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What's On Lumpy Gravy?

Lumpy Gravy (Capitol Version):

I've been hearing the so-called Lumpy Gravy Capitol Version that circulates over there (two downloaded mp3 files called "Lumpy Gravy Rare Unreleased Version"), and supposing that's the real original Capitol version of Lumpy Gravy, I have compared it with the Verve/MGM version (the one now available with Rykodisc).

[The file supposed to be] Side 1

[The file supposed to be] Side 2

The first conclusion is that FZ was a crazy razor-blade maniac. Second is that taking out repetitions and the parts of the music released in the Verve/MGM version, that makes a total of 3:15 minutes of unreleased music in the Capitol version.

The Capitol Songlist

On the original Capitol cover design (there's a reproduction of it available in Greg Russo's book Cosmik Debris (The Son Of Revised), p. 54-55, and a fragment at Isamu's site) there's a list of parts ("tableaux") with names that weren't used in the Verve/MGM version:

SIDE ONE
TABLEAUX I SINK TRAP
         II GUM JOY
         III UP & DOWN
         IV LOCAL BUTCHER

SIDE TWO
TABLEAUX V GYPSY AIRS
         VI HUNCHY PUNCHY
         VII FOAMY SOAKY
         VIII LET'S EAT OUT
         IX TEEN-AGE GRAND FINALE

The names coincide with the ones listed on the 8-track Capitol release (a reproduction of the cartridge is available at The Zappa Patio):

PROGRAM 1: Sink Trap; Gum Joy; Up And Down; Local Butcher.
PROGRAM 2: Gypsy Airs; Hunchy Punchy; Foamy Soaky; Let's Eat Out; Teen-age Grand Finale

The music that opens the file supposed to be Side 2 of the Capitol release is the one usually associated with the title "Sink Trap" though, as it was performed with that name in September 1975 at the Royce Hall concerts:

From Jon Naurin:

The piece I'm talking about can be heard in "Lumpy Gravy Part 2," at 12:04-13:37 (I don't have the 1995 reissue, so I don't know the titles). It's called "Sink Trap" on the Zut Alors boot, and "Gypsy Airs" on Apocrypha. At the Royce Hall 1975 concerts (= Orchestral Favorites), FZ introduces this piece as "Sink Trap." Granted, consistency in naming songs was never Frank's strongest side, but I'm going to maintain my position, until someone comes up with other evidence.

This would mean that the order of the sides is reversed (so file 1 would be side 2, and viceversa). On the other side, both "Gypsy Airs" and "Sink Trap" were scheduled to be released as a single by Capitol, and test pressing of that exists. There's a reproduction of the labels on Greg Russo's book (p. 267):

So we have SINK TRAP (3:04) and GYPSY AIRS (1:40). Then the part that opens the file supposed to be Side 2 of the Capitol release that is associated with the name "Sink Trap" lasts precisely 1:41, which matchs better with the "Gypsy Airs" timing. Besides that there's another one of those mp3 files downloadable somewhere in the Internet called "sink trap.mp3," a somewhat speeded-up scratchy piece of music that coincides with 0:00-3:12 of the file supposed to be Side 1, and which matches the time of the "Sink Trap" part of the single. So it seems that at this time the music later called "Sink Trap" was called "Gypsy Airs," and that "Sink Trap" included "King Kong" and parts of "Oh No."

Now, here's my humble guess of what the music related with the names on the cover would be:

Side one:

1. Sink Trap (0:00-3:12)
2. Gum Joy (3:12-5:48)
3. Up & Down (5:48-7:36)
4. Local Butcher (7:36-11:26)

Side two:

1. Gypsy Airs (0:00-1:41)
2. Hunchy Punchy (1:41-3:20)
3. Foamy Soaky (3:20-4:30)
4. Let's Eat Out (4:30-6:37)
5. Teen-age Grand Finale (6:37-11:31)

Lumpy Gravy (Verve/MGM version)

Almost all the music heard in the Capitol version is also heard in the Verve/MGM version (except for those 3:15 minutes mentioned before), but for the new version a lot of new music and stuff has been added. Now I'll try to figure out when and where all that stuff was recorded.

The Capitol Sessions

According to Greg Russo's investigations on the Local 47 session sheets (available on p. 277 of his book), most of the big orchestra stuff was recorded at Capitol Studios between March 14-16, 1967. But there was an earlier session on February 13, 1967, with a 7-piece ensemble, where a piece called "Sunday" was recorded. The instrumentation for that session was guitar, two basses, piano, percussion and drums, and the only part that matches that instrumentation (i.e., no woodwinds or strings) is Part One, from 1:47 to 3:19, part of "Oh No" on the 1995 indexed version (3:21-4:55 on Side One of the Capitol version).

Comparing the musicians listed on the session sheets with the ones listed on the album cover, there are a few names missing on the cover: French horn players Arthur Briegleb, David Duke and George Price, trombone player Lew McCreary; and percussionists Kenneth Watson and Thomas Poole, who both played on the February 13 session. The guitarist for that session is listed as James Helms, who probably is the Jim Haynes listed on the cover. The only two names listed on the cover and missing in the session sheets are pianist Pete Jolly and French horn player Richard Parisi (whose name seems to be spelled actually 'Perissi' and who may or may not be one of the French horn players listed before).

The People Inside The Piano

Most of the voices were probably recorded at Apostolic Studios, NYC, during the recording sessions for We're Only In It For The Money. There are at least three different "people inside the piano" recording sessions from 1967: one of them is a conversation between Louis Cuneo, Roy Estrada and Motorhead (according to the memories of Louis Cuneo himself); another one between Spider Barbour, Monica and John Kilgore; and the last one between Gilly Townley, Maxine, Becky (identified as Girl #1 and Girl #2 in Civilization Phaze III), and Larry Fanoga (another incarnation of Jim Sherwood).

More voices from that era are those of Gail Zappa and Calvin Schenkel (heard at the beginning of Part Two), and probably the part of Motorhead talking about gas stations (but this one could have been recorded anytime, even at the time of "Opening Night Party At Studio Z" from the Mystery Disc). I tried to find the voices of Eric Clapton and his girlfriend Charlotte anywhere in the album, without any success, until recently Charles Ulrich mentioned a backstage interview to FZ in Copenhagen, March 3, 1976, where he specifically says that the mention of Eric Clapton in Lumpy Gravy is a mistake. Thanks, Charles, now I can rest! Anyway, I still don't know where in the album are heard the voices of Jimmy Carl Black, the 'Other John' (who probably is John Townley, as Charles Ulrich suggested), and somebody named Tony.

Then there's the people from what would become the Hampton Grease Band, listed as "Sammy, Harold, Charlie, Bruce, and the rest of the guys from Atlanta." This is Harold Kelling quoted in Hampton Grease Band by Glenn Phillips:

I went to New York with Charlie [Phillips] and Bruce [Hampton] after the IV of IX broke up. We saw Frank Zappa on the street and I just walked up to him and said 'Grease' with no particular context in mind. Somehow we communicated to him our compatible weirdness, and he invited us to the recording studio, where part of our conversation was recorded and used on Lumpy Gravy. We put 'Grease' together with 'Hampton' for the band's name because he was our only vocalist.

And this is Col. Bruce Hampton himself (Interview with Col Bruce Hampton by Michael B. Smith, January 2001):

I knew Frank in the middle and late sixties. He was very much a gentleman to me an everybody around him. I was a nineteen year old kid. We did a cameo on "Lumpy Gravy." Sam Whiteside was with me.

FZ signed them for Bizarre/Straight even if the Hampton Grease Band didn't release any record on that label. Bruce Hampton was the vocalist, Harold Kelling one of the guitarists, Charlie Phillips the bassist, and Sam Whiteside, the road manager.

The Big Squeeze

In several parts of the album we can hear what sounds like outtakes from "The Big Squeeze," the cut from The Lost Episodes recorded at Mayfair Studios in the summer of 1967 for a Luden's Cough Drop commercial. The piece was recorded by FZ on kazoo, percussion and celeste, and Dick Barber (listed on Lumpy Gravy as "Foon The Younger") on snorks.

Duodenum

The piece that opens the album, sometimes listed as "Theme From Lumpy Gravy," which appears on the 1995 CD version index as "Duodenum" (and which later would became "Bwana Dik" from Fillmore East, June 1971) didn't appear on the Capitol version of the album, which seems to indicate that the piece was not recorded during those sessions. I used to think that the piece would have been recorded even back in the days of Cucamonga, but now I have a new and more interesting theory.

In Greg Russo's listing of the recording sessions from the session sheets of Local 47, there's a missing session for MGM at TTG Studios right after Freak Out! was finished, on April 1, 1966. None of the Mothers is involved in that session, which leads to think that it was some kind of aborted project. Two pieces were recorded that day, "Motown (Friday Night City)" and "Reputation."

The instrumentation for the session is two cellos, trumpet, trombone, flute, sax, piano, guitar and drums. And the instrumentation for "Duodenum" as much as I hear it is almost the same (changing the piano for an organ, adding a bass and having the cellos played as mandolines, that's it). So maybe that lost session is not completely lost after all.

Anyway, at least the piece was written back in the days of Cucamonga. Charles Ulrich pointed out this fragment of interview from Society Pages #1 (1989):

Den Simms: You guys did this medley called "Orange County Lumber Truck". At the end of that came the section from "Lumpy Gravy". I understand that that part of "Lumpy Gravy" was originally written as part of Captain Beefheart And The Grunt People.

FZ: That was the theme for Captain Beefheart vs. The Grunt People.

Take Your Clothes Off

As I have discussed elsewhere, I think the surf music that closes the album and which also doesn't appear on the Capitol version, was recorded around 1963 back in the Pal Recording Studio in Cucamonga, probably with some studio musicians.

Another piece from the Cucamonga days that appears on Lumpy Gravy is a little fragment of the intro from "Hurricane" by Conrad & The Hurricane Strings, produced by FZ & Paul Buff in 1963.

Then there's a piece of scratchy jazz music speeded up and identified in the 1995 CD as "It's From Kansas," and which I think comes from the days when FZ was trying to produce jazz in Cucamonga around 1961. I also discuss that elsewhere.

Also from those days comes the voice of Ronnie Williams, who can be heard on a little fragment which seems to be an outtake from "Ronnie Sings?" (the cut from The Lost Episodes) at the beginning of Part Two. Ronnie, as Michael Gula suggested, is probably also the voice heard on "Just One More Time." It has been suggested that the voice belongs to Don Van Vliet, but Ronnie seems more likely.

The Rest

There's still more bizarre stuff happening in various places on Lumpy Gravy, including the harmonica bit that I first took for something that Don Van Vliet and FZ recorded in Cucamonga, but finally it has turned up to be a fragment of a Mothers Of Invention recording from the Fillmore West, 1966 (as Charles Ulrich pointed out quoting the above mentiond Copenhagen backstage interview from 1976). There are also outtakes from some Mothers Of Invention recording sessions or live tapes, something like the tape abuse of "Nasal Retentive Calliope Music," and probably even some outtakes from the original Capitol sessions. Now I'll try to identify all these using the 1995 CD version of the album.

Part 1

Part 2

Notes

[1] The music heard on the Verve/MGM Lumpy Gravy Part 1, minute 14:23-14:45, can be heard again on Part 2, 12:06-12:27, but in a different mix in which a very sensitive violin (and other stuff) has been added. Similarly, two sections of music on the Capitol version, side 1, 09:17-09:26 (repeated on 09:45-09:55) and 09:55-10:25, appear on part two of the Verve/MGM version at 12:27-13:12 and 13:15-13:43, respectively, but with violin added.

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