Later That Night

Lyrics

You surely must be trying
To break this heart of mine
I thought you knew I loved you
And we'd share a love so fine

But later that night
(You threw a) padlock on my door
(My) clothes out on the street
('Cause you) don't want my love no more

And I cryyyd
I-I-I cryyyd
Oh, I cried
(I cried)
My heart out
Cried
(I cried)
My heart out
Later that night

You surely must be trying
To break this heart of mine
I thought you knew I loved you
And we'd share a love so fine

But later that night
(You threw a) padlock on my door
(You threw my) clothes out on the street
('Cause you) don't want my love no more

And I cryyyd
I-I-I cryyyd
I cried
(I cried)
My heart out
Cried
My heart out
Later that night

(Spoken)
Don't go baby, don't put me out on the street. You threw my best sharkskin suit out on the lawn, right on top of some dog waste (I hold in my hand three letters from the stages of your fine, fine, super-fine career . . . ) and my best white shirts with the Mr. B collar laying all over the front lawn. Where's my cuff links? Lemme back in dere. Dere? Ha!

"Huffa puffa, Huffa puffa
There's no room to breathe in here"

"That's alright honey. You can come out of the closet now"

Players On This Song

CRUISING WITH RUBEN & THE JETS version

• Frank Zappa (Lead guitar and vocals)
• Ray Collins (lead vocals)
• Roy Estrada (Electric bass and vocals),
• Jimmy Carl Black (Drums)
• Arthur Dyer Tripp III (Drums)
• Ian Underwood (Keyboards and Tenor & alto sax)
• Don Preston (Keyboards)
• Jim "Motorhead" Sherwood (Baritone sax and tambourine),
• Bunk Gardner (Tenor & alto sax)

1984 Remix:

• Jay Anderson (String bass)
• Arthur Barrow (Bass)
• Chad Wackerman (drums)

Notes About This Song

At the end of "Later That Night," Ray pays tribute to either Ruth Brown’s "Three Letters" or the Velvetones’ "Glory of Love" (or both). He then laughs at his own exaggerated soulful pronunciation of the word "there." Frank theatrically gulps some air; "There’s no room to breathe in here!" he complains from the vocal booth. This might be left in to indicate the suffocating pop formula, the dry timbre of the vocals (in the liberated atmosphere of the future reissue, the song will fade out before Frank starts his gasping), and/or the fascism that he likes to warn about detecting in the USA's governmental and corporate actions, considering that plenty of songs deal with poisoned air -- "Billy The Mountain," "San Ber'dino" and "Wind Up Workin' In A Gas Station" are just three -- and that the latter associates concentration camps and Nazi tactics (referred to in the liner notes of Money, the 200 Motels film and many Zappa lyrics) with the subtle psychological "torturing" of citizens by the government and media as they sell lifestyles and products based on "perfect human" images (the Zoot Allures album deals heavily with aberrant sexual practices and explains that the torture never stops). After all, Rays phrase "right on top of some dog waste" ties in with the title of Uncle Meat’s "Dog Breath, in the Year of the Plague" (another reference to breath, of course), and the character in the final Ruben song, "Stuff Up The Cracks," threatens to kill himself with poisonous gas. Ray also refers to his "shirts with the Mr. B collar," a collar that was patented by bandleader and trumpeter Billy Eckstine, whose button configuration gave the neck room to swell.

CC Clues In This Song

• References Dogs and Collars