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BROADWAY THE HARD WAY

 Jezebel Boy

Notes and Comments
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  Firstly Mike Keneally' own comment to his 1988 Feb, 14 audio-diary tape:
  It was in fact the only time we ever played "Jezebel Boy", and although it was loaded with mistakes, it's this version which by default ende d up on "Broadway The Hard Way". Why we didn't play more versions for Frank to choose from [we rehearsed it at least 100 times in Los Angeles] I do not understand.
From: Vladimir Sovetov <sova@kpbank.ru>
  "Jezebel - n. shameless or profiligate woman; woman who puts garish colour on her face. [ ~, wife of Ahab (1 Kgs. 16, 19, 21)]"
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English
From: Evil Bob <evilbob@tbag.tscs.com>
  A Jezebel Boy is a male prostitute.
From: Vladimir Sovetov
  Jezebel is also the seducer of white family men in a white male mythology.
  For more explanations and racist stereotypes CC check out
  To Album Refs
To Global Refs
You know all the guys
In the Sheriff's Patrol
They leave you alone
When they round up the whores
Up on Hollywood Boulevard
From: Evil Bob <evilbob@tbag.tscs.com>
  I forget the actual street names, but I recall reading an article in some nudie magazine which talked about the locational proximity between the male and female prostitutes in LA. It said that the females hang out on Hollywood Boulevard and the males hang out on a street that runs parallel to that street (maybe Sunset Strip? I dunno - Help me out LA people).
  To Album Refs
To Global Refs
Sometimes that nasty D.A.
From: Vladimir Sovetov <sova@kpbank.ru>
  District Attorney
  To Album Refs
To Global Refs
That's when
The short-pants girls
From: Evil Bob <evilbob@tbag.tscs.com>
  Many times, prostitutes will wear extremely short pants with their butt-crack hangin' out for the benefit of any and all prospective "renter/leasers". Also, at this point in the music FZ uses a classic "cheap sex sax riff" as one might hear in any number of James Bond movies and cheap detective thrillers when the Hot Girl enters a room. In the same vein as the presence of the theme music from "The Untouchables", just before the above verse is another musical quotation from a TV law-enforcement-type show - I'm about 88% sure it's from "Perry Mason".
  One very noteworthy aspect of this tune from a compositional standpoint is the beautifully consistent and concentrated way that FZ used the harmonic language he chose for this work. It's a "controlled dissonance" which comes from a skillful use of the octatonic scale. The parallel 9th chords (which remains throughout as an intervallic device in the bass part) evoke a sort of Post-Bartok-Woody-Herman sound that packs a big wallop in a small controlled space. Plus it makes the "Perry Mason" bit sound totally natural to boot (as well as retaining Conceptual Continuity with the general law-enforcement theme) If his work on The Grand Wazoo, Drowning Witch, and Teenage Prostitute wasn't enough to convince us of FZs consummate skill as a band orchestrator, Jezebel Boy removes all doubt.
  To Album Refs
To Global Refs
Waitin' through that night
Waitin' for that distinguished-looking
Wilshire District Gentleman
With snow-white hair,
From: Evil Bob <evilbob@tbag.tscs.com>
  Enter a musical quote from "Jingle Bells".
 
To drive up in his Lincoln,
And whisk away the Jezebel Boy
From: Evil Bob <evilbob@tbag.tscs.com>
  As you might or might not have guessed, Wilshire District is a very ritzy and high-price LA area in which to live.
 
There he goes now!
Old Ralph will make him put that wretched
Sausage in his mouth again
From: Evil Bob <evilbob@tbag.tscs.com>
  ["gobbling" sound plus sax and synclavier sample] The "gobbling" sound plus sax/synclavier bit here actually springs from the American Cartoon Tradition and is absolutely fuckin' hilarious - especially with Ike and FZ laughing like they are.
 
Another day,
Another sausage --
Jezebel Boy
  Well, another day, another dollar is good old proverb
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SOVA NOSE Any proposal? I'd like to hear!
Provocation, compilation and design © Vladimir Sovetov, 1994-2004
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