Few pop music artists to emerge in the 1960s were more controversial, intelligent, funny, prescient, and just plain far out as Frank Zappa. As a guitar God who never took that pose seriously, who introduced jazz, classical, avant-garde, and cabaret on acid theatrics into his indescribable live act and recordings, nearly everything Zappa did in the ’60s and 1970s still sounds light years ahead of anything made today. At that time, Zappa skewered not only the fake post-’50s fat cats and plastic people, but himself and the so-called hippies who loved his music.
Zappa’s early records with the Mothers of Invention are unhinged freak-outs of sound and (bongo) fury. While serving up blistering critiques of the phoniness of both middle America and the power elite, the humor which with Zappa infused his bizarre music made it all the more lovable and just plain fun.
Along with The Fugs, The Holy Modal Rounders, The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, and a handful of others, Zappa, solo and with the Mothers, sought to poke twisted barbs of ridicule at all that was fake, mean, and phony. Unlike the others, Zappa was not a member of the underground drug culture and didn’t even drink. While his appearance was counterculture, his approach was counterintuitive.
Zappa recorded for Verve and his music was later distributed by Warner Brothers during the ’60s into the ’70s. While no major record label in the world would touch Zappa today, those days of rage allowed iconoclasts like Zappa to have a sandbox in which to blow up cultural bombs. By the time we get to Apostrophe, Zappa’s sixth solo album (not to mention 12 further albums he made with the Mothers), he had built up a rabid following and the counterculture of young people had become a demographic behemoth, propelling the album to gold sales status.
After three albums with the Mothers of Invention, starting with Lumpy Gravy in 1968, Zappa recorded solo albums and additional albums with the Mothers, along with one soundtrack album. This album contained some of Zappa’s most popular songs, including the top-ten hit “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow.” Perhaps more of a hit because of its prurient and sophomoric humor, nonetheless, it’s clever and still sounds fresh and aromatic all these decades later.
Other Zappa classics on the album include “Cosmik Debris” and “Uncle Remus,” co-written with jazz artist George Duke. Zappa co-wrote and recorded the title track with the legendary and infamous drummer Jim Gordon and bassist Jack Bruce of Cream.
The recordings on the album are from many different time periods. Side one was recorded at the same time as Over-Nite Sensation, released the year before. “Excentrifugal Forz” dates back to the Hot Rats sessions of 1969 and “Stinkfoot” partially comes from sessions from Chunga’s Revenge in 1970. All-star support comes from members of the Mothers and many others.
There are several 50th-anniversary editions of the album. This review covers the two-LP gatefold package, yellow-snow-colored vinyl edition, pressed in Germany on 180-gram vinyl, in poly-lined sleeves, which comes with a 7-inch vinyl single of “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow” and a 16-page, album-sized book. The first album is an all-analog, superb sounding cut from the Dolby encoded ¼-inch stereo analog EQ master from 1974. The second album is a hi-res digital transfer. It includes an alternate take, an outtake, and three alternate mixes, along with three live recordings and a TV ad for the album from 1974.
For years the reissues and archival releases of music from Zappa have been excellent. These recent 50th anniversary releases have truly been well done and offer a variety of formats. They also serve to highlight just how important, relevant, groundbreaking, and timeless this music is.
This is Frank Zappa at his most clever and biting, but with a knowing sense of humor and outstanding musicianship, making his music more than just a big joke for the water pipe and bong brigade. Apostrophe is the exclamation point on Zappa’s most popular period.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A
