ONE SIZE FITS ALL: THROUGH-COMPOSED MELODIES AND SONG STRUCTURES

"One size fits all" contains several melodies that are through-composed, like the themes from "Inca roads", "Sofa", "Florentine pogen" and "Evelyn". The term stands for (sections from) pieces that contain an ongoing melodic line instead of repeating themes. The fluid melody of "Inca roads" gets broken sharp and abrupt once, namely at the section between 0:57 and 1:10 (included below). It's probably one of these interruptions that made George Duke complain to Zappa in a Frank Scheffer documentary (see also the What's next section) saying "This is too beautiful, you can't mess it up". But then Frank would simply reply "Yeah, but it needs to be messed up" (image to the right with the subtitles in Dutch beneath it). The interrupting bars are indeed weird. Their only purpose is to break the melody completely and cause confusion. On the other hand, when you've listened to "Inca roads" often, you get thus used to their presence that removing them would be strange as well. "Inca roads" begins with a vamp of two bars. These two bars are minor variations upon each other. George Duke plays a synthesizer solo over the vamp. The transcription begins at the point where the main theme gets sung. Here the key is vacillating between C major and C Lydian via the keyboard harmony chords you can hear in the background, like at points:
0:38  D.
0:41  F.
0:42  C-D.
0:45  F#m-5.
0:52  Fsus4.
The 1988 execution has this similarly, like an F# for the bass at 0:30 and an F for the melody at 0:41. In 2012 another guitar book from the Hal Leonard series appeared, this one by Addi Booth with all of "One size fits all". It has the guitar chords much more detailed in it than as I just indicated, about a chord per note. I don't know if he actually managed to hear these chords from record or whether it's a proposed arrangement. It sounds okay if you play it in that manner and then the melody would tend more towards being polyscalar. Bars 13-19 above contain the interruption (Addi Booth has it written out in details with all off the spoken words in it). Bars 20-22 include two variations upon the opening bar, the first simply by being in 5/4, the second is an acceleration via triplets. It's the point from whereupon the melody starts to modulate more clearly: the sung F from bar 10 becomes F# in bar 22.

Below to the left: George Duke during his keyboard solo from "Inca roads" (1974). Source: Dub room special DVD.

Inca roads, opening theme (midi file).
Inca roads, YCDTOSA II, solo section (midi file).

Inca roads, opening theme (transcription).
Inca roads, YCDTOSA II, solo section (transcription).

"Inca roads" is one of a series of Zappa songs that's made up of recordings from different live recordings plus studio overdubs, so that he could combine the parts that he thought had worked out the best. Usually you get the information about how it's done via the album liner notes or what's been said about it in interviews. Here you have a unique situation in which you can check everything out yourself. In the eighties Zappa released the two live recordings, that formed the basis of "Inca roads", integrally and unaltered. The first one is "Inca roads" from the "Dub room special", with the performance the band did before a studio audience at KCET TV, good for the basic tracks. The other version is "Inca roads" from "YCDTOSA Vol. II/The Helsinki tapes", that delivered the guitar solo. Comparing these with the "One size fits all" version then makes it possible to identify the overdubbed parts as the remaining source. Zappa must have been pleased with the result and, it must be said, the final "One size fits all" version surpasses the two live recordings. He kept playing "Inca roads", but didn't include a later version in his live compilations until 1991. An earlier version from 1972 however appeared on "The lost episodes" from 1995. This one begins with what's a faster variation upon the opening theme on "Inca roads". Speaking for myself I got so used to hearing this part as a variation that it sounds illogic to open "Inca roads" in this manner. The reality is that it's the other way round. "The lost episodes" begins with the theme in its first form and the opening on "Inca roads" is in fact a slower variation, added later on. From the later "Inca roads" performances, a couple of solos were taken out and released as individual pieces, most notably on "Shut up 'n' play yer guitar". The "Inca roads" solo is a I-II alternation in C Lydian. Bootleg collectors, and sometimes interview information, make it possible to positively identify other C Lydian solos as stemming from "Inca roads". Zappa shortened the original Helsinki solo for "One size fits all" (OSFA below) on three spots, that can be located in the above mentioned guitar book as follows (YCDTOSA sections as mentioned in the globalia.net/donlope/fz site):
- Page 18, transition from bar 5 to 6 (OSFA point 3:51): YCDTOSA 3:55 through 4:27 are edited out.
- Transition from page 18 to 19 (OSFA point 4:14): YCDTOSA 4:50 through 5:25 are edited out.
- Page 20, bar 4, transition from beat 2 to 3 (OSFA point 4:36, end of the solo): YCDTOSA 5:47 through 6:05 are edited out.
The second example above represents the YCDTOSA solo from 3:51-4:34, thus some bars from "One size fits all" plus the first block that got edited out. The two cutting points are indicated with an arrow. Another thing you can hear is that Zappa can change the sound of the guitar and make notes from guitar effects vanish. The YCDTOSA sound is rawer and contains more additional sounds from guitar effects, whereas the OSFA sound is brighter. You can see this for instance in a simple form by comparing bar 22 in the transcription above and the one by Addi Booth: the lower D and A are missing, not because Addi didn't notate them, but because Zappa made them largely disappear.

The general outlines of "Inca roads" can be readily followed, using the Hal Leonard guitar book:
0:00 Main theme as described above. The vamp only uses the note combination C, D and G. So the other four notes of a diatonic scale can determine what scale is used. By altering notes Zappa lets the melody and harmony vary between C major, C Lydian and C minor.
1:44 Motif I, a string of mostly 16th notes, played four times. Both F# and a lower E are used as pedal notes. The F# indicates F# Locrian, but on E it's E Minor, a more normal scale. See below for different versions of this section.
2:00 Guitar solo (see above and below), during the beginning briefly played as a I-IV alternation in A Dorian by the bass, but soon turning to a I-II alternation in C Lydian.
4:37 Motif II. This sung motif stems the opening of Holiday in Berlin solo from 1970, being a variation upon it. See the Bootleg and archive recordings section from this study.
5:09 Motif I returns.
5:27 Variation upon sections from the main theme. So far almost all of "Inca roads" has been in 4/4. Here the meters start to vary.
5:41 Instrumental variations upon the main theme. It's at this point where the earlier version on the "Lost episodes" CD starts. Thus historically this is the original statement of the theme and the opening on "One size fits all" was added to it later on. It looks like this also applies to the opening vamp. The "Roxy by proxy" version does not yet include this vamp (see the Roxy section). Rip Rense cites Ian Underwood for saying that this earlier version should not be seen as a merely a prototype for just learning this piece ("The lost episodes" booklet). It just got bigger and got played in different manners during time. The "Roxy by proxy" version confirms this. According to Rip Rense many Zappa songs with lyrics can be played instrumentally just as well. The 1972 and 1975 versions of "Inca roads" illustrate this. See also the "Let's make the water turn black" paragraph from the Make a jazz noise here section for more examples.
6:05 Keyboard interlude in 7/16 with a through-composed melody. This melody gets led through a number of Lydian and Dorian keys, changing per bar.
6:23 Motif III, a descending sequence in 6/8, leading to a repeated figure in Bb Lydian.
6:34 Keyboard solo in 7/16, alternating Ab Lydian and G Dorian.
7:52 Variation upon the previous keyboard interlude. The melody is mostly the same, but the meter and rhythm are different.
8:08 Main theme variations once more, followed by an outro.
8:44 End.

Inca roads, 5:41-5:55 (midi file).

Inca roads, 5:41-5:55 (transcription).

This last example is the opening from what's called the interlude in the One size fits all songbook. I've included a transcription from the CD, the songbook score and an orchestral arrangement, sent to me by Tom Trapp. Tom works as an arranger/composer, originally in New York and today in Amsterdam, Holland. His site offers a number of such arrangements, among others this orchestral version of the complete "Inca roads" score (apart from the improvised solos). What you can see happening here is the return of several phrases from the main theme with a different rhythm. Instead of a steady 4/4 with a vamp, it contains almost constantly changing meters. Because of the absence of lyrics at this point the music can be played much faster as at the beginning. This section is diatonic but, other as at the beginning, it can't be attributed to scales. The bass is either playing along with the melody or playing counterpoint figures. It doesn't confirm a tonic.
As about always there are also on this occasion some minor differences between the score and the album execution:
- The 8/16 bar lasts 9/16 on the album with the second C being extended from a 16th note to an eighth note. Because both Addi and Tom are using 8/16, I think this was a change done on the spot.
- During beat three of the 5/4 bar you can hear the marimba hitting an Ab while the keyboards play a G. Here Addi prescribes this G, where Tom is notating an Ab. Since you can hear both on the album, it remains undecided which notes Zappa put on paper himself.
- The rhythm of beat four of the 4/4 bar goes different on the album and the scores by Addi and the one by Tom. Again it remains undecided how Zappa then must have notated this. The triplet with 32nd notes by Addi looks almost undoable to me in this tempo. Like above I'm not really hearing the chords he's indicating. Possibly it's a suggested harmonization, but during the 15/16 bar his chords can be partly recognized in the bass figures. This 15/16 bar is played as three times 5/16. The guitar book has 4+4+4+3 as subdivision. I guess that's something his notation program did, that he forgot, or didn't find important to adjust.

The following is a passage from the "Inca roads" performance, to be found on the ZFT release "Zappa/Erie". It contains the first appearance oh what I'm calling motif I above, followed by the first four bars of the ensuing guitar solo. It got recorded at the Edinboro concert from may 1974. At this point "Inca roads" existed with the structure as described above. At a detail level much of the this passage differs from the "One size fits all" version.

Inca roads (Edinboro), 2:46-3:16 (midi file).

Inca roads (Edinboro), 2:46-3:16 (transcription).

When you're comparing this to the "One size fits all" CD, only the lead melody from bars 1-4 goes identical. Bars 5-8 are a variation upon bars 1-4. The guitar part is to a degree comparable, but the melody from staff 2 goes pretty different. Rhythmically both are strings of 16th notes. Next the guitar solo begins. During this solo, the bass keeps playing in a way similar to the opening bass vamp, thus different from the I-II alternation to be heard ever since the Helsinki concert. Characteristic of this recording is the use of cowbells during the solo. They have pitches, thus creating a sort of free accompanying melody. During this whole example the key is brightly C Lydian with only the F natural from bars 6 and 8 turning up as an altered note (the starting note from the guitar glissandos is rather randomly picked).

Inca roads (One size fits all), 1:43-2:40 (midi file).

Inca roads (One size fits all), 1:43-2:40 (transcription).

This last example is the corresponding section from "One size fits all", followed by 20 bars of guitar soloing. It takes 16 bars before this solo settles as a I-II alternation in C Lydian. Bars 19-24 are even suggesting that it could become a I-IV alternation in A Dorian, but this isn't to last. In the Guitar book bars 1-8 from this example are called an interlude. Strangely enough the Guitar book goes different from the album regarding bars 5-8.

Inca roads, Guitar book pages 13-14 (midi file).

Inca roads, Guitar book pages 13-14 (transcription).

Thus far I haven't seen any sign of transcribers from the Hal Leonard series trying to re-arrange material to the point of adding new lines, that you can't hear on the album. So it's very well possible that at this point this is based upon an original score of this passage. On the album I'm not hearing what is getting called riff C, nor do I hear the three-note chords of guitars 9-12 (the indicated Dadd9 chord overlaps with notes from riff C). Instead I'm hearing the guitars 11-12 part and some harmonic enrichment, that I'm showing in staff 4 from bars 5-8 of my One size fits all example. This last example here above goes literally as the Guitar book is indicating. It sounds quite all right if you play it like this. In the Best band you never heard in your life section you can find yet another version of this instrumental interlude from "Inca roads (1988)", that precedes the guitar solo. In 1988 the variations of the main theme, played at the end, were also handled quite differently.