AHEAD OF THEIR TIME - WHISKY A GO GO, 1968: A PLAY AND UNFINISHED PROJECTS
On the "Uncle Meat" album sleeve Zappa informed us about the "Uncle Meat" movie, that we probably would never get to see, stashed away in his basement. The unfinished movie kept lingering around in his mind however. When videos presented themselves as a new sellable medium in the eighties, an opportunity to return to the project was offered. In 1982 some additional taping was done and in 1988 it finally became publicly available. Zappa wasn't satisfied with only the video and wanted to incorporate the movie in the CD as well. "Uncle Meat" thus became a double CD including 40 minutes of dialogues and a new song, "Tengo na minchia tanta", recorded during the 1982 session. The concert parts, included in the movie, were among others the little play from the gig at the Royal Albert Hall from 1968. About 70 minutes of this concert, including the play, were released in 1993 as "Ahead of their time".AHEAD OF THEIR TIME - UNCLE MEAT, THE MOVIE
Prologue (1968)
For the occasion members of the BBC Symphony
Orchestra were hired to play several modern chamber music pieces. Various material from these tracks would later re-appear in the scores
for "200 Motels" (the album) or "200 Motels - the suites", as well as "Bogus pomp", though in much different forms. "Prologue" has "Bogus pomp"
added to it between brackets in the CD booklet. 0:00 through 0:20 and 1:42 through 3:06 would indeed get incorporated into "Bogus pomp".
The part in between was thus new unreleased music when "Ahead of their time" got released, possibly played only once during a concert.
Very likely the scores used in 1968 have been kept in the ZFT archives.
Prologue, 1:27-1:38 (midi file).
Prologue, 1:27-1:38 (transcription).
The section above is a smaller example of such modern chamber music, played fast on piano, with some clarinet contribution and possibly a second piano.
Bars 2-4 feature stacked fourths, also characteristic of the "Uncle Meat" main theme. You might call it fragmented diatonic material or atonal altogether.
Bars 6-11 contain a chromatic sequence. Bar 12 is the start of the transition towards one of the "Bogus pomp" themes. As a title "Prologue"
also exists as the opening track from "Thing-Fish" from 1984.
Like it or not (Piece one, Piano/drum duet)
"Like it or not" would become integrated into "200 Motels" in its entirety as it is, split into two sections and part of new titles.
Its score is thus included in the list of
scores currently available for rent at Schott Inc. So transcribing it is kind of useless and I've limited myself to a few bars.
This exact performance is also available on "The mystery disc" as "Piece one". A different version of the part from 1:00 onwards is present on "YCDTOSA vol. V" as
"Piano/drum duet", where the example below can be heard between 0:27 and 0:36. The latter title was recorded in 1969 at The Ark
with Ian Underwoord and Art Tripp playing electric piano and percussion, thus without the clarinet part. The 1968 score of this particular section
returned once more during "Redneck eats" from "200 Motels". On this last track between 1:32 and 1:42, again without the clarinet part.
Like it or not, 1:18-1:28 (midi file).
Like it or not, 1:18-1:28 (transcription).
This little outtake is from the section where a piano and percussion are playing, like above with some additional clarinet notes.
It's deliberately irregular, all atonal with mostly dissonant chords. Rhythmic variation is achieved by meter changes and a quintuplet.
The percussion part is transcribed roughly without much details.
Stills from Uncle Meat, the movie. Above: Roy Estrada as the Mexican pope and Ian underwood at the piano. Below: members of the BBC Symphony
Orchestra on stage with the Mothers.
The rejected Mexican pope leaves the stage
Next is a section from "The rejected Mexican pope leaves the stage". I could use page 1 of the piano/celeste part of the original score in Zappa's handwriting,
that I recently came across on the net as to be auctioned. Below it's complemented for the chamber ensemble, playing it on this occasion.
The rejected Mexican pope leaves the stage, section (midi file).
The rejected Mexican pope leaves the stage, section (score/transcription).
0:00 Zappa speaks through his megaphone: "The rejected Mexican pope leaves the stage". The players on stage boo the Mexican pope.
0:03 Bars 1-6. These bars correspond with the opening of
"Dance of the just plain folks" from the later "200 Motels" scores (see the Fillmore East, 1970 section of this study).
Apparently Zappa changed the meter notation for bars 1-2. In the piano part it's 3/8. In "Dance of the just plain folks"
this got divided as 4/8 plus 2/8 (actually 4/4 plus 2/4, with another time unit), after which also this version continues in 3/8.
0:12 Bars 7-10, being a repetition of bars 1-4.
0:19 Bars 11-21. Variations upon the material from bars 1-10.
0:36 Bars 22-23. At this point the midi file and the complemented score from the example from above start.
This whole section is specific for "The rejected Mexican pope leaves the stage" and got skipped for "200 Motels". The differences
are that many that Zappa chose to have the tracks on "Ahead of their time" carry their own titles. It indeed functions very well as a play,
independently of its later context in "200 Motels", especially when you're watching the "Uncle Meat" movie as well.
These two bars are a different arrangement of bars 3-4. The piano has been replaced by a celeste, playing the same notes. The harmony
part is filled in quite differently. Especially on ticks 5-6 of bar 2 it's getting pretty dissonant (I'm not positive about each note
in the transcription, but the dissonance is clear).
0:38 Bars 24-25. Rhythmic variations around these two dissonant chords. The brass section is playing harmony notes.
0:42 Bar 26. Now the piano returns with a string of ten eighth notes, divided over two parts. So far the piano and celeste were playing
their two parts in parallel octaves, but now the intervals between the parts start varying:
- The notes of the first four ticks are all played as augmented fifths.
- The fifth tick is played as a fifth.
- The sixth tick is played as a major third.
- The seventh tick is played as a tritone.
- The eighth tick is played as a major third.
- The ninth tick is played as a fifth.
- The eighth tick is played as a major third.
Both piano parts are moving up and down in the same directions in an irregular way. So this is about shifting harmonies.
0:45 Bars 27-28. A broad sustained chord, fading out. The drums/percussion part is articulately playing in 5/8.
0:50 Bars 29-36. This is a larger section with 5/8 and 4/8 bars alternating. The players are counting the beats aloud. Possibly Zappa
had some choreography in mind for these bars when he wrote them, but this is not happening during the "Uncle Meat" movie.
Bars 29-32 form a sequence: the short melody/motif of bar 29 gets varied upon three times. During bars 33-35 brass instruments are playing
their own melody lines. In bar 36 the little melody of bar 29 gets varied upon one more time.
1:06 Bar 37. The meter changes to 7/8 and the brass players are taking over with thirds and fourths in the descant and various harmony notes.
1:10 Bar 38-39. The meter changes again. These two bars form a resting period with playing around the progression E - Esus4 with D as a pedal note
beneath it. It's one of many examples showing that Zappa loved the sound of extended chords. While the example so far has been atonal, you are here
having a brief diatonic intermission in D (major or Mixolydian).
1:16 At this point the example from above stops, so only the outlines of the remainder are briefly sketched.
The ensemble continues with modern atonal music.
1:21 Now sections from "200 Motels" can be recognized again. As already said in a much different form.
2:02 Saxophone improvisation by Motorhead Sherwood.
2:21 The ensemble interferes.
2:52 Zappa speaks through his megaphone: "Undaunted, the band plays on".
2:54 End.
Undaunted, the band plays on (Piece two)
Sections from the previous track return during "Undaunted, the band plays on".
Like the previous two titles, this track is free atonal music. Bars 1-4 from the example below
contain a figure played twice. Bars 2 and 4 could be called an arpeggio, led over various instruments (piano, trombone and horns).
Undaunted, the band plays on, 1:47-2:08 (midi file).
Undaunted, the band plays on, 1:47-2:08 (transcription).
Next a high descant melody ensues, played by the hobo and violin. It gets accompanied by the piano. Bar 7 contains two piano chords,
of which the individual notes are a bit difficult to discern. As I'm hearing the second one involves dissonants.
"Undaunted, the band plays on" is also available as part of "Piece two" from "The mystery disc".
Agency man
"Agency man", about how to promote a president to the voters, precedes it. It's a piece you might call a pastiche, opening with Don
Preston improvising a cadenza on a concert piano over the central theme. He keeps playing piano when the first theme starts, using several style elements
from classical piano concerts like arpeggio's, tremolos and ornaments.
Agency man, section (midi file).
Agency man, section (transcription).
This first theme in C is in a straightforward waltz rhythm, the second is a simple march, giving
the instructions for the president's campaign speechwise singing.
Epilogue
The first half minute from "Epilogue" is presented below. It has a tempo change for the second theme, at the part where the meters keep changing. In bars 1-6 4/4 and 6/4 are used
as meters, while the scales keep changing.
Epilogue, section (midi file).
Epilogue, opening (transcription).
In bars 6-10 all meters are different and odd-numbered. The scale here however
is constantly Ab. In his discussion with me Brett Clement calls it Db Lydian. There is a Db pedal in bar 4, but it doesn't get maintained, nor does it return.
"Horizontally" one might say bar 5 is step II from Db Lydian
and bars 6-10 are step V. But vertically bars 6-10 are stable upon Ab. See the next section for the terms horizontal and vertical.
Part of the plot of the play is about the three "talented members of the group" thinking about forming a group of their own with a lot of discipline.
These talents concern musical education, reading sheet music and the ability to perform the modern music as included in the CD. These three members were
Bunk Gardner, Art Tripp and Ian Inderwood. In 2022 I wrote Art Tripp if he could answer some questions for inclusion in this site, among others regarding scores.
To the right an outtake of a photo of The Mothers by Robert Rodriguez with Art Tripp above in the middle.
Q. Little is known about how the band learned new songs. Did Zappa use demos, did he play it for you or were there normally scores?
A. There were almost always charts. I don't recall Frank ever demonstrating or teaching a part to anyone.
For most of the drumming I played pretty much what I wanted. In the more formal chamber pieces there were drum charts. And of course all mallet parts were in score form.
Q. Most scores, that you can find on internet, stem from the seventies. Apparently Zappa handed over handwritten scores that band members could keep. Do you have such scores?
A. I have a couple stored away somewhere.
Q. I've noted that the actual recordings often deviate a little from the score, with adaptations made on the spot, making scores a collection of different versions by themselves.
A. Yes, it was not unusual for Frank to make changes. Naturally if he had the band play his scores for the first time so that he could hear them, there were often changes made.
In the earlier days Ian Underwood was a huge help to Frank. Frank couldn't often play what he had written, so Ian would play it through on the piano so that Frank could hear it.
Q. Are there musical elements that you consider typical or maybe even unique for Zappa?
A. Frank refused to compose anything that was commercial or popular sounding. And if he did he'd add elements that made it unplayable on commercial radio.
TBH I doubt that he could write something for a popular audience. That's much harder to do than you'd think. Much of his music was very open and airy sounding in a unique way,
I suppose mostly because of his use of modal scales and avoidance of thirds.
Q. The Mothers are playing "No matter what you do" on the "Tis the season to be jelly" bootleg. This title starts with a catching riff.
It looks like Zappa didn't consider himself the writer of that riff. Do you have any idea where that riff comes from?
A. No I don't. I didn't join until after that tour. If he used a cover it was undoubtedly in sarcasm. Bunk, Don, or Roy would probably know where the riff came from.
Q. In 2009 Brett Clement came up with a Lydian theory for Zappa's instrumental music, claiming that Lydian is the central scale in Zappa's diatonic instrumental music
[etc., this wasn't really a question, leaving it optional to Art to react].
A. I've never studied the tonalities of Frank's music, but he made wide use of modal scales.
I'm sure there were Lydian, but I'd guess there were also Dorian, Mixolydian and Aeolian as well.
The reason could be as simple as modes that were laid out simply on the guitar, or certainly on the piano.
Since he was not a pianist he probably pecked away at patterns that were easy to play. In "King Kong" for example the main melody is all on the black keys
of the piano, giving it almost a pentatonic sound. After all these years I still have some of his melodies running through my head, but I usually don't remember the titles.
Incidentally he was a big fan of sea shanties. He wrote a few, and one can hear their influence in some of his melodies.
Other tracks from Ahead of their time
- "Holiday in Berlin": see the Movie scores section for the "Burnt weeny sandwich" studio version.
- King Kong (live): see the previous Uncle Meat section and below for the themes of this song.
- "Help, I'm a rock": see the Freak out! section for the 1966 studio version.
- "Transylvania boogie": see the Chunga's revenge section (including this specific live version).
- Pound for a brown - Sleeping in a jar: here these two pieces are played after each other as "The string quartet". They are also played on "Uncle Meat", where
the link to Zappa's teens is included for examples.
- The studio version of "Let's make the water turn black" first appeared on "We're only in it
for the money". Another live version is included in the Best band you never heard in your life section.
- The orange country lumber truck: see the Weasels ripped my flesh section for a small outtake from the guitar solo.
- "Oh no": see the Lumpy gravy section for the 1967 studio version.
To the right an outtake from the elaborate Cal Schenkel drawing for the CD, referring to the law suit between Zappa and former members of the Mothers
of Invention. The argument concerned their royalties when Zappa started releasing material from his tape archive.
Would you like a snack? (1968)
Around 1967-8 Grace Slick from Jefferson Airplane contacted Zappa if he would be interested in producing one of their albums. He had too many obligations to
comply, but their contacts resulted in them recording a song together for their upcoming "Crown of creation" album. At the time this song didn't get actually included, but
it did get released on the "Jefferson Airplane loves you" compilation set from 1992 and the 2003 CD re-release of "Crown of creation". It's titled "Would you like a snack?"
after the lyrics.
Would you like a snack? (1968), 2:10-2:20 (midi file).
Would you like a snack? (1968), 2:10-2:20 (transcription).
Grace Slick improvised these lyrics over a piece of modern music by Zappa. Her vocal parts got recorded in at least two sessions, so she could overdub herself.
The instrumental parts are related to the "Like it or not" track from above, even having a few bars in common.
Part of it is atonal while the piano part at the end is diatonic. The example from above is an outtake from this diatonic end.
It doesn't have a tonic over a longer period, though one might call the piano part from bars 4-9 from the example G Lydian. The meters are my notational choice and
the percussion part is indicated without much details. Zappa would also include a song called "Would you like a snack?" on his 1971 "200 Motels" album, with
which it has no relation. See the corresponding section for the latter composition.
THE ARK, 1969 (FINER MOMENTS)
Uncle Rhebus
In 1969 the band had been playing "King Kong" and "Uncle Meat" for over a year and for the The Ark concert of July 1969 Zappa decided the band
should play it in a really weird manner. "Uncle Meat" was released in April 1969, so the audience may have understood what was going on. The band
namely played these tunes simultaneously without attempts to adjust the themes to each other. So you get the effect Charles Ives always gets quoted for:
the effect of listening to two bands approaching each other and playing different tunes. The track the ZFT released as "Uncle Rhebus" on their
2012 "Finer moments" CD partly overlaps with the "Uncle Meat/King Kong medley" from the "The Ark" bootleg from the "Beat the boots" series. Both contain
this medley and the set-up goes as:
The Ark: Uncle Meat/King Kong
- 0:00 Introduction by Zappa: "King Kong? Well I tell you what... I think what we are gonna do is play Uncle Meat and then, uh, sort of sneak into King Kong
from that. It would be your teenage medley of two".
- 0:25 Uncle Meat main title.
- 3:31 Uncle Meat outro, specific for this CD.
- 3:48 Drum solo.
- 6:06 King Kong main theme.
- 7:15 Solo over the Eb pedal from King Kong.
- 8:21 Theme #2 from King Kong => 0:00 on Finer Moments.
Finer Moments: Uncle Rhebus
- 0:00 Theme #2 from King Kong. For the 1968-9 tours the Mothers of Invention played a second theme on their King Kong performances. It can also be heard
on Ahead of their time. This second theme is not related to the main theme from King Kong. It's both rhythmically and harmonically pretty complex. It starts in C
Dorian for bars 1-4, continuing in C minor for bars 5-6. At the end of bar 6 it looks like Zappa might want to evade to Eb. Bars 1-4 are in regular 12/16.
The theme first gets played unisono, next with the players following their own lines. Thus in bars 3-4 it becomes a chord progression. For bars 5-8 the meters
and rhythm get more complicated. These bars contain strings of 16th and 32nd notes. I've included the drum beats in bars 7-8, so that the notation becomes better
comprehensible. In bars 7-8 you get dissonant harmonies as C-Db-Eb-G in bar 7 and Db-Eb-F-G in bar 8. In these bars the scale has become Db Lydian.
Uncle Rhebus, section of theme #2 from King Kong (midi file).
Uncle Rhebus, section of theme #2 from King Kong (transcription).
- 1:16 Solo in Eb Dorian over bass vamp #1 (this vamp gets represented in the examples below).
- 4:02 King Kong/Uncle Meat medley. While the bass vamp #1 continues, Uncle Meat enters the picture. It comes in as if it were still in D as above on the
Uncle Meat CD. But without the D bass pedal you can't actually call it D anymore. The Eb Dorian vamp belongs to the key King Kong is in. Uncle Meat changes scales
a couple of time. Zappa could have transposed the opening of Uncle Meat to Db, so that it would be in line with Eb Dorian for its use of notes, but that would only work for the
opening bars. While the Uncle Meat part follows the melodic notes of the original with an amount of freedom, the rhythm is here much irregular. It's an improvised jazz
manner of playing this theme. By ignoring much of the rhythm of the bass vamp and using a different key, Uncle Meat sounds as a stranger here. Because of the distance of around
two octaves between bass and descant, the dissonants don't sound that sharp for as long the King Kong lead melody hasn't entered the picture.
The second example below contains the second block from Uncle Meat. Here Uncle Meat and King Kong switch roles. The bass vamp, using only Eb-Bb-Ab, is now in line
with the Eb major scale of this Uncle Meat section. So when the King Kong melody returns in bar 3, the effect here is that King Kong sounds as the stranger. Uncle Meat
and King Kong now have a common tonic, so here you can say that Zappa mingles Eb major and Eb Dorian.
Be aware
of the notation in the two examples below. Uncle Meat and King Kong use their own different keys.
Uncle Rhebus, section #1 from the Uncle Meat/King Kong medley (midi file).
Uncle Rhebus, section #2 from the Uncle Meat/King Kong medley (midi file).
Uncle Rhebus, section #1 from the Uncle Meat/King Kong medley (transcription).
Uncle Rhebus, section #2 from the Uncle Meat/King Kong medley (transcription).
- 5:36 Outro of the medley.
- 6:39 Interlude with bass vamp #2 with a I-III-IV progression in Eb Dorian played over it.
- 7:09 Slower progression with I-IV-III-I. The soloing in Eb Dorian restarts.
- 7:34 The accompaniment turns into a I-IV alternation in Eb Dorian.
- 11:17 Riff like the one included in Didya get any onya (the first one from the Weasels section in this study). Playing this riff after a signal
from Zappa was one of the routines the Mothers did. It could
turn up at any moment.
- 12:01 A solo by Zappa, released as "Baked-bean boogie" on YCDTOSA vol. V (see the Weasels ripped my flesh section).
- 15:29 Music to be included in the later 200 Motels scores. This section also got released as an individual track on YCDTOSA vol. V,
this one with the title "Piano/drum duet".
- 17:45 End.
Some ballet music
"Some ballet music" is a piece of modern music officially only available via the "The Ark" bootleg from the "Beat the boots" series. Seen its
nature it must exist as sheet music. It centers around the wind and percussion section of the band with the flute playing solo for a while during
the beginning.
Some ballet music, 2:58-3:06 (midi file).
Some ballet music, 2:58-3:06 (transcription).
Adapted and re-orchestrated sections from much of this title got later on incorperated into the "Greggery Peccary" score, written in 1973. A part is unreleased music otherwise.
The example above is a small excerpt of eight seconds, played half-way. It's free atonal music, difficult to transcribe because of the constantly varying harmonies and
recognizing which instrument is playing which notes. Elements that form a structure in it can readily be recognized as the similarity of movements, variations upon a motif (bars 3-5) and the melodic line in staff two, bars 6-7.
Zappa introduces this title during the end of the preceding song ("Big leg Emma") as:
"All right, let's get realistic now. You know and I know that the function of that number was just to provide some sort of warm-up trash before we do something heavy.
Something a little bit harder to listen to, but which is probably better for you in the long run. The item in this instance, which will be better for you in the long run,
and if we only had a little more space up here we could make it visual for you, is "Some ballet music", which we've played, uh, in most of our concert series in Europe.
Generally in halls where we had a little bit more space and Motorhead and Kansas could actually fling themselves across the stage, and give you their teenage
interpretation of the art of the ballet. I don't think it's too safe to do it here, maybe they can just hug each other a little bit and do some calisthenics in the middle of the stage."
WHISKY A GO GO, 1968
In 2024 the ZFT released "Whisky a Go Go, 1968", a triple CD from concerts The mothers of invention held at the Whisky a Go Go. It's a smaller hall in L.A.
with a strong reputation, still existing today. The concerts got advertised as a Mothers of invention recording session with Zappa explaining this to the audience during
track 7 of disc I, "The purpose of this evening ...". Zappa opted for a live album and worked on the material afterwards, but eventually changed his mind.
Only a few episodes landed on the first version of "Uncle Meat", to be found on the "Meat Light" CD by the ZFT. Only one on the final "Uncle Meat" album, namely
"God bless America". In a situation like this titles would normally go over into following projects. The strange thing here is that some material simply was left off,
not even to be included in the "YCDTOSA" series. The same happened to the recordings on the ZFT issues "Finer moments", "Funky nothingness" and the three
live CDs from 1972 with the jazz band. The liner notes tell that Zappa did work on these tapes for a while, but eventually very little came to see the light.
It's raw material, but with a lot of editing it could have led to a good album on each occasion. To the right an outtake of a photo by George Rodriguez with people
standing in line for the concerts with a sign saying "Mothers Of Invention - Recording session".
Bust his head
"Bust his head" begins as a crooner but this only lasts as long as the example below. It knows three themes, that don't get repeated. A little medley
you might call it.
- 0:00 Theme 1, "Here I come ...".
- 0:30 Theme 2, "I said I would be home ...".
- 0:57 Theme 3, "I'm gonna bust his head ...".
- 1:23 End.
Bust his head, 0:02-0:25 (midi file).
Bust his head, 0:02-0:25 (transcription).
The chord progression in this example is E-G#m-Amaj7-F#m in E. Most members of the band are participating, playing along these chords in a way that's a little improvised.
It's in standard 4/4 except for bar 3, where you can hear a switch to sixtuplets.
Kim Fowley is guest vocalist on this track and three other titles on this CD. The GTO's appear during "King Kong". Also participating during these concerts were
Wild Man Fisher and Alice Cooper, who had a contract with Discreet, the record label Zappa and Herb Cohen had set up. The CD booklet contains an interview with Alice Cooper
by Ahmet Zappa about these early days of his career, as well as recollections by Pamela Des Barres, member of the GTO's.
Bust his head, 0:51-1:00 (midi fle).
Bust his head, 0:51-1:00 (transcription).
This second example contains the end of theme 2 and the start of theme 3. Theme 2 is in E Dorian. It ends with an evading B chord, bars 3-4 from the example.
The way I've notated these examples means that
the second example should be played twice as fast as the first one. The third theme is built around a chord progression, E-A7. These two chords
don't belong to one specific scale, the implied keys are E and A Mixolydian.
Tiny sick tears jam
Zappa himself released "Tiny sick tears" on "YCDTOSA vol. V" as a parody song.
The "Tiny sick tears jam" is largely instrumental with only Kim Fowley improvising some lyrics. At the beginning you might still
call it a parody, but this parody effect gets less when the soloing starts. When you listen to the example below individually, with Zappa soloing,
the parody effect is gone. Technically it's difficult to find criteriums when something should be called a parody, it's
more a matter of interpretation.
Tiny sick tears jam, 3:21-3:44 (midi file).
Tiny sick tears jam, 3:21-3:44 (transcription).
Like theme 3 from the previous song, this jam doesn't follow one particular scale. It's built around a C7-F7 chord alternation. This vamp itself implies
C and F Mixolydian as keys. When you listen to how Zappa is soloing over it during this example, you can notice he himself is using C Dorian. And one might also say C minor pentatonic for the larger part.
There are a few chromatic notes coming by. A D first appears in bar 7, setting the environment of his soloing to C Dorian. In bar 1 of the example it creates some dissonance between his Eb and the E natural of the first bar of the vamp.
The vamp does use the two notes not included in C minor pentatonic, the D and A. It makes the whole rather indeterminate, sort of a mixture of three scales.
Whisky improvisations: episodes II & III
"Whisky improvisations: episode II" gets introduced as:
Zappa, in the mike: "We're gonna begin with episode number two".
Zappa or somebody else, away from the mike: "Start playing something nice, in G minor, make it up".
The title begins with Don Preston playing a little keyboard solo. Bar 1 from the example below contains the end of it. Next a vamp in 12/8 begins, played slowly.
It's used for band members to solo till 5:12.
Whisky improvisation: episode II, 1:04-1:35 (midi file).
Whisky improvisation: episode II, 1:04-1:35 (transcription).
While classical music in the 18th and 19th century focussed on major and minor, modal scales made a comeback in the 20th century. Not only in modern music,
but also in jazz and pop music. The latter has for instance been investigated by Walter Everett in his book The foundations of rock. When naming scales
people something specifically mention modal scales, sometimes only the type of scale being major or minor. Zappa could do both. In the
Shut up 'n play yer guitar section you can find two quotes with him talking about Mixolydian and Lydian. In this case, or in naming a guitar
solo "That ol' G minor thing again", he's mentioning the scale type being minor. More precisely, as a modal scale, it's G Dorian.
Whisky improvisation: episode III, 1:50-1:59 (midi file).
Whisky improvisation: episode III, 1:50-1:59 (transcription).
While most of the "Whisky improvisations" is improvised, you can also notice that the outlines must have been rehearsed. "Episode I" is the most free one,
giving room to the two drummers. Towards the end of the episode you can hear Mothers routines turning up, as the playing in 5/8. "Episode II" is built around
vamps. "Episode III" is experimental, with Zappa probably doing a lot of hand signalling. The example from above contains a little outtake. The degree of synchronicity
indicates that it must have been rehearsed to play it in this manner, though not in detail. Bars 5-7 are another example of the band playing in 5/8.
Hardly anything is known about how and to what degree the band rehearsed pieces like this. Notable is the tempo change, not included in the midi file.
The drum part is roughly indicated in the transcription, it's standard 4/4 during bars 1-4. This drum part is of importance here for its beating in 5/8.
The whip - Whisky souflée
By now three versions of "The whip" have become available. "Whisky a Go Go, 1968" contains this title as it was recorded live as well
as a shorter version of this recording, edited in the studio. "Meat light" contains another edit, still shorter, for an earlier stage of "Uncle Meat".
Finally "The whip" got skipped for this album, giving room to a longer edit of "King Kong".
The whip (Meat Light), 0:40-0:58 (midi file).
The whip (Meat Light), 0:40-0:58 (transcription).
The complete live version begins with the rhythm section playing in a heavy 6/8 meter, subdivided as One-two-three-One-(two-three). For the edition
on "Meat light", Zappa concentrated on his own soloing. The example from above contains an outtake. At this point the 6/8 feel is much less heavy, gradually moving
over to a 4/4 feel with two bars becoming one. This specifically goes for the point from where the accompaniment start playing the melodic figure
A-G-E-D (bars 11-12). I've notated the whole example in 6/8. It's not possible to transcribe the accompaniment with much precision. The bass is giving an
A pedal, pulsing a little and changing the register. Keyboards are giving additional harmony notes on top of this. The key is A Dorian.
Whisky souflée, 2:02-2:25 (midi file).
Whisky souflée, 2:02-2:25 (transcription).
On "Whisky a Go Go, 1968" "The whip" gets followed by "Whisky souflée", continuing with soloing in A Dorian at first.
The first couple of seconds from "Whisky souflée" are present at the end of the "Meat light" version of "The whip".
In bar 4 of the example from above, "Whisky souflée" switches to A Mixolydian. The band starts playing a vamp
with A7sus4-Asus2-F#m as chord chord progression. A rather uncommon progression, the type of chords that attracted Ruth
Underwood to Zappa's music (see the YCDTOSA Vol. II section). The song ends with citing "Annie had a baby",
written by Glover and Mann.
Whisky souflée, 3:23-3:43 (midi file).
Whisky souflée, 3:23-3:43 (transcription).
This vamp is played through 3:46, after which the song returns to A Dorian. The notes involved vary every couple of bars. At 3:06 Zappa starts playing what you might call a rhythm guitar solo.
He's still following the basis of the vamp, but varying the harmonies. In the section example he's mostly playing A and A7 with the overall harmony
during beats 1-2 becoming A-add-4 and A7-add-4. "Whisky souflée" wasn't released when Brett Clement and I started a discussion about his assertion
that the dominant 7th chord should be seen as prohibited in Zappa's instrumental music, so I can't tell what argument he would have given why
the example from above doesn't count. What I'm hearing here is the dominant 7th being included upon a Mixolydian tonic. I can intellectually understand Brett's argument,
but, as in all other instances, this chord doesn't sound wrong, unstable, not even untypical to me in case of Zappa.
Brown shoes shuffle - Whiskey wah
Because not all members of The Mothers were score reading musicians, "Brown shoes don't make it" had to be recorded in blocks. As Zappa is explaining on
"Whisky a Go Go, 1968", it took a month to be able to play this song live too. The band is doing well here. This title gets followed by "Brown shoes shuffle",
using the initial riff from "Brown shoes don't make it" as a vamp for the start of a guitar solo in F# Dorian.
Brown shoes shuffle, 0:33-0:52 (midi file).
Brown shoes shuffle, 0:33-0:52 (transcription).
When you're looking at the score of this song in the FZ Songbook Vol. I, you can see that this riff is notated in 4/4 without any triplets occurring.
On the "Absolutely free" album, you can hear triplets. In case of the "Brown shoes shuffle" everybody would be using triplets in a 4/4 notation, so in this
case it can be notated in 12/8 more easily.
Whiskey wah, 0:00-0:16 (midi file).
Whiskey wah, 0:00-0:16 (transcription).
"Brown shoes shuffle" can roughly be subdivided into three blocks:
- 0:00 Soloing over the "Brown shoes" vamp like above.
- 6:25 Experimental section.
- 7:35 Soloing over a second vamp.
- 11:26 End.
"Whiskey wah" from "Meat Light" is an outtake from the third block of "Brown shoes shuffle", starting at 8:08. The example from above
contains the first five bars of "Whiskey wah". Zappa is here following the F# minor blues scale. Only the harmony notes from bar 1 set
the environment to F# Dorian.