BABY SNAKES - SHEIK YERBOUTI: DISCO REFERENCES AND SOLO BUILDING

While the "Zappa in New York" concerts were given, disco music had become very popular on the dance floor and this wasn't just a hype, but to last up till today under different style names and new variants. Disco is charactarised by steady beats or rhythmic figures, played throughout the whole song. Because of it's steadiness the beat is often played by a drum machine or computer. Some people thought that disco was a way of making dumb pop-music, but it also depends upon what you build upon the steady figures.
One of the funniest things Zappa ever did is playing the rhythmically erratic melody from "The black page #1" from the previous section again, partially half speed and with modifications, against such a steady disco figure. Here it appears in the form of "the disco vamp" played by the bass and and it is commented upon in the preambule to the piece (a vamp stands for a continuingly repeated accompanying motif). There's also a relationship between "The black page #2" and the guitar solo's using vamps (see the paragraph on "Shut up 'n play yer guitar"). This disco version, "The black page #2", opens with the following bars as a variation on bar 1 from "The black page #1" from the previous section:

The black page #2, opening (midi file)

The black page #2, opening (transcription)

BABY SNAKES, PALLADIUM, OCTOBER 1977.

"The black page #2" is included on "Zappa in New York" as well as in "Baby snakes". Baby Snakes was premiered in 1979 as Zappa's second movie. It opens with backstage stuff, clay animations by Bruce Brickford, some cartoon minutes and then is followed by the Halloween concert at the Palladium from 1977. The movie fared badly in the cinema and got reserved reviews, though it did win a prize at the First International Music Film Festival two years later. In the eighties the film became available on video and more recently on DVD, so maybe it's getting a second chance. Personally I find it excellent. What Bruce is doing with the clay is fascinating and the concert goes on fine. The crowd was enthusiastic and the interaction with the public worked out well. Literally physical during the "Black napkins" solo, touching the hands of people in the front row, and caressing a girl with the letters Zappa written on her forehead during "Disco boy". Zappa thanked them explicitely with "I have to say this, I really appreciate this".

In 1983 a soundtrack was released on album, premiering "Punky's whips", the song that Warner Bros. wouldn't include in their "Zappa in New York" version. He made no secret about his problems with Warner Bros. when performing "Titties and beer": "I've been through hell. I was signed to Warner Brothers for eight fucking years". Former Mother of Inventions bass player Roy Estrada returned for making Miss Pinky puke because of Warner Brothers and redoing the vocal parts like he did on "Weasels ripped my flesh". He's in the movie, but not on the CD.

Right: Adrian Belew singing "Jones crusher". Source: Baby Snakes DVD.

Jones crusher (1977), opening (midi file)
Punky's whips (1977), section (midi file)

Jones crusher (1977), opening (transcription)
Punky's whips (1977), section (transcription)

The CD is a live compilation without songs that are today unique for this release. All pieces are different versions of songs that appeared on other CDs as well. The above example "Jones crusher" for instance premiered on "Sheik Yerbouti". The "Baby snakes" version begins with hammering on a E-A-D chord by the guitar for 8 bars. Compared to "Sheik Yerbouti" the bass is more in the foreground of the mix and the bass riff of the "Baby snakes" version only appears at the second time the verse gets sung on "Sheik Yerbouti".
"Punky's whips" is another example of a multitheme, multirhythm and multitempi composition. The transcribed sections begins with some normal rock bars in 4/4 and then proceeds with note strings in various odd meters. In the 14/32 and 17/32 bars the band is playing up and down a scale. The 18/32 bar goes in swing time. The 33/32 bar is the weirdest one. The notes are jumping around over an odd rhythm, played by a 9th chord. On the DVD Zappa and Adrian Belew show how its energy can make you want to dance. The 1977 version differs from the 1976 version in the sense that the bars don't get repeated and that the instrumentation is different.

HALLOWEEN, PALLADIUM, OCTOBER 1978.

During the European winter tour of 1978 Zappa recorded most of the live tracks for "Sheik Yerbouti" during the five concerts he held at the Odeon Hammersmith in London. To the right: FZ and Arthur Barrow during the Ulm open air concert, summer 1978 (German TV registration). Hiring studios for finishing the album had become expensive and studios had to be booked months in advance. So he decided that it was more economic to build a studio of his own at his house in L.A. It was completed during the fall of 1978, when he had set up his own record company Zappa Records (later Barking Pumpkin Records). He also had made a deal with the Indian born violist "L." (Lakshmirnarayna) Shankar. He produced Shankar's album "Touch me there" for his new company and co-wrote four songs with him for the album (see the next section for more about this record). Shankar made a guest appearance during the concerts around Halloween of October 1978 (See the "You can't..." section for "Thirteen"). By that time the two lead singers next to Zappa on "Sheik Yerbouti", Terry Bozzio and Adrian Belew, had left the band. Terry had now worked with Zappa for four years and needed a change, his name forever being associated with beating "The black page". Adrian accepted an offer by David Bowie, but later considered changing this fast a juvenile mistake. Zappa normally accepted band members leaving without ill feelings and didn't try to convince them to stay. Terry was replaced by Vince Colaiuta and Adrian by Denny Walley.
The Zappa Family Trust compiled an audio DVD from the concerts as "Halloween 1978", released in 2005. The touring program by now included various unreleased material under devellopment that would appear on record over the period 1979-1982. But for the DVD the Zappa Family Trust chose the part of the program that was basically the same as the year before plus two individual solos: the concert opener "Ancient ornaments" with Zappa on guitar and "Zeets" featuring Vince Colaiuta.

SHEIK YERBOUTI

With no access to studio facilities during 1978, Zappa kept on touring and recorded the live tracks for "Sheik Yerbouti". In 1979 Zappa had his means rearranged with CBS and Phonogram as a distribution companies for Zappa Records and his own recording facility. "Sheik Yerbouti" was finished by adding studio overdubs to the live tracks. "Sheik Yerbouti" has become Zappa's best selling album, including accessable songs as the hit single "Bobby brown", as well as some technically impressive material. On the album Zappa presented himself self confident as ever, ridiculing our occasional problems in songs like "Broken hearts are for assholes". The encounter with disco in "The black page #2" continued with other references on "Sheik Yerbouti". The theme from "Dancin' fool" has a 4/4 metre with the bass playing C-sharp on beat. It's interrupted by a bar with three times 2/4. Here the beat goes on as a light accent on the B of the bass and low B of the melody and a heavy accent on the high B of the melody. It's reflected in the lyrics as follows (light beats indicated with italics, heavy beats with capitals): "I hear that BEAT, I jump out of my SEAT, but I can't com-PETE".

Dancin' fool, theme (midi file)

Dancin' fool, theme (transcription)

Another reference is the accompaniment at the beginning of the instrumental section of "Wild Love", given beneath. It reflects the love for repeated rhythmic figures in disco. First the rhythm guitar plays such a figure during bars 1-8. As the melody begins the base guitar joins in with another figure during bars 5-11. Notable is the free use of eigth and sixteenth notes in the parts, rather than following a strict 4/4 division (the same happens in Edchina's Arf from the Metres section).

Wild love, opening of the instrumental section (midi file)

Wild love, opening of the instrumental section (transcription)

Something you'll accidentally notice during transcribing, unless you're heaving a perfect absolute hearing, is that it is a speed up track: the frequencies are out of tune with keyboard frequencies. Other examples of pieces with steady rhythmic figures are the title track from "You are what you is", "He's so gay" from "Thingfish" and, embedded in an orchestral environment, the disco section (so called in the album liner notes) from "Pedro's dowry" on The London Symphony Orchestra recordings.

The "Frank Zappa Guitar book" from 1982 contains one solo that hasn't been released on album, called "Mo' mama". It's named this way because it follows the same basic architecture as the grand "Yo' mama" solo from "Sheik Yerbouti":
- 1) Zappa starts playing in E Mixolydian without meter over E as pedal note.
- 2) After a while the drummer joins in. The meter becomes 4/4. The pedal note continues being E, sometimes B.
- 3) Eventually the solo evolves into a V 7th and I (B and E) chord alternation of E Mixolydian.

Opening from Mo' mama (midi file)
Section from Yo' mama (midi file)

Opening from Mo' mama (notes)
Section from Yo' mama (transcription)

The "Mo' mama" is an example of a solo that sets off with a lick followed by immediate improvisation, whereas solos as "The deathless horsie" or "Watermelon in eastern hay" have a larger preset theme. Not everything that's in the transcription is properly reproduced in the midi file; the two quarter tones are for instance approached by a minor second chord for lack of better (my midi editor can't represent quarter tones).
The "Mo' mama" example is the opening of the solo including all of 1) (a lot shorter here than in "Yo' mama") and the beginning of 2). The 22 seconds of the "Yo' mama" solo that I've tried to transcribe myself include the transition from 2) to 3). It commences with a sequence moving towards the chord alternation part.
In the file beneath I've indicated a bit of the ongoing process of improvisation in "Mo' mama". You can go on indefinitely indicating characteristics this way.

Opening from Mo' mama (notes with encirclements)

- A: Opening lick.
- B: Variation upon the opening lick (rhythmically and melodically).
- C: Addition of a quarter tone, guitar effects and altered notes to make it extra spicy.
- D and E: New motives are introduced that get varied upon.