200 MOTELS - JUST ANOTHER BAND FROM L.A.: SEQUENCES

For his musical creativity in 1970-71 Zappa was focused on the scores for "200 Motels", the low budget movie from 1971, about The Mothers of Invention on tour and everything that comes along with it. Contrary to other rock movies from this time it hasn't become outdated, because it deals with such eternal problems as "Penis dimension" (see below). It's the first Zappa album featuring a large orchestra.
To the right: still from the VPRO "Zappa films 200 Motels" documentary with Theodore Bikel, The Top Score Singers and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Other examples from "200 Motels" turn up spread out over this study:
- This town is a sealed tuna sandwich (prologue) (Orchestral Favorites section)
- Bogus pump (Orchestral Favorites section)
- What will this evening bring me this morning (counterpoint #1 section)
- Strictly genteel (counterpoint #2 section).
"200 Motels" was shot in five days in January and February 1971 and premiered in L.A. on 29 October with the alongcoming double-album in the same month. It's too bad that the touring in 1971 ended with misfortune, so that the project got less promotion. In Januari 1972 Zappa found himself recuperating at his house and the first project he turned to was compiling the second Flo and Eddie live album, recorded in August 1971 at the Pauley Pavillon in L.A. and entitled "Just another band from L.A.".

From these two albums I've taken some examples about sequences. A sequence can mean any following order of notes or more specifically in the classical sense a melody with one or more motifs that get repeated starting on a different pitch. "Call any vegetable" begins with a fast string of 16th and 8th notes, that always strikes me as Zappa, not because he's using them that often, but because I seldom hear them with other artists. This song first appeared on "Absolutely free"; the version here is from "Just another band from LA", that has an extra theme in normal rock time, beginning in bar 17.
"She painted up her face" is one of the themes Flo and Eddie are singing on "200 Motels". It's the opposite of the fast string from the previous song, going slowly with notes lasting over bars. Personally I like the way they're singing here best, namely with bright voices, not the raw screeming notes they often apply elsewhere.

Call any vegetable (1971), opening (midi file)
She painted up her face, main theme (midi file)

Call any vegetable (1971), opening (transcription)
She painted up her face, main theme (transcription)

Zappa's biggest sequence in the classical sense is the keyboard interlude from "Easy meat" on "Tinsel town rebellion", called classical by Zappa himself in the liner notes. Next are two examples of atonal sequences. The first is included in the opening of "Penis dimension" from "200 motels", where in bars 10-14 the intervals of the sung melody are repeated in a chromatic set up. "Billy the mountain" from "Playground Psychotics/Just another band from L.A." is one of the lyrically oriented live pieces. It's a normal tonal piece, except for one occasion where it shifts into some atonal bars. After a clarinet introduction, Flo and Eddie sing the opening theme, beginning in D flat Lydian (the bass pedal note is D flat at the opening). The transcribed section at the part "(Postcar)-dy mountain ..." till "... Rosamon" has become atonal. As in the "Penis dimension" sequence from above, in the high voice the intervals are chromatically repeated. It's transcribed from "Playground psychotics" with Howard Kaylan singing the high voice along with the clarinet and Mark Volman singing sometimes the same notes and sometimes the lower notes.

Penis dimension, opening (midi file).
Billy the Mountain, Playground Psychotics, 0:14 till 0:45 (midi file).

Penis Dimension, opening (notes).
Billy the Mountain, Playground Psychotics, 0:14 till 0:45 (transcription).

Next is an example of an atonal score for choir for "200 Motels", called "A nun suit painted on some old boxes"'. It's one of the three "200 Motels" scores that got published in the Songbook. First below is the album version, that goes differently from the original handwritten version of the Songbook (secondly below). Zappa could change his scores during rehearsals, as he himself expressed it, "anytime anyplace anyway for no reason at all". The other reason it got changed upon is in all probability the limited rehearsal time. The most notable differences are the absence of various harmony notes and the original sixtuplet, that now gets spread out over two bars.

Nun suit (album version), opening (midi file).
Nun suit (Songbook version), opening (midi file).

Nun suit, opening (score/transcription).

"Magdalena" is one of the many Zappa songs that include tempo changes. In this case these changes are essential. If you would leave them out it would spoil the song. In the trancribed section bar 19 offers a variation upon bar 11 via a tempo change. The rhythm is also different, but if you would skip the tempo change, the variation effect would mostly be gone. In the second half of the song a "walk, walk, walk" vamp starts. The vamp gets accelerated till the end of the piece, emphasizing the sick horniness as expressed in the lyrics. At the end a siren enters the scene, before everything calms down for the introductory rock bars for "Dog breath". The transcribed section contains the three themes of the first half of the song.
Bars 1-10: Theme I. The opening bars of "Magdalena" are in the vaudeville parody style with a fourth movement in the bass, often used in various forms of folk music and country and western music. It goes simular to the opening of "Lonesome cowboy burt" on "200 Motels". See also the Broadway the hard way section for this topic. Flo and Eddie are singing a string of notes, about as fast as possible if you still want to be able to distinguish the words of the lyrics.
Bars 11-22: Theme II. This theme of four bars is sung three times. First two times in 6/4 with a regular repetition. The third time offers a variation via a tempo change, as mentioned, for the first two bars of the theme. Then the other two bars are sung in 12/8 in the original tempo.
Bars 23-29: Theme III. Again in 6/4, now in a slower tempo.

Magdalena, opening (midi file).

Magdalena, opening (transcription).




Sample of Zappa's original handwritten score for "200 Motels" (from "Can I help you with this dummy" as reproduced in the Songbook).