Cars

Cars in Zappa's Lyrics

• "The Adventures Of Greggery Peccary" on Studio Tan (1978): cars are mentioned in the first movement where Greggery goes to work ("Every morning, GREGGERY drives his little red Volkswagen to the ugly part of town where they keep the Government Buildings") and in the third movement where he is pursued by the Hunchmen ("They zoom after him in all manner of cars, trucks, garishly-painted buses, and motorcycles")
• The song "You Are What You Is" mentions the care make "Mercedes Benz" as a typically "white" car in the conversation between the black and the white person in the middle of the song ("I don't understand you...", "BWANA MA-COO-BAH!", "Would you please speak more clearly?", "MERCEDES BAINNNNNNNZ!").
• The Crab-Grass Baby character in the musical Thing-Fish has a fondness for cars ("Stroke [my pompadour] nicely while I tell you about the problems I am having with my car an my girlfriend. (...) Her and her girlfriend used to go out and booze it up and tear up the upholstery; rip the seats completely out, and so I got a fifty-six Olds. About the time I got it running decently, she got in it and wrecked the trans... tore it completely up, so I had to get another Oldsmobile (...) Buy me a Volvo, faaather").
• Lumpy Gravy, Lumpy Gravy Part 1 or At The Gas Station in the sectorized version, uses an almost identical dialogue as the Crab-Grass Baby character in Thing-Fish: (...) Her and her girlfriend used to go out and booze it up and tear up the seats; rip the seats completely out, and so I got a fifty-six Olds. About the time I got it running decently, she got in it and wrecked the trans... tore it completely up, so I had to get another Oldsmobile (...)

Cars depicted in Artwork for Releases

• ALPHA ROMEO, a star in the One Size Fits All (1975) universe, is a reference to a car owned by Cal Schenkel.
• LEO LIMON [8-10 / 0º-30º], one of the constellations in the One Size Fits All (1975) universe, is pictured as a car. The car is actually a 49 Plymouth, another car owned by Cal Schenkel. The constellation has stars called FAN BELT (a reference to the song "Florentine Pogen") Differential, and Steering Wheel, amongst others.
• Leo Limón, one of the illustrators for FZ's first song book, is credited with CHOLLO on the Just Another Band From L.A. album (1972), which has a car on the cover.
• VIRGIL [8-10 / 15º-(-30º)], another One Size Fits All constellation, has three stars named Horn Relay, R.Dir.Sig.Lamp and Acc. Flasher.
• Front, page 3 and back cover of booklet coming with Uncle Meat feature 40s and 50s style cars.

Cars in the Literature

• Them Or Us (The Book) (1984): Cadillac El Dorado, Dodge, Volkswagen, Volvo, Mercedes Benz, Mercedes, Oldsmobile, Phydeaux III (the bus), Porsche, Studebaker Hoch
• The Real Frank Zappa Book (1989): Kaiser Henry J
• "FZ's Cadillac Extravaganza"

"Do you like my new car?"

"Do you like my new car?" is a phrase that, just like "What's a girl like you doin' in a place like this?", is often used by characters in Zappa's work as an implicit sexual advance. Unlike the other line, however, it is always used in connection with groupies, as in the "Groupie Routine" of the Flo & Eddie years (which even appears under the title "Do You Like My New Car?" on the Fillmore East, June 1971 album).

The line also appears in the song "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy" on 200 Motels (1971), where it retains its groupie context ("She's such a dignified lady, / She's so pretty and soft. / You can't call her a groupie, / It just pisses her off"). Additionally, the backing vocals cite several makes of cars towards the end of the song ("It's a Bently, / It's a Cooper, / It's a Chevy, / Or a Lincoln").

Related CC Clues

• Motorcycles (CC)
• Studebaker Hawk (CC)