Frank Zappa - Tink Walks Amok + The Radio is Broken

[wollamooloo]

It sounds like a Telefunken U47 :)

[HnefataflModern]

I am not hearing polymeter in The Radio is Broken. The time can be described as nonmetric or "free", then when time comes back intermittently, Zappa is using odd and changing meters, but I'm not hearing further polymeter.

[HnefataflModern]

(...cont.) Then at 1:39 we have yet another new technique being implemented. Here again, both the bass and drums are playing in 4/4 time throughout, but Frank creates another effect with the bass. The bassline phrase at 1:39 is repeated seven times. At 1:39 the phrase begins on a downbeat. However, at 1:44 the repeated phrase has been displaced a sixteenth note before the downbeat. At 1:49 it is on it again. 1:53 displaced. 1:58 on. 2:03 displaced. 2:08 on. 2:12 displaced...cool effect

[HnefataflModern]

(...cont.) And of course, this remarkable technique was used extensively throughout The Rite of Spring, a score Frank was VERY familiar with. For example, at rehearsal #40 in the RoS score, Stravinsky has the first violins playing an even numbered grouping in triple time (9/8) over and over again for six bars. They are playing straight eighth notes (so 9 to a bar), but the ostinato is 4 notes (not 3, 6, or 9, etc. as would be traditional). So the phrase repeats every 1 and 1 third beats.

[HnefataflModern]

(...cont.) However, Frank grouped the ostinato in 7 notes so when played as repeated sixteenth notes in 4/4, the ostinato repeats every 1 and 3 quarters beats. When you listen to 1:29 through 1:39 listen to which notes happen on every downbeat. The bass is repeating the same figure over and over again, but with the odd groupings over an duple time (4/4), you get the effect of there being different melody notes on every downbeat. (More...)

[HnefataflModern]

(cont.) Between 1:29 and 1:39 there is something nearly as remarkable as the opening going on. All of it is in 4/4, both the bass and drums. But the melodic bass notes are playing a repeating 7 note ostinato in sixteenth notes. And there is no break between its repetitions of the phrase. The usual, "traditional" grouping would have been even numbered. For example, repeated sixteenth notes grouped evenly in, say, 8 note ostinato would repeat exactly every two beats in 4/4....(cont.)

[HnefataflModern]

(...cont.) Here is the breakdown that I am hearing: 0:00 to 0:17 polymeter (explained in previous posts). 0:17 to 0:51 odd/asymetrical time signature (it is 11/8 (or you could look at it,as you mentioned, as 4/4 and 3/8 alternating) throughout (these odd time signatures are used extensively throughout The Rite of Spring). 0:51 to 0:54 changing meter (Frank inserted a single bar of 4/4, then back to 11/8)--technique also in RoS. Then it is 11/8 until 1:29.

[HnefataflModern]

...(cont.)Every odd number of 11/8 bars the bass is playing, the bass drum beats are on downbeats, but every even number of 11/8 bars for the bass part, the bass drums downbeats (while *musically unchanged*) are now playing on *upbeats*. So you have for each bar of 11/8 downbeats matching, upbeats matching, downbeats matching, upbeats matching, etc. Then at 0:17 both the bass and the drums play together in 11/8 (the bass doesn't change the riff, rather the drums now match the bass 11/8 feel).

[fadethetrade]

@HnefataflModern At 0:17 ,it could also be 2 signatures,4/4 then 3/8.

[fadethetrade]

@HnefataflModern I get exactly what you're saying.But what about all the other polymeters in the second half of the song? Controlled chaos is what I call it.

[HnefataflModern]

@fadethetrade I'm not hearing any more polymeters in the song. Just the first 17 seconds. This song is Frank giving a crash course in a few seminal twentieth century classical composition rhythmic techniques, first utilized by Stravinsky in works such as The Rite of Spring--namely: polymeter (already mentioned), odd/asymetric time signatures, changing meters, rhythmic displacement, and odd numbered ostinato groupings.

[HnefataflModern]

I call this "Stravinskian Rock" after one of Zappa's favorite composers/influences, Igor Stravinsky. He is using a rythmic technique Stravinksy utilized in many of his great works, most notably The Rite of Spring. There is implied polymeter here. Right at the beginning from 0:01 to 0:14 the bass is playing an ostinato in 11/8 meter, but listen to the drums...the drums are playing in 4/4 meter with the bass drum playing on each downbeat. A really cool effect is created by this...

[BubbaBlackMetal]

My favorite album by FZ.

[drgrungle]

I loved this album. Great stuff to have a smoke to, and listen to with the lads. Long live Franky !

[okrabay]

how did he earn a living with this stuff?



[TaterGumfries]

@okrabay Tourin and tourin and tourin.

[xsellsbrod]

not often played... it`s insider sound, nothing for listeners of "Bobby Brown"

[xsellsbrod]

the complete record is GREAT !!!!