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Frank Zappa Music, Inc and Munchkin Music Co., Los Angeles, Calif.
1973
ISBN: No
Pages: 127
Language: English Category: Songs
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Brown Shoes Don't Make It, Mother People, Igor's Boogie, Penis Dimension, How Could I Be Such a Fool, Let's Make the Water Turn Black, Oh No, America Drinks and Goes Home, Son of Suzy Creamcheese, Excerpt from Music for Electric Violin and Low-Budget Symphony Orchestra (piano with concert pitch melody line), Excerpt from Music for Electric Violin and Low-Budget Symphony Orchestra (transposed Bb Clarinet part), I'm Not Satisfied, Mom & Dad, Absolutely Free, Uncle Meat, The Idiot Bastard Son, Piano Introduction to Little House I Used to Live In (revised) plus a section of FZ's manuscripts, which are labeled "of limited interest". That mostly means that they're not playable--I think they're quite interesting. The manuscripts include A first sketch from the recording session of Waka=Jawaka, (only one page, with coffee stains, which quickly degenerates into scribbling). Two extracts from the "Pleated Gazelles" section of 200 Motels: "Nun Suit" (looks like piano + vocal) and "The Girl, In a Statement to the Press, Explains" (full score). The full score (orchestra) for "Can I Help You with this Dummy", which was originally scheduled for use in 200 Motels. I enclose a straightforward, factual description of the contents, followed by some personal observations. "The Frank Zappa Songbook Vol. 1" Publ. 1973, Frank Zappa Music, Inc., and Munchkin Music Co., Los Angeles, Calif.; distributed by "Big3", catalogue number B3-1146; price $5.95. No addresses given anywhere in book. Cover by Cal Schenkel: color cartoon of FZ in his studio, writing a manuscript, with much recording equipment around, piles of tapes, and a "Aces High" pinball machine. This drawing has appeared on an album cover, I think, but I don't recall which album that is. Back cover: same as front cover, in negative Inside front and back cover: sinister-looking photo of FZ, highly processed Transcription credits: All piano arrangements by Ian Underwood, with one exception (Piano Intro to "Little House", by FZ). Photographs in book: Ray Leong, Terry Moore, Bernard Gardner, Alice Ochs, Ed Caraeff Illustrations in book: Leo Limon, Richard E. Brown, Corny Cole, Gary Lund ================= [page number in book shown at left]: 30 Mother People 36 Igor's Boogie 39 Penis Dimension 46 How Could I Be Such a Fool 52 Let's Make the Water Turn Black 57 Oh No 62 America Drinks & Goes Home 65 Son of Suzy Creamcheese 69 Excerpt from "Music for Electric Violin and Low-Budget Symphony Orchestra" (piano with concert pitch melody line) 74 Excerpt from "Music for Electric Violin and Low-Budget Symphony Orchestra" (transposed Bb Clarinet part) 75 I'm Not Satisfied 84 Mom & Dad 90 Absolutely Free 98 Uncle Meat 103 The Idiot Bastard Son 107 Piano introduction to "Little House I Used to Live In" (revised) 113 Manuscripts Pages 7-9 are occupied with storylines from Ruben & The Jets, Uncle Meat and The Legend of Cletus Asreetus-Awrightus & His Grand Wazoo. [The same material which can be found in the albums.] The "Manuscripts" consist of Zappa's manuscripts from: 1. Waka Jawaka (one page, just a sketch) 2. "Nun Suit" from side four of 200 Motels (vocal quartet score) 3. "The Girl, in a Statement to the Press, Explains" (full orchestral score, from 200 Motels) 4. "Can I Help You With This Dummy" (full score, from 200 Motels) The first page of this section consists of the following in Zappa's handwritten scrawl (very much like that of the cover of the Fillmore album): "REAL-LIVE MANUSCRIPT SECTION (OF LIMITED INTEREST)". The next page identifies the items, with the same scrawl: "THE FIRST SKETCH FORM THE RECORDING SESSION OF WAKA-JAWAKA; 2 EXTRACTS FROM THE "PLEATED GAZELLE" SECTION OF 200 MOTELS; "CAN I HELP YOU..." WAS ORIGINALLY SCHEDULED FOR USE IN 200 MOTELS BUT WAS EXCLUDED DUE TO TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES BEYOND..." =================================== [all B&W; page number in book shown at left]: 25 Freak Out-era Mothers posing with some kind of oil derrick 26-27 Uncle Meat-era Mothers in photo montage 28 Just Another Band From L.A.-era mothers in group photo, crouching 29 Just Another Band From L.A.-era mothers pretending to operate on Mark Volman with saws, on fake operating table 35 drawing of anthropomorphized radio with legs, hands and face, snapping fingers 39 Drawing of a little man who has a large face for a body...man's hands are pulling at the lips of the face as though masturbating 43 Drawing of a large nipple being bitten (appears at bottom of text to be read for Penis Dimension) 45 Drawing of a man with a Heart for a head laying on a surrealistic landscape 50-51 Dali-esque drawing (man with lampshade on head, crashing plane, floating chairs...dozens of details) 56 Photo of FZ hugging woman (certainly Gail) from behind, while a shovel is propped to look as though it may be penetrating FZ from behind 60-61 Expressionistic drawing of a drunk reaching for glass 65 Drawing of intistinguishable blob relating to previous drawing 71-73 Abstract drawing...somewhat Escher-like 76 FZ's high school graduation photo 82-83 Drawing of cannon firing at woman, while a man holds his ears and sheds a tear 89 Drawing of man licking stamps whose top of head looks like a towel being rung-out 96-97 Extreme closeup of newspaper-type photo of skull with number 1348 stamped on it 100-102 Drawing of fat whore and Nazi 108 Drawing of piano keys, closeup, with a house sitting on one of the keys and a man running away 111 Reverse image of previous drawing 127 Photos of Ian Underwood and Cal Schenkle (credits for transcriptions and cover/design) ================= The piano parts lay pretty well under the hand. They are of medium difficulty: only a few can be read by beginners, but they seldom require anything resembling "virtuoso" technique. Playing them through is fascinating stuff. Alot of FZ's harmony is so familiar to me, that I don't think of it as unusual. But seeing it on the page, I see that there are fairly complex (and very "20th century") harmonic constructs in there. "Oh No", for example heavily uses chords made of stacked fifths (which one might think of as ninth chords). The piano part to "America Drinks and Goes Home" is a quite accurate transcription of the cocktail piano playing on the album. Lots of fun to play! Likewise for "Piano Introduction to Little House", which has always been one of my favorite compositions...Zappa showing the influence of Schoenberg's early piano opuses (11, 19 and 25 in particular). It is *very* accurate, and fascinating to see how he notated it. To me, the very most valuable part is the manuscripts from 200 Motels. There we see the way FZ wrote for vocal ensembles, and for full orchestra. The vocal ensemble harmony fascinated me for years: I played it at the piano many times trying to understand where his harmonies came from. (It amazes me that he did not compose at the piano!) The full scores are worthy of even more hours or years of study. The amount of performance detail (muting, types of drum sticks to use, dynamic markings, crescendi) is fascinating, the amount of detail that goes into some of the background textures is incredible (I'd never previously noticed on the recording a complex, polyrhythmic trio of bassoons at the beginnging of "The Girl..."), and the way in which Zappa got the sounds he got by precisely notating them is ingenious (the rhythms of the spoken voice parts are *completely* notated, wild glissandi from note to note are carefully indicated, and "funny" sounds like "fraudulent fanfares" are written out with precise pitches). It must have been fascinating to watch Zappa rehearse the RPO on this work. I've always thought that 200 Motels was FZ's *single* greatest musical achievement. |
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