UNCLE MEAT - AHEAD OF THEIR TIME: INTEGRATION

After "Lumpy Gravy", Zappa further consolidated his intentions to combine pop music with modern music and jazz on "Uncle Meat". This double album is imbued with an abundance of ideas, to which Zappa could keep returning. "Pound for a brown" (see the Zappa's teens sections) and "King Kong" became concert favorites. "Uncle meat" and "Dog breath" returned in a version for small orchestra that can be found on the 1993 CD "The Yellow shark". There are a some live recorded sections on the album and a few comic pieces of conversation. "Uncle meat" was recorded between October 1967 and February 1968, but released a year later in April 1969. The delay was due to Zappa's intent to have it accompanied by a movie of the same name. Several scenes were filmed, but there weren't enough funds to finish it and eventually some band members wouldn't take part in it no more if they didn't get paid for it. Ultimately Zappa gave it up, only to return to the footage in the eighties.
The "Uncle Meat main title theme" can be divided in three sections.

1) The first section is a melody that uses the notes of D with C sharp as the melodic centre.

Uncle Meat theme, opening (midi file)

Uncle Meat theme, 1st section and opening of the 2nd section (notes)

The melody derives its modern music character from the fact that it follows no traditional chords and its structure is determined by intervals and repeating figures, like fourths in the first bar, seconds in the second bar and a repeated figure with a fifth in the third and fourth bar. We'll see some more of interval determined structures in the paragraph about unconventional chord progressions. The melody moves several times towards the centre note C sharp.

2) The second section follows the E flat scale, filling in the notes that were left out by the D scale of the first part (bars 7-10 of the above note example). Contrary to the first section, in this part normal 5th and 7th chords can be recognised. The chords in the following example are a 5th chord on C and a 5th chord on B flat.

3) The third section of the main title theme is multi-scale oriented. During seventeen bars several scales alternate each other after each bar with a descending and later on ascending line in the bass as counterpoint. No note has any key function, but when the bass notes in the next example are taken as key notes, the keys could be called C, B flat, A Minor (aeolian) and A flat Lydian. We can also see here examples of that the fourths movement, with which the piece has begun, returns in different appearences. When you look at the complete score in the Songbook, you'll notice several other instances of such fourths movements. You'll also see sequence building in this third section.

Uncle Meat theme, bars from the third block (notes)

Though the "Uncle Meat main title theme" is a short piece, it contains a lot of different technical means, using opposition as well as variation as structure building methods.
On the album liner notes Zappa is talking about recording layer over layer and electronically mutating the sound of acousting instruments. This is what's done quite extensively in "Zolar Czakl". It's even a shorter piece than "Uncle Meat", but thus dense that it could take you hours to know what exactly is going on in it. It's atonal music with varying meters, counterpoint and harmony.

Zolar Czakl, opening (midi file)

Zolar Czakl, opening (transcription)

The first half of "Project X" is a refined example of mixing diatonic and atonal material. It begins gently with an acoustic guitar playing the IV and I chords of B Minor with an extra enlarged chord with an F added to them. Over these chords the clarinet begins a sentimental melody using notes of the same scale and applying some larger interval jumps. Next are the vibes and brass instruments unleashed with rapid partly atonal partly diatonic movements. After they have spewed their energy the guitar chords return just as quietly as they begun.

Project X, opening (midi file)

Project X, opening (transcription)

The "Uncle Meat" album ends with 16 minute jazz peace called "King Kong". It has a short composed opening theme and then allows the members of the band to improvise. Such improvised sections were an important part of Zappa's live performances, which we can hear on the bootlegs from this period and the later official live recordings. "King Kong" was included in most of the tours and we can listen to other improvisations on "Ahead of their time", "What you can't do on stage anymore, vol. 3" and "Make a jazz noise here". The next comment on "King Kong" can also be found more extensivily in Wolfgang Ludwig's study. The "King Kong" theme consist of sets of sequences and variations on motifs in E flat Dorian (the bass is giving a pedal point on E flat). The melody uses this scale either in a pentatonical order or in the normal following order. The following example is the opening sequence of the melody.

King Kong, opening (midi file)

King Kong, opening (notes)

Zappa has often addressed to his work as one big project, where the individual albums are related to each other by a conceptual continuity. There is a basic truth in this for three main reasons. First his attitude towards his music never changed. He could integrate all style elements his output, whatever sounded nice to him for whatever reason. He did this so "Absolutely free" in 1967 and still did this on "Civilization phaze III" in 1993. Secondly he never took a distance from earlier work later on in his career. There's a high degree of consistency in his musical output and the repertoire he played live. Thirdly he frequently returned to themes he had used before, mostly in the form of live variants. This he referred to with his expression "the crumbs of the biscuit are the apostrophe" on "Apostrophe (')". In this third sense "Uncle meat" can be considered a central album, possibly the album with most crumbs landing on other albums. The next section is about the five appearances of "Dog breath/The dog breath variations", that give a good idea of how he could vary a theme at different points in his career. The capitals refer to the various themes that show up in the different pieces. the presence of B ("Dog breath") or D ("Dog breath variations") is the common element.

1) Dog breath, 1969

In its first appearance on album as track 5 on the "Uncle meat" CD, the main "Dog breath" theme gets incorporated in a song with three sections. The introduction, some pop music in 4/4, is followed by the main theme, also in regular 4/4. The pitches of the voices are in strange high registers, probably achieved by speeding a track up to double frequency. The theme is segued by a peculiar part with modern music. It starts with fast high clavichord notes and a piano chord, played at a low volume over a steady drum beat. Over these figures various wind instruments play short phrases, responding to each with pauses between them. The transcription below presents the last bars of the main theme and the opening of the modern section.

A: Pop introduction.
B: Dog breath main theme.
C: Modern atonal section.

Dog breath (1969), section (midi file)

Dog breath (1969), section (transcription)

2) Dog breath variations, 1969

"Dog breath" returns on "Uncle meat" in track 9 with variations. The opening starts with the theme as presented below in a rhythmical variation. Instead of a continuing 4/4 set up, the meters are here changing frequently. During the first half the accompaniment is predominantly dealing with harmonies, whereas in the second half a counterpoint movement is taking over the upper hand. The melody is made up of a series phrases, with each phrase reacting to the previous one by taking over some of its characteristics. In classical music they call this type of variations character variations as opposed to variations that keep varying a whole theme. The example below just shows the two opening variations upon the whole theme and the beginning of a new phrase.

D: Dog breath variations #1.

Dog breath variations (1969), opening (midi file)

Dog breath variations (1969), opening (transcription)

3) Dog breath, 1971

The 1971 version on "Just another band from L.A." begins with a repeated rock riff, before the original theme returns. This riff can already be reckognized as one of the motifs in the accompaniment in both "Uncle meat" versions. Here Zappa is using the individual voices of Flo and Eddie to make some divergence between them for the "fuzzy dice ..." line, as shown in the transcription Wolfgang Ludwig made of this particular execution. The closing with the "hear my plea" section is here far more extended, including a guitar solo as part of the outro.

E: Rock introduction.
B: Dog breath main theme.
F: Outro with guitar solo.

4) Dog breath variations, 1974

The two 1974 versions, available on "YCDTOSA II" and "The dub room special", were recorded shortly after each other and only differ in instrumentation. For transcribing I used the "Dub room special" track. The 1971 opening riff is used again, but now followed by the "Dog breath variations". This version distinguishes itself from the one on "Uncle meat" by that the accompaniment isn't adding harmonies, but immediately starts off with a counterpoint line. It remains two part counterpoint all through.

E: Rock introduction.
D: Dog breath variations #2.

Dog breath variations (1974), opening (midi file)

Dog breath variations (1974), opening (transcription)

5) Dog breath variations, 1993

For the Ensemble Modern Zappa wrote a score that begins quite mysteriously with two odd numbered meters alternating each other (9/8 plus 11/8). These two bars are next used as a vamp for the slow introduction of the main theme. The hereupon following variation returns to the normal tempo of the original versions. The opening gets commented upon in an article by Barend Tromp in the Dutch magazine "Mens en melodie" (People and melodies), June 2000, where it is presented as an example of mixing elements from (modern) classical music (the odd rhythm), pop and jazz (the pulse of 8th notes).

G: Modern intro.
D: Dog breath variations #3.

Dog breath variations (1993), opening (midi file)

Dog breath variations (1993), opening (notes)

On the album sleeve Zappa informed us about the "Uncle Meat" movie, that we probably would never get to see, stashed away in his basement. The unfinished movie kept lingering around in his mind however. When videos presented themselves as a new sellable medium in the eighties, an opportunity to return to the project was offered. In 1982 some additional taping was done and in 1988 it finally became publicly available. Zappa wasn't satisfied with only the video and wanted to incorporate the movie in the CD as well. "Uncle meat" thus became a double CD including 40 minutes of dialogues and a new song, "Tengo na minchia tanta", recorded during the 1982 session.

Above: The Mothers playing "King Kong" during their 1968 BBC Television special.
Below: Still from "Uncle Meat" with Roy Estrada as the Mexican pope and Ian underwood at the piano.

The concert parts included in the movie were among others the little play from the gig at the Royal Albert Hall from 1968. About 70 minutes of this concert, including the play, were released in 1993 as "Ahead of their time".

Epilogue, section (midi file)
Agency man, section (midi file)

Epilogue, opening (transcription)
Agency man, section (transcription)

For the occasion members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra were hired to play several modern chamber music pieces. All of them would later reappear in the scores for "200 Motels", except for a modern composition called "Epilogue". The first half minute is presented below. It has a tempo change for the second theme, at the part where the meters keep changing. It is preceded by "Agency man", about how to promote a president to the voters. It's a piece you might call a pastiche, opening with Ian Underwood improvising a cadenza on a concert piano over the central theme. He keeps playing piano when the first theme starts, using several style elements from classical piano concerts like arpeggio's, semiquavers and ornaments. This first theme is in a straightforward waltz rhythm, the second is a simple march, giving the instructions for the president's campaign speechwise singing.