Insofar as I understand this country song, notwithstanding her evil ways she was the sunshine of his days.
Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)
“Do you hear music, Jeeves?”
“Of a sort, sir.”
— P.G. Wodehouse
Part VI
I seem to have a chicken-and-egg puzzle here, the two items under advisement being the Zappa movie, itself and its accompanying soundtrack.
Before going on (or back) let me clarify this much: the occasion for this post is revisitation of the 3-CD soundtrack release.
So, Alex Winter’s documentary Zappa was released 27 Nov 2020. I was then deep into my second year of working with an exceptional physical therapist who is helping me to recover use of my left hand. While working, we listen to a mutually-curated musical program (presently, the albums of Genesis.) It has been my pleasure to expand his awareness of Zappigraphy. Now, as to our egg and chicken: let me propose this as the likely chronology, without backing into a superfluous need to get it “absolutely right.” I think Mike had found and bought the soundtrack, and we listened to it together. Thus informed (reminded, actually, as I do now recall that a “virtual acquaintance” in Minnesota had hitherto alerted me) of the existence of the movie, I expeditiously arranged to view the latter. Which I likely did in December of 2021.
In general, the three CDs mirror the movie, in presenting musical selections of Zappa and others, in chronological order.
Disc 1 begins with two numbers from Freak Out! (1966) the first Mothers album, and concludes with “Road Ladies” from Chunga’s Revenge (1970) On the way we have Zappa talking about his discovery of and admiration for the composer Edgard Varèse, and the “crazy piece” of Varèse’s which started it all, Ionisation. We also hear the Finale to Igor Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. In the movie, we do not hear Zappa discuss Stravinsky, and the music actually underscores a montage of the Zappa’s newborn daughter Moon Unit.
Disc 2 begins with a couple of numbers from the new “Comedy Music” Mothers fronted by Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman, formerly of the Turtles. The disc closes with “H.R. 2911.” a Synclavier piece “celebrating” Congress’ Resolution to manage the public’s reception of salty lyrics, and the Ensemble Modern arrangement of “G-Spot Tornado,” which was originally likewise a Synclavier piece. In the movie, we see two dancers interpreting the piece.
Disc 3 opens with a de facto suite of some 26 cues for the movie, a half hour of music nicely written by John Frizell and perfectly suited to their role: the music does not command one’s attention, but is of a certain degree of musical interest, should one focus said attention thereupon. It is, in other words, the perfect music to play in the background while composing a blog post. Listening thus to the soundtrack cues on their own has perforce inspired me to watch the film again. That may seem “wrong,” but retrograde is an artistic operation, not an aberration.
Finishing the arc of the three-disc set are some late Zappa releases, the London Symphony Orchestra’s performance of “Envelopes,” three recordings by Ensemble Modern which did not make it onto the Yellow Shark CD: an Overture, “Get Whitey,” and “Nap Time.” Most appropriately, a live version of “Watermelon in Easter Hay” closes the set out, just as it underscores the end credits of the film.
So, yes, I went back to the movie, curious to observe Frizell’s score better: nice. I think the movie excellent. In such a biopic there are necessarily omissions, but none of the omissions seem vexatious to me. I see that some critics objected to the film’s failing to highlight the salacious lyrics of (well) any number of Zappa’s songs, but if you’re going to ding the film for failing to spotlight (say) “Illinois Enema Bandit,” you may want to reconsider what you think is important in Zappa’s œuvre. Maybe these folks felt that the great accomplishment of Amadeus was alerting the general public that Mozart could say ka-ka.
