Rock of Ages presents
Everything you always wanted to know about
200 Motels deals with a rock band's life on the road, the band, the people surrounding the band and how it screwed them all up. Zappa had been toying with the subject for several years. Live on stage conversations from the Royal Festival Hall, London 1968 (released on Ahead of their time) already touch the subject matter and even includes a musical segment which would evolve into This town is a sealed tuna sandwich.
The 1992 album Playground Psychotics also includes several thematically related conversations recorded on the road in 1970. There's no lust in jazz, an excerpt from A typical day on the Road Part 2 actually wound up in the movie. Several tracks were already released on Chunga's revenge although probably planned for 200 Motels : Road Ladies, Tell me you love me, Would you go all the way, Rudy wants to buy yez a drink, Sharleena, Babette.
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Most of the orchestral sketches were done in motel and hotel rooms around the world during early Mothers Tours, hence the movie title "200 MOTELS", based on an estimate of the actual number.
In 1970 David Picker of United Artists approved Zappa's proposal for the movie. It was to be the first feature-length film to be shot on video tape. The shooting script outlined about two dozen musical numbers:
THE OVERTURE Orchestra. Chorus. (Scenes 1-2)
TOURING CAN MAKE YOU CRAZY Orchestra. (Scene 4)
WHAT'S THE NAME OF YOUR GROUP Orchestra. Chorus. (Scenes 5-9, 11-16) including:
CAN I HELP YOU WITH THIS DUMMY Orchestra. Soprano. Rance. (Scene 16)
INSTRUMENTAL TO ACCOMPANY VIENNA SEQUENCE Group. Orchestra. (Scene 10)
WENT ON THE ROAD Group. Chorus. Orchestra. (Scene 18) [a.k.a. Would You Like A Snack?]
CENTERVILLE Group. Orchestra. Chorus. (Scene 21)
THIS TOWN IS A SEALED TUNA SANDWICH Orchestra. Group. Chorus. (Scenes 22-28)
LONESOME COWBOY BURT Group. (Scene 29)
THE RESTAURANT SCENE Small Orchestra. Baritones and Basses. (Scene 31) [a.k.a. Redneck Eats]
MYSTERY ROACH 1 Group. (Scene 32)
THE PLEATED GAZELLE Orchestra. Chorus. (Scenes 33-56) [including: Motorhead's Midnight Ranch, Dew On The Newts We Got, The Lad Searches The Night For His Newts, The Girl Wants To Fix Him Some Broth, The Girl's Dream, Little Green Scratchy Sweaters & Courduroy Ponce, A Nun Suit Painted On Some Old Boxes]
SHOVE IT RIGHT IN Orchestra. Group. Chorus. (Scenes 57-66)
WHAT WILL THIS MORNING BRING [ME THIS EVENING?] Group. (Scenes 68-70)
CANNED MUSIC - WHAT WILL THIS EVENING [BRING ME THIS MORNING?] Group. (Scenes 71-72)
THE GROUPIE SONG Group. (Scene 73) [a.k.a. What Kind Of Girl Do You Think We Are?]
BWANA DIK/CLEARASIL SPATTERED FANTASY Group. (Scenes 74-75)
DADDY DADDY DADDY Group. (Scenes 76-77)
MAGIC FINGERS Group. (Scene 81)
SOUNDLY ABOUT THE TITS AND BUTTOCKS Group. (Scene 82) [The title phrase occurs in the script immediately after "a pair of tennis shoes I got from Jeff Beck".
PENIS DIMENSION Orchestra. Group. Chorus. (Scenes 84-87)
MYSTERY ROACH 2 Jeff. (Scene 91)
I'M STEALING THE ROOM Orchestra. Group. Chorus. (Scenes 92-99) [including: I'm Stealing The Towels, Dental Hygiene Dilemma, Does This Kind Of Life Look Interesting To You?]
STRICTLY GENTEEL Orchestra. Group. Chorus. (Scenes 100-101)
Theodore Bikel : I was intrigued by the whole idea, it was no more than an idea when Frank came to me first. I came with exactly, I think it was fifteen pages of an outline. There was all there was, there was no more. But eh, it was intriguing. It was interesting, and uh, Frank himself is a, it's, you met him, you know. It's a very exciting personality, so let's film what idle be a complete flop, chaos, or an, an extraordinary film. There'd be nothing in between.
Zappa left for London in December 1970 to start work on the movie and soundtrack album. A first reading of the script took place on January 18, 1971 at the Kensington Palace Hotel in London. Three excerpts, It's a good thing we get paid to do this, He's watching us and He's right are issued on Playground Psychotics.
Jeff Simmonds' wife Breena convinced him to walk out on his role in "200 MOTELS" because he was "Too heavy to be in this Group . . . " (Palmer says Simmonds got fired after telling Zappa he was full of shit!).
Several characters were recast between the shooting script and the finished film.
Obviously, Jeff Simmons was supposed to play himself. After Jeff quit the group, the role was given first to Wilfrid Brambell, and then to Martin Lickert (Ringo Starr's chauffeur). But note that Howard Kaylan provided the voice of the cartoon Jeff in Dental Hygiene Dilemma.
Pete Townshend (dressed up like Donovan) was supposed to play Jeff's Good Conscience. In the film, it was Mark Volman voicing the animated Billy The Mountain (dressed up like Donovan).
Keith Moon (dressed up like Ginger Baker) was supposed to play Jeff's Bad Conscience. In the film, it was Jim Pons voicing the animated Studebacher Hoch (dressed up like Jim Pons).
Mick Jagger was supposed to play the nun (while being pursued by Larry the Dwarf). Miss Pamela was supposed to play the nun (as the third groupie ODing). In the film, Keith Moon played the nun throughout.
The soprano soloist of the chorus (Phyllis Bryn-Julson) was supposed to play the rock & roll interviewer, speaking as well as singing. In the film, Miss Pamela took over the speaking role.
Jeff Beck was supposed to play the fake Lucy. In the film, Motorhead played the fake Lucy.
The shooting script contains a non-speaking role for Meredith [Monk, presumably] as the newt-rancher's girlfriend in The Pleated Gazelle.
Herbie [Cohen] was supposed to appear in two scenes, speaking his name in one of them.
After 5 days of rehearsal, 200 Motels was filmed and recorded at the Pinewood Studios in the UK during seven 8-hour days, from January 28 to February 5, 1971. It was edited in eleven 10-hour days and cost $ 679,000.
Frank Zappa : There was a real orchestra playing the real notes, there was a real rock & ba-, rock & roll band playing the real notes, and the people who sing the parts, they're doing real singing, it's there, it was designed to have a lively happening feel to it. Very difficult to get a lively happening feel with a bunch of people like the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, that was the most ill behave bunch of pootheads that I have worked with, and they're actually attempting to sabotage the show and on the last day of shoot uh, they--we rented all the tuxedos for the orchestra, and all the guys they ripped theirs up and you know, made vandalism to uh, the property there, these are wrong men working in a symphony orchestra, you know, this kind of stuff is expected in the worst punk group, they're probably fathers of punkers.
Union rules in the UK dictated that musicians got paid more for an actual recording session than for rehearsals. But Zappa, in order to save money used the rehearsals as the actual recordings. So het got himself into a spot of trouble with the Union there.
During production just about everyone working on the film thought it was a stupid idea. They hated the early wake-up calls and waiting around for solutions to the unexpected technical problems, unique to this type of film production.
Zappa...waiting
around
Only one third of the
shooting script (several hundred pages) had been photographed when
United Astists
pulled the plug (This is denied by Palmer who says the entire script was actually filmed). The
plot of the film (as it appears in it's current form) was created in
the editing room from scenes completed during 56 hours of principal
photography.
However, with the shooting script as a guide a more complete version can be compiled, albeit in audio only. Sourced from the soundtrack LP/CD, the movie, Chunga's revenge, Fillmore East LP/CD and You can't do that on stage anymore Vol 1, the movie could have looked/sounded something like this :
Semi-Fraudulent/Direct From Hollywood Overture (LP)
Touring Can Make You Crazy (LP)
Dance Of The Rock & Roll Interviewers (LP)
What's The Name Of Your Group? (video)
Would You Like A Snack? (LP)
Centerville (LP)
This Town Is A Sealed Tuna Sandwich
Prologue (LP)
Dance Of The Just Plain Folks (LP)
Reprise (LP)
Bolero (LP)
Lonesome Cowboy Burt (LP)
Redneck Eats (LP)
Mystery Roach (LP)
The Pleated Gazelle
Motorhead's Midnight Ranch (LP)
Dew On The Newts We Got (LP)
The Lad Searches The Night For His Newts (LP)
The Girl Wants To Fix Him Some Broth (LP)
The Girl's Dream (LP)
Little Green Scratchy Sweaters & Corduroy Ponce (LP)
A Nun Suit Painted On Some Old Boxes (LP)
She Painted Up Her Face (LP)
Janet's Big Dance Number (LP)
Half A Dozen Provocative Squats (LP)
Mysterioso (LP)
Shove It Right In (LP)
Lucy's Seduction Of A Bored Violinist & Postlude (LP)
What Will This Morning Bring Me This Evening? (video)
What Will This Evening Bring Me This Morning? (LP)
What Kind Of Girl Do You Think We Are? (Fillmore)
Bwana Dik (Fillmore)
Latex Solar Beef (Fillmore)
Daddy, Daddy, Daddy (LP)
Do You Like My New Car? (Fillmore)
Magic Fingers (LP)
Penis Dimension (LP, #5)
I'm Stealing The Towels (LP)
Dental Hygiene Dilemma (LP)
Does This Kind Of Life Look Interesting To You? (LP)
Strictly Genteel (LP)
Lucy's Seduction (Reprise) (video)
Notes :
Dance Of The Rock & Roll Interviewers and What's
The Name Of Your Group? are actually only segments of a much longer
piece, also entitled What's The Name Of Your Group?
There were two versions of Mystery Roach intended for 200 MOTELS, and this version is neither of them. Mystery Roach #1 (band version) is very much of an acoustic "folk-rock" song. You can see and just barely hear this version for all of fifteen to twenty seconds in THE TRUE STORY OF 200 MOTELS. Mystery Roach #2 (solo version), indeed was to have been sung solo by "Jeff" (Martin Lickert), just before smoking the vile-foamy-liquid cigarette he'd just procured from Dom Dewild, after which he proceeds to "steal the room".
The shooting script shows that the song and the spoken parts of Penis dimensionwere flip-flopped in order for the theatrical release.
The film version of Strictly genteel features a different mix.
Lucy's seduction is used during the credit sequence.
Where the songs that didn't make it would have fitted in :
Road Ladies (Chunga's) - This was intended for use between Redneck Eats and She Painted Up Her Face.
Tell Me You Love Me (Chunga's) - This was intended to precede Penis Dimension.
Would You Go All The Way (Chunga's) - Jimmy Carl Black listens to this tune in Redneck Eats, as referred to by the line "...something I can enjoy...".
Rudy Wants To Buy Yez A Drink (Chunga's) - This was to be used in another long sequence called Someday Soon, dealing in the bizniz end of rock & roll.
Sharleena (Chunga's) - This song is originally from yet another excised segment known as The Red Throbber, dealing with Mark and Howie's unfortunate encounter with a slightly deranged U.S. Customs inspector. Sharleena is his girlfriend.
Babette (Stage) - This is the inspector's drugsniffing dog.
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At one point during
production, Tony Palmer demanded that his name be removed from the
credits of "200
MOTELS",
out of concern for his career. Toward the end of principal
photography, Palmer, in a fit of
peek, threatened to erase all of
the master video tapes of the movie (which he denies in the liner
notes of the DVD).
In order to "balance
the film budget", Mr. Goode ordered that all original video
master tapes be
erased and sold as "Used Stock".
A 200 Motels live show at the Royal Albert Hall, London was cancelled. But the show was taken on the road in the US, resulting in the Fillmore East – June 1971 album. John Lennon's guest appearance on June 6 was released on Some Time in NYC and in Zappa's version on Playground Psychotics. Also the late 1970 US touyr contained huge portions of what would become 200 Motels. Footage of a 3-day stint at the Fillmore West were shown in a Dutch TV documentary. This documentary formed the basis for the making of 200 Motels video.
Overdubs were recorded at Whitney Studios in Glendale, Ca, Summer 1971.
The original soundtrack album was released on October 4, 1971 in the US and on November 12, 1971 in the UK. Album package and book design is by Cal Schenkel. Cover and poster design and illustration is by Dave McMacken.
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The
album...front, back & inner gatefold
The DVD :
0:00:00 Semi-fraudulent/Direct-from-Hollywood Overture
0:01:58 (Larry the dwarf)
0:03:55 Mystery roach
0:06:20 (Rance Muhammitz)
0:19:18 The sealed tuna bolero
0:36:25 The girl wants to fix him some broth
Release Information
Released by: United Artists
(US)
Runtime: 98 minutes
Rated: R (Rated X in the UK)
ASIN:
630196392X
World premiere : New York – November 10, 1971
Video release dates:
1984 VHS - Warner Home Video WB PGX 9949 (German)
1985/06 VHS - Warner Home Video PEV 99498
1988 VHS - Warner Home Video WB PES 99498 (English)
1988 VHS - Warner Home Video (UK) V PES 99498
1994/12/07 VHS - MGM/UA M200423
1994/08/01 VHS - MGM/UA Rock Classics S050423 (UK)
1997 Laserdisc MGM/UA ML100423
DVD release
March 8, 2010
Voiceprint
TPDVD127
Region: 0
Ratio: 16:9
Bonus : Movie can be played with comment by Tony Palmer.
The Credits
Theodore Bikel (as Dave and Rance Muhammitz)
Ringo Starr (as Larry the Dwarf and Frank Zappa)
Frank Zappa (as himself)
Mark Volman (as himself and the voice of Good Conscience)
Howard Kaylan (as himself and the voice of Jeff the cartoon)
Ian Underwood (as himself)
Aynsley Dunbar (as himself)
George Duke (as himself)
Keith Moon (as the Hot Nun)
Janet Ferguson (as herself)
Lucy Offerall (as herself)
Jimmy Carl Black (as himself and Lonesome Cowboy Burt)
Martin Lickert (as Jeff)
Dick Barber (as ther industrial vacuum cleaner)
Don Preston (as himself and The Monster)
Pamela Miller (as the rock & roll interviewer)
Ruth Underwood (as herself)
Judy Gridley
Uncredited:
Jim 'Motorhead' Sherwood (as himself and as Larry Fanoga and as the fake Lucy
Jim Pons (as the voice of Bad Conscience)
Phyllis Bryn-Julson
Classical Guitar Ensemble
John Williams
Music composed and arranged by Frank Zappa
Music performed by The Royal Philarmonic Orchestra
Choreographed by Gillian Lynne
Story and screenplay by Frank Zappa
Shooting script by Tony Palmer
Associate producers Raoul Ragel and Brian Harris
Produced by Jerry bGood and Herb Cohen
Characterizations directed by Frank Zappa
Visuals directed by Tony Palmer
Special Material : Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan
Orchestra Leader : Colin Stavely
Orchestra Chairman : John Lowdell
Acting Orchestra General Manager : Tom Petzal
Orchestra Conductor : Elgar Howarth
Chorus : The Top Score Singers
Choral Director : David Van Asch
Animation : Murakami Wolf Prod..
Animation Director : Charles Swenson
Graphic Production : Cal Schenkel, Kunimi Terada, Fumiko Roche, Elizabeth Wright, Wilma Guenot, Ann Oliphant
Production Design : Cal Schenkel
Art Director : Leo Austin
Unit Production Manager : David Anderson
Lion Television Services Production Manager : Roy Garner
Lion Television Services Controller : Tom Keylock
Assistant Director : David Alexander
2nd Assistant Director : Jim McCutcheon
Dancers Music Associate : Ray Cook
Lighting Director : Peter Dyson
Technical Director : Alan Mashford
Sound Supervisor : Peter Hubbard
16 Track Recordist : Robert Auger
Continuity Clerk : Lyn Gomez
Production Secretary : Jaqi Williamson
Vision Mixer : Anne Rowe
Vision Supervisor : Roland Brown
Construction Supervisor : Harry Phipps
Costume Design : Sue Yelland
Hairdresser : Mervyn Medalie
Makeup : Paul Rabiger
Unit Publicist : Ian Stock
Special Effects : Bert Luxford
Still Photographer : Barry Peake
Wire Specialist : Inky Ingram
Props : Paddy Bennett
Vision Engineers : Richard Thompson, Selwyn Mindel, Neville Hoksfield
Cameramen : Dave Swan, Barrie Dodd, Mike Fitch, John Howard
Video Tape Editors : Barry Stephens, Ray Nunney
Dubbed at Todd A-O
Film Editing : Rich Harrison
Video Tape Transfer to Film : Technicolor-England
Video Tape Equipment : Lion Television Services
Produced at Pinewood Studios, Iverheath, England
Get your copy from Voiceprint !
The poster
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The CD |
The promo CD |
The VHS
