The Adventures of Greggery Peccary
Encyclopedia
"The Adventures of Greggery Peccary" is a piece by Frank Zappa
, originally released on the album Studio Tan
in 1978 and later recompiled into the posthumously released Läther
album. An instrumental version now 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
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, and received its basic tracking during the Grand Wazoo and Waka Jawaka 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
in 1974. 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.
, whose name is obviously a pun on Gregory Peck
. 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
. This is clearly a reference to the Gregorian Calendar
with 'Greggery' a play on Pope Gregory XIII
who reformed the calendar with its introduction .
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. Cynically he concludes: "If you ask a "philostopher" he'll see that you pays!"
) 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 a la “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 (a la madrigal style) by the musical accompaniment. Quentin is quite likely a spoof of the writing and speaking style of beat writer William S. Burroughs . The following is the entire philosophical speech as noted in the Zappa book, Them Or Us
.
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.
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 officially 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 utilizing irrational rhythm. 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 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 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 piece "Imaginary Landscape #4" by John Cage
).
The song features a variety of musical quotation
s. When Zappa talks about "slowly aging very hip young people," the music features a quote from Herbie Hancock
's "Chameleon
". Shortly after, Zappa makes reference to the My Three Sons
television theme during the honkey tonk piano section.
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
, originally released on the album Studio Tan
Studio Tan
Studio Tan is an album by Frank Zappa, first released in September, 1978 on his own DiscReet Records label. It reached #147 on the Billboard 200 albums chart...
in 1978 and later recompiled into the posthumously released Läther
Läther
Läther is an album by Frank Zappa which was released on CD posthumously in 1996. Produced by Zappa in 1977, the recordings contained in Läther were made between 1972 and 1977 . A collection of these tapes was delivered to Warner Bros...
album. An instrumental version now 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
Rock opera
A rock opera is a work of rock music that presents a storyline told over multiple parts, songs or sections in the manner of opera. A rock opera differs from a conventional rock album, which usually includes songs that are not unified by a common theme or narrative. More recent developments include...
style and reprising the extended story format used in "Billy the Mountain
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 of this song, which took more than a half-hour to perform, was from a live tour performance on August 7, 1971 in Los Angeles, performed by Zappa with his band The...
" 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, and received its basic tracking during the Grand Wazoo and Waka Jawaka 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
One Size Fits All is a 1975 rock album by Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention. It is the last Zappa album to be released with the subheading of "Mothers of Invention". A special four-channel Quadraphonic version of the album was prepared and advertised, but not released...
in 1974. 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 peccaryPeccary
A peccary is a medium-sized mammal of the family Tayassuidae, or New World Pigs. Peccaries are members of the artiodactyl suborder Suina, as are the pig family and possibly the hippopotamus family...
, whose name is obviously a pun on Gregory Peck
Gregory Peck
Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor.One of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play important roles well into the 1980s. His notable performances include that of Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an...
. Greggery lives among the peccary population, which ranges from Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
to Paraguay
Paraguay
Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...
and sometimes as far west as Catalina
Catalina
- Geography :* Catalina, Arizona* Cătălina, Romania** Catalina, Covasna, Romania* Santa Catalina, Ilocos Sur* Santa Catalina, Negros Oriental* Catalina, Newfoundland and Labrador* Santa Catalina Mountains...
. 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
Volkswagen
Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...
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
Calendar
A calendar is a system of organizing days for social, religious, commercial, or administrative purposes. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months, and years. The name given to each day is known as a date. Periods in a calendar are usually, though not...
. This is clearly a reference to the Gregorian Calendar
Gregorian calendar
The Gregorian calendar, also known as the Western calendar, or Christian calendar, is the internationally accepted civil calendar. It was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, by a decree signed on 24 February 1582, a papal bull known by its opening words Inter...
with 'Greggery' a play on Pope Gregory XIII
Pope Gregory XIII
Pope Gregory XIII , born Ugo Boncompagni, was Pope from 1572 to 1585. He is best known for commissioning and being the namesake for the Gregorian calendar, which remains the internationally-accepted civil calendar to this date.-Youth:He was born the son of Cristoforo Boncompagni and wife Angela...
who reformed the calendar with its introduction .
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
"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 of this song, which took more than a half-hour to perform, was from a live tour performance on August 7, 1971 in Los Angeles, performed by Zappa with his band The...
. 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 a much earlier version of this piece (via an acetateAcetate disc
An acetate disc, also known as a test acetate, dubplate , lacquer , transcription disc or instantaneous disc...
) on 99.1fm WPLR
WPLR
WPLR based out of New Haven, Connecticut, is a rock station owned by Cox Radio....
, 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 a la “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 (a la madrigal style) by the musical accompaniment. Quentin is quite likely a spoof of the writing and speaking style of beat writer William S. Burroughs . The following is the entire philosophical speech as noted in the Zappa book, Them Or Us
Them or Us
Them or Us is an album by Frank Zappa, released in October 1984. Its opening and closing tracks are covers: "The Closer You Are", which was written by Earl Lewis and Morgan Robinson and originally released by The Channels; and "Whippin' Post", originally recorded by The Allman Brothers Band. ...
.
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 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 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 officially 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 utilizing irrational rhythm. Greggery's pondering of the new brown clouds (a melody first heard in 1972 on The Grand Wazoo
The Grand Wazoo
The Grand Wazoo is a 1972 jazz fusion album by Frank Zappa. Composed and recorded during Zappa's period of convalescence following his assault in London, the album, along with its "twin brother" Waka/Jawaka, represent Zappa's foray into big band fusion, the logical progression from Hot Rats, which...
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 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 piece "Imaginary Landscape #4" by John Cage
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...
).
The song features a variety of musical quotation
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 , or from a different composer's work ....
s. When Zappa talks about "slowly aging very hip young people," the music features a quote from Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
's "Chameleon
Chameleon (composition)
"Chameleon" is a jazz standard composed by Herbie Hancock in collaboration with Bennie Maupin, Paul Jackson and Harvey Mason, all of whom also performed the original 15'44" version on the 1973 landmark album Head Hunters featuring solos by Hancock and Maupin....
". Shortly after, Zappa makes reference to the My Three Sons
My Three Sons
My Three Sons is an American situation comedy. The series ran from 1960 to 1965 on ABC, and moved to CBS until its end on August 24, 1972. My Three Sons chronicles the life of a widower and aeronautical engineer named Steven Douglas , raising his three sons.The series was a cornerstone of the CBS...
television theme during the honkey tonk piano section.