YOU ARE WHAT YOU IS - THE DUB ROOM SPECIAL: ROCK 'N ROLL

"You are what you is" (fall 1981) is a continuation upon the commercial success of "Sheik Yerbouti" and "Joe's garage, act I". Much of the album has to do with familiar chord progressions and stylistic conventions. All is done with productional craftmanship regarding sound quality and vocal harmonies. It's pleasant listining to this music and especially the various extras that go beyond conventions indicate that there's someone with a high musical capacity behind this album.
Former Mothers of Invention drummer Jimmy Carl Black made a guest appearance in a traditional country song "Harder than you husband" with hypocrite standard break up lyrics ("it's better for you"). More complex country based Zappa songs are for instance "Truck driver divorce" on "Them or us" (1984), and, regarding thematic variety, "Rhymin'man" on "Broadway the hard way" (1988). A section of the latter song is included in the "Parodies" section.
"Harder than you husband" is segued by rock 'n roll in "Doreen". This one is pure conventionalism, in text and chord progression (I-IV-V in E). The following example is the opening of Doreen, here transcribed from the version on "You can't do that on stage anymore, vol. V" (1992).

Doreen, opening (midi file)

Doreen, opening (transcription).

One of the extras on "You are what you is" is for instance how the melody of "Doreen" returns at the second half of "Goblin' girls". It's sung over one of the "Goblin' girls" themes vamping while a third voice joins in with horny fantasies about the girls in the green goblin' suits.
"You are what you" is a rock song in F Dorian with a syncopic movement from the 2nd to the 3rd bar. The song is build around a IV-I chord alternation and played over a fast reggae rhythm (at that time called ska). The chorus is excellent poetry:

"Do you know who you are
You are what you is
And you is what you am
A cow don't make ham
You ain't what you're not
So see what you got
You are what you is
And that's all it is"

You are what you is, opening (midi file)

You are what you is, opening (transcription).

"Beauty knows no pain" is complex rock 'n roll, using changing metres and scales. The odd 18/16 metre is a difficult figure, subdivided as 5+5+2+2+2+2. You can learn it counting through it as one-two-three-four-five one-two-three-four-five one-two one-two one-two one-two and then speed up the pace. Or listen to how it sounds on record, get it in your recollection and reproduce it. "Stevie's spanking" from the "Dub room special"/"Them or us" on the other hand is regular rock 'n roll in 4/4. It served as a vehicle for both Zappa and Steve Vai playing solos. Below are the opening bars from the "Dub room special" version with Steve "pounding" the chords of the main theme along with the rhythm guitar and the keyboard, whereas Zappa is playing a few solo bars.

Beauty knows no pain, opening (midi file)
Stevie's spanking, opening bars (midi file)

Beauty knows no pain, opening (transcription).
Stevie's spanking, opening bars (transcription).

Right: Frank checking out Steve Vai's blue hair during "Stevie's spanking". Source: Dub room special DVD.

The 1981 Halloween concert was broadcasted by MTV with the title "You are what you is" and sections are included in Zappa's "Dub room special" DVD as well. Recently the ZFT has made 10 of the 15 tracks from the "Dub room special" available on CD, with two tracks from the MTV show, whereas various other tracks from this concert - not on the DVD/CD - are included in the YCDTOSA series. A friend of mine was advertising Zappa at that time and at the age of 19 I watched the MTV concert. It made me decide to buy a Zappa record, "Drowning witch" it became. It was not the music, but Zappa's stage behaviour that made me try it out. Here was someone not shouting and dancing all the time, but sincerely performing music. His music never appealed to me at once and it took me more than a year to understand most of "Drowning witch". At first I thought the solos were album fillers, but at the time I got to buying "Shut up 'n play yer guitar", I was forced to listen more carefully. Well, as long as you can learn from your mistakes.

"You are what you is" contains a sequence of three songs about Zappa's views about religion. Their inclusion got triggered by the popularity of some TV evangelists, that particularly irritated him. The songs are a mainstream pop song with country elements, called "The meek shall inherit nothing", a rock piece with a rap sermon against religion in general, called "Dumb all over", and next the piece below. "Heavenly bank account" is his only attempt at gospel, following all the stereotypes of this genre. It opens with a "preacher" singing to the community with a choir and keyboard backing him up. The chord progression in rock terms is G-C-C#dim-G-C-Am-D (bars 1-16). It appears that this opening was recorded seperately from the main part of the song, starting in bar 18 with the central theme in G Lydian. The tempo of the opening has been adapted so that it goes equal with the main theme. By doing so the frequencies got right between keyboard frequencies, thus creating all quartertones. When you're listening to it normally that's no problem, but when you're transcribing it with the aid of a keyboard, that's really nasty. It's transposed a quartertone down in the transcription.

Heavenly bank account, opening (midi file)

Heavenly bank account, opening (transcription).