Released: 1979
Tracks: I Have Been in You; Flakes; Broken Hearts are for Assholes; I’m So Cute; Jones Crusher; What Ever Happened to All the Fun in the World; Rat Tomago; Wait a Minute; Bobby Brown Goes Down; Rubber Shirt; The Sheik Yerbouti Tango; Baby Snakes; Tryin’ to Grow a Chin; City of Tiny Lites; Dancin’ Fool; Jewish Princess; Wild Love; Yo’ Mama
Best track: middle of Wild Love > Yo’ Mama
Track to skip: not a second
This was my first Zappa album and actually my first Zappa experience. I’m a big King Crimson and Adrian Belew fan so this album did interest me since Belew’s on it and I’d never heard Frank Zappa before. Around the same time I heard from a few different people (at unrelated times) recommend this album to me almost out of the blue. So, I had to get it. All I knew about Frank Zappa was that he was a little bit weird and his music was supposedly the most amazing and complex and mind-blowing stuff ever. Well, yeah, that’s pretty much it. However, this album is more in the ‘comedy’ vein than something like Jazz from Hell (which is all about the music, not a lyric on that one). Eventually it turned out that Sheik Yerbouti wasn’t *just* about funny stuff; there’s also some seriously amazing music on this thing. So, on my first listen I’m going through and laughing my ass off, but not really hearing this ‘amazing music’ that I’d heard was central to the Frank Zappa experience. Until I got to Wild Love. It’s a strange song, further dogging at people of the disco era (see also Broken Hearts and especially Dancin’ Fool), and then the middle section comes and it just fried my brain. I though, ahhhh, so THIS is what he’s all about…WOW. Everything just opens up in that middle section and nothing is the same. Then it segues into Yo’ Mama and one of the coolest guitar solos I’ve still ever heard. Damn. (Actually, that’s what’s playing as I type this: Frank just ripping it up in Yo’ Mama) Even though my world was rocked by Wild Love and Yo’ Mama, it took a while (years maybe) before it really clicked of how great this album is.
OK, of course there’s the cool musical stuff I just mentioned. Besides that, the main reason this album is so good is because of the band Frank had this time around. Roll call: Patrick O’Hearn (bass, vocals), Adrian Belew (guitar, vocals). Tommy Mars (keys, vocals), Terry Bozzio (drums, vocals), Peter Wolf (keys) & Ed Mann (percussion). Let’s get the argument going; I think this was Zappa’s best band ever (and that’s saying a lot). How these guys interact with each other, and with Frank, is astonishing. Just total telepathy going on there. Most of the basic tracks for these songs were recorded live and then overdubbed in the studio. That makes an interesting mix for an album. Since the basics were done live, you get that electric vibe that can only happen when you’re playing in front of an audience. And by overdubbing all the main parts, you get perfection on top of all that energy. A few of the songs (the guitar solos Rat Tomago & Sheik Yerbouti Tango, in addition to most of Yo’ Mama) are totally live. Of course it should be noted that Zappa always improvised all of his guitar solos when he played live.
Sheik Yerbouti (an obvious pun on the KC & the Sunshine Band’s tune) was originally a double album so at just under 80 minutes it is a bit long. There’s a lot of stuff here. And yes, mostly the focus of this album is stuff that’s designed to make you laugh. Naturally there’s a good chance you’ll be offended at something on this album, but I think the thing to remember is that Zappa really just targeted stupidity. That’s the good thing, he didn’t discriminate: he picked on everybody. As funny and silly as this album is, it’s a hell of a lot of fun. These guys clearly had a blast playing this material. This isn’t one of my favorite Zappa albums just because it was my first one, but because of how good it is and how fun it is to listen to. Not many of Zappa’s albums get as good as this.
Rating: 97
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