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 Stink Foot

Notes and Comments
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From: Charles Ulrich forthcoming book Project/Object
  The basic tracks for this song were probably recorded in spring, 1970, with overdubs in summer, 1973. Musicians were George Duke (keyboards), Aynsley Dunbar (drums), Ian Underwood (saxophone), and FZ (guitar, bass).
  FZ did not perform "Stink-Foot" in concert until July, 1974. Thereafter, he performed it at least once every year he toured except 1980. From fall 1975 through fall 1976, and a few times after that, it was paired with "Dirty Love", with a "Poodle Lecture" (as heard on YCDTOSA 6) in between. This full sequence can be heard, appropriately enough, on Conceptual Continuity (Beat The Boots II).
From: fnord@panix.com (Cliff Heller)
  Stink Foot is about the evil condition of bromodrosis and it's assorted difficulties. It has a talking dog in it who waxes philosophical.
From: John Henley <jhenley@mail.utexas.edu>
  By the time of the 1979 London performance heard on YCDTOSA V. 1, Frank had changed the word to the more accurate "podobromidrosis." From Black's Medical Dictionary, 1990 edition: "Bromidrosis [correct spelling]: the excretion of evil-smelling perspiration." The "podo-" prefix is from the Greek "pod-", meaning foot. (Only a British dictionary would describe something as "evil-smelling.")
From: Valdimir Sovetov <sova@kpbank.kemerovo.su>
  And a couple of words about what was the source of inspiration
  " There is one [song] inspired by Mennen foot spray commercial where the god keels over after the guy takes his shoes off. Do you know how hard to write a song about something like that?"
(Zappa: November 1973)

Miles. Frank Zappa. A Visual Documentary. p.62 )
From: Charles Ulrich forthcoming book Project/Object
  "Stink-Foot" was inspired by a commercial for Mennen foot spray, in which a man takes off his shoes and his dog keels over. Bromidrosis is the medical term for bad-smelling perspiration. In 1988, Scott Thunes pointed out to FZ that the correct term for bad-smelling perspiration specific to the feet is podobromidrosis. FZ used the longer term throughout the 1988 tour.
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Out through the night
An' the whispering breezes
To the place where they keep
The Imaginary Diseases,
From: Charles Ulrich forthcoming book Project/Object
  "Imaginary Diseases" was the title of an unreleased instrumental performed on the Petit Wazoo tour of 1972. FZ explained the concept in a monologue at the concert in Arlington, Texas, on March 11, 1973. Imaginary diseases are useful as excuses when you don't want to do something. Headaches are passé, so you need a new imaginary disease such as gas, a rash, or a virus.
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Here Fido, Fido,
From: db832@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Phillip A. Freshour)
  "Fido", as it's usually spelled, is a traditional (American) name for a dog. Many of Frank's poodles have been named Fido (those poodles being figurative poodles, not flesh-and-blood poodles). I guess he felt "Phydeux" was a more regal spelling.....
From: srouse@wv.mentorg.com (Sam Rouse)
  I think Phydeaux was the name of Frank's tour bus(es) for a number of years. The first time I saw him (Portland OR Paramount, probably sometime in 1976) the tour bus behind the hall was painted to look just like a Greyhound bus, but the word "Greyhound" that normally occupies the entire side of the bus was replaced with "Phydeaux" (same lettering style), and the sleek greyhound logo picture was replaced with a dorky-looking, crosseyed dog saying "Arf!". I don't know whether Phydeaux 3 refers to the third incarnation of the bus, or the third in the fleet that may have been in existence by the time of JG. Tour busses I've seen at subsequent tours didn't have the FZ graphics, but I guess the name stuck.
  CC
From: ep183@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Steve Roche)
  In the cityscape on the back cover of the Absolutely Free lp is a sign showing a dog collar and the caption 'BUY A FYDO fits swell'.
From: cbas125@vaxa.strath.ac.uk
  Date: Thu, 26 May 94 18:48:21 GMT
  Wooooo, it's me again. I found this in last Sunday's Observer newspaper. All spelling mistakes are mine.
  Martin Wroe reports on a 20-year study to determine the greatest artist of the century - of course it's Frank Zappa
THE POLITICS OF POODLE ROCK
  .................................
  Zappa briefly owned a poodle and said: "Poodles give continuity to my albums, it's like brown in Rembrandt." Mr Watson, who began the book 20-years ago as an English student at Cambridge, takes him at his word.
  .................................
  In fact Mr Watson had been "doing this" since studying Plato's The Phaedo and started to feel he was going mad. Many of the allusions and ideas his professor expounded from the canon of great literature, seemed to ring true in the work of Zappa: "Inexplicable coincidences kept happening, although my lecturer had never heard of Zappa." For example, Zappa had made an entire record called Phaedo.
  "Fido is also the common name we give to dogs, which also means `'I believe' in Latin" adds Mr Watson.
From: Charles Ulrich forthcoming book Project/Object
  Fido (Italian for 'faithful') is a popular name given to dogs. Respelled in a pseudo-French manner (suggesting a French poodle), it was the name of a series of FZ's tour buses. In his book The Negative Dialectics Of Poodle Play, Ben Watson relates Fido to Plato's homophonous dialogue Phaedo.
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mpt, mpt, mpt, come here little puppy
Bring the slippers
Arf, arf, arf
(C-R-A-S-H)
From: John Henley <jhenley@mail.utexas.edu>
  Actually, this noise is the sound of a gigantic slobber: Fido is throwing up all over the slippers - maybe even dying over them. Followed by:
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Huhm, HAH, HAH, HAH...sick!


This is the dog talkin' now
"What is your, conceptual continuity?"
From: clemenr@westminster.ac.uk (Ross Clement)
  "Conceptual continuity" as far as I know it refers to the way in which something (e.g. a TV program) remains consistent throughout episodes/releases/ whatever. E.g. if The Enterprise's engines act some way in one episode of Star Trek, they should also work that way in following episodes.
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"Well I told 'em right then", Fido said
"It should be easy to see
"The crux of the biscuit
is the apostrophe"
From: fnord@panix.com (Cliff Heller)
  People discussed at length the significance of "apostrophe" and the "crux of the biscuit". It seems obvious, but no one mentioned that the monologue by phydeaux goes something like:
It isn't, and it doesn't }\
I won't and it don't } - What do all these words have in common?
...
It even ain't }/
I told him no no no
He told me yes yes yes
I do it all the time
Ain't this boogie a mess?
The answer my friend should be easy to see
The crux of the biscuit is the apostrophe
From: Mark Knopper
  Here is why the apostrophe is the crux of the biscuit. I had a dog in 1974. The most popular biscuits had the name GAINE'S stamped on them. They came in several colors and were shaped like a bone. Of course the crux of the buscuit is the apostrophe in the word GAINE'S!
From: Vladimir Sovetov <sova@arf.ru>
  See also Frank's own version of (') secret meaning.
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THE POODLE BITES, THE POODLE CHEWS IT
  CC
From: Vladimir Sovetov <sova@kpbank.ru>
  Here we are. Good and obvious example of FZ CCC :-))) This lines of Fido identical to the Frenchie's from
OVERNITE Dirty Love.
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SOVA NOSE Any proposal? I'd like to hear!
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