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in the middle of the first night of our recording Pretties For You . We only had two nights . The first night Frank was sick , he didn ' t show up and the second day was total damage control because the first night went so bad . So that was two nights from midnight until sunrise . And then the next album we weren ’ t sure who was , and we were still on their label but they kind of decided that they didn ’ t want to put money into us . But Pretties For You made it to 110 on the charts . So at least we could get back in the studio and the second album was iffy as to whether it was really on Frank ’ s label or what because they went to Warner Brothers Reprise . The label was bought out and taken over for distribution through Reprise and Warner .
Dennis : So then we opened for Led Zeppelin at The Whiskey and went on tour with The Mothers of Invention .
Alexxis : OK , so then you released ‘ Easy Action ’ later right ?
Dennis : Yeah , well we recorded it in ‘ 68 and it didn ’ t come out until ‘ 69 . I think it ’ s about three months .
Alexxis : OK . Now was that still under Frank Zappa ’ s label ?
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Dennis : Yeah it was on ‘ Bizarre ’ and it took so long for it to come out that we thought they shelved it . We were getting so antsy and when we were ready for it , we finally recorded an album and then where is it ? What ’ s going on , You know ? And it took like three months . We kept trying to figure out what was going on with our album . But what really was going on is he already had the GTO ’ s , Captain Beefheart , Wildman Fischer and others . We came in late after his manager had already said you can ’ t get anymore bands because we can ’ t afford it . So we really ended up being the band that they didn ' t want to put any money into . We recorded at The Whiskey a Go Go when we opened for The Mothers of Invention in 1969 , and also opened for Led Zeppelin there as well . That was a very good night for us because it was kind of like the night that we conquered Hollywood . Because if you could bowl them over at The Whiskey then you were in and that was the night that we finally convinced a lot of people that kind of just looked at us like we were the crazy looking guys walking around the streets all the time . [ Laughter ] You know even though people made fun of us like we were the down and out band , we worked more than most bands in L . A . We were the house band at The Cheetah and we were starving , but we still had a lot more gigs even though people just didn ’ t look at it that way . They just kind of put us down for being too different . And this was in Hollywood , that ’ s what I couldn ’ t believe ! We ’ re in Hollywood and people are acting like we ’ re too weird . [ Laughter ]
Alexxis : Yeah really ! [ Laughter ]
Dennis : [ Laughter ]
Alexxis : Well basically , you were their first band to tour with their own lighting . Really innovators of wearing makeup and sequin costumes as well , right ?
Dennis : Well we were the ones that brought arena rock shows to light . We were doing all kinds of theatrics on stage and this was on a zero budget . We couldn ’ t afford food but we would build . You know I get the idea . Let ’ s have an execution on stage , let ’ s get dramatic , and by this point we lived in Pontiac , Michigan outside of Detroit , and we all lived in a house there . The other guys weren ’ t going for an execution , and the cage on fire again , so I said ok , I ’ m going to go get some wood tomorrow and I ’ m going to build . At first I want to build the gallows . We ’ re in a station wagon , how are we going to carry a gallows ? Ok how about an electric chair ? I went down the next day with whatever money we were able to find and scrounge up and got some 2x4 ’ s and we went out in the garage and we built the electric chair . We had lights on it the full length and everything . I went in the house and got Alice and said “ stop watching T . V . for a minute and come out here and check this out .” So we got him in the garage and turned out the garage light and turned on the flashing lights and had him sit down in it . I think that was Alice ’ s best performance . I said “ Act like you get electrocuted .”
Alexxis : Awesome ![ Laughter ]
Dennis : And he was convincing ! It was like really whoa ! Did he really get electrocuted ? I don ’ t know , we didn ’ t build this thing too great .
Alexxis : Right ! [ Laughter ] Dennis : So the first shows that we did with the electric chair
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