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album reviews

Frank Zappa



Freak Out 8½ ( 1966 )
Hungry Freaks, Daddy / I Ain't Got No Heart / Who Are the Brain Police? / Go Cry on Somebody Else's Shoulder / Motherly Love / How Could I Be Such a Fool / Wowie Zowie / You Didn't Try to Call Me / Any Way the Wind Blows / I'm Not Satisfied / You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here / Trouble Every Day / Help, I'm a Rock / The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet

A pretty straightforward entry into the murky and delightful world of Zappa. Or so it would seem. At the time he thought this album might be a hit. You have easier songs. Doo Wop influenced songs. 'Don’t Cry On Somebody Else's Shoulder' is pretty straightforward. You know, it's pretty pleasant! But that's track four. First you have to navigate 'Hungry Freaks Daddy' which has a great guitar sound. 'I Aint Got No Heart' continues this rhythm and blues sound. At this point the listener who has never heard of Zappa is probably thinking 'Well it's ok.' Then we have 'Who Are The Brain Police'. Which is hardly the strangest cut here. But the vocals have of course been processed and made slightly weird. You know, for some people, that's their cue to switch off! It's pretty silly really to do that. But then, that's 'some people' for you. Personally I hate 'straight' vocals. I like my vocals to have character. These certainly have that. Of course, elsewhere on the album you actually have some pretty good singing. That's the beauty of it of course! They choose to do this! The music starts to take on a slightly hallucinogenic quality, too.

The album continues pretty much in this alternating vein. You have the great 'I'm Not Satisfied'. I love that song! 'You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here' which is maybe the first example of that speeded up complex percussion that Zappa does so well. I love that song, too. Of course, at the very end of this you have 'Return Of The Son Of Monster Magnet'. He liked his cheap monster and horror movies! The sound of jerking around, it's actually heavily arranged. If a load of semi musical literate drunks were let loose in a studio on $500 worth of rented percussion equipment, it's unlikely they'd produce anything quite this interesting. Overall, you can't really go too wrong with this album. Playing it to a Zappa novice won't bring you into contact with any violence as they try to wrestle the hi-fi control from you.

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Readers Comments Alan Brooks albrookscentury21@yahoo.com I agree with what the reviewer wrote above, including the rating of eight and one half points. Not only does 'Return Of The Son Of Monster Magnet' appear at the very end, but there are two more collages before it, 'Help I'm A Rock' and 'It Can't Happen Here'. All feature variable rhythm, vocal 'jungle' noises, and at times the sounds of a woman having sex in the background. Not bad at all for about twenty minutes of collage. I've been told John Lennon's 'Revolution 9' is just noise... but it isn't; neither is the conclusion of FREAK OUT. Iggy5878@aol.com i to agree ,except not mentioning 'trouble every day' which is a cool piece. question as well, my vinyl copy plays side 2 on side 3 and vica versa. any idea if it has any worth, i'd love to know. Hans Lund hans.lund@chello.se This album is superb. Every song but the "return of the son of the monster magnet" is a nine and a half. manlio frigo m.frigo@ludolex.com and what about the fascinating 3/4 how could I be such a fool and the sweetly aggressive motherly love. Don't forget It can't happen here evocating here and there luigi nono's atmospheres Luca highwaychile66@yahoo.co.uk I agree. But i think the best thing about this record is really just how cunning it is as a debut. The way Zappa just took the piss out of 60s pop guitar while loving it at the same time is incredible, if not hillarious. Superb. Spartacus spartacus6775@yahoo.com What a perfect way to start out Zappa's official career. after listening to zappa for about 3 years or so, i finally picked this one up (actually because of this review). i absolutely loved it. very political, but humorous at the same time. zappa was obviously an expert at bringing the two together. the whole change of time signatures with the same kind of "blabble" was perfect, and totally foreshadowed things to come later on in his life. i wish i woulda started off with this album, because it brings a little of his rock side, with his experimental side. great review, keep up the good work!

The production on this isn't at the expected standard for a Zappa release. As only his second album and with the record company evidently unsure of his commercial potential, the recording budget had been cut. The songs are pretty good though. 'Plastic People' starts off dumb. Of course! Can't let people off that easily! It's actually pretty funny as we are introduced to the president who of course starts emoting 'Louie Louie'. This leads nicely into the main of the song which isn't too far removed from 'Louie Louie' and other similar garage classics. This is a good song. The next three tracks are basically a suite. 'The Duke Of Prunes' suite. Three songs rolling together. At this point it's very evident that 'Absolutely Free' is a more avant garde and difficult listening experience than 'Freak Out'. But, you know. 'Easier' does not mean 'good'. And 'difficult' does not mean 'bad'. Frequently it's actually the other way round. The record that reveals it's charms slowly or maybe even repulses you on first listen often goes on to become a cherished favourite. 'Call Any Vegetable' is kind of silly.

You may have realised at this point. I'm not going to be doing any deep analysis into the meaning behind these songs. Zappa used so many obscure references in his lyrics I wouldn't know where to begin. And you know? I never do that anyway. I never sit down with any song and try to work it out like a crossword puzzle. You know, go do a crossword puzzle or read Shakespeare if that's your attitude! I like getting certain images from lyrics though. Zappa's give off some interesting images too! The CD release of this has 'Big Leg Emma' and 'Why Don'tcha Do Me Right?' as bonus tracks. 'Why Don'tcha Do Me Right?' is short but achieves a great sound! You know, this band weren't half bad? The second half of the album includes the sing a long 'Status Back Baby' and the statement of 'Brown Shoes Don't Make It' as highlights as well as the atmospheric 'America Drinks And Goes Home'.

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Readers Comments Barry Fagan bazfagan@einstein3.thphys.may.ie worth at least 9 1/2. i think it's better than freak out and at least as good as money, no matter what the budget. i like the idea of the two suites. the compositions are more sophisticated than on freak out or money. thanks. Alan Brooks albrookscentury21@yahoo.com This is not technically Zappa's best release; but it is my favorite. If I had to pick two Zappa discs as my favorites (which I wouldn't want to do) they would be ABSOLUTELY FREE as #1; and WE'RE ONLY IN IT FOR THE MONEY, #2. Neal Grosvenor neagr@xchg.medisys.ca I like this album better than "Freak Out" just for its sheer lunancy. From beginning to end, every song just seems to build on the general air of madness. Zappa and co. totally mean business on this one. They proved in 1967 that not only were that satirists, but they were satirists who could actually play anything they wanted. Hans Lund hans.lund@chello.se This was my first Mothers album which I bought in '67. It was the weirdest album I had at that time, but it had this feeling about it (which all good albums have) and I couldn't stop listening to it and it quickly became my number one (at that time). The first truly conceptional album, every song just floats into the next. But I don't like the 2 bonus songs in the middle of the CD (big leg emma & why don't you..) They don't belong to the album! The vinyl is much better as the two sides are like two complete songs. absolutely free poorroyschieder@hotmail.com Easily Zappas best album. May even be the best album of all time.Absolutely brilliant how it builds with each song/piece to the magnificent crescendo that is Brown shoes dont make it. Just when you think you're gonna get a chance to breath, along comes America drinks and goes home. The absolute best finale to ant record outside of Sgt. Peppers. Funny, catchy, and strangely sad. its sense of finality only makes me want to start the wholre thing from the beginning. A rating of 10, no wait, 11 , yeah thats right......11 out of 10. P.s. KILL UGLY RADIO rod rawdthyme@yahoo.fr My brother stole the vynl record from the York Miller in 1969 and passed it on to me. Since then I've been a huge fan of F.Z and the Mothers. Along with Hot Rats and Overnight Sensation it makes up the perfect trilogy. Three of a Perfect Pair anyone? Cheers! merph samarjkand salmonsm@missouri.edu Brown shoes don't make it is such a classic. and call any vegetable is my favorite zappa song ever. It just rubs itself in EVERYBODY's face. How can you not think it's genius? Aren't you surrounded by vegetables are I write/you read this? I know I am. 10 out of 10, recording quality be damned!

There's something people often miss about this record. Some of my fellow reviewers refuse to even acknowledge this as music, but if it's not music, what else is it? This is a SCORED ORCHESTRAL PIECE! OK, it's avant-garde, it's certainly not easy and the spoken dialogue and speech parts seem to make no coherent sense. But then, this is Zappa. But, hang on for a second. Frank had no kind of audience awaiting this release. The first two Mothers albums had sold well enough, but certainly neither were anything remotely resembling a best-seller, or enough to give Frank recognition beyond the underground scene. So, 'Lumpy Gravy'? Well, let's just see here....

0:00 - 0:05 : "The Way I See It Barry, this should be a very dynamite show"

0:06 - 1:37 : Very fast, typically Zappa instrumental music that sounds like a low-budget TV theme tune.

1:38 - 2:07 : A section of sweet orchestral music leading into the introduction of the following sequence

2:08 - 3:43 : An orchestral, instrumental version of the song 'Oh No' which would later appear on 'Weasels Ripped My Flesh' amongst others. This is gorgeous rendition of the piece, very strong melody. It ends with a what sounds like a farting noise.

3:43 - 3:58 : "A bit of nostalgia for the old folks", followed by some classical musique concrete

3:59 - 5:18 : "I'm Advocating dark clothes" / "If I'm not alone....how long have I been asleep?" / "As long as I have" / "Did you ever live in a drum" / "No" / "Well then you weren't me" / "I only dreamt I lived in a drum, ever since it got dark, dreaming is hard" / "Yeah, but with nothing over your head?" / "No, just light, over my head, and underneath too" / "I don't think I could take it without anything over my head" / "Me neither" / "Well, why don't you go out and see what's out there?" / "Well, I don't know if that's what's out there" / "Now, that's a thought" / "Yes, but still you can say darker and darker" / "I don't know what the outside of this thing looks like at all" / "I do, it's dark, and murky" / "How, how do you get your water so dark?" / "Cos I'm paranoid, I'm very paranoid, and the water in my washing machine turns dark, out of sympathy" / "Out of sympathy?" / "Yes" / "Where can I get that?" / "At your local drug store" / "How much?" / "It's from Kansas"

5:19 - 5:46 : Speeded up, crackly circus music, complete with vinyl hisses, etc

5:47 - 6:19 : Pots and pans? Lots of avant-garde classical stuff here and a speech segment "Bored out over 90"

6:20 - 6:21 : "Almost Chinese, huh?" / "Yeah"

6:22 - 6:28 : More avant-garde and musique concrete, plus dialogue "Cos I was making Two Seventy One an hour"

6:29 - 6:41 : A silly sounding instrumental sequence followed by daft noise effects.

6:42 - 6:52 : "I keep switching girls all the time, because if I'm able to find a girl and a really groovy car I can build up, I'll go steady with her for awhile until I can build up a car and blow up the engine"

6:53 - 9:17 : Percussion and orchestral parts with speeded up sequences throughout reverting back to the 'Oh No' sequence of music but in a different variation

9:18 - 11:06 : A long sequence of speech backed by drums and quiet background noises. It seems to be about a guy working in a gas station. Yup, basically that's it. I was going to transcribe this whole segment of speech purely by listening to the CD, but I gave up. I'm only human, and only have so much patience and time!

11:07 - 11:58 : A harmonica and a garage rock band make a racket for a while! Someone starts coughing, snorting. Little tinkle keyboard, bell sounds, followed by fast, speeded up drums and percussion. A trumpet. More snorting and coughing.

11:59 - 13:09 : A flute, ominous sounding drums, more avant-garde orchestra stuff.

13:10 - 14:17 : A beautiful instrumental passage played by the orchestra followed by more speeded by circus cartoon music ending in an explosion of musique concrete.

14:18 - 15:51 : Drums, flute, more orchestral avant-garde. Strings, the works!

Well, that's 'Part One' of 'Lumpy Gravy'. Part two is similar in structure, although for some reason, not quite as enjoyable. The whole thing ends with an instrumental, slightly cheesy take on 'Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance' from 'We're Only In It For The Money'. This album is reportedly 'Phase 2' of 'We're Only In It For The Money', and there you have it. And, actually, writing out all those parts for the first side of this album - it almost makes no sense whatsoever! That's 'Lumpy Gravy', but it is unique, even within Franks vast catalogue. It was also a personal favourite of Franks. It's not quite a personal favourite of mine, but I do enjoy listening to this perhaps more than I should.

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Readers Comments Alan Brooks albrookscentury21@yahoo.com I have mixed sentiments for LUMPY GRAVY. I only listen to the first several minutes of this collage recording. During those few minutes there are snippets of serious music as exciting as anything Stravinsky ever did and interesting dialogue concerning living in a drum...paranoia...dark water in a washing machine...your local drugstore and Kansas. However, the disc lags for me after that, and I switch the CD player off without finishing. I give 10 points for the first few minutes, 4 for the rest: LUMPY GRAVY as a whole gets 7. Dan Watkins dan_watkins@hotmail.com I like this one a lot! The dialog stuff get a little old after a while, but the orchestral stuff is great. The "Oh No" bits are beautiful, and that little snippet of "King Kong" is really cool. I can understand other people not liking this album too much, but I first heard this at the tender age of 10, and I have a very special place in my heart for it. Hans Lund hans.lund@chello.se This is one album that was very hard to listen through but it grows on you (after a dozen listenings). The album is built almost like "absolutely free" with "one" song on each side of the l.p. It came out after "absolutely" so that may be the reason. I never understood the phrase "is this part two of we're only in it for the money?" on the cover until that album came out a few month later... Russ russ@josephsons.org I like this record. My theory is that Frank Zappa thought of himself as a revolutionary, like Igor Stravinsky, who he idolized. But there was no uproar and later acknowledgement of genius with Frank's music like what happened when Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" debuted. I think that this always disappointed Frank. Gabriel Artur maciel@solar.com.br When I bought Lumpy Gravy I really couldn't get into it. The album was forgotten for some months. One day I decided to give it another shot and it clicked. I can't say what happened, but today I love it. In fact if I play it to someone and the person manages to dig it I know we must have lots of other stuff in common. dummytree dummytree@caramail.com Well, it's weird that people find Lumpy Gravy so complicated.I got it when i was 13 (as the second part of the 84 CD issue of "Only in it for the Money")and was fascinated by its weirdness at first listening and listened to it a lot on my own, with headphones.Now, some 12 years later, i can hum every upcoming part and recite all those goofy spoken words :-) I can analyse it better now, but i'll never forget the first impression i had with that album. serious prehensile freka@demsa.com if you guys have not figured out the speach/music continuum in Franks work... then you've pretty much missed the whole point: anything is MUSIC! NO ONE can tell YOU where it begins or stops. This is a HUGELY important album in FZ's conceptual continuity, so much so that it was clear to him that CPIII would be a nothing less than a continuation of it!!! EVERYTHING is connected in FZ's output! Lumpy Gravy is fully matured composition which breaks fully the music/speach barrier. This is a complete ear-opening/awakening experience... no prejudice here guys, just listen with every fiber of your being. FZ challenges here everything you are or ever likely to be. This step is repeated and expanded beyond anything imaginable in CPIII. This album is KEY to understanding FZ's entire creative approach.

The front sleeve cover parody of The Beatles 'Sgt Pepper' is misleading, in a way. It's quite funny though. You know, that's one sacred cow that needs to be brought down a peg or two. Frank saw that even back then. This is a masterpiece of an album. From start to finish. You really have to listen to it from start to finish as well. It works better that way. There is some wonderful and beautiful singing on this. Such as on 'Mom And Dad'. Where did that come from? The lyrics throughout this record are great too. The music of course is always inventive. 'Who Needs The Peace Corps?' is an example of this. 'Flower Punk' too which ends wonderfully. 'Let's Make The Water Turn Black' is a nursery rhyme sing a long with sinister undertones! I heard what this was meant to be about, but I may be wrong. I won't divulge but let's just say it's pretty disgusting and involves certain bodily fluids. And here, it's dressed up in psychedelic emperors new clothes! What a fantastic thing!

Some people have the misapprehension that Zappa's lyrics, especially on his later albums basically are nothing more than toilet humour. And that to enjoy the music you need to have a similar toilet sense of schoolboy humour. Which is absolutely ludicrous. He was documenting things that happen. They do happen! No one else would write about them. And the lyrics are never as straight forward as they seem, either. It's not like you're meant to be at a comedy show. You're meant to be enjoying the music and enjoying yourself. You would rather listen to Jefferson Airplane? Go right ahead! 'Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance' has a good melody and 'The Chrome Plated Megaphone Of Destiny' is another of those challenging blocks of sound, classically inspired but sounding like complete chaos and utter nonsense. I'd love to hear that on FM radio!

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Readers Comments Joe H. Amazing album. I love it from start to finish. Id give it a 10/10. There’s some really weird/beautiful tunes like "Mom And Dad", "Concentration Moon", "Mother People" and "Absolutely Free" ("Flower power sucks!"), and just plain weird, but scary (especially while under the influence of, a-hem "narcotics") like "Are You hung Up" and "The Chrome Plated Magaphone of Destiny", while awesome tunes like "Who Needs The Peace Corps", "Flower Punk" ("Punk" indeed!) and "What’s The Ugliest Part Of Your Body" really show the pissy, sarcastic but hilarious side of Zappa and The Mothers. Oh, and "Bow Tie Daddy" is a wonderful song for only 33 damn seconds! Once again, amazing album! Mooncrazy200@aol.com Agree! Amazing album, and definitely Zappa's best. The end of 'Who needs the peace corps' still makes me laugh hysterically, and 'Flower punk' still fucks my head up! Zappa was a genius, this album shows that. Alan Brooks albrookscentury21@yahoo.com WE'RE ONLY IN IT FOR THE MONEY is Zappa at his rather dark-sounding best. This is a 'must have' disc. Dan Watkins dan_watkins@hotmail.com This is another good one. In fact, it's probably the funnest Zappa album you can buy. The songs fly by so fast that it's impossible to get bored with it, and these melodies are catchy catchy catchy! Look out for the old 80's CD issue that is coupled with Lumpy Gravy though. It has re-recorded bass and drum tracks. Simon Brigham slb23@shaw.ca Four words: THIS IS GOOD ZAPPA. I have the Ryko CD version that has both We're Only In It For The Money and Lumpy Gravy on it. I read somewhere that they re-recorded the rythmn section parts for the album. I could do without the weird-ass instrumental songs like "Hot Poop", "Nasal Retentive Calliope Music" and "The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny". Also I don't really like "Flower Punk", "Let's Make the Water Turn Black", or "Idiot Bastard Son" either. Oh well. The short orchestral section at the end of "Mother People" is very beautiful. He should've made more music like that. (It also appears in Lumpy Gravy, too.) Hans Lund hans.lund@chello.se Yes it is a classic, but dated. It was hilarious when it came in '68, but satire works only in the right time. I liked the song but I have never liked the production. It is Zappas first self-produced record and I wish he had kept Tom Wilson as a producer. dummytree dummytree@caramail.com I still have to get a decent re-issue of "Only in it for the Money", it's too bad the rythm section had to be re-recorded for the first CD :-( But a great record, even in this controversial version. frank frankit@hotmail.com I love frank zappa. The way he put songs together , its seriously art. Were only in it for the money is my favorite album of all time , and its hard to say it since his made other records that are almost good as this one , like Hot Rats , Freak Out or my second favorite , Absolutly free. If you dont have this record , get it . NOW btw , best track is who needs the peace corps? adam adamg709@hotmail.com A timeless classic. After 35 years of owning this recording, I am still fascinated by it. The melodies are unequalled in rock music .If you don't have it, get it .

A doo-wop homage, plain and simple. Of course, Zappa being Zappa, he played up certain aspects of the musical form, exaggerating the harmonies and what have you. But, there is some solid, if un-ambitious music here. This is certainly no 'We're Only In It For The Money'. It seems a complete about-face, and not at all related to anything else in Zappa's catalogue. But then, he did more doo-wop style stuff than just this. Doo-wop is great! Oh, let's take the opening song, 'Cheap Thrills', one of the most enjoyable tracks here. It's bouncy, fun, and well done! Oh, an aside. The currently available CD versions of this album feature bass and drums parts re-recorded in the Eighties. Frank was unhappy with the sound-quality on the tapes or something, and saw this as an improvement. Others would disagree, I wouldn't know - not having heard the original. Anyway, I'm digressing. 'Love Of My Life' is a beautiful, greasy Doo-Wop ballad, complete with those funny, grin inducing exaggerated harmonies. It's a gorgeous song, and one of the few from this set Frank would continue to play live, at least in the Eighties. This album features a number of songs from 'Freak Out' re-recorded in a doo-wop style. Again, this is a reason some Zappa fans don't like this 'Crusin With Ruben And The Jets Record'. I'm in the perhaps fortunate position of having heard these renditions of 'How Could I Be Such A Fool', 'I'm Not Satisfied', 'Anyway The Wind Blows' and 'You Didn't Try To Call Me' before I heard the 'Freak Out' versions. Just judge them as different songs, okay? 'How Could I Be Such A Fool' is magnificent as rendered here! Very strong vocals. The others are all pretty entertaining, especially 'I'm Not Satisfied' with it's weary vocals, brass and guitar parts.

'Jelly Roll Gum Drop' refers to a certain Fifties hair style. That doesn't matter. What does matter is the genuine affection that comes through in the song, the catchy vocals and melodies, etc. 'Anything' is a slow, doo-wop ballad with great singing, 'Later That Night' including more daft backing vocals to make you grin. 'Fountain Of Love' rivals 'Love Of My Life' in terms of beauty and enjoyment. It does! Check these damn vocals Ray Collins turns in. Very fine vocals. 'No No No' is short and bouncy, the closing 'Stuff Up The Cracks' the closest we come here to the previous versions of The Mothers Of Invention. Then again, his next release would also be different. Why stay the same? This is a career! A whole lifetime of work! A project, an object. Whatever, just don't forget this little album here. It's no masterpiece, but there's nothing inherently WRONG with anything that's on this album, and I enjoy it a lot.

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Readers Comments Alan Brooks albrookscentury21@yahoo.com I give CRUISING WITH RUBEN AND THE JETS an 8, because though all the tracks are 'cretin' simple (as the sleeve notes put it) Doo-Wop, the album is consistently listenable-- there are no fillers. The standout track is 'Jelly Roll Gumdrop', which Ray Collins sang very well. 'Desiree', with its space-age vocal harmonies, was released as a single in 1968 (apparently not selling). My other favored track is the closing number, 'Stuff Up The Cracks', which has a saxophone solo that sobs intensely along with Collins. Dan Watkins dan_watkins@hotmail.com Wow. I'm surprised that the comments for this album are so positive. Most people don't like this one too much, but I dig it. With the exception of a few stinkers ("Fountain Of Love" and "No. No. No." come to mind), this stuff is really enjoyable. I absolutely LOVE "You Didn't Try To Call Me." I love what they did with the bridge (the "I can't say what's wrong or what's right" part) to that song. "I'm Not Satisfied" comes off great as well. Heck, I'd have to give this one an 8. Joe H jcjh@sparklingriver.com I LOVE this album! All the songs are really beautiful, and Ray Collins in particular has a wonderfully gorgeous voice which he hasn't gotten a chance to reveal previously or since (with some exceptions). The highlights are "I'm Not Satisfied" (Probably ironic lyrically, but i think they're some of the best "teenage alienation" lyrics ever written), the bridge to "You Didn't Try To Call Me", like Dan mentioned above which is very beautiful, "Desiree" (a wonderful catchy Beach Boys-esque pop song) and "Stuff Up The Cracks", which is possibly my favorite song on the album. The wah solo at the end is a brilliant end to an already awesome song. I can't help but give this a high high 9. It's consistantly awesome, and a great tribute to doo-wop that is totally normal and totally easy to get into. Even the hokey as hell "No No No" is very fun and catchy as hell, IMO. Hans Lund hans.lund@chello.se This is a bunch good of songs, but again Zappa should have let Tom Wilson produce it. And it didn't get better with the CD version. I hate that overdubbed bass & drums that he did on both "we're only.." and cruisin.." Paul Bridle, grandwazoo@mailblocks.com The CD version is the only Zappa CD that I do not play from my almost complete collection. The added drums etc ruin it. I find the original LP far more satsfying,

The front cover picture includes a set of teeth. This is important! The music contained within includes lots of 'chattering teeth' type percussion. The first CD contains tracks one to twenty two, lots of short instrumental pieces based on the melodic themes from two pieces here, 'Uncle Meat' and 'Dog Breath In The Year Of The Plague'. There are in fact only a couple of 'regular' mothers of invention songs that fans of the first three mothers album would be able to latch onto. One of these is the charming 'Electric Aunt Jemina' which includes treated vocals and a silly, happy bouncy melody that's hard to resist. 'Sleeping In A Jar' is only fifty seconds long, but long enough to stick in your brain. 'Mr Green Genes' would later be improved for release on the 'Hot Rats' album by ditching the vocals, speeding up the tracks and generally improvising around it's main melodic theme. 'The Air' is a lovely doo-wop type song done in the 'Cruisin With Ruben' style only not quite so straight.

The 'Uncle Meat Theme' provides a lot of the 'chattering teeth' type percussion. 'Dog Breath In The Year Of The Plague' is not only delightfully titled, but has a gorgeous melody and evocative lyrics evoking much fifties nostalgia. The problem isn't with these two tracks, but rather the instrumental variations of these tracks, which do get repetitive after the third or fourth variation. The second CD is largely given over to the epic 'King Kong'. Variations on a theme and a tour-de-force performance. Much of this album is fractured however and the repetitions of 'King Kong' don't help this. There are some fine moments here though, and a certain sense of adventure.

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Readers Comments Alan Brooks albrookscentury21@yahoo.com The review has it about right, UNCLE MEAT deserves a 7, as it contains too many mediocre tracks with lyrics that "only members of the band ever laugh at". The better "chamber-music" tracks, experiments, and funny dialogue all deserve 10. Zappa gave his imagination free rein here... which was still somewhat wild for 1969 (it wasn't until the Punk rockers flourished in the late '70s that the word 'wild' in pop-rock lost all meaning). I like 'Project X' and 'Cruising For Burgers' most of all; but some listeners will prefer, say, the satire of advertising that 'Electric Aunt Jemima' offers. Technical quality has been spiffed up to perfection. Dan Watkins dan_watkins@hotmail.com Hmmm... 7 is a little too low for me. Maybe an 8? You see, I like this album, but whenever I go back and actually listen to it, I notice a lot of stuff that I skip. I could live without all of the live stuff, with the exception of "King Kong." Most of the album is really good though. Both of the "Dog Breath" songs are excellent. I love the little poppy songs like "The Air" and "Sleeping In A Jar" too. The instrumental stuff is really good too, but it's not as interesting after repeated listens. Oh, and the bonus tracks on the CD are worthless. AVOID THE MOVIE LIKE THE PLAGUE! Neil Slade neil@neilslade.com Your ratings perplex me- as a musician and composer in a variety of realms. Frank's Golden age petered out around 1972. All downhill from there. Sterile production and comedy is not a substitute for soul and inspiration. I like Uncle Meat tremedously on a musical level. All his early period guitar solos are infinitely better than all his own Gnat Notes over boring repetitive technical accompaniments of the latter years. I am not impressed with technique as much as I am heart, and the latter albums have little of that. Jay Jensen jjensen@cossette.com I'm sure the old maxim that one man's floor is another's ceiling is true, but for me, anyone who claims to be a Zappa fan must recognize that the Uncle Meat album is a veritable cathedrale of sound. I've listen to it on a regular basis since it was first released on vinyl, that is for the past 35 years and it never ceases to astonish me. It maintains an inexplicable cohesiveness despite the abrupt changes in musical styles. All of the early Mothers albums were very strong, but certainly this one is the summit of Zappa's work during that period. I know I haven't given any specific reasons why I think it should rank so high; I wouldn't know where to begin - the sound, the beautiful complexity, the variation and mastery of diverse musical styles or that "beautiful noise" quality - how are those for starters? Lastly, I'm not one of those people that believes that all of Zappa's post original Mothers work is inferior to those first groundbreaking albums. For me,! each period of his work saw the production of some truly magnificent work. It's not an exaggeration to say that he was one of the last half of the 20th century's greatest composers. Jeff Hatfield billhptr@yahoo.com I'd disagree. I love this album immensly...but then again, I find the unquestionably bizarre extremely amusing! I'd give it a 9, at least. Paul Bridle grandwazoo@mailblocks.com Bought the original vinyl for a small fortune in mid '70's having been after it since 69. A wonderful album. So fertile, so alive. One of my all time favourites. CD. Yep but not as satisfying as the LP - skip bits from the movie and what's "Tengo Na Minchia" doing in there? Anyone know when that was performed? It surely does not belong on this album or am I missing something? merph samarjkand salmonsm@missouri.edu I'm stunned. 7 1/2?!?! I have always had a deep respect for his album. It's a musique concrete masterpiece. Little random vocal snippets employed as sections in larger pieces. Total freakout free-form jazz, and some not-so-freaked out but damn excellent straight up jazz. I love the silliness and slight creepiness of Sleeping in a Jar and Electric Aunt Jamima. The commentary is more laid back, yes, but so what? Zappa doesn't have to bitch about society to be brillaint. Although you could say the art-collage format of this album is a big old f-you to "normal" thinking. I think it deserves a 9 at the very least.

A live concert recorded in London around the time of 'Uncle Meat'. There are no vocal tunes here, although the first side of the album includes much spoken humour typical to The Mothers Of Invention. It's backed well by Zappa's orchestral parts and diversions into Avant-Garde classical played by a very real and full orchestra. It sounds magnificent. This is the essence of Zappa as alternative art, as European classic music lover. It's all over the first half of this album, and I enjoy the first half of this album a great deal. This part of the set ends with 'Epilogue' more soaring strings, brass. The whole damn orchestra play Zappa, and play it well. 'King Kong' kicks off the second side, and not having twenty seven redundant variations (!!??!!) as it does on 'Uncle Meat', I really dig this version. It sounds magnificent, rocking, etc etc. Some of the songs on this second half are rather thrown away, 'Help I'm A Rock' and 'Transylvania Boogie' are not performed seriously, but I guess they do fit in with the set. This album captures a whole, complete live Mothers Of Invention performance, by the way. Did I mention that? Well, I have now!

The highlight of the second half of this performance is undoubtedly the thirteen minute plus rendition of 'Orange Country Lumber Truck' and 'Oh No'. I still prefer the 'Weasels Ripped My Flesh' rendition, even if it was excerpted from this! That make no sense I know, but sometimes less is more.

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Readers Comments Dan Watkins dan_watkins@hotmail.com The play portion of the CD is fun to listen to even though it's occassionally hard to tell what the hell is going on without the visual aid. However, unlike Adrian, I prefer the second half. "Orange County Lumber Truck" friggin' cooks! Andrew Hoaen A good addition to the Zappa roster- I has always wanted to hear the full version of orange county lumber truck from Weasels, but as the reviewer says sometimes less is more. Maybe if Frank had remastered it at the time then we could have had a 13 minute classic who knows

His first solo album proper following on from the experimental delight that was 'Lumpy Gravy'. A collaboration with band member Ian Underwood. He and Frank play pretty much everything on here with Max Bennett playing some bass and session man John Guerin contributing drums on four of the songs. Oh, and Captain Beefheart of course. Frank and Don ( Captain Beefheart ) grew up together for a while and were both coming from similarly 'out there' perspectives. He provides the only vocals on the album on the second song 'Willie The Pimp'. A good vocal too! The track is wound up, quite literally as it goes along. Clockwork noises are heard. The guitar goes off into all sorts of places and ends up filling the second half of the song. The support playing is superb and it's a wonderful song. So full of melody! A blues based riff holds it altogether and I highly recommend it! Before that we have 'Peaces En Regalia'. Around three and a half minutes long and it really is exhilaratingly perfect in every respect. If sometimes Zappa seems unsure of how to end songs it's certainly not a problem here. Short, concise, compact and really rather brilliant. 'Son Of Mr Green Genes' expands a melody first heard on 'Uncle Meat'. It's another long guitar workout. Such strong melody throughout that it's never dull or boring for a single second. This album as a whole is very easy on the ear actually. Without the lyrical distractions it's easier to concentrate on the music. Possibly a good entry point into Zappa's oeuvre.

'Little Umbrella's' is a shorter number. A relaxed Jazz feel but of course Zappa's always inventive and strong sense of melody hold it together. 'The Gumbo Variations' is the longest song here. The playing from all involved continues in superlative fashion. A little funk bass! A great saxophone solo! Really, what more could you ask for? 'It Must Be A Camel' is the most relaxed moment of the record. A good way to close. Odd percussive effects are sprinkled over the song in keeping with a few others on the record. Yet again, it's strong melodically. There is melody all over this album. It's a favourite of mine and is highly recommended.

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Readers Comments Alan Brooks albrookscentury21@yahoo.com HOT RATS is a fine work of art; but nevertheless is somewhat overrated. HOT RATS is considered by many to be the pinnacle of fusion, or jazzrock (or whatever label is pasted on)-- yet it isn't. There are many 'jazzrock' discs as worthwhile as HOT RATS. Everyone told Zappa how much they liked 'Peaches En Regalia' (the opening track) and it is flawless; however, it's not necessarily the best thing Zappa ever did. Most of the rest of the album is as worthy as 'Peaches En Regalia', with the exception of a Captain-Beefheart-sung song concerning black prostitutes, hot boots and hot soots and all that. The guitar playing is exciting, but the composition--the only vocal number on HOT RATS-- is ordinary blues; rather limp...no pun intended. Jeannette Brown What can l say....just a classic piece of music with some brilliant keyboard playing, heard this when it first came out, as my brother was into, so called 'undergound' or 'progressive' music, loved it then and love it now.. Hans Lund hans.lund@chello.se This is my favourite! A 10! This album never tires me. You hear new melodies everytime you listen and that's the genious of Zappa, his hidden melodies which are not obvious on the first or even the fifth listen. (I wish he had stuck to jazz instead of the silly unmelodic pop songs he later did.) Edward Ayre Ayre254@hotmail.com Hot Rats is just absolutely amazing! I bought it last week, and it's the only thing i've listened to since then. 'Peaches En Regalia' is an imaginative, and flawless composition, and Ian Underwoods saxes are unbelievable! I think this album captures Zappa's ingenuity in composing, and although the cd remaster is'nt as good as the original LP, it is still THE album to have, and one not to be understated. Chelo tomstrong80@hotmail.com Well,"Peaches..." it´s just THE perfect opening track for that masterpiece that is Hot Rats.Everytime I hear those out-of-the-world saxos at the middle of the song...whoa!they always punch my heart like the first time! bassplayeredd, eddie123zeppelin@hotmail.com amazing, original and totally mind blowing album. Peaches is short and sweet, i especially like the bit where the acoustic guitar and flute play in unison. "Willie the Pimp" is weird but great and features great vocals and guitar. "son of mr green genes" is my favourite although does not provide a satisfactory ending. "the Gumbo variations" is pretty amazing although could be a bit shorter and ironicly could do with a bit more variation. The 2 shorter songs are a bit easier to listen to but still provide quite complex music. 9.5/10. Amazing music and every song has great moments. John M. Duffen ratchet532@msn.com I didn't hear it when it first came out. But about a year later I went to a friends house and we just hanging out. And he had a big record collection. So he said pick something out. So I was looking thru his collection. When i saw the Hot Ratz album. And I said is this any good. And he said you never heard this. And i said that ive listened to some of Zappas stuff before but not this album. So he said you gotta hear this it'll blow you away. Which it did, and has become one of my favorite albums of all times along with other albums. Such as traffics 2nd.Super session etc. granville stockdale stcgranville@aol.com I first heard this in 1970. was bowled over by the sheer inventiveness of it. Still enjoy, but the LP was better than the CD - more detail. Yes, Zappa never got the recognition he deserved as a guitarist, never mind as a composer, altho some of his output can only be described as banal. Overall, a sad loss. In terms of Hot Rats, most has been said, altho Willie The Pimp is a favourite for me. Sarcastic, funny, clever. David Owens davidowens78@yahoo.com I love this album! This was my introduction to the world of Frank Zappa - though having said that, I've only listened to one other album of his since, Sheikh Yerbouti (also excellent). The opener Peaches en Regalia stunned me upon very first listen - impossibly inventive, endlessly energetic, not too long, not too short, fully realised - what more could you ask for? I gave this album to a friend who was presenting a show on an Irish-language radio station one time, and told him to play Peaches en Regalia if he had to play any of the songs (that's not to say the other songs aren't good, of course). It went down an absolute storm with all at the station! This is the sort of record that, like any good jazz record, you can just stick in the machine and allow it to bounce around the room and take on a life of its own, without paying much attention to lyrics, and so on. I would also give it a 9, so we don't differ on that score, either. Pure genius from a pure genius. David daviddpennington@hotmail.co.uk Hot Rats is one of my favourite Zappa albums. Some of the songs take you on a journey that i can only imagine as a mutiple orgasm (having never experienced one). And i don't mean to be rude when i say that! Blake Arnold, johnblakearnold@comcast.net Hat Rats! is still ahead of it's time. This entire album is a 10, and I enjoy it way more than the discs that are lyric oriented. As a musician I can hear the musical puns and complex orchestration that sounds deceptively simple. Willie The Wimp literally makes me want to kick someone's ass. It is one of my Top 10 Desert Island discs. Thank you, Frank.

Igor's Boogie is thirty seconds long but Zappa all over. 'WPLJ' is so funny! A cover of a doo-wop song and it really should have been a hit! This isn't difficult music. Ok, many of Zappa's covers have been relatively obscure and certainly not user friendly to those not familiar with his music. Anybody could listen to 'WPLJ' and get it straight away. It's a straightforward moment, well performed and extremely pleasing. This album was pieced together following the break up of the original Mothers Of Invention. Instrumentals placed between two 'appetizing' tracks 'WPLJ' and 'Valerie'. It works very well as a concept. It follows on from 'Hot Rats' in a sense displaying similar Jazz inspired and often breathtaking playing from all involved.

'Overture To A Holiday In Berlin' is a short linking track, like 'Igor's Boogie' designed to build atmosphere in-between the full length workouts. The first of these is 'Theme From Burnt Weeny Sandwich'. Great guitar work, all sorts of percussion noises over the top. It's a very strong melody. 'Holiday In Berlin' is even better. The basic melody here would later be used as 'Semi Fradulent/Direct From Hollywood' in his '200 Motels' film. Here we have it in all it's splendour and glory! It's quite relaxed as it's starts off. The melody is easy to grasp but very inventive and strong. A quintessential Zappa percussion effect comes in around the two and a half minute mark. It quietens down. A nice organ sound arrives. The drums, pure Mothers of Invention! Then, Zappa's guitar solo. Fantastic, and a highlight of this record certainly. 'Aybe Sea' - a strange little instrumental with a maritime theme closes the first half.

'The Little House I Used To Live In' is the centrepiece of the album. It's eighteen minutes long and starts off with some nice classical piano. At around the two minute mark the track livens up just a bit! Wonderful playing, strange keyboard sounds. Yeah, it IS a long track. And, coming in a sequence of instrumentals in the center of the record. Well. A few people may not make it to the finale, 'Valerie'. 'The Little House I Used To Live In' - don't get me wrong, is a superb piece and again, the sound of The Mothers Of Invention all over. 'Valerie' is another little tear-jerker doo-wop song. A ballad this time. Good backing vocals! A good album.

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Readers Comments Alan Brooks albrookscentury21@yahoo.com A great introduction to Zappa and The Mothers. A must-have disc. Dan Watkins dan_watkins@hotmail.com I didn't like it too much at first, but I now feel that it's one of the best records with Frank's name on it. This is BEAUTIFUL stuff! Have you ever heard "Aybe Sea" or "Little House I Used To Live In?" They are two of the best pieces Zappa ever wrote in my opinion. "Holiday In Berlin" is great too! People like to complain about the two doo-wop covers for some reason, which I don't understand at all. They're fun! This one is a TEN all the way! Mike Harrison fughedaboudit455@yahoo.com I never could get into this album. I could see where this might've been a transitional album for Zappa in terms of pursuing a free-form jazz sound. I think I prefer Zappa's inspired lunacy, social commentary, and guitar "heroics", none of which are really here. In other words, I prefer something like ABSOLUTELY FREE, an album almost 180 degrees from BURNT in concept. But, man, this album is so well-played, and it proves that these guys could play just about anything with 500 times greater competency than most rock, jazz or jazz-rock groups of their time. Hans Lund hans.lund@chello.se This also is a classic in the true sense of the word. It's basically an instrumental album (and that's what I like best) The whole album has a feeling of classical compositions. Good melodies, beautifully arranged. jimi99, jimi99@msn.com Sugarcane Harris' long solo in Little House, and the one on Gumbo Variations are two of the greatest fiddle solos of all time! And Frank going apeshit on the pipe organ at the end! (The doo wop was Eh! the Mothers already did it as well as it could be on Cheap Thrills. Sugarcane was also great on the album he did with John Mayall. Ian Sinclair After 20 years listening to the Zappa catalogue, rest assured this is the best of the lot. Only Uncle Meat with a few tracks eliminated comes close.

This is astonishing. And certainly not one to play to any Green Day loving friends. Compiled from studio and live out-takes after the break-up of the original Mothers Of Invention. But stitched together so seamlessly ( and other times brutally! ) it works really well as a cohesive album. 'Didya Get Any Onja?' is musically interesting and another of those more strange Zappa moments that invites dismissal as a pile of nonsense. Actually it's been arranged and repays repeated listening. The best bit about that song though is the fade and transition into the next track 'Directly From My Heart To You'. A convincing and straight blues cover. With great violin! The next four tracks are largely instrumental and contain some frequently astonishing music and lots of quirks and challenging moments too. There is no other music like this. Not one for a peaceful Sunday afternoon drinking tea sat by the lake.

Highlights of the second half include 'My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama'. A great, simpler rock tune. Rock! Some people seem to think Zappa only did outrageous weirdness. He did almost every style of music you can imagine. 'My Guitar...' is another more straightforward moment on here and a little light relief. 'Oh No' and 'The Orange County Lumber Truck' flow together and were often performed live that way too. 'Orange County Lumber Truck' in particular is astonishing. They create such a noise and suddenly are outplaying everybody and sounding more exciting than any band around! The album ends of course with two minutes of screaming feedback.

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Readers Comments Alan Brooks albrookscentury21@yahoo.com WEASELS RIPPED MY FLESH is extremely diverse; sort of like 200 MOTELS on one disc. I have nothing much to add to what the reviewer wrote above, except there is one more track that should be taken note of on WEASELS: 'Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue'. Simon Brigham slb23@shaw.ca GOSH, this is a weird album. I listened to it but didn't buy it because I thought I'd never "get into" it. Probably would've after about 50 listens or something. Most of it is just plain annoying, anyway. Mike Harrison fughedaboudit455@yahoo.com This sounds like an odds 'n' ends album, and maybe it's not as essential as other Zappa LPs, but there's some hilarious music here. These guys sound like an incompetent high school marching band on some tracks, and a great jazz-rock group on others. Nutty! Hans Lund hans.lund@chello.se this is an album of left-overs. Half is crap, the other half could have been really good if he had eleborated on the good tunes. But he cut them in half mostly. It seems like a haste-work Spartacus spartacus6775@yahoo.com I thought this album was just pure genious. when i first bought it, i had no idea what i was getting myself into. ill admit at first i didnt get it. it took about 10 listens or so, and then the album found its way into the top ten favorites. Toads of the Short Forest, and the Eric Dolphy Barbeque are incredible. and i cant forget to mention the 'Oh No'-"Orange County Lumber Truck' collection. Jeremiah Funk jfunk09@hotmail.com This Album is with out doubt and much like any other Zappa albums BRILLIANT. What gifted musicians If you dont understand that music needs no rules than it is hard but not impossible to appreciate. Turbottski markturbott@blueyonder.co.uk An amazing title and cover, truly one of the greatest covers ever. An inconsistent album but this is a studio/live compilation after all. There's plenty of excellent tracks. 'Didya Get Any Onja?', the opening track is so totally mad but extremely likeable after a few listens. 'Oh No' is another highlight with a classic melody that appears on other albums. I would sum this album up as patchy but rarely bad. Some of the track titles sound much more interesting than they actually are. I rate this album 7.5 out of 10. John McCormack brute_bernard@hotmail.com The first Zappa track I ever heard was My Guitar wants, etc. and I loved the horns. I was into horns at the time, I'm old enough to remember when Chicago were good. I got the album after hearing it all through, and it was love, no other word for it. Sexually aroused Gas mask, great googly moogly, they don't make music llike this any more. Life changing stuff.

Frank was in something of a transitional phase here, sort of between bands. Halfway through the recording of this he gained two new vocalists and the contrast between the songs they feature on, and the other songs is immense. Some of the songs here are 'Hot Rats' types of songs, the rest sleazy, dirty rock guitar songs with falsetto vocals and much up front leering. On the 'Hot Rats' side we have the quite frankly ( ha! ) wonderful 'Transylvania Boogie' which I guess isn't quite 'Hot Rats' but it is a similar Jazz Rock fusion of excitement and much guitar delight and virtousity. We also have 'The Nancy And Mary Music', a NINE MINUTE LONG avant-garde piece that does absolutely nothing for me whatsoever. It has no 'friend' on this album, it doesn't fit it, I don't like it, DAMMIT! On the other hand, the title track is more enjoyable Jazz guitar work with much great playing. I don't enjoy it as much as the opening song, but we can't have everything I guess. Also on this album is the waste of space that is 'The Clap', a two minute long piece of 'percussion'.

The vocal tunes here feature two ex members of a group called 'The Turtles' famed for their high falsetto harmonies. They saw joining Zappa as a move into a more serious music form. Ha! Anyway, the songs they feature on all ROCK, so that's alright. But, before that, we have a Zappa sung blues song with 'Road Ladies'. The CD liner notes by the way indicate that the vocal tunes are a preview of the story from '200 Motels' the project Frank would work on following this release. But, that's another story, and shall be told another time. Ah, what else is here. Well, we have the pleasant 'coctail jazz' of 'Twenty Small Cigars'. If that sounds disparaging, it's not meant to. This short song contains lots of enjoyable guitar and Zappa melody. When 'Flo And Eddie' arrive, we have the very loud guitar rock groove of 'Tell Me You Love Me', 'Would You Go All The Way' etc. These tracks feature astonishing vocals and the latter, being a little fun and bouncy, is especially enjoyable. On occasion they sound like The Muppets, but a damn fine Muppets, you know? 'Rudy Wants To Buy Yez A Drink' is hugely silly fun. A little Fifties Rock n Roll nostalgia for the old folks. The closing song, 'Sharleena' is a gorgeous piece of work, a wonderful ballad with great vocals all over the place that send shivers all through me. And, there you have it. Take it, or leave it. Frank would do other, better albums, but this is still pretty fine stuff bar the odd aberration.

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Readers Comments Dan Watkins dan_watkins@hotmail.com A 7 seems pretty fair. I liked this one a lot when I first got it, but it wore off after repeated listens. I actually have no real problem with Flo and Eddie, and I think "Rudy Wants To Buy Yez A Drink" and "Would You Go All The Way?" are really funny. And how can I forget "Tell Me You Love Me?" "Twenty Small Cigars" is one of my favorite instrumental Zappa tunes. The rest of this stuff is alright but hardly essential. Hans Lund hans.lund@chello.se There are a few good song primarily the "hot rats" left-over "twenty cigars". This has also the feeling of a haste-work. I don't really like his mixing of live recordings with studio ones, especially not when the live ones are so poorly recorded as the "nancy and mary music" Spartacus spartacus6775@yahoo.com Ive gotta disagree with all of you on some things here. first, i absolutely loved the nancy and mary music. the drums solo was perfect for the tune, along with the jamming, and the unforgetable scat-drum solo. the other tracks, transylvania, chungas revenge, sharleena, all are played regularly. John Peters johnpeters000@btopenworld.com Just to say that The Nancy & Mary music on Ghunga's Revenge does indeed have a friend - me; to my ear it is brilliant piece - the guitar is excellent. Anyone that doesn't believe me needs to listen to it more! rick I was a music major and had a large band, we were very much Zappaistas. I had seen the MOI many time and taught my band all of Zappa's hand signals. My entire band and our dates attended this concert where Nancy and Mary Music was recorded. When Zappa begin giving his hand signals to the Mothers my entire group performed them with the Mothers. Zappa turned to the audience and tried a few obscure hand signals and we knew them all. He was very surprised. The rest of the audience caught on and joined in. Yes that must have been the first time an entire audience learned his hand signals and joined in the show. I am proud to be on that track. I agree it's not one of his best peices but it was obviously a historic moment in the history of the Mothers of Invention.

It's 2005 at the time of writing, round abount lunchtime. It's been quite a while since I visited my Zappa page(s). I'd been struggling with them, given the fact this is the only artist page on the site that's been 'on the go' since the site first began. Hence, with my decision to return to Zappa this particularly sunny aft, things will only get even more confusing and bewildering for the reader from now on. A variety of writing styles, review lengths, opinions. Reviews written out of order with the flow of the mans discography? Somehow, isn't that fit for a man like Zappa? Well, speculation aside, what's this thing? Well, it's a poorly recorded live document of a gig that the Flo And Eddie incarnation of The Mothers put on, back in 71. Which means Mr Zappa is still exploring certain lyrical topics few thought particularly laudable to explore. Still, everything is valid art, it's been said. I'll explore the 'familiar' tunes first. The Mothers do a perfectly adequate live version of 'Little House I Used To Live In', complete with interjections from Flo and Eddie. Complete with a great instrumental break featuring stupendous Zappa guitar, keyboards.... much drums. 'Willie The Pimp', with Captain Beefheart replaced by Flo And Eddie, fares less well as a representation of the original, and better as an excuse for the band to have some fun. 'Peaches En Regalia' seems to have been taken a little nervously, but comes off well in the end, bar the perhaps not required additional wailing of the vocalists. If the story i've heard is correct, Frank and band played The Turtles ( flo & eddie ) hit 'Happy Together' for the benefit of either flo, or eddie. So they could get laid after the gig. Well, why not? Inserting ( no pun intended ) this slice of sixties pop whimsy into the middle of a Frank Zappa concert is just the sort of thing Frank was good at. Playing with peoples perceived notions of reality!

'Lonesome Electric Turkey' proves the Mothers improvisational skills hadn't left them and is an enjoyable interlude to lead into 'Peaches' on the album. The 'Do You Like My New Car' seven minute story as such makes me wish i'd managed to see Frank in concert. At thirty one years of age at the time of writing, I got into Frank too late to be able to do that, sadly. Still, even this less than perfect live document of Frank and company still impresses me. It's the sense that he and his musicians usually did have fun on stage and that the audience especially did. This is the reaction I get from listening to 'Do You Like My New Car' and the album as a whole. A song such as 'Latex Solar Beef', well. You can miss the point or you can enjoy it for what it is, a silly, hugely fun piece of actually pretty good, rock music. Commas stopping from now on. At the end of this album - the very last song after everything thats come before? Frank gives us another piece of pop music of his own creation. It's silly. Daft. Fun. Grin-inducing. It's light and fluffy and a parody of pop music in a sense. Ah those stupidly high harmonies! Ah the descending and rising again melody lines! It's all here. Well, the stuff they did with John and Yoko can be found on 'Sometime In New York City', the Lennon release. But, we don't want to talk about that, do we? No.

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Ah, but I'm tired. So very tired today. I'm wired and lost and losing my face in a pillow of tears. The fridge stands empty of food, the beer cans pile up - the faint sound of cars pass by the window - tauntingly purring and stabbing me in the heart with pollution and inadequacy. A mixture of Classical, Opera, stupendous falsetto vocals, daft lyrics, utterly beautiful musical settings, a country song - seems very attractive to me right now! By the time we reach 'Magic Fingers' Frank even remembers to get his guitar out and treat us all to a solo of breathtakingly brilliant 'made up on the spot' nature! But first..... THIS. '200 Motels' was the only movie Frank actually managed to finish and get into the theatres. 'Uncle Meat' and 'Captain Beefheart Vs The Grunt People' were both unfinished, but Frank felt the need to try to get some of his visions down onto celluloid all the same. With '200 Motels' he succeeded, but lost a bass player just prior to filming, ran out of time resulting in scenes being cut - hired a new bass player who just happened to be the chauffer of the films star, Ringo Starr! Well, he looked right. Cal Schenkel, provider of all those lovely and beautifully insane Zappa sleeve designs set to work on the set - lots of cardboard, mostly. A pit to house an orchestra, all highly trained Classical musicians who must have wondered what the hell they'd let themselves in for. They filmed in the same studios used for James Bond films and 'Fiddler On The Roof'. 

Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, formerly of the group The Turtles and sometimes providers of distinctive harmonies for  Marc Bolan were new additions to the Zappa band - they'd worked on part of 'Chungas Revenge' then gone out on tour with Frank to fully arrive here - the only full length 'studio' outing they'd be part of from beginning to end. The album opens with the classical theme of 'Semi-Fraudelent/Direct From Hollywood'. It also works to introduce the chorus of harmony vocals sounding airy and like some twisted version of angels. Beautiful vocals, by the way. Theodore Bikel gets the narration going as far as the film in concerned introducing Ringo, playing Larry the Dwarf, who is of course dressed exactly like Frank Zappa. 'Mystery Roach' then kicks in, all guitars, all falsetto harmony vocals from Howard and Mark - it sounds pretty darn great, by the way. They soar, they rise!! The guitar is Rock guitar and so far, so normal and everyday, bar the vocals of course which remain unique. 'Dance Of The Rock & Roll Interviewers' is a brief burst of classical percussion and twisted sounding strings to sonically lead into the 'Sealed Tuna' suite of songs. A suite in five parts with extremely silly lyrics, a whole load of beautiful, avant-garde classical moments - a ten minute long selection of songs linked together by a repeating distinctive, beautiful musical theme. The vocals continue in places, soaring falsetto - leaning towards Opera. The 'Dance Of The Just Plain Folks' section is purely Classical instrumental. I guess to appreciate this album you do have to at least like the sound of an orchestra! They sound magnificent here by the way, and Zappa's orchestral scores were often frighteningly complex, jumping around melodically, always interesting percussively. 'The Sealed Tuna Bolero' ( yes, it really is called that! ) is just as it's title suggests, a little bolero with military drums, more vocals from 'the angels' - and attentive listening to this whole ten minute suite pays dividends. It isn't something you can 'dip' into. The album as a whole deserves and demands a full hour and a half of your time, not something everybody can give, but Frank rarely made it easy for his fans, or music lovers in general.

The Jimmy Carl Black sung 'Lonesome Cowboy Burt' is purely ridiculous and coming after this semi-serious, often beautiful ( if avant-garde, operatic ) 'Sealed Tuna' suite sounds more ridiculously happy and daft than it would have done anyway. A simple song on the face of it, a childish song even - but when the Bass and Piano comes in, a little hoe-down.... when the falsetto of Howard and Mark comes in..... 'Lonesome Cowboy Burt' is supremely silly and very enjoyable. Some kind of mad genius was needed to create it, fortunately Frank was on hand. 'Touring Can Make You Crazy' is a string based classical theme, 'Would You Like A Snack' a short but utterly beautiful instrumental with vocal parts through the second half. 'Redneck Eats' is all avant-garde but does fit the album and ends with ( Jimmy Carl Black? ) saying, 'Hey Twerp, play something I can enjoy...' upon which the album segues into the 'spooky' sounding 'Centerville' with mock horror strings and vocal effects to open, before leading into more of Zappa's brilliantly scored, wonderful sounding orchestral parts. The next five songs, like 'Sealed Tuna' - make for a mini-suite, just under nine minutes long this time with more soaring falsetto vocals, more beautiful classical parts in-between, more challenging, ridiculous lyrics. Nothing fits. You try combining all these elements, Opera as well! And still come out smelling fine!! Or smelling of something, at least :) The closing 'Lucy's Seduction Of A Bored Violinist' is a classical instrumental theme that's both very avant-garde and very beautiful. An ambitious piece of work, this '200 Motels', I mean, it utterly dwarfs the little 'Chungas Revenge' set that proceeded it.

All of this, and more. That's just one CD down of a two CD set! Are you exhausted yet? Let's continue, a little Zappa special of avant-garde malarkey opens the second CD, followed by the supremely silly 'Dental Hygiene Dilemma' which is a Zappa trick of placing ridiculously fast and complex percussive parts and strings to a spoken word piece. All of this music was recorded for the movie, of course - although not all of it actually appeared in the '200 Motels' movie, which - wait for this, I've never seen! I've not heard great reports of it, in any case. The album is more than enough for me. The CD packaging is superb and really does deserve a special mention. It comes complete with a poster and book that has great photo's from the making of the film in addition to an essay detailing the filming of the movie. 'Does This Kind Of Life Look Interesting To You' has some funny little lyrics spoken over the top of booming drums and percussion - it may not sound like much as I've described it, but when it bursts into another glorious sequence of Zappa strings and percussion, with a full choir of voices briefly joining Howard and Mark, it does make your hairs stand on end. And! As if all of this wasn't already enough, we get an affectionate take on Motown type Soul music with the quite frankly wonderful 'Daddy Daddy Daddy' - we get the almost irritating and offensive 'Penis Dimension' which is Zappa all over. Let me explain. Here we have a musical work of appreciable ambition and scope, with some of the finest orchestral music and inventive Zappa melodies of all of time. And then? 'Penis Dimension' of course! It's a challenge, the whole album is actually. You may actually hate it on initial listening. I know I did, Opera and Classical not being my usual listening, even if Zappa is. Getting round the musical settings ultimately, is fairly natural through repeated listening. The sheer scale of the album impresses, the melodies impress, the vocals always impress when they really go full tilt.

Speaking of which, 'What Will This Evening Bring Me This Morning' is both a song with a long title (!?!) and also a song featuring a full Mothers Of Invention band performance surrounded by orchestra and some of the most astonishing falsetto I've heard in my life. It's happy, it's grin inducing - and following a few challenging pieces, brings everything back to simpler melodies. The remainder of the album is really just a continuation of what's gone before. But, most notably - we are treated to a wonderful Zappa guitar solo in the storming 'Magic Fingers' and an eleven minute finale with 'Strictly Genteel'. 'Strictly Genteel' combines lots of operatic vocal parts with a big orchestra sounding very full on, a real Hollywood, closing of the movie song and dance number! Ok, so not song and dance. Really, just more outrageous melodic and inventive vision. Even with the supremely daft nature of the whole enterprise, this can't help but fail to impress you just a little.... and then, later on - impress you more and more. '200 Motels' is pretty much unique even within Frank Zappa's huge and varied catalogue. I can't say I can easily recommend this, but I can highly recommend this. Even with parts of 'Strictly Genteel' sounding like an episode of 'The Muppets' - yes folks, this is that kind of record. The brilliant and the downright stupid right next to each other. A ten, of course. 

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Readers Comments Alan Brooks albrookscentury21@yahoo.com 200 MOTELS is Zappa's most underrated release. It could be compared to the 'White Album' by the Beatles in that it is a flawed, but very worthwhile, masterpiece. Like the 'White Album', many styles from many eras are covered. Little Green Scratchy Sweaters And Corduroy Ponce is an eerie tune from the first half of the 20th century-- perhaps the 1930s. Someone once described Magic Fingers as out-doing Led Zeppelin in the hard Rocking department. There is much modern classical mixed in with the pop tracks; so you get two-for-one on 200 MOTELS-- one part modern classical and one part pop-rock. Hans Lund hans.lund@chello.se I saw the movie and I didn't understand a bit of what it was about. Everything filmed in one single motel-room. Terribly directed by Zappa. I bought the record and there were some really good rockers with "the florecent..." on vocals. But I couldn't melt the rest of the music though I tried. I sold the vinyl a long time ago and have no intention of buying the CD. chris bennett chrisbennett911@hotmail.com Well the first thing i can say is congrats if you live in good old blighty and have managed to snare this elusive gem (long since deleted and rights not owned by the zappa family trust, i think!) This piece of work is truly awesome, if he had only done this and nothing else he would still be called a genius. The slightly surreal story of a band on the road, remember he took no drugs, and didn't drink, which people are always amazed by. Its one of those albums when you have had a good drink you go back to, in other words its one of those few albums that matters. Musical highlits are to many to mentio... hang on, no! I'm not going to wimp out like that! The "tuna fish" suite has gorgeous melodies running all the way through it's movements. The melody starting with "she painted up her face" and finishing with "shove it right in" is probably among the best stuff the man ever wrote, PLEASE get it, and listen. Among selections on the second side, "what will this evening.." is like! a lost diamond from yesteryear,and magic fingers rocks like the proverbial motherf*****! It' a just a shame the recording quality is not pristine. But don't let that put you off, it doesn't detract from the actual quality of the music. All in all, a true classic. Jerry Hamric 5jerry@myway.com "200 Motels" is one of those pieces of music that does bend your ear at times. The first time I heard it, I'll admit I only listened to the "rock" numbers, as I loved "Mystery Roach" , and wasn't in the mood for the orchestrations. Don't get me wrong, I like the orchestra music, but I skipped most of it at first. It's just one of those works, I don't know, you have to be in the mood for something "out there," and have the time for the whole thing to fully "get it." And I'm one of the ones who indeed "get it." It succeeds on its own terms. steve srbalough@yahoo.com how dare you rate 200 motels a 10 while giving hot rats a 9, burnt weenie sandwich an 8 and the grand wazoo an 8. i guess its just a matter of personal preference, but if you're rating this album on humor, it may be a 10. for me, i rate his albums on the music contained within, which is why hot rats, weenie, and wazoo (albums that focused on MUSIC, rather than sexual humor) should be rated higher. but thats just me. Rich richbennetlaf@sbcglobal.net Adrian - your website rocks. The time and care you have devoted to Frank has earned you special place in the Here After: ...You shall be welcomed into His bosom - an infinite roadhouse in Heaven known as Nipples & Breast Milk, Inc., home of the Big Two, courtier to FZ Almighty, and home of the Concubine Tuna Sandwich... Anyway, I am impressed. It brings back an excellent memory...a date night...with an easy vixen named Mary...who was game to go see 200 Motels with me in Bloomington, IL. By this time I had mostly memorized the entire double album, so laughing and singing thru the movie annoyed everyone around me...including Mary.

For starters, I don't even like Zappa's music as far as real pleasure goes, it's not the sort of music that makes you feel good. Hard to say exactly, but let's put it this way: how many people do you know would want to get up and dance to a Captain Beefheart piece? What I like about Zappa & Beefheart (assuming I even actually like Beefheart) is at least with Zappa he usually aimed for quality, and tried to go beyond commercial lyrics, a striving. though common in music today, was not always the case. I'm not familiar with current music except from surfing the radio, don't know how many filler/throwaways artists place in their albums these days, however Zappa tried to keep his throwaways to a minimum. And that's what I like about 'Just Another Band From LA' (JABFLA)-- the album contains in my humble burnt out acidhead opinion, not one throwaway. Having said that, this album is not a true work of art like, say, 'We're Only In It For The Money' is. Yet all the same JABFLA is genuine entertainment, and very good for a live act. The first track, 'Billy The Mountain' has been called somewhat childish in its humor, which is true at the beginning of the track. Then the dialogue becomes denser & more sophisticated as the track builds towards its climax. Like all tracks on this album the social commentary is sophisticated for a 'pop rock' artist and leaves out the bitter anger of some of FZ's other works.

So Kaylan and Volman can be said to have been a positive influence, taking humor in a zany but gentle and still fairly artistic direction. They could sing pretty well as far as duets are concerned. Not high art, not brilliant comedy, but just right for the conventions (or in this case unconventions) of pop rock. The live version of 'Dog Breath' rocks on quite well. 'Magdalena' is the stunner of the album, utilizing the synthesizer in the best way imaginable. 'Eddie Are You Kidding' is the most popular track from this album; it's easy to hear why: more lightly humorous social commentary and pleasing music. The dialogue is memorable, as is the case with 'Call Any Vegetable'. This is an album with only a few tracks, but all five are worthy. DISCLAIMER: Again, if you are looking for high art, this album wont be for you. I do not want to be responsible for someone being stuck with an album they regret having purchased. Worse, the sound quality, from circa 1971, is between poor and fair. This album is not for everyone; it may help to be middle aged, spacey, and to have a taste for silly-but-with-a-bona fide-message humor from the counterculture of the early '70s.

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Flo and Eddie would depart amid much acrimony, but that's another story, and shall be told another time. This is a semi-return to the sound of 'Hot Rats' but bar the two vocal tunes, more Jazz this time round. Everything is played extremely well through the Jazz pieces, typical Zappa melodies but I get the impression he's not really stretching himself. He had no band at this time, he was in a wheelchair following an accident at a concert, his throat was shot resulting in a deeper singing voice on later albums. You know, he wasn't happy! Having said that, the opening track here IS impressive, lots to enjoy although for me personally, it goes on too long. It's difficult to pay attention to 'Big Swifty' all throughout it's seventeen minute long length. Now, don't get me wrong. This is pretty good Jazz fusion music, but maybe not GREAT zappa music. It goes on pleasantly, and that's it. It doesn't excite me, it's a little boring by the end. But then, i'm just one guy. Listen to it for yourself, please. Don't take MY word for it, good grief! 'Your Mouth' is the first of the vocal tunes, bears no similarity to the previous song here whatsoever, and is below par for Zappa with an unimaginative melody, etc, although the trumpets are nice.

There is one underrated gem on this album, the dreamy slide and Hawaiian guitar that is 'It Might Just Be A One Shot Deal'. It's one of my favourite Frank Zappa songs and recordings, I can listen to it all day, and it's the reason this album even gets a grade of six. The closing title song is very movie theme Jazz, featuring more great playing. A little more enjoyable this, than the opening song. I can appreciate and enjoy the performance. I like this music. But, this is a review of an album, not four individual songs. So? Well, I don't care too much for this 'Waka Jawaka' album. I like at least two of the songs, and give this a grade of six. It seems appropriate.

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Readers Comments Willkitts@aol.com Couldn't disagree more about this album. Just goes to show how subjective taste is. For me, nothin' boring about it. Inventive, unpredictable as always. Simon Brigham slb23@shaw.ca This of this as Zappa voyaging into jazz. With mixed results. One 17 minute jazz instrumental piece, and the rest are either instrumental or music & vocal pieces. The vocals aren't that great. There are some good mements here and there . . . but to me it wasn't worth picking up. Hans Lund hans.lund@chello.se This record was a great dissapointment to me. Hot rats two as the cover said. It had nothing of the spark or melodies of the Hot Rats. There is the title song which gets a 10, the rest is forgettable. Aaran Graham grahampaaran@aol.com Totally different from what went before.Perhaps that's why there seems to be a lot of negative comments about this album. Thank God Frank did leave behind the whole 60's MOI sound cause otherwise he'd have never made any of the fantastic, original MUSIC found here and on the Grand Wazoo. Then again it wasn't too long to wait until he got a band together to play "rock Songs". Frank Mullin firebirdsballs@yahoo.co.uk I think a six is a little harsh. You have to consider the general approach Zappa was taking to his work during this period and judge the album based on this. In terms of exploration, this album scores highly for me. It's all part of Zappa's journey to musical omnipotence. mike mpshea21@aol.com This is one of my favorites. Great improv, ahead of its time, like something you would hear from Disco Biscuits or The String Cheese Incident nowadays. The vocal tracks are not as outlandish as say, something you would hear on Uncle Meat, but Zappa didn't always have to be outlandish to succeed. I only own about 10 Zappa albums, but it is among my top 2 or 3 favorites.

The Franz Zappa Jazz Band gets to grips with another set of tricksy Zappa compositions. The main difference between this record and 'Waka Jawaka' is the sheer size of the supporting cast this time around. The big band truly gets big. This benefits the sound of the album, 'The Grand Wazoo' is a far better successor to 'Hot Rats' than 'Waka Jawaka' ever was, because of this developing sound. This record is rich in texture and detail, a fine Jazz/Rock fusion by anybodies standards. Having listened to a lot of Jazz music lately, I can appreciate what Franz is doing here. I still don't feel inclined to rise my rating for 'Waka Jawaka' and to fans of that album, I apologise, but I just don't find it terribly interesting. As a means of comparison between the two albums, let's take the opening tune here. In terms of composition, it contains a lot of Zappa trademarks. There's different sections - tricky ones, silly ones. Yet all played and sounding absolutely magnificent, a sound to truly fill a stadium let alone a small concert hall. We still catch every single detail. Great bass playing in particular, the brass instruments are everywhere and really add excellent drama to this thirteen minute long track. It could be argued 'For Calvin ( And His Next Two Hitchhikers )' doesn't particularly go anywhere, and you'd have a point. Yet that would be ignoring the sheer invention and the glorious sound Frank and musicians managed to produce for the recording of the song. Oh, right. Compared to the two vocals tunes contained on 'Waka Jawaka', we've just the one here. It happens to be the title song and flows perfectly from 'For Calvin', that's something of an improvement over 'Waka Jawaka' where the vocal tunes just sounded out of place.

Ah, correction. 'Cletus Awreetus Awrightus' also has vocals, of sorts. No lyrics, just Zappa going 'dum de dum dum dum' towards the end of the song. I shall place it in context. This is clearly a fun tune, lots of quick percussive elements, silly but great trumpets and a fairground atmosphere. A few great jazzy moments, a guitar solo. Some avant garde and then the 'la la la dum dum dum' vocals come in towards the end. A lovely little piece of piano going all up and down. I love 'Cletus Awreetus Awrightus' a lot. It's prime-time Zappa stupidity, done of course, in the most intelligent way. 'Eat The Question' is very jazz-fusion, at the expense of Zappa's normally inventive and intelligent melodies and arrangements and seems to have been included purely as a playing showcase, which is fair enough, I suppose. Better is the sweet mellow atmosphere of 'Blessed Relief', a jazz piece with proper jazz segments to it as well as the trademark Zappa arranging flair. It's good, and so is 'The Grand Wazoo' album. From here on in, Zappa's music would undergo quite a drastic change, though.

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The first Zappa release on which he ditched avant-garde fully for commerce. He realised that in order to fulfill his more artistic projects and ambitions, he needed to start selling more records than he was. Thus, 'Over-nite Sensation', a collection of seven seedy tracks lasting thirty-four minutes and pluggin into a nations desire to read porn magazines and have sex. Most nations have such desires. So, 'I'm The Slime' picks on people and contains a great guitar solo right towards the end. The nifty four minute long 'Camarillo Brillo' sports Zappa's then new deeper singer voice to great effect. Some delightfully daft rhymes, pop-lyrics for people who secretly like pop-lyrics but wished everyone write like Bob Dylan. Frank presents lyrics seemingly with meaning, yet actually lyrics that do everything both right and 'wrong' at exactly the same time. Hotcha! My favourite track on this album has to be 'Fifty-Fifty', though. Stupendous funk/porn-movie-music combine with vocals as daft as any on any Zappa release ever. Zappa does the backing, the lead vocalist goes so over the top as to be bordering on theatrical pantomime. Shredding vocals chords is the order of the day, kind of James Brown pastiche lyrics. Many moments of fairground-silly musical bliss played with expert speed and precision. Huge sections of stupendous musical moments abound over a rhythm section so great sounding, most bands would kill their drummer and sack their bass player in order to acheive such a great sound. Of course, Mr Zappa himself pops up with a typically excellent twiddly guitar solo over this rollocking rhythm section. The snappy 'Dirty Love' ends 'side one' with lyrics offensive to the avant-garde purists who loved The Mothers but delighting college students the land over.

'Zomby Woof' proves Zappa actually was as complex as ever, this marrying of a twisted and deliberately rude version of pop-music lyrics to complex porn-funk-jazz works surprisingly well given a chance by the listener to appreciate exactly what actually is going on. So, 'Zomby Woof' is crushingly good, the closing 'Montana' rocks out well with mucho goings on in the guitar department as Mr Zappa really lets fly. 'Dinah-Moe Humm' became a perrennial concert encore at Zappa gigs for its pornographic lyrics, a real crowd pleaser, so to speak. It's got a great sound and a weird country influenced funk styled backbeat to it, if that's makes any sense at all. It sounds like a Hugh Hefner country and western singer about to get arrested for obscenity. No, the amusingly titled 'Over-nite Sensation' isn't great art in one sense, but of course, in quite another sense, it's some of the most enjoyable music Zappa ever did. Light, but deserving of an enjoyable listen fairly often anyway. Hotcha!

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Readers Comments Rich Bennet richbennetlaf@sbcglobal.net I have been listening to Frank since the late sixties. I was an adolescent, easily influenced. I laughed my ass off as I transitioned from Mad magazine to FZ, finally understanding the "Blatant Nuances" of sarcastic ironic sophomoric musical complexities and absurdity that was Frank. But his records would never play at parties - I tried. The tiny humans around me didn't get it. And then came Overnite Sensation. Finally my friends could laugh with me, and be rocked when they least expected it. Sure it lacked the outright weirdness of his first release. So what? Frank was so multi-dimentional that it takes YEARS to absorb his stuff. GUYS - you gotta start somewhere! This album (and Apostrophe) was the perfect place for the uninitiated to jump in. The smart ones get hooked, and need more. The dummies go elsewhere to find amusement.

One thing this record achieves is to create a yearning to put on 'Roxy And Elsewhere' instead. The two records share many of the same musicians and musical prowess. 'Roxy' is a rather more 'serious' proposition though. This is a collection of jokes, great playing, short melodies, super fast patented Zappa percussion, humour, etc, etc and so forth. The production and mixing are stupendous for an album released in 1974. Everything sounds clear and strong. 'Don't Eat The Yellow Snow' no less so than anything else here. It would later be re-edited for single release to incorporate portions of 'Nanook Rubs It' and become a much friendly song, easier on the ear, easier to follow and a lot more enjoyable. Even in this version, we get great little instrumental parts and a story-line that's so ludicrous you can't help but smile. 'Nanook Rubs It' follows on from 'Don't Eat The Yellow Snow' and features Frank story-telling, carrying on the opening song, speak-singing over Jazz influenced rock playing. One of the most enjoyable songs here for me is also one of the simplest on the surface. 'St Alfonzo's Pancake Breakfast' is no less daft lyrically than either of the opening two songs but certainly less reliant on the humour of the story-line. The playing here is astonishingly fast and impressive. And, for a song coming in at under two minutes, there are a surprisingly large number of different sections to this. Same comments apply to 'Father O'Blivion' which segues from 'St Alfonzo's' and like the opening two song sequence, makes something of a mini-conceptual suite.

'Cosmik Debris' instrumentally is a blues rock groove, lyrically and vocally some of Franks deep voiced story-telling, half singing, half speaking. It's a fairly entertaining piece and funny in places. A particularly great solo sails through 'Cosmik Debris' before the song rocks out a little to close. 'Excentrifugal Forz' is a short one and a half minute truly bizarre sounding instrumental over which Frank sings and then lets out a stupendous guitar solo before the track grooves funkily on towards it's close. And you know what the best song here is, for me? The most impressive piece? Yeah, it's the title song. It's 100% instrumental, all rocking guitar and simple rhythms. Lots of Zappa soloing to great effect. 'Stink-Foot' closes and reprises 'Cosmik Debris' in a sense. It's a song with a very similar pace and feel. Different story line this time incorporating important elements of Zappa conceptual continuity. It sounds good through the playing and mixing. 

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Readers Comments Alan Brooks albrookscentury21@yahoo.com This is not a great work of art. However, it is very popular, and Zappa liked to reach lowbrow listeners; the sort of meatheads who think eating yellow snow is funny. Aaran Graham grahampaaran@aol.com Well. Interesting review. Personally I think this album serves as a taster for the Ultimate Zappa album-"One Size Fits All". The immaculate production, the surreal wordplay, George Dukes Sci-Fi keyboards, the virtuosity of every band member. Oh well thats my opinion. Neil_E se5a@iprimus.com.au I discovered this album in 1977 in Colchester. Brilliant, funny, and still better than most. Niall Mc Grath nmcgrath@lambethcollege.ac.uk If my memory serves me right, Jack Bruce plays on the title track, "Apostrophe" - overall this is one of the few Zappa albums I like - everything is nice and tight - not like some of the overblown rubbish he did on later albums such as "Sheik Yerbouti"

Here we have an album that SOUNDS so damn great, it doesn't matter that certain overdubs were applied to the basic live tracks. All of the backing tracks are 'as is', the overdubs are minimal, as far as I can tell. A bit of addition here, a touching up ( ooh! ) there. Etc and suchforth. Thing is, most live albums are like that. Where 'Roxy And Elsewhere' differs over other live albums by other groups - is that it sounds like the ultimate statement of Zappa and his band circa 1974. It's not an alternative, it's not 'live renditions', many of the songs here were new compositions. Good ones, too! So... 'Roxy And Elsewhere'? Zappa was right in the middle of his funk and sleaze period around about this time, but where 'Roxy And Elsewhere' wins out over the likes of 'Apostrophe' etc is just in the sheer astonishingly complex and virtuoso nature of the music contained within. Whilst the studio albums surrounding this, musically at least, were sometimes 'polite', the fact that 'Roxy And Elsewhere' was for the most part live - lends this an extra edge. Besides, we open with typical Zappa nonesense with 'Penguin In Bondage', it's title telling you all you need to know lyrically, all the average listener needs to know at least - whilst the music moves here and there, then moves on to a pretty great guitar solo. Straight after the song has finished, the just over two minutes long 'Pgymy Twylyte' rushes through with complex percussion, great vocals ( courtesy of Napoleon Murphy Brock ) and, you know, great energy and real Rock N Roll funk power. Oh, yes! 'Dummy Up' is six minutes of expertly executed funk backing whilst the vocals and lyrics are very made up and then very humorous. We switch back to a 'proper' song, 'Village Of The Sun' - more soulful vocals, more expert playing.

'Echinda's Arf' combines the soulful vocals with the complex Zappa percussion elements with the virtuso playing. Zappa had a great band right about now and they were none better than in a live setting. 'Echindna's Arf'? The guitar is GREAT! Zappa and his guitar, no lyrics - pure Zappa music for everyone. Oh, Zappa spoken interludes appear here and there on the album and those are worth listening to, as well. It sounds like a proper 'showbiz' show, you know? Zappa was taking the piss most of the time, but then.... the tunes more than repaid the audiences attention. 'Cheepnis'? Guitar, backing vocals, speedy energy and tricky time signatures. It all comes across like the only music on earth. Ah, I knew there was something I didn't like about this album, and it's the renditions of 'Orange County' and 'Trouble Every Day'. Two tunes recasted in the Zappa funk of the time, slow and sleazy in these cases - but not coming across too sucessfully. Still, the closing 'Be Bop Tango' is a sixteen minute long Zappa speciality, Jazz inspired and containing some the best playing you could reasonably wish for, combined with more Zappa 'leading the audience'. It must have been an absolute ball if you'd managed to attend.

Yeah, Zappa knew what he was doing. 'Roxy And Elsewhere' is slightly less an absolute ball to listen to on record than it was if you'd attended ( no doubt, I don't know, i'd only just been born! ) but the overall effect of the music contained within focuses your attention. There is always the music behind Zappa and Zappa is always right through the music. Whether it be through vocals, through leading the audience.... through his guitar. The sequencing here is seamless, the band of musicians he had could seemingly tackle anything.

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Readers Comments Bill bill.thomson3@ntlworld.com Funny how tastes differ because Son of Orange County and More Trouble Every Day are my favorite tracks on this album and the Zappa tracks I still play most after 20 odd years of listening. His guitar playing on these tracks to my ears is amongst his finest, combining melody with power and fluidity .....agree whole album is superb..next to Hot Rats my favorite Zappa disc - I even have my kids singing 'I ate a hot dog it taste real good' now every time I take them to a movie.. Luke mailorder@oldbaileypress.co.uk I agree with Adrian about More Trouble Every Day, the original (Freak Out) version is possibly my favorite song and I really wish that there was a faithfull rendition (the one on YCDTOS#5 is really bad sound quality! But hey with an album this wonderfully sublime it's a miniscule fault! Johny johny_candado@yahoo.com.ar Dont´you ever wash that thing is an incredible and complex song.If you are musician understand what Im talking about. This album is perfect.The cordination of the band is unique, and it is LIVE!!! A Perfect Album

As usual for Zappa, the lyrics and album sleeve seem to contain deeper meaning than a first glance might provide you. I'm not too bothered with all the fanatical Zappology that goes on and more fascinated with his music itself and with the vocal performances, both aspects always essential to any Zappa release. Recorded with one of the best set of musicians Zappa ever had, 'One Size Fits All' absolutely shines! Starting off with 'Inca Roads' was a slice of genius. Possibly my favourite ever Zappa song, this is superbly performed, it twists and turns, it's satirical possibly of the themes of prog rock, etc, etc. The lyrics are hilarious and also strangely evocative with the space-ship and alien themes, etc, etc. The vocals are gorgeously sang, the music twists and turns many many times. 'Inca Roads' is nearly nine minutes of the finest Zappa money can buy. The album is worth the entry fee for this one song alone, easily. Yet, we've also a couple or three of great Zappa rock songs, 'Can't Afford No Shoes' returns to the Zappa shoes theme that he brought up every now and again, going right back to his second album, 'Absolutely Free'. Being the second track and the song to follow the essential 'Inca Roads', a touch of fun rock humour and yet more great guitar, yet guitar more obviously in a rock mode, is especially welcome. Moving onto another great rock Zappa track that appears later on in the album, another fave of mine, we have 'San Berdino' a track with the usual Zappa percussion twists and turns, the usual fun Zappa lyrics, etc, etc. We know more or less what to expect with Zappa once we become huge fans of his, yet 'One Size Fits All' as a whole still manages to impress, every single time. One of the strongest set of songs he ever put out, says me.

'Andy' returns to the delightful yet easily listenable, obviously as opposed to easy-listening, complexity of 'Inca Roads'. A song in sections covering a variety of styles. We've got two sofa songs, and there is a picture of a sofa floating in space on the album sleeve, something that refers to a comment Zappa made about a previous Mothers band member in the early seventies. Always self-referring, was Zappa. It brought another level for his fans to enjoy about him. Anyway, yes, the two sofa themes! 'Sofa No 1' is a cool instrumental, space elevator jazz music played by a bunch of hairy rock musicians! 'Sofa No 2' puts strange words to the same music and closes the album in satisfying style. You know, there's a couple of other songs I haven't mentioned, i'm not about to mention them all, but I will reserve space to mention 'Evelyn A Modified Dog'. Not much of a song, rather a minute long piece of strange Zappa humour, but it breaks the album up perfectly. Seamless running order, great playing, great arrangements and invention. Can't ask for more, really.

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Readers Comments Al Brookskerry_prez@yahoo.com> I like 'Andy' the best, the drumming is unusual, it Rocks and twists direction. Andy Devine was a goofy-looking but serious character from a late '40s or early '50s Western TV serial I saw once or twice in the '60s. Zappa must have seen it while he was growing up in California. Actually, the album doesn't hang together too well, but there are hidden treats, or as my school chum Lloyd used to say, 'tweets'. Florentine Pogen is like 'Andy', it changes frequently, and is loud. Zappa doesn't sing any of the tracks except 'Can't Afford No Shoes'. tronbonder77@hotmail.com Inca roads is one of the best songs ever recorded, well atleast a cool blend of studio and live sound combined in one package. Melaniemfischer1@bellsouth.net I have been looking for an album by Frank Zappa and cannot find any reference to it. I was hoping someone out there might be able to help. The album cover featured Frank Zappa on the toilet and I believe had a red ribbon across it that said Happy Mothers Day. I had the album when I was in Germany in the early 70's. I think the song "brown shoes don't make it" was on this album. I was only 10 years old at the time and my memory may not be correct but, I do remember I enjoyed this album very much and would like to listen to it again.

"We were young lovers...."

Captain Beefheart guests on a good portion of this album, and although the good Captain wasn't at his finest in the mid-seventies, working with Zappa again gave him a kick up something, and he does his best. Besides, nobody else can sing 'pointed' quite the way he can, and thus the opening 'Debra Kadabra' becomes a perfect mix of Zappa instrumental prowess and Beefheart growling vocal nonsense. 'WITCH GODDESS!' But, back to something approaching normality. 'Carolina Hardcore Ecstasy' is a Frank Zappa sung song, and it's very fine, with lots of nice guitar, groovy playing all over and it sounds good too, as rendered here, taken from a live performance, as many of these songs were. Too many commas I apologise. The rest of this review will avoid them altogether. Right! 'Sam With The Showing Scalp Flat Top' and 'Man With The Woman Head' are Captain Beefheart solo spots vaguely reminiscent of the spoken tracks from 'Trout Mask Replica' which Zappa produced of course but nowhere near as inspired as 'Trout Mask Replica'. Zappa and the band add little musical fanfares after every sentence and that's it. 'Poofter's Froth Wyoming' is a semi-serious country song hilariously and enjoyable sung by Captain Beefheart. It's a delight and a joy and has some very groovy harmonica etc all through it.

The second side of this album features studio cuts like '200 Years Old' which is very blues and harmonica and very growling vocals. 'Cucamonga' is almost gorgeous but not quite there whilst 'Advance Romance' horrifically is eleven minutes long and really does try the patience. The closing 'Muffin Man' is a studio cut mixing the absurd and the funny with a wonderful Zappa guitar solo. And, that's it. Whatever.

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Readers Comments chris bennett chrisbennett911@hotmail.com Two of rocks most charismatic genius's together? I would love to have been a fly on th e wall for this event. Mostly steeped in heavy blues, there are essentials unavailable elsewhere which can only be found here. I know its a cliche' but this does need a few listens, and then on the bus, shopping, in work, or wherever, you'll think of a phrase, and say to yourself "where the bloody hell did i hear THAT?" Anyway i digress,"debra" gets locked in the mind "carolina" is a truly beatiful song and muffin man! muffin man! I want Hendrix buffs to listen to this and pretend not be blown away with the solo. Not a Zappa album i would reccomend to first time listeners but still, a must have for fans. bobrobash@robash.karoo.co.uk Certainly not one of his greatest by far, but is saved by the excellent Advance Romance and the even better Muffin Man. By the way only the introduction FZ part of Muffin Man is studio, the remainder is live.

By turns pornographic, artistic and basic - 'Zoot Allures' seemingly sets out to demonstrate to us all aspects of Zappa up and until this point in time. The mix is interesting with upfront vocals and bass, instruments dropping in and out so suddenly they're behind you then in front of you again. This can create some weird, almost hallucinogenic effects. Fitting in with this theme then is "xenochrony," from the Greek words xeno (strange or alien) and chrono (time). Zappa had recordings of his guitar solos dating back years. So, he'd pick out an isolated guitar solo and marry it to a completely unrelated backing track, often with additional instrumentation to support the new time signatures. Sometimes this technique was used purely as a compositional tool, at other times it seems it was used to deliberately unsettle the listener. Take 'Friendly Little Finger' for example, a great example of Xenochrony and just you try and listen and take it both the solo and the rhythm section at the same time, follow them both together. Hard, isn't it? But it certainly sends you places! In a similar, if more straightforward fashion is 'Black Napkins', capturing a superb and exhilarating Zappa solo over moody instrumental backing and the occasional 'oooh' and 'aaaah' background vocal. Oh, but 'Wind Up Working In A Gas Station' arrives first, a simple two and a half minute rock song that has the bass in and out of the song, a kind of bendy twisty song with daft, enjoyable lyrics, a stupendous little guitar solo and a furious ending. Brilliant stuff. The change in atmospheres from the first track into the second on 'Zoot Allures' is dramatic, unsettling and entirely deliberate.

'The Torture Never Stops' is nearly ten minutes of porno movie styled music with the odd tortured sexual squeal and the excellent but also odd unrelated guitar solo. The title track sends us out into live instrumental guitar solo waters again, and again, utterly impressive. One thing I love about 'Zoot Allures' is the sheer variety, thus we have the dirty grind of 'Wonderful Wino' and the 'pop' of the absurd 'Disco Boy' to close, both of which are utterly enjoyable. That's 'Zoot Allures', perhaps too fractured to be a classic, yet we like those fractures don't we?

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One hundred and one minutes of Frank Zappa and enormous band - could this prove too much for anyone other than the hardcore, dedicated, Zappa fanatic? Recorded in late 1976, Zappa enlisted some top New York Jazz hands to suplement his usual group of musicians. They played three, sold out concerts and the music showcases the full range of Zappa's absurdity and amazing way with melody and music construction. Well, on the one hand we have 'incomparable' musicianship and utter nonsense of 'Titties And Beer' which severely outstays its welcome, half of the seven and a half minutes are devoted to a somewhat 'you had to be there' monlogue between Zappa and one of his bandmates. On the otherhand, we have the somewhat distressingly titled 'I Promise Not To Come In Your Mouth', which actually turns out to be a gorgeous instrumental construction, making full use of the symphonic jazz/prog/rock/avant-garde musicians Zappa had at his disposal. Those of you who delight in Zappa's extended guitar soloing will also delight in 'Purple Lagoon-Approximate', some sixteen and a half minutes of what appears, initially, to be an onstage jam - yet later turns out to be a tightly composed structure in which jamming can take place. There is, of course, a world of difference. The brass parts that parp up half way through evoke earlier Zappa ensembles, such as the original Mothers Of Invention. The rhythm section are solid and grounded throughout. On the other disc, 'Torture Never Stops' gets dragged out to a worrying twelve and a half minutes in another display of virtuosity. The best bit is, inevitably, the Zappa guitar solo.

A disco-type vamp introduces 'The Black Page Part Two', described by Zappa as 'an easy New York teenage version'. 'The Black Page' is notoriously one of Zappa's most complex and densest compositions. Still it remains dizzyingly complex, if very impressive sounding when played by this large Zappa ensemble. The most impressive piece for me is the stunning, complex yet melodius tour-de-force of 'Crusin' For Burgers', really mixing jazz and rock instrumental work to great effect. What else? Well, 'I'm The Slime' sounds stupendous, much better than the studio equivalent. Zappa could 'do' live, it's fair to say. 'In New York' is a great display of the kind of ensemble Zappa could create. Many of the additional musicians had little time to prepare so it's testament to Zappa's skills as a composer and arranger that the whole band gelled together so very well.

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