Released: 1974
Tracks: Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow; Nanook Rubs It; St. Alfonzo’s Pancake Breakfast; Father O’Blivion; Cosmik Debris; Excentrifugal Forz; Apostrophe’; Uncle Remus; Stink-Foot
Best track: Cosmik Debris
Track to skip: regardless of Jack Bruce’s presence, I often skip Apostrophe’
This one seems to be one of the first albums usually picked up by new Zappa fans and I think it’s mostly due to Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow. I like most of the songs as individual efforts, but as a whole collection this isn’t the greatest FZ album. It’s not horrible or anything, but it’s just not ‘all that’. Some of the tracks, are all that however. These are Cosmik Debris, Uncle Remus and the St. Alfonzo & Father O’Blivion sections of the Yellow Snow Suite. The first four tracks are one continuous suite, with a 5th section added to later live performances. On record, it’s much weaker than it is live. Maybe it’s since I’m 20-something, but the song Yellow Snow doesn’t make me laugh that much. Nanook has some interesting bits, but it really only is there to connect Yellow Snow to St. Alfonzo. Alfonzo/O’Blivion, however, are jaw dropping.
That’s sort of a problem of the whole album: there are pockets of amazing music mixed in with stuff that’s just decent. I think Jack Bruce is a damn good bassist, and I like the head of Apostrophe’, but once he starts soloing, it just gets old very quickly. He just overpowers the other 3 guys playing on the track and it really hurts it. Another thing that sort of makes this a less enjoyable album than others is that it wasn’t all from the same sessions. Yes, yes, yes, I know. Most FZ albums aren’t from the same sessions. He liked to use bits from all over the place and combine them with other bits from totally different places. To my ears, it doesn’t work on Apostrophe (‘). The Yellow Snow Suite is the newest thing on here (as a whole) so that has a certain sound, and then the rest of the tracks each have certain sounds too; certain small nuances that make them sound all not-at-the-same-time. That’s probably the reason why I LOVE Cosmik Debris & Uncle Remus, as they sound like outtakes from Over-Nite Sensation (i.e. Tina Turner’s presence).
OK, I’m being pretty hard here. The truth is, I enjoy this album. Nearly all of these songs I love. My only beef is that it doesn’t flow very well. And you know, that’s not a big deal. There are some Zappa albums that flow beautifully and some that don’t. No big deal. I’m just super anal when it comes to this stuff, OK. Contrary to what it seems like I might be saying here, this IS an essential FZ album and an enjoyable one.
Rating: 85
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