking about Nazi Germany, and the guy's got this accent: "Natsy Germany, Nazi Germany." Steve said it sounded like Nancy Germany, and he said, "That's a nice name, isn't that? Nancy Germany?" He came in and told me about this, and I said, "Yeah, let's call the song Nancy Germany," and that was it.

RH

I didn't know that.

How Many G's in Greg?

xian

Some of these questions are short. Some of them are just things that I've always wanted to know.

I used to raise chickens and sell eggs, called Gregg's Egg's but I got chickened out

Greg

Some of them are things I've always wanted to know.

xian

Is Greg spelled with one 'g' or two, at the end?

Greg

I spelled Gregg's Egg's with two g's because of the eggs, but now everybody thinks I spell my name that way.

xian

That messed your life up.

Greg

I don't care. It's really one g. Yeah, but I spelled g, r, e, g, g, apostrophe, s, e, g, g, apostrophe, s. I used to raise chickens and sell eggs, and I called them Gregg's Egg's.

xian

You don't do that anymore?

Greg

I got chickened out.

Roots of Zero

xian

Before Zero, what were some of your other bands. I gather from a Keith & Donna album that you played with Steve.

Greg

I was playing with Keith and Donna in a band. We had some guitar player and Keith wanted another guitar player, and we were playing at Front Street, which is the Grateful Dead studio. Kimock came to try out for this band, sat down, and Keith did not even look up. Kimock set up and after a while asked what song he was playing or at least what key he was in. Without looking up, Keith said, "If you can't figure it out, there's the door." (He laughs.) Then, after Keith died, Steve and I played in Donna's band until she started to get more into religious music.

A Political Song

xian

Possession (one of the songs on the new album) has a political message.

Possession is a song that really, really needed being written

RH

Well, that's a song that really, really needed being written! For years I've been aware of all our fans getting salted away. When the Grateful Dead plays, it's "a field day for the heat." All the people sitting in there-- I feel helpless about it. Sometimes I feel like we oughtn't to be playing or something. I think the message is clear when people are arresting your fans: "unless you decide to stop playing...." Getting the quota.... Something needed to be said about that.

xian

I think Zero fans are kind of from the same subculture.

RH

You bet they are, and especially Greg, who's an attorney, and has had to fight a lot of these cases. He called and told me about a friend of his, who'd been busted. He was going over to San Francisco County Jail to visit him.

Greg

I came over here from there and I was just blown out. I was saying "this great guy, how can they do this?"

RH

And I just though, "OK, it's time to write that song. Let's get it written, and hope it goes out there, and does what it's supposed to do," Somebody's got to register a complaint about that particular thing.