ARF: Notes and Comments: FREAK OUT!: It Can't Happen Here

FREAK OUT!

It Can't Happen Here

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	It can't happen here It can't happen here I'm telling you my dear That it can't happen here
From: John Henley (jhenley@mail.utexas.edu) "It Can't Happen Here", the Sinclair Lewis anti-fascist novel, was first published in 1935 and again in "A New Version" in 1938.
From: "Jon Naurin" <naurin@mbox300.swipnet.se> It could also be worth pointing out that ICHH was musically inspired by Argentinian composer Mauricio Kagel (eat your heart out). I have an interview somewhere where FZ says this.

	That they would freak out In Minessotta (Mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-mi Mama Minessotta Mama Minessotta Mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-minessotta...) Who could imagine... Who could imagine That they would freak out In Washington D.C.
From: trh2130@aol.com (Trh2130) When I hear Help, I'm a Rock and the piano comes on between Freak Outs in Minnesota and Washington DC, I swear that the piano solo is similar to free jazz pianist Cecil Taylor. Could this be true?
From: Biffyshrew (biffyshrew@aol.com) Could it be true that the solo is similar to Cecil Taylor? Yes. Could it be true that it IS Cecil Taylor? No.
Could it be true that Frank Zappa claimed in an interview in 1968 to have played the solo himself, upon which the interviewer noted the similarity to Cecil Taylor, which Zappa acknowledged? Yes.
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	You just cook a TV dinner And you make it
From: Biffyshrew (biffyshrew@aol.com) A frozen meal in an aluminum foil tray divided into compartments (one for the cardboard-flavored meat with gravy--this is always the largest compartment and is at the front of the tray--one for the pasty mashed potatoes, one for the peas and carrots that no one eats, and one for the disappointing little dessert).
From: Vladimir Sovetov Here is a nice piece of history from Laura Pulfer of The Cincinnati Enquirer http://enquirer.com/columns/pulfer/1999/04/04/lp_tv_dinners_weve_got.html She commented on the 1999 out-the-blue return of a product to US stores.
The line will be drawn, I believe, at TV dinners. We didn't love them when we were kids, and we won't love them as reruns.
Invented in 1954 by a man named Gerry Thomas who was trying to get rid of about 270 tons of excess turkey, the meals were marketed by Swanson. The first aluminum tray of turkey, cornbread dressing and gravy, buttered peas and sweet potatoes sold for 98 cents. Then a frozen fried chicken dinner was introduced in 1955. They stopped calling them TV dinners in 1962.

	(Man you guys are really safe) That they would freak out In suburbs (Everything's cool...) I remember (tu-tu) I remember (tu-tu) I remember (tu-tu) They had a swimming pool
From: Chris Ekman This is a tiny thing to report, but I enjoyed it ... In 'It Can't Happen Here,' right before the 'swimming pool' doo-wop section at around 2:45, Zappa sings "just like the (something) they got in the suburbs," sounding EXACTLY like Napoleon Murphy Brock as the reformed Evil Prince in Thing-Fish. If I looked, I'll bet I could find the exact phrase, but I remember "wit' de country- westoin muzishnins" as being awfully close.
Who knows? What with all the dense conceptual continuity in Thing-Fish ("D'ya get any onya dowin theah?"), it might even have been intentional.
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	FZ: Suzy? You just got to town and we've been... we've been very interested in your development SUZY CREAMCHEESE: Forget it!
From: Vladimir Sovetov It's interesting to note that in a version of this song that appeared later on a compilation LP Motheromania Frank decided to be less obscure about things that happened with Suzy.
FZ: Suzy? You just got to town and we've been... we've been very interested in your development SINCE YOU FIRST TOOK THE SHOTS SUZY CREAMCHEESE: Forget it!
And also on the Suzy's subject:
From: funhouse@ix.netcom.com(ELI B. ABRAMS ) I don't know if this is well known, but Suzy Creamcheese existed before "Freak Out!" In reading Roger Ebert's "Big Book of Film" I came across an article by John Updike from his days as a film critic. In the article, a tribute to Doris Day, she mentions that friends have taken to calling her "Suzie Creamcheese." I was shocked, but perhaps others know about the history of the nickname better than I.
From: Michael Dec <LHSM15A@prodigy.com> "Susie Creamcheese " was a popular name for plain, ordinary, non-freaky American girls since I was a kid in the early '60s. (And probably earlier). I'm sure FZ saw the potential for parody there.
From: Michael Gushulak (doodles@marimba.raindogs.net) That would account for the Suzy Creamcheese boutiques I see in shopping malls in Greater Vancouver. It seems doubtful that a chain of retailers of young ladies' fashion wear would take its name from the author of "Penguin in Bondage" and "Broken Hearts Are for Assholes".

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