Chunga's Revenge Original Unreleased Liner Notes

RS6415.FRANK ZAPPA.CHUNGA'S REVENGE. BIZARRE

STEREO RS6415

A Gypsy mutant industrial vacuum cleaner dances about a mysterious night time camp fire. Festoons. Dozens of imported castanets, clutched by the horrible suction of its heavy duty hose, waving with marginal erotic abandon in the midnight autumn air.

SIDE ONE

1. Won't That Hurt Your Kidneys? 1:45
2. Motor Head's Boogie 2:09
3. SHARLEENA (first version) 4:23
4. Twenty Small Cigars 2:17
5. The Nancy & Mary Music
Part I 2:42
Part II 4:11
Part III 2:37

SIDE TWO

1. Chunga's Revenge 6:16
2. The Clap 1:24
3. Transylvania Boogie 5:01
4. SHARLEENA (second version) 4:07
5. Wonderful Wino 5:14

Recorded at: The Record Plant, Hollywood; Apostolic Studio, New York; Trident
studios, London; T.T.G. Inc., Hollywood; Whitney Studios, Glendale.

Engineers: Dick Kunc, Stan Agol and Roy Baker. Live stuff recorded at Tyrone Guthrie Theatre, Minneapolis (engineer: Bruce Margolis).

PRODUCED BY FRANK ZAPPA

BIZARRE BUSINESS BY HERB COHEN

ALL SELECTIONS WRITTEN & PUBLISHED BY FRANK ZAPPA MUSIC (a subsidiary of THIRD STORY MUSIC, BMI) except WONDERFUL WINO (Zappa-Simmons). There is an excellent version of this song in Jeff Simmons' album: LUCILLE HAS MESSED MY MIND UP on Straight records, STS 1057.

COVER DESIGN AND ILLUSTRATION BY CAL SCHENKEL. FRONT COVER PHOTO: PHIL FRANKS: BACK COVER PHOTO: JOHN WILLIAMS

SIDE ONE

1. WON'T THAT HURT YOUR KIDNEYS? features Aynsley Dunbar & Phyllis Altenhaus in a section of dialogue from the film "UNCLE MEAT", which we are still trying to raise money to finish. At one time a very famous film company had guaranteed completion money. The first time they saw any of the material edited together, they went berserk & took the money back. As of this writing, the film is about 1/3 complete. This scene deals with Mr. Dunbar's fetish for being flogged as part of any erotic procedure.

2. MOTOR HEAD'S BOOGIE features Roy Estrada on bass, Euclid James motor Head Sherwood on rhythm guitar & Frank Zappa on acoustic lead and primordial grunts. This selection was recorded in late fall 1967 at Apostolic Studios, at the end of one of the sessions for "UNCLE MEAT" . . . the weird ending is where the tape ran out (you can also hear a slight change of pitch at the end due to a failure of the Scully tape machine transport to compensate for reel load balance).

3. SHARLEENA features Don "Sugar cane" Harris on lead vocal & electric violin, Ian Underwood on organ, piano, alto & tenor saxes, Max Bennett on electric bass, Aynsley Dunbar on drums & Frank Zappa on guitar & 2nd vocal. This is the funky version.

4. TWENTY SMALL CIGARS features Ian Underwood on piano, Max Bennett on upright bass, John Guerin on drums & Frank Zappa on guitar & harpsichord. A more complete version of this tune might be found in the Jean Luc Ponty album "KING KONG" on World Pacific Records. This ballad was written in 1963.

5. THE NANCY & MARY MUSIC features Ian Underwood on tenor sax & electric piano, George Duke (courtesy World Pacific Records) on organ, electric piano & vocal drum imitations, Jeff Simmons electric bass, Aynsley Dunbar on drums & Frank Zappa on guitar & audience. This selection was recorded live at The Tyrone Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis. It commemorates a meeting with two exceptional Minnesota ladies.

SIDE TWO

1. CHUNGA'S REVENGE features Ian Underwood on electric tenor sax (with wah-wah pedal), Max Bennett on electric bass, Don "Sugar Cane" Harris on organ, Aynsley Dunbar on drums & Frank Zappa on guitar. This is the music to picture the vacuum cleaner dancing to. Think of where it sweats when it gets excited.

2. THE CLAP features frank Zappa on 4 tracks of overdubbed percussion including: drum set, 5 temple blocks, 2 wood blocks, boobams, timbales, bass drum & field drum.

3. TRANSYLVANIA BOOGIE features Ian Underwood on organ, Max Bennett on bass, Aynsley Dunbar on drums & Frank Zappa on guitar. This is a sort of exercise built on a scale that reads (ascending) A-Bb-C-C#-D#-E-F#-G-A . . . the piece seems to have a Bartok influence. (This note is included for those reviewers who keep writing about Stravinsky-Varese-Cage influences because of that list in the Freak Out album. They've never heard any music by these composers, have no idea what the stylistic earmarks might be, and insist on using the names in critical reviews . . . perhaps to convince their readers of some deep understanding. For the benefit of these writers, a complete list of influences for each tune in the album is included).

4. SHARLEENA features The Florescent Leech & Eddie on lead vocal, George Duke on organ, Ian Underwood on piano & tenor sax, Jeff Simmons on bass, Aynsley Dunbar on drums & Frank Zappa on guitars & vocal. This is the commercial version. I almost forgot . . . Jeff Simmons is doing the shout-vocal on the fade.

5. WONDERFUL WINO features Ian Underwood (momentarily) on tenor sax, George Duke on piano, Jeff Simmons on bass, Aynsley Dunbar on drums & Frank Zappa on guitar and vocal. This song was recorded before on Jeff's album. I had written the words (in a motel someplace) and had practiced with The mothers an earlier version of this song (using "Bringing In The Sheaves" for an intro). While working on "LUCIELLE HAS MESSED MY MIND UP", it became necessary to get another track together for one side. Jeff already had an instrumental cut that seemed to match the mood of the text, so we laid the words on it. This version is a combination of the old & new way . . . it is, of course, dedicated to all those men you step over when you walk from the Hotel One Fifth Avenue to The Fillmore East.

I HEREBY ADMIT THAT I AM HEAVILY INFLUENCED BY EVERYTHING. THE INFLUENCES (POSITIVE & NEGATIVE) WHICH APPLY TO THE MATERIAL IN THIS ALBUM ARE LISTED BELOW.

Ethnic Music Of:
Bulgaria
Saudi Arabia
Greece
India
Tibet
Indonesia
Los Angeles

Compositions Of:
Igor Stravinsky
Edgar Varese
John Cage
Bela Bartok
Anton Webern
Pierre Boulez
Maurice Ravel

Other Influences:
Mike Nichols
Elaine May
John Lee Hooker
Clarence Gatemouth Brown
Johnny Guitar Watson
Glen Campbell
Panalal Ghosh
Ravi Shankar
Clyde McCoy
Canned Heat
Led Zeppelin
The Turtles

ERRONEOUS ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING FUNCTIONS OF INFLUENCE, SEE BELOW

Proper choice of influences can greatly increase your enjoyment of life. If a person is heavily influenced by something, he will tend to interpret the whole of his experience through it. A Republican computes his environmental stimuli after it filters through his Republican-influenced receptors (of course, this is simplified here . . . I'm sure you get the drift). If the Republican is really influenced by Republican logic or Republican music, for example, he will definitely compute his environmental stimuli in a manner which differs from (obviously) a person who likes democrat music.

Some people mare born into being Republicans or Democrats. They are raised that way . . . just like being a Catholic or something. For the most part, they never got a chance to choose their influences. If a person gets born a Catholic and stays that way, he may be lucky to choose any other influences . . . some background influences are so demanding, you see. This is a little twisted.

If you are heavily influenced by Archie Shepp, Blood sweat & tears will sound differently to you than if you were influenced by Buddy Holly.

On the other hand, some people believe they are completely without any influence. If you are one of those people, seek help immediately. If you are, by some perverse coincidence, looking for a chance to get some influences on ya', follow these simple directions:

1. Pay attention to everything

2. Select what you like & what you don't like

3. Leave the rest for somebody else to use

4. Use what you like

5. Don't use what you don't like unless you improve it

6. Make things using the best of your influences

7. Share these

If you successfully complete the study course outlined above, you will notice that within a short time:

1. People who had a lot of trouble relating to you before will suddenly have someone or something to compare you to . . . makes it easier to put you in a box when the lineage of your consciousness can be traced

2. Most people who trace the lineage of your consciousness will do it inaccurately

3. They will still put you in a box . . . makes it easier to carry, transmit and/or explain you to other people who deal in boxed goods

4. Top of the box will be closed & stamped: COMPLETELY UNDERSTOOD

5. Flushed with assurance, owner of box concession heaves sigh of relief

6. Contents of box may now attack throat of owner of box . . . he won't even feel it