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WP_142 (RORSCHACH SERIES)/ 2008
(  Satoshi Kinoshita )
| Series: | Works on paper: Paintings 2 | | Medium: | acrylic on paper | | Size (inches): | 14.3 x 10.1 | | Size (mm): | 364 x 257 | | Catalog #: | WP_0142 | | Description: | Signed, date and copyright in pencil on the reverse/ the usual central vertical fold.
Peccary -
Peccaries (also known as javelinas and by the Portuguese and Spanish name javalí or Spanish pecarí) are medium-sized mammals of the family Tayassuidae. Peccaries are members of the Artiodactyl suborder Suina as are swine Suidae and hippopotami Hippopotamidae. They are found in the southwestern area of North America and throughout Central and South America. Peccaries usually measure between 90 and 130 cm in length (3 to 4 feet), and a full-grown adult usually weighs between about 20 and 40 kilograms (44 to 88 pounds).
People often confuse peccaries, which are found in the Americas, with pigs which originated in Afro-Eurasia, especially since some domestic pigs brought by European settlers have escaped over the years and now run wild in many parts of the United States. In some parts of the United States these feral pigs are popularly known as razorback hogs.
-en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peccary
The Adventures of Greggery Peccary -
The Adventures of Greggery Peccary" is a song by Frank Zappa, originally released on the album Studio Tan in 1978 and later recompiled into the posthumously released Läther album. The song is an epic that extended 20 minutes and 33 seconds in length when first released and later 21 minutes on Läther, mocking the rock opera style and reprising the extended story format used in "Billy the Mountain" and, to some extent, the lengthy adventures outlined in the "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" Suite.
The piece required a large number of personnel to record, as Zappa was delving heavily into orchestral arrangement at the time that he began the Läther sessions, and despite the context of Studio Tan being a rock and roll album, the long interludes of avante-garde 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, whose name is obviously a pun on Gregory Peck, and also a reference to Pope Gregory XIII, founder of the modern Gregorian calendar. Greggery lives among the peccary population, which ranges from Texas to Paraguay and sometimes as far west as Catalina. Peccaries are notable for having a white collar pattern on their fur, but Greggary 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 and works in the part of the town where the government buildings are kept at a corporation known as "Big Swifty and Associates, Trend-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 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.
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 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.
Variation:
Zappa played a much earlier version of this piece (via an acetate) on 99.1fm WPLR, Connecticut radio on April 23 1975. In this version FZ 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 alla “Dumb All Over”) goes on quite a bit longer than the official released Studio Tan versions or the Läther version. The spiel is specifically colored (alla madrigal style) by the musical accompaniment. The following is the entire philosophical speech as noted in the Zappa book, Them Or Us.
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 nature of this to be highly suspicious. When such a devise 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 than the official CD released versions. In this version Zappa opts for a tighter, less cluttered bravado sort of ending featuring a cartoonish, cascading marimba part.
Musical themes:
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 is progressed by means of both 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 but was never released on its own in an album until the release of the Beat the Boots box set in 1991. It also includes a piece (before the Steno Pool section entitled "Join The March", previously the intro to "Farther O'Blivion." The "Big Swifty's" song during the steno pool sequence is a bizarre yet sophisticated jazz piece which stands on its own. Greggery's pondering of the new brown clouds (a melody first heard in 1972 on The Grand Wazoo 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 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 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. (A reference to the aleatoric piece "Imaginary Landscape #4" by John Cage)
When Zappa talks about "slowly aging very hip young people," the music features a quote from Herbie Hancock's "Chameleon".
-en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Greggery_Peccary
Studio Tan
The Adventures Of Greggery Peccary
15 September 1978, 20:33 min.
George Duke (keyboards, vocals)
Bruce Fowler (trombone)
Tom Fowler (bass)
Chester Thompson (drums)
The adventures of GREGGERY PECCARY!
Oh, here comes GREGGERY,
Little GRECGERY PECCARY
The nocturnal gregarious
Wild swine
A peccary
Is a little pig
With a white collar
That usually hangs around
Between Texas and Paraguay
Sometimes ranging as far
west as Catalina
Catalina, Catalina, Catalina!
This particular peccary
Is part of that bold (bold),
New (new) breed (breeding)
That extinguishes itself
By markings which resemble a
WIDE TIE
Directly below the
White collar
If it's white enough
Everyone will know
That the tie I'm wearing
Is a symbol
Of how nimble mv mind will know
Ooh-ooh!
(Swine suave!)
Look out!
Here he comes again!
Oh here comes GREGGERY PECCARY.
Yes it's cravv, cravy, veah...
Every morning, GREGGERY drives
His little red Volkswagen to the ugly
Part of town where they keep the Government Buildings.
Voodn, Voodn!
Boy it's so hard to find a place to park around here!
GREGGERY PECCARY takes the elevator
Up to the eighty-third floor of a grim,
Gray, evil-looking building
With a sign on the front reading:
'BIG SWIFTY ASSOCIATES. TREND-MONGERS'.
And what, might you ask, is a TREND MONGER?
Well, a TREND MONGER is a person
who dreams up a TREND
(Like 'The Twist' --- or 'Flower Power'),
And spreads it throughout the land,
Using all the frightening little skills
That Science has made available!
And so it was, one fateful morning,
GREGGERY PECCARY made his way through the Steno Pool . . .
Hi Mildred!
Hello Gladys!
WANDA!
Yes, from the moment they laid
eyes on him,
All the girls in the BIG SWIFTY
Steno Pool
KNEW . . .
Here was a
Nocturnal,
Gregarious
Wild swine
ON HIS WAY UP!
A Peccary of Destiny,
Adventure
And
ROMANCE!
Is there any mail for me?
SWIFTY'S!
THIS IS BIG SWIFTY'S!
AT BIG SWIFTY'S WE ALL KNOW-OW-OW
YOU'LL GO
FOR ANY GIMMICK OR GIZMO!
WOULDN'T YOU RATHER BE INVOLVED
IN A SERIES OF COLORFUL
TIME-WASTINC TRENDS?
AIR HOCKEY . . . biff . . . dush-h-h!
LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA, YOUP YOUP YOUP YOUP
IS YOUR WIFE SNORING BY THE SINK?
LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA, YOUP YOUP YOUP YOUP
AIN'T YOUR LIFE BORING, DON'TCHA THINK?
YOUP YOUP YOUP YOUP YOUP YOUP YOUP
LIFE IS SO MUCH BETTER
WHEN THERE'S SOME LITTLE SOMETHING
TO DO!
Does it matter that this waste of time
Is what makes a LIFE for you? Hmmmmm?
I must plummet boldly
forward
To my ULTRA-AVANT
Laminated,
Simulated
Replica-mahogany desk,
With the strategically-placed,
Imported, very hip water pipe,
And the latest edition of the
WHOLE EARTH CATALOG,
And rack my agile mind
For a spectacular
NEW TREND,
Thereby rejuvenating our limping
economy,
And providing
For bored & miserable people
everywhere
Some great new
'THING'
To identify with.!
WE HAVE GOT THE LITTLE ANSWERS
TO THE THINGS
THAT MIGHT` BE BOTHERING YOU!
WE HAVE GOT YOUR LITTLE TOYS!
(WE'RE BUSY MAKIN' 'EM!)
BUSY MAKIN' 'EM,
WE'RE BUSY MAKIN' 'EM,
BUSY MAKIN' 'EM
JUST FOR YOU!
Yoo-hoo-hoo!
Very efficient. Miss Snodgrass!
And with that.
GREGCERY turned
And strode nonchalantly
Into his dinky little office
With the desk and the catalog
And the very hip water pipe.
And proceeded,
With a vigor and determination
Known only to piglets
Of a similarly diminutive
proportion,
To single-handedly invent
THE CALENDAR!
With his eye rolled heaven-ward.
and his little shiny pig-hoofs on the
desk, GREGGERY ponders the
question of ETERNITY (and fractional
divisions thereof), as mysterious
ANGELIC VOICES sing to him from a
great distance, providing the
necessary clues for the construction of
this thrilling new TREND!
SUNDAY
Sunday?
WOW!
SUNDAY,
'MONDAY
SUNDAY,
SATURDAY. . .TUESDAY THROUGH
- MONDAY'!
SATURDAY. . .
And thus THE CALENDAR,
In all of its colorful disguises
Was presented to
The bored & miserable people
Everywhere!
GREGCERY issued a memo on it.
Whereupon the entire contents
of the Steno Pool
Identified with it STRENUOUSLY,
And WORSHIPPED IT as a WAY OF LIFE,
And took their little Pills by it.
And went back 'n forth from
work by it.
And paid their rent by it,
And before long they were even
having
BIRTHDAY PARTIES IN THE OFFICE
by it,
Because NOW. AT LAST,
CRECGERY PECCARY's exciting new
invention
Had made it possible
For everyone
To find out
HOW OLD THEY WERE!
What hath GOD wrought?
Unfortunately,
There were some people
Who simply DID NOT WISH TO
KNOW,
And that's why,
On his way home from the office
one night,
GREGGERY was attacked
By a RAGE OF HUNCHMEN!
Making his way through the
evening traffic, GREGGERY notices
that the other vehicles which
crowd and bump his little red car
are all inhabited by slowly-aging
'VERY HIP YOUNG PEOPLE',
They appear to be casting
sinister glances toward him
through their glinting acid burn-
out eyeballs, trying to run him
off the road, or make him bump into
something, giving strong evidence
of HOSTILE AGGRESSION!
To elude them, GREGGERY takes the
SHORT FOREST EXIT off the express-
way. They zoom after him in all
manner of cars. trucks,
garishly-painted buses, and
motorcycles.
GREGGERY takes a bumpy trail
off the main SHORT FOREST ROAD,
which leads him up the side
of a FAMOUS (and convenientlv
placed) MOUNTAIN, and into a strange
cave on the edge of a cliff, not far
from a LITTLE TWISTED TREE. . .with
eyes on it.
Meanwhile, the enraged HUNCHMEN
(and HUNCH-'WOMEN) rumble
through the SHORT FOREST until
(realizing the little swine has
escaped, they decide to park their
steaming vehicles in a circular
pseudo-Wagon Train formation. . .
and have a LOVE-IN!
Under the influence of a fantastic
amount of TRENDY CHEMICAL AMUSEMENT
AID, they proceed to perform lewd
acts, rip each other off for small
personal possessions, and dance
with depraved abandon in the vicinity
of a six-foot pile of transistor radios
each one tuned to a different station).
WHAT?
The HUNCHMEN finally expire
from exhaustion,
And GREGGERY,
Who has viewed the proceedings
From a safe distance,
Breathes a sigh of relief. . .
Phew!
Only to be terrified once again
By a roar of immense laughter. . .
HO! HO! HO!
Which seems to be rumbling up
From the very depths of the cave
In which he has hidden his car!
(Good lord! What was that!?)
GRECGERY doesn't realize
He has concealed himself
Inside the very mouth of
BILLY THE MOUNTAIN!
HO! HO! HO!
And, as you all know,
Whenever BILLY laughs,
Rocks and boulders hack up,
And the air for miles around
Is filled with tons of dust,
Forming a series of huge
BROWN CLOUDS!
WHO IS MAKING THOSE NEW BROWN CLOUDS?
WHO IS MAKING THOSE CLOUDS THESE DAYS?
HO IS MAKING THOSE NEW BROWN CLOUDS?
BETTER ASK A PHILOSTOPHER 'N SEE WHAT HE SAYS!
GREGGERY stops at a gas station
And makes a mysterious phone
IS THIS THE OLD LOFT
WITH THE PAINT PEELIN' OFF IT
BY THE CHINESE POLICE
HERE THE DOGS ROLL BY?
IS THIS HERE THEY KEEP
THE PHILOSTOPHERS NOW,
WITH THE RUGS & THE DUST,
WHERE THE BOOKS GO TO DIE?
HOW MANY YEZ GOT?
SAY YEZ GOT QUITE A FEW,
JUST SITTIN' AROUND THERE
WITH NOTHIN' TO DO?
WELL I JUST CALLED YEZ UP
'CAUSE I WANTED TO SEE
A PILOSTOPER BE OF ASSISTANCE
TO ME!
GREGCERY receives information
that
'The Greatest Livin PHILOSTOPHER
Knon to Mankind'
Is currently in possession of the
very information
In question,
And, furthermore, this information
could be HIS,
If only GREGGERY would attend a
'SPECIAL THERAPEUTIC GROUP
ASSEMBLY'
(Classes now forming),
And available at a special
low introductory fee. . .
And now, here he is,
'The Greatest Living PHILOSTO-
PHER Known to Mankind',
QUENTIN ROBERT DeNAMELAND!
Take it away!
"Folks,
As vou can see for yourself.
The way this clock over here
is behaving,
TIME IS OF AFFLICTION!
Now this might be cause for alarm
Among a portion of you, as,
From a certain experience,
I TEND TO PROCLAIM:
'THE EONS ARE CLOSING'!"
Make your checks payable to
-25.8-
'QUENTIN ROBERT DeNAMELAND,
Greatest Livin Philostopher
Known to Mankind'!
WHO IS MAKING THOSE NEW BROWN CLOUDS?
WHO IS MAKING THOSE CLOUDS THESE DAYS?
WHO IS MAKING THOSE NEW BROWN CLOUDS?
IF YOU ASK A PILOSTOPHER, HE'LL SEE
THAT YOU PAYS!
Other album(s) in which song has appeared:
Läther (September 1996, 20:56)
-www.science.uva.nl/~robbert/zappa/albums/Studio_Tan/01.html
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