You have brought me solitude,
And I believe it is the time for me to show some gratitude.
I think I'll take a minute to reflect upon your attitude,
But most of all I love the way that you have brought me solitude.
You have been a friend to me,
And I believe it is the time for me to show some sympathy.
I watch the way you suffer with the problems only I can see,
But most of all I love the way that you have been a friend to me.
You have been misunderstood,
And I believe it is the time for you to feel the way you should.
I'd love to see you smile a while and know that you was feeling good,
But mostly I regret the way that you have been misunderstood.
You have been a friend to me,
And I believe it is the time for me to show some sympathy.
I watch the way you suffer with the problems only I can see,
But most of all I love the way that you have been a friend to me.
You have brought me solitude, you have brought me solitude . . .
[repeats]
Original lyric transcription: Jon Naurin
Click here for a 76k .mp3 sample of this song as played by Banned From Utopia, 1995, courtesy of Jon Naurin.
It was written shortly after Frank found out that his wife had some serious helath issues. I gave Frank a ride home from rehearsal one night and he told me that he was really pretty worried about her. Soon after that, he came in with the lyrics to "Solitude." He went to the Wurlitzer electric piano he had set up for rehearsal and played the basic chords and melody for us to learn. We went over it a few times, but it was never played live, and seems unfinished to me.
[...] According to [Joe Travers], Ruth Underwood said that the music to "Solitude" had been floating around since the time she was in the band in the early 1970's.
Quite fascinating to imagine Frank singing these warm, open-hearted words, far from the cynicism we're used to (notice how he avoids placing the words 'love' and 'you' next to each other, though :)
This song was written by Frank for his wife, Gail, in the 1970s.
It was rehearsed in 1980, but it was never played on tour. It has been recorded on one or more rehearsal tapes, and on a demo tape by the ex-sidemen in the cover band Banned from Utopia.
IB: Tell me about the song "Solitude" which you performed for Gail at the Zappa's Universe rehearsals [...].
SV: It was a song that we rehearsed in the 80 band. Frank had written it before then, but we had rehearsed it in an attempt to persuade Frank to play it—which you really can't do.
IB: It wasn't a typical Zappa song.
SV: It was the least typical Zappa song I ever heard. When I asked him if it was written for Gail, he said "No." But I know it was because Gail told me it was. Obviously it's written for her.
IB: It wasn't actually recorded—just rehearsed?
SV: Well I have heard a tape, I believe, of tracks for that song with the David Logeman band—for the You Are What You Is album. And we rehearsed it, and Frank came in as he does sometimes if he's in a certain mood—he just started chopping songs from the list. We learned a hundred songs and that was one that got chopped. But I remember Arthur Barrow had a cassette of it from rehearsal and years later I wanted to record it. I wanted to do something with it but Gail's very sensitive about that song. It's a very special song for her and rightly so.
IB: Did you actually sing it at that time?
SV: Yeah, I did. I got the tape from Arthur. I believe it was Arthur—it was either Arthur or Scott Thunes. I think it was maybe Scott Thunes, I can't even remember now. And then I learned it and I did a little version of it for Gail at the sound check for Zappa's Universe. I totally blew it. I remember she just sat there with her hand over her mouth. But I talked to her about that song.
IB: So probably it'll never see the light of day officially?
SV: Well there were other people that wanted to record it, but I think Gail wants Dweezil to record it first.
The 'other people' who wanted to record it were probably Banned From Utopia, who recorded it on a demo in 1995. The rehearsal tape Steve mentions is also in circulation, and Arthur Barrow once posted here that he had a tape of FZ, Ray and Ike singing it—sounds like quite a gem!
AG: When I interviewed Steve Vai a few years ago, we talked about Frank's song "Solitude." He said he thought Gail wanted you to record it. Do you have any plans to do just that?
DZ: I'm not sure if that is an accurate representation . . . I never had a discussion with Gail about that song, but I know it's a little known song in Frank's catalog, and it's a song written for Gail. But, yeah, something I can think about. But I actually haven't ever had that conversation with Gail—so that's news to me!
Site maintained by Román García Albertos