For Calvin (And His Next Two Hitch-Hikers)

Lyrics

Where did they go?
When did they come from?
What has become of them now?
How much was the leakage
From the drain in the night
And who are those dudes
In the back seat of Calvin's car?

Where did they go?
When they got off the car?
Did they go get a sandwich
And eat in the dark?

Players On This Song

VOCALS

• Janet Neville-Ferguson
• Sal Marquez

WOODWINDS

• Mike Altschul
• Earle Dumler
• Tony "Bat Man" Ortega
• JoAnn Caldwell McNab
• Johnny Rotella
• Fred Jackson

BRASS

• Sal Marquez
• Malcolm McNab
• Bill Byers
• Ken Shroyer
• Ernie Tack

PERCUSSION

• Bob Zimmitti
• Alan Estes

MINIMOOG

• Don Preston

GUITARS

• Frank Zappa
• Tony Duran

BASS

• Erroneous

DRUMS

• Aynsley Dunbar

Albums In Which This Song Has Appeared

• The Grand Wazoo

Notes About This Song

• "The True Story of Calvin & His Hitch-hikers" by Cal Schenkel:

"My 39 Pontiac was in the shop & so I had borrowed a car from Frank. It was this 1959 white Mark VIIII Jaguar that used to belong to Captain Beefheart that Janet was using at the time. When it worked. You know, the one they slashed the seats in (but I don't remember that). I just left Frank's house & I'm stopped at the corner of Mulholland & Laurel Canyon Blvd waiting for a red light to change, when I notice these 2 hitch-hikers, a hippie couple standing there waiting for a ride. The next thing I know they are getting in the back of the car. I guess they must have thought I offered them a ride (I didn't tell them to come into my car or motion them or anything-- I wasn't even thinking of it), so I ask them where they are going & they didn't say ANYTHING! I drive down Laurel Canyon Blvd past the Log Cabin, past Harry Houdini's, past the country store & into Hollywood. (I'm with Sherri at the time, but I forgot that until she told me a couple of months ago-- & she remembers all this too!) I get to the bottom of the hill, I was going to turn right. I kind of asked them "look I'm turning right, do you want to get out here?" They didn't say anything. They were just blank. I figured they were on acid or something. I just couldn't communicate with them. I wasn't sure what to do, so I just continued on to my destination. When I get there I said, "OK, this is where I'm going. Good-bye!" They just stayed in the car & didn't get out. So I parked the car, got out & went up to my studio & started to work. I was working on the album cover for Uncle Meat. This is in my studio that was a dentist's office over a hotdog joint on Melrose. Every once in a while I'd look out of the window to see if they were gone but they were still sitting in the back seat of the car. An hour or two later, I looked out the window & I noticed they were gone. I thought, "finally!" Then shortly afterwards, I saw that they were back! They went to the supermarket for a loaf of bread & lunchmeat & started making sandwiches in the back of the car. They were eating their lunch! Then they left."

• FZ on "For Calvin (And His Next Two Hitch-Hikers)": (from The Complete History Of The Few Last Weeks Of The Mothers Of Invention (1972))

"This is dedicated to Calvin Schenkel, a long-time friend who has been responsible to a large extent for anything graphic/visual associated with the M.O.I. (from album covers to billboards to the animated sequence in 200 Motels).
There are lyrics to this piece (which has already been recorded and is set for a fall release in the impending Grand Wazoo album), but we are performing an instrumental version for these concerts. The story depicted in the lyrics refers to a mysterious "Schenkel Mirage" which occurred while he was driving to work. The details are a bit deep, but perhaps you can use your imagination and extrapolate a situation from the text."