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 Punky's Whips

Notes and Comments
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  Historical Note
  In libel suit scary Warner Brothers decided without asking Frank consent to remove the song from original DiskReet 2D 2290 2LP release.
  Among most known results of the unauthorised action were end of 9 years of FZ-WB collaboration and Lather 4LP contoversy. For details see Appendix below.
  Also Ben Watson
  The release (of ZINY) was vitiated by a threat of a lawsuit from Angel's record company. Punky Meadows had apparently okayed 'Punky's Whips' - being satirized by Zappa must seem to any young metal star the sign of having arrived - but Warners pulled the track, making sides one and two exceptionally short. Aggrieved customers even found copies that listed 'Punky's Whips' but omitted it (some copies with 'Punky's Whips', though, did appear in the shops.)
From: Paul Ferris (BRZL000@MUSICB.MCGILL.CA)
  I recall reading an amusing anecdote about Punky Meadows in a 1981 book called "Rock Bottom: the Book of Pop Atrocities" or something like that. Anyway, the story, (accompanied by obligatory '70s glam group photo" is about the things rock'n'roll guys spew forth when they're not really thinking about what's coming from their mouths. Punky is quoted as saying, "I wish I had a cunt transplant on my guitar, so I can fuck it while I'm playing."
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I can't stand the way he pouts
("Cause he might not be pouting for me!)
  Pouts forth? Was Punky Meadows real name Ronnie?
From: ulrich@sfu.ca (Charles Ulrich)
  "Poot" is a slang word for "fart" (and one that I myself have never encountered outside of FZ's work). "Pout" is a regular, everyday word meaning "to protrude the lips in an expression of displeasure or sulkiness" (American Heritage Dictionary). The two words are different both in spelling and in pronunciation.
From: John Henley <jhenley@mail.utexas.edu>
  A "pout" is a facial expression denoting displeasure, most often used by young children when they have been thwarted by their mommies. Have you ever seen a kid with a big frown, and lower lip thrust out farther than upper lip? That's a pout.
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Isn't it romantic, Punky?
From: John Henley <jhenley@mail.utexas.edu>
  Please note that at this point, the band plays the melody of the 1930s pop tune "Isn't It Romantic?"
From: Vladiimir Sovetov <sova@kpbank.ru>
  The melody is much more pop-ish sounding in Baby Snakes version of the song with Terry funny whistling it along the line
From: Peter berg (PETEROBE@vbtn.sr.se)
  Check out the melody that Bozzio is whistling in Punky's Whips. That's another big band melody that FZ has borrowed. But the original has definitely different chords. It's kind of fun to hear that. Maybe someone can help us out with the correct titles here?
From: "F.L.B. OSTLINGER" (BERTIL@GPU.SRV.UALBERTA.CA)
  The name of the tune that Bozzio whistles on "Punky's Whips" is "Isn't It Romantic," which was composed by Rogers & Hammerstein (I think) in the 1940s.
From: Frank Laforce (frankzap@glo.be)
  The part in Punky's Whips is "Isn't It Romantic?" by Richard Rogers & Lorenz Hart. He refers to it in the same song by saying "Isn't it romantic, Punky?" I heard this part once in a movie, of which I don't remember the title, but I had recorded it and found the name of the song and the authors in the credits.
From: Biffyshrew (biffyshrew@aol.com)
  Possibly the movie you are thinking of is Hannah And Her Sisters.
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Punky, Punky, give me your lips
To die on...
I promise not to come in your mouth
  CC
  See previous tune
From: Bill Lantz <lantz@primenet.com>
  see above pouting definition.
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I ain't really queer
But if he ever get near
Steven Tyler would PAY to see!
From: johan_wikberg@ssco.se (johan wikberg)
  Lead singer of Aerosmith - notoriously gay and straight at the same time :) (real name Talarico). I've always wondered why he had no say-so on this tune being released or not. Maybe Aerosmith were not as hot as Angel in 76-77?
From: John Henley <jhenley@mail.utexas.edu>
  Lead singer of Aerosmith, who looks like Mick Jagger. In other words, he too has a big pouty mouth.
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He's been havin' a rash
That keeps the girl away
Skin doom is what the doctors say.
  Is it some factoid from Japanese fanzine in question? Seems to be more like Michael Jackson story.
From: John Henley <jhenley@mail.utexas.edu>
  Well, I never heard "skin doom" before this, but please remember that these concerts happend in 1976, when MJ was still a member of the Jackson 5, and whatever fanzine you're talking about probably didn't exist. Zappa's kids were in school by then, I think, and maybe he heard it from them.
  The fanzine was metioned in liners notes, John.
  "A song about Terry's lithoeroticization via a Japanese fanzine called ONGAKU." So the question remains. What had plagued Punky Meadow?
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I wonder if Punky's rehearsin' today
I'll just go over, 'n hear him play
His hair is so pretty...
I'd like to bite his neck
I've heard a rumor he's more fluid
than Jeff Beck
  The appropriate quote
From: Evil Bob <evilbob@tbag.tscs.com>
  Q: Jeff Beck?
  FZ: One of my favorite guitar players on the planet. From a melodic standpoint and just in terms of the conception of what he plays, he's fabulous. I like Jeff.
  This is the second of 2 Frank Zappa interviews which were transcribed from an imported CD called "The Frank Zappa Interview Picture Disk".[Baktabak, BAK 2019, England] According to my closest estimation based on the interview's context, it must have been conducted sometime in early to mid 1984.
From: Vladimir Sovetov <sova@kpbank.ru>
  Very interesting also that Terry Not Gay Bozzio later played side by side with fluent Beck. Check out _Guitar Shop_ album of JB.
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(He's a little fond of chiffon in a wrist array)
Wrist array
From: Peter 0x99berg <PETEROBE@vbtn.sr.se>
  An american friend told me that it's the end of a oversized and exclusive shirt sleeve that is sticking out of the sleeve of a jacket. The type of a shirt that was fashionable during the 17th and 18th century...(Also check out Adam of Adam & The Ants). This type of clothing along with the shiny hairdo was some of the things that was typical for Punky Meadows.
From: rouse@teleport.com (Sam &/or Karen Rouse)
  I'd say so - chiffon is a silky material that is commonly used for ornamentation on the sleeves (among other places) of formal wimmenswear (or hunchwimmenswear). I think there's a Chiffon Marjureen, but "wrist array" implying any particular location of the wrist (much less up someone's ass) seems like a bit of a stretch, though I suppose if the ass were close by... ah, never mind.
From: culrich@u.washington.edu (Charles Ulrich)
  I always interpreted it to mean that Terry Ted is attracted to pouting male rock stars who wear sleeves of soft, sexy fabric. Is Punky's sleeve visible in the photo in the photo on ZINY?
From: Vladimir Sovetov <sova@kpbank.ru>
  No, guy seems to be naked.
From: Kurt Nordwell
  I recently read a post on this newsgroup which stated that "he's a little fond of chiffon in a wrist array" was a reference to clothing. I thought it was referring to shoving a fist up someone's ass. Chiffon is a type of butter spread isn't it (greasy), and the array implies a direction (mathematical). Hence, "he's a little fond of buttery grease on a fist for sexual purposes." Am I way off base?
From: "William H. Clements" <clements@ontos.com>
  I believe I was said poster; chiffon referring to a material associated with the upper classes or with fops, wrist array being the curvy style coming out from the wrists. Some rock stars like Rick Wakeman cultivated an Edwardian look with the above.
  I believe the above to be essentially correct, but would not be surprised if its accuracy could be improved upon.
  But going further into interpretation, in Punky's Whips, Terry Bozzio really is *not* gay, but has an adolescent idolatry kind of crush on a cool-looking rock star. Naturally raging hormones then are responsible for giving the crush a sexual component.
  From observing *others*, certainly not *myself*, I concur that such crushes are fairly common among heterosexual boys, and I think it was quite perceptive of Frank to recognize it and it was his form of journalism to portray it.
  In the interpretation of chiffon as margarine to be used for fisting, I think that kind of hard-core kink would be out of place for the Terry Bozzio character in the song.
  CC
  For more queer cloth clues see 'taffeta and chintz' reference THING-FISH. He So Gay
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