Notes & Comments - Apostrophe(')
22 March 1974, 31:58 min
Discography
| Notes & Comments
APOSTROPHE(')
Notes & Comments
ver.24-Dec-1995
put together by
Vladimir Sovetov (sova@bank.kemerovo.su)
lyrics was originaly
transcribed by
Rich Kulawiec (rsk@ecn.purdue.edu)
# From: fnord@panix.com (Cliff Heller)
#
# The opening songs/medley are a dream. "Dreamed I was an eskimo"
# Frank dreams he is Nanook of the north who goes out against his mother's
# wishes, yet heeds her plea to "watch out where the huskies go and don't you
# eat that yellow snow". He encounters an evil fur trapper who is attacking
# his favorite baby seal and does battle with him. He actually picks up the
# deadly yellow snow and rubs it in the fur trapper's eyes. The blindness
# can only be cured at the parish of St. Alphonso, which is actually a
# pancake breakfast (This is a dream, remember?). This leads into a tune
# about Father O'blivion, presumably leader of this flock of devotees to St.
# Alphonso and pancakes.
Don't Eat The Yellow Snow
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And my mama cried
And my mama cried
Nanook, a-no-no
Nanook, a-no-no
^^^^^^
# From: "Tony Pfarrer"
#
# "NANOOK OF THE NORTH" (1922, silent, B&W, documentary by
# Robert J. Flaherty)
# This early documentary about Eskimo life in the Hudson's Bay region
# of Northern Quebec provided one of the first glimpses of Eskimo life
# available for mass consumption.(Remember, there was no TV then).
# Because of the film, the name NANOOK became the archetypal name used
# when referring to an Eskimo. (They are now called INUIT)
"Watch out where the huskies go, and don't you eat that yellow snow"
^^^^^^^^^^^
# From: Vladimir Sovetov (sova@bank.kemerovo.su)
# The other day my co-worker ( not FZ fan but real fur-trapper :-)
# whome I tricked to hear ' ( I've just named his host husky :-)))
# explained me why the snow is so yellow there. 'Cose they all he said
# grining knowingly piss on it day and night folks and dogs. Heh.
Nanook Rubs It
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Whereupon I proceeded to take that mittenful of the deadly yellow snow
crystals and rub it all into his beady little eyes with a vigorous
circular motion hitherto unknown to the people of this area, but destined
to take the place of the mudshark in your mythology
^^^^^^^^
# From: Vladimir Sovetov (sova@bank.kemerovo.su)
# Fantastic creature first brought to the light in FILLMORE EAST, JUNE 1971
#
# From: db832@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Phillip A. Freshour)
# I believe the mudshark story is based in fact: (from memory, so please
# correct me). Members of Led Zeppelin were fishing from a hotel
# balcony in Seattle. One of them caught a mudshark, a very ugly fish,
# and proceeded to perform unspeakable acts involving the mudshark and
# a female groupie. Hence, a legend is born.....
#
# From: sweet@skat.usc.edu (Rob Sweet)
# It was the Vanilla Fudge, (remember them) who had taken part in
# the infamous Mudshark rituals at the Edgewater Inn in Seattle Washington.
# Supposedly they even made a film of this event, and Frank may have viewed
# the film. He thought it was such a bizarre event in rock and roll folklore
# (it's so perverted) that he wrote a nice song about it.
#
# From: fm24@rummelplatz.uni-mannheim.de (Oliver Klimek)
# "Nanook" was also released on "Baby Snakes". The lyrics are included. There
# it says: "...destined to take the place of the mudshark in _rheumatology_"
# This sounds ok if you think of the treatment of rheumatism with bathes in
# specially prepared mud.
Great Googly Moogly!
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
# From: fm24@rummelplatz.uni-mannheim.de (Oliver Klimek)
# Same as "Muthermarynjozuf"
St. Alphonzo's Pancake Breakfast
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At St. Alphonzo's Pancake Breakfast
# From: db832@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Phillip A. Freshour)
# It's quite common, in the U.S. anyway, for churches to serve
# pancake breakfasts as fund-raisers. I believe that's the connection.
As she abused the sausage pattie
^^^^^^
# From: "Tony Pfarrer"
# A "Pattie" is a flat, disc-shaped object, generally food. Something
# like a flat hockey puck. A "sausage pattie" is sausage meat
# pressed into pattie shape and fried.
#
# From: db832@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Phillip A. Freshour)
# A "patty" of ground sausage (meat), resembling a hamburger.
#
# From: bhyde@harris.com (Brian Hyde)
# Sausage patties are a breakfast food in the USA. A sausage
# roll is cut into disk-shaped pieces and fried in a skillet.
# (Not recommended for a low-cholesterol diet!) :)
Father O'Blivion
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dominus vobiscum
Et cum spiritu tuo
# From: frank@etecnw.com (Frank Mathew x 7271)
# simply means "The Lord be with you, and with your spirit" as statement
# and reply. It's an oft-repeated part of the Roman Catholic Mass in Latin,
# sort of a farewell at the end. Any Catholic from FZ's era would have this
# permanently embedded in his or her memory.
Cosmik Debris
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
# From Vladimir Sovetov (sova@bank.kemerovo.su)
# There are an amazing similarity of details ( see below ) in FZ depiction of
# the Mystery Man and the Magic Mama from Camarillo Brillo OVERNITE song.
# I guess it's nothing else but Frank's conceptual continuity.
# Here
But he told me right then when the top popped open
There was nothin' his box won't do
With the oil of Aphrodite, and the dust of the Grand Wazoo
# In Camarillo Brillo it goes like that
#
# She ruled the Toads
# of the Short Forest
# Here
#
And I said "Look here brother-who you
Jiving with that cosmik debris?
Now is that a real poncho or is that a Sears poncho?
#
# In Camarillo Brillo it goes like that
#
#
# (Is that a real poncho...I mean
# Is that a Mexican poncho
# or is that a Sears poncho?
# Hmmm...no foolin' ...)
OM SHANTI
^^^^^^^
# From: robert@sybase.com (Robert Garvey)
# The word is ``shanti'' and means peace (in Sanskrit, I think).
Excentrifugal Forz
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There's always Korla Plankton . . .
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Him an' me can play the blues
An' then I'll watch him buff
That tiny ruby that he use
He'll straighten up his turban
An' eject a little ooze
Along a one-celled Hammond organ-ism
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Underneath my shoes
# onthecornr@aol.com (OnTheCornr)
# With the current vogue for "incredibly strange music" of the '50s and
# '60s, I've started seeing TONS of these old lounge music records at record
# conventions over the last year or two. That's how I learned about a
# turban-wearing organ player named Korla Pandit, who I suddenly realized is
# referred to in "Excentrifugal Forz" as Korla Plankton. The reference
# to his turban (I don't remember if he wore a ruby in it) and his "Hammond
# organism"...it's all there! Dunno if Frank ever really "played the blues"
# with this character, though.
#
# From: John Henley
# Date: Tue, 31 Oct 95 14:36:46 GMT
# Not long ago, there was a brief thread in which some very ingenious
# and knowledgable person had figured out that "Korla Plankton" from
# Excentrifugal Forz was a reference to an obscure musican named Korla
# Pandit. The "tiny ruby," "turban" and "one-celled Hammond organism" were
# taken to be clues.
# I thought at the time, "I've heard that name before," but I couldn't place
# it. I collect old-time radio shows, from the 30s thru the 50s, and I have
# about a dozen episodes of Chandu The Magician, from 1949. I pulled one to
# listen to last night, while working out; and at the end, the announcer
# intoned: "Music by...Korla Pandit."
# Zap. Chandu the Magician takes place mostly in the Sahara desert. The
# music on this series is performed by two people - you got it, the lead
# instrument is a Hammond organ, playing the most cliche'd "Arabian" motifs
# you can imagine, with a sort of somber hand-drum drum accompaniment.(No
# bongo fury here.)
# This is the first time I can remember my two main hobbies dovetailing in
# this way. Makes me think that conceptual continuity extends beyond the
# boundaries of Frank's own work.
And then I'll call Pup Tentacle
^^^^^^^^^^^^
# So I put the big question to you here WHO IS THIS GUY with hurted
# chin? Obviously it should be another player of oriental stuff. Look,
Because that's where he's been
His little feet got long 'n flexible
An' suckers fell right in
The time he crossed the line
From *Later On* to *Way Back When*
^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
# It SHOULD be songs of Pup T. 'coze they put in italic in printed
# lyrics! Book him, Dan-o!-)
Uncle Remus
~~~~~~~~~~~
# From: Jack Fleming
# Uncle Remus is a character created by Joel Chandler Harris in a collection
# of stories that was first published in 1880. They also appeared in the
# Disney movie "Song of the South".
#
# From: fnord@panix.com (Cliff Heller)
# Uncle Remus is the only song that's really about anything. It's basically
# an anthem for the early 70's negro. It expresses a resigned frustration.
# Basically, just trying to get your fair share yet having to deal with such
# injustices as being hosed down (presumably during riots.) The only way
# they can get back at white society is to go to "Beverly Hills, just before
# dawn and knock the little jokeys off the rich people's lawns." It was (and
# may still be) common for rich people to have a ceramic negro jockey on
# their lawn. Gnomes are also common.
I can't wait til mah 'fro is full grown
^^^^^
# From: db832@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Phillip A. Freshour)
# An "Afro" (or "'fro") was a huge head of hair, popular among African-
# Americans in the 1970s.
#
# From: hank@dweezil.music.mcgill.ca (Hank Knox)
# Short for 'afro'; what you get if you're black and you let your hair grow
# out. Check out any number of movies from the '70s (Superfly, stuff like
# that) to get an idea what a 'fro looks like. If you're as old as me, think
# back on that wretched TV show, 'The Mod Squad'; one of those guys had a 'fro.
# (Or how about that Buddy Miles album cover, with Buddy's 'fro glowing in a
# sort of electric aroma?)
#
I'll just through in my doo-rag at home
^^^^^^
# From: db832@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Phillip A. Freshour)
# A "doo-rag" is, well, a rag for your hair-do.
# It's usually a bandana tied around one's skull. Sam Kinison often
# wore a doo-rag.
#
# From: hank@dweezil.music.mcgill.ca (Hank Knox)
# It's probably 'throw'... And someone else can flesh out the 'doo-rag'
# reference; my guess it has to something to do with the process of
# straightening out naturally kinky hair into some kind of straight,
# kind-of-white-person's hair-do.
#
# From: bjbernstein@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu (Brian J. Bernstein)
# No, a doo-rag (or however you care to spell it) is basically some kind of
# cloth or such used to cover / hold together / manage? your hair.. Many
# people when trying to grow their hair out will wear one of these.. I wore a
# bandanna for several months while growing my hair out..
# btw.. I think it's "I'll just throw away my doo-rag at home..."
#
# From: John Henley
# Correct.....actually, it's "I'll just throw 'way my doo-rag...." That's
# a little nod towards black "dialect."
#
# From: gcrund@sage.cc.purdue.edu (DeLoach)
# I always thought a doo-rag was like a bandana wrapped on yer head (as in
# hairdo-rag). I come from a very sanitized upbringing however and all
# my cultural input is from TV...(so it must be true).
I'll take a drive to
Beverly Hills
Just before dawn
And knock the little jockeys
Off the rich peoples lawn
# From: pepke@scri.fsu.edu (Eric Pepke)
# Lawn jockeys (which are usually cast iron, not ceramic) still exist, but
# they've all been whitewashed.
#
# From: John Henley
# This could stand a little further explanation. I believe that cast-iron
# figures such as these were originally _hitching posts for horses_, back in
# the 19th Century. I don't know that they originated in the American South,
# but the plantation culture of the South at that time permitted the
# landowners to live in a fairly wealthy genteel manner, in large houses. It
# had to be much classier for the owners to provide decorative hitching posts
# for horses, their own or visitors', as opposed to the rickety wooden
# hitching posts found outside merchants' shops or common peoples' dwellings.
# And, because we're talking about a culture dependent on slavery, then
# naturally the figure would represent something they knew: the Negro
# servant who took the reins of the horse when the master finished his ride.
# As to the jockey's dress: it was also common in the South for black slaves
# (and later, servants) to be the horse handlers, and to serve as jockeys in
# the informal horse races of the time, and later in the more formal races.
# Obviously, these items continued as decorative figures around the old manor
# houses long after they ceased serving as hitching posts, until finally they
# became simply yard decorations used by anyone of any class who wanted to
# spiff up their homesteads. In this sense, they are much the same as pink
# flamingos. But because they're black caricatures, they are commonly
# considered to be offensive and unacceptable now. (Note: the collecting of
# black-caricature figures such as these has become a hobby among some
# well-heeled or notable black people nowadays, such as Whoopi Goldberg.)
Stink-Foot
~~~~~~~~~~
# From: fnord@panix.com (Cliff Heller)
# Stink Foot is about the evil condition of bromodrosis and it's assorted
# difficulties. It has a talking dog in it who waxes philosophical.
#
# From: John Henley
# By the time of the 1979 London performance heard on YCDTOSA V. 1, Frank
# had changed the word to the more accurate "podobromidrosis." From Black's
# Medical Dictionary, 1990 edition: "Bromidrosis [correct spelling]: the
# excretion of evil-smelling perspiration." The "podo-" prefix is from the
# Greek "pod-", meaning foot. (Only a British dictionary would describe
# something as "evil-smelling.")
#
# From: Valdimir Sovetov
# And a couple of words about what was the source of inspiration
#
# " There is one [song] inspired by Mennen foot spray commercial where
# the god keels over after the guy takes his shoes off. Do you know
# how hard to write a song about something like that?"
# (Zappa: November 1973)
# Miles. Frank Zappa. A Visual Documentary. p.62 )
Here Fido, Fido,
^^^^^^^^^^^
# From: db832@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Phillip A. Freshour)
# "Fido", as it's usually spelled, is a traditional (American) name for a
# dog. Many of Frank's poodles have been named Fido (those poodles being
# figurative poodles, not flesh-and-blood poodles). I guess he felt "Phydeux"
# was a more regal spelling.....
#
# From: srouse@wv.mentorg.com (Sam Rouse)
# I think Phydeaux was the name of Frank's tour bus(es) for a number of years.
# The first time I saw him (Portland OR Paramount, probably sometime in 1976)
# the tour bus behind the hall was painted to look just like a Greyhound bus,
# but the word "Greyhound" that normally occupies the entire side of the bus
# was replaced with "Phydeaux" (same lettering style), and the sleek greyhound
# logo picture was replaced with a dorky-looking, crosseyed dog saying "Arf!".
# I don't know whether Phydeaux 3 refers to the third incarnation of the bus,
# or the third in the fleet that may have been in existence by the time of JG.
# Tour busses I've seen at subsequent tours didn't have the FZ graphics, but
# I guess the name stuck.
#
#CC
# From: ep183@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Steve Roche)
# In the cityscape on the back cover of the Absolutely Free lp is a sign
# showing a dog collar and the caption 'BUY A FYDO fits swell'.
#
# From: cbas125@vaxa.strath.ac.uk
#
# Date: Thu, 26 May 94 18:48:21 GMT
# Wooooo, it's me again. I found this in last Sunday's Observer newspaper.
# All spelling mistakes are mine.
#
# Martin Wroe reports on a 20-year study to determine the greatest artist of
# the century - of course it's Frank Zappa
#
# THE POLITICS OF POODLE ROCK
#
# .................................
# Zappa briefly owned a poodle and said: "Poodles give continuity to my
# albums, it's like brown in Rembrandt." Mr Watson, who began the book
# 20-years ago as an English student at Cambridge, takes him at his word.
#
# .................................
# In fact Mr Watson had been "doing this" since studying Plato's The Phaedo
# and started to feel he was going mad. Many of the allusions and ideas his
# professor expounded from the canon of great literature, seemed to ring true
# in the work of Zappa: "Inexplicable coincidences kept happening, although my
# lecturer had never heard of Zappa." For example, Zappa had made an entire
# record called Phaedo.
#
# "Fido is also the common name we give to dogs, which also means
#`'I believe' in Latin" adds Mr Watson.
mpt, mpt, mpt, come here little puppy
Bring the slippers
Arf, arf, arf
(C-R-A-S-H)
# From: John Henley
# Actually, this noise is the sound of a gigantic slobber: Fido is
# throwing up all over the slippers - maybe even dying over them. Followed
# by:
Huhm, HAH, HAH, HAH...sick!
This is the dog talkin' now
"What is your, conceptual continuity?"
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
# From: clemenr@westminster.ac.uk (Ross Clement)
# "Conceptual continuity" as far as I know it refers to the way in which
# something (e.g. a TV program) remains consistent throughout episodes/releases/
# whatever. E.g. if The Enterprise's engines act some way in one episode of
# Star Trek, they should also work that way in following episodes.
"Well I told 'em right then", Fido said
"It should be easy to see
"The crux of the biscuit
is the apostrophe"
^^^^^^^^^^
# From: fnord@panix.com (Cliff Heller)
# People discussed at length the significance of "apostrophe" and the "crux
# of the biscuit". It seems obvious, but no one mentioned that the monologue
# by phydeaux goes something like:
#
# It isn't, and it doesn't }\
# I won't and it don't } - What do all these words have in common?
# ...
# It even ain't }/
#
# I told him no no no
# He told me yes yes yes
#
# I do it all the time
# Ain't this boogie a mess?
#
# The answer my friend should be easy to see
# The crux of the biscuit is the apostrophe
The poodle bites, the poodle chews it
# From: Vladimir Sovetov (sova@bank.kemerovo.su)
# Here we are. Good and obvious example of FZ CCC :-)))
# This lines of Fido identical to the Frenchie's from
# OVERNITE _Dirty Love_.
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