Talk:Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance

Not entirely convinced by the following:

Duncan 14:12, 21 Mar 2006 (PST)

There is an interesting link between this song and Irving Berlin's tune Puttin' on the Ritz. The musical theme of both songs starts of with five repitions of three notes: (d-)G-Bb-D in Puttin' on the Ritz and G-Bb-C in Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance (cf. this score of Zappa's tune). In both songs, the rhythmic structure of these simple melodies is organised in such as way that the main beat is on a different place in each repitition. As we are told from the liner notes in The Lost Episodes, Zappa wrote the melody during a period in which he was playing jazz regularly, so he might very well be inspired by Irving Berlin's tune which is well-known as a jazz standard.

As for the text, Puttin' on the Ritz is also about clothing, though with a diametrically opposite gist as in Zappa's text. The title Puttin' on the Ritz apparently derives from an American English slang expression meaning "to dress very fashionably". This song is all about fashion, money and glamour:

If you're blue and you don't know where to go to why don't you go where fashion sits: Puttin' on the Ritz
Different types who wear a day coat pants with stripes and cutaway coat perfect fits: Puttin' on the Ritz
Dressed up like a million-dollar trooper
Tryin' hard to look like Gary Cooper (super duper)
Come let's mix where Rockefellers walk with sticks or um-ber-ellas in their mitts: Puttin' on the Ritz

In typical zappaesque fashion, the last few lines of Zappa's song reverse this image: if you don't have the money to dress up, then take your clothes off.