LUMPY GRAVY: A COLLAGE

In 1967 Zappa reached an agreement with a Capital records agent Nick Venet to record some modern orchestral music. Nick had heard about Zappa's aspirations for producing modern music. For this occasion a 40 members orchestra was assembled, that Zappa called "The Abnuceals Emuukha electric symphony orchestra". Apart from the regular orchestral instuments, this orchestra also included electric guitars, bass guitar, extra percussion and drums. The chorus consisted of a range of people, who Zappa invited to talk about given subjects with their heads sticking inside a piano. The permanently open pedal made the conversations resonating. The texts are humoristic and bizarre, including the ultrashort inconsistency "I remember uh..., no I don't remember". Another conversation is between two people living in a drum. They are wondering what the world outside the drum might be, but are afraid to actually look outside.
"Lumpy Gravy" opens with two longer melodic pieces, "Duodenum" and, introduced by ten seconds of lounge music, "Oh no". Both are executed by the rock band members of the electric orchestra.

Oh no, main theme (midi file)

Oh no, main theme (notes)

The "Oh no" main theme is made up of a 4/4 and 3/4 meter alternation. On several occasions triplets are used. So it's rhythmically an odd and flexible division. The main theme has something of E Dorian, so I've notated it here with F- and C sharp (the C sharp sometimes gets altered to C natural). Because of the changes in the middle of the song, the Songbook isn't using preset sharps. "Oh no" returns as index nr. 9 of "Lumpy gravy part one", where it is played by the full orchestra. The sound quality at this instance is low, so the strings don't have the rich timbre they normally have. According to Greg Russo (see below), Zappa obtained an inferior copy of the tape and the original one got lost, which might explain the lesser sound. On most occasions however the orchestra doesn't play at full, sections of it are used for pieces that are more chamber music like.

With "I don't know if I can go through this again" we get to the modern atonal music of the album, continued on "Lumpy gravy part II". It starts with a flute melody gently moving upwards and ultimately leading to sudden screaming high notes. Influences by Varèse and Strawinsky, who Zappa admired a lot, can be heard in instrumentation, rhythm and melody formation of the modern music on this album.

I don't know if I can go through this again, opening (midi file)

I don't know if I can go through this again, opening (transcription)

"Lumpy gravy" also contains several musical styles that only get touched upon, as in "A bit of nostalgia" and in "Almost chinese" with the cliché parallel fourths tune. "It's from Kansas" and "Bow tie daddy" from "We're only in it for the money" are in pre-war popular jazz style. The first is an instrumental played ultrafast, possibly a speed-up track, the other is in normal tempo. I know too little about this kind of music to say some more about specific styles from this period. Technically the rhythm section is in 4/4 mostly on beat all through. The other instruments are improvising over the progression. In "Bow tie daddy" the sound via mike of the singer is thus transformed that it imitates the sound of an old record played over the radio or via the speaker of a wind up gramophone player. Something producers always do when simulating pre-war music.

Almost chinese, tune (midi file)
It's from Kansas (midi file)
Bow tie daddy, opening (midi file)

Almost chinese, tune (transcription)
It's from Kansas (transcription)
Bow tie daddy, opening (transcription)

Jazz passes by shortly in "Lumpy gravy part I", but halfway "part II" we arrive at a serious jazz statement with "King Kong".

King Kong, Lumpy grayy (midi file)

King Kong, Lumpy gravy (transcription)

The jazz factor here lies in the fine brass arrangement, that will become full blown in the later jazz albums of 1972. The composition is made up of several layers, that are playing in counterpoint movements. The bass part consists of a one bar bass guitar riff and two four bar brass movements. All get repeated throughout the song. In bar 8 the "King Kong" melody starts with rhythmic accents of its own. In bar 9 this melody is using 3/8 over the 4/4 of the accompaniment. The "King Kong" melody itself as it appears on "Uncle meat" (without the 4/4 accompaniment) is notated in 3/8. Harmonically this piece is combining some traditional elements with unconventional movements. Some more on the "King Kong" melody in the next section. The traditional element here lies in the rhythm guitar chords, being I and VII of A Myxolydian.
Since "Lumpy gravy" was going to be a solo album instead of a Mothers of invention product, both Zappa and Capital records presumed that they were free to produce the album, but MGM records thought differently. As soon as they noticed what was happening, they objected and bought the tapes from Capital records. The release of "Lumpy gravy" was delayed for some months and the album appeared in 1968 as a normal contractual MGM album. What the original Capitol album would contain remains vague. When Zappa regained the tapes he had already recorded material for three albums ahead and decided to rearrange things. Tracks from the "Lumpy gravy" sessions landed on "We're only in it for the money" and the below described Ed Seeman film. Newly recorded rock band pieces were added to "Lumpy gravy". Possibly the FZ archives contain more. Greg Russo presents the Capitol album cover in his "Cosmic debris" book, with the music subdivided into seven tableaux. I'm having some reservations about files on the net from a cartridge that allegedly is a copy of the Capitol version.
To the right a still from the Ed Seeman film "Frank Zappa and the original Mothers of Invention 1967-1969", featuring Ian Underwood, Don Preston and FZ in front of Buckingham Palace, London. Frank is wearing a bolded hat and short pants, as also visable on the inside photo from the "Hot rats" album. Ed filmed the Mothers for two years and edited a 40 minute "psychedelic" version from the footage. It's mostly in a collage form with dimmed coloured lights. All was filmed without sound. Zappa worked for a while with Ed for the intended Uncle Meat movie and gave him permission to use music from the albums to finish his documentary. As a curiosity it contains unreleased episodes from the "Lumpy gravy" sessions. It starts at 16:18 with an orchestral overture from what would later become "The legend of the golden arches" on "Uncle Meat".