ZOOT ALLURES - SLEEP DIRT: HARMONIES AND VAMPS

With his 1976 "Zoot allures" album, Zappa delivered a rock 'n roll album, exaggerating the roughness that's supposed to come along with it by posing as a creep on the album cover. The lyrics show the development of Zappa's sense of humor. Provocative as they may be, they can also make you laugh by the eloquence Zappa is uttering himself with. Sentences describing the evil prince in "The torture never stops" can be very poetrical, including rhyme, like "he's the best of course of all the worst, some wrong been done, he done it first" (the song is about the (religious) idea of punishing sinners, only revealed at the end). It becomes offensiveness with a smile.
"Zoot allures" is a good album to listen to for the use of harmonic chord progressions (progressions making use of traditional chords). The unconventional ones are dealt with in other sections:
- Atonality: the atonal chord progression from "Little house a used to live in".
- Hot rats: the dense harmonies from "It must be a camel".
- Shut up 'n play yer guitar: the "five-five-FIVE" sequence.
Many Zappa compositions have a single melodic line as starting point (like the "Florentine Pogen" melody from above). The chords can be derived from such melodic lines by grouping together the notes that are played after each other. Chords in the sense of notes played simultaneously (I call them chord progressions in this site to make a difference) don't have an important role in Zappa's music. Of course keyboards and rhythm guitars can play accompanying chords, but usually not very conspicuously. "Zoot Allures" however contains a good deal of rock 'n roll chord progressions, that are played at the foreground. It also includes some keyboard chord progressions, that in this case are played by Zappa himself. On "Disco boy" there's some greasy rock 'n roll playing with thick guitar and synthesizer sounds, like the "doo-dee" block in the middle of the song:

Disco boy, section (midi file)

Disco boy, section (transcription)

This progression, divided over four bars is I-IV-I-IV, IV, I-IV-I-IV and VII-I in B Myxolydian.
The next examples are Zappa playing the opening and coda of "The torture never stops" on keyboards, bass and guitar (most of the original album guitar part of the coda has been mixed out on the CD re-release). The opening is build around a bass motif and a I-VII chord progression in G Dorian. The coda is basically regular, but because of the mixed chords on the pedal point and the frequent use of fourths some unconventional flavour is added to it.

The torture never stops, opening (midi file)
The torture never stops, coda (midi file)

The torture never stops, opening (transcription)
The torture never stops, coda (transcription)

It's the ending cadence of a song in G Dorian, that goes as follows:
bar 1 through 4: pedal point on G
bar 5: IV 7th, I 5th
bar 6: VII 5th, V 5th
bar 7: I 5th. For a moment it sounds like the melody is ending as a deceptive cadence with IV 5th (G and C), but the bass takes this C as a passing through note for D. So it ends regularly with I 5th.

The following example is the chord progression from the "Zoot allures" guitar solo (pitch notation as it sounds). It starts in E with the chords I 5th, I 5th, V 5th plus E continuing, I 5th, whereafter it shifts into the V 5th chord of F sharp, with G sharp as the common note with the previous chord. This key change is confirmed by a bass riff. The solo returns to V 5th of E, followed by several passing through notes from E Minor. The three chords with their preceding triplets are combining I and V 5th of F sharp, G and A. The fast key changes are responsible for the solo's harmonic tension.

Zoot allures guitar solo, 0:38 till 1:44 (midi file)

Zoot allures guitar solo, 0:38 till 1:44 (transcription)

In 1976 the band did a one time visit to Japan, which explains the Japanese characters on the "Zoot allures" album sleeve. "Black napkins" was recorded live at Osaka, the "Zoot allures" opening from "YCDTOSA III" is taken from the Tokyo concert. Some eastern influences can be found on "Friendly little finger", not only because of the sound of the opening theme, but also the various melismatic movements in this theme and the bass lines, that accompany the solo. "Friendly little finger" is an extraordinary solo in many aspects. It is best known as an early example on record, where Zappa applied a technique that he called "xenochrony" (strange synchrony). In the liner notes for "Rubber shirt" from "Sheik Yerbouti" he explains the idea behind it. Xenochrony is lying a recording over another track, that was recorded completely independent of it, followed by a resynchronization. It is thus different from an overdub and different from putting tracks behind each other or lying tracks over each other without adapting them. The resynchronisation has the effect of suggesting that the tracks are reacting upon each other. The transcribed solo section indicates this. A hand made trancription by me is not proof of course, but the two equal beats pointed at with an arrow in bar 3 are clearly audible on the CD at 0:39-0:40. If it wasn't resynchronized, that would be too much of a coincidence. In this case the solo (a dressing room recording without accompaniment) and the drum part are from different occasions. The bass was overdubbed later on after the resynchronization was completed.

Friendly little finger, opening riff (midi file)
Friendly little finger, 0:36 till 0:51 (midi file)

Friendly little finger, sections (transcription)

The melody of the opening theme is using unusual harmonies, forming two 11th chords, namely D-E-B-A and G#-A-E-D. The lick is played by various snare and percussion instruments, mostly parallel, sometimes taking some side steps as in bar 4. In bar 6 the bass starts playing its own lines, as it will continue to do during the solo that follows upon the opening theme. At various instances this solo isn't using traditional western scales. In bars 3-5 it applies for instance the sequence C-Eb-F#-G-A over D pedal. It sounds unorthodox this way. The solo remains being played over D-pedal, but the scales change frequently. In bar 6 the key turns over to D minor (Aeolian), in bar 10 it becomes D Lydian. At the points where the solo is playing held notes, as in bars 1-2 and 9, the bass is taking over the solo. Because it's overdubbed it could do exactly that. Zappa is playing the bass here himself as well and it clearly isn't of the normal accompanying type as during live concerts.

Three of the tracks from "Sleep dirt", released in 1978, stem from the same period as the "Zoot allures" sessions, namely the ones with the large guitar solos. Zappa for a while thought about making "Zoot allures" a double album, including these takes. The other four songs on "Sleep dirt" stem from 1974-1975. He had written them in 1972 as part of the "Hunchentoot" opera. They first saw the world in instrumental versions, but when Zappa re-released "Sleep dirt" on CD, he had asked Thana Harris for overdubbing the lyrics he originally had in mind for "Hunchentoot".

Zappa putting a melody on paper in an airplane, late seventies. Wherever he could, he carried a notebook with him. Source: screenshot from the Overnite sensation/Apostrophe (') DVD.

We now turn to the opening piece on this album for looking at the use of a vamp. It's called "Filthy habits", presented below in the 1988 version as released on"You can't do that on stage anymore, vol. IV". Zappa used vamps most often for his solos (see the Guitar section), but sometimes also for his compositions. On this occasion a 5/4 vamp is used for the composed section as well as the guitar solo part.
After three bars of the vamp being introduced solo, the theme sets in in bar 4, lasting through bar 10. Then an arab styled melismatic melody passes by in bars 11 and 12. This arab effect is stronger on the original "Sleep dirt" album, where the choice of instruments is closer to an arab ensemble, that doesn't use the brass instruments of the 1988 version. This little interlude is followed by three bars specific for the 1988 execution. This changing upon his compositions was characteristic for Zappa's career; some more on this subject in the YCDTOSA section. After this composed part the vamp returns in bar 19, now a fourth lower, and Zappa start soloing.

Filthy habits (1988), opening (midi file, tempo change not included)

Filthy habits (1988), opening (transcription).

"The ocean is the ultimate solution" origins from a trio jam session lasting over a half hour. Zappa selected 13 minutes from the tape and started overdubbing. Next are two fragments. The first one is the opening lick, that starts off the interplay between acoustic bass and acoustic guitar. The other is a melancholic movement between 0:45 and 0:53 with a synthesizer overdub.

The ocean is the ultimate solution, opening lick (midi file)
The ocean is the ultimate solution, fragment (midi file)
Sleep dirt, opening (midi file)

The ocean is the ultimate solution, fragments (transcription).
Sleep dirt, opening (transcription).

"Sleep dirt" is a duet by Zappa and James "bird legs" Youman. Youman plays a progression of broken chords in 12/8. The chords in the transcribed bars go as (rock notation):
Bar 1 Bm9, bar 2 G#m-5, bars 3-5 D and Gm, bars 6-7 Dm-5, bar 8 Bm9, bar 9 C#m3rd add minor 9th as passing through note, bar 10 Bm9.
Zappa seldom plays solos over such progressions with some less common jazz type chords, "Sleep dirt" sounds quite exceptional in that sense. The soloing itself is unmistakenly Zappa, the opening lick of bar 10 for instance is similar to the first "Black napkins" notes.