Frank Zappa's 200 Motels and the Theater of the Absurd
Peter Evans

200 Motels[1] is about how "touring [as a rock musician] can make you
crazy."[2] The film is tied together by several quasi-narrative threads,
including Centerville, a typical middle-American town, the rock musicians'
never-ending quest for groupies, sexually-frustrated groupies, a nun who wants to be a groupie, a newt rancher who is in love with a vacuum cleaner, the devil in an SS officer's uniform who tries to get the rock musicians' souls, and the bass player's struggle to quit Zappa's band and play 'heavy' music. Zappa himself described 200 Motels as a "surrealistic documentary," which "is at once a reportage of real events and an extrapolation of them."[3] Thus the rock musicians are presented as ‘‘absurd'' focal points through which we view the ridiculousness of everyday reality, nonsense language, sexual frustration, disjointed temporality, and irreverence. These motifs recur in many Absurdist theatrical works, according to Martin Esslin, Erich Segal, and William Oliver. Zappa himself described a facet of his compositional practice as "extrapolating everything to its most absurd extreme," and that, "the more absurd, the better I liked it."[4] 200 Motels provides us with an opportunity to codify the connection between Zappa's music and the Theatre of the Absurd, since its production relies upon theatrical elements, such as scripted dialogue, staging and characterizations, which links it to the works of playwrights such as Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Arthur Adamov and others. In 200 Motels, Zappa transfers Absurdist theatrical tendencies to his musical score and then creates musical absurdity by parodying typical film music, juxtaposing classical, modern and popular genres, and making a travesty of the musicians themselves. This paper will provide an overview of the background and tendencies of the Theatre of the Absurd, of Zappa's general link to the world of the Absurd by analyzing four sections of 200 Motels as musical transferences of scripted absurdity and creations of an absurdist musical genre.

Theatre of the Absurd
In the introduction to his book, The Theatre of the Absurd, Martin
Esslin states that the common thread that connects Absurdist dramatists is "the sense of metaphysical anguish at the absurdity of the human condition."[5] These dramatists present "the inevitable devaluation of ideals, purity and purpose" while "striving to express the sense of the senselessness of the human condition and the inadequacy of the rational approach by the open abandonment of rational devices and discursive thought."[6] As will be shown, these overarching Absurdist properties permeate Frank Zappa's 200 Motels.

The Absurdist metaphysical anguish and sense of senselessness arose in
the aftermath of World War II. Esslin points out that Albert Camus diagnosed
"the human condition in a world of shattered beliefs," by saying that ''the
divorce between man and his life, the actor and the stage, truly constitutes the feeling of Absurdity''.[7] Camus' assessment is an important
philosophical starting point for the Absurdists, though he himself was not
considered an Absurdist. According to Segal the Theatre of the Absurd was, perhaps, "a long gloss on Theodore Adorno's famous remark that "it is barbarous to write a poem after Auschwitz''.[8] Segal then attributes the word "absurd'' to the realm of aural phenomena, saying that the term is derived "from the Latin surdus-deaf" and that "[h]uman sensibilities were no longer able to express––or hear––the atrocities which had deprived them of life,"[9] again relating to the tragedies of World War II. Esslin conjures aural images as well by saying that the broadest connotation of the word absurd is musical, meaning "out of harmony" and that for the Theatre of the Absurd the definition expanded to mean "out of harmony with reason or propriety: incongruous, unreasonable, illogical."[10] From these underlying tenets come the characteristics of the Theatre of the Absurd, described by Esslin throughout his book. Apart from those described above, further attributes include characters who are "almost mechanical puppets," settings are like "reflections of dreams and nightmares," and dialogue which seems like "incoherent babblings."[11]

Two other consequential authors have also analyzed Absurdist works,
George Wellwarth and Bob Mayberry. These two augment and enlarge the Absurdist genre and help to bridge the gap between the Theatre of the Absurd and 200 Motels, which will come to light later in the paper. Wellwarth explains in his book The Theater of Protest and Paradox: Developments in the Avant-Garde Drama, that the plays "consist of a common theme (protest) and a common technique (paradox)."[12] He also relates the connection to World War II, but in a more direct manner:

The first World War produced the immature frenzy of expressionism and the
contemptuous rejection of surrealism and dada, so the second World War has
stimulated a philosophy of protest against the social order and against the human condition.[13]

Thus the Absurdists proclaim their grievances with senselessness and
absurdity. Bob Mayberry, in his Book Theatre of Discord: Dissonance in Beckett, Albee and Pinter, relates that in some plays, Absurdists have created a type of play which "the traditional goals of unity and consonance are replaced by fragmentation and dissonance."[14] Mayberry describes the Theatre of Discord as "an extension of and deviation from the Absurd" based upon "the deliberate disjunction of sight and sound."[15] Such works are thus often constructed around fragments with conflicting "visual and auditory media," which as a result create "a kind of stream-of-consciousness that encourages the audience to associate freely the parts."[16] The result "shift[s] the center of dramatic action away from the usual conflict between character and ideas" to the minds of the audience as they "try to put the plays back together, i.e, create consonance out of dissonance."[17]

Zappa/Absurd/Satire
The album notes which Zappa wrote for Freak Out!, the Mothers' of
Invention first album, provide a noteworthy introduction to the workings of his
musical absurdity. There he defines "freaking out" as:

a process whereby an individual casts off outmoded and restricting standards
of thinking, dress, and social etiquette in order to express CREATIVELY his
relationship to his immediate environment and the social structure as a whole. [18]

Zappa is saying that in order to be truly creative one must think outside
norms and traditions, a view which is also characteristic of the dramatists
associated with the Theater of the Absurd. Also in the album notes are a series of "Relevant Quotes," one of which was given by session violinist David
Anderle: "I find your approach to music to be commensurate with the major
motivational forces exemplified most manifestly in the "tragi-comic'' aspects of the "theatre of the absurd''.[19] Though no exact references are made, Anderle is probably referring to songs from the album such as "You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here," which questions the traditional roles of audience and performer, "Help I'm Rock," which devalues language through constant repetition of words and nonsense syllables, and "Who Are the Brain Police?," which mocks the value of the recorded and merchandised musical product. Though Freak Out! was Zappa's first commercial endeavor, it marks the beginning of a musical career throughout which we find a continuous streak of parody and satire. In his autobiography, Zappa states that in 1968 he founded a company entitled Intercontinental Absurdities as an umbrella for all of his various activities, dedicated to "Dada in Action."[20] In his book, Dangerous Kitchen: The Subversive World of Frank Zappa, Kevin Courrier relates that Zappa had "a fearless reproach of all that is sacred,"[21] which he took from "the scabrous wit of comedian Lenny Bruce and the irreverent clowning of Spike Jones."[22] Courrier goes on to compare Jones with Zappa by saying that they had a "shared mission [...] to make outrageous noises in the church of good taste."[23] Larry Kart asserts that "Frank Zappa might be described as a cultural guerrilla. [...] he infiltrates the machine and attempts to make the popular forms defeat their traditional ends."[24]

200 Motels-Musical Absurdity
Absurdity was one of Zappa's main interests for this film from its
initial inception. The documentary home video, The True Story of Frank Zappa's 200 Motels, relates that in 1970, "Frank Zappa approached United Artists with a proposal for an absurd project called "200 Motels''.[25] This is mirrored in one of the film's radio promotions which declaims:

The wide screen erupts with absurdities, explodes with spin-tingling
psychological terror, the mere human mind boggles at the philosophical implications, as Frank Zappa's 200 Motels is unleashed in the totality of its pagan splendor, its primordial fury...[26]

The characters often seem as if "mechanical puppets'' uncomfortably reading
from a script of "incoherent babblings,'' and the cinematic images seem as if
they are "reflections of dreams and nightmares,'' in reference to the
descriptions of Martin Esslin. As mentioned earlier, 200 Motels utilizes multiple
quasi-narrative streams to connect it together, which relates to Mayberry's
description of stream-of-conscious and self-association in the works of the Theater of Discord. Wellwarth's categorizations of "protest'' and "paradox,'' apply to the formulation of musical absurdity as classical and popular forms are presented in opposition, the orchestral musicians are confined to a fake
concentration camp, some of whom are bored with Zappa's stylistically diverse score.

Out of the total ninety-six minutes of 200 Motels, the four sections analyzed
below are pertinent scenes which occur at the beginning, middle and ending of
the film and demonstrate how Zappa effectively creates a link between
theatrical and musical absurdity throughout the film's entirety.

Semi-Fraudulent/Direct-From-Hollywood Overture
"He made me do it"
Mystery Roach [27]

The opening six minutes of 200 Motels present a microcosmic overview of
the film's musical and textual absurdity. It begins with the
"Semi-Fraudulent/Direct-From-Hollywood Overture," which is divided into two parts, the first of which starts with a brass-heavy fanfare, leads into a string crescendo and a cymbal downbeat, followed by winds and a wordless chorus, accompanied by harps and strings, all tonally centered and rhythmically straightforward. After a percussive snap, the title of the movie is announced and the musical style shifts to heavy use of various wood and metal percussion instruments, while the brasses alternate the same two pitches more in different octaves using complicated rhythmic subdivisions. The first part is reminiscent of the typically lush neo-classical cinematic overtures from the 1950's and 60's. Courrier says that this minute of music "sounds as if film composer Miklos Rozsa was on hand to resurrect Ben-Hur."[28] The second part, with its emphasis on percussion and timbral-pitch relationships is reminiscent of the works of Edgard Varése.[29]

The cinematic images mirror the contrasting musical structure of this
overture, as during the first part, we see a hyper-color view of the brass and
string sections, typical orchestral instruments and players. For the second part
we see incongruous and unrelated images: a car interior, sped up footage of a
rock group sitting in a hotel room while someone wraps toilet paper around them and the lowering of a man on wires from the blinding lights of the studio
ceiling to the main floor of the orchestra, as he holds a genie lamp. At this
point the music ceases, and we are shown the setting of a talk show, where the man on the wires is introduced as Larry the Dwarf (played by Ringo Starr), who is dressed up like Frank Zappa. The host (played by Theodore Bikel) addresses "the studio audience" who is none other than the members of the orchestra and chorus. Usually, the orchestra performs for the audience, but here Zappa mocks and reverses the traditional orchestral/audience roles. Larry the Dwarf is then instructed to spin a magic wheel, and the overdubbed voice of a narrator relates a crucial piece of knowledge:

What our studio audience doesn't know is that the reason Larry the Dwarf is
doing all this stuff is because its all part of the score to 200 Motels. Every
word, every action, the lamp, the reproductive orifice, its all in the score,
so he has to do it.[30]

What is absurd is that the whole of dialogue and action, and the music, is
controlled by a musical score, instead of a verbal-printed script.
Traditionally the score is the composer's musical vehicle through which he directs performers. Here, the score has taken total control of all activities, not only the music. Esslin relates that the playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd
"strove to integrate the subject matter and the form."[31] The narrator's
statement about the movie's score reveals that Zappa is integrating the film's
diverse facets of Absurdity into one score, the elements of which are ultimately related to musical means, transposing the theatrical "script'' to the musical "score.'' Immediately after the narrator's speech, we cut to the next musical number, "Mystery Roach," which represents the third type of music in this film——a rock tune performed by the Mothers of Invention. This number includes absurdist elements into its lyrics, as the text "mystery roach" is repeated ad nauseam. The meaning of this text is Absurd, even to one of the singers, who at the end of the song says "Mystery roach? What are we singing about?, We must be... flipping out..."[32]

Musical absurdity arises from the juxtaposition of these three opposed
musics: classical, modern and rock and their corresponding cinematic images.

Hello There
Magic Fingers[33]

In this section, Larry the Dwarf who is still impersonating Zappa,
addresses the camera and sheds light on a further aspect of musical absurdity which deals with the orchestral musicians themselves and their place in society:

A musician, if you consider the normal pattern of civilized life, is on the
outside of it all. He doesn't build things, he doesn't work regular hours
like a decent god-fearing citizen, and the life he leads, in many ways, seems
useless and irrelevant to those of us who'd prefer a quiet evening in front of
the television and a bottle of beer. Amazing as it might seem to some of us,
musicians have basic physical needs, just like real people. Many of them study for years, learning to play the violin for instance, only to be rewarded with a humdrum job in the fourth row of a symphonic string section.[34]

The first part of this long monologue simply presents the sociological
condition of the orchestral musicians; Larry the Dwarf's tone is not sarcastic, but rather expository in tenor. The nature of the absurdity is presented in
opposition to "the normal pattern of civilized life'' and how a musician's work
and practice seem irrelevant to the course of American society. The absurdity is extrapolated to an extreme degree in the next part of the monologue:

That's why the governments have constructed, at great expense, this
experimental reorientation facility. To find a way, perhaps, to retrain these useless old musicians with their brown fiddles and little horns. Give them a trade! A reason to exist in the modern world! A chance of a happier, more productive life. Some will enter the military, some will learn shorthand, and some will disappear in the middle of the night on a special train they're sending in. It's the only way, really, to bring about the final solution to the orchestra question.[35]

During this statement we see cuts of a violinist playing his instrument and
looking rather bored. This same violinist is featured again in the scene
"Lucy's Seduction of a Bored Violinist." Also during this part of his statement, the camera shows that the stage for the orchestra is actually a mock-up of a concentration camp, with barbed wire and guards encircling the stage. Over the entrance to the "stage'' is the slogan "Work Liberates Us All", a reference to "Abeit Macht Frei" which was over the entrance of Aushwitz concentration camp.[36] While the Theatre of the Absurd philosophically believed that the atrocities of World War II brought about the "sense of senselessness'' of human life, as described previously, the reference to Auschwitz in 200 Motels contributes to the "sense of senselessness'' of the orchestral musicians life and relates 200 Motels to the Absurdist oeuvre. Larry the Dwarf concludes the monologue, from within the camp of orchestral musicians, by juxtaposing the divergent realms of classical and popular musics:

I'm sure that many of us realize that a pop group can earn a vast amount of
money... compared to these... other kinds of musicians. That's why the special government agencies for mass response programming and psychological stultification prefer to treat them in a more subtle manner. They know, just as many of you vigilant and thoroughly upstanding citizens have discovered for yourselves, the power of pop music to corrupt and putrefy the minds of world youth are virtually limitless.[37]

Immediately following this monologue the camera shifts to the rock band
playing the tune "Magic Fingers," which deals with the fetishization of
coin-operated vibrating beds. This music is a representation of the corrupting and putrefying music Larry the Dwarf was describing. At the same time the music is typical of the simple rock style of performing, where a musician needs only to know a few chords and "licks" to be a commercial success, while the orchestral question deals with proficient musicians who practice constantly but are not capable of earning the fame nor fortune of pop musicians. Behind Larry's monologue, however, is a overriding sense of irony and sarcasm, which is not aimed at the musicians at all, but rather the "god-fearing'' public that is content with television and beer; the commerically-saturated public to which all musicians are irrelevant. Of course, as outlined previously, a sense of irrelevancy is core to the Absurdist canon. Thus by incorporating this into his score for 200 Motels, Zappa further amplifies absurdity of the musical situation, of which he is fully in control. As if to put this all into perspective, the next scene cuts to a hotel room where Larry the Dwarf, as Zappa, sits next to the genie lamp with a disordered pile of score paper, mumbling "I gotta write this down... I got everything I need... for my new symphony..."[38] He then starts playing a tape recorder and transcribes the recorded conversation into the score. This scene mirrors the way the score of 200 Motels was first written, while on the road with inspiration from secretly tape-recorded snippets from the band members' conversations in motel rooms on past tours.[39]

Half a Dozen Provocative Squats
Lucy's Seduction of a Bored Violinist[40]

This scene portrays sexual inadequacy similar to the Absurdist inadequacies that Segal describes in The Death of Comedy. The main focus is a groupie
named Janet who, as the song "Half a Dozen Provocative Squats" relates, is
"just twenty-four and she can't get off," that is, experiencing sexually
inadequacy at a young age. In an earlier scene entitled "Don''t you have any
taste"[41] Lucy and Janet were having a conversation, which provides an example of Janet's history of sexual inadequacy:

Janet: Don''t you have any taste? That one guy's got gray hair, and the
other one's too fat.
Lucy: Oh, they look so lonely.
Janet: Lonely? Good evening honey, they look desperate. Desperate pop stars are so depressing when they've been on the road for such a long time, and they finally get some action.
Lucy: They drool on you.

Even though Lucy has been informed of these musicians' size, age and
psychological condition, she remains eager to meet them and be drooled on, to be sexually aroused and appreciated. Janet has indicated her willingness to forfeit the typical groupie catch, the young and handsome rock musician, for older and less handsome ones. Towards the end of the movie, however, she has not yet been successful. She emerges from the shower half naked and proceeds to provocatively squat, gesture, dance and sway. This dance then becomes a seduction as we see the bored violinist, first described above, cinematically superimposed over this dance while he plays a redundant series of three repeated notes, which any violinist could be bored with.[42] Through the use of film editing, this scene creates the image of a seduction, without a physical encounter ever occurring. The effect of this seduction is created in the mind of the viewer, similar to what Mayberry described as "audience participation" and resolution of dissonances,[43] in this case between the dancing groupie and the bored classical musician. After unsuccessfully craving rock stars, young and old, Lucy has now gone a step further down the sexual food chain to now try and seduce a classical musician.

Strictly Genteel
The Finale[44]

The last scene in 200 Motels begins with a close up view of Frank Zappa's
left eye, which is followed with this statement from Theodore Bikel, speaking as himself, as he addresses the camera:

This, as you might have gathered, is the end of the movie. The entire cast is
assembled here at the Centerville Recreational Facility to bid farewell to
you and to express thanks for your attendance at this theater... This might seem old-fashioned to some of you but I'd like to join in on this song, it's a
kind of a sentimental song that you get at the end of a movie, it's the kind of a song that people might sing to let you in the audience know that we really
like you, we care about you, we uh, understand how hard it is to laugh these
days with all the terrible problems in the world.

Thus Bikel informs us that this movie is to conclude in a manner
characteristic of musical comedies and comic operas.[45] However, this comic tradition is here treated in an absurd fashion. The entire assembled cast includes everyone seen in the movie, the main characters, the chorus, orchestra, dancers and masked townspeople, with the exception of the rock musicians who are on their own separate stage. What is ironic is the fact that this movie even has a finale, since there was little plot or character development, only fragmented character portrayals. In a sense, "Strictly Genteel" is a "counterpart to the opening "Semi-Fraudulent/Direct-From-Hollywood Overture'',[46] as both play on audience expectations of cinematic beginnings and endings. The words, "it's the kind of a song that you get at the end of a movie," create a self-parody where the performers and actors themselves are aware of the farce that they are about to commit. This farcical quality emerges quite quickly in "Strictly Genteel" as Bikel starts to sing in a low bass range, but has to stop when the line gets too low for his voice. After a cough and a pause to assess the situation he restarts in a range that's more comfortable. Each additional or subsequent verse asks for blessings on everybody who might have attended the film, focusing on the grotesque, as, for example, Bikel asks for "mercy on the people of England for the terrible food that the people must eat,"[47] then the chorus joins in asks for help for "all the rednecks and flatfoot policemen [...] the winos, the junkies, the weirdoes and every poor soul." Bikel then believes that the film is over and he starts to shake the hands of the cast. Many of the orchestral musicians start to get up and pack their instruments. Things are supposed to be wrapped up tightly, but instead they keep going as the rock musicians then take up the verses and melody, and Bikel looks quite confused when the music continues. The aforementioned streak of self-parody continues, as the Finale begins with the following lines:

They're gonna clear out the studio
They're gonna tear down all the...
They're gonna whip down all the...
They're gonna sweep out all the...
They're gonna pay off all the... [48]

These lines give us a sense that perhaps the movie is already over but the
camera is still running as the rock musicians describe the dismantling of the
set. This erupts into a high-pace rock tune, the lyrics of which describe what
everyone involved in the film's production, from the orchestra to the make-up
artists, is going to do after the filming is over:

They're gonna ride on home
And once again
Take themselves
Seriously! [49]

The significance of this statement is that for the length of filming the
position of everyone involved has been put on an absurd pedestal for the audience to see, providing an uncomfortable situation for professionals when they perhaps really want to be depicted as serious and dedicated to their respective crafts, not, as portrayed by Zappa, as sources for presenting absurd material.

The finale presents an important musical juncture, since it is the only
time that the rock and classical ensembles share similar musical material
creating a consonance between the two ensembles. Jonathan Bernard describes "Strictly Genteel" as one of Zappa's crossover pieces which was performed with various acoustic and electric ensembles throughout his career, [50] therefore the popular/orchestral inter-connection that is found in 200 Motels, exists elsewhere in Zappa's total output. The melody and harmony are straightforward, and thus easily performable by either musical group. The rock ensemble only presents one verse, but the melodic, harmonic and grotesque subject matter remain the same and the two disparate ensembles for a moment become one. In the postlude, the ensembles both participate in the chaotic musical fray, except this time the shared musical material is a dissonant and noisy improvisation. Now, the materials of "Strictly Genteel" are left behind and opposed with improvised music, in place of notes read on a page.

In this final scene there are also further allusions made to the role of
the score in incorporating and controlling the film's theatrical and musical
absurdity. As the final begins we see Bikel looking confused and exasperated.
He says "forgive him, for he knows not what he does..." referring to Zappa's inability to end the movie even though the traditional comic finale has
already come and gone. He then looks around to assess the absurdity of the whole situation, and then continues, "on the other hand maybe he does."[51] During the instrumental chaos, one of the rock and roll singers makes a telling statement that confirms the encompassing nature of Zappa's score:

He's making me do this, ladies & gentlemen, I wouldn't do it if it weren't
for him. You noticed, all through this material, I've been glancing over toward
my left? Well, I'll tell you the reason for that, ladies & gentlemen, he is
over there, he is over on the left, he is the guy that is making me do all this
shit, right over there...

Throughout this finale we have seen close-ups of Zappa's right eye and Zappa
himself simultaneously conducting both ensembles, using hand gestures to
control dynamics and intensity of improvisation. To lead an orchestra in
improvisation is itself an absurdist endeavor, devaluing the traditional devotion to the printed page. From time to time we again see a close-up up Zappa's right eye and the last of the cinematic images is Zappa giving the cue for the final drum stroke. As the composer, Zappa created the score and embedded all of the absurdities into its form. As the film ends, the dialogic references to, and cinematic portrayals of Zappa as a overseer, controller, and conductor
reaffirm the score's importance to the absurd content, both theatrical and musical.

Conclusion
This final scene presents the culmination of musical absurdity that Zappa
has employed throughout 200 Motels. There have been many references to the role of the script and composer, effectively integrating the subject with its
form. This is ultimately represented by the simultaneity of the musically absurd
material that the rock and classical ensembles share for "Strictly Genteel"
and the finale. The continuation of the film past the finale connects to
Segal's statement that after the tragedies of World War II "the traditional
ending is no longer possible."[52] Many of the predicaments seen throughout the film remain unresolved and unfulfilled, such as the quest for sexual fulfillment, the bass player's longing to quit the group and the devil's attempt to take the rock musicians' souls, which is contrary to the typical end of a musical comedy where all the narratives should be fulfilled and resolved. However, the film is a mere presentation of absurdity, not a conclusive nor a definitive statement. The absurdity that Zappa presents in 200 Motels continues unabated and well past the confines of the stage, theater and recording.

Notes
1) Frank Zappa's 200 Motels. Music, Characterizations, Composed and
Conducted By Frank Zappa, Perf. The Mothers of Invention, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Theodore Bikel, Ringo Starr, and Keith Moon. (Murakami Wolf/Bizarre Productions, 1971;Videocassette, MGM/UA HomeVideo, Inc., 1988).

2) The True Story of Frank Zappa's 200 Motels (Documentary Videocassette:
Honker Home Video, 1989), 0:01.00.

3) Frank Zappa, "Press Kit for 200 Motels", as cited by Kevin Courrier,
Dangerous Kitchen: The Subversive World of Frank Zappa (Toronto: ECW Press, 2002), p. 225.

4) David Sheff, "Playboy Interview (1993)" The Frank Zappa Companion: Four Decades of Commentary; ed. Richard Kostelanetz (New York: Schirmer Books, 1997), p. 242-4.

5) Martin Esslin, The Theatre of the Absurd (Garden City, New York: Anchor
Books, 1961), pp. 23-4.

6) ibid., p.24.

7) ibid., p.23.

8) Erich Segal, The Death of Comedy (Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
2001), pp. 431-2, original source for Adorno's quote is not cited.

9) ibid, p. 421.

10) Esslin, The Theatre of the Absurd, p. 23.

11) ibid., p. 22.

12) George E. Wellwarth, The Theater of Protest and Paradox: Developments in the Avant-Garde Drama (New York University Press, 1964), p. x.

13) ibid., p. x.

14) Bob Mayberry, Theatre of Discord: Dissonance in Beckett, Albee and Pinter (Rutherford: Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 1989), p. 14.

15) ibid., p. 18.

16) ibid., p. 16.

17) ibid., p. 18.

18) Frank Zappa, liner notes for Mothers of Invention recording Freak Out!
(Rykodisc RCD 10501, ©1966,1995).

19) ibid.

20) Zappa, Frank with Peter Ochiogrosso, The Real Frank Zappa Book (New York: Poseidon Press, 1989), p. 255.

21) Courrier, Dangerous Kitchen: The Subversive World of Frank Zappa, p.81.

22) ibid., p.3.

23) ibid., p.163.

24) Larry Kart, "Frank Zappa: The Mother of Us All," Downbeat 38 (November 1969), p: 14-15.

25) The True Story of Frank Zappa's 200 Motels (Documentary Videocassette: Honker Home Video, 1989), 0:00.21-0:00.27.

26) Frank Zappa's 200 Motels. Perf. Mothers of Invention, The Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra, Cond. Elgar Howarth, Narr. Theodore Bikel (RykoDisc/MGM Soundtracks, 1971, 1997), Disc 2, track 17.

27) All time indices for scenes and songs given according to Frank
Zappa's 200 Motels: Timed Cue Sheet and Transcription, transcribed by Romáán Garcíía Albertos and Patrick Neve (13 February 2003,
<http://www.uoregon.edu/~splat/200_Motels_cue_sheet.html>), 0:01:11-0:07.33.

28) Courrier, Dangerous Kitchen: The Subversive World of Frank Zappa, p. 225.

29) Zappa's use of Varése-like material has been noted elsewhere, especially
James Borders, "Form and Concept Album: Aspects of Modernism in Frank Zappa's Early Releases," Perspectives of New Music 39 (2001): pp. 135.

30) An approximation of quote timing by the author based on, Frank Zappa's 200 Motels: Timed Cue Sheet and Transcription, transcribed by Romáán Garcíía Albertos and Patrick Neve, 0:05.00.

31) Esslin, The Theatre of the Absurd, p. 25.

32) see note 27, 0:07.30.

33) Frank Zappa's 200 Motels: Timed Cue Sheet and Transcription, transcribed by Albertos and Neve, 0:28.33-0:37.16.

34) 0:28.33-0:29.33.

35) 0:29.33-0:30.11.

36) Ben Watson, "In Respect of Rubbish," The Frank Zappa Companion: Four Decades of Commentary, ed. Richard Kostelanetz (New York: Schirmer Books, 1997), p. 108.

37) 0:30.11-0:30.47.

38) 0:34.44.

39) Courrier, Dangerous Kitchen: The Subversive World of Frank Zappa, pp.
220-1.

40) Frank Zappa's 200 Motels: Timed Cue Sheet and Transcription, transcribed by Albertos and Neve, 1:02.05 -1:05.20.

41) ibid., 0:19.21.

42) 1:04.00.

43) Mayberry, Theatre of Discord: Dissonance in Beckett, Albee and Pinter,
p.18.

44) Frank Zappa's 200 Motels: Timed Cue Sheet and Transcription, transcribed by Albertos and Neve, 1:24.39-1:34.47.

45) Many authors have referred to the ending in this way, see Arved Ashby,
"Frank Zappa and the Anti-Fetishist Orchestra." The Musical Quarterly 83.4
(1999): p. 593, and Courrier, Dangerous Kitchen: The Subversive World of Frank Zappa, pp. 230-1.

46) Ashby, "Frank Zappa and the Anti-Fetishist Orchestra," p. 593.

47) 1:25.06.

48) 1:28.37.

49) 1:31.02-1:31.26.

50) Jonathan Bernard, "The Musical World(s?) of Frank Zappa: Some
Observations of His 'Crossover' Pieces," Expression in Pop-Rock Music: a
Collection of Critical and Analytical Essays, ed. Walter Everett, Studies in Contemporary Music and Culture, Vol. 2 (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 2000), pp. 166-8.

51) 1:29.11.

52) Segal, The Death of Comedy, p.452.

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Peter Evans is a composer/theorist currently enrolled in the doctoral program at The New England Conservatory of Music.

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