Blogcritics: Comments on Frank Zappa "Brown Shoes Don't Make It"

Comment by Bill Sherman

Thu, 1 May 2003 17:02:39 EDT

"We see in the back of the City Hall mind" You're probably right on that mildly misheard lyric, Dave, but either way it still places the lyrical focus on the fantasizing mind of the song's subject. Neat Zappa gif.

Comment by Dave

Thu, 1 May 2003 16:28:21 EDT

Here's

...some more material on B.S.D.M.I., focusing more on the music than the lyrics.

Comment by Dave

Thu, 1 May 2003 16:24:06 EDT

"We see in the back of the City Hall mind"

Comment by Bill Sherman

Thu, 1 May 2003 09:59:12 EDT

And one more thing (okay, here's where I get obsessive in supporting my interpretation), the girl of our anti-hero's dreams doesn't start out being his daughter, but changes into her halfway through the fantasy. "If she were my daughter I'd - ," our lecher muses, while a previously unheard li'l girl voice chirps up with "What would you do, Daddy?" The answer – smother her in chocolate syrup – is sung as both "girl" and "daughter" by the band at the same time: we're hearing the guy revise his sordid masturbatory fantasy as he creates it.

Comment by Bill Sherman

Thu, 1 May 2003 09:47:24 EDT

The lines that tell me otherwise (they're not reprinted in the album's lyric sheet, interestingly) are: "We see in the back of the city, a mind; A dream of a girl about thirteen: Off with her clothes and into a bed Where she tickles his fancy all night long." Zappa was definitely capable of being literal about sex in his songs, but I still think this 'un is more ambiguous. A great composition either way, though. . .

Comment by Al Barger

Wed, 30 Apr 2003 16:32:07 EDT

Oh no. It's intended quite literally except for the specifically wishful fantasy "I'd like to make her do a nasty on the White House lawn." Note that the wife is gone (attending an orchid show). Note the reference to the girl's misery: "She's only 13 and I hear she gets loaded." That's not his fantasy, that's the negative impact of his depravity.

Comment by Bill Sherman

Wed, 30 Apr 2003 10:58:24 EDT

But does the dirty ol' politico of "Brown Shoes" really do the deed with that nastynastynasty li'l girl? Zappa's not that clear: we're told it's a "dream of a girl about thirteen," and that we're entering a "world of secret hungers/perverting the men who make your laws." I've always taken the song as tis slimewad's fantasy ("I'm gonna make her do the nasty on the White House lawn"), not the more explicit pervo realization that we got in later period Zappa. . .