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"Join the march and eat my starch"
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Piper
Aug 10, 2016, 12:24:01 AM8/10/16
to
What does this mean "eat my starch"?
Someone enlighten me, please.
Someone enlighten me, please.
Message has been deleted
The old geezer
Aug 10, 2016, 12:04:59 PM8/10/16
to
It does???? Since when?
Ron Moses
Aug 10, 2016, 12:19:45 PM8/10/16
to
On Wednesday, August 10, 2016 at 12:04:59 PM UTC-4, The old geezer wrote:
> It does???? Since when?
Yeah, that seems like a stretch.
ron
> It does???? Since when?
Yeah, that seems like a stretch.
ron
The old geezer
Aug 10, 2016, 12:24:56 PM8/10/16
to
It does? Since when?
Martin Gregorie
Aug 10, 2016, 2:47:48 PM8/10/16
to
On Wed, 10 Aug 2016 08:19:32 -0700, sevrinx2 wrote:
> Starch was often used in shorts - undershorts. What you might be
> confronted with if men were marching along on all fours ... "Eat my
> starch" implies "follow me"
I just ran a search to see who else might have used this tasty lil
couplet.
It seems that nobody other than FZ ever said "Join the March and eat my
Starch" and nobody other than FZ and some foodies talking about food ever
said much about eating starch that was considered search-worthy.
The phrase seems to have originated at the end of Farther O'Blivion
(where in at least one concert FZ said "Join the March and eat my Starch
- whatever the hell that means") and then resurfaced as the name of a
short instrumental (Stockholm 1973) that was used a few times in concert
after that, usually sneaking into medleys made from fragments of Yellow
Snow and Greggary Peccary.
--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |
> Starch was often used in shorts - undershorts. What you might be
> confronted with if men were marching along on all fours ... "Eat my
> starch" implies "follow me"
I just ran a search to see who else might have used this tasty lil
couplet.
It seems that nobody other than FZ ever said "Join the March and eat my
Starch" and nobody other than FZ and some foodies talking about food ever
said much about eating starch that was considered search-worthy.
The phrase seems to have originated at the end of Farther O'Blivion
(where in at least one concert FZ said "Join the March and eat my Starch
- whatever the hell that means") and then resurfaced as the name of a
short instrumental (Stockholm 1973) that was used a few times in concert
after that, usually sneaking into medleys made from fragments of Yellow
Snow and Greggary Peccary.
--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |
Bil
Aug 11, 2016, 3:01:39 AM8/11/16
to
On Wednesday, August 10, 2016 at 12:24:01 PM UTC, Piper wrote:
> What does this mean "eat my starch"?
>
> Someone enlighten me, please.
Zappa is the one who added "join the march" to a long pre-existing "eat my starch" phrase. FZ did that to match the rhyme and rhythm.
> What does this mean "eat my starch"?
>
> Someone enlighten me, please.
"Eat my starch" is a phrase etched into the minds of American kiddies of a certain generation or two.
Apparently comes from a playscript, written for kiddies, from 1946. And that play in turn was based on a story for kiddies (a 'fairy tale', as they are called in some cultures; a 'morality tale' or 'moral tale' as they are called in others) from 1935.
The 1935 morality tale has as characters an elderly dame, a wood cutter, and a sparrow. To cut a long story short, the wood cutter goes out to chop wood during daylight hours. The dame does domestic chores. And she interacts with the sparrow. One day she is doing a chore with starch (I take it to be commercially retailed starch flakes, the stuff bought at a store to make up a solution to stiffen cotton clothes; note the importance of the Great Depression, which focused the attention of people on their pocketbook when it came to paying for the necessities of life). And the sparrow cannot resist eating some flakes of starch. The old dame says: '"From now on you shall never be able to eat my starch again!" And she drew out her sewing scissors and quickly clipped the bird's tongue. The bird swiftly flew out of the house, and into the depths of the forest, fearful of his life.'
For impressionable youth of the day, the slicing of the tongue with scissors was quite something. Especially when delivered by a school teacher or other figure of authority.
Source 1: Journal of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation. Volume 6. 1935. published by the American Association for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation.
In 1946, that morality tale was turned into a play for kiddies. The play had much the same three characters. But 10 years later, no kiddy was familiar with wood cutters. So the characters were the Old Man, the Old Lady, and the Sparrow. The Old Man gained a lot of comfort from interacting with Sparrow. But Sparrow made the social blunder of eating the Old Duck's starch.
Sparrow: 'I am so hungry. If I could only ...'.
- the inevitable eating of starch to deal with hunger -
Old Lady: Did you eat my starch? (She goes to the cage and drags out the Sparrow.) Come here, you ungrateful bird. Did you eat the starch? (She shakes the Sparrow until the feathers fly.)
Sparrow (Very much frightened): W-w-well, y-yes, I did.
Then of course the snip of the scissors.
Source 2: Plays: The Drama Magazine for Young People. Volume 6. 1946.
Now - apart from the coincidence that both sources are Volume 6 (which leads some people to think of 666 the Mark of the Beast and all that), Frank Vincent Zappa was born in December 1940. So he would have been an impressionable 6 or 7 years old when Volume 6 of Plays was published. Or perhaps he'd stumbled upon a copy of the 1935 Journal of Health etc.
None of that is documented and we've missed the chance to ask FZ in an interview.
There you go. Just another case of vivid literary images flooding the minds of concerned youth of today.
Bil
Aug 11, 2016, 4:01:31 AM8/11/16
to
So how should we understand 'join the march and eat my starch'?
1. Since 1938 or so, the US has had various popular campaigns (in China we called them mass campaigns, e.g. the Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution, the Great Leap Forward etc) with names such as "March of Dimes" (1938). All meant to evoke the image of an unstoppable progress towards something, like the march of a battalion of invulnerable soldiers.
So read 'join the march' as an invitation to join up, be part of, a trend.
2. And the trend is to ...?
Let's understand the 1935/1946 socio-economic context of the two times that US kiddies were fed with ideological education (in China, we were more honest and called it propaganda) about the existential contradiction of an elderly couple living in the midst of a forest, the male of the couple getting some release from the drab humdrum of daily life chopping wood through his interactions with a chirpy sparrow, the female being responsible for balancing the budget (proceeds of selling wood vs expenses of buying light industrial goods on the retail market), and the chirpy sparrow.
To understand the context, we need to contrast the two economic ideologies that have been put to the US electorate for many decades. Those economic ideologies have exact counterparts in biology - not biological theory, but biological science.
Entertain, if you would, two societies.
Let's call the first society by the name 'R' and suggest that it is a society of a social mammal such as chimpanzees. Like most societies, it lives in a cycle of abundance followed by scarcity. The chimpanzees are ordered internally by hierarchy - sexual dimorphy (big males, smaller females) and inequality in each sexual cohort (big strong alpha males, small weak omega males).
Let's call the second society by the name 'd' and suggest that it is a society of a social spider that lives in groups clustered around a dominant female. Although the spiders live by an ethic of equality. When possible, they divide all food equally among the members of the group. That is not always possible, such as when a big prey species blunders into the web at one of the extremities of the web - in that relatively rare event, only the few spiders who happen to be near the prey and generally those who put themselves at risk grappling with and killing the prey get to digest the prey (big prey is too robust to tear into smaller chunks; spiders consume partly by external digestion, i.e. injecting digestive enzymes into the prey and then sucking up the products of those digestive enzymes on the body of the beast).
Now, lets see what happens in a time of scarcity. The spiders don't have enough food for all to survive. So they start to die. The bigger ones have a greater metabolic need. They need more calories to fuel their bigger bodies. So they die at the same speed as or faster than the smaller spiders. End result is that not many spiders are left when the cycle of scarcity moves into abundance. The d road can lead to extinction. Ethical, but still extinction.
Over in the R strategy, the big strong alpha males make sure that they and their favored mates get food. The small weak males and females die first. At the end of the scarcity cycle, a few big males and females are left to benefit as abundance grows.
The morality tale of the Old Lady, the Old Man, and the Sparrow is just such a quandary for humans. Should they follow the d strategy of equality? Or the R strategy of hierarchy? In the d strategy, some starch is sacrificed for the pearls of an enriched cultural life. In the R strategy, the Sparrow is sacrificed for assured survival.
I'll leave you to embellish the R and d strategies and related them to the two major political ideologies in the US. And to question whether the Sparrow character, although just clean entertainment to the kiddies in the audience, is a hint at recreational sex, flirtation etc., for the adults in the back of the room.
For FZ, I think starch is his Project/Object - his cultural product. The cultural economy of the US was one of inequality. Run of the mill, forgettable pap filling the radio waves. And a small number of interesting, progressive composers who found they had to produce some works that passed for run of the mill commercial work to earn any money for the Synclavier works they labored over in the back room.
So ... 'Join the march, eat my starch' might be an invitation to join a trend and consume the pearls produced by FZ rehearsing the band to a level not seen in the stumbling drunken performances offered by others.
I see FZ as self-critical, cynical about himself and the 'music industry', and thinking on a much wider plane than that.
He might have been offering 'Starch' as what other performers were doing - the package of clothing fashion, hype, recreational drugs as an easy way to a religious experience, etc. all wrapped around yet another forgettable music commodity release. More consumers were marching to retail record stores and lining up to pay to attend concerts of that sort than to FZ concerts.
1. Since 1938 or so, the US has had various popular campaigns (in China we called them mass campaigns, e.g. the Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution, the Great Leap Forward etc) with names such as "March of Dimes" (1938). All meant to evoke the image of an unstoppable progress towards something, like the march of a battalion of invulnerable soldiers.
So read 'join the march' as an invitation to join up, be part of, a trend.
2. And the trend is to ...?
Let's understand the 1935/1946 socio-economic context of the two times that US kiddies were fed with ideological education (in China, we were more honest and called it propaganda) about the existential contradiction of an elderly couple living in the midst of a forest, the male of the couple getting some release from the drab humdrum of daily life chopping wood through his interactions with a chirpy sparrow, the female being responsible for balancing the budget (proceeds of selling wood vs expenses of buying light industrial goods on the retail market), and the chirpy sparrow.
To understand the context, we need to contrast the two economic ideologies that have been put to the US electorate for many decades. Those economic ideologies have exact counterparts in biology - not biological theory, but biological science.
Entertain, if you would, two societies.
Let's call the first society by the name 'R' and suggest that it is a society of a social mammal such as chimpanzees. Like most societies, it lives in a cycle of abundance followed by scarcity. The chimpanzees are ordered internally by hierarchy - sexual dimorphy (big males, smaller females) and inequality in each sexual cohort (big strong alpha males, small weak omega males).
Let's call the second society by the name 'd' and suggest that it is a society of a social spider that lives in groups clustered around a dominant female. Although the spiders live by an ethic of equality. When possible, they divide all food equally among the members of the group. That is not always possible, such as when a big prey species blunders into the web at one of the extremities of the web - in that relatively rare event, only the few spiders who happen to be near the prey and generally those who put themselves at risk grappling with and killing the prey get to digest the prey (big prey is too robust to tear into smaller chunks; spiders consume partly by external digestion, i.e. injecting digestive enzymes into the prey and then sucking up the products of those digestive enzymes on the body of the beast).
Now, lets see what happens in a time of scarcity. The spiders don't have enough food for all to survive. So they start to die. The bigger ones have a greater metabolic need. They need more calories to fuel their bigger bodies. So they die at the same speed as or faster than the smaller spiders. End result is that not many spiders are left when the cycle of scarcity moves into abundance. The d road can lead to extinction. Ethical, but still extinction.
Over in the R strategy, the big strong alpha males make sure that they and their favored mates get food. The small weak males and females die first. At the end of the scarcity cycle, a few big males and females are left to benefit as abundance grows.
The morality tale of the Old Lady, the Old Man, and the Sparrow is just such a quandary for humans. Should they follow the d strategy of equality? Or the R strategy of hierarchy? In the d strategy, some starch is sacrificed for the pearls of an enriched cultural life. In the R strategy, the Sparrow is sacrificed for assured survival.
I'll leave you to embellish the R and d strategies and related them to the two major political ideologies in the US. And to question whether the Sparrow character, although just clean entertainment to the kiddies in the audience, is a hint at recreational sex, flirtation etc., for the adults in the back of the room.
For FZ, I think starch is his Project/Object - his cultural product. The cultural economy of the US was one of inequality. Run of the mill, forgettable pap filling the radio waves. And a small number of interesting, progressive composers who found they had to produce some works that passed for run of the mill commercial work to earn any money for the Synclavier works they labored over in the back room.
So ... 'Join the march, eat my starch' might be an invitation to join a trend and consume the pearls produced by FZ rehearsing the band to a level not seen in the stumbling drunken performances offered by others.
I see FZ as self-critical, cynical about himself and the 'music industry', and thinking on a much wider plane than that.
He might have been offering 'Starch' as what other performers were doing - the package of clothing fashion, hype, recreational drugs as an easy way to a religious experience, etc. all wrapped around yet another forgettable music commodity release. More consumers were marching to retail record stores and lining up to pay to attend concerts of that sort than to FZ concerts.
Martin Gregorie
Aug 11, 2016, 6:47:29 AM8/11/16
to
On Thu, 11 Aug 2016 01:01:29 -0700, Bil wrote:
> So how should we understand 'join the march and eat my starch'?
>
Thanks, Bil. That works for me.
> So how should we understand 'join the march and eat my starch'?
>
Ron Moses
Aug 11, 2016, 12:45:19 PM8/11/16
to
On Thursday, August 11, 2016 at 6:47:29 AM UTC-4, Martin Gregorie wrote:
> On Thu, 11 Aug 2016 01:01:29 -0700, Bil wrote:
>
> > So how should we understand 'join the march and eat my starch'?
> >
> Thanks, Bil. That works for me.
Yes, a brilliant bit of research, that. So, what's coming up on the next FZ release?
> On Thu, 11 Aug 2016 01:01:29 -0700, Bil wrote:
>
> > So how should we understand 'join the march and eat my starch'?
> >
> Thanks, Bil. That works for me.
ron
Martin Higgs
Aug 11, 2016, 12:51:38 PM8/11/16
to
The old geezer
Aug 11, 2016, 2:29:11 PM8/11/16
to
On Thursday, August 11, 2016 at 12:45:19 PM UTC-4, Ron Moses wrote:
> Yes, a brilliant bit of research, that. So, what's coming up on the next FZ release???????.................
Coming Soon!!!!!!!!!!!
....the ZFT has just announced that in the tradition of releasing EIHN (which
consists of outtakes & backstage banter from the Yellow (Snore) Shark sessions
, they are also releasing PP Part 2 which consists of more hilarious outtakes
that did not make the first release. Here are some sample cuts:
"Asleep on the Tour Bus" (0:47) - Frank records Mark Volman snoring after he
fell asleep on the bus.
"Don't Flush the Toilet" (1:03) - Frank records Jim Pons taking a shower in the
Hotel Bathroom. Mostly the sound of running water BUT if one listens
carefully, one can hear Jim humming "Grim reaper of Love" very softly.
"Diptheria Blues Part II" (4:17) - Howard & Aynsley continue the song but this
time Frank records EVEN farther away (down the hall, in the next room) so you
can hardley hear it at all.
"Who's the Boss" (2:38) - Mark & Howard discuss with Frank the pluses & minuses
of getting rid of Aynsley & bring back Jimmy Carl Black as the group's drummer.
"Don't throw up that Easy Meat" (3:13) - THE actual performance where Mark
Volman threw up on stage while singing "Easy Meat".
"Freak out the straights" (5:06) - Frank tries to freak out the straights in
NYC by asking them questions like "Why do we park in a driveway & drive on a
parkway" & "How round an orange?".
"This stupid store" (1:40) - Frank throws a fit because a Ma & Pa store in
Centerville doesn't carry Winstons & he has to settle for a stale pack of
unfiltered Raleighs.
And much more......COMING SOON to a store near you!!! Only $49.95!!!!!
The old geezer
ND: Moose Head Lager
NP: Liars - Todd Rundgren (Dedicated to HRC)
> Yes, a brilliant bit of research, that. So, what's coming up on the next FZ release???????.................
Coming Soon!!!!!!!!!!!
....the ZFT has just announced that in the tradition of releasing EIHN (which
consists of outtakes & backstage banter from the Yellow (Snore) Shark sessions
, they are also releasing PP Part 2 which consists of more hilarious outtakes
that did not make the first release. Here are some sample cuts:
"Asleep on the Tour Bus" (0:47) - Frank records Mark Volman snoring after he
fell asleep on the bus.
"Don't Flush the Toilet" (1:03) - Frank records Jim Pons taking a shower in the
Hotel Bathroom. Mostly the sound of running water BUT if one listens
carefully, one can hear Jim humming "Grim reaper of Love" very softly.
"Diptheria Blues Part II" (4:17) - Howard & Aynsley continue the song but this
time Frank records EVEN farther away (down the hall, in the next room) so you
can hardley hear it at all.
"Who's the Boss" (2:38) - Mark & Howard discuss with Frank the pluses & minuses
of getting rid of Aynsley & bring back Jimmy Carl Black as the group's drummer.
"Don't throw up that Easy Meat" (3:13) - THE actual performance where Mark
Volman threw up on stage while singing "Easy Meat".
"Freak out the straights" (5:06) - Frank tries to freak out the straights in
NYC by asking them questions like "Why do we park in a driveway & drive on a
parkway" & "How round an orange?".
"This stupid store" (1:40) - Frank throws a fit because a Ma & Pa store in
Centerville doesn't carry Winstons & he has to settle for a stale pack of
unfiltered Raleighs.
And much more......COMING SOON to a store near you!!! Only $49.95!!!!!
The old geezer
ND: Moose Head Lager
NP: Liars - Todd Rundgren (Dedicated to HRC)
Bil
Aug 11, 2016, 10:09:04 PM8/11/16
to
On Wednesday, August 10, 2016 at 12:24:01 PM UTC, Piper wrote:
> What does this mean "eat my starch"?
>
> Someone enlighten me, please.
Should you be more interested in the story of social spiders or the two social strategies, R (or contest competition) and d (or scrabble competition), see:
>
> Someone enlighten me, please.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.12559/abstract;jsessionid=243560AC4DEE10692C83456ADE7675C6.f04t04
or the easy read version:
http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/08/social-spiders-may-overshare-when-food-gets-scarce/
Ron Moses
Aug 12, 2016, 10:50:43 AM8/12/16
to
On Thursday, August 11, 2016 at 2:29:11 PM UTC-4, The old geezer wrote:
>
> they are also releasing PP Part 2 which consists of more hilarious
> outtakes that did not make the first release.
As one of the four people who love Playground Psychotics, I would absolutely buy that.
>
> they are also releasing PP Part 2 which consists of more hilarious
> outtakes that did not make the first release.
ron
Bryan Aaker
Aug 12, 2016, 1:01:33 PM8/12/16
to
The old geezer
Aug 12, 2016, 1:17:45 PM8/12/16
to
On Friday, August 12, 2016 at 1:01:33 PM UTC-4, Bryan Aaker wrote:
It would seem sir that you come by the nickname The Old Geezer honestly.......
How so?
TOG
It would seem sir that you come by the nickname The Old Geezer honestly.......
How so?
TOG
Bil
Aug 14, 2016, 11:09:50 PM8/14/16
to
On Thursday, August 11, 2016 at 3:01:39 PM UTC, Bil wrote:
> On Wednesday, August 10, 2016 at 12:24:01 PM UTC, Piper wrote:
> > What does this mean "eat my starch"?
> >
> > Someone enlighten me, please.
>
> Zappa is the one who added "join the march" to a long pre-existing "eat my starch" phrase. FZ did that to match the rhyme and rhythm.
>
> "Eat my starch" is a phrase etched into the minds of American kiddies of a certain generation or two.
>
> Apparently comes from a playscript, written for kiddies, from 1946. And that play in turn was based on a story for kiddies (a 'fairy tale', as they are called in some cultures; a 'morality tale' or 'moral tale' as they are called in others) from 1935.
>
> The 1935 morality tale has as characters an elderly dame, a wood cutter, and a sparrow. To cut a long story short, the wood cutter goes out to chop wood during daylight hours. The dame does domestic chores. And she interacts with the sparrow. One day she is doing a chore with starch (I take it to be commercially retailed starch flakes, the stuff bought at a store to make up a solution to stiffen cotton clothes; note the importance of the Great Depression, which focused the attention of people on their pocketbook when it came to paying for the necessities of life). And the sparrow cannot resist eating some flakes of starch. The old dame says: '"From now on you shall never be able to eat my starch again!" And she drew out her sewing scissors and quickly clipped the bird's tongue. The bird swiftly flew out of the house, and into the depths of the forest, fearful of his life.'
Wikipedia traces the story of the Old Woman, the Woodcutter, and the Sparrow (that ate the starch) to a Japanese story "Shita-kiri Suzume" [The tongue-cut sparrow].
> On Wednesday, August 10, 2016 at 12:24:01 PM UTC, Piper wrote:
> > What does this mean "eat my starch"?
> >
> > Someone enlighten me, please.
>
> Zappa is the one who added "join the march" to a long pre-existing "eat my starch" phrase. FZ did that to match the rhyme and rhythm.
>
> "Eat my starch" is a phrase etched into the minds of American kiddies of a certain generation or two.
>
> Apparently comes from a playscript, written for kiddies, from 1946. And that play in turn was based on a story for kiddies (a 'fairy tale', as they are called in some cultures; a 'morality tale' or 'moral tale' as they are called in others) from 1935.
>
> The 1935 morality tale has as characters an elderly dame, a wood cutter, and a sparrow. To cut a long story short, the wood cutter goes out to chop wood during daylight hours. The dame does domestic chores. And she interacts with the sparrow. One day she is doing a chore with starch (I take it to be commercially retailed starch flakes, the stuff bought at a store to make up a solution to stiffen cotton clothes; note the importance of the Great Depression, which focused the attention of people on their pocketbook when it came to paying for the necessities of life). And the sparrow cannot resist eating some flakes of starch. The old dame says: '"From now on you shall never be able to eat my starch again!" And she drew out her sewing scissors and quickly clipped the bird's tongue. The bird swiftly flew out of the house, and into the depths of the forest, fearful of his life.'
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shita-kiri_Suzume
Ron Moses
Aug 15, 2016, 4:08:37 PM8/15/16
to
On Sunday, August 14, 2016 at 11:09:50 PM UTC-4, Bil wrote:
>
> Wikipedia traces the story of the Old Woman, the Woodcutter, and the Sparrow (that ate the starch) to a Japanese story "Shita-kiri Suzume" [The tongue-cut sparrow].
>
> See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shita-kiri_Suzume
Well shit, I was convinced you'd made that whole thing up! It was really quite impressive in that context; I'd chalked it up as one of the more entertaining Bil posts. Now...I don't know, I'm almost disappointed. :)
>
> Wikipedia traces the story of the Old Woman, the Woodcutter, and the Sparrow (that ate the starch) to a Japanese story "Shita-kiri Suzume" [The tongue-cut sparrow].
>
> See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shita-kiri_Suzume
ron
Bil
Aug 16, 2016, 10:57:22 PM8/16/16
to
On Tuesday, August 16, 2016 at 4:08:37 AM UTC, Ron Moses wrote:
> On Sunday, August 14, 2016 at 11:09:50 PM UTC-4, Bil wrote:
> Well shit, I was convinced you'd made that whole thing up! It was really quite impressive in that context; I'd chalked it up as one of the more entertaining Bil posts. Now...I don't know, I'm almost disappointed. :)
Sorry Ron sorry
> On Sunday, August 14, 2016 at 11:09:50 PM UTC-4, Bil wrote:
> Well shit, I was convinced you'd made that whole thing up! It was really quite impressive in that context; I'd chalked it up as one of the more entertaining Bil posts. Now...I don't know, I'm almost disappointed. :)
Better try it again
Dong work for yuda
Dong dong
Sorry Ron sorry
Better try it again
Guessing here but ...
* remember how FZ reported that as a child he ran a puppet theatre for his
own amusement and for an audience of other children;
* I'll bet someone supplied him or he supplied himself with playscripts, such as from "Plays: the drama magazine for young people";
* and he would have had a preference for plays with a small number of
characters, especially plays that only had two hands on stage at any one time;
* FZ would have rehearsed the plays and staged his favorites multiple
times (no different from his behavior as an adult running a band?);
* certain lines (e.g. 'eat my starch') caught his fancy and became
part of his thinking/repertoire even away from the puppet stage;
* 'Plays: the drama magazine for young people' Vol 6 No 1 (1946)
looks like the source of 'eat my starch';
* I further suspect that a close examination of 'Plays' might show
other lines and situations that were part of FZ's repertoire and repartee;
* including themes and lines that we have thought came from other sources (such as European high art music, e.g. Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain);
- this could be a heresy to the accepted history: For instance, did FZ listen to Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain and then reuse the setting for the Biker and Chrissy's encounter with the Devil on the Mountain of Mystery (as recorded in 'Titties and Beer'); or did someone write a playscript for young people based on the Russian folk tale of a witches' sabbath on St John's Eve, which the young FZ played out as in his puppet theatre, and then FZ either sought out Mussorgsky or when he came across Mussorsky he had a moment of deja vu?
* if we were to trawl through the scripts in the 1946 - 47 volumes of "Plays: the drama magazine for young people" would we find:
- a version of Rapunzel?
: for sure, for sure!
* a better test of the hypothesis would be if the 1946 - 47 volumes of "Plays" contains sources for:
- the story of Billy the Mountain and Ethel;
- the story of Nanook the Eskimo (we know about the 1922 Hollywood production 'Nanook of the North: a story of life and love in the actual Arctic' but did FZ work through a play that introduced him to Nanook much earlier than replays of the 1922 movie as filler on tv?);
- Greggary Peccary (again, we know that GP's name was a riff on Gregory Peck, the actor, but did the story line and some of the lines come from an otherwise forgotten play written for young people?)
- a play based on the Russian folk tale of "the runaway soldier and devil", the story that is consolidated in Stravinsky's L'Historie du soldat (part of the music of which shows up in 'Soft-sell conclusion' on <Absolutely Free>, and in <Make a Jazz Noise here>, and FZ's gig as narrator of the story with the LA Philharmonic)
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