I lost track of the thread once again. I would like to say, first of all, that WOIIFTM is actually very deep album, not only satirical (in fact, there's nothing funny about a song like "Mom & Dad"). In spite of the songs that are indeed humurous, the album has an eerie atmosphere which I find fascinating. It's one of Frank's masterpieces, no doubt about that. "Flower Punk" is another dart thrown by Frank at hippie manierisms, constructed over the lyrical structure of "Hey Joe" (Jimi's versions was a hit in the UK back then). The music, like other pieces in the album, is a bit sped-up (not as much as the chipmunk vocals by Frank, of course). The ending, with the dual voices making hippy-dippy remarks about the youth and their music, but without forgetting vital matters like fame, royalties and getting laid with groupies is simply marvelous. It takes place over a demented sonic landscape of music, assorted noises and distorted voices. While making fun of the flower power clichès, Frank manages to achieve the ultimate psychedelic sound. A brilliant and hilarious piece that work at many levels.
I love this. The cheesy sped up vocal. The doubled shout vocal. The quick time rhythm, The lyrics "I'm going to the shrink so he can help me be a nervous wreck" .... fantastic stuff
I think I worked out the time signatures for “Flower Punk”. Any drummers here who can verify this? In between the lines of singing, there are four measures of 7/16. Each measure is counted as 12/12/123. The lines of singing are in 21/16. But that’s not divided into three measures of 7/16. Instead, there are three measures of 5/16 and a measure of 6/16. That’s counted as 12/123/12/123/12/123/12/12/12. And that leads back to the four measures of 7/16. In other words, it’s like “Hey Joe”.
I'm not a drummer, but I believe the numbers might just be a tad simpler. I count four bars of 5/8 for the vocal bit, then four bars of 7/8, alternating like that throughout. Any corrections/additions from more knowledgeable folks welcome.
Flower Punk It's obvious, but I have to at least mention that the song is also a take off of Hey Joe (ah, I'm not the only one to say this!). I'm not as thrilled with this one as I used to be, but it's still enjoyable. The song really picks up once the "Hey Joe" part ends and we get the Wild Thing part and then the dueling hippie dialogs in the left and right speakers. The first part of the song, eh, but this second half is really hilarious. Of course the background noises are also perfect. Overall it's enjoyable and a weird song. I would say good not great.
Hot Poop: We get to Hot Poop, which is basically an interlude. Not essential listening but an effective piece of surrealism to fill in the cracks.
The return of the freak whisperer and an interlude that sounds like Mother People backwards, and the obligatory snork to round it off.
Better look around before you say you don't care Shut your f**king mouth about the length of my hair How would you survive If you were alive S**ty little person?
Hot Poop. That title came from the "pornographic" tape that Frank made at Studio Z for Sgt. Willis. When FZ finished the tape he put it in a box and labeled that box "Hot Poop". FZ mentioned that during an interview during 1973 (which is quoted in "The Big Note" by Charles Ulrich). Also, I love Dick Barber snorks.
I actually meant to say the f-word was censored or partly cut. Of course, there was no way for you to guess what I was really trying to say, mainly because I was not clear enough
Nasal Retentive Calliope Music: Now the full length avant garde piece Nasal Retentive Calliope Music, which utilizes a device called the Apostolic Blurch Injector, a device that creates Brown noises; it previously appeared on Lunpy Gravy. It’s a surreal sound collage intercut with Eric Clapton delivering dialogue lampooning the “Clapton Is God” phrase. There’s also a brief snippet of surf rock near the end. This track took me a little bit to get into, but now I find it a very intriguing track. To me it’s almost like Frank is going “you think you’re Wierd and out there? Try this! And I just took coffee and smokes while writing this.” A great piece of sound.
I think this track loses something without the segue into the next song. I don’t know how effective it is nowadays, but way back when, the first time you heard the needle skipping across the record, it was the funniest thing in the world. And it’s even better when it happens again in “Mother People”. Did Frank Zappa ever explain how he did that?
To me, here we have Zappa testing the limits of his listener, and having a bit of fun. I don't know how many, but I figure we have a few folks on here that have been in a recording studio and probably played around at a desk at some point. There is nothing better in the world to do. I would imagine that this was an absolute blast to put together, and also I would gather that it took an awful lot of time to put together. Certainly this would have been much more difficult to put together in 1968 than it would be now. Sometimes i think people forget that these guys didn't have a computer and seventy million samples to choose from. I wonder if the surf guitar and drum beat at the end being somewhat underneath the sfx is somewhat a way of making the music look like an afterthought, in the same way that most bands would throw some sfx at the end of a song as an afterthought
