| QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
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| What is it?
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| As far as I’m concerned, “200 MOTELS” is a SURREALISTIC DOCUMENTARY. The film is at once a reportage of real events and an extrapolation of them. Other elements include “conceptual by-products” of the extrapolated “real event”. In some ways the contents of the film are autobiographical.
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| How did you ever get to make a movie in the first place?
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| I have been interested in the potential of various visual mediums since 1958 when I first started shooting 8mm films. As a composer, I feel that visual elements, organized using structural techniques commonly associated with musical architecture, provide exciting possibilities for conceptual exploration.
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| Yeah, but how’d you get anybody to pay for this thing?
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| After having several appointments with people who normally finance films, and having them run screaming into the distance after a partial explanation of the project, by mere chance we took it to United Artists. Mr. Picker looked over our folio (10 pages of “treatment”, 2 boxes of tape, and some clippings in case he never heard of our group) and said: “You have a deal… get me a budget” (Perhaps it was a little more elaborate and erudite than that). We left the office, got a budget and a bunch of lawyers and work began in earnest. (Pre-production actually began in 1968. I had been working on and off since that time to prepare the choral and orchestral music, composing about 60% of it in motel rooms after concerts on the road with THE MOTHERS).
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| Well… so tell me… what is it?
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| “200 MOTELS” is a SURREALISTIC DOCUMENTARY, but it might also be helpful to think of the overall “shape” of the film in the same way you might think of the “shape” of a piece of orchestra music, with leitmotifs, harmonic transpositions, slightly altered repetitions, cadences, atonal areas, counterpoint, polyrhythmic textures, onomatopoeic imitations, etc.
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| Yeah? Well, I hate orchestra music… I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about, and I only like rock & roll. Is this a rock & roll movie or what?
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| This is a “Rock & Roll Movie” and it is also an “Or What”. Granting the fact the THE MOTHERS tend to operate somewhere on the outermost fringes of your real-life Rock & Roll Consciousness, the film is an extension and a projection of the group’s specialized view of and participation in this intriguing area of contemporary human experience. In other words, “200 MOTELS” deals with things like:
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| - Groupies
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| - Life On The Road
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| - Relationship To Audience
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| - Group Personality-Chemistry
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| - Macrobiotic Food & Tie-Dye Shirts
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| - Etc.
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| … but deals with these things in ways you might not expect (or approve of), simply because THE MOTHERS is not your average sort of Pop Group, and if, for instance, we have experiences with Groupies on the road, these experiences will not be very ordinary. Our Relationship To Audience is not ordinary. Our Group Personality-Chemistry is not ordinary… therefore an ordinary documentary based on our exploits wouldn’t be ordinary, and a SURREALISTIC DOCUMENTARY extended from these circumstances might seem to be just a little peculiar at first.
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| Well… if you can’t tell me what it is, tell me what happens in it… something… anything… help me… arrrrrrrrrghhhh!
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| First of all, there is no chronological continuity stressed. This is done to convey the sort of time-space reference alteration a group can experience on tour. On the road, time is determined by when the road manager wakes you up, when the plane or bus leaves, when you set up equipment at the hall and check your sound system, when you play your concert, and what you do for recreation after the show. Space is indeterminate. Motels resemble each other. The same for planes and buses. Concert halls may vary a bit, but over a period of years they also blend together. Audiences vary/blend in a similar way.
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| When we go on tour, especially long tours, life in the group begins to resemble life in the army. Each concert is a campaign. On such tours it is possible to not know where you are (“Is this really Vienna?”), sitting in your room, dealing socially most of the time with other group members, you might as well be in Los Angeles. We seem to carry a “mystery bubble” of L.A. consciousness along on the road. Inside of this “bubble”, strange things happen. The situations contained in “200 MOTELS” were organically grown inside 4 years worth of these “bubbles”. These concepts extracted from within the various time-warps, with as much care as our $600.000 budget would permit, form the basis of the filmic event.
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| Who’s in it besides the Mothers?
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| Theodore Bikel plays RANCE MUHAMMITZ, Ringo Starr plays LARRY THE DWARF, Keith Moon plays THE HOT NUN, Jimmy Carl Black (The Indian Of The Group) plays LONESOME COWBOY BURT, Martin Lickert plays JEFF, Janet Ferguson & Miss Lucy Offerall (GTOs) play THE GROUPIES, Don Preston & Motorhead Sherwood play slightly modified versions of THEMSELVES, Dick Barber (our Road Manager) plays THE INDUSTRIAL VACUUM CLEANER, and Miss Pamela Miller (GTOs) plays THE ROCK & ROLL INTERVIEWER. Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, the group’s two lead vocalists, are featured also playing modified versions of THEMSELVES.
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| Are you in it?
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| A little bit.
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| What’s Ringo Starr doing in a Mothers movie?
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| I asked him to play the role of Larry The Dwarf. He accepted because he said he was getting “… a bit browned-off” with his good-guy image.
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| I heard this movie was shot on video tape.
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| The video-tape-to-film process used in “200 MOTELS” could easily start a new production trend. “200 MOTELS” is the first full-length feature film to use this system, and some of the new optical effects made possible by this electronic technique are bound to attract the curiosity of adventurous film makers. One of the best things about these visuals is that most can be done while shooting (not in a lab where controls are uncertain and costly) and instant decisions can be made about colors, textures, shapes, superimpositions, electronically with amazing precision. Other effects are possible (such as the combination of several scenes, each of which is already a montage) during the video tape editing stage. “200 MOTELS” was shot in 7 days, with video editing for 11 days, followed by refinements in the 35mm stage (at the usual film-handling work rate) of 3 months, sandwiched in between several concert tours. I personally supervised all stages of editing.
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| What do you expect to accomplish with this weird movie?
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| For the audience that already knows and appreciates THE MOTHERS, “200 MOTELS” will provide a logical extension of our concerts and recordings. For the audience that doesn’t know, doesn’t care, but still takes a chance every once in a while on a new idea, “200 MOTELS” will provide a surprising introduction to the group and its work. For those that can’t stand THE MOTHERS and have always felt we were nothing more than a bunch of tone-deaf perverts ▶, “200 MOTELS” will probably confirm their worst suspicions.
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| Album notes by Patrick Pending - June 1977
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| Once Upon A Time there was a man named Frank Vincent Zappa. The man begat a film. The film begat an album. And the begatting of that film and that album is precisely what this is all about. Most of what follows is Absolutely True. Some of what follows is Fuzzy Recollection. A tiny bit, here and there, is a Wild Guess.
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| The first time anyone can remember any music from what would become the “200 Motels” film being publicly performed was on Friday, May 15, 1970 at a concert at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion. This was a unique event which featured a collection of the original Mothers of Invention performing with Zubin Mehta conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In the audience were Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman, sitting in seats compliments of Howard’s cousin, Herb Cohen, Frank’s manager and partner. Backstage after the concert, knowing the Turtles had broken up two weeks earlier, Frank invited Howard and Mark to be a part of the new Mothers line-up, to leave for a European tour in ten days, and, oh yes, “Shortly after that we’ll be making a movie”.
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| In the Bizarre Productions offices on Wilshire Boulevard, right next to and several floors above a clothing store called Zachary All, the notion of making some sort of film had circulated for quite some time. Ideas started, stopped and changed lanes. At one point, the leading candidate seemed to be a science fiction script involving Captain Beefheart.
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| Sometime in 1970, Herb and Frank approached an executive named David Picker at United Artists Pictures (now a subsidiary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.) with a ten page synopsis of what “200 Motels” would be, a couple boxes of tape and some press clippings. By the conclusion of the meeting a deal had been struck. Bizarre Productions had sold United Artists the motion picture and soundtrack album. One of the things which was agreed was that Bizarre couldn’t deliver a film that would be rated X, at that time the MPAA rating that allowed no one under 17, no matter who they were with, admittance into the theatre. Eventually, a budget of approximately $600,000 was agreed upon for both film and album. Frank would later say the total spent ended up being $679,000.
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| The task of handling the details of how the production would proceed was roughly divided into two parts (as most of the tasks were at the time). Herb would, primarily, take care of the paperwork which was needed to conduct daily business. Frank would, primarily, take care of the paperwork which was needed to hold the notes, measures and lyrics. Herb hired Jerry Goode of Murakami-Wolf to handle production matters and Tony Palmer was hired to be the director. Frank, meanwhile, expanded and modified the concepts of his original film treatment, working on plots and characters.
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| During this time, Frank was also recording and assembling the “Chunga’s Revenge” album, on which compositions embodying the life on the road theme, candidates for inclusion in the film, first appeared. Frank’s work habits, chronicled many times over elsewhere, were prodigious. One of these habits was to use what he had on hand in whatever he was doing at the time. And in the “Chunga’s Revenge” notes, Frank advised us that “all of the vocals on this album are a preview of the story from ‘200 Motels’”.
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| Simultaneously, there was the actual life on the road with concert dates which began in June of 1970, and continued throughout the year. By the end of August, the Mothers, now comprising Frank, Howard, Mark, Ian Underwood, George Duke, Jeff Simmons and Aynsley Dunbar, were performing some of Frank’s recent “200 Motels”-intended compositions - “Lonesome cowboy Burt”, “Bwana Dik”, “Would you like a snack?”, “The mud shark groupie routine”, “What will this morning bring me this evening” and “Penis dimension” became a regular part of their set.
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| From the beginning Frank had wanted to use an orchestra in the film. He’d been writing orchestral music since he was 14. Partly for economic reasons and partly because the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra lived over there, it was decided to shoot at Pinewood Studios, which were about 20 miles west of London down the A40, in the village of Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire. The cost of going to them was far less than the cost of bringing them to him, but, even by shooting in England, the use of the RPO remained the single largest expense in the budget. Partly because of the very brief shooting schedule the budget would allow, but also because versatility and the ability for immediate playback was crucial, “200 Motels” was to be shot on videotape, edited on videotape, and then transferred to 35mm film stock. This had never been done before.
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| Around Thanksgiving 1970, Cal Schenkel, the Mothers’ graphics engineer, who designed most everything in “200 Motels”, traveled to England with Jerry to begin pre-production. Over the next few weeks Jerry, Tony, Calvin, Leo Austin, the film’s Art Director, and Frank met many times to sort out what seemed like thousands of details. Also by this time, almost all of the continuity problems with the plot had been resolved, which cleared the way for an actual shooting script to be written.
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| By Christmas 1970, Frank, Gail, Moon and Dweezil had settled into a rented house at 56 Ladbroke Grove, sort of over near Notting Hill Gate, in London W11. Lucy Offerall, Miss Lucy of the GTOs, came over with the understanding that she would babysit the kids for the month until the shooting began. Janet Ferguson, who had worked with Frank in his still unfinished movie “Uncle Meat”, and who, with Lucy, would portray The Groupies in the film, had also moved in by this time.
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| At Pinewood, set construction on Stage “A” began on Monday, January 4, 1971. One of the James Bond films, the musical “Fiddler On The Roof”, both also United Artists Pictures, and several British television shows were in production on other soundstages nearby. The Centerville Recreational Facility and the concentration camp set took up most of the far end of the stage. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, with the percussionists costumed as the guards, was situated there amid the guard towers, machine guns and barbed wire. Just outside the facility’s front gate, just down Main Street and over on the right, was built the Newt Ranch. Right across the street, the sets for the Groupies room, the liquor store, Redneck Eats, The Electric Circus Factory, The Rancid Boutique and most of the rest of Centerville was constructed. Dancers auditions were held on January 11 and 12, followed by five days of rehearsal and some costume fittings. Howard, Mark, Ian and Ruth Underwood, George Duke, Jeff and Breena Simmons, Jimmy Carl Black, Don Preston and Dick Barber all arrived in London on Friday, January 15. Everyone was booked into the Kensington Palace Hotel in DeVere Gardens.
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| Over the week of January 17 through 23, rehearsals, individual and variously collective, with the band, the percussion, the cast, the orchestra, the dancers and the chorus, were held. Theodore Bikel arrived from Israel. By Friday January 22, set construction had progressed enough so that the crew could rig the lights and install the stage sound equipment. Phyllis Bryn-Julson, the woman who sang soprano throughout the film, flew in from the U.S. on Sunday, January 24. The same day, the Mobile Rolling Stones recording truck arrived at Pinewood fully laden with all of the 16-track recording equipment which was used to record everything.
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| Concurrently with all of this going on, Frank conducted the first read-through of the shooting script, 101 scenes over 254 pages, with the cast at the Kensington Palace Hotel on, it is remembered, about Monday, January 18. He had completed it the night before. Frank believed, as he would later explain, that the easiest thing to do when you only have a week to make a movie is to be yourself. And much of his script included characterizations based upon the band being themselves and plot twists and turns based upon real events.
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| This first read-through was going rather well when it became very clear that Life was going to make a sudden U-turn-without-signaling to imitate Art. When the group got to Scene 32, page 89 to be exact, there was, as is said, a great disturbance in the force. Much of this scene, which took place in a hotel room where the band was staying, contained dialogue excoriating Frank for using hidden tape recorders in order to steal ideas from them, which Frank had based upon actual band conversations he had actually recorded on actually hidden tape recorders. As Jeff read all of the lines which had been written for him to say, all of which were things Jeff had said in Real Life - about Zappa being too old… let’s buy him a watch, about not being taken seriously as a musician anymore, about quitting the Mothers and forming his own group - he did just that. Right then and there. Jeff and his wife flew back to the U.S. and the mad scramble began to find his replacement.
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| The first person to audition to be The Substitute Jeff Simmons was Noel Redding, the bassist for the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Unfortunately he did not pass the audition because Frank felt he did not possess the acting skills required. Wilfrid Brambell, an English actor best known for portraying Paul McCartney’s grandfather in “A Hard Day’s Night”, came in to audition and was magnificent. Although he thought the script was daft, he agreed, as a lark, to play the part. He joined the cast in script rehearsals which lasted until, it is recalled, Tuesday, January 26 when, most politely put, Wilfrid was having a great deal of trouble remembering his lines, and he, too, left the film. So, in addition to all of the normal problems of mounting such an ambitious project, three days before principal photography was scheduled to begin, the key part of Jeff was again uncast with no prospects in sight.
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| The following day there was some real doubt whether shooting would go forward at all. It was somewhat dismal. The band spent part of the day glumly assembled in a Pinewood dressing room, playing cards and drinking beer, when Frank announced that “I don’t care who it is… the next person to walk through that dressing room door gets the part of Jeff”. As if on cue, as if from another absurd script, Ringo Starr’s chauffeur popped through the door. Although Ringo had been rehearsing with the cast all along, this was the first time anyone met Martin Lickert. He had long hair. He had an English accent. He could, after a fashion, even play the bass. The production was back on track and full steam ahead.
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| Jeff was not the only part to undergo last minute troubles. Ringo had not been cast as Larry The Dwarf until the middle of January. There was a part written for a character named Jeff Beck, and it was hoped the guitarist could be persuaded to play it, but despite his meeting with Frank, it remained uncertain he would, although the scenes written for him stayed in the script. Mick Jagger was penciled in to do a walk-on or to play the part of the nun with the fake harp who was the object of the Dwarf’s lamp. The evolution of the parts of The Good Self and The Bad Self, who appeared during Jeff’s hallucinations, is rather interesting.
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| An early draft of the script had Frank as The Good Self and Mark as The Bad Self. In the shooting script Frank had written The Good Self role for Pete Townshend and the Bad Self role for Keith Moon. By the first day of shooting Keith had been switched to being The Good Self and the Mothers’ longtime road manager, Dick Barber, who was already cast as the Industrial Vacuum Cleaner, was now also The Bad Self. But after the shoot was over, and everyone was back in L.A., it was decided to re-record these parts for use as the soundtrack of the animation with Howard portraying Jeff, Mark as The Good Conscience (as this voice was now known) and Jim Pons, who played bass in the Turtles, as The Bad Conscience. Keith was eventually cast as Pamela, the Hot Nun Groupie. And the part of the second Rock Magazine interviewer, known in the script as Soprano Number 2 because it was written to be played by a singer, was given to Pamela Miller, previously known as Miss Pamela of the GTOs and much later known as Pamela Des Barres.
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| Although using videotape for television was commonplace in 1971, its reliability for shooting Frank’s motion picture was still unanswered. Frank thought this videotape-to-film process could easily start a new production trend, and, more than a dozen years hence, it would. But at this time, it was an application of a technology with an on / off switch but no instruction booklet. Every scene was shot by four cameras. It was Tony’s job to set the shots, do the blocking, conduct the video rehearsals and ensure that every image got onto the videotape the way it was supposed to. An advantage of using videotape, both creative and timesaving, was that instant decisions could be made about color, texture, superimpositions, dissolves, matte shots and optical effects. Quite a bit of video editing was planned to be done live in the video booth. While the video equipment was being set up, Stage “A” was also being used for three days of full dress rehearsals with the cast, the dancers, the chorus and the orchestra. Frank was still tweaking the shooting script, finishing up some musical compositions and meeting with Jerry to work out production problems.
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| Thursday, January 28, was the first day of shooting of “200 Motels”, production number T/MWP/157. The cast showed up at Pinewood at 8:50AM for make-up and was on Stage “A” by 9:00AM. Each day’s production was broken up into several parts. Mornings were usually used to pre-record music with the band, chorus and orchestra which was used for later playback at the shoot or was used when Frank assembled the soundtrack album. Some of these morning pre-record sessions were shot for use in the final cut of the film. Each afternoon starting at 1:00PM, after lunch, the shooting of the script took place. In between takes the cast would usually wait in the dressing rooms until they heard their scene number called. Everyone would work until 5:00PM when a loud buzzer would go off. This buzzer was the signal that union members - and almost everyone involved in the production other than Frank and his entourage was - who were required to work after its sounding were now to be paid at a substantially higher rate. And since there was absolutely no budget for any of these kind of golden time expenditures everything stopped everyday at the sound of that buzzer.
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| “200 Motels” principal photography was shot, entirely, in seven eight-hour days. By the fourth and fifth days of the shoot, the pace of work was quite arduous and things were getting quite frenzied. With only two days at Pinewood remaining, strains in some working relationships were beginning to show. Frank, Tony and Jerry were sometimes in disagreement about how some thing should be done or what should happen next. All along, scenes from the shooting script, scenes crucial to the narrative structure, had to be deleted from the schedule in order to spend what little time remained on the scenes which were deemed to be essential and on the cutaways which were required for the editing process. It became clear to Frank, clear to almost everyone, that despite all best efforts, a seven day shooting schedule simply did not permit this film to be completed as written in the shooting script.
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| Frank was rewriting everything constantly, adding, deleting, modifying, trying to make the square peg of his story fit into the round hole of remaining time. But, no matter what adverse circumstance was being faced, when an “absurd project”, as Frank called this, was being made, there was simply an inherent amount of frivolity and nonsense that no problem or setback could permanently divert. The most vivid memory most folks have about the making of “200 Motels”, besides the frenzy, was that it was great fun.
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| On the next to last day of shooting there was tenseness and determination which accompanies the ability to no longer postpone. Everything was rushed. Frank had been up most of the night, among other things, rewriting the finale. The band learned the “we’re gonna tear down the studio” section of the finale while on the bus on the way to Pinewood that morning. Scheduled for the sixth day were six scenes from “The pleated gazelle sequence” - the only part of the script in which Frank had written a major on-camera speaking part for himself - the “Penis dimension” sequence, which required playback of the music they had recorded one of the previous days, and the “Strictly genteel” finale. It had been Frank’s intention, from the beginning, that the music in the film be a “real orchestra and real rock & roll band playing real notes” and fact, everything in the film except “Penis dimension” is actually being performed, as you see and hear it, by the musicians on the screen.
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| During the finale shoot, after Theodore says that “it’s been swell having you with us tonight”, Don was scripted to say: “We sort of ran out of time here, and we have to go… our contract with United Artists limits the length of the film…”, a line which did not appear in the final cut. Whether or not that line was completely accurate, what was accurate was that there was only one full working day left at Pinewood with a lot left to do. The sixth day was the final day the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra worked on the film and they were due to be sent home at the end of the morning session. After completing the finale, they were needed only for the “Orchestra Disaster” bit. Quite a few members of the orchestra took this sequence title a little bit too literally, and whether as impishness or as protest, or both, ripped up the tuxedos the production had rented for them.
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| Friday, February 5, 1971. The final day. With all of the orchestra’s work completed the day before, the entire last day was spent shooting less ponderous scenes which featured the band, a few of the cast members and the dancers. Also scheduled for this day was a close-up shot of Frank’s eyeball which would zoom out to show him blowing smoke rings. The final bit of business of this final day, it is remembered, was a shot in which the Centerville bank was blown up. The shot did not at all go exactly as planned. At 5:00PM precisely, the buzzer shouted, and time officially ran out.
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| The videotaped scenes from the shoot were edited together at TVR, on Windmill Street, in London. Frank, Tony, Barry Stephens and Ray Hunney cut what they had into final shape. Scenes were selected and assembled, certain montage sequences were combined, and an elaborate, but primordial, process to manipulate the speed of the videotape was used, employing a large, album sized, metallic videodisc contraption upon which the footage could be copied, sped up or slowed down, and then played back. Even though the audio at Pinewood had been recorded on 16-track machines, the film soundtrack was to be mono. In 1971 there were still so few theatres that could use a stereo print, that the additional cost to make so few stereo prints was just not in the budget. Frank and Tony still did not agree on how the film should be sequenced and it was during this editing process that they determined that some of the Pinewood footage, for one reason or another, was not usable. After eleven days, everyone working about ten hours each day, Frank’s final assembly of videotape was ready to be sent over to Technicolor for transfer to 35mm film stock.
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| It had always been known there was going to be some animation included in the final film, but precisely what it should be changed from re-write to re-write. An early draft had the animated sequence built around “Would you go all the way for the USA?”, while another obliquely refers to something called “The Red Throbber” sequence. And, at one point, a portion of the “dick is a monster” routine was the leading candidate. But because of the Pinewood footage which couldn’t be used, the decision was made that the animation would be the entire Jeff freak-out sequence, from “Dental hygiene dilemma” to the “I’m stealing the room” rant. The animation would be done back in the States at Murakami-Wolf.
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| Meanwhile, one concert had been scheduled to take advantage of everyone already being in England and to take a very practical, and necessary, advantage of an arcane union regulation. This concert was supposed to take place after everything had wrapped at Pinewood and before anything commenced at TVR. It was to be held at the Royal Albert Hall on Monday, February 8, and was to feature the Mothers performing with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and a chorus.
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| The Musicians Union rule in effect at that time said a full rate had to be paid for orchestral rehearsals needed for a film but that a far lesser rate could be paid for orchestral rehearsals needed for a concert. So, in order to control the costs of using the RPO in the film and in order to fulfill this union requirement, a concert needed to be performed with them.
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| Some members of the orchestra, who were none too pleased with what they considered all of the vulgar shenanigans which occurred during the shoot, suggested to the Royal Albert Hall management that, should this concert be allowed, some manner of obscenity would result. This was simply not the case, as Frank had planned an appropriately restrained program just for the occasion. But no one got to hear it. Management canceled the concert. Frank saw this as censorship, and told the press so, even holding a protest cum press conference, with the Mothers and placards and banners, in front of the Hall on the day the concert would have taken place. Frank sued the Royal Albert Hall, a surreal experience with a surreal result he wrote about, years later, in “The Real Frank Zappa Book”.
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| By the beginning of March, with everyone back home in the States for several weeks and the 35mm film deep into post-production, attention turned to another tour. The band this time was Frank, Howard, Mark, Ian, Aynsley, Don, Jim and Bob Harris. It was on this tour that the band played at the Fillmore East in New York City. Recording from these shows were later edited into what would become the “Fillmore East - June 1971” album. Most of that album, when it was released in August, was devoted to the performance, with some ad-libbed modifications, of sixteen pages of dialogue and music Frank had written in the shooting script, which he had based upon a tale told to him by Howard, and which, with the exception of “Daddy, daddy, daddy”, were not included in the final cut of the film.
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| In Burbank, California, starting in mid-April, Calvin and Chuck Swenson figured out what the animation would look like. Almost all animation is created to an already existing audio track so, as most of the needed Pinewood audio couldn’t be used, Howard, Mark and Jim went into a San Fernando Valley recording studio, in the city of North Hollywood to be exact, and re-recorded Frank’s original scripted dialogue for Scenes 95 to 98. While they were there, they also recorded, along with Frank, a series of radio commercials for the film ▲. United Artists used six of these spots, varying in length from ten seconds to one minute, to press up a seven inch single which was sent out to radio stations.
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| The re-recorded audio track was delivered to Murakami-Wolf, where timing for each segment was worked out and storyboards were made. Calvin designed the characters and created the backgrounds. Chuck animated the characters, animated the dribbling letters for the opening title and put together the end credits. It took them, along with five people in the ink and paint department, eight weeks to complete the animation.
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| Since he had returned to America, Frank had been selecting, remixing and assembling the master tapes for the “200 Motels” soundtrack album. Almost all of this took place, as usual, down in his basement. At the same studio and at the same time that the animation audio track had been re-recorded, Frank and Barry Keene had, among other things, recorded overdubs of Howard and Mark and had replaced two of Martin’s bass tracks. Calvin was designing the album package. The budget for the album, which was a two disc set in a gatefold sleeve, allowed for a 16-page booklet and a poster to be included. Dave McMacken was hired to create the illustration which was used for both the front cover of the album and for the film and album posters. The notion of a cover with the theme of Frank Ruling The World was approved. After concepts for what this finished illustration should be were discussed, Dave created a test piece of art, a first rendering which was later sold to Rhino Records for use on their 1993 “Rare Meat” collection of Frank’s early Del-Fi recordings.
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| It took about a month for the final acrylic painting, about 36 inches or so square, to be completed.
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| Then, because the decision had already been made to forego using Ringo’s image on the outside of the album and only to use Ringo’s image to promote the film, a slightly curious thing took place. After everything the album package required was made from the painting, Dave took it back and painted in Ringo so it could be used for the motion picture one-sheets, which were displayed in all of the theatres, and for the album poster, which was tucked inside one of the sleeves so no one could see Ringo until they opened up their album. The “200 Motels” cover painting would undergo one more change. There was a billboard announcing the film and album releases installed on Sunset Boulevard, over near the Source, on October 1. To accommodate the billboard’s very horizontal and very rectangular shape, additional panels with new art were created on each side of the original.
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| The final cut of the film, color corrected, with the opening, the animation and the end credits firmly affixed, was finished and submitted to the Motion Picture Association Of America rating board. On June 23, the MPAA sent a ratings certificate to Murakami-Wolf. The film had been rated “R” which meant that people under seventeen years of age could only see it if they were with a parent. For some unknown reason, the certificate arrived unsigned. As the packaging process for the album was still underway, Frank told Calvin to sign the certificate himself and use it on the front cover of the album booklet.
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| The “200 Motels” World Premiere was held in a Piccadilly Circus theatre, amid some royalty and many, many fans, in London. It opened in four cities in the U.S. in October and, as they say, went “wide”, at least somewhat, in January 1972. The U.S. West Coast premiere was held at a theatre called the Music Hall in Beverly Hills. It seemed as if every American citizen who worked on the film was there. Frank was, of course, the host and the focus of attention, spending most of the time before the movie began speaking with all sorts of folks out in front of the theatre. The audience that night also included quite a number of people, fans of the Mothers, who won tickets to the screening during some of the radio promotion for the film. For almost everyone there who had worked on the film, this was the first time they saw the completed movie, the first time they saw just how Frank put it together and what did and what did not make it into the final cut.
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| What ended up on the screen after the final frame of the end credits had faded to black, but before the film had actually finished running through the projector, was an oddly amusing surprise. Someone had scratched, presumably into the emulsion of the print being used that night, a small postlude which, individual letter replaced by individual letter, flashed up on the lower right-hand side of the screen.
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| It read: H E M A D E M E D O I T ▶
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| [Jimmy Carl Black] My name is Burtram, I am a redneck
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| All my friends they call me “Burt”
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| Hi, Burt!
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| All my family from down in Texas
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| Make their livin’ diggin’ dirt
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| Come out here to Californy
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| Just to find me some pretty girls
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| Ones I seen gets me so horny
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| Ruby lips an’ teeth like pearls
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| Wanna love ‘em all, wanna love ‘em dearly
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| Wanna pretty girl, I’ll even pay
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| I’ll buy ‘em furs, I’ll buy ‘em jewelry
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| I know they like me, here’s what I say:
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| I’m lonesome cowboy Burt
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| (Speakin’ atcha!)
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| Come smell my fringe-y shirt
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| (Reekin’ atcha!)
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| My cowboy pants
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| My cowboy dance
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| My bold advance
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| On this here waitress
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| Yodel-oh-oo-pee-hey!
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| Yodel-oh-oo-pee!
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| He’s lonesome cowboy Burt
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| Dontcha get his feelings hurt
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| Come on in this place an’ I’ll buy you a taste
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| You can sit on my face, where’s my waitress?
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| Burtram, Burtram redneck
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| Burtram, Burtram redneck
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| I’m an awful nice guy, sweat all day in the sun
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| Roofer by trade, quite a bundle I’ve made
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| I’m unionized roofin’ old son of a gun!
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| He’s a unionized roofin’ old son of a gun!
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| When I get off, I get plastered
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| Drink till I fall onna floor
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| Find me some communist bastard
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| An’ stomp on his face till he don’t move no more
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| He stomps on his face till he don’t move no more!
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| I fuss, an’ I cuss an’ I keep on drinkin’
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| Till my eyes puff up an’ turn red
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| I drool on m’ shirt, I see if he’s hurt
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| Kick him again in the head, YES!
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| Kick him again in the head, BOYS!
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| Kick him again in the head, NOW!
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| Kick him again in the head!
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| Lonesome cowboy Burt
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| (Speakin’ atcha!)
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| Come smell my fringe-y shirt
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| (Reekin’ atcha!)
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| My cowboy pants
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| My cowboy dance
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| My bold advance
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| On this here waitress
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| Yodel-oh-oo-pee-hey!
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| Yodel-oh-oo-pee!
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| He’s lonesome cowboy Burt
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| Dontcha get his feelings hurt
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| Yeah, but come on in this place an’ I’ll buy you a taste
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| An’ you can sit on my face, where’s my waitress?
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| OPAL, YOU HOT LITTLE BITCH!
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| [Jeff Simmons] Han-min-noon-toon han-toon-ran
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| [Good conscience] No, Jeff!
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| [Jeff Simmons] Rantoon Rantoon Rantoon Frammin Hantoon Rantoon Hantoon Frammin
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| [Good conscience] No, no, no!
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| [Jeff Simmons] Man! This stuff is great! It’s just as if Donovan himself had appeared on my very own TV with words of peace, love, and eternal cosmic wisdom!
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| Leading me, guiding me. On paths of everlasting pseudo-karmic negligence, in the very midst of my drug-induced nocturnal emission.
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| [Good conscience] For I am your good conscience, Jeff. I know all. I see all. I am a cosmic love pulse matrix, becoming a technicolor interpositive!
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| [Jeff Simmons] Huh? Where’d you buy that incense? It’s hip!
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| [Good conscience] It’s the same and mysterious exotic oriental fragrance as what the Beatles get off on
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| [Jeff Simmons] I thought I recognized it. Sniff sniff… mmm, what is that, musk?
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| Sniff sniff sniff… mmmh!
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| [Good conscience] Jeff, I know what’s good for you
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| [Jeff Simmons] Right. You’re heavy!
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| [Good conscience] Yes, Jeff, I am your guiding light. Listen to me: DON’T RIP OFF THE TOWELS, JEFF!
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| [Bad conscience] Piss off, you little nitwit!
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| [Jeff Simmons] Hey man, what’s the deal?
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| [Good conscience] Don’t listen to him, Jeff, he’s no good. He’ll make you do BAD THINGS!
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| [Jeff Simmons] You mean, he’ll make me SIN?
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| [Good conscience] Yes, Jeff. Sin!
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| [Jeff Simmons] Wow!
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| [Bad conscience] Jeff, I’d like to have a word with you, about your soul
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| [Good conscience] No, don’t listen, Jeff
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| [Bad conscience] Why are you wasting your life, night after night playing this comedy music?
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| [Jeff Simmons] You’re right, I’m too heavy to be in this group
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| [Bad conscience] Comedy music
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| [Good conscience] Jeff, YOUR SOUL!
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| [On the right] Oh, ah
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| Oh, you’re wasting your life
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| To be…
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| Ah
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| [On the left] Oh, ah
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| Ah ah
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| Too heavy, Jeff
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| [Jeff Simmons] In this group, all I ever get to do is play Zappa’s comedy music. HE EATS!
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| [Good conscience] Jeff!
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| [Jeff Simmons] I get so tense!
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| [Bad conscience] Of course you do, my boy
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| [Jeff Simmons] The stuff he makes me do is always off the wall!
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| [Bad conscience] That’s why it would be best to leave his stern employ
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| [Jeff Simmons] And quit the group!
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| [Bad conscience] You’ll make it big!
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| [Jeff Simmons] That’s right!
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| [Bad conscience] Of course!
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| [Jeff Simmons] And then I won’t be small!
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| Ha ha ha ha ha!
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| Ha ha ha!
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| Ti-diddly-diddly-dee
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| Ha ha ha!
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| He-he-he-he-heh!
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| [Jeff Simmons] Ahmet Ertegun used this towel as a bathmat six weeks ago at a rancid motel in Orlando, Florida, with the highest MILDEW rating of any commercial lodging facility within the territorial limits of the United States, naturally excluding tropical possessions.
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| It’s still damp. What an aroma! This is the best I ever got off! What can I say about this elixir? Try it on steaks! Cleans nylons! Small craft warnings! It’s great for the home! The office! ON FRUITS!
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| [Bad conscience] This is the real you, Jeff. Rip off a few more ashtrays. Get rid of some of that inner tension. Quit the comedy group! Get your own group together. HEAVY! Like Grand Funk! Or Black Sabbath.
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| [Good conscience] No, Jeff
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| [Jeff Simmons] Or Coven!
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| [Good conscience] Peace, love
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| [Bad conscience] Bollocks!
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| [Jeff Simmons] What can I say about this elixir?
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| [Howard Kaylan] Jeff has gone out there on that stuff!
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| [Good conscience] He should have never have used the elixir and only stuck to the incense.
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| Oh, ✄ Atlantis…
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| [Mark Volman] That was Billy the mountain ▶, dressed up like Donovan, fading out on the wall-mounted TV screen ▶. Jeff is flipping out. Road fatigue! We’ve got to get him back to normal before Zappa finds out, and steals it, and makes him do it in the movie!
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| [Bad conscience] You have a brilliant career ahead of you, my boy, just GET OUT OF THIS GROUP!
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| [Mark Volman] Howard, that was Studebacher Hoch ▶, dressed up like Jim Pons, giving career guidance to the bass player of a rock-oriented comedy group. Jeff’s imagination has gone beyond the fringe of audience comprehension.
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| [Howard Kaylan] Jeff, Jeff, it’s me, the Phlorescent Leech!
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| [Mark Volman] Jeff, Jeff, it’s me, Eddie!
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| WOWWWW! WHAT CAN I SAY ABOUT THIS ELIXIR!
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| [Mark Volman, on the right] Put it on your steaks uh… send it overseas, […] ground, and put it on you surfboard so you won’t slip off. Try it on your […] boy, and on the… the red balloons, you can blow up all balloons with it. Put it on your uh… on… on your pizzas.
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| Put it on your shoes, tie your bike with it, and fill up your tires with it.
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| [Howard Kaylan, center] Use it to clean your swimming pool, sell it to your mother and tell her it’s a Rit Tie-Dye kit, you won’t even believe what’ll happen when you starch your shirt with it, ironing goes easier and your car windows never looked better in your whole life. Ladies and gentlemen, you can inhale it, and it makes your voice three keys higher, and you can’t even stand what happens when you put it on your hair, as hair tonic, heh heh. And if you ever tried it as a…
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| [Jim Pons, on the left] Soak your shirts in it, soak your teeth in it, let it play the piano.
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| Follow it around the block. Wear it instead of jeans. Bathe your puppies with it. Feed it to your ducks. Use it instead of chlorine in your swimming pool. Breathe it. Love it.
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| What…?
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| WOWWWWWW!
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| What can I…?
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| WOWWWWWW!
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| What…?
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| What can I say about this?
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| WOWWWWWW!
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| Ooo-ooo, do you like my new car? ▶
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| Ooo-ooo, do you like my new car?
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| She’s such a dignified lady
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| She’s so pretty and soft
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| You can’t call her a groupie
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| It just pisses her off
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| Yeah
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| She got diamonds and jewelry
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| She got lotsa new clothes
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| She ain’t hurtin’ for money
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| So that everyone knows…
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| That she knows what she wants
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| Knows what she likes
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| Daddy, daddy, daddy, oooh!
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| Daddy, daddy, daddy, oooh!
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| Daddy, daddy, daddy
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| Look out, she’s got her eyes on you
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| She left her place after midnight ▶
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| La la la la la
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| And she drove to the club
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| La la la la-ee-ah!
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| You know that her and her partner
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| La la la la la
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| Came here lookin’ for love
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| La la la la-ee-ah!
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| They want a guy from a group
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| La la la la la
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| Got a thing in a charts
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| La la la la-ee-ah!
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| IF HIS DICK IS A MONSTER…
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| IF HIS DICK IS A MONSTER…
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| IF HIS DICK IS A MONSTER…
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| THEY WILL GIVE HIM THEIR HEARTS
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| ‘Cause they know what they want
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| Do it, d’ya wanna-wanna?
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| Know what they like
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| Daddy, daddy, daddy, oooh!
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| Daddy, daddy, daddy, oooh!
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| Daddy, daddy, daddy
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| Look out, they got their eyes on you
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| FAM-BAM YAK-A-TA-TAHHH!
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| They know what they want
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| Know what they like
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| Daddy, daddy, daddy, oooh!
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| Daddy, daddy, daddy, oooh!
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| Daddy, daddy, daddy
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| Awright, you got ‘em screamin’ all night
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| La la la la la
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| Screamin’ all night
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| Ooo-ooo, do you like my new car?
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| Do it, do it, d’ya wanna-wanna do it, do it?
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| It’s a Bentley!
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| Ooh!
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| Ooo-ooo, do you like my new car?
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| Do it, do it, d’ya wanna-wanna do it, do it?
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| It’s a Cooper!
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| Ooh!
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| Ooo-ooo, do you like my new car?
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| Do it, do it, d’ya wanna-wanna do it, do it?
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| It’s a Chevy!
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| Ooh!
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| Ooo-ooo, do you like my new car?
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| Do it, do it, d’ya wanna-wanna do it, do it?
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| Or a Lincoln!
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| Ooh!
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| Ooo-ooo, do you like my new car?
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| Do it, do it, d’ya wanna-wanna do it, do it?
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| ‘Cause they’re dancin’!
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| Ooh, the way you love me, lady
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| I get so hard now I could die
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| Ooh, the way you love me, sugar
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| I get so hard now I could die
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| Open up your pocketbook, get another quarter out
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| Drop it in the meter, mama, try me on for size
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| Open up your pocketbook, get another quarter out
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| Drop it in the meter, mama, try me on for size
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| Ooh, the way you squeeze me, baby
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| Red balloons just pop behind my eyes
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| Ooh, the way you squeeze me, girl
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| Red balloons just pop behind my eyes
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| Open up your pocketbook, get another quarter out
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| Drop it in the meter, mama, try me on for size
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| Open up your pocketbook, get another quarter out
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| Drop it in the meter, mama, try me on for size
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| [Instrumental]
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| [Mark Volman] Do you really wanna please me?
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| [Howard Kaylan] Well, you know I do, babe
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| [Mark Volman] Well, tell me why you do it? I really wanna know
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| [Howard Kaylan] Oh no, no, it wouldn’t be right for me to tell you tonight
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| [Mark Volman] You better tell me right away or I’ll pack up and go!
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| [Howard Kaylan] Don’t get mad, it ain’t no big thing
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| [Mark Volman] You better tell me right away, don’t you treat me cold
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| [Howard Kaylan] Hold it, hold IT, HOLD IT, HOLD IT!
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| Well, there are a lot of reasons why I’d… I’d drag a girl such as yourself back to this plastic hotel room and rip you off for spare change to run a… to run a vibrating machine attached to this queen-size, bulk-purchase, kapok-infested, do-not-remove-tag-under-penalty-of-law type bed and… and make you take off all your little clothes until you were nearly STARK RAVING NUDE!
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| Save for your chrome-with-heavy-duty-leather-thong peace medallion, heh, and make you assume a series of marginally erotic ▶ poses involving a plastic chair and an old guitar strap while I did a wee-wee in your hair and beat you with a pair of tennis shoes I got from Jeff Beck ▶.
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| [Theodore Bikel] This, as you might have guessed, is the end of the movie. The entire cast is assembled here at the Centerville Recreational Facility to bid farewell to you, and to express thanks for your attendance at this theater. This might seem old fashioned to some of you, but I’d like to join in on this song. It’s the kind of a sentimental song that you get at the end of a movie, it’s the kind of a song that people might sing to let you in the audience know that we really like you and care about you, yeah. Understand how hard it is to laugh these days, with all the terrible problems in the world!
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| Lord, have mercy on the people in England
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| For the terrible food these people must eat
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| Baaahhh, excuse me a minute
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| And may the Lord have mercy on the fate of this movie
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| And God bless the mind of the man in the street
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| [Chorus] Help all the rednecks and the flatfoot policemen
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| Through the terrible functions they all must perform
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| God help the winos, the junkies, and the weirdos
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| [Phyllis Bryn-Julson] And every poor soul who’s adrift in the storm
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| [Chorus] Help everybody, so they all get some action
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| Some love on the weekend, some real satisfaction
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| [Phyllis Bryn-Julson] A room and a meal and a garbage disposal
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| A lawn and a hose’ll be strictly genteel
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| [Chorus] Reach out your hand to the girl in the dog book
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| The girl in the pig book, and the one with the horse
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| Make sure they keep all those businessmen happy
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| And the purple-lipped censors and the Germans of course
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| Help everybody, so they all get some action
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| Some love on the weekend, some real satisfaction
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| A Swedish apparatus with a hood and a bludgeon
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| With a microwave oven, “Honey, how do it feel?”
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| [Instrumental]
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| [Chorus] Lord, have mercy on the hippies and faggots
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| And the dykes and the weird little children they grow
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| Help the black man
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| Help the poor man
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| Help the milk man
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| Help the door man
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| Help the lonely, neglected old farts that I know
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| [Theodore Bikel] It’s been swell havin’ you with us tonight, folks!
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| [Mark Volman] But, don’t leave the theater yet, ‘cause there’s still more to come, but before we go on, I want to introduce to you my friend and musical associate, Howard Kaylan, who’s going to give us all a final closing benediction.
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| [Howard Kaylan] They’re gonna clear out the studio
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| They’re gonna tear down all the…
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| They’re gonna whip down all the…
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| They’re gonna sweep out all the…
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| They’re gonna pay off all the…
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| Oh yeah!
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| And then…
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| And then…
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| And then…
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| And then…
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| Hey hey hey, everybody in the orchestra and the chorus
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| Talkin’ ‘bout every one of our lovely and talented dancers
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| Talkin’ ‘bout the light bulb men
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| Camera men
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| The make-up men
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| The fake-up men
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| Yeah, the rake-up men
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| Especially Herbie Cohen, yeah
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| They’re all gonna rise up
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| They’re gonna jump up
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| I said jump up
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| Talkin’ ‘bout jump right up and off the floor
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| Jump right up and hit the door
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| They’re all gonna rise up and jump off!
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| They’re gonna ride on home
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| They’re gonna ride on home
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| They’re gonna ride on home
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| They’re gonna ride on home
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| And once again
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| Take themselves
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| Seriously, yeeeah!
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| Two, three, four, seriously
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| They’re all gonna go home
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| Ye-hey!
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| Through the driving sleet and rain
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| They’re all gonna go home
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| Through the fog, through the dust
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| Through the tropical fever and the blistering frost
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| They’re all gonna go home
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| And get out of it as they can be, baby
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| And the same goes for me
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| The same goes for me
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| Oh yeah!
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| Oh yeah!
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| Oh yeah!
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| Oh yeah!
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| And each and every member of this rock-oriented comedy group in his own special way
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| Is gonna get out of it as he can be
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| We all gonna get wasted
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| We all gonna get twisted
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| We all gonna get wasted
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| We all gonna get twisted
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| And I am definitely gonna get REAMED
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| ‘Cause I’m such a lonely…
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| I’m such a lonely…
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| A lonely, lonely, talkin’ ‘bout a lonely guy
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| Oh, and I know tonight, I am definitely…
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| I am positively…
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| I just have to get…
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| BENT, REAMED AND WASTED
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| [Jimmy Carl Black] A disaster area the size of Atlantic City, New Jersey!
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| [Howard Kaylan] He’s making me do this, ladies and gentlemen. I wouldn’t do it if it weren’t for him. You noticed, all through this material, I’ve been glancing over toward my left? Well, I’ll tell you the reason for that, ladies and gentlemen. HE is over there. HE is over on the left. HE is the guy that is making me do all this shit ▶. Right over there. Now, all through this movie, every time we’ve been on stage, I’ve had to look over in that direction, right? You saw it, you know. Well, that’s ‘cause HE’s over there. I’ve got to watch him for signs. HE jumps up and down like a jackass. I can’t even believe the guy sometimes. But we gotta watch him. “After all” we said “it’s Frank’s movie”. Now, we’re the Mothers, but it’s still Frank’s movie. Let’s say it, HE got to paid for it, HE rented the studio, had all these cheesy sets built, it’s so moche! I can’t even stand it. HE’s telling everybody, right now, right over there, to…
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| Ooh, the way you love me, lady
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| I get so hard now I could die
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| Ooh, the way you love me, sugar
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| I get so hard now I could die
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| Open up your pocketbook, get another quarter out
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| Drop it in the meter, mama, try me on for size
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| Open up your pocketbook, get another quarter out
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| Drop it in the meter, mama, try me on for size
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| Ooh, the way you squeeze me, baby
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| Red balloons just pop behind my eyes
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| Ooh, the way you squeeze me, girl
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| Red balloons just pop behind my eyes
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|
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| Open up your pocketbook, get another quarter out
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| Drop it in the meter, mama, try me on for size
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| Open up your pocketbook, get another quarter out
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| Drop it in the meter, mama, try me on for size
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| [Instrumental]
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| [Mark Volman] Do you really wanna please me?
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| [Howard Kaylan] Well, you know I do, babe
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| [Mark Volman] Well, tell me why you do it? I really wanna know
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| [Howard Kaylan] Oh no, no, it wouldn’t be right for me to tell you tonight
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| [Mark Volman] You better tell me right away or I’ll pack up and go!
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| [Howard Kaylan] Don’t get mad, it ain’t no big thing
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| [Mark Volman] You better tell me right away, don’t you treat me cold
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| [Howard Kaylan] Hold it, hold IT, HOLD IT, HOLD IT!
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 Art by David McMacken.jpg "(Front) Art by David McMacken")
.jpg "(LP inside left)")
.jpg "(LP inside right)")
.jpg "(LP back)")
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Songs list
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