Alongside Frank Zappa, Scott Thunes became a vital part of the genius innovator’s greatest work but has always kept the value and ‘art’ of his contribution at a distinct arms-length. in an interview with Bass Player, Thunes reinforced his unique opinion on the bassist’s place in music and just why he quit music.
As part of Zappa's line-up from 1981 to 1988, Thunes was part of The Man From Utopia, Them or Us, Broadway the Hard Way, You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention, Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch and more.
Most famously, he played on Zappa’s Jazz From Hell – a Grammy award winner in 1988 – and can be heard all over daughter Moon Unit's Valley Girl, a number 32 US Billboard hit for an artist more famous for less widely known experiments.
However, the bass legend grew increasingly distant from music and was to officially retire from music ‘live’ in a 1997 interview with the writer Thomas Wictor. The piece appears in Wictor’s book, the appropriately titled In Cold Sweat: Interviews With Really Scary Musicians.
Thunes quit working alongside Zappa in 1988 but would subsequently work with his son, Dweezil Zappa, appearing on multiple albums and recording with The Waterboys, Andy Prieboy, Wayne Kramer, Mike Keneally, and The Vandals and touring with Steve Vai.
“If I’ve already played with Frank Zappa, where else is there to go?” explained Thunis, revealing that, at the time, he was working as a doorman.
"Stu Hamm playing the Moonlight Sonata?"
“Frank was a special case,” Thunes told Bass Player. “But he wanted all the juice with none of the blood. All of those albums I played on have blood on every track; there was danger lurking behind every single note. I dig tension in my music, because I know from modern classical music that tension can coexist with normalcy. Frank was a big fan of that.”
And while Thunes is something of the respected master – both in terms of his musicology and his raw, punk-style picking on a worn-low Fender Precision Bass – he’s always quick to play down his (bass) part.
“I hate bass solos. Hearing massively complicated genius bass players solo is one of the most boring things I’ve ever heard in my life. Stu Hamm playing the Moonlight Sonata? It's an ugly sound – don't do it! Step away from the bass! I didn’t take solos with Frank. I just think they sound terrible.”
And rock musicians in general – and indeed the whole structure of music in its conventional forms – come under Thune’s critical eye.
“They learn the minor scale, or the pentatonic scale, and everything they do is in there. Even if you change keys you’re going to be playing that same scale over the other chords, or you are going to be playing the appropriate scale over the appropriate chord. Both of them are dead ends, they don’t do anything for you.
“But bass players aren't supposed to have ideas; they're supposed to be functionaries. If you're a bass player in a rock band, you are by definition a moron – because you are doing nothing except what the song requires.”
And, unsurprisingly, being Frank Zappa’s bass player through the years brought with it some unexpected delights. Extrapolating on his point regarding the purely functional nature of the bass, Thunes explained one specific Zappa scenario which sums up his purpose perfectly.
"Frank doesn’t want to hear anything except the note A"
“When I first started playing with [Zappa], Arthur Barrow, the bass player, said for The Torture Never Stops, ‘During his solo Frank doesn’t want to hear anything except the note A. You can play any octave you want but that’s the only note you’re allowed to play.’ In ’81 and ’82 I agreed, but in ’84 I forgot all about it and Frank never actually said, ‘What are you doing to my solo!’”
“In the old days I was able to do whatever I wanted and Frank didn’t say a word. I didn’t need to worry about whether I was being supported or supporting. So even though I’m playing this heavy-duty thick bassline, it’s not Frank’s bassline anymore, it’s mine to do what I want with.
“But everything has its place and has its time, and now that I’m older, playing certain types of music, with certain people I’m now battling within myself: ‘Am I playing too much right now? Let’s play less and see what happens.’ You have to make your own decisions, but it’s my job to find out what’s the most appropriate.”
Thunes has been playing bass as part of the ongoing Zappa Band tribute group, Banned from Utopia, made up of ex-Zappa band alumni and has opened for King Crimson multiple times. He is currently a Teaching Artist for the Rock Band program at Marin School of the Arts at Novato High School in Novato, California.
