Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch
| Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch | ||||
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| Studio album by Frank Zappa | ||||
| Released | May 3, 1982 | |||
| Recorded | September 1981–April 1982 Live and at UMRK (studio tracks) | |||
| Genre | Hard rock, comedy rock, progressive rock, art rock | |||
| Length | 34:18 | |||
| Label | Barking Pumpkin | |||
| Producer | Frank Zappa | |||
| Frank Zappa chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch | ||||
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| Allmusic |   |
Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch is an album by Frank Zappa, released in May 1982 and digitally remastered in 1991. It features five tracks composed by Zappa, and one song, "Valley Girl", co-written with Moon Unit Zappa, his daughter, who provided the spoken monologue mocking some of the Valley girls at her school including "Gag me with a spoon!".
The album's first half consists of studio recordings, while the second half consists of live recordings; its vinyl configuration presented the studio recordings on the first side, while the second side was live.
Side 1 was recorded at Zappa's Utility Muffin Research Kitchen studio at his home in Los Angeles; while Side 2 consisted of live performances from Zappa's fall 1981 U.S. tour with studio overdubs. The live material was originally intended for an unreleased double album titled Chalk Pie, which was scrapped after Zappa's label requested a single album instead.
The cover art for the album shows the classic Droodle, by artist Roger Price (from which the album gets its name), whose shapes also suggest the letters 'ZA' (and 'P', sideways), as in 'Zappa'.
The song "Drowning Witch" is one of the most complex instrumentals that Zappa ever wrote, featuring musical quotations from The Rite of Spring by Stravinsky and the Dragnet TV theme. Zappa commented that the album version included 15 edits between live performances from different cities.
Zappa's band for the fall 1981 and summer 1982 tours, which he would continue to feature on the next few albums and the You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore series, included Ray White on rhythm guitar and vocals, Steve Vai on guitar, Tommy Mars on keyboards, Bobby Martin on keyboards, sax and vocals, Ed Mann on percussion, Scott Thunes on bass and Chad Wackerman on drums. For studio sessions, he also used past band members including vocalists Ike Willis, Bob Harris and Roy Estrada and bassists Arthur Barrow and Patrick O'Hearn.
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