Montana (Frank Zappa song)

Montana is a song composed by Frank Zappa for his 1973 LP Over-Nite Sensation. The last track on the album is one of Zappa's most famous and renowned compositions. Its main features are the drum fills at the beginning and the appearance of Tina Turner and the Ikettes's backing vocals throughout the entire track, notably on the middle and ending sections.

Song structure

Montana is structured in an unorthodox way (intro-verses-chorus-solo-middle section-verses-outro). The lyrics, sung by Zappa in a humorous manner, talk about a person who decides to go to Montana to grow "a crop of dental floss," mounting a pony named "Mighty Little." He dreams to become a "dental floss tycoon," by commercialising it. The verses are filled with pseudo-ranch pronunciation and are intended to be very lighthearted.

At 1:55, right after the chorus, Zappa plays a long guitar solo. Then, there's a complex middle section with vocals (performed by Tina Turner & The Ikettes, uncredited) backed by percussion, singing some of the verses. Zappa follows singing the last verses and finally there's the coda, where the line from the chorus ("Moving to Montana soon...," sung by Tina Turner and the Ikettes) is repeated constantly and answered by a high-pitched "Yippy-Aye-O-Ty-Ay" (sung by Kin Vassy). This goes on until it fades out towards the six-and-a-half minute mark.

Live

Montana quickly became a fan favorite and was often played live, especially during the 1973-1975, 1982, 1984 and 1988 tours. On stage, Zappa often altered the lyrics of the song and sometimes even the structure, to great extent. The version featured on You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 2, ("Whipping Floss") is an example of when he did this. Before the song starts, a fan asks them to play The Allman Brothers Band's song "Whipping Post." Frank jokes with the audience that they do not know the tune, Frank (after playing a couple of jokes on the guy and the audience) chooses to play "Montana" instead, yet he alters the lyrics, which later forces George Duke and Napoleon Murphy Brock to pay attention with the vocal backing (and they do fumble at one part). Meanwhile, at the beginning of the song, the band starts playing very fast, which causes Ruth Underwood and Chester Thompson to stumble at the drum fill, leading to more jokes from the rest of the band. The end of the song is a very long guitar solo, that around 9:55 turns into some kind of funk jam, and finally segues into a short version of "Big Swifty."

Other

The song (with the solo edited out) was the B-Side of "I'm The Slime" (1973) and many years later, put on the Strictly Commercial compilation.

According to Barry Miles' biography Zappa, Tina Turner was so impressed with a rough cut of the song, she volunteered herself and her backup singers to sing the "raising my lonely dental floss" backups on the song. Afterwards, Tina called her then-husband Ike Turner into the studio to listen. According to Miles, Ike listened for about a minute, declared, "What the hell is this shit?" and left.

References

• Allmusic.com review of the song
• Song Lyrics
• Lyrics of the Whipping Floss version, including the request that started it
• Description of Zappa's bands during 1973-1974
• Zappa commenting about Tina Turner and the Ikettes (Spanish)