Valentine's Debut of Rob C-Dubs Plays Zappa

As today is Valentine’s Day, I decided to use “Oh No” as the first Zappa song for this project. The lyrics are a response to the concept of love being the answer to everything; the song even responds directly to the song “All You Need Is Love” by the Beatles (“You say love is all we need…”). The evocation of this song, however, goes beyond simply taking a line from the song – it is in the same meter (7/4) and is set in E minor (relative minor to G major, the key of “All You Need Is Love,” though “Oh No” revolves more specifically around E dorian).

            Like a typical Zappa melody, “Oh No” contains unusual melodic motion including leaps and complex melodic action at the level of the sixteenth note. The lines “You say love is all we need. / You say with your love you can change all of the fools, all of the hate - / I think you’re probably out to lunch” contain the same notes as the lines “Oh no, I don’t believe it - / You say that you think you know the meaning of love,” including the sixteenth notes in the accompaniment, only in these lines, the rhythm of the melody is restructured. This is one example of how Frank Zappa is able to rework melodic material into different rhythmic patterns.

            The third stanza, which marks the first true deviation from E minor, asks the question “All your love – will it save me?” a phrase which ends on an A major chord, perhaps signifying hope and excitement. This is followed by the more quiet parallel phrase, “All your love – will it save the world from what we can't understand?” a line that not only seems the most tonally confused but also features the most dissonant-sounding part of the song. Perhaps the excitement of the idea of love actually being able to “save the world” as some may have us believe leads to some genuine thought, and with that, uncertainty – but this is abruptly interrupted by the opening phrase again – “Oh no I don’t believe it!”

            The meter than switches to 5/4 while the song modulates almost abruptly to C-sharp dorian for the final stanza of “Oh No”: “And in your dreams, you can see yourself as a prophet saving the world. / The words from your lips - / I just can’t believe you are such a fool.” While he was probably referring to the “all you need is love” philosophy, on the Roxy and Elsewhere album, he reworks this material for “Son of Orange County,” which keeps the same words and the same notes, though in a different rhythm, with one exception: after the line “The words from your lips” the spoken phrase “I am not a crook” is added to create an additional commentary on President Nixon, who said this on accusations of his involvement with the Watergate scandal in which Democratic Party political strategy meetings were being secretly taped, accusations which were found to be accurate.

            The song then segues into the instrumental “Orange County Lumber Truck” and switches into a steady 4/4. It features a lyrical melody in a thick texture of harmony, some syncopation, and contrasting phrases which recall the final stanza of “Oh No.” Eventually, it settles on an F-sharp minor chord which becomes the foundation for some improvisation. I tried to use an occasionally moving bassline to promote steady, consistent rhythm for this part, while also trying to include some of the motifs actually found in the solo in the song. Eventually, it cuts off abruptly, something which I also included.