(Zappa/Beefheart/Mothers, LP, DiscReet DS 2234, October 2, 1975)
Produced by Frank Zappa
Overdubs and mixing at The Record Plant, Los Angeles, CA
Engineered by Kerry McNabb, Mike Braunstein, Kelly Kotera, Mike Stone, Davey Moire and Frank Hubach
Photography by John Williams
Design: Cal Schenkel
MUSIC SUPPLIED BY:
FZ—lead guitar, vocals
Captain Beefheart—harp, vocals, shopping bags
George Duke—keyboards, vocals
Napoleon Murphy Brock—sax, vocals
Bruce Fowler—trombone, fantastic dancing
Tom Fowler—bass, also dancing
Denny Walley—slide guitar, vocals
Terry Bozzio—drums, moisture
Chester Thompson—drums (on 200 Years Old and Cucamonga)
+
Robert "Frog" Camarena—uncredited vocals
Roy Estrada—uncredited vocals?
Mike Braunstein—uncredited vocals?
includes quotations from Tico-Tico No Fubá (de Abreu), The Brainiac (Carrión), Dust My Broom (James), Mr. Tambourine Man (Dylan), Pachuko Hop (Haven/Higgins) and All Night Long (Houston)
Basic track:
Armadillo World Headquarters, Austin, TX
May 20, 1975
Overdubs:
The Record Plant, Los Angeles, CA
Summer 1975
Debra Kadabra
Say she's a witch
Shit-ass Charlotte
Ain't that a bitch?
Debra Kadabra
Haw, that's rich!
Ione, a rancho granny
Shook her wrinkled fanny
Shoes are too tight and pointed
Shoes are too tight and pointed
Ankles sorta puffin' out
Cause me to shout
Oh Debra Algebra Ebneezra Kadabra
Witch Goddess
Witch Goddess of Lankershim Boulevard
Cover my entire bodice with Avon Cologna
And drive me to some relative's house in East L.A.
(Wooden dog!)
Just till my skin clears up
Turn it to Channel 13
And make me watch the rubber tongue
When it comes out
From the puffed & flabulent Mexican rubber-goods mask
Next time they show The Brnokka
Make me buy The Flosser
Make me grow Braniac Fingers
But with more hair
Make me kiss your turquoise jewelry!
Emboss me!
Rub the hot front part of my head
With rented unguents!
Give me bas-relief!
Cast your dancing spell my way
I promise to go under it
Cast your dancing spell my way
I promise to go under it
(Cast your dancing spell my way
I promise to go under it)
Oh, hell, yes!
(Cast your dancing spell my way
I promise to go under it)
Oh, hell, yes!
(Cast your dancing spell my way
I promise to go under it)
Oh, hell, yes!
(Cast your dancing spell my way
I promise to go under it)
Oh, heel, yes!
(Learn the Pachuco Hop
And let me twirl ya)
Learn the Pachuco
Learn the Pachuco Hop an' lemme twirl you
Oh Debra Fauntleroy-Ebneezra Kadabra!
Take me with you
Don't you want any of these?
includes a quotation from Listen To The Music (Tom Johnston)
Armadillo World Headquarters, Austin, TX
May 20 & 21, 1975
I coulda swore her hair was made of rayon
She wore a Milton Bradley crayon
But she was something I could lay on
Can't remember what became of me
Carolina Hardcore Ecstasy
She put a Doobie Brothers tape on
(La la la la la la)
I had a Roger Daltrey cape on
(A Roger Daltrey cape on)
There was a bed I dumped her shape on
Can't remember what became of me
Carolina Hardcore Ecstasy
Somewhat later on
I woke up and she was gone
There was dew out on the lawn
In the sunrise
Later she came back
With a rumpled paper sack
Which she told me would contain
A surprise
She stuck her hand right in it to the bottom
Said she knew I'd be surprised she got 'em
Take a Charleston pimp to spot 'em
Then she gave a pair of shoes to me
Plastic leather, 14 triple D
I said, "I wonder what's the shoes for?"
She told me, "Don't you worry no more!"
And got right down there on the tile floor
"Now, darling, stomp all over me!"
Carolina Hardcore Ecstasy
Is this something new
Having people stomp on you?
Is it what I need to do
For your pleasure?
(Your pleasure . . . it's all I need)
"What is this, a quiz?"
"Don't you worry what it is
It is merely just a moment
I can treasure"
(What this—?)
(You know)
By ten o'clock her arms and legs were rendered
She couldn't talk 'cause her mouth had been extendered
It looked to me as though she had been blendered
But was this abject misery?
No! No!
Carolina Hardcore Ecstasy!
Well . . .
But was this abject misery?
No! No!
Carolina Hardcore Ecstasy!
But was this abject misery?
No! No!
Carolina Hardcore Ecstasy!
It might seem strange to Herb and Dee
Carolina Hardcore Ecstasy!
includes quotations from Sweet Leilani (Owens), Louie Louie (Richard Berry), and a guitar lick from San Ber'dino
Armadillo World Headquarters, Austin, TX
May 20, 1975
Sam with the showing scalp flat top
Particular about the point it made
(I got it)
Why, when I was knee-high to a grasshopper
This black juice came out on a hard shelled chin
And they called that "tobacco juice"
I used to fiddle with my back feet music for a black onyx
My entire room absorbed every echo
The music was . . . thud like
The music was . . . thud like
I usually played such things as rough-neck and thug
Opaque melodies that would bug most people
Music from the other side of the fence
A black swan figurine lay on all color lily pads
On a little conglomeration table of pressed black felt
With same color shadows
In seamed knobbed knees, and what-nots
The long hallway rolled out into oddball odd
Beside the fly-pecked black doorway
That looked closed on the tar-lattice street
Up a wrought iron fire escape
Rolled out a tiny wooden platform with dark, hard, dark rubber wheels
Roll, skreek!
Roll, skreek!
Roll, skreek!
Sam with the showing scalp flat top
Particular about the point it made
Sam was a basket caset!
A hardened dark ivory clip held
Saleable everyday pencils
I wish I had a pair of bongos!
Bongo Fury!
Bongo Fury!
Oowwwww! Bongo Fury!
(Boogie!)
Bongo Fury!
Bongo Fury
Bongo Fury
Armadillo World Headquarters, Austin, TX
May 20, 1975
FZ: While we're at it, we have a sort of a cowboy song we'd like to do for ya. This is a song that deals with the rapidly approaching 200th birthday of the United States of America, ladies and gentlemen! This is a song that warns you in advance that next year everybody is gonna try and sell you things that maybe you shouldn't ought to buy, and not only that, they've been planning it for years. The name of this song is (pardon me), "Poofters Froth Wyoming Plans Ahead."
Poofter's Froth, Wyoming
March Eleven Sixty-Seven
Take a letter,
Ms. Abetter,
An' our pigeons
Will be homing
To our jobbers in Dakota
And to Merwyn, Minnesota
This is merely just a note about
Performance to our quota
Well, we've all come out
To show dem
An' the Elks have helped us
Load 'em
Little packets full of jackets
Little rackets, little rackets
Little Poofter-Cloth Appointments
Little Poofter's Froth Anointments
Little hoods, little goods
Little doo-dads from the woods
The entire stock is shipping
Oh, our shod is hardly slipping!
To our markets of the world
Our wrinkled pennants are unfurled
T-shirt racks, rubber snacks
Poster rolls with matching tacks
Yes, a special beer for sports
And paper cups that hold two quarts
Everything a nation needs
For making hoopla while it feeds
The trash compactors, small reactors
Mowers, blowers, throwers & the glowers
This is Buy-Cent-Any-All Salute
Two hundred years have gone ka-poot!
Ah but we have been astute
Signed:
Anon. —Wyo. Galoot
The Record Plant, Los Angeles, CA
January-February 1975
I was sitting in a breakfast room in Allentown, Pennsylvania
Six o'clock in the morning
Got up too early
It was a terrible mistake
Sittin' there face-to-face with a
75¢ glass of orange juice
About as big as my finger
And a bowl of horribly fore-shortened corn flakes
And I said to myself
"This is the life . . . "
She's 200 years old
So mean she couldn't grow no lips
She's 200 years old
So mean she couldn't grow no lips
(Boy, she'd be in trouble if she tried to grow a mustache)
She's 200 years old
Squatting down
And poppin' up
In front of the juke box
Like she had true religion
Boy
She's 200 years old
Squattin' down
Poppin' up
Front o' the juke box
Just like she'd had true religion
Boy
Hoy! Hoy! It's 200 years
Half of this, none of that
One fifty
Oh squat, yeah, oh, she, go— ow!
She got religion now, boy
Oh, she's 200 years old
Oh, she's so mean
She just, she just can't grow no lips
Squat
Down
So mean she can't grow no lips
200 years old
So mean she can't grow no lips
Squattin' down
Poppin' up 'n down at the juke box
Oww!
She got the true religion, boy
Boy
The Record Plant, Los Angeles, CA
January 8, 1975
includes a quotation from Don't Eat The Yellow Snow
Out in Cucamonga
Many years ago
Near a Holy Roller Church
There was once a place
Where me and a couple of friends
Began practicing for the time
We might go
(Yeah ah-ah . . . Yeah ah-ah
Well well
Yeah ah-ah . . . Yeah ah-ah
Well well
Yeah ah-ah . . . Yeah ah-ah)
On TV
And as fate would have it
Later on we got a chance to play,
All we ever really knew
All we ever really knew
All we ever really knew
That it was crazy
(Nanook-a, no no)
(Yoo-hoo-hoo yoo-hoo yoo!)
To be doin' it any other way
That it was crazy
(Nanook-a, no no)
To be doin' it any other way
That it was crazy
(Nanook-a, no no)
To be doin' it any other way
Yes, it was crazy, crazy
Ooooh . . . Wah . . .
includes quotations from Bacon Fat (Williams/Brown) and All Night Long (Houston)
Armadillo World Headquarters, Austin, TX
May 21, 1975
No more credit
From the liquor store
Suit is all dirty, my
Shoes is all wore
Tired and lonely, my
Heart is all sore
Advance romance
I can't stand it no more, you know
Told me she loved me
I believed what she said
Took me for a sucker, boy
All corn-fed
Next thing I knew
She had a bolt on the door
Advance romance
I can't use it no more, no, I can't use it
She took George's watch
Like they always do
(It was a Timex, too!)
(Wah-Hoo-Hoo
Wah-Hah-Hoo-Hoo)
(And-a shame on you)
No more money, boy
I shoulda knew
(You know I told ya)
(I know you told me)
(You didn't listen to me)
(But I couldn't listen to you!)
Told you 'bout the anchovies . . .
(You know what I'm talkin' about!)
George Duke!
The way she do me, boy
She might do you, too
The way she do me, boy
She might do you, too
The way she do me, boy
She might do you, too
(Look what she did to Denny right now!)
(Talk about it!)
(I sure got the blues this morning!)
([...])
(Get on up! Oh, my goodness!)
([...] time!)
(Chicken was never like this!)
All night long
All night long
All night long
All night long
All night long
All night long
All night long
All night long
All night long
All night long
All night long
All night long
All night long
All night long
Advance romance
(Think about it!)
People we . . . are . . .
(Yeah, one more time, one time!)
Through!
But, wait a minute!
Potato-head Bobby
Was a friend of mine
Opened three of his eyes
In the food stamp line
Opened four of his eyes
In the food stamp line
Opened five of his eyes
In the food stamp line
Opened six of his eyes
In the food stamp line
(Oh, you know they told me she might be a devil)
No, you like them
(Good God! Did you hear what I said?)
Evil women
(Oh, yeah!)
You know, you know, you know
(But she sure was fine)
You like them
(Oh, yeah!)
Evil women, you know
(Growin' up, goin' home!)
Advance romance
(What you gonna do?)
He wanna try it one time
He said he don't mind, no
Later that night
He drop on by
Told her all he wanna do
Was step up and say "Hi"
(Hi-Hi, Hi-Hi, Hi-Hi, Hi-Hi
Hi-Hi, Hi-Hi, Hi-Hi, Hi-Hi)
Half an hour later
She had frenched his fry
Advance romance
Bobby, say good-bye
Backing track (from Pound For A Brown):
Armadillo World Headquarters, Austin, TX
May 21, 1975
Vocal track:
The Record Plant, Los Angeles, CA
1975
Are you with me on this, people?
The man with the woman head
Polynesian wallpaper made the face stand out
A mixture of Oriental and early vaudeville jazz poofter
Forming a hard, beetle-like, triangular chin much like a praying mantis
Smoky razor-cut, low on the ear neck profile
The face the color of a nicotine-stained hand
Dark circles collected under the wrinkled, folded eyes
Map-like from too much turquoise eyepaint
He showed his old tongue through ill-fitting wooden teeth
Stained from too much opium, chipped from the years
The feet, brown wrinkles above straw loafers
A piece of coconut in a pink seashell caught the tongue and knotted into thin white strings
Charcoal grey Eisenhower jacket zipped into a loaded green ascot
A coil of ashes collected on the white-on-yellow Dacks
Four slender bones with rings and nails endured the weight of a hard fast black rubber cigarette holder
I could just make out Ace as he carried the tray and mouthed
"You cheap son of a bitch"
As a straw fell out of a Coke, cartwheeled into the gutter
So this was a drive-in restaurant in Hollywood
So this was a drive-in restaurant in Hollywood
So this was a drive-in restaurant in Hollywood
Intro:
The Record Plant, Los Angeles, CA
January-February 1975
Song:
Basic track:
Armadillo World Headquarters, Austin, TX
May 21, 1975
Overdubs:
The Record Plant, Los Angeles, CA
Summer 1975
The Muffin Man is seated at the table
In the laboratory of the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen
Reaching for an oversized chrome spoon
He gathers an intimate quantity of dried muffin remnants
And, brushing his scapular aside
Proceeds to dump these inside of his shirt
He turns to us and speaks
"Some people like cupcakes better
I, for one, care less for them!"
Arrogantly twisting the sterile canvas snoot
Of a fully charged icing-anointment utensil
He poots forth a quarter-ounce green rosetta
Near . . .
(Let's try that again)
He poots forth a quarter-ounce green rosetta
Near the summit of a dense-but-radiant muffin of his own design
Later he says
"Some people . . . some people, heh, like cupcakes exclusively
While myself, I say there is naught, nor ought there be
Nothing so exalted on the face of God's grey earth
As that Prince of Foods . . .
The Muffin!"
Girl, you thought he was a man
But he was a muffin
He hung around till you found
That he didn't know nuthin'
Girl, you thought he was a man
But he only was a-puffin'
No cries is heard in the night
As a result of him stuffin'
Girl, you thought he was a man
But he was a muffin
No cries is heard in the night
As a result of him stuffin'
FZ: Bruce Fowler on trombone, Napoleon Murphy Brock on tenor sax and lead vocals, Terry Bozzio on drums, Tom Fowler on bass, Denny Walley on slide, George Duke on keyboards, Captain Beefheart on vocals and soprano sax and madness. Thank you very much for coming to the concert tonight. Hope you enjoyed it. Goodnight Austin, Texas, wherever you are!
All compositions by Frank Zappa except as noted