Po-Jama People

"Po-Jama People" is a song composed by Frank Zappa and featured on his 1975 album "One Size Fits All". The original closer of that LP's Side A, it's a relatively straigh­tforward blues-rock song with a strong focus on Zappa's guitar playing and his band's musical abilities and with a rather lightweight social satire on its lyrics.

History

"Po-Jama People" wasn't one of Zappa's compositions he held in high regard, something that helps to explain why the piece wasn't played on his gigs. It was probably written during the 1973-1974 tour (with the so-called "Roxy band"), tested live a few times (the first time at Gothenburg, Sweden, on September 25, 1974), then recorded for "One Size Fits All", and quickly forgotten. In the context of that LP, "Po-Jama People" may be seen as a song whose function is to create a contrast with the more high-flying songs, like "Inca Roads" or "Andy".

Structure

"Po-Jama People" is, at least in Frank Zappa's terms, pretty much a simple rock song. It starts with Zappa playing a succession of fast hammer-ons and pull-offs on his guitar, not unlike Jimmy Page's guitar solo on Led Zeppelin's "Heartbreaker", while George Duke and Chester Thompson play some piano and drum fills as an accompaniment. Then, the proper song starts off with a straigh­tforward blues-rock structure. After a few verses and the chorus have been sung, a brief outro with marimba and guitar is played and Zappa starts his guitar solo, a succession of notes played very fast. At around 5:10, the solo ends and the chorus is reprised, this time with heavily featured backing vocals, most of them in a goofy manner. This goes on until it gradually fades out, clocking in at seven minutes and thirty-nine seconds. The lyrics describe various groups of people within society using the analogy of people wearing pajamas. The main target of the song's satire are the ignorant, those wearing "cozy little footies on their minds".

Other Aspects

While "Po-Jama People" is often considered as one of the songs in "One Size Fits All" which are not very serious, it does hold some noteworthy aspects. For instance, as well as Zappa's solo featured on it, there's also the accompaniment played by his band, this time being just piano, bass and drums. At 5:05, for example, when Zappa briefly slows down the pace of his solo, the band slows down as well, in a great example of improvisation. The tightness of the band can be heard throughout the entire track, and there are many other examples.Also worthy of notice are Zappa's vocals, which are sung with his famous technique of singing very close to the microphone, with his deep voice. The backing vocals of Napoleon Murphy Brock and George Duke towards the end, while absolutely ludicrous, are also interesting.

References

* [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=&sql=33:fpd7yxm1xpsb "Allmusic".com review of the song]
* [http://globalia.net/donlope/fz/lyrics/One_Size_Fits_All.html#Pojama Song lyrics]
* [http://www.arf.ru/Notes/Osfa/poja.html Notes and comments about the song, with a discussion about its meaning]