200 Motels (soundtrack)

Music and lyrics

The rock and comedy songs "Mystery Roach", "Lonesome Cowboy Burt", "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy", "What Will This Evening Bring Me This Morning" and "Magic Fingers", and the finale "Strictly Genteel", which mixes orchestral and rock elements, were noted as highlights of the album by reviewer Richie Unterberger. These include the freshwater fish, as the Mothers of Invention live album Fillmore East - June 1971 contained a song referring to the mud shark, a cannabis cigarette butt, which causes the character Jeff to go crazy within the context of the film's storyline, and a combed roll hairstyle, which connects the song lyrically to "Jelly Roll Gumdrop", a song from Cruising with Ruben & the Jets. The version on the album is different from the version in the film, as it is missing small electric guitar solos by Zappa, and was not scripted as part of the film in its electric arrangement, having originally been written in three separate, unused acoustic blues-oriented arrangements. The song was not performed live.

"Dance of the Rock & Roll Interviewers" is an orchestral piece originally intended to be paired with "Touring Can Make You Crazy" as part of an early scene in which the band arrives in Centerville and is greeted by music journalists, but only part of the sequence, depicting a mannequin of Zappa being torn apart by the journalists, appeared in the final film, due to timing and budget restraints, and the "Touring Can Make You Crazy" sequence was not shot and does not appear in the film. Regarding "Touring", Couture writes that "The long double-bass notes and the overall dark atmosphere and slow tempo suggest a tiring trip."

The album features five segments which form the suite "This Town Is A Sealed Tuna Sandwich": a prologue, the "Tuna Fish Promenade", "Dance of the Just Plain Folks", a reprise of the main melody, and the conclusion "The Sealed Tuna Bolero". Only the final bolero was featured in the film. The "Tuna Sandwich" suite was scripted as being proceeded by the sequence and composition "Centerville". "Would You Like A Snack?" is a vocal version of Zappa's composition "Holiday in Berlin", which reappears throughout the album and film in different arrangements, including the "Semi-Fraudulent/Direct-From-Hollywood Overture". The lyrics of "Would You Like A Snack?" are similar to the theater piece on Zappa's live album Ahead of Their Time. Zappa earlier recorded an unrelated song of the same name, which features members of the Mothers of Invention and Jefferson Airplane singer Grace Slick.

"Redneck Eats" begins and ends with spoken dialogue featuring the character Lonesome Cowboy Burt (played by Jimmy Carl Black) heckling the orchestra, which is performing an Igor Stravinsky and Edgard Varese-influenced composition. "Janet's Big Dance Number" is about one of the film's two groupie characters and features "Slow piano chords [...] played over sustained contrabass notes. The choir enters late in the piece, picking up the Stravinskian melody sketched by the chords." "Lucy's Seduction of a Bored Violinist", follows the other groupie character, and features "a soft melody, followed by a rhythm break and a tympany roll" and a faster reprise of the "Janet" melody. The album pairs "Lucy" with the film's "Postlude", which appears during the ending credits, and is played on a harpsichord.

The second half of the album begins with the suite "Dental Hygiene Dilemma", which begins with "I'm Stealing The Towels", for which the corresponding film sequence was scripted and partially shot, before it was determined that the footage was unusable, and the sequence was cut. The main part of the suite, "Dental Hygiene Dilemma", appeared in the film as an animated cartoon by Charles Swenson, who later directed the film Down and Dirty Duck with Mothers of Invention band members and 200 Motels stars Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan.

The main part of the suite, "Dental Hygiene Dilemma" incorporates a rock band, the orchestra, and spoken dialogue, and depicts Jeff smoking a marijuana cigarette which had been dipped in Don Preston's "foamy liquids" and imagining Donovan appearing to him on a wall-mounted television as his "good conscience" and asking him not to steal the towels, while Studebacher Hoch appears to him as his evil conscience, "dressed as Jim Pons", and persuades Jeff to quit the Mothers of Invention, start his own hard rock band and play music like Grand Funk Railroad or Black Sabbath. In real life, Simmons started his own blues rock band after leaving Zappa's band, and released the album Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up for Straight Records, which Zappa produced. In "Dilemma", Volman exclaims "We got to get him back to normal before Zappa finds out and steals it and makes him do it in the movie!"

"A Nun Suit Painted on Some Old Boxes" is the first part of a suite for soprano voice, chorus, and orchestra called "I Have Seen the Pleated Gazelle". The suite criticizes organized religion and references dental floss, connecting the suite to Zappa's later song "Montana", appearing on the album Over-Nite Sensation.

Release and reception

200 Motels charted at No. 59 on the Billboard 200. The album was released on compact disc for the first time in 1997 at the same time as a theatrical reissue of the film. The CD edition contained extensive liner notes and artwork, a small poster for the film, and bonus tracks consisting of radio promos for the film and the single edit of the song "Magic Fingers". The album was reissued in 2021 in two editions: the original album on 2 CDs and an extended version on 6 CDs (again including a facsimile of the original film poster).

The album was deemed to be a peripheral album in Zappa's catalog by music critics. Allmusic's Richie Unterberger critiqued what he referred to as the "growing tendency to deploy the smutty, cheap humor that would soon dominate much of Zappa's work" but said that "Those who like his late-'60s/early-'70s work [...] will probably like this fine".

Track listing

50th Anniversary 6CD

CD1 contains sides one, two, and three of the vinyl album

CD2 contains side four of the vinyl album, then continues:

Personnel

• Frank Zappa – bass guitar, guitar, drums, producer, orchestration
• George Duke – trombone, keyboards
• Ian Underwood – keyboards, woodwinds
• Big Jim Sullivan – guitar, orchestration
• Martin Lickert – bass guitar
• Aynsley Dunbar – drums
• Ruth Underwood – percussion
• Jimmy Carl Black – vocals
• Howard Kaylan – vocals
• Jim Pons – voices
• Mark Volman – vocals, photography
• Theodore Bikel – narrator
• Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Elgar Howarth
• Top Score Singers conducted by David Van Asch
• Classical Guitar Ensemble supervised by John Williams

Production

• Bob Auger – engineer
• David McMacken – design, illustrations
• Cal Schenkel – design
• Barry Keene – overdubs, remixing
• Patrick Pending – liner notes

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

References

1. Ulrich, Charles. (May 13, 2018). "The Big Note: A Guide to the Recordings of Frank Zappa". New Star Books.
2. Richie Unterberger. "200 Motels - Frank Zappa".
3. François Couture. "Mystery Roach".
4. François Couture. (December 2021). "Dance of the Rock & Roll Interviewers".
5. François Couture. (December 2021). "Touring Can Make You Crazy".
6. François Couture. (December 2021). "This Town Is A Sealed Tuna Sandwich".
7. François Couture. (December 2021). "Centerville".
8. François Couture. (December 2021). "Would You Like a Snack?".
9. François Couture. (December 2021). "Redneck Eats".
10. François Couture. (December 2021). "Janet's Big Number".
11. François Couture. (December 2021). "Lucy's Seduction of a Bored Violinist & Postlude".
12. François Couture. (December 2021). "I'm Stealing the Towels".
13. François Couture. (December 2021). "Dental Hygiene Dilemma".
14. François Couture. (December 2021). "A Nun Suit Painted on Some OldBoxes".
15. François Couture. (December 2021). "Motorhead's Midnight Ranch".
16. Sinclair, Tom. (31 Oct 1997). "Album Review: '200 Motels' Review | Music Reviews and News". [[Entertainment Weekly]].
17. "Zappa Movie Re-Released".
18. Kent, David. (1993). "Australian Chart Book 1970–1992". Australian Chart Book.
19. "Charts and Awards for ''200 Motels''".
20. "Jaaroverzichten – Album 1971". Hung Medien.