Released: 1972
Tracks: Big Swifty; Your Mouth; It Just Might Be a One-Shot Deal; Waka/Jawaka
Best tracks: Waka/Jawaka & the head of Big Swifty
Track to skip: Your Mouth
This was recorded at the same time as the next album, The Grand Wazoo, and was also Zappa’s first project after getting out of the hospital from being pushed off stage. Even though this and Wazoo are from the same sessions, I like Wazoo a lot better. Yup, there are only 4 songs on here; the two outside (and long) ones are big band jazz (with a good bit of Miles Davis-type fusion thrown in) and the short & inside ones are kinda countryish.
Zappa fans generally regard this album as a sort of Holy Masterwork, but I don’t see the greatness in it. Both Big Swifty and Waka/Jawaka are incredible compositions, but the multiple solos in both just drag them down. If they were maybe half the length then they’d be great. As they are, they REALLY drag. And also I suppose that if he had of cut them down, then he’d have to add more filler in addition to Your Mouth and One-Shot Deal. Except for the absolutely kick bootie lap steel solo in …Deal, both of these are two of the worst Zappa songs I’ve ever heard. They’re just extremely boring; the band sounds really bored playing these. Maybe one of these years I’ll fall in line and proclaim this as the highlight of Zappa’s output, but for now I don’t think it’s that great and it’s not that enjoyable of a listen.
Rating: 71
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