Frank Zappa

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mudshark
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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby mudshark » 10 Feb 2022, 19:27

I know... Would you like to come on our bus?
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Matt Wilson
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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby Matt Wilson » 10 Feb 2022, 19:30

You know, a man with the moniker you have should not be trusted when he complains about FZ's views regarding groupies!

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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby C » 10 Feb 2022, 20:30

This is an incredible version of Sharleena






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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby mudshark » 11 Feb 2022, 00:09

I was not complaining, Matt. I merely asked you a question :-)
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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby Matt Wilson » 14 Feb 2022, 19:18

Image
Fillmore East - June 1971
A live concept album about musicians on the road fucking groupies? Hmmm... well, I guess it hadn't been done before, and similar themes are infused throughout the entire 200 Motels concept (don't forget "Road Ladies" from the last record). The fact that Frank would write all these songs which were related dealing with a 'groupie opera' is amusing to me. The overall premise of 200 Motels is that "Touring can make you crazy," and I guess a portion of that is dealing with these road ladies. I guess how to negotiate getting into their pants was a topic Zappa spent a lot of time thinking about. Or maybe he was just satirizing the then-current trend of concept LPs and decided to put his own spin on the genre by making it live? Regardless, I enjoy the album (much more than 200 Motels), and it doesn't offend me, though I'm sure it wouldn't pass muster with today's culture.

The record has a faux bootleg look with no artwork other than hand-written credits. The original groupie opera had a different song listing, but FZ rearranged everything before this album was recorded as he was known to do. When listening to this in-concert LP, remember Howard's voice is panned to the left, and Mark is to the right. You also have Bob Harris (electric piano) in the left speaker, and Ian Underwood (organ, electric piano) in the right one. This is the first release from the new Mothers, who would be a very busy band in 1971.

Wikipedia: "As an encore on one of the two nights of this Fillmore East appearance John Lennon and Yoko Ono emerged from the wings to play a half hour set with the band. This part of the show was released under Lennon's name on a disc called Live Jam, which was included as a bonus disc with Lennon's album Some Time in New York City. It can also be heard on Zappa's 1992 release Playground Psychotics.

Lennon used a copy of the cover of the Zappa album (adding his own red-inked credits to the album's black-ink handwritten ones) to provide liner notes for Live Jam.

In conjunction with the release of an anniversary set, The Mothers 1971, the complete unedited version of this performance, along with the "original" version of "Billy the Mountain", will appear on the upcoming expanded triple-LP reissue of Fillmore East scheduled for release on March 18, 2022."

- Yep, and I've already pre-ordered it! The 2012 CD has the original 1971 analog master, but they messed up the times of some of the songs. For instance, they put the last 90 seconds of "Latex Solar Beef" as the beginning of "Willie the Pimp" for some reason.

The Mothers
Frank Zappa – guitar, dialogue, vocals
Ian Underwood – woodwinds, keyboards, vocals
Aynsley Dunbar – drums
Howard Kaylan – lead vocals, dialogue
Mark Volman – lead vocals, dialogue
Jim Pons – bass, vocals, dialogue
Bob Harris – keyboards, vocals

Guest
Don Preston – Mini-Moog

All tracks are written by Frank Zappa, except where noted.

1. "Little House I Used to Live In" 4:58
Nice little edited version of the much longer Burnt Weeny song. This is the kind of thing I hope to hear more of on the upcoming box set. Flo and Eddie sing their nonsense syllables and Dunbar gets a drum solo (though brief).

2. "The Mud Shark" 5:16
And before you know it, we're into the thick of it. Frank quotes the last number on guitar while telling us all about the Squalus acanthias, or spiny dogfish (Ulrich) story at Seattle's Edgewater Inn. Richard Cole, Zeppelin's roadie, claims it was a red snapper anyway. LOL. Here's Richard to tell you all about it: But the true shark story was that it wasn't even a shark. It was a red snapper and the chick happened to be a fucking redheaded broad with a ginger pussy. And that is the truth. Bonzo was in the room, but I did it. (Vanilla Fudge organist) Mark Stein filmed the whole thing. And she LOVED it. It was like, "You'd like a bit of fucking, eh? Let's see how your red snapper likes THIS red snapper!" That was it. It was the NOSE of the fish, and that girl must have come 20 times. I'm not saying the chick wasn't drunk, I'm not saying that any of us weren't drunk. But it was nothing malicious or harmful in any way! No one was ever hurt. She might have been HIT by a shark a few times for disobeying orders, but she didn't get hurt."

And there you have it. Depraved as it may be. This happened in July of '69 when Zeppelin and the Fudge played the Seattle Pop Festival in Carmine Appice's room at the hotel. He claims it was indeed a mud shark by the way, so who knows, and does it really matter?

3. "What Kind of Girl Do You Think We Are?" 4:51
And now we move onto the meat of the matter, so to speak. The procuring of nubile flesh for our heroes. Kaylan is the rock star, while Mark is the groupie. Bob and Jim provide backing vocals. References to Alice Cooper are in here, "corks and sausages" was a game involving suppressing flatulence, and Magic Fingers is a coin-operated device which makes the bed vibrate. Coffee-Host was a coffee-maker found in hotel rooms, formica is plastic laminate, and a "bullet" in record-charts parlance, means when a 45 has risen ten places since last week. You guys can figure out the rest of this byzantine Shakespearean story.

4. "Bwana Dik" 2:27
Howard Kaylan both speaks and is lead singer here in this charming little ditty about the size of his appendage, sung to the same melody as "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy" - and they play this riff in "Do You Like My New Car" too. "Bwana" is Swahili for 'Mister' or 'sir' while you know what 'dik' means.

Zappa - In every band there is some member of the band who, during the course of touring, gets the opportunity to entertain more girls than the other members of the band. It is like winning a contest. If we carry the concept to a ridiculous extreme, this person could be awarded the title of 'Bwana Dik.' The song deals with the fact that each in his own way, each member of the group, secretly believes that he is 'BWANA DIK'... And the song attempts to show how foolish this concept is.

So there's an aspect of parody to this which shouldn't be dismissed. Yet the band really was indulging in groupies at the time, so perhaps a bit of hypocrisy should be laid on there as well.

5. "Latex Solar Beef" 4:22
Harder rocking tune which quotes from "Also Sprach Zaruthustra" while extolling the virtues of Howard's penis. Only in a Zappa song, right? Naugahyde is imitation leather, and uh, oh just listen to it...

"The band then portray stereotypically egotistical members of a rock band "negotiating" for sex with a groupie and her girlfriends. The girls are insulted that the band thinks they are groupies and that they would sleep with the band just because they are musicians. They have standards; they will only have sex with a guy in a group with a "big, hit single in the charts – with a bullet!" and a "dick that’s a monster." In "Bwana Dik", singer Howard Kaylan assures the girls that he is endowed beyond their "wildest Clearasil-spattered fantasies." And, not to be put off by the standards of these groupies, the band sings the girls the Turtles (of which Kaylan, Volman, and Pons had been members) hit "Happy Together", to give them their "bullet". The album ends with an encore excerpt including both Zappa's familiar "Peaches en Regalia" and what was possibly his most successful early-rock and roll pastiche, "Tears Began to Fall" (also issued as a single). - Wiki

6. "Willie the Pimp, Part One" 2:50
Another shorter live version of a longer studio cut - broken up into two tracks on the vinyl LP. This comes right after "Latex Solar Beef," and contains a great FZ guitar solo. This LP side was light on music, and heavy on story. This cut attempts to rectify the situation.

Image

7. "Willie the Pimp, Part Two" 1:54
Actually taken from a different show than Part One. Ulrich: The US promo and most overseas versions of the LP feature a cold start rather than the usual fade-in This track was omitted from the 20th Century CDs, but put back in on the 2012 disc.

Frank - I think it's more important that you have continuity on CD. The way that Fillmore East was constructed in vinyl, one side faded out and then back in, so why not have it fade down to the start of the next song? The two parts were not from the same performance, so there would have been a tempo discrepancy right in the middle of the guitar solo otherwise.

8. "Do You Like My New Car?" 7:08
After the musical respite, we're back into the plot concerning this supposedly true story of a groupie who only thought of musicians as friends and not lovers unless said guys would sing her their hit song.

Howard Kaylan: Frank this one evening came in and said, 'I'm really having a hard time coming up wit this idea for 200 Motels. I don't know where to take it.'

I said 'Frank, I got a story for you...You're going to love this. Back in the Turtle days, I met this girl...' This is all true... It was on our third tour by ourselves. So the year probably would have been around '67... She was not even 17. But she was Miss Iceland, I mean, she was just gorgeous. And I really wanted her. I spent the bulk of the evening pursuing her. And I get her into bed, after all this dialogue had gone down, dialogue bearing an uncanny resemblance to the dialogue on the white album. In fact, it IS the dialogue from the white album: Do you like my new car? Where you staying? Well, we're out at the airport. We've got a flight tomorrow. I've got to be in -- it wasn't Tierra del Fuego, it might have been Chattanooga, but nonetheless, the story was there. And I had her, I had her, and just at the moment of ultimate passion, 'Will you sing me your record?' 'What?' 'I won't do it, unless you sing me your big record.'

Frank added the bullet. The bullet was his device, but the record was hers.

And I was dumbfounded. I mean I was on top of this girl. I was a millimetres away from blessed union of souls, and 'What do you mean, sing my your record?' And yet, she was so gorgeous. I hesitated for a nanosecond. (sings) 'I can't see me lovin'...and you bet your ass, I slipped her that record.

And Frank loved it. He said 'This is the ultimate pop story. 'Cause the girl really didn't want you. She wanted the hit record with the bullet. THAT'S the story. THAT
is 200 Motels.

There's many references to other pop stars in this track: Davy Jones, Bobby Sherman, David Cassidy Three Dog Night's Jimmy Greenspoon, Robert Plant, Elton John, Roger Daltrey, and even C,S,N&Y. What else? Dr. Brown's Cel-Ray is a soda, the Gremlin was a car, beads and knotted nylon stockings were stuck in the rear end, canes were for whipping, and the pony harness was used in bondage. Got all that? Glad to be of service...

9. "Happy Together" (Garry Bonner, Alan Gordon) 2:57
Well, you've got three former members of the Turtles here doing their signature number in order for Miss Iceland to give it up. Zappa mentions the soon-to-be closing of the Fillmore which happened on June 27, 1971.

10. "Lonesome Electric Turkey (encore excerpt featuring Don Preston on Minimoog)" 2:34
Another excerpt from "King Kong," where Don gets to show off.

11. "Peaches en Regalia" 3:22
More music amidst all the talk. Was it enough though? Not as good as the Hot Rats take, of course.

12. "Tears Began to Fall" 2:46
Released (in a different edit) as a single with "Junier Mintz Boogie," which has never been on CD or LP, this catchy little tune could have been on AM radio with a few tweaks.

Here's "Junier Mintz Boogie:"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpPd_zo2N6g

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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby mudshark » 15 Feb 2022, 00:43

So, Matt, do you like it? I read you ordered the triple that's going to be released next month (like I have), so you must do. But your opinion is not really reflected in your review. This is probably the most difficult period in the MOI/FZ career. When you watch the '1969-1973' documentary you'll get an account of the hatred and disgust thrown at Frank during those years, culminating in the Rainbow incident. Compared to what was thrown at the MOI, Dylan had it easy. I think this album is in large parts brilliant and funny. The latex/bwana section rocks like nothing else, The groupie dialogues are still entertaining, and I'll forever love the Mudshark theme ('do the Mudshark baby'). But the originals Motherlovers genuinely hated this apparent digress into the abyss of a sordid world, and that lasted through 200 Motels and Just Another Band. And then he went virtually unnoticed through Waka and Wazoo, only to become a temporary mainstream performer with 'Overnight' and even more so, Apostrophe.
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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby Matt Wilson » 15 Feb 2022, 02:43

For years it was my fave live official Zappa release, now I'd nominate Roxy & Elsewhere.

It's a good rather than a great album.

The LP from this era that I'm indifferent towards is the next one...

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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby mudshark » 15 Feb 2022, 16:15

That would be 200 Motels. I'll get ready and give it a spin. Has been a while.
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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby C » 15 Feb 2022, 16:42

mudshark wrote:But the originals Motherlovers genuinely hated this apparent digress into the abyss of a sordid world, and that lasted through 200 Motels and Just Another Band. And then he went virtually unnoticed through Waka and Wazoo, only to become a temporary mainstream performer with 'Overnight' and even more so, Apostrophe.


I am not a massive fan of the Flo & Eddie influenced stuff.

Waka, Wazoo, Overnight and Apostrophe are very different from the others you mention.

On Fillmore, Motels and Just Another the humour just tips into 'overstaying its welcome'.

It's like Room Service - I'll enjoy the track/version once and then I've got it and want to skip to more serious stuff.

I much prefer Zappa's humour in the other forms in which it comes - like on Sheik or Joe's Garage or You Are What You Is et alia



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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby Matt Wilson » 15 Feb 2022, 17:03

Image
200 Motels 1971
This should have been the big enchilada the Mothers were working towards since 1970. If you recall, Chunga's Revenge was comprised of 200 Motels rejects, and Fillmore East - June, 1971 comprised the groupie theme originally intended for this project. The fact that Zappa previously issued two albums containing 200 Motels music implies he had plenty of good stuff he was saving for this album/movie, but what we got was rather uninspiring if you ask me. I've never seen the movie, and rather hoped it would be included in the recent 50th Anniversary box set, but alas, twas not to be. Not that I'm expecting Citizen Kane, mind, but I feel if I could see some kind of visual approximation of the story, things might make more sense. But I'm sure I'm just giving more credit than is perhaps due. I'd probably have a hard time getting through a 98-minute film of this stuff. Then again - the double LP is almost an hour and a half, so...

Recorded in early '71 (before the Fillmore album) in England, the 200 Motels record had more musicians on it than any other Zappa project because the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is on 24 tracks. The Mothers are only on 15. Zappa only plays two guitar solos ("What Will this Evening Bring Me This Morning?" and "Magic Fingers"). There are 13 suites composed for the orchestra to play, and some utilize a chorus. Some of these suites are only less than a minute and a half. One of them, "Can I Help You With This Dummy? is missing from both the film and the album, but was at least partially recorded. The 13 suites written by Zappa have been performed by various orchestras since Frank's death, and one of them 200 Motels -- The Suites, by the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, was released on CD in 2015.

Zappa - I've been writing music in hotel rooms for years and years. I wanted to find some way of getting it played. It was more of a musical diary. So I devised a screenplay that chronicled in an abstract way the activities of the group on the road for a certain period of time and used the music that had been written in the motels as the scoring for the film.

We'd stayed in approximately 200 motels, touring, up to the time the movie was made. I know, because I collect the keys.

I could look at the scores and tell you approximately which hotel each different section was written in.

The subject of the film, in the most general sense, was MUSICIANS (all types) and THEIR PECULIAR BEHAVIOR. Many people have erroneously described the film as being about rock musicians on the road... and some parts of the film do deal with that sort of thing, but the film also had an orchestra in it, and the behavior of its members, as an example of Typical Tuxedo types (on and off the screen), provided a 'special dimension' to the surrealistic style in which the 'story' was told.

...the music that you hear in the film in most instances is exactly as it was performed. You know, the camera is shooting the group actually performing the event. Some of the 'Penis Dimension' parade is done with a playback, and I think one of the ballet dances is done to a playback. And 'Centerville' is part playback and part live. But the rest of the stuff where orchestra performs and where the group is on stage rocking out, they're shooting it while it's happening. So you don't have to go in there and fake your lip-synch like they would normally do with a musical.


The film was shot on videotape and then transferred to 35mm. Tony Palmer, who shot the farewell concert from Cream directed the visuals, and FZ directed the characterizations, whatever that means. Zappa made the film in England because the orchestra was cheaper, and the picture took seven days to shoot and eleven days to edit. Frank felt rushed during the entire enterprise but it actually came in under budget. There was supposed to be a Royal Albert Hall concert performed with the orchestra, but management backed out due to some of the lyrics after four thousand tickets had already been sold.

Image

Frank Zappa – bass guitar, guitar, drums, producer, orchestration
George Duke – trombone, keyboards
Ian Underwood – keyboards, woodwinds
Big Jim Sullivan - guitar, orchestration
Martin Lickert – bass guitar
Aynsley Dunbar – drums
Ruth Underwood – percussion
Jimmy Carl Black – vocals
Howard Kaylan – vocals
Jim Pons – voices
Mark Volman – vocals, photography
Theodore Bikel – narrator
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

All selections written by Frank Zappa.

Image Image

1. "Semi-Fraudulent/Direct-From-Hollywood Overture" 2:01
Well, here you get a taste of the orchestra and the chorus. Theodore Bikel introduces both the movie, and Larry the Dwarf (don't ask because I don't know). The music is actually based on the first part of "Holiday in Berlin, Full-Blown" from the Burnt Weeny album.

2. "Mystery Roach" 2:32
Furious rockin' tune which I quite like with the two head Turtles in full flight. You've got Duke on trombone, and Underwood on tenor sax. I wish there were more of this kind of stuff included. The mix heard in the film is different.

"The rock and comedy songs "Mystery Roach", "Lonesome Cowboy Burt", "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy", "What Will This Evening Bring Me This Morning" and "Magic Fingers", and the finale "Strictly Genteel", which mixes orchestral and rock elements, were noted as highlights of the album by reviewer Richie Unterberger. François Couture, a reviewer for Allmusic, said that "Mystery Roach" contains multiple meanings, all of which have a connection to lyrical subject matter in Zappa's discography. These include the freshwater fish, as the Mothers of Invention live album Fillmore East - June 1971 contained a song referring to the mud shark, a cannabis cigarette butt, which causes the character Jeff to go crazy within the context of the film's storyline, and a combed roll hairstyle, which connects the song lyrically to "Jelly Roll Gumdrop", a song from Cruising with Ruben & the Jets. The version featured on the album is different from the version featured in the film, as it is missing small electric guitar solos by Zappa, and was not scripted as part of the film in its electric arrangement, having originally been written in three separate, unused acoustic blues-oriented arrangements. The song was not performed live. - Wikipedia

3. "Dance of the Rock & Roll Interviewers" 0:48
Orchestra again, with Underwood on drums

Wiki - "Dance of the Rock & Roll Interviewers" is an orchestral piece originally intended to be paired with "Touring Can Make You Crazy" as part of an early scene in which the band arrives in Centerville and is greeted by music journalists, but only part of the sequence, depicting a mannequin of Zappa being torn apart by the journalists, appeared in the final film, due to timing and budget restraints, and the "Touring Can Make You Crazy" sequence was not shot and does not appear in the film. Regarding "Touring", Couture writes that "The long double-bass notes and the overall dark atmosphere and slow tempo suggest a tiring trip."

4. "This Town Is a Sealed Tuna Sandwich" (Prologue) 0:55
Another track not in the film. What does it mean? Your guess is as good as mine, but I'm sure he's putting down San Fran with the tuna simile in much the same way he decried 'plastic people' a few years ago.

5. "Tuna Fish Promenade" 2:29
That last track must have been so tasty, they thought they'd do it again with the orchestra and the female members of the chorus. I think Frank is dissing San Francisco again: San Francisco in the mid-sixties was very chauvinistic, and ethnocentric. To the Friscoids' way of thinking, everything that came from THEIR town was REALLY IMPORTANT ART, and ANYTHING from ANYPLACE else (especially LA) was dogshit. Rolling Stone magazine helped to promote this fiction, nationwide.

6. "Dance of the Just Plain Folks" 4:40
Not in the film either, this orchestral piece is longer than usual, so Frank gets to show off his compositional skills. These are the citizens of Centerville dancing "another idiotic dance for idiots." In terms of Zappa music for orchestras, not bad, actually.

7. "This Town Is a Sealed Tuna Sandwich" (Reprise) 0:58
Not in the film either (noticing a pattern on side one?) Flo and Eddie would have done it in the film.

8. "The Sealed Tuna Bolero" 1:40
Let's see, Ulrich describes this one as "Mothers, orchestra, chorus," and that about describes it. This is heard about twenty minutes into the movie. La Habra is in Orange County.

9. "Lonesome Cowboy Burt" 3:54
Jimmy Carl Black is singing lead. Heard twenty two minutes into the picture. Opal, the waitress was possibly named after a restaurant owner in Lancaster.

Frank - This couple that owned the chile place, Opal and Chester, agreed to ask the man who serviced the jukebox to put in some of the song titles that I liked, because I promised that I would dutifully keep pumping quarters into this thing so could listen to them. And so I had the ability to eat good chile and listen to "Three Hours Past Midnight" by Johnny 'Guitar' Watson, for most of my junior and senior year.

Black says the Mothers used to do this number in 1967: God, we rehearsed that thing for about two weeks. It was exactly the same arrangement as we did later on in 200 Motels... Herb came up to Frank at the end of the Fillmore's show and said, 'If you ever play that song again, you can forger me as manager.'

Image Image Image Image

10. "Touring Can Make You Crazy" 2:54
The entire orchestral suite is heard in this track, but it's not in the film. The strings and harpsichord are heard here.

Wikipedia: "The 200 Motels soundtrack to Frank Zappa's film 200 Motels was released by United Artists Records in 1971. Like the film, the album covers a loose storyline about The Mothers of Invention going crazy in the small town of Centerville and bassist Jeff quitting the group, as did his real life counterpart, Jeff Simmons, who left the group before the film began shooting and was replaced by actor Martin Lickert for the film.

The album peaked at No. 59 on the Billboard 200, though reviewers deemed it a peripheral part of Zappa's catalog."

11. "Would You Like a Snack?" 1:23
Well, we have the Mothers and the orchestra here. Flo and Eddie whistle and it's not in the movie either. This is based on "Holiday in Berlin Full-Blown" again. The title had been used before by Frank when he recorded a song in 1968 with Grace Slick and the Mothers. You can hear it on the Airplane box set Jefferson Airplane Love You (1992).

12. "Redneck Eats" 3:02
Orchestra again, with Jimmy Carl Black harassing the band. Not in the movie. You can hear the group do this tune on both Mystery Disc and Ahead of Their Time.

"Redneck Eats" begins and ends with spoken dialogue featuring the character Lonesome Cowboy Burt (played by Jimmy Carl Black) heckling the orchestra, which is performing an Igor Stravinsky and Edgard Varese-influenced composition. "Janet's Big Dance Number" is about one of the film's two groupie characters and features "Slow piano chords [...] played over sustained contrabass notes. The choir enters late in the piece, picking up the Stravinskian melody sketched by the chords." "Lucy's Seduction of a Bored Violinist", follows the other groupie character, and features "a soft melody, followed by a rhythm break and a tympany roll" and a faster reprise of the "Janet" melody. The album pairs "Lucy" with the film's "Postlude", which appears during the ending credits, and is played on a harpsichord." - Wiki

13. "Centerville" 2:31
This stuff is starting to all sound the same to me. Orchestra, guitar trio, chorus. There is a shorter edit of this tune in the picture around the seventeen-minute mark.

14. "She Painted up Her Face" 1:41
All the rest of these numbers on side two are called the "Shove it Right In" suite. Cute, huh? In the movie, this track (in a different take at about the sixty-minute point) is followed by "Janet's Big Dance Number, just like on the LP. Let's see, we've got The Mothers again (I feel I have to bring this up because they're not on every tune), there is a musical quote from "Penis Dimension,.

15. "Janet's Big Dance Number" 1:18
Orchestra, soprano chorus, with Duke on piano. Heard sixty-two minutes into the picture.

16. "Half a Dozen Provocative Squats" 1:57
Heard sixty-three minutes in. Lucy dances topless as the band perform this tune. You don't want to read the lyrics.

17. "Mysterioso" 0:48
Over before you know it. Strings, and heard eighty-four minutes into the movie.

Wiki - "The album features five segments which form the suite "This Town Is A Sealed Tuna Sandwich": a prologue, the "Tuna Fish Promenade", "Dance of the Just Plain Folks", a reprise of the main melody, and the conclusion "The Sealed Tuna Bolero". Only the final bolero was featured in the film. The "Tuna Sandwich" suite was scripted as being proceeded by the sequence and composition "Centerville". "Would You Like A Snack?" is a vocal version of Zappa's composition "Holiday in Berlin", which reappears throughout the album and film in different arrangements, including the "Semi-Fraudulent/Direct-From-Hollywood Overture". The lyrics of "Would You Like A Snack?" are similar to the theater piece on Zappa's live album Ahead of Their Time.

18. "Shove It Right In" 2:32
Mothers, Flo and Eddie, Duke on trombone, etc. Heard sixty-seven minutes in.

19. "Lucy's Seduction of a Bored Violinist & Postlude" 4:01
Running out of different ways to describe these cuts. Heard sixty-five minutes in. Ho-hum... I think someone hear with more appreciation for this endeavor should be writing these notes. As I listen to this album, I realize I'm not even familiar with the words, and that's the first time writing this thread that I can say that about a Zappa LP.

Image Image Image Image

20. "I'm Stealing the Towels" 2:15
The second disc starts with some atonal piano sounds, orchestra, chorus singing "200 Motels," etc. Frank loved orchestras performing his music, but always complained about the price. This LP contains more music for orchestra than either Lumpy Gravy or Uncle Meat.

21. "Dental Hygiene Dilemma" 5:11
Mark is the 'good conscience,' and Jim Pons is the bad. This piece goes on for awhile (at least in terms of the song lengths on this album). There is an animated sequence 43 minutes into the film which has the beginning and end parts of this song. The middle part is heard 85 minutes in, and finally, a little ten-second part is in the movie at around 37 minutes. So you know Frank enjoyed this piece of music. The title is an allusion to an art project that Zappa did back in high school in Lancaster.

FZ: -It was an abstract film that was done by painting on the film. Imagine how long it would take actually painting a movie.

Clear film leader wasn't available back then, so they gave me a dental hygiene movie called JUDY'S SMILE, and they let me dip it in nitric acid to take the emulsion off. So that's what I did. I soaked this dental hygiene movie in nitric acid and all the emulsion wouldn't come off. There were still clumps of flotsam and jetsam. And when it dried out, I just left it on there. Then I scratched patterns on it and used an airbrush on it, colored dye, nail polish...

One of my art teachers was so impressed with the project, she called Disney studios without my knowledge. We took my home movie down there nd had a screening at Disney. They said 'Nice little boy. Thank you very much for bringing your movie here.'


Wiki - "The second half of the album begins with the suite "Dental Hygiene Dilemma", which begins with "I'm Stealing The Towels", for which the corresponding film sequence was scripted and partially shot, before it was determined that the footage was unusable, and the sequence was cut. The main part of the suite, "Dental Hygiene Dilemma", appeared in the film as an animated cartoon by Charles Swenson, who later directed the film Down and Dirty Duck with Mothers of Invention band members and 200 Motels stars Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan.

The main part of the suite, "Dental Hygiene Dilemma" incorporates elements of rock band, orchestra and spoken dialogue, and depicts Jeff smoking a marijuana cigarette which had been dipped in Don Preston's "foamy liquids" and imagining Donovan appearing to him on a wall-mounted television as his "good conscience" and asking him not to steal the towels, while Studebacher Hoch appears to him as his evil conscience, "dressed as Jim Pons", and convinces Jeff to quit the Mothers of Invention, start his own hard rock band and play music like Grand Funk Railroad or Black Sabbath. In real life, Simmons started his own blues rock band after leaving Zappa's band, and released the album Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up for Straight Records, which Zappa produced. In "Dilemma", Volman exclaims "We got to get him back to normal before Zappa finds out and steals it and makes him do it in the movie!"

22. "Does This Kind of Life Look Interesting to You?" 2:59
More silliness with the orchestra and chorus, and Flo and Eddie singing. You have the "200 Motels" motif coming back in three times. Part of the track is heard 47 minutes into the picture, and another part is at the 86-minute mark. You can hear a live version on the Tengo Na Minchia Tanta disc.

23. "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy" 3:11
An honest-to-goodness song for once, with The Mothers performing a sing-along song about another road lady. References to the "dick is a monster" stuff from the previous album and all that don't ruin it for me as I'm glad it's not another orchestral track with sound effects. Not that it's a masterpiece or anything either though... LOL. A different edit is in the movie 74 minutes in.

Mark Volman - It does work if you put the two albums together... if you take 200 Motels and, at the scene where we ... go to the club and we meet the groupies, at that point, if you insert the June 1971 concert and let that run through 'Happy Together' and then go back to the movie, you have a movie, you see. The sad end to 200 Motels is we never got to film that segment...Without that, Frank had to go in and re-edit a movie without having the centerpiece.

24. "Penis Dimension" 4:37
More silliness. Orchestra, chorus, Ruth on drums, Mark recites the monologue with Howard reciting lines from books.

FZ: The basic premise of this here tune is that there is this cowboy who gets pissed off at us in a restaurant called Redneck Eats. And at the conclusion of a confrontation scene with the cowboy, we are forced to remind him that the basis of his neurosis lies between his legs -- that is to say, an overwhelming concern with his penis dimension.

You can hear it 56 minutes into the picture

25. "What Will This Evening Bring Me This Morning" 3:29
More of Flo and Eddie's high-pitched warbling (it's all over this LP), but at least it's a Mothers track and Frank plays a guitar solo! This was taken from the demo of the groupie opera which was made in 1970 to secure funding for the project. You can hear it 82 minutes into the film. It's actually probably one of the more memorable pieces on the record.

Image Image Image Image

26. "A Nun Suit Painted on Some Old Boxes" 1:08
We're winding down now in the proceedings. Side four consists of a lot of short numbers with one long one at the end. Mark and Howard outdo themselves with pitches that only dogs can hear. The lyrics are an allusion to Johann Sebastian Bach's "Jesu, Joy of My Desiring." You can hear it 41 minutes into the film.

"A Nun Suit Painted on Some Old Boxes" is the first part of a suite for soprano voice, chorus, and orchestra called "I Have Seen the Pleated Gazelle". The suite criticizes organized religion and references dental floss, connecting the suite to Zappa's later song "Montana", appearing on the album Over-Nite Sensation. In the film, "A Nun Suit" precedes the "Dental Hygiene Dilemma" cartoon, but is placed before the rock song "Magic Fingers" on this album, removing the context of the line "Want to watch a dental hygiene movie?" The "Gazelle" suite continues with "Motorhead's Midnight Ranch", "Dew on the Newts We Got" and "The Lad Searches the Night for His Newts", for which the corresponding film sequence was only partially shot." - Wikipedia

27. "Magic Fingers" 3:53
A decent hard rockin' tune has the standard "I get so hard now, I could die" Mothers lyrics typical for 1971. One wonders how FZ thought any of this was going to be played on rock radio stations, or did he even care? There is a Zappa guitar solo, and you can hear it 31 minutes into the picture. Frank was still performing this as late as 1978.

28. "Motorhead's Midnight Ranch" 1:28
All orchestra this time with the guitar trio as well. Not in the film.

29. "Dew on the Newts We Got" 1:09
Orchestra, chorus, sped-up Flo/Eddie vocals. Not in the movie.

30. "The Lad Searches the Night for His Newts" 0:41
Until the last track, these songs comprise "The Pleated Gazelle" suite. Ulrich - "The protagonist is a girl who 'always wore a green overcoat with plastic fish and Vienna sausages pinned on it. She shacked up with a young lad who raised newts, so rich people could have coats made out of them... Everything was fine, except he was in love with an industrial vacuum cleaner.

Don't ask, shades of Chunga's Revenge I guess.

31. "The Girl Wants to Fix Him Some Broth" 1:10
I guess this is supposed to be funny. It's in the movie as well at 38 minutes.

32. "The Girl's Dream" 0:54
Heard 39 minutes in. No comment.

33. "Little Green Scratchy Sweaters & Corduroy Ponce" 1:00
Heard right after the last track in the picture. I guess there's a nun taking pills or something. Keith Moon is wearing a habit in the pictures on the album.

34. "Strictly Genteel (The Finale)" 11:08
The longest track here has two different parts. After the 'Strictly Genteel' section there's the '200 Motels Finale.' Theodore Bikel is back for an intro and The Mothers are serving up the music. You can hear a different take of this is heard 87 minutes into the movie. Frank loved this song though, telling Steve Vai that the "majestic section towards the end" was his favorite. It does have a finality to it and a sense of importance missing elsewhere.

There's a lot more I could write about this song, but I'm burned out, sorry...

Wikipedia - "200 Motels charted at No. 59 on the Billboard 200. The album was released on compact disc for the first time in 1997 in correlation with a theatrical reissue of the film. The CD edition contained extensive liner notes and artwork, a small poster for the film, and bonus tracks consisting of radio promos for the film and the single edit of the song "Magic Fingers". The album was reissued in 2021, in two editions: the original album on 2 CDs and an extended version on 6 CDs. (again including a facsimile of the original film poster)

The album was deemed to be a peripheral album in Zappa's catalog by music critics. Allmusic's Richie Unterberger critiqued what he referred to as the "growing tendency to deploy the smutty, cheap humor that would soon dominate much of Zappa's work" but said that "Those who like his late-'60s/early-'70s work [...] will probably like this fine".

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Last edited by Matt Wilson on 15 Feb 2022, 17:49, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby ConnyOlivetti » 15 Feb 2022, 17:24

Great album, one of my fav.
Not for everyone thats for sure, but I love it
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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby mudshark » 15 Feb 2022, 19:07

For me, it has 5 or 6 'classic' Zapa songs with Strictly Genteel as the gorgeous highlight. I really like a lot of the orchestration. Could have been great as a single album.

I've forgotten the facts now, but there was a trial in London that involved one of those stuffy old judges asking Frank question about the lyrics in some of the songs. The whole affair has been documented in The Real Frank Zappa Book. Very funny, in my opinion.

Anyway, altogether happy we'll be able to leave that MOI ensemble behind us and move to Waka Yawaka. Forget Just Another Band from LA. Although I still really like Billy the Mountain (yadeyadeyaya).
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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby Matt Wilson » 15 Feb 2022, 19:25

Yeah, but I can't forget about Just Another Band... Another mediocre album, but I gotta review it.

So there will be three LPs next week, as I'm doing a year a week.

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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby C » 15 Feb 2022, 22:02

mudshark wrote:For me, it has 5 or 6 'classic' Zappa songs with Strictly Genteel as the gorgeous highlight. I really like a lot of the orchestration. Could have been great as a single album.

I've forgotten the facts now, but there was a trial in London that involved one of those stuffy old judges asking Frank question about the lyrics in some of the songs. The whole affair has been documented in The Real Frank Zappa Book. Very funny, in my opinion.


Agreed

"Penis Dimension" was the main track all the fuss was about

When I play 200 Motels I really enjoying but I don't play it very often





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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby Hightea » 16 Feb 2022, 03:59

C wrote:
Matt Wilson wrote:Image
Burnt Weeny Sandwich 1970


An incredibly robust album!

Featuring in a PSL very soon




.

yes just got thru the whole album! Another Zappa great. While I only listen to a few songs off this these days its great to listen to the whole album.

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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby Matt Wilson » 18 Feb 2022, 18:05

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Just Another Band from LA 1972
Recorded on stage at UCLA in 1971, this is the second in-concert Mothers LP, making most of the issued music from this edition of the band live rather than studio. This was originally supposed to be a double LP as the group played lots of songs at that concert (August 7) not on this record, two of which were released on You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore 6, and part of "The Sofa Suite" played that night was later released on Playground Psychotics, but there it's called "Divan." The 2012 CD has the original LP mix, but previous discs didn't sound that good. The car on the LP cover is the same one on the front and back of the booklet in the Uncle Meat album. It's Cal Schenkel's 1939 Pontiac. Look closely and you'll even see fuzzy dice, like in the "Dog Breath" song. The car is on a cheeseburger (think "Cruising for Burgers"), and Zappa has a dog nose, like on the Ruben LP cover. The Mothers name has a "Las" as an article instead of "the." This is another reference to Hispanic culture in LA. Frank loved this stuff. "Rifa" means 'we rule.' Later on, Los Lobos would use this title for their Just Another Band from East LA album.

Frank Zappa – guitar, vocals
Don Preston – keyboards
Ian Underwood – woodwinds, keyboards, vocals
Aynsley Dunbar – drums
Howard Kaylan – lead vocals
Mark Volman – lead vocals
Jim Pons – bass guitar, vocals

All songs written, composed and arranged by Frank Zappa except where noted.

1. "Billy the Mountain" (Interpolates sections of "Johnny's Theme" by Paul Anka and Johnny Carson, and of "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" by Stephen Stills.) 24:47
This track is the reason people like this record. Howard and Mark (he does most of it) sing lead and Jim, Ian, and Frank provide backing vocals. As long as this cut is, about 12 minutes are edited out. Maybe the upcoming 1971 live box will have longer versions. There are various musical quotes in the number, including the Johnny Carson theme, "Off We Go Into the Wild Blue Yonder" (US Air Force song), "Oh Mein Papa" by Eddie Fisher, "Pomp and Circumstance, "The Star Spangled Banner," and "Over the Rainbow." There's also "Suite: Judy Blues," of course.

Billy the mountain (the character) is associated with the 'Sofa' suite. Ulrich: "After God makes his home movie starring The Short Girl and Squat The Magical Pig and sends it off 'to a lab where they don't ask any questions,' he lies down on the sofa, falls asleep, and dreams:

Old Zircon, a phased-out Byzantine devil, is body covered wit old musical instruments... appears in this dream and he walks out of the cave and his cloven hooves hit the rocks, causing sparks to shoot out, igniting all the adjacent moss...And he beats his magic drum and he blows his magic trumpet, and strums his little guitar. The sound waves of all these instruments being manipulated at the same time cause the smoke to form into several large, new, lumpy mountains, one of which can talk. That's where Billy comes from. Now what you don't know is that Ethell the Tree is under the control of Old Zircon, who has this special flashlight that controls her thoughts ans she's operating Billy... Just like a Wagnerian opera. Who can sit through it? You know? And when you're trying to get the proper level on a 33 1/3 disc, if you go over 18 minutes per side you're in trouble. And when you talk about musical ideas that take hours to spin out, you can't get it on a record. So a lot of the things that I'm talking about happen over a series of albums... - FZ

If you want more info on the correlation between Billy and the 'Sofa,' check out pp 31 - 34 of the Them or Us (The Book).

There's all kinds of references to LA locales in the song, the most since Freak Out! actually. When they would perform this song in other cities, the references would change to include locales more suitable to that city. Let's see... looking at the lyrics Studebaker made automobiles - their Hawk was made from '56 - '63. The Inland Empire is San Bernardino and Riverside counties east of LA. Rosamond and Edwards Air Force Base are in Kern County, but most of the other references are in LA County. "The Canyons of Your Mind" is from Bob Lind's "Elusive Butterfly" song, you know what Howard Johnson's is, Jerry Lewis hosted the Muscular Dystrophy Telethon every year when I was growing up. Coven was a rock band, Dudley Do Right was a cartoon character, 'the white albums...with the pencil on the front' are Fillmore East -- June 1971, the "help me" parts are an allusion to The Fly film from 1958, L. Ron Hubbard was the Scientology founder, and uh... you guys should be able to get all the other references.

"Okay Wilson, you've gone to great lengths to provide explanations for some of the allusions in the song, but what does it all MEAN?" Well, fuck if I know. I've always seen it as a parody of concept albums. Like he's making fun of records like Tommy or something. But I really couldn't tell you. It's just more Mothers silliness - things which the band, and Frank especially, found amusing.

Wiki - "The song is an intricate and absurd story in a parody of the song/story style of works such as "Peter and the Wolf" about a talking mountain named Billy and his "lovely wife Ethel," "a tree growing off of his shoulder." The lyrics are a satirical myriad of monoculture imagery, the city of Los Angeles, the demise of urban America, and overall absurd juxtapositions of situations. While many of the details were improvised as the song was performed from town to town, the general structure of the song remained the same.

In 2009 Dweezil Zappa and his Zappa Plays Zappa ensemble performed "Billy the Mountain" as part of its "You Can't Fit on Stage Anymore" tour of small venues in the US."


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2. "Call Any Vegetable" 7:22
We're going all the way back to Absolutely Free with this one. I actually like this version. You've got Flo and Eddie singing for one thing, there's other differences to the studio cut as well. They sing "God Bless America" while the instruments play "America the Beautiful," and the LP version is edited, just like "Billy the Mountain." I feel the need to explain other allusions, so here goes: Bob and Ray had a radio show in the '50s. "Jeans North -- Where nothing fits" is a parody of the "Jeans West -- fits best" slogan. Jack La Lanne had a TV exercise show, and "Adee Do" was a slogan for Adee Plumbing. Used to see those commercials all the time.

"Just Another Band from L.A. is a live album by The Mothers, released in 1972. It was recorded live on August 7, 1971 in Pauley Pavilion on the campus of UCLA in Los Angeles. A notable inclusion on this album is "Billy the Mountain", Zappa's long, narrative parody of rock operas, which were gaining popularity at that time.

Originally planned for release as a double LP with solos from "Studebaker Hoch" and "The Subcutaneous Peril" taking up most of the second LP in addition to parts of "Billy the Mountain" itself, and often overlooked by reviewers, this album marks an important period in the band's career which was soon ended by Zappa's severe injuries after being pushed off a stage. The song "Eddie, Are You Kidding?" refers to Edward Nalbandian, while "The Subcutaneous Peril", which ultimately became an outtake from the album, would later appear, in an edited form, on Finer Moments (2012) instead." - Wikipedia

3. "Eddie, Are You Kidding?" (John Seiter, Mark Volman, Howard Kaylan, Frank Zappa) 3:10
This is a new number which functions primarily as a satire of local TV commercials for Zachary All, which was a clothing store right next door to Bizarre Productions on Wilshire Blvd. Like every song so far, it's edited from its on-stage length. I have no idea how The Mothers expected fans outside of Los Angeles to get all of these references, but maybe by this stage in their career, they didn't care about mass acceptance. Regardless, it's rather forgettable, but no worse than half the cuts on 200 Motels either.

4. "Magdalena" (Howard Kaylan, Frank Zappa) 6:24
This one is pretty ambitious I guess. There's the usual (for this album) overemphasis on words, with Howard singing lead.

Kaylan - ...that was just me and FZ sitting in a room. And he was just going [sings] 'ump che ump che ump che.' That was all, it doesn't take me much And we were in Canada... And you know, he was playing and I just scribbled out the words. I said, 'Frank, what do you think?' he said, 'It's a song, we'll do it'... I didn't think it would make it to the record. I didn't think it would enjoy any popularity at all. I thought it would be just looked at like, 'This is way too sick.'... But Frank says, 'No, incest is funny. We can use incest.'

Like in "Billy" there are spoken parts containing improvised local references.

Mark Volman - Those were all things that Howard and I would throw in to make Frank laugh, because those were real life things that Frank knew were real, and when we say it, the audience didn't even know what the fuck we were doing. When we're talking about the Cinegrill and Frank Parnell, I mean, who the fuck anywhere in the world would know what the hell we're talking about? The only reason we would do that was because if you made Frank laugh, people in the audience would laugh.

Okay, so here I go again with the reference explanations - The Hollywood Walk of Fame is on Hollywood Blvd and Sunset Blvds, and there's all these stars embedded in the sidewalk with actor's names on them. Jon Provost was the kid on the Lassie show, Leo G. Carroll was a Brit actor, the Cinegrill was a restaurant on Hollywood Blvd, Shell No-Pest Strip was for insecticide, a Sparkletts water cooler is self explanatory, and Frederick's of Hollywood is a lingerie store also on Hollywood Blvd.

5. "Dog Breath" 3:39
Yeah, I'm going make a ruling on this one: Not as good as the Uncle Meat version. Frank changes the "primer me carrucha" words so that the audience is confused (that is, if they were even paying attention). There is a Zappa guitar solo though.

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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby mudshark » 18 Feb 2022, 20:44

This is what it was supposed to be:

Side One:
Call Any Vegetable
Eddie Are You Kidding?
Magdalena
Dog Breath (these are all the same as officially released JABFLA versions)

Side Two:
Billy The Mountain
Introduction
Phase I (The Royalties Arrive)
Phase II and Newscast
The Legendary Low Budget Hero
The Flies

Side Three
Billy The Mountain (cont.)
Studebacher Hoch
The Conclusion
The Subcutaneous Peril

Side Four
"An Easy Substitute For Eternity Itself"
Don's Solo
Ian's Solo
Aynsley's Solo
Frank's Solo

My guess is that this will be part of near-future publications. Whoever is in charge will continue to milk this mother 'til the cows come home.

On the origins of Billy The Mountain:
"Roz [Kirby] jumped in and explained that Zappa wrote a song based on one of Jack [Kirby]'s stories of characters. I found out later that it was a song called "Billy the Mountain." Billy was a mountain that could kick ass or whatever, I guess! Billy was based on JIM [Journey Into Mystery] #68—the monster was Spragg, the Living Mountain."
Journey Into Mystery #68

Pretty much concur with Matt: Call Any Vegetable is a great rendition of a wonderful song.

Mark Volman reckons Magdalena is the best thing on the album. Even 40 years ago I thought the lyrics were a bit much. In 2021 they sound just about as disgusting as future-former-prince Andrew. The lyrics destroy the song, for me.

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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby Matt Wilson » 22 Feb 2022, 16:51

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Waka/Jawaka 1972
So after being pushed off the stage at a Mothers concert in London by disgruntled fan Trevor Charles Howell, causing Zappa to be in a wheelchair, the band was put on hold for quite some time. Not everybody wanted to hang around waiting for Frank's recovery. Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan for instance, decided to jump ship and start a duo career. This didn't deter our hero from creating new music though. Far from it in fact. This album and The Grand Wazoo were both recorded in April/May of '72 and released before the end of the year. Both are excellent and the return to an emphasis on music rather than lyrics are most welcome to this Zappa fan's ears. The LP cover shows the words "Hot Rats" on the faucet handles and there is a surface similarity to the two records, and while I don't quite rate this endeavor alongside the 1969 album, it is the first truly great release of the '70s to bear the FZ name in my always-never-less-than humble estimation.

Four cuts, two with vocals, two without - and three FZ guitar solos. That's not marijuana next to Frank on the back cover of the LP (heaven forbid!), it's Aralia elegantissima. The same plant that's in Uncle Meat's lab on the back cover of the Grand Wazoo LP. The 2012 CD has the original analog master.

Wiki: "Waka/Jawaka (also known as Waka/Jawaka — Hot Rats) is the fourth solo album by Frank Zappa, released in July 1972. The album is the jazz-influenced precursor to The Grand Wazoo (November 1972), and as the front cover indicates, a sequel of sorts to 1969's Hot Rats. According to Zappa, the title "is something that showed up on a ouija board at one time."

Frank Zappa – guitar (all tracks, including acoustic guitar on track 3), percussion (1), electric bed springs (3), uncredited vocals (3)
Sal Marquez – trumpets (all tracks), vocals (2, 3), chimes (1, 4), flugelhorn (4)
Erroneous (Alex Dmochowski) – electric bass (all tracks), vocals (3), fuzz bass (4)
Aynsley Dunbar – drums (all tracks), washboard (3), tambourine (3)
Tony Duran – slide guitar (1, 2, 3), vocals (3)
George Duke – ring-modulated & echoplexed electric piano (1), tack piano (2)
Mike Altschul – baritone saxophone (2, 4), piccolo (2, 4), bass flute (4), bass clarinet (4), tenor sax (4)
Kris Peterson – vocals (2, 4)
Joel Peskin – tenor sax (2)
Jeff Simmons – Hawaiian guitar (3), vocals (3)
Sneaky Pete Kleinow – pedal steel guitar solo (3)
Janet Ferguson – vocals (3)
Don Preston – piano (4), Minimoog (4)
Billy Byers – trombone (4), baritone horn (4)
Ken Shroyer – trombone (4), baritone horn (4)

All songs written, composed and arranged by Frank Zappa.

1. "Big Swifty" 17:22
F'ffin classic cut which goes on forever but never approaches tedium. It's all about the music here, folks! No off-putting dialogue of any sort. You've got Tony Duran playing slide guitar, Sal Marquez on trumpet and chimes. Zappa on guitar and even percussion. They all play solos and Frank then plays another solo.

Frank: This piece...presents a theme in rapidly alternating time signatures, a few solos, and an out-chorus done up in a sort of Prom Night orchestration which suspends the opening rhythmic structure over a straight 4/4 accompaniment.

The restatement of the theme [13:19 - 14:46] is actually derived from a guitar solo on the album which Sal Marquez took down on paper. After about an hour of wheeling the tape back and forth, Sal managed to transcribe this rhythmically deranged chorus (I don't have the ability to do this kind of musical dictation, but , since Marquez had a full-bore education at North Texas University, he had it covered). After he'd written it out, we proceeded to over-dub three trumpets on it, and , presto! An organized conclusion for 'Big Swifty.'


You can hear musical quotes from this song on "Grand Wazoo" and "The Adventures of Greggery Peccary."

Wiki - "Reviewing in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau wrote: "With Sal Marquez playing 'many trumpets' all over 'Big Swifty,' there are times you could drop the needle and think you were listening to recent Miles Davis. That's certainly what Zappa's been doing. But where Davis is occasionally too loose, Zappa's always too tight—he seems to perceive only what is weird and alienating in his influences, never what is humane. Also, Sal Marquez doesn't play trumpet(s) as good as Miles.

"Big Swifty" is a jazz-fusion tune, similar to many of Zappa's pieces from the jazz period of his compositional timeline. It features many horns to achieve a thick brassy sound as well as room for improvisation and use of multiple time signatures. The tune initially alternates between 7/8 and 3/4 time signatures, soon settling on a 4/4 swing feel for several extended solos. Known recorded live versions expanded rhythmic diversification to 11/8 and rubato parts (e.g. live in Texas, 1973)."

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2. "Your Mouth" 3:12
"Your mouth is your religion" are the first words we hear on the record and they're not sung until side two. Sung by Kris Peterson and Sal Marquez, there's more than a bit of 200 Motels here, but no Flo and Eddie, of course. Ulrich says "Kris Peterson is the daughter of big band trumpeter Chuck Peterson and vocalist Kay Foster. She and Sal Marquez had been in a group called The Inside Track. She released an album on Richie Haven's Stormy Forest label, which included a song written by Marquez."

So there you have it!

3. "It Just Might Be a One-Shot Deal" 4:16
Another little sing-along ditty. Janet Ferguson sings the first verse, then Sal sings the second in some kind of accent. Zappa does the final verse. "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow does the solo on pedal steel. Ulrich - "The frog's 'mile of sand across the rug' suggests the'demonstration dirt' of the vacuum-cleaner salesman in 'The Perfect Stranger.' Vacuum cleaners also figure in Chunga's Revenge and 200 Motels."

Wikipedia - "The track "It Just Might Be a One-Shot Deal" is a strange tale of hallucinations sung by Sal Marquez and Janet Ferguson (the "tough-minded" groupie in 200 Motels). Jeff Simmons' Hawaiian guitar sets up a dream-like, smooth quality, but with the words "but you should be diggin' it while it's happening cause it just might be a one-shot deal", though played in real time rather than achieved with a splice, it again sounds as if the music has started to run backwards."

4. "Waka/Jawaka" 11:18
More brilliance to end the LP. Opening horns fanfare is glorious! Better than "Big Swifty?" You be the judge. Ulrich: "Preston's solo prompted Bob Moog to exclaim, 'That's impossible -- you can't do that on a Moog!' Tracks like this and "Big Swifty" are pretty damned close to prog methinks. You can hear a different mix of this in four-channel on the Quaudiophiliac disc.

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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby mudshark » 23 Feb 2022, 01:00

Took the opportunity to listen to the album on the way from the office to my daughter's school. A 35-minute ride, so just nice. It's a great album. The composition Waka/Jawaka stands out must, for me. It's a thing of beauty. I'm pretty sure that the music was completely written out, except for the solos, of course. He must have done that during his time in hospital. And when he was finished he needed lots of help to make the music come alive. Enter Salvador Marquez.

If you wonder about the origins of the title, don't bother: according to FZ, the album title was "something that showed up on a Ouija board at one time." Ridiculous.

Nice dedication from Kris Peterson, the guy that sings on "Your mouth" (the only thing he ever did for Zappa). It's from a 2019 interview published on the Idiotbastard website:

I could say that Frank was the ultimate gentleman and one of the most intelligent men that I have ever met. He was a family man and a good man, plus he had a perception to die for. Hopefully I've grown up enough to be able to see half of what he saw. He is still, "MY HERO"! There will never be another Frank Zappa.
There's a big difference between kneeling down and bending over

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Matt Wilson
Psychedelic Cowpunk
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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby Matt Wilson » 23 Feb 2022, 02:24

Kris is a woman, Muddy.


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