Monday, November 4, 1996
CONCERT:
Group, with two UCLA alumni, will play in Westwood PlazaBy
Vanessa VanderZanden
Daily Bruin Contributor
Wearing a relaxed red hiker’s shirt and blue jeans, Roy
Zimmerman pushes his shaggy, sandy brown hair away from his
wire-frame glasses. After dumping three creams and a couple of
sugars into his mammoth cup of coffee, he begins munching on a
chocolate croissant like a starved college kid, ready to answer
questions. In this disguise, no one would guess he’s a suit-wearing
satirist in the folk band the Foremen.
"It’s subterfuge," Zimmerman says of the liberal band’s
big-business attire. "It looks better than the orange striped
shirts we used to wear, hearkening back to the Kingston Trio. It
was sort of a dorky Beach Boys look. Now, four guys in suits sort
of looks like ‘Reservoir Dogs do folk.’"
With the release of a new CD, "What’s Left?" and the advent of
Election Day, Zimmerman and his group stay in high demand. While
most Americans hit the polls Tuesday, the Foremen will be beginning
a whistle-stop tour, playing to morning crowds at Union Station’s
metro stop, a noon show in Westwood Plaza and a rush-hour
extravaganza at California Plaza’s metro stop.
It may be intriguing to note that the inspiration for this
burgeoning career was found in the used-record bin at a vintage
music store.
"The Wayfarers were these four fraternity brothers in
conservative suits, ties, the whole thing, but they were singing
about mining disasters, high-seas plunder, things they had no idea
about," Zimmerman explains. "It just struck me funny. So, I decided
to have a group that would do that style of music and I got these
guys together."
Kenny Rhodes, an art graduate from UCLA, joined the band shortly
after showcasing a cabaret show that Zimmerman wrote. His college
buddy, Andy Corwin, saw the Foremen in concert and decided he
needed to join their ranks. So, he lied about being a bass player,
sold his wife’s mandolin to buy a bass, and showed up at
rehearsal.
The Foremen improvised their way into political satire in a
similar manner  and on the UCLA campus.
Zimmerman explains, "Some guy asked me to write an anti-war song
during the Gulf War, and at the time I didn’t know how I felt." The
protest, held at the Federal Building, required Zimmerman to walk
past Kerckhoff Hall and through South Campus, deep in thought. "By
the time I was done, I had the song and an opinion."
The song, called "It’s a Damn Shame" involved the clever lyrics
"It’s a damn shame we all had to learn your damn name / only three
questions remain / Who’s sane, Who’s sane, Who’s sane." From there,
the Foremen have gone on to produce many a spirited tune ranging in
topic from arts funding to Howard Stern.
"I think (Howard Stern) is a very funny guy, and I think he’s
ruthless in the way he uses the medium. You could say you admire
him for being shrewd enough to do that, or you could say he’s gone
over the edge."
The edge is a region Zimmerman may address in his UCLA
performance, as he feels a college crowd would let him "get away
with it." Yet, he claims to have been apolitical in college, only
voicing his progressive views since the formation of the
Foremen.
"When I went to college, it was really the end of the whole
activist era. It was sad to see it in decline," Zimmerman says.
"There were marches. There was activity, but it was all very
segmented. It was like, ‘Depose the Shah of Iran!’ Ho hum. My
observation of (campus life) now is that there isn’t that much
politics going on."
Zimmerman sees this as a disheartening reality. However, he’s
aware that the country in general has taken an apathetic view
towards politics altogether. However, with the two current
presidential candidates at hand, he can’t blame America for its
lack of interest in government.
"(Americans) look at this election and say, ‘Clinton? Dole? What
the fuck is there, you know?’" Zimmerman asserts. "Clinton is
supposed to be the left when there’s really nothing happening.
Ralph Nader is the only guy who voices those concerns, but he just
can’t catch fire."
In Zimmerman’s eyes, Bullwinkle would make the most preferable
figurehead, as "that’s as much of a politician as a president needs
to be." Yet, he feels true change must come at the grassroots
level, in community recycling projects and the like. So, to spread
the word, the Foremen have traveled the nation, even playing at the
Democratic convention in Chicago. Soon, they’ll tour Texas with
Bill Mahr of "Politically Incorrect," which leaves Zimmerman, a
guitar teacher by day, to question his occupational identity.
"I’m always trying to straddle that fence between comedy and
music. I’m a musician first," he says. "I’m at a comedy show last
night with five stand-up comics in a row and I’m sitting in the
dressing room toodling on tunes thinking, ‘What the hell am I
doing? I should be getting in the comedy mind but I’m back there
with the music.’"
For a guy who drove cross country to play in a show’s orchestra
pit for his own honeymoon, such a love for music comes as no
surprise. Yet, Zimmerman recognizes the fact that his musical
career rests on the topical nature of his band. This means he must
always produce new material and strive to vary his songs’ content
once the flurry of election day excitement dies down.
"I have great songs about Reagan and the Falkan Islands war and
the McKinley assassination," Zimmerman jokes," but I try to write
songs on stuff that stays around for a while, too. For the future,
I’m thinking of broadening the scope. Maybe a love song. We do one
right now called ‘My Conservative Girlfriend,’ but you can see the
political tinge in that."
And though the political scene at UCLA may only be strong enough
to merit a plethora of Foremen love ballads, the Foremen wouldn’t
be who they are today without the Bruin spirit.
Zimmerman complains about the amount of time Corwin still refers
to his years as a student on campus and sees them as having been
quite formative in his own singing career.
As Corwin says, "I think without UCLA I never would’ve been able
to tap dance my way into the hearts of millions."
Reprise Records
The Foremen will play their own brand of folk music at noon on
Tuesday in Westwood Plaza.