The Adventures of Greggery Peccary
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

"The Adventures of Greggery Peccary" is a piece by
Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by wikt:nonconformity, nonconformity, Free improvisation, free-form improvisation, sound experimen ...
. It originally released as ''Greggery Peccary'' on the album ''
Studio Tan ''Studio Tan'' is the 24th album by American musician Frank Zappa, first released in September 1978 on his own DiscReet Records label. It reached #147 on the ''Billboard'' 200 albums chart in the United States. Recording sessions The basic tra ...
'' in 1978. A slightly different version was also included on the 1977 ''
Läther ''Läther'' (, or "''Leather''") is the sixty-fifth official album by Frank Zappa. It was released posthumously as a three-CD set on Rykodisc in 1996. The album's title is derived from bits of comic dialog that link the songs. Zappa also explained ...
'' album but this remained officially unreleased until 1996. An instrumental version appears on the '' Wazoo'' CD featuring the original Wazoo ensemble and debuted at the Hollywood Bowl on September 10, 1972. On that CD it is in 4 movements totalling 33.05 minutes. The song is an epic that extended 20 minutes and 33 seconds in length when first released and later 21 minutes (in a slightly different mix and edit) on ''Läther'', mocking the
rock opera A rock opera is a collection of rock music songs with lyrics that relate to a common story. Rock operas are typically released as concept albums and are not scripted for acting, which distinguishes them from operas, although several have been ad ...
style and reprising the extended story format used in "
Billy the Mountain "Billy the Mountain" is a Frank Zappa song first made available on the album ''Just Another Band from L.A.'' in 1972. The original recording, which took more than a half-hour to perform, was from a live tour performance on August 7, 1971, in Los ...
" and, to some extent, the lengthy adventures outlined in the "
Don't Eat the Yellow Snow Suite "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" is a suite by the American musician Frank Zappa, made up of the first four tracks of his 1974 album '' Apostrophe (')'': "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow", "Nanook Rubs It", "St. Alfonzo's Pancake Breakfast", and "Father O' ...
". The piece required a large number of personnel to record, and received its basic tracking during ''
The Grand Wazoo ''The Grand Wazoo'' is the eighth studio album by Frank Zappa and The Mothers, released in November 1972. It was written and recorded during Zappa's period of convalescence after being assaulted in December 1971 in London, UK. Overview Along wi ...
'' and ''
Waka/Jawaka ''Waka/Jawaka'' (also known as ''Waka/Jawaka — Hot Rats'') is the fourth solo album by Frank Zappa, released in July 1972. The album is the jazz-influenced precursor to ''The Grand Wazoo'' (November 1972), and as the front cover indicates, a se ...
'' sessions in mid-1972. The piece remained unfinished at the time of release of those two LPs (later that year). Zappa would return to the recording on and off until its completion during the recording sessions for ''
One Size Fits All "One size fits all" is a description for a product that would fit in all instances. The term has been extended to mean one style or procedure would fit in all related applications. It is an alternative for "Not everyone fits the mold." "Tool tar ...
'' in 1974. The long interludes of
avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
classical arrangement that are prevalent in the track made for a much more sophisticated sound than "Billy the Mountain". Nonetheless, Zappa's use of absurdist humor and political commentary remains prevalent in this piece.


Story

Greggery Peccary is a small
peccary A peccary (also javelina or skunk pig) is a medium-sized, pig-like hoofed mammal of the family Tayassuidae (New World pigs). They are found throughout Central and South America, Trinidad in the Caribbean, and in the southwestern area of North A ...
, named after the actor
Gregory Peck Eldred Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) was an American actor and one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1970s. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck the 12th-greatest male star of Classic Hollywood ...
, and lives among the peccary population, which ranges from
Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
to
Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...
and sometimes as far west as
Catalina Catalina may refer to: Arts and media * ''The Catalina'', a 2012 American reality television show * ''Catalina'' (novel), a 1948 novel by W. Somerset Maugham * Catalina (''My Name Is Earl''), character from the NBC sitcom ''My Name Is Earl'' ...
. Peccaries are notable for having a white collar pattern on their fur, but Greggery is part of a "bold new breed" of peccary that also has a wide tie below his collar, distinguishing it as a particularly exceptional swine. Greggery owns a red
Volkswagen Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German Automotive industry, motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a ...
and works in the part of the town where the government buildings are kept at a corporation known as "Big Swifty and Associates,
Trend A fad or trend is any form of collective behavior that develops within a culture, a generation or social group in which a group of people enthusiastically follow an impulse (psychology), impulse for a short period. Fads are objects or behavior ...
-mongers". As the name suggests, their line of work involves conceiving and promoting the many trends and fads within the world using whatever means science has to offer. Greggery is popular among the air-headed lady
stenographers Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek ''ste ...
at his company, who are impressed by Greggery and taken by his suave and particular cunning as an employer. Together they sing a song advertising the company's many time-wasting products, thus inspiring Greggery to return to his "ultra-avant, laminated, simulated, replica-mahogany desk" so that he may conceive a new trend, some "THING" to identify with. Guided by heavenly voices, he invents the
calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a physi ...
, a play on the
Gregorian calendar The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It was introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years dif ...
introduced by
Pope Gregory XIII Pope Gregory XIII ( la, Gregorius XIII; it, Gregorio XIII; 7 January 1502 – 10 April 1585), born Ugo Boncompagni, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 May 1572 to his death in April 1585. He is best known for ...
. The calendar, upon release, immediately causes chaos, as people suddenly can keep track of time and plan ahead, thus making life aggravatingly mechanical, and also allowing people to discover how old they were. A group of hunchmen, just a few of the "very hip young people" of the world, attack Greggery on the way home from his office one night, enraged at the prospect of birthdays and being aware of their own aging. Greggery is chased by them in his car, and narrowly escapes into a cave in a conveniently placed and nearby mountain. The hunchmen (and hunchwomen) decide to abandon the chase in favour of a "love-in" and a party ensues among them. Greggery is safe from them, but suddenly discovers that he has parked within no ordinary cave, but the mouth of
Billy the Mountain "Billy the Mountain" is a Frank Zappa song first made available on the album ''Just Another Band from L.A.'' in 1972. The original recording, which took more than a half-hour to perform, was from a live tour performance on August 7, 1971, in Los ...
. Billy hacks up boulders and creates new brown clouds as he laughs, suddenly procuring Greggery's interest. Greggery, unaware that he was parked within Billy the Mountain or that Billy had coughed up the clouds, ponders "who is making those new brown clouds", and makes a phone call to find a " philostopher" for an explanation of the presence of the brown clouds. He is sent to a man named Quentin Robert DeNameland, supposedly "the greatest living philostopher known to mankind", who hosts a group assembly. DeNameland's authenticity as a philostopher is questionable, as he merely proclaims that "time is of affliction" – more specifically, "the eons are closing" – before soliciting for payment for attendance to his assembly. The adventure closes with Greggery still pondering the presence of the brown clouds, given DeNameland's lack of answers. Cynically he concludes: "If you ask a "philostopher" he'll see that you pays!"


Variation

Zappa played an unreleased early version of this piece from an
acetate disc An acetate disc (also known as a ''lacquer'', ''test acetate'', ''dubplate'', or ''transcription disc'') is a type of phonograph record generally used from the 1930s to the late 1950s for recording and broadcast purposes and still in limited use t ...
) on 99.1
WPLR WPLR-FM (99.1 MHz, also known as "99.1 PLR" or Connecticut's #1 Rock Station). licensed to New Haven, Connecticut, is a classic rock station owned by Connoisseur Media as of May 10, 2013. The station's playlist includes Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin ...
FM radio in Connecticut on April 23, 1975. In this version Zappa introduces Quentin Robert DeNameland as the greatest living "two headed philostopher" known to mankind. Quentin's philosophical spiel (Zappa's voice effected by a variable speed oscillator a la "Dumb All Over" on ''
You Are What You Is ''You Are What You Is'' is a 1981 double album by American musician Frank Zappa. His 34th album, it consists of three musical suites which encompass pop, doo-wop, jazz, hard rock, reggae, soul, blues, new wave and country. The album's lyrics sat ...
'') goes on quite a bit longer than the official released ''Studio Tan'' versions or the ''Läther'' version. The spiel is specifically colored (in a
madrigal A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance (15th–16th c.) and early Baroque (1600–1750) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The polyphonic madrigal is unaccompanied, and the number o ...
style) by the musical accompaniment. The following is the entire philosophical speech as noted in the Zappa book, ''
Them or Us ''Them or Us'' is an album by American musician Frank Zappa, released in October 1984 by Barking Pumpkin Records. Album content Its opening and closing songs were not written by Zappa: "The Closer You Are", was written by Earl Lewis and Morgan R ...
''.
Well folks as you can see for yourself the way this clock over here is behaving: time is an affliction. Now this might be cause for alarm on a portion of you that's from a certain experience I tend to proclaim: the eons are closing. Now what does this mean precisely to the layman? Simply this: Momentarily the need for the construction of the new light will no longer exist. Of course some of you will think, "Who is he to fell me from this light?" But in all seriousness, ladies and gentlemen, a quick glance at the erratic behavior of the large precision built time delineating apparatus beside me will show that it is perhaps only a few moments now... Look how funny it's going around there! Personally, I find mechanical behavior of this nature to be highly suspicious. When such a device doesn't go normal, the implication of such a behavior bodes not well (if you know what I mean). And quite naturally ladies and gentlemen if the mechanism in question is entrusted with the task of the delineation of time itself and ahh if such a mechanism goes "On the bum".... or the fritz... Well, it spells trouble.
The outro music of Greggery Peccary in this version is also quite different from the official CD released versions. In this version Zappa opts for a tighter, less cluttered bravado sort of ending featuring a cartoonish, cascading
marimba The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre ...
part. Part of the story (Greggery driving his little red Volkswagen and hitting Billy the Mountain) is visualized in ''
Baby Snakes ''Baby Snakes'' is a film which includes footage from Frank Zappa's 1977 Halloween concert at New York City's Palladium Theater, backstage antics from the crew, and stop motion clay animation from award-winning animator Bruce Bickford. Relea ...
''.


Musical themes

The musical origin dates back to a 1969 piece called "Some Ballet Music" which the Mothers performed live on tour. The music was completed in 1972 while Zappa was recovering in a wheelchair. Unlike many of Zappa's previous lyrical compositions, "Greggery Peccary" relies only minimally on repetition and more or less flows with a somewhat humorous but altogether heavy orchestral arrangement. The story unfolds through lyrics and instrumental passages, e.g., Greggery's drive to work in "his little red Volkswagen" is conveyed by a frenetic musical interlude, after which Greggery delivers the punchline "Boy, it's so hard to find a place to park around here". The piece is a demonstration of Zappa's mastery of composition much more than of his songwriting, which thus identifies it among the ''Läther'' canon. There are a few key "songs", however, within the piece as a whole. A miniature jingle accompanies Greggery's introduction and also returns the piece after a long orchestral interlude, taken from a much earlier instrumental piece, "Some Ballet Music", a piece that had been performed several times by Frank Zappa and
The Mothers of Invention The Mothers of Invention (also known as The Mothers) was an American rock band from California. Formed in 1964, their work is marked by the use of sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Originally an R&B band ...
but was never officially released on its own in an album until the release of the ''
Beat the Boots ''Beat the Boots!'' is a box set by Frank Zappa. Released in 1991 through Rhino Entertainment, the set contains legal reissues of eight bootleg recordings made between 1967 and 1982 and originally distributed illegally prior to this official relea ...
'' box set in 1991. It also includes a piece before the steno pool section entitled "Join the March", previously the intro to "Father O'Blivion". The "Big Swifty's" song during the steno pool sequence is a bizarre yet sophisticated jazz piece utilizing
irrational rhythm In music, a tuplet (also irrational rhythm or groupings, artificial division or groupings, abnormal divisions, irregular rhythm, gruppetto, extra-metric groupings, or, rarely, contrametric rhythm) is "any rhythm that involves dividing the beat i ...
. Greggery's pondering of the new brown clouds (a melody first heard in 1972 on ''
The Grand Wazoo ''The Grand Wazoo'' is the eighth studio album by Frank Zappa and The Mothers, released in November 1972. It was written and recorded during Zappa's period of convalescence after being assaulted in December 1971 in London, UK. Overview Along wi ...
'' track "For Calvin and His Next Two Hitch-Hikers" appears twice, the latter time as a finale to the whole piece and, in concept, the ''Läther'' album). Billy the Mountain and Ethel's presence in the story are hinted at early on during Greggery's escape, both by their identities as a mountain and tree with eyeballs on it, but also with a brief instrumental quote of the musical theme which accompanies the line "Billy was a mountain, Ethel was a tree growing off of his shoulder" as Greggery drives within the cave. Another possible reference to "Billy the Mountain" may be in the bizarre and somewhat
atonal Atonality in its broadest sense is music that lacks a tonal center, or key. ''Atonality'', in this sense, usually describes compositions written from about the early 20th-century to the present day, where a hierarchy of harmonies focusing on a s ...
assembly of the calendar, which oddly resembles the passage of time in the former piece. A key moment occurs during the love-in, in which Zappa overlays several instrumental "pop music" songs with clever segues, explaining that the young people were listening to several different radios at once, all tuned to entirely different channels (similar to the
aleatoric Aleatoricism or aleatorism, the noun associated with the adjectival aleatory and aleatoric, is a term popularised by the musical composer Pierre Boulez, but also Witold Lutosławski and Franco Evangelisti, for compositions resulting from "action ...
piece ''
Imaginary Landscape ''Imaginary Landscape'' is the title of a series of five pieces by American composer John Cage, all of which include instruments or other elements requiring electricity. The series comprises the following works: * ''Imaginary Landscape No. 1'' (19 ...
'' No. 4 by
John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...
). The song features a variety of
musical quotation Musical quotation is the practice of directly quoting another work in a new composition. The quotation may be from the same composer's work (self-referential), or from a different composer's work (appropriation). Sometimes the quotation is done for ...
s. When Zappa talks about "slowly aging very hip young people," the music features a quote from
Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and composer. Hancock started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. He shortly thereafter joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he help ...
's "
Chameleon Chameleons or chamaeleons (family Chamaeleonidae) are a distinctive and highly specialized clade of Old World lizards with 202 species described as of June 2015. The members of this family are best known for their distinct range of colors, bein ...
". Shortly after, Zappa makes reference to the ''
My Three Sons ''My Three Sons'' is an American television sitcom that aired from September 29, 1960, to April 13, 1972. The series was broadcast on ABC during its first five seasons, before moving to CBS for the remaining seasons. ''My Three Sons'' chronicl ...
'' television theme during the honky-tonk piano section.


Performances by others

Directed by Jonathan Stockhammer, ''The Adventures of Greggery Peccary'' was interpreted by the
Ensemble Modern Ensemble Modern is an international ensemble dedicated to performing and promoting the music of modern composers. Formed in 1980, the group is based in Frankfurt, Germany, and made up variously of about twenty members from numerous countries. Hi ...
on their 2003 album ''Ensemble Modern Plays Frank Zappa - Greggery Peccary & Other Persuasions''. The piece was also performed at the 25th night of the
BBC Proms The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hal ...
in 2013 together with "G-spot tornado" from ''
The Yellow Shark ''The Yellow Shark'' is an album of orchestral music by American musician Frank Zappa. Released in November 1993, it was the last Zappa album released in his lifetime, almost exactly a month before he died of the cancer from which he had suffered ...
'' in the
Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no govern ...
, the same venue from which Zappa was banned from performing 41 years earlier.Prom 25: Zappa – The Adventures of Greggery Peccary
from BBC, accessed 14 Aug 2013. The performance featured
Mitch Benn Mitchell John Benn (born 20 January 1970) is an English comedian, author and musician known for his comedy rock songs performed on BBC radio. He was, until 2016, a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4's satirical programme ''The Now Show'', and ha ...
as the narrator and
Christopher Purves Christopher Purves (born in Cambridge) is an English bass-baritone.''Opera'' (2009), vol. 60, p. 516, "Christopher Purves. Erica Jeal. Purves sings his first Falstaff at Glyndebourne this month Before I get to talk with ... Home was Cambridge, wh ...
as Greggery, dressed in a pink pig costume.


References


External links


Lyrics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adventures of Greggery Peccary, The 1978 songs Frank Zappa songs Satirical songs Songs about pigs Compositions with a narrator