(Inside of LP of 1968) Photo by Jerrold Schatzberg (Back of LP of 1968) Photo by Jerrold Schatzberg (Front of LP of 1968) Photo by Jerrold Schatzberg

Linked material:

We’re only in it for the money

 

  1 Are you hung up?
  2 Who needs the Peace Corps?
  3 Concentration moon
  4 Mom & Dad
  5 Telephone conversation
  6 Bow tie daddy
  7 Harry, you’re a beast
  8 What’s the ugliest part of your body?
  9 Absolutely free
10 Flower punk [Billy Roberts, Frank Zappa]
11 Hot poop
12 Nasal retentive Calliope music
13 Let’s make the water turn black
14 The idiot bastard son
15 Lonely little girl
16 Take your clothes off when you dance
17 What’s the ugliest part of your body? (Reprise)
18 Mother people
19 The chrome plated megaphone of destiny

 

All compositions by Frank Zappa, except as noted above.


Album notes by FZ
All the music heard on this album was composed, arranged & scientifically mutilated by Frank Zappa (with the exception of a little bit of surf music). None of the sounds are generated electronically… they are all the products of electronically altering the sounds of NORMAL instruments. The orchestral segments were conducted by SID SHARP under the supervision of the composer.
 

“THE PRESENT-DAY COMPOSER REFUSES TO DIE!”

EDGARD VARÈSE, July 1921

 

THIS WHOLE MONSTROSITY WAS CONCEIVED & EXECUTED BY FRANK ZAPPA AS A RESULT OF SOME UNPLEASANT PREMONITIONS, AUGUST THROUGH OCTOBER 1967.


Back side text
IS THIS PHASE ONE OF LUMPY GRAVY?

1. Are you hung up?


[Eric Clapton] Uh… uh… uh uh… uh… uh… D’you… Are you… Are you hung up?
Are you hung up?
[Girl] Outasite!
[Eric Clapton] Outasite. Yeah, listen uh… d’you… are you… are you hung up?
[Girl] Ha ha! What does that mean?
[Eric Clapton] Are you strung up, are you? Are you hung up?
[Girl] I don’t… I don’t… I can’t understand… Outasite!
[Eric Clapton] Outasite. Yeah, listen uh… d’you… are you… are you hung up?
 
[Gary Kellgren] One of these days I am going to erase all the tape in the world. In the world… world. Tomorrow I may do it. All the Frank Zappa masters… nothing… blank… empty… space. That’s what they are now… blank… empty… space. Oh, I know he’s sitting in there, in the control room now, listening to everything I say, but I really don’t care.
Hello, Frank Zappa!
 
[Jimmy Carl Black] Hi, boys and girls, I’m Jimmy Carl Black, I’m the Indian of the group

2. Who needs the Peace Corps?


What’s there to live for?
Who needs the Peace Corps?
Think I’ll just drop out
I’ll go to Frisco, buy a wig & sleep on Owsley’s floor
 
Walked past the wig store
Danced at the Fillmore
I’m completely stoned
I’m hippy & I’m trippy, I’m a gypsy on my own
I’ll stay a week & get the crabs & take a bus back home
I’m really just a phony but forgive me ‘cause I’m stoned
 

Every town must have a place where phony hippies meet
Psychedelic dungeons popping up on every street
GO TO SAN FRANCISCO!
 
How I love ya, how I love ya, how I love ya, how I love ya, Frisco!

How I love ya, how I love ya, how I love ya, how I love ya, oh, my hair is getting good in the back!
 
Every town must have a place where phony hippies meet
Psychedelic dungeons popping up on every street
GO TO SAN FRANCISCO!
 
Hotcha!
 
First I’ll buy some beads
And then perhaps a leather band to go around my head
Some feathers and bells
And a book of Indian lore
I will ask the Chamber Of Commerce how to get to Haight Street and smoke an awful lot of dope
I will wander around barefoot
I will have a psychedelic gleam in my eye at all times
I will love everyone
I will love the police as they kick the shit out of me on the street
I will sleep
I w… I will go to a house, that’s… that’s what I will do, I will go to a house
Where there’s a rock & roll band ‘cause the groups all live together
And I will join a rock & roll band, I will be their road manager
And I will stay there with them and I will get the crabs but I won’t care

3. Concentration moon


Concentration moon, over the camp in the valley
Concentration moon, wish I was back in the alley
With all of my friends still running free
Hair growing out every hole in me
 

American way, how did it start?
Thousands of creeps killed in the park
American way, try and explain
Scab of a nation driven insane
 
Don’t cry
Gotta go, bye-bye
Suddenly die, die
Cop, kill a creep!
Pow pow pow
 
[Gary Kellgren] Tomorrow I get to do another Frank Zappa creation, and the day after that… and the day after that…
[Jimmy Carl Black] Hi, boys and girls, I’m Jimmy Carl Black and I’m the Indian of the group
 
Concentration moon, over the camp in the valley
Concentration moon, wish I was back in the alley
With all of my friends still running free
Hair growing out every hole in me
 
American way, threatened by us

Drag a few creeps away in a bus
American way, prisoner lock
Smash every creep in the face with a rock
 
Don’t cry
Gotta go, bye-bye
Suddenly die, die
Cop, kill a creep!
Pow pow pow

4. Mom & Dad


Mama! Mama!
Someone said they made some noise
The cops have shot some girls & boys
You’ll sit home & drink all night
They looked too weird, it served them right
 
Mama! Mama!
Someone said they made some noise
The cops have shot some girls & boys
You’ll sit home & drink all night
They looked too weird, it served them right
 
Ever take a minute just to show a real emotion
In between the moisture cream & velvet facial lotion?
Ever tell your kids you’re glad that they can think?
Ever say you loved ‘em? Ever let ‘em watch you drink?
Ever wonder why your daughter looked so sad?
It’s such a drag to have to love a plastic mom & dad!
 
Mama! Mama!
Your child was killed in the park today
Shot by the cops as she quietly lay
By the side of the creeps she knew…
They killed her too

5. Telephone conversation


[Pamela Zarubica] Well, operator? Hold for a minute, please.
 
[FZ] Hello?
[Operator] Yes, sir
[FZ] Uh… Can you call 678-9866?
[Operator] Same area code?
[FZ] Yes
[Operator] Right
 
[FZ] Is that Vicki?
[Pamela Zarubica] Yeah. He’s gonna bump you off yet, he’s got a gun, you know, heh heh heh. If he didn’t get ya in Laurel Canyon, he won’t get you here.
 
[Vicki Kellgren] Hello?
[Pamela Zarubica] Vicki?
[Vicki Kellgren] Yeah
[Pamela Zarubica] What’s happening?
[Vicki Kellgren] Listen, your father has called me up this…
[Pamela Zarubica] Now look, just don’t panic but just tell me…
[Vicki Kellgren] I’m not panicking!
[Pamela Zarubica] OK
[Vicki Kellgren] I think my phone’s tapped too
[Pamela Zarubica] Well, don’t worry, that’s quite alright
[Vicki Kellgren] Alright, your father called me up this afternoon
[Pamela Zarubica] Just a sec…

6. Bow tie daddy


Bow tie daddy
Dontcha blow your top
Everything’s under control
Bow tie daddy
Dontcha blow your top
‘Cause you think you’re gettin’ too old
 
Don’t try to do no thinkin’
Just go on with your drinkin’
Just have your fun, you old son of a gun
Then drive home in your Lincoln

7. Harry, you’re a beast


I’m gonna tell you the way it is
And I’m not gonna be kind or easy
Your whole attitude stinks, I say
And the life you lead is completely empty
 
You paint your head
Your mind is dead
You don’t even know what I just said
 
THAT’S YOU, AMERICAN WOMANHOOD!
 
You’re phony on top
You’re phony underneath
You lay in bed & grit your teeth
 

Madge , I want your body
HARRY, GET BACK!

Madge, it’s not merely physical
HARRY, YOU’RE A BEAST!
 
Don’t come in me, in me
Don’t come in me, in me
Don’t come in me, in me
Don’t come in me, in me
 
Madge, I… Madge, I couldn’t help it
I… doggone it!

8. What’s the ugliest part of your body?


What’s the ugliest part of your body?
What’s the ugliest part of your body?
Some say your nose
Some say your toes
But I think it’s your mind
Your mind
I think it’s your mind
 

ALL YOUR CHILDREN ARE POOR UNFORTUNATE VICTIMS OF SYSTEMS BEYOND THEIR CONTROL
A PLAGUE UPON YOUR IGNORANCE & THE GRAY DESPAIR OF YOUR UGLY LIFE
 
Where did Annie go when she went to town?
Who are all those creeps that she brings around?
 
ALL YOUR CHILDREN ARE POOR UNFORTUNATE VICTIMS OF LIES YOU BELIEVE
A PLAGUE UPON YOUR IGNORANCE THAT KEEPS THE YOUNG FROM THE TRUTH THEY DESERVE

9. Absolutely free


[Pamela Zarubica] I don’t do publicity balling for you anymore
 
[FZ] The first word in this song is “discorporate”. It means to leave your body.
 
Discorporate & come with me
Shifting, drifting, cloudless, starless
Velvet valleys and a sapphire sea
Wah wah
 

Unbind your mind, there is no time
To lick your stamps and paste them in
Discorporate and we will begin
Wah wah
Flower Power sucks
 
Diamonds on velvets on goldens on vixen
On comet & Cupid on Donner & Blitzen
On up & away & afar & a go-go
Escape from the weight of your corporate logo!
 
Unbind your mind, there is no time
Boin-n-n-n-n-n-g
To lick your stamps and paste them in
Discorporate and we’ll begin
 
Freedom, freedom, kindly loving
You’ll be absolutely free
Only if you want to be
 
Dreaming on cushions of velvet & satin
To music by magic, by people that happen
To enter the world of a strange purple jello

The dreams as they live them are all mellow yellow
 
Unbind your mind, there is no time
Boin-n-n-n-n-n-g
To lick your stamps and paste them in
Discorporate and we’ll begin
 
Freedom, freedom, kindly loving
You’ll be absolutely free
Only if you want to be
 
You’ll be absolutely free
Only if you want to be

10. Flower punk


Hey, punk, where you goin’ with that flower in your hand?
Hey, punk, where you goin’ with that flower in your hand?
Well, I’m goin’ up to Frisco to join a psychedelic band
I’m goin’ up to Frisco to join a psychedelic band
 
Hey, punk, where you goin’ with that button on your shirt?
Hey, punk, where you goin’ with that button on your shirt?
I’m goin’ to the love-in to sit & play my bongos in the dirt
Yes, I’m goin’ to the love-in to sit & play my bongos in the dirt
 
Hey, punk, where you goin’ with that hair on your head?
Hey, punk, where you goin’ with that hair on your head?
I’m goin’ to the dance to get some action, then I’m goin’ home to bed
I’m goin’ to the dance to get some action, then I’m goin’ home to bed
 
Hey, punk, where you goin’ with those beads around your neck?
Hey, punk, where you goin’ with those beads around your neck?
I’m goin’ to the shrink so he can help me be a nervous wreck


Just at this moment, the 2700 microgram dose of STP ingested by Flower punk shortly before the song began takes effect: before your very ears his head blows up… leaving a bizarre audial residue all over your teen-age record player!
 
Hey, punk!
Punky!
Hey, punk!
Punk!
Hey, punk!
Hey, punk!
Hey, punk!
Hey, punk!
Punky!
Hey, punk!
Hey hey!
Hey, punk!
Go man, go… go man, go
Just a little bit softer
Golly, do I ever have a lot of soul!

Punk, I think I love you!
Come on, Roy
Questi dominga?
 
Let me see that nose, it didn’t…
Orale!
I wanna know for sure!

Leave my nose alone, please…
What are you trying to do?
He’s gonna stand over there
Bigashi nunga!
But this is Cheetah
Buirote
Chita!
 
[FZ, on the left] It’s one of the most exciting things that’s ever happened to me. You know, every time I think about how lucky I am to be in the rock & roll industry, it’s SO exciting. You know, when I first got into the rock & roll business I could barely even play the changes to this song on my… on my guitar. But now I’m very proficient at it, I can play the guitar, I can strum it rhythmically, I can sing along with my guitar as I strum. I can strum, sing, dance, I can make merry fun all over the stage. And you know, it’s so wonderful to… it’s wonderful to feel that I’m doing something for the kids, because I know that the kids and their music are where it’s at. The youth of America today is so wonderful, and I’m proud to be a part of this gigantic mass deception. I hope she sees me twirling, yes, I hope she sees me dancing and twirling, I will say: “Hello, dolly!” Is the song over?
 
[FZ, on the right] Boy, this is really exciting, making a rock & roll record. I can’t even wait until our record comes out and the teenagers start to buy it. We’ll all be rich and famous! When my royalty check comes I think I’m going to buy a Mustang. No, I think I’ll… I think I’ll get a Corvette. No, I think I’ll get a Harley-Davidson. No, I don’t think I’ll buy any of those cars. I think what I will do is I will buy a boat. No, that wouldn’t be good either. I think uh… I’ll go into real estate. I think I would like to… I think I would like to buy La Cienega Boulevard. No, that wouldn’t do any good. Gee, I wonder if they can see me up here, twirling my tambourine and dancing. Maybe after the show one of the girls who sees me up here, singing and twirling my tambourine and dancing, will like me. And she will come over to me and I will walk… I will walk up to her and I will smile at her and I will impress her and I will say: “Hello, baby, what’s a girl like you doin’ in a place like this? I’m from a rock & roll band, I think we should…” Is the song over?
 
[Center mumbling] Ay ay!
Mingia!
There she is!
Ay!
Buirote
When do we get paid for this?
Ay ay!
Papa huevos
Huevos?
Rock, bop, rock & roll
Rock, bop
One more time!
Un
Stop sloppy rock & roll!
Bop bop bop!
YEAH! WHEEE!

11. Hot poop


[Gary Kellgren] He is working the controls because all producers love to turn knobs. They think it is the way they can create.
I wonder what everyone else is whispering about.
 

[Backwards]
Better look around before you say you don’t care
Shut your fuckin’ mouth about the length of my hair
How would you survive if you were alive, shitty little person?

12. Nasal retentive Calliope music


[Notes by FZ] (An instrumental overture to a series of songs about people with strange personal habits… many of which happen to be my dearest friends)
 
[Instrumental]
 
[Eric Clapton] Beautiful! God! It’s God! I see God!
 
[Instrumental]

13. Let’s make the water turn black


Now believe me when I tell you that my song is really true
I want everyone to listen and believe
It’s about some little people from a long time ago
And all the things the neighbors didn’t know
 
Early in the morning daddy Dinky went to work
Selling lamps & chairs to San Ber’dino squares
And I still remember mama with her apron & her pad
Feeding all the boys at Ed’s Cafe
 
Whizzing & pasting & pooting through the day
(Ronnie helping Kenny helping burn his poots away)

And all the while on a shelf in the shed
Kenny’s little creatures on display
 
Ronnie saves his numies on a window in his room
(A marvel to be seen: dysentery green)
While Kenny and his buddies had a game out in the back
Let’s make the water turn black
 
We see them after school in a world of their own
(To some it might seem creepy what they do)
The neighbors on the right sat & watched them every night
(I bet you’d do the same if they was you)
 
Whizzing & pasting & pooting through the day
(Ronnie helping Kenny helping burn his poots away)
And all the while on a shelf in the shed
Kenny’s little creatures on display
 
Ronnie’s in the Army now & Kenny’s taking pills
Oh, how they yearn to see a bomber burn
Color flashing, thunder crashing, dynamite machine
Wait till the fire turns green
Wait till the fire turns green
Wait till the fire turns green
 
[Dick Kunc] This would be a little bit of vocal teen-age heaven, right here on Earth!
[Ronnie Williams, backwards] Dodn-do-do-dodn-dodn-dodn-dada

14. The idiot bastard son


The idiot bastard son:
The father’s a Nazi in Congress today
The mother’s a hooker somewhere in L.A.
 
The idiot bastard son:
Abandoned to perish in back of a car

Kenny will stash him away in a jar
The idiot boy!
 
[Jim Sherwood] I never won it because I was too small to start with
[?] How, look out!
[Jim Sherwood] I used to drink some bad stuff, wine, all kinds of wine! I would mix seven different varieties.
[Bunk Gardner] Had the hots for […]
[Jimmy Carl Black] Wah wah wah
[Bunk Gardner?] Over by the […]
[Jim Sherwood] Thunderbird wine. I don’t know but I chugged a fifth of White Port once and passed out one day (heh heh) and I drank a quart of beer just before that, and we were out riding around in the desert.
[Bunk Gardner] Anyway, Thomas’s wine mix is very strange
 
[Backwards]
At the college…
They sell it
Which one?
Wait! You […] that girl
No kiddin’?
Whoa, uh!
You showed ‘em
Drag the line!
 

Try and imagine the window all covered in green
All the time he would spend
At the church he’d attend
Warming his pew
 
Kenny will feed him & Ronnie will watch
The child will thrive & grow
And enter the world
Of liars & cheaters & people like you
Who smile & think you know
What this is about
 
You think you know everything, maybe so
The song we sing, do you know?
We’re listening
The idiot boy!
 
Try and imagine the window all covered in green
All the time he would spend
All the colors he’d blend
Where are they now?
 
[Gary Kellgren] Right now I have two hit records on the charts, but it has not made me any money. It has only brought me fame and glory, and a lot of work. Which I do really not care to tell.

15. Lonely little girl


You’re a lonely little girl
But your Mommy & your Daddy don’t care
You’re a lonely little girl
 
The things they say just hurt your heart
It’s too late now for them to start
To understand the way you feel
The world for them is too unreal
So you’re lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely little girl
 

ALL YOUR CHILDREN ARE POOR UNFORTUNATE VICTIMS OF SYSTEMS BEYOND THEIR CONTROL

 

Where did Annie go when she went to town?

Who are all those creeps that she brings around?

 

A PLAGUE UPON YOUR IGNORANCE & THE GRAY DESPAIR OF YOUR UGLY LIFE

ALL YOUR CHILDREN ARE POOR UNFORTUNATE VICTIMS OF LIES

 

Where did Annie go when she went…?


16. Take your clothes off when you dance


There will come a time when everybody who is lonely will be free to sing & dance & love
There will come a time when every evil that we know will be an evil that we can rise above
Who cares if hair is long or short or sprayed or partly grayed? We know that hair ain’t where it’s at
There will come a time when you won’t even be ashamed if you are fat
WAH WAH WAH WAH
 
La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la
A-a-ah!
 
Diddle-diddle-dee
Diddle-diddle-dee
Diddle-diddle-dee
Diddle-diddle-dee
Diddle-diddle-dee
Diddle-diddle-dee
Diddle-diddle-dee
Diddle-diddle-dee
 
WAH WAH WAH WAH
 
There will come a time when everybody who is lonely will be free to sing & dance & love
Dance and love
There will come a time when every evil that we know will be an evil that we can rise above
Rise above
Who cares if you’re so poor you can’t afford to buy a pair of mod a go-go stretch-elastic pants?
There will come a time when you can even take your clothes off when you dance

17. What’s the ugliest part of your body? (Reprise)


What’s the ugliest part of your body?
Darling, when I…
What’s the ugliest part of your body?
Darling, when I look in your eyes…
Some say your nose
Some say your toes
My dearest, my darling, my… darling, darling
But I think it’s your mind
My darling
I think it’s your mind
The ugliest part of you, darling
I think it’s your mind
Your mind is ugly
I think it’s your mind
Your mind
I think it’s your mind
I think it’s your mind
I think your mind is the ugliest part of your body
Your body, your body, your body, your body
I think your mind is the ugliest part of your body
Your mind it’s ugly
I think your mind is the ugliest part of your body

Would you please leave my nose alone!
Your body, your body
Let go of my nose, my nose, thank you!
Your body, your body

18. Mother people


Do it again! Do it again!
 
We are the other people
We are the other people
We are the other people
You’re the other people too
Found a way to get to you
 
Do you think that I’m crazy? Out of my mind?
Do you think that I creep in the night and sleep in a phone booth?
 
Lemme take a minute & tell you my plan
Lemme take a minute & tell who I am
If it doesn’t show, think you better know I’m another person
 
Do you think that my pants are too tight?
Do you think that I’m creepy?
 
Lemme take a minute & tell you my plan
Lemme take a minute & tell who I am
If it doesn’t show, think you better know I’m another person


(The verse that really goes here has been censored out & recorded backwards in a special section at the end of side one… )
 
We are the other people
We are the other people
We are the other people
You’re the other people too
Found a way to get to you
 
We are the other people
We are the other people
We are the other people
You’re the other people too
Found a way to get to you
 
Do you think that I love you, stupid & blind?
Do you think that I dream through the night of holding you near me?
 
[Instrumental]
 
Lemme take a minute & tell you my plan
Lemme take a minute & tell who I am
If it doesn’t show, think you better know I’m another person

19. The chrome plated megaphone of destiny


[LP notes by FZ] Instructions for the use of this material…
READ CAREFULLY
1) If you have already worked your way through “In the Penal Colony” by Franz Kafka, skip instructions 2, 3, 4.
2) Everybody else: go dig up a book of short stories & read “In the Penal Colony”.
3) DO NOT LISTEN TO THIS PIECE UNTIL YOU HAVE READ THE STORY.
4) After you have read the story, put the book away & turn on the record player… it is now safe to listen (DO NOT READ & LISTEN AT THE SAME TIME).
5) As you listen, think of the concentration camps in California constructed during World War II to house potentially dangerous oriental citizens… the same camps which many say are now being readied for use as part of the FINAL SOLUTION to the NON-CONFORMIST (hippy?) PROBLEM today. You might allow yourself (regardless of the length of your hair or how you feel about greedy wars and paid assassins) to imagine YOU ARE A GUEST AT CAMP REAGAN. You might imagine you have been invited to try out a wonderful new RECREATIONAL DEVICE (designed by Human Factors Engineering Lab as a method of relieving tension and pent-up hostilities among the members of the CAMP STAFF… a thankless job which gives little or no ego gratification… even for the chief warden).
6) At the end of the piece, the name of YOUR CRIME will be carved on your back.
 
[Instrumental]
 
A-ha-hah!
Bwah-ha-ha!
Ha ha ha ha!
Nyah-ha-ha!
Ha ha ha… ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Nyah-ha-ha-ha!
Oh, arbitrary!
Nyah-ha-ha-ha!
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
AH HA HA HA HA!
AH HA HA HA!
Arbitrary!
HA HA
Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Bwah ha ha
Mmph ha ha ha!
Ha ha ha!
Ha ha ha!
AH HA HA HA HA!
AH HA HA HA!
Arbitrary!
HA HA
Ha ha ha ha ha ha!



Ad by Cal Schenkel

English lyrics from site Information Is Not Knowledge.