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Rating: To categorize Frank Zappa's music within a single genre, I think is nearly impossible. If we exclude the first two albums, Freak Out and Absolutely Free, which can be considered as early attempts at rock opera, all of Zappa's subsequent and vast production defies any classification. It could be considered progressive, but Zappa's music has always been far from the stylistic elements and rules dictated in England from the late '60s onwards, or as jazz/rock, but here the concept of jazz and rock is completely subverted in favor of a hybrid of both that, however, isn't the sum of the two. Perhaps, given the interest that good old Frank has stirred in the academic field, his work is closer to classical music, but even in this case, the concept of "classical" must be considered cautiously. Thus, his music is simply the music of Frank Zappa... without trying to find underlying meanings or possible comparisons with what has been produced so far.
However, there is one title in his discography that can have a precise categorization and that is the live Bongo Fury. The entire work is permeated with a rock blues atmosphere, Zappa's first love, even if in the crazy and entirely personal version of the mustachioed man from Baltimore. Recorded in May 1975 at the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin, for the occasion Zappa recruited that old rogue Captain Beefheart and his most loyal members of the "Mothers," including the Fowler brothers, Bozzio, Duke, Napoleon Brock. Right from the opening Debra Kadabra to the famous Muffin Man, the great showman is indeed the Captain with a delirious singing voice strong from a few hectolitres of beer drunk and with the entire band on fire, with Zappa enjoying dueling with Beefheart's harmonica (also on sax) with his solos so strange yet original at the same time. Only Duke seems slightly subdued, but probably because of the genre played, which favored guitar work over keyboards.
A curious episode seems to be linked to this recording: during one of the two evenings, a bomb scare abruptly interrupted the concert, followed by the evacuation of the venue. After about half an hour, once the false alarm was confirmed, the band resumed playing with Zappa apologizing to Beefheart for interrupting him in the middle of a sax solo. After a gesture from him, the band picked up playing from the exact point where they had been forced to stop... . Probably Zappa's most accessible work, but forget about the soft blues of Clapton and the likes. Pure madness in blues form!
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
07 Advance Romance (11:17)
No more credit
From liquor store
Suit is all dirty, boy
Shoes is all wore
Tired and lonely, my
Heart is all sore
Advance romance
I can't stand it no more
Told me she loved me
I believed what she said
Took me for a sucker, boy
All corn-fed
Next thing I knew
She had a bolt on the door
Advance romance
I can't use it no more
She took George's watch
Like they always do
(It was a Timex, too!)
No more money, boy
I shoulda knew
'You know I told ya'
'I know you told me'
'Ya didn't listen to me'
'But I couldn't listen to ya!'
'Told ya 'bout the anchovies... George DUKE!'
The way she do me, boy
She might do you, too
Advance romance
People I am through!
Potato-head Bobby
was a friend of mine
Open three of his eyes
In the food stamp line
Open four of his eyes
In the food stamp line
Open five of his eyes
In the food stamp line
Open six of his eyes
In the food stamp line
Said she might be a devil
But she sure was fine
Advance romance
He wanna try it one time
Later that night
He drop on by
Told her all he wanna do
Was step up and say "Hi"
Half an hour later
She had frenched his fry
Advance romance
Bobby, say good-bye
09 Muffin Man (05:33)
The Muffin Man is seated at the table in the laboratory of the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen. Reaching for an over sized chrome spoon, he gathers an intimate quantity of dried muffin remnants. And brushing his scapular aside proceeds to dump these inside of his shirt.
He turns to us and speaks:
"Some people like cupcakes better. I for one care less for them!"
Arrogantly twisting the sterile canvas snoot of a fully charged icing anointment utensil, he puts forth a quarter-ounce green rosette near the summit of a dense but radiant muffin of his own design.
Later he says:
"Some people...some people like cupcakes exclusively,
While I myself say there is naught nor ought there be nothing so exalted on the face of God's grey earth as that prince of foods...The Muffin!"
Girl, you thought he was a man
But he was a muffin
He hung around 'til you found
That he didn't know nothin'
Girl you thought he was a man
But he only was a-puffin'
No cries is heard in the night
As a result of him stuffin'
Girl, you thought he was a man
But he was a muffin
No cries is heard in the night
As a result of him stuffin'
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