Song timings and track separations based on the Universal 2012 CD version.
The Studio Recording Sessions
Liner notes by FZ, 1979
produced by Frank Zappa [...]
engineers for basic tracks: Peter Henderson/Davey Moire/Claus Wiedemann/Kerry McNab remote recording facilities: The Basing Street Truck/The Manor Truck/The RCA Truck/The Ol' Four Track overdub engineer: Joe Chicarelli remix engineers: Joe Chicarelli/Frank Zappa; assistant: Barbara Issak studio facilities: The Village Recorders
[April] 7-8, 1978—Cherokee Studios, LA
The session sheets give August as the month of the recordings, but the new group must have been rehearsing that month. Also, some of these tracks are known to have been mixed in Quad back in late April and early May, so most probably the correct month is April.
Frank Zappa Sessions Information, compiled by Greg Russo, August 2003
08/07/78-08/08/78 (7-10PM, 10:30PM-1:30AM, 2-5AM and 5:30-8:15AM) Cherokee—Fairfax, Los Angeles, CA—Baby Snakes (2:18); I'm So Cute (3:09)
MUSICIANS: FZ (leader), Thomas Mariano
From my experience, I would say that the overdubs on that particular album were at least equally balanced with the live tracks. We worked for months on that. For instance, on the song "Baby Snakes," I was watching a Twilight Zone on TV late one night and I got this phone call From Frank, He said, "Hi, Tommy, how are you? Feel like doing a little singing tonight?" And I said, "Sure." I came down to Cherokee Studios and did "Baby Snakes" that night about six times, my own voice on one line, no harmonies, just a straight linear thing.
Joe Chicarelli, interviewed by Richard Elen, Apogee, 2002
[Joe] Chiccarelli had moved West and was working in LA's Cherokee Studios when he landed his first gig with Zappa, engineering the album Sheik Yerbouti and subsequently several other Zappa discs.
Joe Chiccarelli [...] caught his break when Frank Zappa's engineer couldn't make it to the recording session, and Joe, the twenty year old assistant, was asked to fill his place. This resulted in Chiccarelli working on several Zappa albums.
[April] 8-10, 1978—Kendun Studios, Burbank
Frank Zappa Sessions Information, compiled by Greg Russo, August 2003
08/08/78-08/09/78 (7-10PM, 10:30PM-1:30AM, 2-5AM and 5:30-6:45AM) Kendun Studios, Burbank, CA—Bobby Brown (2:53); Broken Hearts Are For Assholes (4:22)
MUSICIANS: FZ (leader), Thomas Mariano
08/09/78-08/10/78 (8-11PM, 11:30PM-2:30AM and 3:30-6:30AM) Kendun Studios, Burbank, CA—Wild Love (6:00)
MUSICIANS: FZ (leader), Thomas Mariano
Right now I think my favorite studio is Kendun, because of the way it's laid out and the equipment. I like the idea that you can cut right away so you can keep track of your progress. Unfortunately, the disc-cutting facilities over there are booked up so much. However, it is an ideal situation—you have disc-cutting facilities while you are working on a project. A lot of people when making an album forget how it's going to be in the end, which is on a piece of plastic in somebody's home. So it can be very deceptive when you are working on a project two or three months only hearing it over the big monitors which are coming up from the tape with a dynamic range. So it's nice to keep tracking to make reference during the project.
[April] 10-24, 1978—Village Recorders, LA
Frank Zappa Sessions Information, compiled by Greg Russo, August 2003
08/10/78-08/11/78 (7-10PM, 10:30PM-1:30AM, 2-5AM and 5:30-7:30AM) Village Recorders, Los Angeles, CA—Bobby Brown (2:53)
MUSICIANS: FZ (leader), Ed Mann
08/11/78-08/12/78 (7-10PM, 10:30PM-1:30AM and 2-3:30AM) Village Recorders, Los Angeles, CA—Broken Hearts Are For Assholes (4:22)
MUSICIANS: FZ (leader)
08/14/78-08/15/78 (7-10PM, 10:30PM-1:30AM, 2-5AM and 5:30-8:30AM) Village Recorders, Los Angeles, CA—I Have Been In You (3:34)
MUSICIANS: FZ (leader)
08/15/78-08/16/78 (9PM-12midnight, 12:30-3:30AM and 4-7AM) Village Recorders, Los Angeles, CA—Watermelon In Easter Hay (6:06); Wild Love (6:06); Flakes (7:20)
MUSICIANS: FZ (leader), Ed Mann
08/16/78 (2:45-5:45AM and 6:15-7AM) Village Recorders, Los Angeles, CA—Tryin' To Grow A Chin (3:00); City Of Tiny Lites (7:13); Baby Snakes (2:18)
MUSICIANS: FZ (leader)
08/17/78-08/18/78 (7-10PM, 10:30PM-1:30AM, 2-5AM and 5:30-7AM) Village Recorders, Los Angeles, CA—Yo' Mama (9:03); Bobby Brown (2:53); Wild Love (6:06); I Have Been In You (3:34)
MUSICIANS: FZ (leader), Thomas Mariano
08/18/78-08/19/78 (7-10PM, 10:30PM-1:30AM and 2-5AM) Village Recorders, Los Angeles, CA—Yo' Mama (9:03); Broken Hearts Are For Assholes (4:22)
MUSICIANS: FZ (leader), Thomas Mariano
08/21/78 (1-4AM) Village Recorders, Los Angeles, CA—The Revenge Of The Knick Knack People (9:15); Flakes (7:20)
MUSICIANS: FZ (leader), Terry Bozzio
08/22/78 (12:30-3:30APM and 4-7AM) Village Recorders, Los Angeles, CA—Yo' Mama (9:38)
MUSICIANS: FZ (leader), Thomas Mariano
08/23/78-08/24/78 (11PM-1AM) Village Recorders, Los Angeles, CA—Jewish Princess (3:16)
MUSICIANS: FZ (leader), Thomas Mariano, Ed Mann, David Moire
Baby Snakes (1979) on screen credits
sound:
KERRY McNABB &
JOE CHICCARELLI
Napoleon and I [...] did all the backup vocals together on 'Sheik Yerbouti'—that was about 1 week in the studio in 1978.
Peter Wolf interviewed by Michael Davis, Keyboard Magazine, June 1980
On Sheik Yerbouti, Frank took live material and then augmented it with overdubs. Did both you and Tommy work on the overdubs with him?
Tommy and I both played on the live tracks on Sheik Yerbouti, but Tommy came back immediately after the tour, while I stayed in Europe, doing some stuff of my own. So the overdubs, the horn-like patches and all, were pretty much all Tommy Mars. But after the next tour was over Frank called me in Europe, and I pretty much did everything on Joe's Garage.
Liner notes by FZ, 1979
Randy Thornton background vocals
Randy Thornton was a friend of André Lewis.
Cherokee Studios
Tommy
Martian Love Secrets
I just signed a contract with Phonogram—that's finally done. And our first release on Zappa Records, which will be distributed by Phonogram, is coming out in January. It's called Martian Love Secrets.
Barbara Graustark, "Newsmakers," Newsweek, November 13, 1978
"I suppose you can say I'm whoopee, if you must," said stone-faced Frank Zappa. The cult hero of theater rock still won't smile ("Who wants to look at teeth?"), but he did light up like the Fourth of July to celebrate an independent new venture: a forthcoming movie and LP—working title "Martian Love Secrets"—due soon on his Zappa label. Expect more of his satiric hash of jazz and rock: a lyrical attack on unionized plumbers, a punk ditty dubbed "I'm So Cute," a spoof of Peter Frampton called "I Have Been in You" and "Dancing Fool," a toetapping disco parody. Frank is out to zap the Top 40 with his first hit single in four years—since "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow." "I'm mellow and groovy now," say Frank. "Just like Linda Ronstadt."
Although an "unofficial" album, Studio Tan, has just been released on Warner Bros., Zappa has switched to Phonogram in the US (for distribution) and is currently mixing his next album, Martian Love Secrets, in New York. He is also mired in a welter of litigation with his former label and desperately trying to raise a half a million to get his new film project (either "Martian Love Secrets" or "Baby Snakes GasMask") off the ground.
Frank Zappa's latest album is called Martian Love Secrets, it's on his new Zappa label, it's real good, and it's only phase one of a renovated master plan for world pop domination.
GENESIS: You also have a movie in the works.
Zappa: I have one that is near completion. I'm trying to raise the money to finish it. It's stuff that was shot at the Palladium last Halloween, plus animation.
GENESIS: What's it about?
Zappa: Well, there's not what you would call a story line. It has linear continuity; it goes from one place to another on a line, but that doesn't necessarily make it a story line. Stories work with good guys and bad guys with something triumphing later. It'll be called Gas Masks, Martian Love Secrets, or Baby Snakes.
GENESIS: When will it be finished?
Zappa: As soon as my manager can raise half a million bucks.
GENESIS: Your new album, Martian Love Secrets, came out in January. What else is on it?
Zappa: "I Have Been in You," "Jewish Princess," "Wild Love," "Yo Mamma," "Dancing Fool."
GENESIS: What are the love secrets of the Martians?
Zappa: The title derives from some graffiti in a recording studio where we were working. There's a toilet-paper dispenser in the upstairs bathroom, and a little white porcelain box where somebody had written the words, "Martian Love Secrets," with twinkle lines around the words, as if that's where it's all at.
OUI: Can you tell us about your new film, Baby Snakes?
ZAPPA: That's one possible title. The other possible ones are Gas Mask and Martian Love Secrets.
OUI: Why those titles?
ZAPPA: They're good titles. What's in a title? Wanna call it Number One?
The actual phrase was written on the wall of a toilet in the men's bathroom at the Record Plant in 1970 that Frank read.
The Cover
Two years before the Sheik Yerbouti album cover was shot, Lynn Goldsmith spotted Frank Zappa walking into a New York hotel. She ran home and wrote him a letter telling him that if he would give her an hour to make pictures, she would make it worth his while. He agreed, and the resulting photos ran in Time, Newsweek and Rolling Stone. "He trusted me from then on," she says. When the time came for this shoot for the Sheik Yerbouti album, Zappa told Goldsmith exactly what he had in mind. "He wanted to look like a Hollywood film director with a megaphone, a girl prop, etc. Frank was more comfortable being a funny man rather than a handsome man, but I thought he was very handsome and I wanted other people to see that, too. The album was a play on disco sounds, so I thought he could call it Sheik Yer Bootie, and I could make him look as handsome as a sheik."
Goldsmith worked for hours doing the shot Zappa wanted. When it was done she asked him to put on the "head-dress." Patti Smith had given it to Goldsmith and she'd saved it as a prop. "He refused. He said, 'I will not put that schmata on my head.' I cried. I told him I always do what he asks me and why shouldn't he just let me make a few rolls of film with an idea I wanted to do." Eventually he did, and this was the result.
Lynn Goldsmith, eBay
In 1979 my friend Frank Zappa came to me with an idea for the cover of his next record. He planned to appear as an old-time Hollywood director, complete with the megaphone, riding crop, beret, etc. I photographed him in this outfit (some of these photos appear in my book PhotoDiary), but I thought the idea did not really reflect the content of the music I heard for the new album. I had an Arab-style headdress in my prop collection (which had been given to me by Patti Smith), and I asked Frank to let me shoot a few frames of him wearing it. His response was that he 'wasn't going to put that schmatta on'. I pleaded with him, telling him it would only take a few minutes, and that if he didn't like the pictures he could destroy them. He finally relented, and let me make the photograph I had envisioned. Once he saw the final results he loved them, and since the LP was going to contain his disco parody 'Dancin' Fool', the photo provided the inspiration for the LP title: Sheik Yerbouti.
We got a letter from an organization addressed to Zappa Records; "It has been brought to our attention that the album covers of Zappa Records are offensive to women because they show women in humiliating situations." Bennet [Glotzer], my manager, was forced to send them a letter back saying, "Zappa Records has so far released one album. It's called Sheik Yerbouti, and it has a picture of Frank Zappa on the front with a sheet on his head. How this is offensive to women is beyond me. We welcome your comments [laughs]."
2. Flakes
(Take it away, Bob . . . )
Adrian Belew, interviewed by Gary Marks, T'Mershi Duween, August 1994
The one I remember was "Flakes." When Frank showed it to me at home one night on a weekend, when he sat and played it on guitar, it sounded like a lousy folk song (laughs), so I started kidding about with it, singing it like Bob Dylan, and he said "That's in the show.You're going to do it that way."
I went home with Frank, and he was showing me an upcoming song called "Flakes." Now, a little known fact about Frank is that he really couldn't play and sing at the same time. One of the reasons he hired me, he told me, was because he liked the fact that I sang and played together so well. On a lot of the music, I would double what Frank was doing. I'd double his vocals for him exactly, or I'd be doubling his guitar parts so he could be free to do either one. When he played "Flakes" for me, he also had to sing it. It was kind of unusual. It sounded so bad it sounded like him doing a Bob Dylan impression to me. It sounded like a folk song, which it was anything but. So jokingly I started singing along with it in a Bob Dylan imitation, and he said, "That's it, that's in the show, you're gonna be doing that."
Um, there were a few times when I was in Franks company over the weekends that I would affect his thoughts on something. One time in particular I remember he was playing the song which would become "Flakes". He was singing this sort of folk song part in the middle. And when Frank sang and played he couldn't do that really. So when he sang and played guitar he couldn't do that at the same time. He had a real hard time to do that. It sounded like a bad Bob Dylan. hahaha... So I started singing it like a bad Bob Dylan immitation and it stuck and that became part of that song.
Adrian Belew, "Anecdote #464 Scene One," Elephant Blog, May 14, 2007
Flakes.
it begins in late 1977 in the basement of frank zappa's hollywood home. it's a saturday and as usual I'm learning the material for next week's rehearsals. being the only "non-reader" in the band this was a common way for me to prepare. today's lesson is a brand new song frank has just written called flakes.
frank did not play guitar and sing at the same time. if you watch footage of his concerts he's either playing the guitar or singing, never both. I found out why. he quietly played and sang the middle section of the song for me. it sounded terrible. like a bad folk song. I started making fun of him by singing it in a bob dylan voice; "I asked as nice as I coouuld".
"that's it," said frank, "that's in the show."
and that is how I ended up doing a bob dylan imitation on a frank zappa record.
I always wondered what bob dylan might think of it.
Adrian Belew, interviewed by Matthew Shapiro, State Of Mind Music, November 1, 2008
How did that whole Dylan impersonation come about?
Yeah‚ there's an interesting story behind that one. Like I said‚ we rehearsed all week for three months‚ and on the weekends I would usually go home with Frank and he would show me what was coming up the next week. And that's how I could learn what he wrote. So‚ he was showing a new song he was writing‚ "Flakes‚" and a lot of people don't know this about Frank‚ but he couldn't really play and sing at the same time. If you ever watch him you'll notice that. So‚ I found out why with this song. He played it for me and he sounded like a bad folk singer. [laughter] I just started singing it like Bob Dylan‚ and he thought that was great and wanted to put that in the song. It really just came about because Frank sounded like a bad folk singer. [laughs]
To my knowledge, [FZ] never played guitar and sang at the same time. He claimed to be incapable of it, which I found hard to believe, but that's what he said. I sure never saw him do it.
As for Dylan, I've never met him, I've never talked to him. Some of his earlier records I've enjoyed, but I don't really know his recent material.
She's frosting a cake
With a paper knife
"Frosting a cake with a paper knife", is from a frosting commercial, they don't actually say it rather show a woman doing it.
Pilsbury frosting commercial?
[1977 Pilsbury Frosting Supreme "Paper Knife" Commercial]
3. Broken Hearts Are For Assholes
So you went to The Grape,
Just to give it a try
Gilded Grape
719 8th Avenue (at West 45th Street), New York City, NY, USA
Owner: Jerry Cohn
The Gilded Grape first opened in 1974 as a wild mixed disco (gay/straight/trans). Turns into G.G. Knickerbocker and then G.G. Barnum's in the late 1970s.
Tex Abel, starring in the latest Shepperton Production
Then on Tuesday night, Ceasar's [sic] back in town
Stephen James, September 19, 2024
Probably not a reference to a gay dominator, but isn't the phrase an announcement at one of those Las Vegas hotels, where someone calling himself Caesar is a performer? A comedian? A floorshow MC? An oily lounge singer? I know I've heard the expression in a film or documentary.
Well, now you been to The Grape, been to The Chest
In the seventies, The Pleasure Chest was the first erotic store to create a "boutique" atmosphere in some of the major cities in the country. [...] The Pleasure Chest started in 1971 in the West Village in NY and at the height of the sexual revolution when people were starting to express their sexuality much more openly.
The Pleasure Chest got its beginning in the gay community in NYC and quickly expanded into the gay communities of Chicago (1977) and Los Angeles (1975). As all-things-gay became popular in the mainstream community so did The Pleasure Chest. They became a couple's focused store, regardless of sexuality.
(Wrist-watch: Crisco)
7. Rat Tomago
A tomago is a stuffed omelette in a Japanese restaurant. You take an egg and beat it up, and I think it's got some sugar in it. Then they make a little brick out of it, make a slit in the side and stuff it with rice. That's a tomago. A Rat Tomago is different!
[...]
I'd be delighted to walk into a concert and hear a whole band playing Rat Tomago just as a unison riff over a basic chord change. I think it would sound fantastic, and that's one of the reasons I had it transcribed, so that other instruments, people who can read really good, can pick that up. It's possible on clarinet, it's about the same range. I'd love to have people play it. Another reason I had it written down is so that I can harmonize it. One day I'll write that thing out for a string orchestra. They may never play it, but at least I will have taken those lines which I made up on the spot, and harmonized it and made something else out of it.
"Rat Tomago" was 4th of July, or maybe it was New Year's. It was some night where there is going to be fireworks. And there was construction. I was six. Maybe five. There was construction in where my mother's and father's bedroom was. They're remodeling the house at one point. And where Frank had set up the studio and that become their temporary bedroom. So it's really exciting when you're like five maybe be able to go crash with your parents in a new place, right in front of the TV. It was a whole new kind of kick-ass set-up. You know, right in front of the fire place.
[...] And I drew these pictures I brought downstairs to share with my mom and dad, and they asked me what this one picture was, and I told them it's a "Rat Tomago." He fucking laughed so hard that my mother made my father and I matching "Rat Tomago" t-shirts, which I have framed, hung on the wall.
"Rat Tomago" was the 4th of July—or maybe it was New Year's—it was some night where there was going to be fireworks. I was five or six, and there was some construction work where my mother and father's bedroom was. They were remodelling the house at one point, and where Frank had set up the studio became a temporary bedroom. So it was really exciting to maybe go and crash with your parents in a new place—it was a whole new kick-ass set-up.
We were all upstairs drawing and I drew these pictures and brought them downstairs to share with my mom and dad. And they asked me what this one picture was. I told them it was a rat tomago, and he fucking laughed so hard that my mother made my father and I matching rat tomago t-shirts, which I have framed and hung on the wall. You can see how tiny Frank was and how huge I was because they basically look like the same size t-shirts.
Pretty hilarious.
Liner notes by FZ, 1979
live instrumental recorded at
the Deutschland Halle, Berlin
over-dubs: none
"Rat Tomago" (from Sheik Yerbouti, 1979)—23-fret Gibson SG guitar, 100watt Marshall amp.
"That song was never written down; it was a guitar solo recorded on a four-track. And it was nominated for a Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition. Now, it's not a bad solo, but a Grammy nominee? That should tell you how fake the Grammys are."
13. Tryin' To Grow A Chin
If Simmons was here
I could feature my hurt
Please kill me
Richard Lloyd performing with Televison, Max's Kansas City, August, 1974
Richard Hell had designed a T-shirt for himself that said Please Kill Me, but he wouldn't wear it. I was like, "I'll wear it." So I wore it when we played upstairs at Max's Kansas City, and afterwards these kids came up to me. These fans gave me this really psychotic look—they looked as deep into my eyes as they possibly could—and said, "Are you serious?"
Then they said, "If that's what you want, we'll be glad to oblige because we're such big fans!" They were just looking at me, with that wild-eyed look, and I thought, I'm not wearing this shirt again.
"Dog Patch Creeper" by The Velveteens
Mike Keneally, to Bill Lantz, October 2001
Bill: Do you recall what you may have been quoted as saying about the time Frank played you one of his 45's that reminded you of the 'I'm a Mex-i-kin' part of "Tryin' to Grow A Chin"?
MK: I don't remember the name of the song, I'm sorry. [...] Great night, though. And it didn't just remind me of "Tryin'To Grow A Chin," it absolutely WAS the little melody which is played right after "He's a mexikin." When I heard it I stared open-mouthed at Frank and he raised his eyebrows, smiled and nodded.
"Dog Patch Creeper" was the A-side of [The Velveteens'] Emmy single [...]. The song's riff was copied by Frank Zappa for his later song "Tryin' To Grow A Chin."
16. Jewish Princess
They wanted to convince the world that there's no such thing as a Jewish princess, but, I'm sorry, the facts speak for themselves. They asked me to apologize and I refused. I still have their letter nailed to the wall. They got a lot of mileage out of it, but it was a tempest in a teapot. They just wanted to give the impression that here, in the world of rock, was this rabid anti-Semite who was besmirching the fine reputation of everybody of the Jewish faith. Well, I didn't make up the idea of a Jewish princess. They exist, so I wrote a song about them. If they don't like it, so what? Italians have princesses, too.
Marc Allan: In over the 25 years, you done anything that you'd like to take back?
Frank Zappa: No not really.
Marc Allan: Nothing in the lyrics or anything you've said or anything you've done, nothing?
Frank Zappa: Well there's certain things I might have said in a different way you know. But basically there it is.
Marc Allan: Can you give me an idea of what that might be?
Frank Zappa: Well I think I probably would've handled the song Jewish Princess in a different way. Not that I wouldn't have written it but based on all the uproar that came afterwards I think I might've maybe made it stronger.
Marc Allan: Yeah that's another one of those kind of crazy things that blew up over really nothing.
Frank Zappa: Well yes. Very difficult not out of a molehill. They demanded that I apologize for doing it and I told them no. I guess there's not too many Americans who will stand up to an organization like that and say no, and if you look at the way politicians cave-in whenever the . . . That law begets a hold of them, they quake in their boots.
SPIN: What do you think about the sexism in heavy metal, and in Andrew Dice Clay routines, and in rap? How do you relate that to the criticism against you in the past, the way you allegedly depicted women in your songs?
Zappa: I don't think there's anything wrong with depicting women the way I depict them. I think I depict them in a rather accurate way. Because women are not perfect. But the bulk of my songs are about men and the stupid things that men do. And they never complain. So, is it because the men are so inferior—which then proves the women's point, that they're so fucking stupid they don't know what to do, or they're too lazy to complain—or is it because women think they really should get special treatment and they should be treated with kid gloves, like Israel sort of? You could never say anything bad about Israel or people would say you're anti-Semitic. If you happen to say that Israel behaves like Nazi Germany toward the Palestinians, which happens to look like quite a fact when you see a videotape of what's actually going on, people go "Oh, you're anti-Semitic." You know, it's not true. The same way, if you say "Women do this thing that's stupid or that thing that's stupid," you should say it. It's a journalistic medium as well as a musical medium.
SPIN: What's the thing you've been most criticized for, in sexist terms?
Zappa: "Jewish Princess" [from Sheik Yerbouti]. The criticism came from an organized entity, the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai Brith. As if to say there was no such thing as a Jewish Princess. Like I invented this? They asked me to apologize. I said no. I told them I wouldn't. And they managed to get PR for their organization for a year out of me. And actually it helped me. The Sheik Yerbouti album turned out to be the best-selling album I ever had.
The songs I write about women are not gratuitous attacks on them, but statements of fact. The song "Jewish Princess" caused the Anti-Defamation League of the B'nai B'rith to complain bitterly and demand an apology. I did not apologize then and refuse to do so now because, unlike The Unicorn, such creatures do exist—and deserve to be 'commemorated' with their own special opus.
Sources & Edits
17. Wild Love
Liner notes by FZ, 1979
vocals: Zappa, Brock, Bozzio, Mars, [Randy] Thornton
basic track recorded live
at the Odeon Hammersmith, London
over-dubs: lots
André Lewis, quoted by Jon Naurin, September 2, 2003
We had a joke about "The Darmans". (sp?) [...] Well, OK, Frank did some background vocals with me by myself, and he did them at a different speed, and . . . my friend Randy Thornton, who I brought over to do some vocals . . . I was producing him at the time at The Record Plant, and this was when I, I had actually left the group at that time, but I was doing Mandre at that time, and was producing some other people. And this guy Randy Thornton . . . [...] Anyway, we did this thing . . . I used to do it on the Mandre album too. I would sing all the parts, but we would speed-up to almost get this chipmunk sound, but it wouldn't be quite the chipmunk sound, something in between. And we actually had Randy sing, I said "yeah Randy . . . (unintelligible) . . . and they're brothers, and they're only about 4 foot tall . . . the Darman brothers.
18. Yo' Mama
Liner notes by FZ, 1979
basic track for vocal sections and middle of guitar solo were recorded live at the Odeon hammersmith, London; guitar solo is from a four track recording made in some little town outside of Nurnberg that I can't remember the name of.
over-dubs: lots
With the E-mu, we just let it sit in one setting for the brass, and the CS-80 is all push-button. In the case of Sheik Yerbouti, we took the E-mu on the road and had it set up as what you call a dedicated system, where it was permanently set up to sound like a brass ensemble, a lot of trumpets and trombones. The Electrocomps were pretty much set up permanently to sound like French horns. That was the setup on "Yo' Mama" [from Sheik Yerbouti].
That section on ["Yo' Mama"], the whole instrumental reprise, is very dear to my heart. When we did that, I'll never forget that he just said 'Tommy, go wild. Do anything you want on this.' It was just me and him in the studio. It was like a composer for a movie giving an orchestrator an idea and saying 'Here's what the deal is'. I felt so esteemed by that. I knew that it was subject to his editorial control, but however . . . I could do it. It was such a great thing to have all those little lines, all these things getting weaved in. Up to that point, I had never had a section of music that ever hit me as dramatically as that. That was sort of a pinnacle for me for a few years. Whenever I heard that, I thought it was the best thing I'd ever done musically. It's surprising; a lot of people know that piece and that section.
Bill Harrington, c. 2000
During the first months of '78, we began rehearsals at Sheperton Studios in preperation for a European tour. During those rehearsals, I noticed Frank write down and then discard the following lyrics. The first verse ultimately wound up on one of his songs, but the second was never used. I think it shows an interesting insight into how he compsed.
YOU SHOULD NEVER SMOKE
IN PAJAMAS
YOU COULD START A FIRE
'N BURN YER FACE
MAYBE YOU'LL RETURN TO
MANAGUA
YOU COULD BE UNNOTICED
IN SUCH A PLACE
HEARD YOU GOT A TICKET TO
ENGLAND
YOU WAS GONNA VISIT THEIR
LOVELY QUEEN
YOU SHOULD REALLY STAY WITH
YER MAMA
OTHERWISE THE RHYMING LINE
WOULD NOT BE CLEAN
Tommy Mars, interviewed by Keyboard Magazine, 1980
Frank wrote that song at the very beginning of the '77 European tour, and it has a personal relevance to me. We were doing this rehearsal in London and Frank was getting very tense. He expected certain things to be there when we got to rehearsal, and certain things were not there. We were gonna do the song "Zoot Allures," and he started playing this 11th chord and got very angry at everybody because nothing was happening right. I got fined because I hadn't memorized this little piece called "Little House I Used to Live In." I hadn't realized he wanted it totally memorized. So this rehearsal ended in a total fiasco. The next day, he came in with these lyrics: "Maybe you should stay with yo' mama. . . " It was really autobiographic; that's how things evolve with Frank.
Yo Mama was (in my belief) written about 2 band members—1 active and 1 past—Tommy not one of them, won't say who the other one is—but I always thought the lyrics were unfair.....music beautiful though. Go figure.
Additional informant: Javier Marcote.