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Tracklisting & More Information
200 Motels, the film, was directed by Tony Palmer and made at Pinewood Studios. Right from the start it was an unusual event, being shot directly to videotape then transferred to film rather than the other way around.
As the Radio Advertising for the film's theatrical release itself declared :-
"The wide screen erupts with absurdities, explodes with spine-tingling psychological terror, the mere human mind boggles at the philosophical implications, as Frank Zappa's 200 Motels is unleashed in the totality of its pagan splendor, its primordial fury"
Well, we have some of that 'splendorous fury' right here for you!
Using, as it does, a full orchestra & chorus, the score of 200 Motels explores many avenues quite dear to FZ throughout his recording career - Namely that of luring sacred cows nicely into a pre-prepared target area before attacking them mercilessly.
In just one film, you get to see a caricature of a 'Famous Rock Group' [played by themselves, except for FZ who was played by Ringo Starr] going 'On The Road' and all the extrapolated absurdities that can befall them. As if that wasn't enough, you also get music designed to push the envelope of what is 'acceptable' in a 'Musical' by veering from [extra cheese for me, please] Hollywood-esque orchestral arrangements to the more experimental orchestration paying homage to Edgard Varése & Anton Webern. When you least expect it, you also get the rock band arrangements for the Mothers to rattle you out of your comfort zone.
Frank being Frank, he also turned the traditional 'them & us' of the film/audience relationship on its head by actually shooting the film as if the Orchestra itself were the audience watching a performance. He even poked fun at the relationship of Musicians to 'real people' within the film narration :
"A musician, if you consider the normal pattern of civilized life, is on the outside of it all. He doesn't build things, he doesn't work regular hours like a decent god-fearing citizen, and the life he leads, in many ways, seems useless and irrelevant to those of us who'd prefer a quiet evening in front of the television and a bottle of beer.
Amazing as it might seem to some of us, musicians have basic physical needs, just like real people. Many of them study for years, learning to play the violin for instance, only to be rewarded with a humdrum job in the fourth row of a symphonic string section"
This score actually survived the equal measures of creativity & chaos that the film serves up & has been nicely annotated by the member of the chorus to whom it once belonged, presumably through rehearsals during mid January 1971 & the actual filming between 28th January & 5th February.
Opening with 'Shove It Right In', these amazing historical documents take you through the story of 200 Motels as seen through the eyes of a member of the chorus, lovingly transcribed from FZ's own original score & complete with narration links & notes of which scenes relate to which parts of the score. It's fascinating to look through this incredible set of documents as you begin to see in which order the scenes were shot - For example, the first scene Overture, is actually section two of the score as supplied.
Enough of this.
You've seen sheet music, yes ? You know, the stripey stuff with lines & dots ?
Here's a lot of it.
Each sheet is 10" x 12½" & inked onto high quality stave. The nine sections are annotated 1/9 - 9/9 in red in the top left corner of the section with the Strictly Genteel score separate. The chorus member is addressed on the mailer envelope, so probably was an early intended recipient.
If you have seen the film, then you'll know how amazing it is that this original 'I was there' score survived the final scenes or even being in the same room as Keith Moon for more than ten minutes.
Well, here it is. Complete, intact, no drool stains, unmarked (Apart from the annotations made at the time) & just ready to find a new home.
Interestingly, some of the lyrical content must have been leaked very quickly from these sessions, as the scheduled Royal Albert Hall musical premiere just three days later [on February 8th] was cancelled as a result of being thought 'unsuitable' for the RAH.
Maybe, but perhaps they should have ignored the 'suitability' of the lyrical content, looked up 'satire' in the dictionary & taken a closer look at the musical notes lovingly transcribed herein. From the deliberate pomp & majesty of Strictly Genteel through the intricacies of Magic Fingers & the straight out boogie of The Mothers at the time, all interwoven through a deliberately unsettling & disjointed story - All chronicled here as planned.
My mere human mind is suitably boggled ...
SHEET MUSIC
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