•
Rating: Apostrophe ('), 1974, Frank Zappa.
An album considered not one of Zappa's best by fans, but I think it's a great album.
Let's try to understand it more: what genius other than Zappa could make similar music in 1974? It's precisely from 1974 "Apostrophe (')", specifically released on April 22, 1974. Apostrophe (') was the album that achieved the best result on the American charts, and the opening track "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow" is Zappa's first single to be released, in an extended version, incorporating part of "Nanook Rubs it".
It is precisely about "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow" and "Nanook Rubs It" that I will talk about, tracks that together with "St. Alfonzo's Pancake Breakfast" and "Father O' Blivion" constitute a single mad and ever-changing song. It starts with the slow and irreverent "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow" and its wonderful bass line, the only melody that maintains itself throughout the piece. However, the melody changes when the piece flows into "Nanook Rubs It", an even slower piece, but that doesn't make it any less beautiful. On the contrary, it's truly wonderful.
Nanook Rubs It extends for 4 and a half minutes, then transforms into "St. Alfonzo's Pancake Breakfast", through a xylomarimba solo, a particular ethnic version of the xylophone, with a funny and frenetic sound. St. Alfonzo's is perhaps the best track on the album, although short. It's short, true, but it wakes you up after the drowsy Nanook Rubs It with a very fast melody that continues on "Father O' Blivion", until it becomes a crazy cross between samba and funky, complete with synthesizers, xylophone, and a wonderful rhythm. After Father O' Blivion ends, "Cosmik Debris" begins, a slow and provocative piece in typical Zappa style.
The album continues with the very particular "Excentrifugal Forz" which, despite its short duration, remains in your mind for hours after listening. The piece contains a live guitar solo glued on, just like a collage. In fact, Apostrophe (') contains numerous ingeniously glued live guitar solos in the pieces, however, after listening to the piece a few times, you realize that the sound comes from another recording. It's time for the title track, "Apostrophe", a classic blues in Zappa style. Critics have defined Apostrophe as the most relevant track of the album, but if I have to tell you my opinion, I find it less relevant than the rest of the album. Not that it's bad, of course not, on the contrary, it contains a monstrous guitar solo, but it still remains not very relevant. Then we move on to "Uncle Remus", a wonderful piece with a piano intro. I find the piece truly wonderful: it has that rhythm and sound typical of the ballads of the period, but the lyrics are definitely crazy!
Finally, we come to "Stink-Foot", the last track, a good six minutes long. Even Stink-Foot is not fast, like almost all the rest of the album, but it's still pleasant: it contains a couple of wonderful solos and some crazy interludes like Zappa calling a dog and answering himself with a mad "Harf Harf Harf!".
Apostrophe (') is a good album. Of course, it's not comparable to musical masterpieces like Hot Rats, much less to irreverent masterpieces like Absolutely Free and Chunga's Revenge, but it still has its charm. Apostrophe (') remains one of Zappa's most easily listenable albums, and a true musical masterpiece, like all Zappa's albums (except Pregnant, I hate that one é_é )
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Nanook Rubs It (04:37)
Well right about that time, people,
A fur trapper
Who was strictly from commercial
(Strictly Commershil)
Had the unmedicated audacity to jump up from behind my igyaloo
(Peek-a-Boo Woo-ooo-ooo)
And he started in to whippin' on my fav'rite baby seal
With a lead-filled snow shoe . . .
I said:
With a lead
LEAD
Filled
LEAD-FILLED
A lead-filled snow shoe
SNOW SHOE
He said Peak-a-boo
PEEK-A-BOO
With a lead
LEAD
Filled
LEAD-FILLED
With a lead-filled snow shoe
SNOW SHOE
He said Peak-a-boo.
PEEK-A-BOO
He went right up side the head of my favourite baby seal
He went WHAP!
With a lead-filled snow shoe
An' he hit him on the nose 'n he hit him on fin 'n he . . .
That got me just about as evil
As an Eskimo boy can be . . . so I bent down 'n I reached down 'n I scooped down
An' I gathered up a generous mitten full of the deadly . . .
YELLOW SNOW
The deadly Yellow Snow from right there where the huskies go
Whereupon I proceeded to take that mitten full
Of the deadly Yellow Snow Crystals
And rub it all into his beady little eyes
With a vigorous circular motion
Hitherto unknown to the people on this area,
But destined to take the place of THE MUD SHARK
In your mythology
Here it goes now . . .
THE CIRCULAR MOTION . . . (rub it) . . .
(Here Fido . . . Here Fido)
And then, in a fit of anger, I . . .
I pounced
And I pounced again
GREAT GOOGLY-MOOGLY
I jumped up 'n down the chest of the . . .
I injured the fur trapper
Well, he was very upset, as you can understand
And rightly so
Because
The deadly Yellow Snow Crystals
Had deprived him of his sight
And he stood up
And he looked around
And he said:
I CAN'T SEE
(DO . . . DO DO-DO DO DO DO . . . YEAH!)
I CAN'T SEE
(DO . . . DO DO-DO DO DO DO . . . YEAH!)
OH WOE IS ME
(DO . . . DO DO-DO DO DO DO . . . YEAH!)
I CAN'T SEE
(DO . . . DO DO-DO DO DO DO . . . WELL!)
NO NO
I CAN'T SEE
NO . . . I . . .
He took a dog-doo sno-cone
An' stuffed it in my right eye
He took a dog-doo sno-cone
An' stuffed it in my other eye
An' the huskie wee-wee,
I mean the doggie wee-wee
Has blinded me
An' I can't see
Temporarily
Well the fur trapper
Stood there
With his arms outstretched
Across the frozen white wasteland
Trying to figure out what he's gonna do
About his deflicted eyes
And it was at that precise moment that he remembered
An ancient Eskimo legend
Wherein it is written
On whatever it is that they write it on up there
That if anything bad ever happens to your eyes
As a result of some sort of conflict
With anyone named Nanook
The only way you can get it fixed up
Is to go trudgin' across the tundra . . .
Mile after mile
Trudgin' across the tundra . . .
Right down to the parish of Saint Alfonzo . . .
05 Cosmik Debris (04:14)
The Mystery Man came over
An' he said: "I'm outa-sight!"
He said, for a nominal service charge,
I could reach Nirvana t'nite
If I was ready, willing 'n able
To pay him his regular fee
He would drop all the rest of his pressing affairs
And devote His Attention to me
But I said . . .
Look here brother,
Who you jivin' with that Cosmik Debris?
(Now who you jivin' with that Cosmik Debris?)
Look here brother,
Don't you waste your time on me
The Mystery Man got nervous
An' he fidget around a bit
He reached in the pocket of his Mystery Robe
An' he whipped out a shaving kit
Now, I thought it was a razor
An' a can of foamin' goo
But he told me right then when the top popped open
There was nothin' his box won't do
With the oil of Afro-dytee
An' the dust of the Grand Wazoo
He said:
"You might not believe this, little fella, but it'll cure your Asthma too!"
An' I said . . .
Look here brother,
Who you jivin' with that Cosmik Debris?
(Now what kind of a geroo are you anyway?)
Look here brother,
Don't you waste your time on me
Don't waste yer time . . .
I've got troubles of my own, I said
An' you can't help me out
So take your meditations an' your preparations
An' ram it up yer snout
"BUT I GOT A KRISTL BOL!", he said
An' held it to the light
So I snatched it
All away from him
An' I showed him how to do it right
I wrapped a newspaper 'round my head
So I'd look like I was Deep
I said some Mumbo Jumbos then
An' told him he was goin' to sleep
I robbed his rings
An' pocket watch
An' everything else I found
I had that sucker hypnotized
He couldn't even make a sound
I proceeded to tell him his future then
As long as he was hanging around,
I said
"The price of meat has just gone up
An' yer ol' lady has just gone down . . . "
Look here brother,
Who you jivin' with that Cosmik Debris?
(Now is that a real poncho or is that a Sears poncho?)
Don't you know,
You could make more money as a butcher,
So don't you waste your time on me
(Don't waste it, don't waste your time on me . . . )
Ohm shonty, ohm shonty, ohm shonty-ohm
SSHONTAY
06 Excentrifugal Forz (01:33)
The clouds are really cheap
The way I seen 'em thru the ports
Of which there is a half-a-dozen
On the base of my resorz
You wouldn't think I'd have too many
Since I never cared for sports
But I'm never really lonely
In my Excentrifugal Forz
There's always Korla Plankton
Him 'n me can play the blues
An' then I'll watch him buff that
Tiny ruby that he use
He'll straighten up his turban
An' eject a little ooze
Along a one-celled Hammond Organism
Underneath my shoes
An' then I'll call PUP TENTACLE
I'll ask him how's his chin
I'll fine out
How the future is
Because that's where he's been
His little feet got long 'n flexible
An' suckers fell right in
The time he crossed the line
From LATER ON to WAY BACK WHEN
Loading comments slowly
Other reviews
By paloz
"Personally, I find it amusing, both for the expression on our guy’s face… and for my personal interpretation of his fly under the mustache, which could be the apostrophe... (Yes, I’m crazy)."
"In essence, an excellent (and bizarre) addition to Zappa’s collection."
