FZ MEETS THE MOTHERS OF PREVENTION Yo Cats Notes and Comments

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	(Zappa/Mariano)
Well, well, well, in accordance with "A Definite Tribute To Frank Zappa" Thomas Mariano is the real name of Tommy Mars. And here is a quote from the same source.
Q: What kind of training did you have on the keyboard?
TM: Well, like every other kid, I hated taking piano lessons. I just want to improvise and pick up songs off the radio. I had a typical garage band sort of training through high school. But during my seniour year, I decided to purse it as a career so I totally changed direction and went into a very strict, sort of monastic training. I never really learned how to read music until I went to conservatory, and it brought out things that I never knew I had inside myself. I graduated in '72 from Hart College of Music in West Hartford, Connecticute, and I have had just about every musical job there is since then. I was a choirmaster, a church organist, movie accompanist, I played bars and clubs, everything.
Q: Did you ever try to go the professional classic route?
TM: I did, but I found that the whole profession is dominated by a select group of people; you have to wait until someone dies before the next one moves up. It's so limited and I just could not live in the the past.
So it's really sincere stuff, this song. Direct from the heart of Tommy:-))
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	Yo cats, yo yo Yo chooch, way to go
Here is translation of German footnotes that goes with the text of the song in a "Zonx" songbook.
From: Edi Weitz <weitz@math.uni-hannover.de>   . "chooch" - buddy salutation between Italo-American rowdies
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	You is dead, but you don't know Yo let's carve, hey where's the blow?
From: Patrick David Neve <splat@darkwing.uoregon.edu>   Blow is a generic term for nose drugs. It can be coke, heroin, speed, or combination thereof. "Let's carve" means "Let's cut it up." Ususally drugs of this nature are prepared on a mirror or a piece of glass with a razor blade. It's chopped finely so it will sniff easily.
From: Samir Chettri <chettri@cs.umbc.edu>   A reference to snorting cocaine. First you lay the powder on some glass. Then you carve it into lines and then you inhale it through a tube ("blow"). Cocaine is often referred to as "blow" as a consequence. I guess at that time there was a cocaine "epidemic" in all levels of society.
CC
Also check out the songs
Tinsel Town Rebellion. Tinsel Town Rebellion The Man From Utopia. Cocaine Decisions. And Them Or Us (The Book)
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	Get your fiddle, get your bow Play some footballs Hum yer ho
From: Evil Bob <evilbob@tbag.tscs.com>   This refers to a session violinist who gets the extremely easy and high-paying job of playing whole notes (which in music look like footballs) while keeping the bow level with the widest part of the violin's "F-holes" (F-shaped carvings in the body of the instrument through which the air in the instrument gets out to interact with the surrounding air for the benefit of people who are impatiently waiting to sip overpriced cheap wine and be seen at intermission). The reason one would play "on your hole" is because the loudest and most resonant sound you can normally get out of an instrument of the violin family is to play with the bow level with the F-holes.
From: Vladimir Sovetov <sova@kpbank.ru>   Heh, funny but in russian classical players slang they call the whole notes a potato. "It's an easy stuff, just potatoes":-))))
Also a couple of great details from indisputable expert
From Bill Lantz <lantz@primenet.com> David Ocker Internet interview. http://www.primenet.com/~lantz/
The section
"A Few Obscure References in the Lyrics to "Yo Cats"
Play some "footballs" - slang for a "whole note" and by extension an "easy gig" as in "there was nothing to play but footballs". The suggestion that a player would intentionally play badly to send the session into overtime is, um, rather unkind.
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	Watch your watch, play a little flat Make the session go overtime, that's where it's at Saxophone, clarinet How many doubles can you get
From: Evil Bob <evilbob@tbag.tscs.com>   This refers to the probably forced hiring of one union musician (due to "special union rules") to cover both the sax and clarinet parts (a "double date") that way the musician makes more money than he would if he had played only one part.
From: Mark Edmonds <mmje@mmje.demon.co.uk>   My take on this was the exact opposite but I don't know what the union rules in question are. I assumed that this was a reference to a situation where you had a clarinetist who could double on the sax but the rules said you had to hire a saxophonist because having one musician playing two parts meant someone was losing out somewhere.
From: chulrich@itnerchagne.ubc.ca (Charles Ulrich)   I don't know anything about the union forcing people to hire one musician doubling or two musicians. But union rules call for extra pay for anyone who plays two different instruments (probably still cheaper than hiring two separate musicians). So, from the point of view of the doubling musician, the more different instruments they are called on to play in the course of the session, the more money they make.
From: Vladimir Sovetov <sova@kpbank.ru>   Here is translation of German footnotes that goes with the text of the song in a "Zonx" songbook.
From: Edi Weitz <weitz@math.uni-hannover.de>   "doubles" - studio musicians are always endeavoured to play more than one instrument during their recording sessions because this increases their fee
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	"YOUR GIRL",
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	"ARLEN'S" -- What's the dif? What's service you're wif, So long as you can suck the butt Of the contractor who calls you up --
From Bill Lantz <lantz@primenet.com> David Ocker Internet interview. http://www.primenet.com/~lantz/
The section
"A Few Obscure References in the Lyrics to "Yo Cats"
"Your Girl" and "Arlyns" were answering services particularly geared to service professional studio musicians - for example, a contractor, wanting to hire a list of people for a date, could simply give the list to the answering service who would then call all the musicians for him - or better yet, the service would keep a copy of the players schedule and accept or deny the job and then inform the player where and when to show up.
Staying in close contact with "the service" is important - the contractors won't wait for ever for a reply and calls for last minute jobs can be the most lucrative. Today it's important to bring your cell-phone to a session so you don't have to stand in line at the payphone during a 'ten' in order to 'call the service'.
Picking the 'right' service was very important - I suppose you could lose work if you listed with the 'wrong' service. But I just looked up the phone numbers in the Local 47 AFofM directory to discover that Arlyns seems to have swallowed all the other services. I don't know whether this is a sign of creeping capitalism or of the shrinking studio scene (probably both). In case you want to touch a part of Hollywood studio scene - Arlyn's phone number is 818-766-3851. Don't ask for me, I've never had or needed such a service.
	Special rules provide the way To help you maximize your pay
From: Vladimir Sovetov <sova@kpbank.ru>   Looks like one of the many of Frank's attack on the unions.
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	Yum yum, dog food
CC
Pass me the dog food.
Broadway The Hard Way. Hot Plate Heaven At The Green Hotel.
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	Hemorrhoid cream but the bread's so good New RV and a leisure suit
From: Patrick David Neve <splat@darkwing.uoregon.edu>   It's short for "Recreational Vehicle", or motor home. e.g.- Winnebago.
From: Samir Chettri <chettri@cs.umbc.edu>   RV = Recreational Vecicle. A glorified passenger truck. Suited to the lifestyles of those who like to go the beach or the mountains and perhaps do some blow :)
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	Hey, I play shit but I love the loot Thank the union, it's so great Only a few get to be on the date Those other shmucks with electric guitars Got to play for poot in the bistro bars
CC
And another anti-union passage. See also.
CHUNGA'S REVENGE. Rudy Wants to Buy Yez A Drink. 200 MOTELS. Lonesome Cowboy Burt. SHEIK YERBOUTI. Flakes. Joe's Garage. Scene One. Entrance Of The Central Scrutinizer THE MAN FROM UTOPIA. Stick Together.
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	You have made it, you are cool You have been to the Berkeley School
From: jh@cadre.com (Joe Hartley)   When I saw Frank in Boston on the last tour, they did a great version of this. It was all programmed into the Synclavier; Ike was the only one doing anything. The band did funny stuff like read a paper - the horn section pulled out their wallets and started to count their cash!
When they got to the line about the Berklee school, Ike put extra emphasis on the line, and the place went nuts, since Boston is the home of Berklee.
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	You give clinics on the side Music has died and no one cried
From: Patrick David Neve <splat@darkwing.uoregon.edu>   Some musicians use their reputation as good players to give "clinics". What this entails is going to a local music store or music school, and people can attend, on a paid admission basis. What they get is the privelage of watching the musician demonstrate what they are supposedly so good at, in an intimate setting, meanwhile listening to the musician talk about why they are so good at what they are doing. There might be a question and answer session, and demosntrations of whatever the musician thinks is important.
Financially, it can be a good way for a musician to round out a tour schedule. If they are on tour anyway, and have a reputation as a good player, perhaps they can line up a few clinics in some of the towns they play. If the musician is without a band at the moment, clinics can supplement a steady diet of private lessons.
Terry Bozzio apparantly has been giving clinics for quite some time.
From: Samir Chettri <chettri@cs.umbc.edu>   "On the side," refers to the fact that they may have a full time job doing other things, including playing in a band.
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	Yo cats, Yo yo Yo chooch Way to go You is dead! Hey! Have a nice one, guy!
From: Patrick David Neve <splat@darkwing.uoregon.edu>   ...this is just "Yuppie-talk". Short for "have a nice day", this is sort of along the lines of saying "Let's do lunch."

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