The Cover Art
"It's a very good title when you consider that the front cover shows a picture of a sofa and the back cover is references to the Universe in general. I think that it's applicable."
Calvin Schenkel interviewed by Steven Cerio, Seconds #32, 1995
One Size Fits All was basically an illustration based on a story, with some input from Frank as to what he wanted to see in it. Then there's interplay, too, where I would have ideas beyond that preliminary state. On One Size Fits All, the back is pretty much my concept.
Nik Zierenberg, "A Report On Cal Schenkel And His Beautiful Dog Ralf"
Cal explained to me briefly how one of his favorite Zappa album covers was done.
—Frank gave him a call saying it was time to start work on another album.
—The concept is established for how Zappa would like the album, entitled One Size Fits All to come out.
—The main concept came from a song on the album called Sofa
—Starts work on a rough drawing, through various thumbnail sketches
—Zappa & Schenkel exchange a few more ideas.
—More elaborate sketches are drawn, but not full scale... but more detailed visualizations then the thumbnail sketches were.
—The main piece on the front of One Size Fits All is a giant red sofa, which Cal used photo of his own sofa to draw from.
—Cal got the ideas for the back of the album, which is a twisted and deranged astrological kind of looking star map from old National Geographic sky charts, but everything is changed.
—A color rough was done called a study to show how the colors were to work
—Then the final piece was done... for the covers, and painted on panels.
—Then he did the type-setting, deciding fonts and sizes etc. and all was well.
One Size Fits All Stars
9
JANUARY
8
FEBRUARY
7
MARCH
6
JULY
5
WEDNESDAY
4
AUGUST
3
IRWINDALE
2
2:30 IN
1
AFTER
0
NOON
23
SUNDAY
22
21
WALNUT
20
LA PUENTE
19
FUNNY CARS
18
CITY OF INDUSTRY
17
FRIDAY
16
ROUND THINGS ARE BORING
15
VIRGIL
LBRA
SFSH
AGIT
CAPN
AQUA
PXES
LEOL
JM&I
TRAX
ARES
CNCR
URSULA MINOR "The Little Dip" [0-8 / 75º-90º]
ZIRCON (The Nose Star)
Yttrium
Kojac (Kolchek)
Maxpax
CANCER [23-2 / 60º-75º]
Periscope
Cubans
AIRIES [3-5 / 60º-75º]
Miro
Sheraton
Hilton
[4-6 / 30º-75º]
Azelfafage
PLEBISCITES
Herbycon
Protein
HYAENAS
Legume
THORAX "The Bull" [5-8 / 30º-60º]
Aldebumen
El Nash
*Ahmet*
*Dogess*
DRANO [5-9 / 0º-60º]
*KNARF (uview)*
Rascallion
Grunion
Modus Operandi
Dristan
Lotte Lenya
Gainsayer
[5-7 / 15º-30º]
Vega
Pinto
Nato
JIM & I "The Siamese Twins" [6-8 / (-15º)-30º]
Zloty Groszy
Althea
Whazat
Pollack
Castoroil
O'BRION [6-12 / 45º-75º]
Beatrix
Betelnuts
Navel
Nigel
A Capella
Dinar
Peso
Pectoral
COMA BERNICE "The Plumber" [8-9 / 30º-60º]
Charo
Henna Brillo
LEO LIMON [8-10 / 0º-30º]
Abracadabra
Differential
Algebra
Regulus
Fan Belt
Steering Wheel
Algenon
CUNARD [9-8 / 0º-(-15º)]
Teflon
Wizened
Serious
VIRGIL [8-10 / 15º-(-30º)]
Orange
Horn Relay
Olney
Wyoming
Huntingpark
6 Red
Acc. Flasher
Black
R.Dir.Sig.Lamp
Yellow
125th
Lenox
Houston
Spring Garden St.
Canal
Marylebone
Edgware Road
Bayswater
Queensway
Charing Cross (c)
Waterloo
*DIVA*
Willow Gr.
CORONA BEGONIA [9-11 / 0º-30º]
Gemma
*DWEEZIL (auriga Ra6b 46m145d47º6')*
REX BEGONIA [10-11 / 0º-15º]
Itinerary
Per Diem
Oedipus
Enough
Alpha Romeo
PIXIES [10-12 / 15º-60º]
Ed Ruscha
Laura
Borscht
Baleen
Sperm
Hotratz
DAVID BOÖTES [11-13 / 30º-60º]
Arktourist
Necta
Misogynis
AQUARIUM [11-15 / 0º-30º]
Ali Baba
Sadalsoar
Markspits
Scat
BUFO BOREALIS [12-16 / 30º-75º]
Forsoothe
Boffo
Formaldehyde
Bufo speciosus
Katy, Texas
Bolivar
*Gorgo*
[13-14 / 15º-45º]
Algerian
Alkali
Alkaloid
Alison (Wickwire)
Alcapone
Alimentary
Alibi
Promiscuous
Porridge
Dar Al Zanuck
CAPRICORN "Gus Goat" [14-16 / 0º-45º]
Yazoo Delta
Atlanta, Ga.
Sal Hepatica
Sal Ammoniac
Zegreb
*HONKULES (galaxy)*
MUSCA [15-17 / 30º-60º]
Muscatel
Muscateer
Muscaeeto
OFIE YUCAS [15-18 / (-30º)-45º]
Jocasey
Molybdenum
Savey
Yed On Prior
Occasion
Ras Aldazzl
Ras Perry
*RDNZL*
AGITTARIUS [16-18 / (-30º)-30º]
Ernie
Novi
Chunky
Al Nozzle
Fiscal
CRUX "The Western Cross" [16-17 / (-15º)-0º]
D Crux
Uvda
Madder
*PUMPKIN*
SILVERFISH [17-19 / 15º-45º]
Paula
Asparagus
Al Surat
Aunt Letty
Ed Barbar
URSALA MAJOR "The Big Dip" [16-22 / 60º-90º]
Musak
Dublin
Alioto
Applecor
Alcaselzer
*LALA*
LIBRA [19-22 / 45º-60º]
Zubin Mehta
*UNIT*
*(3834)Zappafrank*
Aspic
Mochajava
DRANO
O'BRION
"O'Brion", incidentally, refers to Brian Krokus, the Tycobrahe sound mixer who worked on the 1974 tour and who was romantically involved with my friend Ruth Underwood.
The Recording Sessions
Liner notes by FZ, 1975
Engineers—Kerry McNab; Gary O; Jukka
Recordist—Mike Braunstein
Re-mix—Kerry McNab
Studios—The Record Plant L.A.; Caribou; Paramount; KCET TV; Finnlevy Studiot, Helsinki; Wally Heider Remote Truck
December 5-26, 1974—Caribou Ranch, Nederland, CO
Plans for his next recording sessions are a bit more upfront though. From December 5th through the 26th Frank will be at Caribou Studios in Colorado laying down the basic tracks for the next Mothers album ("hopefully a double Lp to be released in the Spring") plus the next Frank Zappa album. To clarify matters, a Mothers album consists of the orchestration that the group is at the time and a Frank Zappa album may include anyone Zappa has a desire to record with at the time.
One of the attractions Caribou has as a studio is the house piano—a Steinway that came from Columbia Records. "It's one of the best pianos in the world," Zappa notes, "and it used to be used for all the classical recordings. To me, that's what a piano is supposed to sound like.
"But I wouldn't go there just for the piano," he adds. "It has other advantages: You buy the studio for twenty-four hours a day and you go in whenever you want, you know. You just live at the place, stay there for a while and you get your work done."
"Greggery Peccary," the composition Frank was scoring at the outset of our interview is one piece slated for Caribou to be included on the next Mothers album. Started two years ago, Frank explains, "it's written for an orchestra. This band will play it but it's for all kinds of other instruments too." As for performing it, "It'd be very difficult because it's for a non-standard orchestra. It's for instruments that orchestras don't usually have—exotic woodwinds and things. It'd be expensive to do live. And it ain't gonna be cheap to record it either."
"Dawn" [from The Aura Will Prevail (1975)] was written at The Caribou Ranch Recording Studio, in my room, after a session with Zappa. We recorded there for a week or so, and I guess the snow and altitude had an affect on my creativity.
MR: Do you have any favorite studio at the moment?
FZ: I like Caribou, except for the fact it is 8000 feet up. If it was at sea level it would be a fantastic studio for my purposes, but so many funny things have happened to people and musical instruments when the air is so thin. The distance between the air molecules affects the sound of the instruments and the acoustics, and also creates other problems for monitoring.
Further recording for the album took place during December at Jim Guercio's Caribou studio in Colorado, where basic tracks for songs from Hunchentoot were also laid down.
The 1974 band was really
loose—we could [play] anything we goddamn wanted. It was really unfortunate
that I broke my hand because that was like the beginning of the end.
Frank was really impatient. I could play three weeks after the accident;
that's when we did One Size Fits All. Right at the end of the tour,
he had booked a studio in Colorado and ended up with virtually nothing.
Then we came back to LA and did that album which is a good one. They did
"Sofa" in Colorado, I know that. They did one other song and I had to
overdub the bass part which was really awkward and the feel wasn't
right. I think this was "Can't Afford No Shoes."
Then In December we went to Caribou Studios in Colorado to record for, seems like it was a week or so. I don't know who owns it now or if it is still in use or not, but what a neat place. [...] They had taken an old ghost town and rebuilt the log cabins and put a grand piano in each where the musicians stayed two to a cabin and the cabins were two bed room. Up close to the timberline. The snow was incredible. I can see how you could write a whole album there. Coffee over a grand piano each morning looking out on miles of unbroken snow with the occasional pine. I'll never forget it. [...]
He and I were night owls while the others would head out pretty soon after we were done for the day. One night he showed me a progression on guitar, again, don't know if he was just seeing what I was like on guitar or what, but we jammed on and on for a bit and finally he asked me if I was getting tired and I said jokingly "no, I just got my fingers stuck in the strings". I didn't realize that he had recorded all of that, and It wound up on one of his albums.
January 3-14, 1975—The Record Plant, LA, CA
It looks like a busy beginning for the Record Plants in Los Angeles and San Francisco this year. [...] Frank Zappa cutting his next, producing himself with Bob Hughes engineering.
01/03/75 (9PM-12midnight) The Record Plant, Hollywood, CA—The New Brown Clouds (a section of "Greggary Peccary")
MUSICIANS: FZ, Mike Altschul, Johnny Rotella, Raymond Reed, JoAnn Caldwell, Earle D. Dumler, Victor Morosco, Malcolm McNab, Graham Young, Bruce L. Fowler, Jonathan C. Ellis, Dana Hughes, Donald G. Waldrop
01/06/75 (10AM-1:30PM & 2:30-6PM) The Record Plant, Hollywood, CA—Greggary Peccary Part I; Greggary Peccary Part III
MUSICIANS: FZ, Mike Altschul, Johnny Rotella, Raymond Reed, JoAnn Caldwell, Earle D. Dumler, Victor Morosco, Malcolm McNab, Jay J. Daversa, Bruce L. Fowler, Jonathan C. Ellis, Dana Hughes, Donald G. Waldrop, Murray Adler, Sheldon Sanov, Pamela Goldsmith, Jerry Kessler, Edward F. Meares Jr., George Mac Duke, Thomas W. Fowler, Chester C. Thompson
01/08/75 (8:30-11:30PM) & 01/09/75 (12midnight-3AM) The Record Plant, Hollywood, CA—San Ber'dino; Cucamonga; Is There Anything Good Inside Of You (final title: "Andy")
MUSICIANS: FZ, George Duke, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Tom Fowler, Chester Thompson
01/09/75 (8:30-11:30PM) & 01/10/75 (12midnight-3AM) The Record Plant, Hollywood, CA—San Ber'dino; Can't Afford No Shoes; Greggery Peccary Parts I-III
MUSICIANS: FZ, George Duke, Napoleon Brock, Tom Fowler, Chester Thompson
01/10/75 (8:30PM-midnight) The Record Plant, Hollywood, CA—The New Brown Clouds (a section of "Greggery Peccary"); Greggery Peccary Part I; Greggery Peccary Part II
MUSICIANS: FZ, Emil R. Radocchia (aka Emil Richards), Alan C. Estes, John D. Berkman, Mike Altschul, Michael Zearott
01/13/75 (7:30PM-midnight) The Record Plant, Hollywood, CA—The New Brown Clouds (a section of "Greggery Peccary"); Greggery Peccary Part I; Greggery Peccary Part II
MUSICIANS: FZ, Emil R. Radocchia (aka Emil Richards), Alan C. Estes, John D. Berkman, Mike Altschul, Michael Zearott
01/14/75 (6:30PM-midnight) The Record Plant, Hollywood, CA—The New Brown Clouds (a section of "Greggery Peccary"); Greggery Peccary Part I; Greggery Peccary Part II
MUSICIANS: FZ, Emil R. Radocchia (aka Emil Richards), Alan C. Estes, John D. Berkman, Mike Altschul, Michael Zearott
Credits & Personnel
FZ, liner notes, 1975
Engineers—Kerry McNab; Gary O; Jukka
Recordist—Mike Braunstein
Re-mix—Kerry McNab
Studios—The Record Plant L.A.; Caribou; Paramount; KCET TV; Finnlevy Studiot, Helsinki; Wally Heider Remote Truck
Assistance—Paul Hof; Richard "Tex" Abel; Dick Barber; Coy Featherstone; Bill Romero; Unity; Matti Laipio
Abuse (unwarranted)—Marty Perellis
Special Electronics—Musitronics; 360 Systems
German Translation—Lu Paschotta
Herbalism—Herb Cohen
Mastering—Kendun Studios
Design & Fresco—Cal Schenkel
Sofa Upholstery—Lynn Lascaro
Archaic Typography—Composition Arts; Vernon Simpson
Michael Braunstein
I began working as Frank's recording engineer on January 3, 1975, when Kerry McNab (arguably the best engineer Frank ever had) began his slow withdrawal from the scene and subsequently from engineering entirely. Because of a contractual obligation to Kerry, Marty Perellis (Frank's then-manager) insisted on listing me as "recordist" on the One Size Fits All LP, though I did much of the actual engineering. I went on to engineer all or part of six or so albums with Frank.
I started with Frank on Jan. 3, 1975 (coincidentally, Stephen Stills' birthday) sitting as Kerry McNabb's second engineer until Kerry retired from FZ a few sessions later. I was an eager beaver. The first night, I set up 12 mics for a guitar solo overdub in Studio C. Some of them, AKG 414s, were on Star Booms raised to within six inches of the ceiling in each corner of the huge Studio C room. I think Kerry and Frank indulged me—until they heard how cool each mic sounded. "Po-Jama People" on the One Size Fits All album. Stayed working for FZ through Bongo Fury, Zoot Allures and Studio Tan and Joe's Garage etc. up until about mid-1977. Lots of growth during that time. Lots of stories, too.
Gary 'O' Adante
Beginning his career in 1972 as a staff engineer for Record Plant, Los Angeles, Gary ['O' Adante] worked his way up to become co-producer / chief engineer for Stevie Wonder from 1975 to 1990.
1. Inca Roads
In "Inca Roads" were you making fun of (author of Chariot of the Gods) Von Däniken?
Of course, of course. No seriously, I'll tell you what "Inca Roads" was about. It was an instrumental melody which existed for three years before I tried to write words to it. The melody covers more than two octaves. It's very difficult to sing, and I wrote words to it one day. That's what the actual history of that song is all about. I thought it was quite an accomplishment. And it was written before Von Däniken.
I didn't know that, but unfortunately it didn't come out until after the Von Däniken book.
Yes, but it had already been corrupted by the time that it came out. It was totally corrupted from the words which had originally been written which was way before all this stuff was considered commercial.
Bulgarian Bagpipe
I also do some stuff where I use the pick on the fingerboard, pressing down and hitting the string at the same time. It gets kind of a Bulgarian bagpipe sound. An example of that is on the end of the solo in "Inca Roads" and also on "Po-Jama People."
Quotations
Arthur Barrow, alt.fan.frank-zappa, October 27, 1999
And of course everyone knows that part of Approx is in Inca Roads "Why don't you sharpen it..." section, for example.
Mike, February 10, 2014
"Inca Roads" contains a quote from "Strictly Genteel."
Lino González, August 19, 2010
In the first part of the song, when the instrumental interlude appears around at 1:45 of the song, the musical intented to be very Peruvian oriented, the sound of the synthesizer like a fluted they used called QUENA and the rhythm section is something similar to the rhythm they've made called CARNAVALITO.
Why don't you sharpen it then?
[...] Mother Mary and Jozuf!
RS: How 'bout "Why don't you sharpen it, then?"
FZ: We used to have a carpenter that worked around here. He talked to himself. He would argue with himself, (laughter) and you'd see him out in the yard, and he'd be sayin' things like, "Where's that screwdriver? Screwdriver don't work. Why don't you sharpen it, then?" (laughter) And he also used to hit his thumb every once in a while, and scream, "Mother Mary 'n Jozuf!" (laughter)
Booger-Bear
Did a booger-bear
Come from somewhere out there
FZ: A Booger Bear is an extremely ugly anything, and a Booger is short for Booger Bear, in the parlance of that '73 band.
Somewhere along the line—I don't know whether Frank talked about it—we instituted what what's called eventually The Booger Bear Award. Now, the way that developed is— I don't know if I should do this. No, I shouldn't. No. Ok. We'll do that in private. Well, there's respectable people here, you know.
Well, anyway, what it meant, the Booger Bear meant, it was a kind of a homely woman. Homely, not, you know, not a good looking girl, in a word. And so there used to be these groupies, you know, at the show. Some of the guys were, you know, involved with that kind of thing. And they made up this mask that kind of look like a cross between a gorilla and—you know those shrunken heads they have in Africa, they look like—with hair, and the whole bit, you know. And they put one of these on the door, so whoever had the Booger Bear they had that on their door. It became a topic of conversation on the bus because everybody would come out and look and see who had the Booger Bear Award, you know?
And that went off for a while and everybody laughed, Frank laughed, everybody was having fun with it, until Frank got it. That was the end of the Booger Bear Award. 'Cause Frank said, "Why did I get it? Who put that on my door?" Everybody was like mute, the whole band was giggling. You know, Frank was serious, he was pissed.
It's as simple as that.
Edits
| OSFA |
TDRS! |
YCDTOSA 2 |
| 00:00-00:33 |
00:00-00:33 |
|
| |
00:33-00:37 |
|
| 00:33-02:00 |
00:37-02:04 |
|
| |
02:04-05:31 |
|
| 02:00-03:51 |
|
02:05-03:55 |
| |
|
03:55-04:27 |
| 03:51-04:15 |
|
04:27-04:50 |
| |
|
04:50-05:24 |
| 04:15-04:37 |
|
05:24-05:46 |
| |
|
05:46-06:05... |
| 04:37-08:45 |
05:31-09:39 |
|
9. Sofa No. 2
FZ, interviewed by Don Menn & Matt Groening, "The Mother Of All Interviews, Act II," Zappa!, 1992, p. 63
We learned it phonetically. The translation was done by a girl who used to be our babysitter. She was from Munich, and apparently not a very good translator. People look at what it means in English, and then listen to the German words, and they've told me that the translation is laughable. And then they tell me what it really should be in German, and it's unsingable.
[...] That particular tour, I tried to convince Mark and Howard that it was a good idea to learn these things phonetically, because most American groups, if they go and play in another country, make no attempt to communicate in the native language, and I thought it would be a worthwhile gesture and probably a groundbreaking thing to do. In fact, in Germany, it was groundbreaking, because I had reports afterward that people in Germany who were musicians who wanted to do rock and roll had never considered that their language would work for rock. I didn't realize that they weren't doing rock stuff in German. If they did rock, they would be doing bad phonetic English rock lyrics.
Would you condescend to explain the thing, or is that asking too much?
No, certainly. First of all, the cover is what that song is all about, and its part of the conceptual continuity of the story of "Billy the Mountain." But you had no way of knowing that.
No, I didn't, and neither did anyone else.
But these things are revealed later.
Where?
See, that's the way continuity runs. Well, say three albums from now you'll find out that all that stuff fits together, and while you're sitting there in your little room going "Wow, this one's for shit!" you'll suddenly say "Hey, wait a minute." But that's only for people who actually go back and listen.
[...] Now whether it had anything to do with the cover art or with "Billy the Mountain," I think that that particular song is a wonderful song. Let me tell you the story of that song.
First of all, it was written in English. Then it was translated into German. I got a transcript of the phonetic pronunciation of the German lyrics, and the music was written around the German pronunciation. It's the first time I've ever tried to do that. It was considered to be quite an achievement in the German press, because many German groups won't sing in German because they don't think they can do rock and roll in German. We went over there on a tour with Mark and Howard and went on performing that as part of our show. They were surprised that an American group would want to make up a song—and we actually had a whole section of our show that was done in—German.
Is that the part that you did on the Dick Cavett Show? It was never on a record as far as I know.
That's right. And that is it.
