Notes & Comments - The Man From Utopia
March 1983, 36:34 min
Discography
| Notes & Comments
MAN FROM UTOPIA
Notes and Comments
ver.22-June-1995
put together by
Vladimir Sovetov
# Album covers mystery explanation
#
# From: nudeadguy@aol.com (NudeAdGuy)
# For a complete description straight from the Zappa's mouth, pick up a copy
# of "You Cant Do That..." Volume 1. See the liner notes for "Zomby Woof" on
# said CD...
#
# From: fnord@panix.com (Cliff Heller)
# More stuff in volume III (or maybe IV) where Ray White sings "Nigger
# Biznis" while choking on tear gas.
# At least one of the banners reads "vafanculo" which translates essentially
# as "go fuck yourself"
# This album cover is very very cool. Zappa as Ranxerox.
#
# From: Gary@kino.demon.co.uk (Gary Cook)
# You just need to check out the RANXEROX comic books by the famous italians
# Stefano Tamburini and Tanino Liberatore - fantastically drawn futuristic
# amoral mayhem (sounds just like the Pistoia (sp?) concert that TMFUtopia's
# cover is parodying, to me)... Anyhow, they are IMO some of the nicest
# looking comic art ever.
# _also_ ------and I've always been amazed by this - in the foreword to the
# paperback version of "Rankxerox in New York" (pub. Catalan Communications,
# copyright 1984,1986 ISBN 0-87416-027-8) is a photograph of FRANK, sitting
# with the artist and writer sitting at an outdoor cafe table,
# apparently discussing an open copy of one of the comics. I have always
# fondly imagined that this is a photo of the original meeting to arrange the
# drawing of that great cover. (Trivia - there is one stubbed cigarette butt
# in the ashtray - from this, can we conclude that neither Lib. nor Tamb.
# smoke, and they hadn't been there long?)
Cocaine Decisions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chop a line now...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
# From: fnord@panix.com (Cliff Heller)
# Cocaine usually comes in a rock like format that must be chopped up with a
# razor blade on a mirror. You chop it up until it is fine and powdery and
# then make lines which are snorted through straws or rolled up currency -
# the $100 bill being ultra cool.
#
Cocaine decisions...
You are a person with a snow-job
^^^^^^^^^
# From: "Peter de B. Harrington"
# Snow-job funny double entendre. Snow implies coke, but also implies
# the person has a job that does not really contribute to society (sort of
# like a lawyer or publicist). (To snow = to put one over or fool).
#
# From: John Henley
# "snow job" - refers to a job that seems more important than it is, where
# you fool people about how important you are and what you can do. Also a
# job that pays enough so you can buy coke.
You got a fancy gotta go job
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
# From: fnord@panix.com (Cliff Heller)
# Just to rhyme mostly. "gotta-go" just refers to high powered 1980's style
# business. Someone with "A fancy gotta go job" is a big time wheeler and
# dealer who has a lot of money. Cocaine is expensive.
#
# From: "Peter de B. Harrington"
# Coke is being referred to as yuppie or upper class drug. During the early
# '80s alot of status was attached to coke use. Zappa used to do a live
# bit called Cocaine Rumors, about parties where all the participants would
# converse about how much coke they just did. Also, the Yuppie implication
# was that they were busy in their job and were always on the move, so a
# common expression was "gotta go."
#
# From: John Henley
# "fancy gotta-go job" - refers to a busy and important job which keeps the
# person moving from place to place all day. Many big sales executives are
# like this. In the 1980s, many of those executive were young guys who
# made so much money that they could, and did, spend a lot of it on coke.
I don't wanna know
'Bout the things that you pull
Outta your nose
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
# From: fnord@panix.com (Cliff Heller)
# You've obviously never done cocaine. Since you try to coat your mucuous
# membranes with it, it can irritate and form big crusty snot. Sometimes the
# membranes bleed. If you abuse coke it really fucks up your inner nose.
# This is what Frank is talking about. The big disgusting coke snot that
# users do pull out of their nose.
#
# From: "Peter de B. Harrington"
# What goes in must come out. At least sometimes. So the next morning
# when you want to clear those nasal passages for that wake-up line, one uses
# a finger which can remove quite a bit of residue. Also, when you are
# not telling people about how much you did, you can discuss what you
# pulled out and what you then did with it.
And the cocaine decisions that you make today
Will not be discovered till it's over 'n' done
By the customers you hold at bay
#:-)))))) Let's mine the harbor ((((((-:
Cocaine decisions...
We must watch the stuff you make
You have let us eat the cake
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
# From: John Henley
# "eat the cake" - I think this refers back to the saying from the French
# Revolution, "let them eat cake." In Frank's sense, it means you have
# given people flashy stuff that they think they want, instead of giving
# them useful stuff that they need. It also implies that the person who
# provides the cake does not respect the people who eat it.
#
# From: fnord@panix.com (Cliff Heller)
# Big wordplay on the famous Marie Antoinette line "Let them eat cake"
# Referring to the insensitivity of the opulent rich.
#
# From: "Peter de B. Harrington"
# From Marie Antoinette "Let them eat cake." Implies the aristocratic
# attitude and that in the end we are paying for their cocaine decision.
Sex
~~~
Even them Christians who are born again
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
SEX
#CC
#
# It is a direct reference to Pat Robertson's case
# See _When The Lie's So Big_ track on _Broadway the Hard Way_
Some girls try it 'n' go on a diet
Then they worry 'cause they's too fat
Who wants t'ride on a ironin' board?
That ain't no fun...I tried me one
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
# From: John Henley
# I don't think anyone really knows if Frank preferred fat women.
# Gail was not fat when he married her. I think it's a mistake to assume
# that it's always Frank himself talking in these songs. It may be some
# other "character."
#
# From: fnord@panix.com (Cliff Heller)
# Temper it with "Jumbo Go Away".
# In my younger days I preferred my women thin. Now prefer a little meat.
Grow that meat all over yer bones
Work the wall with the local jones
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
# From: fnord@panix.com (Cliff Heller)
# 1) To talk to (i.e. try to pick up ) people standing against the Wall in a
# nightclub.
# 2) To stand against the wall in a nightclub waiting to be picked up/talked
# to
# To have sex with someone while standing up, leaning against the wall.
#
# Frank uses the term loosely, although I believe it originated with "Mudd
# Club" - "work the wall, work the pipe, work the chain, in serious leather"
#
# In "Jazz Discharge Party Hats" it takes on a more generic meaning:
#
# "So anyway these guys from the crew decided they were gonna 'work the wall'
# on these girls, you know what I mean?" Where Frank was basically using it
# as a replacement for 'fuck'.
#
# From: flavver@aol.com (Dave Logemann)
# Actually it goes back to "Broken Hearts are for Assholes," on Sheik
# Yerbouti:
# "...You worked the wall with Michael/Which gave your back an awful
# strain..."
#
# From: fnord@panix.com (Cliff Heller)
# While Sheik was released first, I wouldn't be surprised if Mudd Club was
# written and performed first.
#
# From: flavver@aol.com (Flavver)
# I've since come across an alternate take of "Broken Hearts" with the
# Jobson/Bozzio/O'Hearn combo, circa 1976, from the non-album Laether. This
# would put the song first, since the Mudd Club started up in the late 70s
# (if my recollection as a native New Yorker is accurate).
'N' while you do it, remember this line
The Sniffer says it all the time
^^^^^^^^^^
# Who's it. Someone who makes cocain decisions every day?-)))
Maybe you could use a protein surprise
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
SEX
# From: John Henley
# "protein surprise" - male ejaculation; semen.
'N' when the train goes 'round the bend
Tink Walks Amok
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Instrumental)
# Ok, Tink is a nickname of Arthure Barrow. Was the song named so
# due to some Tink's impossible bass guitar parts?-))))
The Radio Is Broken
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The cosmos at large
It's so very big
It's so far away
The comets...the craters...the vapors
The solar wind
The residual echoes...the residual echoes
# From: Vladimir Sovetov
# It seems to be sequel to the Cheepnis from Roxy album. No doubts Frank
# simply adored all kinds of stupidity sci-fi as well.
#
# From: John Henley
# Frank really loved outer-space monster movies from the 1950s. Most of
# this song refers to the kinds of things you find in those movies, especially
# the cheap ones.
The residual echoes from the giant explosion
Where they said it beginned
The germs from space!
The negative-virus knit-wear
The blobulent suit
That's right! THE BLOBULENT SUIT
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
# From: Vladimir Sovetov
# Really looks like something from Captain Beefheart poetical arsenal.
#
# From: fnord@panix.com (Cliff Heller)
# I always thought it was "globulent soup" referring to primordial ooze.
# I could be wrong.
The things that were supposed to be green
In the balck and white movies
They get you in the neck when you're not looking
They get you, the get you, they get you, get you, get you
The radio is broken -- it don't work no more
The radio is broken -- it don't work no more
The lovely Lisa Kranston:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
......................................
The pointed brasseries
The atomic war
The tiny little dresses on the space girls
A love-starved race begging to reproduce
With earthmen
They need to reproduce (with John Agar)
^^^^^^^^^^
They need to reproduce (with Morris Ankrum)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
They need to reproduce (with Richard Basehart)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
They need to reproduce (with Jackie Coogan)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
They need to reproduce (with Sonny Tufts)
^^^^^^^^^^^^
# From: John Henley
# All of the names are actors who played in 1950s outer-space monster movies.
# John Agar starred as the hero in several of them.
#
# From: wave@u.washington.edu (S. Fortney)
# John Agar was Shirley Temple's first husband. I think she was about 16
# years old and he was about 23 or something. It was big in the press
# back then.
The botchino...the botchino...the botchino
^^^^^^^^
# From: fnord@panix.com (Cliff Heller)
# I always heard THIS line as "The Moggio" referring to the instrumental
# elsewhere on the album. I could easily be wrong.
The gigantic spider
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
#CC
# Sleep Dirt's Spider of Destiny once again.
The Dangerous Kitchen
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The dangerous kitchen
If it aint't one thing it's another
In the middle of the night when you get home
The bread things are all dry 'n' scratchy
The meat thing
Where the cats ate trough the paper
The can things with the sharp little edges
That can cut your fingers when you're not looking
The soft little things on the floor that you step on
They can all be DANGEROUS
#CC
# Funny great song about what appeared to be Frank nightly experience
#
# " I work in the middle of the night so, when I hungry, I wind up
# digging in drawers to find something a teenager would refuse to eat.
# If I know we bought hot dogs that day, maybe I'll find a couply of
# buns left. The hot dogs are all gone. There aren't even any in the
# freezer. So I eat peanut butter. Most of the time the bread is gone -
# so I just shovel some out of the jar with a spoon."
#
# FZ. The Real Frank Zappa Book, Poseidon Press, p.253
It's disgusting and dirty
The sponge on the drainer
Is stinky and squirty
If you squeeze it when you wipe up
What you get on your hands then
Could un-balance your glands and
Make you blind or whatever
In the dangerous kitchen
At my house tonight
# From: Unknown Netter :-(((
# The style of this and The Radio Is Broken is, I believe, called
# sprechgesang (half-sung, half-spoken). Schoenberg used it (?)
#
# From: paulhinr@nando.net (Paul Hinrichs)
# Also "sprechstimme" - used by the composer Englebert Humperdink
# in his operas.
The Man From Utopia Meets Mary Lou
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Well,
This is the story of a man who lived in Utopia
This is the story of a man who lived in Utopia
He was a funny little fella with feet just like I showed ya
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
#CC:-)
# From: Vladimir Sovetov
# Funny how the words of mysterious Donald & Doris Woods appeared to resemble
# Frank's own stuff
#
# _Sheik..._ Dancing fool
# One my leg is shorter than the other both my feet too long
#
# _Over-Nite..._ Zomby Woof
# My right foot is bigger than other one is
Well, he had a girl, her name was Mary Lou
Well, he had a girl, her name was Mary Lou
She did everything for him that she could do
...................
I'm going to tell you a story about Mary Lou
I mean the kind of girl who make a fool of you
She'd make a young man groan and a poor man pain
The way she took my money was a cryin' shame
Mary Lou -- she took my watch and chain
Mary Lou -- she took my diamond ring
Mary Lou -- she took my Cadillac car
Jumped in my Kitty and drove afar
# From: paulhinr@nando.net (Paul Hinrichs)
# It is two songs. The second ("jumped in my kitty..") was done by
# Ronnie Hawkins and the Nighthawks (and, I think, these guys later
# became The Band).
#
# From: Vladimir Sovetov
# On the _You Can't Do That..._ Vol.4 you can hear these two songs
# performed separatly. The lyrics of the second is identical to the
# _... Utopia_ version, but the first goes like this
#
# This is a story of man who lived in Pistoia
#
#:-) Obviously an easy teenage Palermo disqotheque version of John Cage
# 6 different radios tuned to 6 different pop-music stations.
#
Stick Together
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is a song about the union, friends
How they fucked you over and the way they bends
The rules to suit a special few
And you gets pooched every time the do
You know we gotta stick together
You know we gotta stick together
You know we gotta stick together
Once upon a time the idea was good
If only they'd a done what they said they would
It ain't no better, they's makin' it worse
The labor movement's got the Mafia curse
# From: s0602574@let.rug.nl (R. Takken)
# Unions in Europe are of a completely different nature than in America. In
# England, the unions represent a counterculture against Thatcherism. Zappa's
# song 'Stick Together' is a much misunderstood song in Europe. Many
# progressive people feel this song is right wing. Zappa's reference about
# the unions living under the Mafia curse gives a clue about how different
# unions are looked upon. Someone who said something like that about european
# unions is not taken seriously. It just doesn't make sense.
# I feel Zappa's look isn't too paradoxal, he made his reasons clear several
# times. For him it was almost impossible to get orchestra's play his music.
# He always put the full 100% into his art and continuously experienced other
# people being aware of their 'financial rights' first. FZ worked overtime all
# his life and unions made him feel that was unethical. In the Real FZ Book is
# a reference saying he felt treated like a millionaire rock star who had to
# pay for everything because he was stinking rich. This is a major mistake for
# which the unions are to blame. I don't know how they calculated FZ income by
# then, they never took care of the fact that FZ invested all he earned in new
# music, be it recorded or performed. This one way look of the unions must
# have made him bitter for good.
# Beside that, here's another thing. Zappa turned much into the average
# business man in the eighties unions stand up against: none of the people
# playing on BTB got paid; remember all MOI members who feel FZ made use of
# them by recording them all the time. He still put out new records with their
# contributions without consulting their opinions, let alone paying them.
# Zappa stated he paid them back in 1969, ie: their salaries. You don't have
# to be a marxist to see that there is something wrong with that: Zappa paid
# his members, and he benefited from them too in the sixties: he had a band.
# When he uses tapes to make a living out of thirty years after the fact where
# other people were involved too who get nothing, a union is necessary to
# correct matters.
# I buy 'Ahead of Their Time' for Ian Underwood's playing as well, you see.
# In America this correcting doesn't seem the task of the unions, the record
# is in the stores.
#
#CC
# From: Vladimir Sovetov
# For all of you who just like it no matter what someome thinks about it.
# Another great anti-union song is _Rudy Wants To Buy Yez A Drink_ from
# _Chunga's Revenge_ album
#
The Jazz Discharge Party Hats
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Anyway...
We're in Albuquerque, New Mexico...
A couple of the guys in the band, who shall go nameless
Because their girlfriends might find out
# Ok, all we know now what it was Aynsley Dunbar who jump from balcony
# to balcony to "finally plunging it into the crimson tunnel"
# Who could be those couple of heros?
Decided they were gonna work the wall on these girls
^^^^^^^^^^^^
From the college
# See SEX comments above
So, one night...it was the first night
When they were still trying to 'get it in there'
(Ya know what I mean? Huh-huh-huh-huh...)
The skinny girl, she says to one of the guys in the band
She says, well, to several of the guys in the band
And one of the T-shirt guys too...
"HEY! LET'S GO SKINNY-DIPPING!"
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
# From: fnord@panix.com (Cliff Heller)
# No not really [Is it a favorite college girls pastime in the USA?-).]
# It means swimming naked. Plenty of people do it. Usually in rural areas
# (lakes and ponds) or isolated backyard swimming pools.
Luigi & The Wise Guys
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You're a dor-r-r-r-k
You are a double-dork butt rash
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
# Well-known incovenience?-)
You are a dork, dork, dork, dor-r-r-r-k!
Nobody wants to...
You are boring...you have nothing to say
You eat cheese -- you eat cheese and other things
You can can wrap up an' take with you
From the table
With Luigi & The Wise Guys at the table
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
# Who they are? Some obscure band sung about Man From Pistoia?
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