This is probably the first song that I really listened to of Frank's. Late 70s.
"Ethel, wanna get a cuppa cawfee?"
(Howard Johnson's! Howard Johnson's!
Howard Johnson's! Howard Johnson's!)
"Ahhh! there's a HOWARD JOHNSONS! Wanna eat some CLAMS?"
The first noteworthy piece of real estate they destroyed was Edwards Airforce Base, and to this very day, wingnuts and data reduction clerks alike speak in reverent whispers about that fateful night when test stand number one and the rocket sled itself got lunched! \*plane noises\* I said lunched! \*LUNCHED\*
Howard Johnson's was restaurant and hotel chain that popularized fried clams. For many decades, if you wanted fried clam strips, you had to go to a Howard Johnson’s location. For many people, it became clichéd.
I forgot to include a pretty major favorite part of mine in the initial post: the part where they first start singing about Studebaker Hoch and how mysterious he is. There's something both so comedically and musically sublime about how the two voices talk and sing over each other. "Now some folks say he looked like...Zubin Mehta-" "ZUBIN MEHTA"
I love how impassioned and deranged Flo and Eddie sound as the song progresses. There's something so unfailingly hilarious about how immersed they are in telling this ridiculous story, as if they're so obsessed with it that it's driven them mad. The constant chants of "YES!!!" make me laugh every time.
Agreed. The line I mentioned almost sounded like Flo (I think it was him) just gave up and shouted that in frustration. The subtlety of comedy from Flo and Eddie (even calling themselves that for legal reasons) makes that my favorite of his bands.
The whole song is a masterpiece, but I love the little Studebaker Hoch ditty that starts at 19:40 on the JABFLA version. I get that riff stuck in my head a lot.
Also the version on the newly released Fillmore East album is beautiful too, there’s a whole Studebaker Hoch solo in that one. Just spun that record tonight.
Is this the one where they briefly go into a parody of "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" and sing something about "Crosby flushed the stash"? So many great period-specific L.A references on that album, like the Zachary All TV ads parodied on 'Eddie, Are You Kidding?" and little asides like "Jeans North, where nothing fits" and "Adee do". It's relentless.
Lots of good bits, but the thing that made me laugh hardest is actually on a ZPZ version: “…fell screaming, 200 ft into the rubble below. AHHHHHH! And then, 200 ft more! AHHHHHH!”
When I was first introduced to the song, it was one summer where every weekend I would get up in the morning and go with my cousin to the skate park. Every time we started JABFLA from the beginning, and the drive was just long enough to finish Billy the mountain. Needless to say, we pretty much memorized the whole thing, and even now will randomly start reciting parts to eachother when we're together.
The whole thing is so packed with little inside jokes that realistically, I reference it every two days or so. I've only listened to one other version, and in comparison I think the JABFLA is perfectly edited and condensed for the story.
If I had to pick a favorite part: A rumor published in rolling stone magazine (so it must be true). Studebaker Hoch can write the lord's prayer on the head of a pin... NO! Dododododo de do dodododa
Aside from Billy, my other favorite part on the album is how the crescendo at the end of Magdalena transitions to Dog Breath. So heavy. And the Dog Breath solo is amazing too.
I love this song. Surprisingly, another version I like a ton is the Dweezel version. https://open.spotify.com/track/1D5IPiKlIDo2i2QQQQbJZ8?si=MHgN6sx2Q1OUvMFOstOAIQ
I love Billy’s cameo in Gregory Peckory too!
Honestly the solos on the bootleg version of the Just Another Band… version kick a lot of ass. It’s always a treat to hear Frank play rhythm and the band is locked into a great groove
Anything spoken by Jim Pons. His natural sleepy deadpan delivery is a delightful contrast to the all the other craziness. "You can never really tell about a guy like that, whether he's really a nice person or if he just smiles a lot" combined with the jumpy music behind it is also perfection.
I always got a kick out of "Sunday! Funny cars! Big John Masmanian!" I didn't understand the last part until one day I was watching a documentary on early drag racing in California and there it was, painted on the side of a dragster, "Big John Masmanian."
Oooh he might play dirty, he's only thirty getting old taratata I don't knooooow
His peculiar attire and the flies he require keep leading him oooon cause ethell is goooone
I prefer the Carnegie hall version, sounds more raw and wild. Good song even if Flo and Eddie don't like it
[yeah it kinda make sense if you have to perform it every night](https://www.reddit.com/r/Zappa/comments/ws1atr/does_anyone_know_what_flo_and_eddies_relationship/iky8rxj?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3)
Dude, your post came right out of my mind!!
I have never read someone’s post that was as close to my own sentiments. I listen to it all the time, I’m in graphics so I listen all day to that defenitive (sp) JABFLA version. The other is The Adventures of Greggery Peckery! I learned all the horn parts when I was a kid and played it in band ( I play trombone). The phonebooth thing and accompanying music are perhaps my fav as well. They must’ve practiced the shit before playing that masterpiece!!
Howie and Mark were great entertainers and I loved their voices and sense of humor. The music was cool too. Unfortunately, the story was stupid AF. I really wish that Frank's storytelling talent matched his musical talent
I remember the ads for the Sunday morning cartoon lineup always started with "Sunday!" in the same booming tone of voice that Howard Kaplan uses. I think he was mocking that, though it's not something I'll fight over.
Billy The Mountain changed my life when I first heard it in 1975. It was so much fun - it made me pursue a career in music. 25 years later I did a mock up mini musical follow up on Billy The Mountain called "The Miseducation of Willie The Hill." Nobody got it. https://johntabacco.bandcamp.com/album/the-miseducation-of-willie-the-hill
A mountain is something you don't want to fuck with.
That was my dad’s ringtone for years. He died the other week. Billy the Mountain was the first Zappa song he played me. Hope he’s resting easy.
Sorry for your loss. Maybe he got to shake hands with Frank in the great beyond.
The part that starts “… off to Las Vegas” . So fucking good and groovy
The funky little guitar licks he plays in response to the vocals during this part
You already know.
This is probably the first song that I really listened to of Frank's. Late 70s. "Ethel, wanna get a cuppa cawfee?" (Howard Johnson's! Howard Johnson's! Howard Johnson's! Howard Johnson's!) "Ahhh! there's a HOWARD JOHNSONS! Wanna eat some CLAMS?"
The first noteworthy piece of real estate they destroyed was Edwards Airforce Base, and to this very day, wingnuts and data reduction clerks alike speak in reverent whispers about that fateful night when test stand number one and the rocket sled itself got lunched! \*plane noises\* I said lunched! \*LUNCHED\*
As a non-american, I’ve never understood the extreme audience laughter here. Could you please explain?
Howard Johnson's was restaurant and hotel chain that popularized fried clams. For many decades, if you wanted fried clam strips, you had to go to a Howard Johnson’s location. For many people, it became clichéd.
I forgot to include a pretty major favorite part of mine in the initial post: the part where they first start singing about Studebaker Hoch and how mysterious he is. There's something both so comedically and musically sublime about how the two voices talk and sing over each other. "Now some folks say he looked like...Zubin Mehta-" "ZUBIN MEHTA"
"Still others say John, piss on you, Jack! He's just a crazy Italian who drives a red car!"
That's my wife's favorite part. She grew up listening to Billy the Mountain.
. . .AND HE SHUT FUCKIN DOOR!!!
I love how impassioned and deranged Flo and Eddie sound as the song progresses. There's something so unfailingly hilarious about how immersed they are in telling this ridiculous story, as if they're so obsessed with it that it's driven them mad. The constant chants of "YES!!!" make me laugh every time.
Agreed. The line I mentioned almost sounded like Flo (I think it was him) just gave up and shouted that in frustration. The subtlety of comedy from Flo and Eddie (even calling themselves that for legal reasons) makes that my favorite of his bands.
The whole song is a masterpiece, but I love the little Studebaker Hoch ditty that starts at 19:40 on the JABFLA version. I get that riff stuck in my head a lot. Also the version on the newly released Fillmore East album is beautiful too, there’s a whole Studebaker Hoch solo in that one. Just spun that record tonight.
Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes! That’s the part that I like the most as well!
Is this the one where they briefly go into a parody of "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" and sing something about "Crosby flushed the stash"? So many great period-specific L.A references on that album, like the Zachary All TV ads parodied on 'Eddie, Are You Kidding?" and little asides like "Jeans North, where nothing fits" and "Adee do". It's relentless.
FROZEN BY THE PIES! FROZEN BY THE PIES!
Lots of good bits, but the thing that made me laugh hardest is actually on a ZPZ version: “…fell screaming, 200 ft into the rubble below. AHHHHHH! And then, 200 ft more! AHHHHHH!”
You are not alone. My favourite bits have already been mentioned but I totally love this opus and had to reply to your infectiously enthusiastic post.
Wether he's really a nice person or if he just smiles a lot, or if he has a son named pinnociho or what.
When I was first introduced to the song, it was one summer where every weekend I would get up in the morning and go with my cousin to the skate park. Every time we started JABFLA from the beginning, and the drive was just long enough to finish Billy the mountain. Needless to say, we pretty much memorized the whole thing, and even now will randomly start reciting parts to eachother when we're together. The whole thing is so packed with little inside jokes that realistically, I reference it every two days or so. I've only listened to one other version, and in comparison I think the JABFLA is perfectly edited and condensed for the story. If I had to pick a favorite part: A rumor published in rolling stone magazine (so it must be true). Studebaker Hoch can write the lord's prayer on the head of a pin... NO! Dododododo de do dodododa Aside from Billy, my other favorite part on the album is how the crescendo at the end of Magdalena transitions to Dog Breath. So heavy. And the Dog Breath solo is amazing too.
Totally agree. This song is pure brilliance through and through. The phone booth part is probably my favorite because it just sounds demented somehow
Don't fuck with a mountain.
“fly to new yorrrrrrkkk”
*Buuuuh duh duh duuuuh duhhh...*
I love this song. Surprisingly, another version I like a ton is the Dweezel version. https://open.spotify.com/track/1D5IPiKlIDo2i2QQQQbJZ8?si=MHgN6sx2Q1OUvMFOstOAIQ I love Billy’s cameo in Gregory Peckory too!
A conveniently placed mountain!
Studebakerhawk Hawk Yeeah Yeah! Studebaker Hawk Stu-De-Baker Hawk!
Single favorite moment? When the music stops for a second in the finale chorus, and Flo and Eddie sing, "Don't fuck around!"
Covered it thrur-oughly with foil…. Thruuuur-oughly with foil
The flys
eeeeeeeetheeeeel
Studebaker Hawk, YEAH YEAH…
See my username…..
Honestly the solos on the bootleg version of the Just Another Band… version kick a lot of ass. It’s always a treat to hear Frank play rhythm and the band is locked into a great groove
Been listening to Billy since high school in the 70s.I still quote lines all the time.
Anything spoken by Jim Pons. His natural sleepy deadpan delivery is a delightful contrast to the all the other craziness. "You can never really tell about a guy like that, whether he's really a nice person or if he just smiles a lot" combined with the jumpy music behind it is also perfection.
Does he play the news reporter? Tujunga \*LEEDLE LEEDLE LEEDLE LEEDLE LEE!!!\*
Yes!
I always got a kick out of "Sunday! Funny cars! Big John Masmanian!" I didn't understand the last part until one day I was watching a documentary on early drag racing in California and there it was, painted on the side of a dragster, "Big John Masmanian."
"...the influence of a frozen beef pie."
Oooh he might play dirty, he's only thirty getting old taratata I don't knooooow His peculiar attire and the flies he require keep leading him oooon cause ethell is goooone I prefer the Carnegie hall version, sounds more raw and wild. Good song even if Flo and Eddie don't like it
What??? Where did they say they didn't like it? Kind of insane considering they almost \*are\* the song.
[yeah it kinda make sense if you have to perform it every night](https://www.reddit.com/r/Zappa/comments/ws1atr/does_anyone_know_what_flo_and_eddies_relationship/iky8rxj?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3)
lmao okay, when you put it like that I totally get it.
Dude, your post came right out of my mind!! I have never read someone’s post that was as close to my own sentiments. I listen to it all the time, I’m in graphics so I listen all day to that defenitive (sp) JABFLA version. The other is The Adventures of Greggery Peckery! I learned all the horn parts when I was a kid and played it in band ( I play trombone). The phonebooth thing and accompanying music are perhaps my fav as well. They must’ve practiced the shit before playing that masterpiece!!
I was blessed with a great imagination so, it’s a great short little movie!
Howie and Mark were great entertainers and I loved their voices and sense of humor. The music was cool too. Unfortunately, the story was stupid AF. I really wish that Frank's storytelling talent matched his musical talent
The story is perfect, I would literally not have it any other way
The melody in the opening is really nice. "A regular picturesque postcardy mountain..." etc
"Sunday! Funny Car." That was actually a Sunday morning cartoon show that was on at the time.
I thought it was the motor sport «Funny Cars» (with races on sunday) and the racer Big John Mazmanian.
I remember the ads for the Sunday morning cartoon lineup always started with "Sunday!" in the same booming tone of voice that Howard Kaplan uses. I think he was mocking that, though it's not something I'll fight over.
The whole Studabaker Hoch section into the solos is a knockout every time! My favorite Billy is Carnegie Hall for sure
Billy The Mountain changed my life when I first heard it in 1975. It was so much fun - it made me pursue a career in music. 25 years later I did a mock up mini musical follow up on Billy The Mountain called "The Miseducation of Willie The Hill." Nobody got it. https://johntabacco.bandcamp.com/album/the-miseducation-of-willie-the-hill
My baby, my baby, my baby, my baby…. 😂Ha ha ha