The Duke of Prunes

**The Duke of Prunes** is the second track of Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention's second album *Absolutely Free* and the first track of The Duke of Prunes Suite. It was recorded for *Run Home Slow* in 1962 (released in the movie in 1965) and released on the first *Mystery Disc* in 1985. It was commonly recorded as an orchestral version (called "The Duke of Orchestral Prunes" on *Lather*). It is listed as track 2a on physical editions.

## Background

In 1962, Frank Zappa recorded the soundtrack to a film titled *Run Home Slow*, released in 1965. That movie featured the melody of the A-section of what would become "The Duke of Prunes" in 1967. The original song, brought in to record on November 16, 1966. The original title was "And Very True", as it was the 'Love Theme' in *Run Home Slow*. However, by 1966 Frank hated simple love ballads. Vocalist Ray Collins knew that and made up new words for the song.

For the ad-libs, Collins was credited as "PRUNE" on the album. The song was originally very dirty, Frank explained, but Collins replaced dirty words with very Mothers words like prunes, cheese, and go-kart.

The song alternates from F Lydian and G Lydian, creating a surreal atmosphere. It repeats the main verse twice, once slow with clean electric guitar finger-picked by Frank, and the second faster with distorted guitar played rhythmically, again, by Frank. The fast part is in C Lydian, with Frank contributing backing vocals. It marks his first "Oh no!" on the album at 1:47.

After Ray Collins left the band for good in 1968, it started being performed as an instrumental in May 1970 paired with "Who Needs the Peace Corps?" and then in September 1972 it was performed on its own without "Who Needs the Peace Corps?". It was never performed with "Amnesia Vivace" or "The Duke Regains His Chops" by The Mothers live.

### Versions

**Track 4 – *Orchestral Favorites* – 4:20**

Frank started to perform the song with an orchestra in probably about June 1975. A performance at Royce Hall in Los Angeles, California, was meant to be released on the original version of *Lather*, but when that album was shelved in 1977, Frank released the performance on his orchestral album in 1979 titled *Orchestral Favorites*. It is the only album on the record where Frank plays lead electric guitar.

**Disc 3, Track 10 – *Orchestral Favorites (40th Anniversary)* – 5:40**

Another performance was released from September 18, 1975 (also at the Royce Hall) that was about a minute longer on the 40th anniversary version of *Orchestral Favorites*, along with the rest of the shows on that date.

## Personnel

*Absolutely Free*

* Ray Collins – lead vocals (as **The Duke of Prunes**)
* Frank Zappa – lead guitar, backing vocals
* Roy Estrada – bass
* Billy Mundi – drums
* Don Preston – keyboards
* Bunk Gardner – flute
* Jimmy Carl Black – timpani

*Orchestral Favorites*

* Frank Zappa – lead guitar
* The Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra – orchestra

*Mystery Disc*

* Frank Zappa – conductor
* Chuck Foster – trumpet
* Ron Myers – trombone
* Chick Carter – flute, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone
* Don Christlieb – bassoon
* Pete Christlieb – tenor saxophone
* John Mitchell – baritone saxophone
* Chuck Domanico – bass
* John Guerin – drums

## Project/Object clues

* Prunes

Roy Collins plays the character The Duke of Prunes.

* Oh no!

Frank says "Oh no!" at 1:47.