From: Charles Ulrich' forthcoming book Project/Object
This song was originally considered part of the song "Don't Eat The
Yellow Snow", which FZ would introduce as "an environmental number".
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Well right about that time, people,
A fur trapper
Who was strictly from commercial
(Strictly Commershil)
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From: Charles Ulrich' forthcoming book Project/Object
The line from "Midnight Sun" is quoted again after "strictly
from commercial". The phrase Strictly Commercial was used as the
title for a Ryko CD of FZ's "greatest hits".
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Had the unmedicated audacity to jump up from behind my igyaloo
(Peek-a-Boo Woo-ooo-ooo)
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From: Charles Ulrich' forthcoming book Project/Object
The lyric sheet's "unmedicated audacity", whether intentional
or not, is clearly inaccurate. The actual phrase is "unmitigated
audacity", which was later the title of a bootleg (included in Beat
The Boots).
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And rub it all into his beady little eyes
With a vigorous circular motion
Hitherto unknown to the people on this area,
But destined to take the place of THE MUD SHARK
In your mythology
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From: Vladimir Sovetov <sova@kpbank.ru>
Fantastic creature first brought to the light in FILLMORE EAST, JUNE 1971
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From: db832@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Phillip A. Freshour)
I believe the mudshark story is based in fact: (from memory, so please
correct me). Members of Led Zeppelin were fishing from a hotel
balcony in Seattle. One of them caught a mudshark, a very ugly fish,
and proceeded to perform unspeakable acts involving the mudshark and
a female groupie. Hence, a legend is born.....
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From: sweet@skat.usc.edu (Rob Sweet)
It was the Vanilla Fudge, (remember them) who had taken part in
the infamous Mudshark rituals at the Edgewater Inn in Seattle Washington.
Supposedly they even made a film of this event, and Frank may have viewed
the film. He thought it was such a bizarre event in rock and roll folklore
(it's so perverted) that he wrote a nice song about it.
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From: Vladimir Sovetov <sova@kpbank.ru>
Well, in fact, it seems, that you guys are both right. I mean it was
joint Zeppelin/Vanilla affair
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See
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The Mud Shark. Fillmore N&C
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Special Fishex appendix. Fillmore N&C
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From: fm24@rummelplatz.uni-mannheim.de (Oliver Klimek)
"Nanook" was also released on "Baby Snakes". The lyrics are included. There
it says: "...destined to take the place of the mudshark in _rheumatology_"
This sounds ok if you think of the treatment of rheumatism with bathes in
specially prepared mud.
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Here it goes now . . .
THE CIRCULAR MOTION . . . (rub it) . . .
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From: Charles Ulrich' forthcoming book Project/Object
Like the Mudshark on the Fillmore album, the Circular Motion
is presented here as a new dance.
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Great Googly Moogly!
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From: chase@aros.net (Chase Kimball)
This is an expression I have heard older blues artists use in songs.
Somewhere in my voluminous collection is a Muddy Waters (or somebody like
him) song where the phrase is used. I have been reviewing my collection to
try and find the exact song, but it is going to take time.
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From: Richard S Johnson <rsjohnso@naz.edu>
Howlin' Wolf said it in one of the spoken parts of "Goin' Down Slow". Is
that what you're thinking of? I hope this helps.
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From: onthecornr@aol.com (OnTheCornr)
I suspect that Zappa's use of "Great Googly Moogly" was more directly
inspired by "Stranded In The Jungle" by the Cadets and/or the Jayhawks
(the two groups had competing Top 20 versions simultaneously in 1956).
"Stranded In The Jungle" was always one of FZ's favorite songs, and he
performed it onstage at least once (the band with Bianca Odin, Halloween
1976 NYC). "Stranded" also predates Howlin' Wolf's use of the phrase in
"Going Down Slow," which was recorded in 1961.
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From: chase@aros.net (Chase Kimball)
I have that particular Howlin' Wolf song, and reviewed it. I am not sure if
that is what I am thinking of though. I have the sound of some high energy
blues baritone shouting it into the microphone in my head, and Mr. Burnett
says it with a great deal of resignation. Perhaps I am mixing up his
statement of the creed with the way Zappa says it. However, I have spent a
lot of time with my blues CDs trying to find what is in my head, and have
utterly failed, so perhaps my memory is faulty. In any event, my original
post still stands and is vindicated, and I think the FAQ file should reflect
the proper origins of Great Googly Moogly. Certainly Zappa and Burnett
deserve no less.
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From: ivester@utkvx.utk.edu (Stan Ivester)
I had also heard the "Great googly moogly" in a 50's blues record I just
can't remember if it was a Howling Wolf or Muddy Waters, but I'm pretty
sure it was one of them.
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I believe that was "If I Never Get Well Again" by Howlin' Wolf. Obviously,
Frank listened to that song when he was young and well. I wonder if he
listened to it again when the lyrics described his own situation.
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From: biffyshrew@aol.com (Biffyshrew)
The title of this song (at least as it appears on the classic "rocking
chair" LP) is actually "Going Down Slow." This recording is from 1961.
Is there another version with a different title?
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An earlier citation of the phrase "great googly moogly" is "Stranded In
The Jungle," a simultaneous hit in 1956 in competing versions by the
Cadets and the Jayhawks. Zappa played this song live in 1976, and also
played it on the radio a time or two.
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From: Charles Ulrich' forthcoming book Project/Object
"Great googly moogly" is an expression that had been uttered
by Willie Dixon in Howlin' Wolf's 1961 recording of "Going Down
Slow". Another variant, "great googa mooga", was uttered by Prentice
Moreland in the Cadet's 1956 recording of "Stranded In The Jungle", a
song which FZ performed on the fall 1976 tour.
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He took a dog-doo sno-cone
An' stuffed it in my right eye
He took a dog-doo sno-cone
An' stuffed it in my other eye
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From: Charles Ulrich' forthcoming book Project/Object
A sno-cone is a paper cone containing crushed ice with
brightly-colored syrup poured over it. In this case, the syrup is
husky wee-wee.
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An' the huskie wee-wee,
I mean the doggie wee-wee
Has blinded me
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Just urine, boys and girls
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CC
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See also 200 Motels. Magic Fingers N&C
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From: Charles Ulrich' forthcoming book Project/Object
When the Mothers were on tour in Europe in September 1974, a
Pittsburgh disc jockey edited "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow" and "Nanook
Rubs It" down to three and a half minutes and played it on his
station. When the Mothers returned to the US, they found that they
had a regional hit. Zappa replicated the dj's edits and released the
shortened version as a single, which reached #86 in the charts. It is
now available on the Ryko compilation Strictly Commercial.
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Any proposal? I'd like to hear!