Released: 1968
Tracks: Uncle Meat Main Title Theme; The Voice of Cheese; Nine Types of Industrial Pollution; Zolar Czakl; Dog Breath in the Year of the Plague; The Legend of the Golden Arches; Louie Louie (live at the Royal Albert Hall in London); The Dog Breath Variations; Sleeping in a Jar; Our Bizarre Relationship; The Uncle Meat Variations; Electric Aunt Jemima; Prelude to King Kong; God Bless America (live at the Whisky A Go Go); A Pound for a Brown on the Bus; Ian Underwood Whips it Out (live on stage in Copenhagen); Mr. Green Genes; We Can Shoot You; “If We’d All Been Living in California…”; The Air; Project X; Cruising For Burgers; Uncle Meat Film Excerpt Part I; Tengo Na Menchia Tanta; Uncle Meat Film Excerpt Part II; King Kong Itself; King Kong II; King Kong III; King Kong IV; King Kong V; King Kong VI
Best tracks: The Dog Breaths, the Uncle Meats, the Pound for a Browns, the King Kongs, and Electric Aunt Jemima
Tracks to skip: lots: the Voice of Cheese, Industrial Pollution, Zolar Czakl, Our Bizarre Relationship, God Bless America, We Can Shoot You, Film Excerpt Part 1, Tengo Na Menchia Tanta, Film Excerpt Part 2
This album is WAY too long; there’s way too much filler on here. A lot of people complain about Zappa’s supposed putting out too much material. This album gives those people so much fire for their argument. Jeez, why do people like this album so much? Granted, there are some incredible melodies and songs on here, but the amount of filler on here is absurd. And it’s made worse that the album proper is just over 80 minutes and couldn’t fit on 1 CD, so in the 80’s Frank decided to add what the fans call Penalty Tracks. As in, “I’m penalizing you for buying this on CD.” The Penalty Tracks are the Uncle Meat Film Excerpts (40 freakin’ minutes of wasted space!) and Tengo Na Menchia Tanta, a track from **1982**! Why, why, WHY is the turd on here? It must be some cruel joke. Gee, thanks Frank.
A big problem of this album is that it really needs to be condensed. A lot of the songs and melodies keep popping up in different versions and are really a waste of time. There should be a version of each song and then move on to the next one. It really sounds like Zappa was trying to show off on this album. Like he was saying, “Look what I can do! I can compose all this serious classical music and I have this huge band that can play it! Watch me rehash melodies for the whole album!” I know I’m being harsh, especially to one of my favorite musicians and composers, but he deserves it here. We don’t need many versions of the same song, just played in a different way. We don’t need the same musique concrete as on Only in it for the Money & Lumpy Gravy. We absolutely don’t need to hear Suzie Creamcheese; she is obnoxious and stupid and I don’t get it. And lastly, we DO NOT NEED OR LIKE THE PENALTY TRACKS. There is so much wasted space on this album. As soon as I get a CD burner I’m making a 1 CD version of this album with all the bad stuff edited out so I’ll never have to hear it again.
Yes, of course there is some good to this album. Lots of it. The Dog Breaths, the Uncle Meats, the Pound for a Browns, the King Kongs, and Electric Aunt Jemima are beyond excellent. Hell, I’d totally tolerate all the rehashing if all the crap was edited out. Half of this album is excellent and half is horrid, possibly the worst stuff Zappa ever released. I think he was playing a joke on us, and I still don’t think it’s funny.
Rating: 69
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