| Album notes by Gail Zappa
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| The Taphonomy:
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| In our efforts here at UMRK to provide you with the finest optional entertainment (in the universe) we deploy the inimitably-skilled audio archiveologist, Joe Travers, to venture forth (where few are chosen but many have called) into the FZ sequin mines, dismote the ages and identify suitable nuggets for your personal aural excitation.
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| A nugget, as you may have noted, is (including but not limited to): a significant artifact by virtue of being an unreleased composition, a special performance or arrangement, a thrilling example from a less-documented line-up, a rare recording from somewhere other than a studio or stage and/or otherwise previously unreleased recording, highly nutritional trims and/or outs, different edits or mixes, a special project, a rehearsal, home recording, an excerpt from an interview or otherwise spoken gem, perhaps a “build reel” or other “as is” (unadulterated by FZ) item, exquisite in quality, uniqueness or hotness anywhereanytimeanyplace (aka AAA - see also AAAFNRAA: anything anytime anywhere for no reason at all), from the breadth / depth of FZ’s career in lifeasweknowit (lawki).
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| Praise the l.o.r.d. (also a defined term: living on reproduceable data)!
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| Any actual appearance of a real plan for why and what and when we decide on launching these items in your direction exists mostly in retrospect. The way it really works? We here at UMRK feel it is our duty…
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| And so it is that we find ourselves (and Joe), in an other part of the pudding. Joe is wide awake now and he’s a happy guy here on the day shift at the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen ▶. Why? Well, it’s like this. He knows a lot about the past and in accordance with lawki, he knows about the present, it being the actual address of UMRK, but now, he knows a little about the future. He can see yet another piquant muffin of desire on the conveyor belt ▶ of your dreams. Here it is, coming at you. The Second Installment in the “Joe’s Corsage”, the thrilling, the clean, the passion that is “Joe’s Domage”.
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| We take you now to Hollywood. Laurel Canyon to Sunset Boulevard, 1972. Turn right on La Brea and wend with us your way to the wretched, the hideous, andyetsooutwardlynondescriptastobehiddeninplainsite: the desperate little building that disparagingly afforded FZ a “rehearsal” room. With rectilinear dimensions, linoleum flooring and the thinnest possible fake wood paneling, patinated overall with the what of Whatever in varietal brown. Add the slightest of hurts on your wallet. Mmmm. Yum.
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| And then, there is the room tone. The ambient doom of air molecules bumping into unfun unpretty stuff. But hey! This is rock & roll. A world where the battle for an approximation of a reasonable acoustic environment is fought every night on stages utterly hostile to music. Just a few more ingredients and we’re there. Add a wheelchair (owie zowie!) for the composer in residence.
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| Yes, let’s have an entire career on hold and years of work thrown over the edge of a stage and 15 feet down into a concrete orchestra pit. Another kind of acoustical nightmare. Spicy.
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| OK. Well, at least there’s sort of a choice here ▶. A bunch of music and some guys who can sight-read. And some of them are even prepared to commit to this project. You know it’s so damn hard to wrest a studio cat from the clutches of the fear that Your Girl might never call again - especially when they find out you’re going on the road!
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| Now blend in some known quantities. Some pretty good musicians ▶ and their chops on various musical instruments: Ken Shroyer (Trombone), Malcolm McNab and Sal Marquez (Trumpets), Tony “Batman” Ortega (Baritone Sax) Ian Underwood (Keyboard), Tony Duran (Slide Guitar) Alex Dmochowski (Bass), Aynsley Dunbar (Drums), per instance.
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| But hark, what bittersweet Zetta ▶ is this? Hurts, hz and khz. In the hole of hell. Just your everyday job down at the rehearsal plant. And what grows here? Just this cheesy mononuclear cassette as labeled by FZ for his personal reference. Now you can hear it too. Just like he did and wonder, like he did not, how he was going to get from here to “The Grand Wazoo” and “Waka/Jawaka”.
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| [FZ] Just so I can hear the song again
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| One, two, one, two, three
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| I’ll give you two bars
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| One, two, one, two, three
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| One, two, one, two, three
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| Again
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| One, two, one, two, three
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| One, two, one, two, three
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| That’s… We’re missing […]
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| [?] The accent
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| [FZ] OK
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| [?] […]
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| [Ken Shroyer?] Will we play this, Frank? And me try that part?
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| [FZ] No, actually, I think the part you’ve got is probably […]. The other one was pretty much engineered for the tuba.
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| Now, let’s go… let’s go over this “New brown clouds” the way we were starting off with it. You missed this part. The uh… There’s… There’s seven, you count seven quarter notes before you come in, Kenny. And then you read that as if it was double-time.
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| [?] Yeah
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| [FZ] Duh-duh duh-duh-duh duh-duh duh duh duh
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| Duh-duh duh-duh-duh duh-duh duh duh duh
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| Duh-duh duh-duh-duh duh-duh duh duh duh
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| Duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh
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| [?] Oh
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| [FZ] All right, let me hear it
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| Let me hear the brass at that double-time clip
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| One… I will count the seven beats before you come in
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| One, two, three, four, one, two, three
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| [FZ] That 5/16 thing is like a little fanfare
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| Duh-duh duh-duh-duh
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| Duh-duh duh-duh-duh
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| Duh-duh duh-duh DUH
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| [?] Yeah, right
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| [FZ] You know those little fanfares. […]
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| [Aynsley Dunbar] Am I supposed to come in on the first… on the fourth beat exactly? One, two, three.
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| [?] […]
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| [Aynsley Dunbar] […] just before it
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| One, two, three
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| Duh duh duh-duh-duh duh
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| [FZ] When it’s… When it’s perfect, it’ll come into the right place
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| [Aynsley Dunbar] Yeah, but it’s […] exactly four
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| [FZ] It should be: “One, two, three, four, one, two, three, duh-duh duh-duh-duh”
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| [Aynsley Dunbar] A sixteenth note before […]
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| [FZ] Yeah. It comes in right on the downbeat of the four beat of bar two.
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| [Aynsley Dunbar] […]
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| [FZ] One, two, three, four, one, two, three
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| Duh-duh duh-duh-duh duh-duh duh duh duh
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| Duh-duh duh-duh-duh duh-duh duh duh duh
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| Duh-duh duh-duh-duh duh-duh duh duh duh
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| Duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh
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| OK, here it is in full regalia
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| [?] Where?
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| [FZ] From the beginning. “Brown clouds”
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| [FZ] Kenny, remember that part on the “Frog song”?
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| [FZ] OK, now, the trumpets there are playing […] This, the… the […] and trumpets in concert pitch, you can transpose it. It’s just uh… six notes that you gotta bend.
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| [?] […] this is written in concert pitch?
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| [FZ] Yeah
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| [?] Second line is in bass clef?
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| [FZ] Yeah, right. So just take… take those two upper parts.
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| And see if he’s brought along a little bag for you
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| [?] You want this all played like this combination, right? With the flügel horn and trumpet.
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| And see if he’s brought along a little bag for you
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| [FZ] How about… Do you have a flügel with you?
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| [?] I don’t have it with me, but I’ve got it
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| And see if he’s brought along a little bag for you
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| [FZ] Oh, I’d like to be able to switch it off. Do you own a cornet?
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| [?] Yeah […]
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| And see if he’s brought along a little bag for you
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| [FZ] Yeah, cornet and flügel sounds good, I think. Better than trumpet […] And uh… there’s some other things that are flügel horn against a D trumpet for the extra bite.
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| [?] Yeah
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| [FZ] OK? From the beginning. That vamp that you have there repeats I think about, twelve times? Twelve times, and then, in concert, there’s two chords that are hit, C# minor and F# minor, and there you go with a rhythm like this…
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| [FZ] So, now […]
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| [FZ] Let’s hear that. One, two, three, four.
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| [FZ] Nope. That only happens twice. OK? Let’s hear the uh… horn section on that vamp figure. One, two, three, four.
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| [FZ] Kenny…
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| [FZ] One, two, three, four
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| [FZ] Kenny, listen. Pah, pa-ah, pah, da-ah-da. One, two, three, four.
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Then he reach in the front
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And dump a mile of sand
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Across the rug, along the hall
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Up to the umbrella stand
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That you’ve been watchin’ all the time
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Watchin’ all the time
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And if a forest grows up
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From the dirt on the floor
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That the frog with the satchel
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Had just dumped beside the door
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You’re just starting to get worried
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You ain’t going out no more
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And it’s confusin’ to your mind
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| [FZ] Right. Now…
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| [FZ] OK? Right there, at that spot. “Confusin’ to your mind”. One, two, three, four.
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Confusin’ to your mind
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Just consider this…
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| [FZ] OK. Rah-ta-dah-ta-dah. OK? Now, the next thing that happens, there, after that spot, you guys break and it goes into this vamp, which sounds like this…
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| [FZ] OK, the notes for that in concert…
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| [?] Phew!
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| [FZ] Are: Bb, C, D, F#, G#, A, Bb. C, E, C#, D, Eb and then down to a D. And the rhythm goes like this…
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| [FZ] Be-bop, be-bop, bop-be-bop. Now, rath— rather than take the time to actually work it out what the rhythm is for that thing, just listen to it and pick the tempo up. From the G.
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You can be scared when it gets too real
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You can be scared when it gets too real
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But you should be diggin’ it while it’s happening
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| [FZ] Now, that’s… that’s following that line of the… of the speech, which is: “But you should be diggin’ it while it’s happening”, dun-tun, dun-tun, ta-da-dah-dun-tun, ta-da-dah
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| [Instrumental]
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| [FZ] OK. Can you sketch out the figure that follows that? Here, listen. The line that follows that is very even, starts on E, and goes…
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| [FZ] OK? That’s E, F, E, E, F, E, Eb, F#, G, F#, F, and then the trumpets split to concert E on top, Bb underneath, and Kenny gets a… a B, below middle C.
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| [?] […] E and…
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| [FZ] E and a Bb concert. And you’re hitting a concert B.
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| [?] Frank, play the line once more
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| [FZ] OK
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| [?] I’m trying to get the rhythm of that
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| [FZ] All right
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| [FZ] One, two… I’ll show you where it comes in. One, two, three, four.
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| [FZ] OK. You wanna try it from the G chord? One, two, three, four.
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| [Instrumental]
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| [FZ] That’s the sequence of events in here. After it does that… it holds that to a crescendo, and then it falls off and goes back to the G… G passage again.
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| [FZ] Dah dah
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| [?] OK
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| [FZ] Smear it down… nyyaaoow… I’ll show you where that comes in, it goes…
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| [FZ] Two, three, four. Two, three, four.
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| [FZ] No
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| Pah-dah-tah-dah-tah-dah-daah daah
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| [FZ] OK? From the G chord the first time.
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You can be scared when it gets too real
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You can be scared when it gets too real
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But you should be diggin’ it while it’s happening
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Two, three, four
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‘Cause it just might be a one-shot deal
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| [FZ] Make sure it’s a solid resolution on that G chord […] Eeeeeeeoow, resolves… OK? Do you play solos?
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| [?] Me?
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| [FZ] Yeah
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| [?] Yeah
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| [FZ] Why don’t you improvise a solo on concert changes of G, D and E minor? […]
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| [?] G
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| [FZ] G
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| [?] D
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| [FZ] D
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| [?] E minor
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| [FZ] E minor
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| [?] OK
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| [FZ] OK
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| [?] G major
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| [FZ] G major, D major, E minor. OK. This is the G chord the first time. One, two, three, four.
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You can be scared when it gets too real
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You can be scared when it gets…
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| [FZ] No, that doesn’t happen until after it goes tah-dah, tah-dah-dah-dah… eeeeeeeh! […]
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| [?] OK
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| [FZ] OK?
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| [FZ] One, two, three, four
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You can be scared when it gets too real
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You can be scared when it gets too real
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But you should be diggin’ it while it’s happening
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‘Cause it just might be a one-shot deal
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You can be scared when it gets too real
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But you should be diggin’ it while it’s happening
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You gotta be diggin’ it while it’s happening
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You gotta be diggin’ it while it’s happening
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You gotta be diggin’ it while it’s happening
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You gotta be diggin’ it while it’s happening
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You can be lost
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And you can wanna be found
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But keep an eye on that frog
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Whenever he jump around
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Just keep a-watchin’ him
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You oughta be watchin’ him
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Just keep a-watchin’ him
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You wanna be askin’ him
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And see if he’s brought along a little bag for you
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| [FZ] OK
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| [FZ] This is, excuse me, the ending line. Concert B.
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| That’s all […] triplets
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| [?] Mellow
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| [?] Mellow… mellow, mellow muelo ▶
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| [FZ] Ha ha ha
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| [?] Mellow
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| [FZ] Muelo
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| [?] Mellow
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| [?] Muelo
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| [FZ] Ate some jello
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| [?] Muelo
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| [FZ] Swell time
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But keep an eye on that frog
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Whenever he jump around
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Just keep a-watchin’ him
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You oughta be watchin’ him
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Just keep a-watchin’ him
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You wanna be askin’ him
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And see if he’s brought along a little bag for you
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| [FZ] OK? Play to that last “And see if he’s brought along a little bag for you”
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| [FZ] Just the end […]. One, two, three, four.
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| [FZ] […] Same, same line. One, two, three, four.
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| [FZ] Now let’s take it from the “pompoms”, OK? One, two, three, four.
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Bom bom, you gotta be diggin’ it while it’s happening
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You gotta be diggin’ it while it’s happening
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You gotta be diggin’ it while it’s happening
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You gotta be diggin’ it while it’s happening
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You can be lost
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And you can wanna be found
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But keep an eye on that frog
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Whenever he jump around
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Just keep a-watchin’ him
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You oughta be watchin’ him
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Just keep a-watchin’ him
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You wanna be askin’ him
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And see if he’s brought along a little bag for you
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| [FZ] […]
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| [FZ] […] One, two, one, two, three, four
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| [FZ] […] Pah pah-pah […]
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| [FZ] Can I hear the horns on that thing going up? OK. Here we go. One, two, one, two, three, four.
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| [FZ] OK, this part is […]. That’s right, it’s a minor… C# minor. Now it goes, C# minor to a B diminished… B diminished, Bb. So, the […] at that point… you’re going uh… that’s your F… back down to a C.
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| [?] That’s the fourth bar
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| [FZ] That’s… That’s the end of it, it goes… just… just the […] right there… that’s the C
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| [FZ] Malcolm’s part is…
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| [FZ] OK?
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| [Malcolm McNab?] […]
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| [FZ] Huh?
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| [Malcolm McNab?] […]
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| [FZ] That’s the last […]
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| [FZ] Sal’s part is…
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| [FZ] And uh… Kenny is going…
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| [FZ] Can I hear just that one thing right there? One, two, one, two, three, four.
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| [FZ] Just… Just that last thing, doh-bep-bop-bom. One, two, three, four.
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| [FZ] No, here’s the rhythm…
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| [FZ] OK. Just the horns, just the horns. One, two, three, four.
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| [FZ] Once again. One, two, three, four.
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| [FZ] OK. And the next figure down is…
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| [FZ] It’s the same… move your nose down a whole step and the rhythm exchanges. The person goes…
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| [FZ] Got it? Yeah
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| [?] […]
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| [FZ] Yeah. It’s just that one thing. It goes…
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| [?] Oh, you got a whole… a whole tone
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| [FZ] Yeah. A whole tone down.
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| [FZ] No, you only use the second half of the figure when you go down. So the whole rhythm of that section is…
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| [FZ] And then there’s a drum fill and it goes back to this…
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| [FZ] Yeah. OK? Now, from the beginning of that thing is…
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| [FZ] There was another […] vamp figure […]
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| [Instrumental]
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| [FZ] It goes… It goes into a jamming area in A at that point […]
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If something gets in your way
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Just think it over…
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| [FZ] Ha ha ha! The Andrew Sisters!
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| [?] Ha ha ha ha!
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| [FZ] One, two, three
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If something gets in your way
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Just think it over…
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If something gets in your way
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Just think it over…
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If something gets in your way
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Just think it over…
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If something gets in your way
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Just think it over…
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And it will fall down
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It will…
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| [FZ] […]
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And it will fall down
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It will fall down
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It will fall
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Take it from me!
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Everything that gets in your way ain’t real
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Everything that gets in your way ain’t real
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Everything that gets in your way ain’t real
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Everything that gets in your way ain’t real
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It ain’t real, so what’s the deal?
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If something gets in your way
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Just think it over…
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If something gets in your way
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Just think it over…
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If something gets in your way
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Just think it over…
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If something gets in your way
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Just think it over…
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And it will fall down
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It will fall down
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It will fall
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Just wait an’ see!
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And it’ll fall down
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It’ll fall down
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It’ll fall
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Take it from me!
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Everything that gets in your way ain’t real
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Everything that gets in your way ain’t real
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Everything that gets in your way ain’t real
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It ain’t real!
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It ain’t real, so what’s the deal?
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It ain’t real, so what’s the deal?
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| [Instrumental]
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| [FZ] Let me try something out. Instead of uh… the guitar, organ, and bass uh… comping, why don’t you drop out there and […] rhythm guitar, bass, and drums?
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| [?] Where?
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| [FZ] On the solo. One, two, three.
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| [Instrumental]
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If something gets in your way
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Just think it over…
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If something gets in your way
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Just think it over…
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If something gets in your way
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Just think it over…
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| [FZ] OK. There’s… There’s actually another whole melodic section that goes in there that I’m not gonna bother to […] this evening. Play it for you, show you how it goes, and the next time we get together we’ll sketch it out. It goes…
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| [FZ] Anyway, that’s quite a bit of uh… drawing. And if I get a chance to write those parts out before the next time we get together, which should be Sunday, Sunday evening. What time is your […] on Sunday?
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| [?] Two to six
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| [FZ] Two to six? Can you make it uh… seven o’clock on Sunday?
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| [?] Sure
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| [FZ] Will you be back by that time?
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| [Aynsley Dunbar] I don’t know exactly what time I get in
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| [FZ] Unnh
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| [?] I can’t make it till nine-thirty at… nine-thirty
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| [FZ] Nine-thirty?
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| [Aynsley Dunbar] Why don’t you make it about nine then, nine-thirty?
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| [FZ] OK
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| [Aynsley Dunbar] That way then, I’ll definitely be back and […] I’ll be restored
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| [FZ] All right. Nine-thirty, then, on Sunday.
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| [?] […]
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| [FZ] OK
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| […]
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| [FZ] Come back […]
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| [FZ] […] I’ll tell you what the story is on the recording of this material. I don’t want to take it into the studio until you can play all that stuff from memory and it feels natural to do the stuff. That’s the reason I’m going about it this way rather than just lay charts in front of everybody.
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.jpg "(Front)")
.jpg "(CD inside)")
Songs list
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