ccxciii. ZAPPA, Frank: I'm Not Satisfied

ccxciii. ZAPPA, Frank (1940-1993)

I'm Not Satisfied (1966)
FZ, guitar, vocals
Jimmy Carl Black, drums, percussion, vocals
Ray Collins, vocals, harmonica
Roy Estrada, bass, boy soprano
Elliot Ingber, guitar
(2:38)

from Freak Out!

Frank's first album remains a classic nearly 60 years later. Probably only the second double-album (Dylan's Blonde on Blonde beat him by a month), Freak Out! was neatly bifurcated by the first two sides, and the last two -- altered pop songs, and freak-out music (although Side Three opened with the tremendous blues, Trouble Every Day) ...

**

FZ starts us off with the dominant (E) before we finally reach the tonic in Bar 11! He works very hard to keep the music away from the tonic as much as possible (not satisfying our ears ... we're "not satisfied" either) ...

He teases us later by moving ii / iii / IV / iii / ii / V / and finally I.

Later he sneaks in a beautiful modulation to C Major using the minor subdominant as a pivot chord: iv/ii (in C) / iii / IV / V / IV / V / ... and once again, fails to supply the tonic chord, instead moving to C# Minor (iii) and then IV / V / I in A ...

The written-out ending is supplemented with horns.