Debra Kadabra: A cool energetic opening track, a great mix of Beefheart’s usual angularity and Zappa’s playful complexity. One can hear how Beefheart was such an influence on the No Wave scene, during some of the more chaotic moments the guitar sounds almost like Arto Lindsay.
Carolina Hardcore Ecstasy: Zappa is singing on this one. Sounds like a more or less typical Zappa track from that period. Poppish vocal melodies and a rockish foundation with a heavy dose of jazz. There’s also a typical Zappa solo towards the end, which is always a good thing in my book.
Sam With The Showing Scalp Flat Top: This is one of Beefheart‘s spoken word pieces. Some guitar licks, percussion and weird synth sounds back up his vocals. Towards the end a pretty cool groove emerges but it’s all over soon. I’m sorry to admit I always have trouble understanding or even noticing lyrics, because I pay more ttention to the overall sound.
Poofter's Froth Wyoming Plans Ahead : After a spoken intro by Zappa some relatively generic country music starts with Beefheart singing. It’s nothing special, but relatively enjoyable. Nice bass sound, some cool harmonica playing and a slide guitar.
200 Years Old: This one is very bluesy, once again some nice harmonica playing. At first Zappa is doing some spoken word, then singing sets in, with Beefheart leading the way. Another cool solo from Zappa on this one. There’s also some honky-tonk piano in the background. Nothing special musically speaking, more or less standard electric blues, but another fun, energetic track.
Cucamonga: And once again it starts of with some harmonica playing. Zappa is singing here. The music is more zappaesque and complex here. I really wish the track was longer, it’s a good one.
Advance Romance: This ist the longest track on the album. I’m not quite sure who’s singing here, I think it’s George Duke. The track has an overall bluesy feel, intersped with some Zappa weirdness here and there, as it progresses it becomes a straight forward, mostly instrumental, blues jam. Some weirdness emerges towards the end again. A big part of the track is Zappa soloing and while it’s none of his best solos, he’s always fun to listen to and it doesn’t get boring. The energy levels are high on this track as well. Towards the end the singing starts again, Fowler, Beefheart, Zappa (?) and the other guys each throw in some vocal lines.
Man With The Woman Head: The shortest track. Another spoken word number over a jazz-fusion background. Is this Beefheart doing the speaking with a non raspy voice? I’m not sure, I’m terrible at recognizing voices. I like the wailing sax and the e-piano here, but everything is over too fast to really get into.
Muffin Man: There’s a spoken word intro by Zappa who tells us some weird-ass stuff about the Muffin Man, accompanied by some cool sounding piano. It all becomes a groovy, rocking track and once again a long Zappa solo is the icing on the muffin. Sorry for that one. The whole second half of the song is basically him soloing. The vocals set in during the last minute again for some short time and after Zappa introduces the band member it’s over. Too bad it fades out, it seems there was some more soloing going on.
Well, this was a fun Zappa album. Oh right, it’s Beefheart week. Apart from the first track, where the music sounds pretty beefy at times (which is weird because apparently Zappa wrote it) and the short spoken word tracks there isn’t much Beefheart here. It is still a very cool album, Beefheart‘s vocals are a great addition whenever he’s singing and fans of both artists should have fun listening to it. I know I did. I wish there were more tracks like the first one, some genuine mixing of both musicians styles, but one has to take the album as it comes.