Line #8 Music/ShipArrivingTooLateToSaveADrowningWitch


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/b399910fc451e2fdf72f5bf8969c72d3.JPG]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350: ''Grody to the max!'']]
3
4	''Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch'' is a 1982 album by Music/FrankZappa. It is best remembered for "Valley Girl", a satirical novelty single featuring by Zappa's then 14-year old daughter Moon Unit, targeting [[ValleyGirl a specific kind of girls who live in the San Fernando Valley in California]] and who speak a specific "slang". Unexpectedly it became Zappa's biggest hit in the USA, reaching #32 on the Hot 100 - his only Top 40 placement - and even becoming a pop culture phenomenon that inspired a lot of merchandising sold by and bought by [[MisaimedFandom people who clearly didn't get the joke]]. As a result "Valley Girl" became a BlackSheepHit for Zappa, atypical of his usual eclectic music, and inspiring the kind of sociological trends he actually hated. He never performed it live either.
5
6	Apart from "Valley Girl" is generally not regarded as one of Zappa's more memorable albums, though "No Not Now" and "Drowning Witch" are fan favorites.
7
8	The album cover is a droodle cartoon by Roger Price. Zappa got permission to use his original picture.
9
10	!!Tracklist
11	[[AC:Side One]]
12	# "No Not Now" (5:50)
13	# "Valley Girl" (4:50)
14	# "I Come From Nowhere" (6:20)
15
16	[[AC:Side Two]]
17	# "Drowning Witch" (12:01)
18	# "Envelopes" (2:44)
19	# "Teen-Age Prostitute" (2:40)
20
21	!!Personnel
22	* Music/FrankZappa: vocals, guitar
23	* Music/SteveVai: guitar
24	* Ray White: vocals, rhythm guitar
25	* Tommy Mars: keyboards
26	* Bobby Martin: vocals, keyboards, saxophone
27	* Ed Mann: percussion
28	* Scott Thunes, Arthur Barrow, Patrick O' Hearn: bass
29	* Chad Wackerman: drums
30	* Roy Estrada, Ike Willis, Bob Harris, Lisa Popeil, Moon Unit Zappa: vocals
31
32	!! ''Barf Out! Trope Me With A Spoon!''
33	* AlbumTitleDrop: "Drowning Witch"
34	--> ''There's a ship arriving too late to save a drowning witch''
35	* AlliterativeTitle: "'''N'''o '''N'''ot '''N'''ow".
36	* AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: "Drowning Witch"
37	--> ''She could mutate insanely''
38	--> ''You know, she could go on the freeway and grow up to be 15 feet tall''
39	--> ''And scary-lookin' ''
40	--> ''And then ...''
41	--> ''Cars could crash all over the place''
42	--> ''As a result of people with Hawaiian shirts on ...''
43	--> ''Lookin' up to see her face''
44	--> ''Sardines in her eyebrows ...''
45	--> ''Lobsters up 'n down her forehead''
46	--> ''All of them HORRIBLY LARGE FROM RADIATION ...''
47	--> ''And smelling very bad and DANGEROUS!''
48	* BlackComedy: "Teen-Age Prostitute", about a seventeen year old prostitute who ran away from home from her uncaring parents and is treated "like a dog" by her pimp.
49	* CallBack and ContinuityNod:
50	** "No Not Now" mentions the lines "those cowboy pants" and "the waitress", referencing "Lonesome Cowboy Burt" from ''Film/TwoHundredMotels''. The "trans-continental hobby-horse" mentioned in the song would reappear during "Truck-Driver's Divorce" from ''Music/ThemOrUs'' (1984).
51	** "No Not Now" appeared twice on ''Music/ThingFish'' (1984), once under its original title and second as "Won Ton On" (which is the same track played backwards).
52	** "Valley Girl" mentions the conceptual continuity item leather, as well as orthodonics (see "Dental Hygiene Dilemma" on ''Film/TwoHundredMotels'' and "Montana" from ''Music/OverNiteSensation'')
53	--> ''Could you just picture me in like a leather teddy?''
54	** "Drowning Witch" uses B-movie imagery, something referenced a lot in his work, by imagining a witch growing to enormous size. The final line also mentions ritual sacrifice, which brings in mind "Ritual Sacrifice Of The Young Pumpkin" from ''Music/AbsolutelyFree''.
55	** "Envelopes" would be performed again in a different arrangement on ''Music/LondonSymphonyOrchestra'' (1984).
56	** The parents in "Teenage Prostitute" don't care about their daughter, which is a common theme in many Zappa songs, including on ''Music/WereOnlyInItForTheMoney''.
57	* ComicallyMissingThePoint: "Valley Girl"
58	--> ''I do not talk funny, I'm sure.''
59	--> ''What's the matter with my talk?''
60	* EpicRocking: The 6:20 "I Come From Nowhere" and the 12:01 "Drowing Witch".
61	* EvilLaugh: "Drowning Witch" features a few halfway the work.
62	* GreenAesop: "Drowning Witch"
63	--> ''She's on the ocean floor''
64	--> ''And the water's all green down there''
65	--> ''And it's not very clean down there''
66	* IntercourseWithYou: "No Not Now" about a girl who "can't decide who she wants to ride" and "goes up and down on a bull".
67	* {{Instrumentals}}: "Envelopes".
68	* LiveAlbum: The second half of the album are live recordings.
69	* MinimalisticCoverArt: The cover is a droodle.
70	* MundaneMadeAwesome: It's fairly obvious that the lyrics of "Drowning Witch" were just written to fit the theme of the droodle on the album cover. Yet the music itself is impressively complex.
71	* MyCountryTisOfTheeThatISting: "Drowning Witch"
72	--> ''Now even a witch oughta be caught''
73	--> ''On the bottom of America's spew-infested waterways, hey-hey''
74	--> ''She could get radiation all over her''
75	--> ''She could mutate insanely''
76	* OneWordTitle: "Envelopes".
77	* PackagedAsOtherMedium: The cover looks like a droodle.
78	* TheRunaway: "Teen-Age Prostitute"
79	--> ''She ran away from home''
80	--> ''Here mom was destitute''
81	--> ''Her daddy doesn't care''
82	--> ''She's a teenage prostitute''
83	* ShoutOut:
84	** "No Not Now" has the line "Book 'Em, Dano!", which was a recurring phrase in the police series ''Series/HawaiiFiveO''.
85	* SpecialGuest: Lisa Popeil, whose track "Lisa's Life Story" would appear on Zappa's "You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Volume 6" (1992). On her debut album, "Lisa Popeil" (1984) Music/SteveVai was guest musician. She would go on to become a regular backup singer for Music/WeirdAlYankovic.
86	* SpokenWordInMusic: Zappa sings "Drowning Witch" in "Sprechstimme" technique, where one combines singing with talking.
87	* StepfordSmiler: "I Come From Nowhere"
88	--> ''I come from nowhere''
89	--> ''And you should go there''
90	--> ''Just try it for a while''
91	--> ''The people from nowhere always smile''
92	--> ''Their eyes are all frozen over''
93	--> ''The sides of their faces pooch out at the corners''
94	--> ''Because that's what happens when their mouths turn up on both sides''
95	--> ''Which is why we can tell they're smiling''
96	* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Zappa's teenage daughter Moon Unit does the lead vocals of "Valley Girl".
97	* TakeThat: "Valley Girl", aimed at female inhabitants of the San Fernando Valley in California and their typical speak.
98	--> ''She's a valley girl and there is no cure!''
99	* TooDumbToLive: "Valley Girl"
100	--> ''Tosses her head 'n' flips her hair''
101	--> ''She got a whole bunch of nothing in there''

Context Music / ShipArrivingTooLateToSaveADrowningWitch