Lyrics Octandre - Frank Zappa

Octandre

FZ:
We’ll play you our special number
This is the number we always play when, when people ask us to play more.
Because we know that after we play this they couldn’t possibly ever want to
hear us again
Four years ago in Canada—I think it was in Toronto—there was a thing that
happened with the symphony orchestra where— There was an American composer
named Edgard Varèse, who was quite a spiffy composer.
The Americans didn’t give
a shit about him, you know, 'cause he was writing stuff that was too weird for
their ears
But it just so happened he was about 80 years old, and when composers get that
old certain segments of the musical population begin to get a conscience about
the fact that they never played this man’s music, you know?
And he was really
writing some heavy stuff but nobody wanted to hear it
So Canada decided, «Well, we’re a very cultural nation.
We will have a
performance of this man’s music.»
So they had this Varèse concert.
And they bring Mr. Varèse up, you know, doddering old man, here he is,
been writing for a long time.
And hardly ever gets to hear any of his music
and Canada was gonna do him a favor and they’re gonna play some of his tunes
for him
So they played this one piece that he wrote called Déserts, which is a
composition for orchestra, with interpolations of electronic tape, you know,
pre-recorded sounds
And some of the great Canadian musicians were there, playing in the orchestra.
And they hated the music, and they played it really bad.
And when the tape
sections came in, the musicians on stage sat there and laughed all the way
through it.
And then the audience started laughing
And at the end of the performance Varèse stood up and applauded for the
orchestra
We’re going to play a piece of music that was written by Edgard Varèse,
and we’re going to ruin it for you
But you’ll be able to identify with it anyway
It consists of the first ten bars or so of a woodwind piece that he wrote
called Octandre
Goodnight
Audience:
More!
More!
More!
Announcer:
The Mothers Of Invention!
Audience:
More!
More!
More!
More!
More!
More!
More!
More!
FZ:
Hold it.
(Can we play another one? Is it gonna— Will that make a mess?)
Guy In The Audience:
Suzy Creamcheese!
FZ:
I must say this is a rather unprecedented response for the bullshit that we do,
so sit down.
We’ll do some more if you like it