Frank Zappa - Strictly Genteel (All Versions Mix)

BEST VIEWED IN 480p, CC SUBTITLES CREATED W/ YOUTUBE SUBTITLER http://yt-subs.appspot.com/
TURN ON CC IN THE MOVIE WINDOW FRAME AND SING ALONG ! THAT'S WHAT I DO ! LOUDLY ! WHILE PEOPLE ARE ASLEEP !
...
This is a mix of four different arrangements / recordings of "Strictly Genteel," synchronized measure for measure and then re-synchronized to the video. The sources are:

1. 200 Motels Original Soundtrack album (hereinafter called OST) ... recorded 1971

2. London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. 2 (LSO) ... recorded 1983

3. 200 Motels movie audio (200M) ... recorded 1971

4. Make A Jazz Noise Here, disc 2 (MJNH) ... recorded 1988

The reason for doing this mix is that I love this song and wanted to hear it this way. It's a stunning piece of music and it's a crime that the sound to the 200 Motels movie is horrible (and unrecoverably so), and the soundtrack album only a little better. I wanted to hear the vocal parts WITH the digitally recorded orchestral version which, despite Zappa's friction with the musicians, turned out spectacularly.

In all sections but one, OST set the tempo to which the others were conformed. With three different conductors, wildly different tempi in sections, improvisation, and swing feel, timestretching was necessary. The timestretching algorithm used was the DAW default factory algorithm and produced some artifacts - . The attacks are smeary but there are some amazing timbres. To make them fit together in the mix, LSO was M-S processed for wide soundstage and the others narrowed, and each track gently EQd. An interesting phasing result: if the sound mix is reduced to mono, the LSO almost drops out entirely. All sources except 200M were 44.1k. OST, LSO, and MJNH were (luckily) already in tune, but 200M had bad pitch variance from the poor video/film/DVD transfers. Plus it's in a lower key, faster tempo, and higher sample rate. To correct this, I raised the 200M from 48k to 50.4k, and downsampled to 44.1k before synching. This helped but there's no getting around the awful fact that 200M sounds like sh*t to begin with. Thus this track was only featured in certain sections, e.g. soprano harmonies. MJNH's tempo was more wildly different from the others, thus ended up with more audible timestretching artifacts, and it too is featured in sections but faded for others in the interest of a less distracting mix.




Editing and Continuity notes:
*200M & OST both have Flo & Eddie's spoken outtro before the rock jam starting with "They're gonna clear out the studio..." - MJNH has a band namecheck followed by a slight uptempo comeback and tag which closes out the concert - and LSO just plain fades. The latter was chosen.

* 200M & OST are missing an eight measure brass/drum fanfare quick march feel section that repeats a few times building to the next section.

* 200M & OST are missing a couple of measures each before both "And every poor soul..." and "Reach out your hand...".

* 200M lacks the entire section from "Reach out your hand..." until the vocalised section before "Lord have mercy...", and thus there is no video for that section represented in the other 3 musical versions. This represents a good 1/3rd of the total song, so the original footage fades at approx. 2:35 , launches into a montage of clips from the rest of the movie, then returns to the original footage at approx. 4:05

* MJNH has one extra measure of that bass 1-3-5 quarter-note walkup towards the end.




* LSO skips right over the aleatoric break and heads into "Help the black man..." - thus the trailing half note before the pickups to the next measure is extended artificially with a reverb tail.

* EDIT: Regarding the Closed Caption subtitles, which, by the way, should translate into other languages beautifully if you just click the CC button on the frame: Just noticed that in 200M they clearly sing "ON the terrible functions..." whereas the OST has "THROUGH the terrible functions." I've also second-guessed myself with the "girl with the horse / horns" and "A dog and a hose'll be...," or is that "A garden and hose will be..." ...




Please support the composer's legacy by visiting these outstanding recordings:

London Symphony Orchestra Vol. 1 & 2- Frank Zappa
http://barfkoswill.shop.musictoday.com/Product.aspx?cp=971_4039_8835&pc=Z...

Frank Zappa Make A Jazz Noise Here -- Original Barking Pumpkin Release
http://barfkoswill.shop.musictoday.com/Product.aspx?cp=971_4039&pc=ZPCD84

200 Motels: Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack
http://www.amazon.com/200-Motels-Original-Soundtrack-Enhanced/dp/B0000009SB/r...

Also lemme plug right here The Real Frank Zappa Book, by Hizzoner and Peter Occhiogrosso, about $10 from Amazon and a very enlightening read
Yes, that's Ringo Starr as Larry the Dwarf and Keith Moon as the Nun.

Thanks for listening.
-boomaga

Category:

Music

Tags:

• +Zappa
• +Frank
• Zappa
• +FZ
• +200
• Motels
• +Mothers
• of
• Invention
• +MOI
• +remix
• +orchestra
• +Strictly
• Genteel

[LuneyTune72]

4:58 sounds like a demented version of Uncle Meat.

[boomaga]

@LuneyTune72 Yeah, it kinda does ! :)

[boomaga]

Added Hungarian subtitles, translated and kindly provided by my new friend mmbalint . To toggle, click on CC in the video frame and select Hungarian (magyar). If anyone else would like to add their own translation, let me know !

[pktomo]

Manly tears were shed

[michaelgoolsby62]

This should be played at baseball games instead of the national anthem.

[20smallcigars]

VERY clever - sounds great.

[etherbingedotorg]

Absolutely amazing work, both the original composition and the post-work done by boomaga. Many thanks.

[DimensionsofChange]

This must be how Zappa pictured it in his head.

[zapitorosendin]

Si pillo al de no me gusta lo encierro en una habitaciòn y le hago escuchar la discografìa entera de ZAPPA

[AlexReynard]

Astonishing. I was damn near moved to tears.

[5jerry1]

As you said, the original soundtrack recording didn't sound very good, despite being well played. But this mix is incredible. The film exerpts go nicely with it too.

In a nutshell, this is really great!

[videocanone]

And FZ said he never used drugs ... LOL ! he didn't NEED to ! Dang I miss that crazee Paesan !

[arizona89]

thank you mister!

[StAlphonsoX]

very seriously one of the best videos i have ever seen on the internet brilliant work on the mix thank you thank you thank you

[rodcrippler]

@Jerebear57 he was a serious composer who had to show off his electric guitar skills so his music would be sold in "rock n' roll" labels, and he had to show off his ugly voice and songwriting to appear as if he had a message to sell.

In fewer words, he was a demented weirdo with strange musical tastes, he liked strange sounds he found beautiful, a truly remarkable musician and human being, wish he was still here