If We'd All Been Living in California, It'd Be Different . . .

[collisionwork]

One of my favorite bands of all time is The Mothers of Invention - the 1960s version of Frank Zappa's band, which flourished (creatively if not economically) from 1965-1969. I know Zappa hated his fans who, like me, preferred his "early stuff" to his later work, but what the fuck, it was yer best work Frankie.

The guys from Steely Dan agreed - when they were inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, instead of giving a speech, they asked questions of the audience that seemed to be of importance to them, the first being, "Who was the original drummer for The Mothers of Invention?"

They got the correct answer from the crowd - the name and sobriquet of the man who played some tasty and difficult drums for Zappa at the start, keeping Zappa grounded in bar band rock while additional conservatory-trained percussionists (including Arthur Dyer Tripp and Billy Mundi) took on the more experimental parts, and who was the most iconic presence in the group apart from Zappa himself.

And now Jimmy Carl Black, The Indian of the Group, original drummer for The Mothers of Invention, has passed away on November 1.

Jimmy Carl is probably best known and loved for his portrayal of Burt, the Redneck, tormentor of The Mothers, in Zappa's film 200 Motels, from 1971. Here's his big musical number, "Lonesome Cowboy Burt," with a bit of the following scene with Theodore Bikel as Rance Muhammitz, who may or may not be The Devil (and while I thank the person who uploaded this, I can't believe they cut the scene one line short of the best punchline!):

(the next line, from Burt, is "You got many friends that call you Opal the Hot Little Bitch?")

Jimmy Carl, Indian of the Group, we will miss you.

In looking for that clip above, I found a whole bunch of excerpts from 200 Motels on YouTube (the film is long out of print on VHS and there's no DVD), so for those who haven't seen this mangled, difficult, deeply flawed, something-like-a-masterpiece, I've included the clips in the cut below. I'm glad to have them in postable form, but the quality is somewhat variable, sorry.

The film is the story of how touring in a rock and roll band can make you crazy, as The Mothers reach a new town, Centerville, just like all the other towns they've been in as they've stayed in 200 motels across America. The band is beginning to fragment - all of them beginning to hate playing Zappa's weird "comedy" music (which doesn't help them get any groupie action) and wanting to instead play some "heavy blues." They're also tired of Zappa secretly recording their conversations and then using it as material for his songs and for the movie he's writing (which is indeed where much of the dialogue comes from). Now, in Centerville, the band has reached the breaking point.

The film was shot on a large soundstage in England, on video, with a giant cartoony set representing the town and four groups of performers - The Mothers; actors; dancers; a symphony orchestra and choir - performing simultaneously in different areas of the stage.

They had less than a week and very little money to shoot it on, and only wound up filming a third of Zappa's dense script. Then, in the editing (for which two weeks were allowed), the story was made even less intelligible. There were outtakes, but the studio unfortunately decided to erase the master tapes to make a little money selling them back as blank stock(!).

However, what there is left is a collection of beautiful, bizarre parts that don't quite come together. I love it.

The film is introduced by narrator Theodore Bikel, with Ringo Starr as Larry the Dwarf (who will be playing the part of Frank Zappa in this filmic event). With Keith Moon as the Nun-Groupie. And the Mothers perform "Mystery Roach."

Flo and Eddie, lead singers of The Mothers, explore the town:

Here's a giant excerpt of the best parts of the film, starting with most of Zappa's cantata I Have Seen The Pleated Gazelle - which, honestly, feels dragged into the movie by its ass, but whatever - which features young unknown soprano Phyllis Bryn-Julson, now somewhat acclaimed - and then the animated "Dental Hygiene Dilemma," in which Mothers bass player Jeff Simmons confronts his inner demons. Whoever uploaded this did a great job of syncing the better-sounding stereo track from the soundtrack album with the image, replacing the dull mono movie track, but some sound effects were lost. No biggie.

Ringo Starr as Larry the Dwarf (all dressed up like Frank Zappa) discusses the position of musicians in society, and why they might require some sexual attention to deal with their hardships, and The Mothers perform "Magic Fingers" to expand on this idea:

But the band must confront their male fears in "Penis Dimension":

The group expounds on the groupies in "Shove It Right In":

Martin Lickert, Ringo Starr's chauffeur, drafted into playing Mothers' bass player Jeff Simmons (who left the group a couple of days before the movie started shooting - life imitating art) confronts former Mothers member Don Preston:

The grand finale, "Strictly Genteel," in which Theodore Bikel and the entire company beg for mercy:

Comments

Thanks for remembering

[(Anonymous)]

I hadn't heard the news up until now, so thanks for the (rather sad) update. My favorite song on the 200 Motels soundtrack, "What Will This Evening Bring Me This Morning," (possibly my favorite Zappa track of all) gets fairly poor treatment in the film, chopped up and overlaid with silly sound effects, if I recall correctly.

Interesting anecdote about Steely Dan. The "Citizen Steely Dan" box set liner notes includes a quote from Zappa labeling their work "downer surrealism." No context is provided for the quote, however, so I'd be interested to learn how it came about.
TXC