zappa terminology
Dan Rabin
Hi people,
A couple of questions regarding franks terminology. These are,
i think, completely American, so bear with my ignorance.
Menicino beno ?
Carmarillo Brillo (pad?) ?
The actual words are `Mendocino beano' and `Camarillo Brillo'.
They are essentially nonsense. Mendocino is a nice little town on the
coast of California about halfway from San Francisco to the Oregon
border. It is noted as a resort for artists and other people.
Camarillo is a town in southern California, west of Los Angeles and
east of Ventura, noted as the site of a large state mental hospital.
This hospital was the place where Charlie Parker shook his heroin
habit for a while in 1947 (and wrote the tune `Relaxin' at Camarillo'
in reference to this), but this most probably has nothing to do with
Zappa's lyrics. Brillo is a brand of soap-impregnated steel scouring
pad that is the most famous such product in the U.S.
I am unable to locate the Short Forest, or the toads thereof, on any
of my maps. The State Department has no official word on whether the
toads and all the newts of Idaho are under the same dictatorial rule.
By the way, for young persons out there, `she said her stereo was
four-way' is probably a reference to quadrophonic records, which had
been introduced by the consumer electronics industry at the time as
the Next Big Thing. Hardly anybody bought them, and only a few
recordings that had four tracks were actually made available.
Im afraid I STILL dont know know the cone-heads are...we dont get
Saturday nite live in Scotland.
The coneheads were featured several times on a comedy sketch on the TV
show `Saturday night live'. They are a family of aliens with tall
pointed cone-shaped heads who are from a planet called `Remulac' but
live a suburban existence in the U.S., claiming to hail from a small
town in France. They eat snacks by cramming a bagful in their mouths
and drink beer by doing similar shenanigans with an entire six-pack.
The characters appeared on the show several times, on one of which
Frank Zappa played a guest role as himself, going out with the
teen-age daughter conehead.
When I saw Frank Zappa in 1978, he put a cone on his head while
performing `Conehead' or some other song (I don't really remember).
Andy...real or fiction? (san bernadino)
There was a real cowboy-film actor named Andy Devine, but I don't know
if he has anything to do with the song.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Dan Rabin `... too often this is done after
Department of Computer Science the manner of research-mice
Box 2158 Yale Station running off with little bits
New Haven, CT 06520 nibbled out of unexplored sacks
to build up a little thesis.'
rabi...@cs.yale.edu -- J.R.R. Tolkien, 1959
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G Pringle
A couple of questions regarding franks terminology. These are,
i think, completely American, so bear with my ignorance.
Menicino beno ?
Carmarillo Brillo (pad?) ?
Im afraid I STILL dont know know the cone-heads are...we dont get
Saturday nite live in Scotland.
Andy...real or fiction? (san bernadino)
Thats all for now I guess...
Gavin.
ps oh bobby, im sorry youve got a head like a potatoe, i really am.
Karl blaspheme Henning
> Menicino beno ?
"Mendocino beano" ... Mendocino is a town in California;
"beano" is probably the more or less traditional slang
for "head/brain". More than that I couldn't answer to ....
> Carmarillo Brillo (pad?) ?
Perhaps the suggestion is of a fashionable hairdo,
resembling this hallowed kitchen-tool (steel wool +
detergent), I dunno.
> Andy...real or fiction? (san bernadino)
Slightly autobiographical ... back when Frank got busted by
the vice-squad (a set-up, by the way, involving taped
heavy breathing ... read it all in THE REAL FZ BOOK :-)
he did some time in Tank C in the San Bernardino Pen.
Bet it wasn't pretty.
kph
--
In the force if Yoda's so strong, [] Karl Prescott Henning
construct a sentence with words in [] 128 Hewitt/upper [] 57 Glasgow st
the proper order then why can't he? [] Bflo NY 14215 [] Roch NY 14608
Dan Rabin
mill...@CS.ColoState.EDU (Jeff Miller) writes:
What about "Zircon encrusted tweezers"? I've wondered about the
relevance of this ever since I bought ' (apostrophe)
The zircon-encrusted tweezers appear on `Overnite Sensation', both in
`Montana' (`with a pair of zircon-encrusted tweezers in my hand /
every other wrangler would say I was mighty grand') and in `Dinah Moe
Humm' (`How about a pair of zircon-encrusted tweezers? Hold on a
minute, lemme sterilize 'em...'). Do they occur anywhere on `'
(apostrophe)'?
Of course, you didn't say that they did, just that you've been
wondering about them ever since you bought `' (apostrophe)' :-).
But in fact these tweezers have deep significance.
In the days of the Wild West, prospectors used to adorn even the
simplest of implements with precious substances. This was a badge of
prestige: the more precious the substance, and the more closely
related to the task of discovering ore, the higher the imputedskill of
the prospector. Hence a gold-covered pick-axe was one of the marks of
a master prospector--only three hardy miners are known for sure to
have carried such a tool (although several additional unverified
accounts are recorded in the newspapers of the time). It was a grave
_faux pas_ for a newcomer or a non-prospector to display an ornamented
utensil out of keeping with his (or her) demonstrated skill. Saloon
fights and gun duels over this issue were not uncommon.
However, the human urge to adorn useful objects is not easily
repressed. During the decade-long (c. 1885-95) period in which the
prospecting and trapping economy of the Wild West was slowly giving
way to the ranching- and agriculture-based economy of the twentieth
century, the newly-arrived dental-floss farmers of Montana found it
safest to leave their heavier implements in their plain state, and to
carry zircon- or rhinestone-encrusted forceps, nail-clippers, or
stud-finders as an outlet for their ornamental urges. They looked
handsome enough, and the knowledgeable prospectors, being unlikely to
mistake zircons for diamonds, would leave them in peace to raise their
lonely dental floss.
Thus, by placing a pair of zircon-encrusted tweezers in the hands of
his dental-floss-farmer-to-be in `Montana', Zappa is displaying an
intimate awareness of the culture of the Wild West, now vanishing
under a carpet of fast-food joints and auto dealers. Their presence
in the ribald account of the anonymous narrator's encounter with Dinah
and Dora in `Dinah Moe Humm' links the ornamental urge to the sexual
urge, and perhaps adumbrates the composer/librettist's future
explorations of the theme of sex with inanimate objects in `Sy Borg',
`Briefcase Boogie', and `Stevie's Spanking'. The conceptual
continuity, the `crux of the biscuit,' as it were, is thus
conceptually continuous with _cultural_ continuity in the works of
Frank Vincent Zappa, Jr., the very quintessence, not only of the
American Composer, but also of the Composer _in_ and _of_ America.
-- Dan Rabin,
1 April, 1992
Richard K Fox
I am unable to locate the Short Forest, or the toads thereof, on any
of my maps. The State Department has no official word on whether the
toads and all the newts of Idaho are under the same dictatorial rule.
Well, I'm sure most of you konw that Toads of the Short Forest
was a song originally played by the Mothers and was found on the
Weasels Ripped My Flesh Album.
We also run into the Short Forest in The Adventures of Greggary
Peccary.
Just another example of Uncle Frank's conceptual continuity.
Dan Rabin `... too often this is done after
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Richard Fox | fo...@cis.ohio-state.edu
Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence |
Research | from the depths of the
The Ohio State University | Utility Muffin Research Kitchen
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Okay Vinnie, where is five?"
-- A Little Green Rosetta, Frank Zappa
Jeff Miller
relevance of this ever since I bought ' (apostrophe)
--
_____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| "Nuke the unborn gay whales!" | mill...@cs.colostate.edu | Jeff Miller |
|_____________________________________________________________________________|
Benjamin Kline Lowengard
>
>By the way, for young persons out there, `she said her stereo was
>four-way' is probably a reference to quadrophonic records, which had
>been introduced by the consumer electronics industry at the time as
>the Next Big Thing. Hardly anybody bought them, and only a few
>recordings that had four tracks were actually made available.
Hey I've got one of these-and it happens to be Zappa's Overnite Sensation
I happened to catch Zappa in Waterbury(ct.) around that time-It was the
first "surroundo Soundo" show I ever saw. They had this elaborate sound
system where George Duke had a joy stick for his synth(Arp?)In the midst
of some Jazz/rock Fusion groove, at the wave of Frank's hand a note would
go zinging around the theater. Blew my mind then. I've only heard this
quad album in quad once-lots of cool spatial sound-and on a plain vanilla
stereo it sounds kinda like an early version of Q sound(refer to Mr. Sting's
Soul Cages cd for a demo of that!)( Anybody know where/how I can get a
quad needle for an old (magnavox, I think)quad record player?
benj
Rick Allard
>live a suburban existence in the U.S., claiming to hail from a small
>town in France. They eat snacks by cramming a bagful in their mouths <<
>and drink beer by doing similar shenanigans with an entire six-pack.
>The characters appeared on the show several times, on one of which
>Frank Zappa played a guest role as himself, going out with the
>teen-age daughter conehead.
I believe these snacks are fiberglass chips.
--
W e a r e i n o p e n c i r c u i t s
The signal, where the message is sent, plays equally important role as
the signal, where message is not sent [sic]. --Nam June Paik quoting
Norbert Wiener as a pre-echo to McLuhan. temp .sig; new in works
Greg Hatch
> A couple of questions regarding franks terminology. These are,
>i think, completely American, so bear with my ignorance.
>
> Menicino beno ?
> Carmarillo Brillo (pad?) ?
> Im afraid I STILL dont know know the cone-heads are...we dont get
>Saturday nite live in Scotland.
> Andy...real or fiction? (san bernadino)
I believe that Andy is in reference to Captain Beefheart's Manager during
1974, Andy DiMartino. DeMartino and his brother were responsible for
coercing the good Captain into doing his worst albums during this period,
Bluejeans and Moonbeams and Unconditionally Guaranteed. (they were trying
to make the Captain do love songs!!)
Anyways, since Frank was working with the CAptain during this time (and in
fact, Bloodshot Rollin' Red, who plays harmonica on ONe Size Fits All is none
other than Captain Beefheart), he was sympathizing with the Captain's
predicament with Managers (a foreshadowing of Frank's problems with his
manager, Herb Cohen, a couple of years later).
--
Greg Hatch (gha...@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu)
"Cleans you, thrills you, may even keep you from getting busted!"
_Remington Electric Razor advertisement_ by Frank Zappa
Jeff Miller
>mill...@CS.ColoState.EDU (Jeff Miller) writes:
>
> What about "Zircon encrusted tweezers"? I've wondered about the
> relevance of this ever since I bought ' (apostrophe)
>
>The zircon-encrusted tweezers appear on `Overnite Sensation', both in
>`Montana' (`with a pair of zircon-encrusted tweezers in my hand /
>every other wrangler would say I was mighty grand') and in `Dinah Moe
>Humm' (`How about a pair of zircon-encrusted tweezers? Hold on a
>minute, lemme sterilize 'em...'). Do they occur anywhere on `'
>(apostrophe)'?
Wow what an answer... yes the references are on Overnite Sensation,
but my CD has OS and apostrophe on one CD, so I got them mixed up
Cliff Heller
>In article <1992Apr01.1...@yuma.acns.colostate.edu>
>mill...@CS.ColoState.EDU (Jeff Miller) writes:
> What about "Zircon encrusted tweezers"? I've wondered about the
> relevance of this ever since I bought ' (apostrophe)
>The zircon-encrusted tweezers appear on `Overnite Sensation', both in
>`Montana' (`with a pair of zircon-encrusted tweezers in my hand /
>every other wrangler would say I was mighty grand') and in `Dinah Moe
>Humm' (`How about a pair of zircon-encrusted tweezers? Hold on a
>minute, lemme sterilize 'em...'). Do they occur anywhere on `'
>(apostrophe)'?
No, but there is a lot of conceptual continuity between these two albums.
Good thing they were released on one CD.
There is, of course, "The Poodle Bites, The Poodle Chews It" Which is more
amusing to hear in "Stink Foot" AFTER hearing "Dirty Love" from "Overnite"
Unfortunately, the order is backwards on the CD. Understandable, only
because Apostrophe is the better album (although not by much).
There is also the ever popular:
"Is that a real poncho or is that a Sears poncho?"
Anyway, here is one that many of you have probably missed.
Listen carefully to the "Nanook Rubs It" solo and you can hear, very
faintly in the background, Frank saying "Here, Phydeaux" two or three
times.
--
/ \ Reverend fnord | "King Kong died for your sins!"
/ \ fn...@panix.com |
/ <0> \ | "Don't just eat a hamburger,
/_______\ Church of Obfuscatology, Inc. | eat the HELL out of it!"
Florent Calvayrac
a propos de Frank Zappa, faut-il blamer
1)la perversite
2) les longues moustaches?
Vous pouvez toujours donner votre avis en ecrivant a calv...@ensl.ens-lyon.fr
ou a pme...@ensl.ens-lyon.fr
And greetings from Lyon(France) to all FZ fans !
Alex Hartov
>
>
>a propos de Frank Zappa, faut-il blamer
>
>1)la perversite
>
>2) les longues moustaches?
Blamer quoi?
T'as un probleme avec Zappa?
Salut.
marc.spe...@gmail.com
"She had that camarillo brillo...."
"flamin out along her head". - refers to her pubic mound.
"I mean her mendincino-beano by where some bugs had made it red". - moving from camarillo brillo to mendicino -beano (same reference), it was red by infestations of bugs (could be crabs).
"She ruled the toads of the short forest" - she had men wrapped around her finger
"and every newt in Idaho" - perfect reference. A newt is a salamander that can live in moisture (the swill of her vagina) or in a terrestrial environment (here hair).
... it goes on but here are other references...
"She had a snake for a pet" - figure this one out for yourself - it is long dildo.
" I couldn't come in right then" .... It was so nasty he couldn;t get it up.
So I just followed up the steps
Right past her fuming incense stencher
To where she hung her castanets
This refers to stink of her pussy and her castanets are her clitorius.
The old geezer
doity...@gmail.com
ree...@gmail.com
Mendocino beano is a reference to the dilated pupils you would typically see in the faces of people who attended the various art & music events in that Californian town.
The old geezer
ree...@gmail.com
The old geezer
Martin Gregorie
> Don’t follow leaders, watch parking meters......
--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org