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YOU CAN'T DO THAT ON STAGE ANYMORE, vol 3

Chana In De Bushwop (Zappa/Diva Zappa)

Notes and Comments

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Chana in de Bushwop
In de Bushwop
Isn't that amazing???
  From liner notes:
  "CHANA" was written for my daughter, Diva, based on a story she told me when she was 4 or 5. In the middle of this version there is some sort of pseudo-musical interlude with people people laughing in the background. Explanation: in the music chapter of "THE REAL FRANK ZAPPA BOOK", I devote some place to keyboard virtouso Alan Zavod and his notorious 'Volcan Solo'.
  From TRFZB p.169-170
  "For instance, there are a lot of reasons why musicians like to play solos on stage - but the usual reason in rock and roll is to get The Blow Job. One way to ensure that you look like the greatest thing going when you play your big solo is to make sure that you end your solo by going up the scale, then grab that last note and repeat it as fast as you can.
  The statement is the same on any instrument: "Oh, I'm squirting now!" (Clever subtext to the audience.)
  In case of violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, who was with the band briefly in the early seventies, no matter what the solo was, after a certain period of time on the road he always ended with the same passage - he'd wiggle up to the top of the instrument and squirt all over the place the last note ... and the crowd went wild! But if you're another guy in the band, and you see that happening every night, you go, "Ho-hum."
  To a certain extent, Alan Zavod, our 1984 keyboard player. would do the same thing - he would end his solo with this thing that everybody called "The Volcano." He held the sustain pedal down and churned and smashed away to get a big blur going, and then topped it off at the end with flourish. It worked every time, but it got to be a band joke. In fact, Alan really is a great pianist (and a film composer). It's just maybe - because he was working in a rock and roll band - he thought that type of solo was the appropriate vehicle to project his aura across vast continental areas."
  The end of liner notes
  During this performance, I surprised Alan (and a few people in the audience) by leaping onto the keyboard riser and improvising my own stupid littel "amateur volcan solo"
 
She went to France
(Like a Chana in de Bushwop)
And she tried to dance
(Like a Chana in de Bushwop)
She raised a big fuzz
(Like a Chana in de Bushwop)
In the back of the bus
(Like a Chana in de Bushwop)

Gonna go to it with a long loaf of bread
Made a big mistake when it turned and said:
"Chana in ze Bushwop
Hey! Nice volcano!
Chana in ze Bushwop
Ho ho ho!"
From: Don Murphy <donald.murphy@hotmail.com>
  My impression is that the title and chanted chorus are an humorous transmogrification of the cliche metaphor <Bull in a China shop>. The inage is of a big, wild, and powerful beast loosed among aisles of shelves displaying china teacups, plates, figurines etc. with the ensuing destruction and chaos.
  I have wondered, also, if enclosed here also is a reference to George Bush and the effect of American hegemony on other world cultures.

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