THE DUB ROOM SPECIAL - HALLOWEEN 81: CONCERT FOOTAGE #2
During the Halloween concerts from 1981 the band could play many titles from the just released "You are what you is" album live. These shows got broadcast on radio and on TV by MTV. Zappa himself used this footage to construct "The dub room special" video. It combines this recent material with footage from the KCET concert from 1974 and clay animimations by Bruce Bickford. He also set-up the content for "The torture never stops" video with two hours of footage from the 1981 concerts, but this compilation didn't become available through Honker home videos. Instead the ZFT released this collection as a DVD in 2008. They also re-released "The dub room special" as a DVD, next to a CD with a dozen tracks taken from it. In 2020 the big blast came by releasing three complete 1981 Halloween concerts as a 6-CD set. In the previous section the "Suicide chump" solo is specifically transcribed from the "Halloween 81" set. On this last edition you can also hear several titles that would get first released with the then upcoming "Drowning witch", "The man from Utopia" and "Them or us" albums.
Drowning witch (1981)
The degree of perfection "Drowning witch" has on the 1982 album was reached by heavily editing the best sections from a series of concerts, combined
with studio overdubbing. One can't expect "Drowning witch" performances from individual concerts to be able to compete
with that. Nevertheless Zappa himself selected one for "YCDTOSA vol. III" combining sections from two concerts. "Halloween 81" contains
two of them, completely unedited, showing how the band played this title at its average best. When you accept you won't get the brilliance
of the 1982 album, it's still good material to listen to.
Drowning witch (11-01-81), 3:06-3:40 (midi file).
Drowning witch (11-01-81), 3:06-3:40 (transcription).
As a composition "Drowning witch" remained the same. At a detail level there was sometimes some room for variation and a little bit of improvisation.
The bigger difference lies in the two guitar solos, that take up half of the composition. The example above contains the beginning of the first solo
from the november 1st concert:
- Bar 1: last repetition of a figure lasting 4/8 with a downward chromatic line.
- Bars 2-3: transitory bars in 4/4. When I'm hearing it correctly its two chords contain F-Ab-C-F-G-C
and F-Ab-D-E-G-B.
- Bars 4-7: beginning of a vamp in 9/8. Different chords are played over it with the overall sound continuing to be chromatic.
- Bars 8-13: start of the guitar solo over this vamp. Other than in the comparable example from "Drowning witch (1982)"
from the next section, the bass F remains better maintained as the pedal note/keynote. The handling of scales is similar. It begins
with mainly the set F-G#-A-B-C-D-E, not a standard scale upon F. At the end of bar 13 the C becomes C#, continuing in the next bar (not included anymore in the eaxmple).
A lot of notes are altering, so the chromatic atmosphere of bars 1-7 continues to have an influence upon the solo too.
Dave & Al
"Dave & Al" is an otherwise unreleased title from "Halloween 81". It's a one-time only episode for entertaining the audience with little events.
It's about arranging dates for two of the crew members and begins as:
"All right, hey listen, before we go on to the next song I got a really important piece of business I got to take care of, now
there's this guy that works for us, he sells the T-shirts. His name is David Ditkowich. Now some of you might know David and you,
if you know him you realize that David is a lonely guy. He hasn't been pooched in three days. His nectar has built up so to speak and he asked
me if I could help him get a girl tonight."
Dave & Al, 4:54-5:14 (midi file).
Dave & Al, 4:54-5:14 (transcription).
The music in cases as this is subservient to the text. It's built around a simple bass vamp in G Dorian with 4/4 as meter. The first two beats are this G as a pedal note, next a little
melodic line gets played by four upgoing notes, rhythmically mostly as triplets. The band is improvising along this with a lot of freedom.
The example from above contains 6 bars that are played when getting near the end. In three bars you can hear the band improvising without
Zappa talking over it.
Zappa in front of the 1981 Palladium audience, wearing a "hat" given to him by a member of the audience, and shaking hands with people in the
front row (stills from the Torture never stops DVD). This kind of interaction with his audience
was normal during his tours till in 1982 this proved not to be possible anymore.
Easy meat (1981)
The band first started playing "Easy meat" in 1970. It took a decade to get at its final form on "Tinsel town rebellion". For the following 1981 tour
no more adaptations were made. Because it's on video it could only be an unedited version, thus a situation different from "Tinsel town rebellion".
See the corresponding section for "Easy meat (1980)".
Easy meat (1981), 2:55-3:12 (midi file).
Easy meat (1981), 2:55-3:12 (transcription).
The guitar solo in it takes up half of the song, with the example from above containing the first five bars. As an idea the accompaniment is basic, a pedal note solo in 4/4 in E Lydian. The bass
player, Scott Thunes, is doing a lot to make it sound irregular nevertheless, by playing on beat, off-beat, after beat, and applying syncopes and hemiolas.
He's also making large jumps, as in bars 3 and 5. Because of that I've also indicated the drum beats, they are neatly on beat. Without them one might loose track.
Teen-age wind (live)
"Teen-age wind" on "Halloween 81" follows the structure of "Teen-age wind" on "You are what you is",
but knows differences in its harmonization.
Teen-age wind, 0:00-0:20 (midi file).
Teen-age wind, 0:00-0:20 (transcription).
Bars 1-4: these bars are in G Mixolydian. The CD version of "You are what you is" got a little sped up, with the key getting between G and G#. In the previous
section the opening is notated with G# as tonic, but I'm pretty sure it got recorded with G as tonic. The chords by the reggae guitar and keyboard are now F en G7.
This G7 chord (on beat 4) is absent on "You are what you is".
Bars 5-6: the B becomes Bb, so this is G Dorian, as on "You are what you is" (G# Dorian).
Bar 7: the B is natural again.
Teen-age wind, 2:29-2:40 (midi file).
Teen-age wind, 2:29-2:40 (transcription).
This second example contains three of the phrases that get repeated at the end of this song. The key is G Mixolydian again.
The way I've notated this these phrases last one bar each. The meter switches between 12/8 and 4/4. Staff 4 contains a second accompanying melody,
that's referring to the opening: it's also present in staff 2 of bars 2-4 of the first example, played slightly different.
Yo' mama (1981)
Regarding construction "Yo' mama" from "Halloween 81" follows the same patterns as "Yo' mama (1979)"
from "Sheik Yerbouti". See the corresponding section for the details. The first section below starts from the point where the
sustained bass pedal moves over to a normal pedal note with drumming.
Yo' mama (1981), 3:00-3:29 (midi file).
Yo' mama (1981), 3:00-3:29 (transcription).
Zappa begins with playing up and down along the E-add4 chord, while the accompaniment is playing notes from the Esus2 chord in an irregular way.
All notes are picked individually. Their rhythms are different: Zappa is using mostly triplets, while the accompaniment is playing in standard 4/4
with many 16th notes in its figures. This causes the notes density to be pretty high. It sounds peculiar like this and it must have been premeditated,
though there are no other "Yo' mama" performances on "Halloween 81" to compare it with. Bars 3-4 are solely using a five-note set, the first five notes
of the E Mixolydian scale. A C# appears first in bar 5, when Zappa begins soloing normally, and ultimately also a D in bar 9. Only then you get at a fully deployed Mixolydian scale.
Yo' mama (1981), 4:12-4:40 (midi file).
Yo' mama (1981), 4:12-4:40 (transcription).
This second example contains the second turning point from the solo, where the E pedal becomes a V-I alternation. In bars 1-5 you can still hear
the notes from the Esus2 chord in the accompaniment. In bars 6-7 the whole band, Zappa included, plays around the B chord. Bar 8
switches to the E-chord, with the Bm7-chord superimposed on top of it halfway. So the total harmony of bar 8 is E11, as is also happening at
other spots in my "Yo' mama" examples from the Sheik Yerbouti and Halloween ('78) sections.
Stevie's spanking
"Stevie's spanking" is a good example of regular rock 'n roll in 4/4.
It served as a vehicle for both Zappa and Steve Vai playing solos, either alone or simultaneously. 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.
It opens in A Mixolydian with in staves 2-4 a VII-I progression in bar 1 and VII-I-IV-II-I in bar 2. Bars 3-4 are alternating I and VII
again. Staff 1 is moving freely over it, not necessarily following the pattern in the same way. Zappa begins
playing with the C# altered to C natural over it in bars 5-6, then continuing with C# in bar 7. Thus in bars 5-6 he's briefly
mingling the A Dorian scale by his solo with the A Mixolydian scale of the accompaniment.
Stevie's spanking, opening bars (midi file).
Stevie's spanking, opening bars (transcription).
In Guitar player, August 2006, Steve Vai comments about soloing with Frank Zappa during "Stevie's spanking": "When you are
improvising with another musician, you get to enter a private place with that person and share an intimacy that you don't
have in any other kind of relationship. For a 20-year old guitarist like myself, entering that space with Frank Zappa represented
a very challenging process. At first I had to get over the fact that it was really happening. Then I'd be afraid to step on his toes,
and I'd worry about things like "Am I in tune? Is he listening to what I'm doing? Does he think it's good, or am I crap." In a short while
I got over that, and I just started jamming - hard. Then, that space became some sort of sanctuary. I learned how to listen and speak
at the same time. It's about relaxing and spontaneously creating, and having fun doing it. I believe that's one of the things Frank was
looking for. If it wasn't happening for him musically, he would have shut it down in a minute. But it turned into a special moment
in the show."
Above to the right: Frank checking out Steve Vai's blue hair during "Stevie's spanking". Source: Dub room special DVD.