The Rock Album Survivor Reviews Thread

[JGuy Grungeman]

I've heard this album once before, and I immediately loved it (possibly because I'm seriously big on 60's and 70's rock). This album perfectly represents the spirit of the 60's and everything the 60's stood for. It was also a huge influence on the Summer of Love that would come the year after. It's satirical, yet very stoned at the same time. This, along with the 60's representation, created a special brand of experimentation that made this the first “experimental” album I ever really liked.

Songs like “Hungry Freaks” and “I Ain't Got No Heart” are full of heart, both being fantastic openers for a fantastic album. The album then takes a Lewis Carroll style turn for the better on the album (but maybe a worse on the brainwaves). And it's not White Rabbit. It's a very loud, mentally messed up piece of random horns that work perfectly. And then we get to this little doo-wop song, “Go Cry on Somebody Else's Shoulder.” What the hell, Frank? You turn from a heavily experimental and somewhat disturbing trumpet powered drug-fest, and\ then you do one of the best doo-wop songs since the doo-wop fad ended? I think the ever shifting pace and uneven flow are not flaws at all, but help empower the satire. “Motherly Love,” like the first song, is a primary example of 60's rock, notably a pop/garage blend, but continues the whole ideal of out-of-place/humourous kazoos up the great wazoo. In fact, when the kazoo wasn't used, that felt out of place as well. Motherly Love is just another great song that surprises you. “How Could I Be Such a Fool” is a slight, poppy psychedelic love song that is slower than the rest of the beginning, but is still a sweet listen. “Wowie Zowie” is next, and I'm thinking about Super Mario World throughout the whole thing thanks to it's excessively cheery vibe. Actually, I would LOVE IT IF FRANK ZAPPA DID THE SOUNDTRACK TO A MARIO GAME OR SIX. And I love the “Sherri” reference at the end of the song!

“You Didn't Try to Call Me” is a very estranged song, but it's not as experimental as the previous songs. It still retains a strange, comedic aura, one that helped me realize what the flow of the album is: It's unconventionality. If any two songs sounded similar, the aura of the album would fall apart.



“Anyway the Wind Blows” is reminiscent of bands like The Byrds, carrying a slight folk feel but retaining that same obnoxious Zappa charm that only his horns and kazoos can give you. “I'm Not Satisfied” is a much rougher track. The vocal compositions need to work on catchiness, but overall, the music is fine. Plus, “Yeeeaaahhh.”



“You're probably wondering why “You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here” was written. Well, I think it was to bring back the kazoos, and the “Yeah.” I think it was built a little too much on previous tracks, and was a bit similar to the last track. Like I said, two similar consecutive tracks would disrupt the aura, and it did. It's a good song, but the feeling of the song has been done before on the album, and by then it felt tiring.

Now we're onto the second half. We begin the second disc, C-side, with a long song, “Trouble Every Day.” It takes no time to build itself up and instead begins a very upbeat, really cool tune with a slow, ambient, badass harmonica. I'd easily take six minutes of this! Now we get to a long suite of 8 minutes. This suite is strangely called “Help I'm a Rock.” It starts out with an estranged, almost Indian style guitar riff that keeps repeating itself, never to a tiring extent. Next we get a collage of wacko vocal sounds all backed up by slight piano stokes and a new bass riff. We go through a couple minutes of this enjoyable, yet deranged sound; after that will then be another estranged sound. Whereas the first movement was oddly named “Okay to Tap Dance,” this movement is called “In Memoriam, Edgard Varèse.” It's about breathing women, clapping, and a strange imitation of a mix between a monkey and a parrot. “It can't happen here is a lot of soulless singing, which also adds to the satire, and very little “music,” as well as kinky scatting.

And finally, a short conversation about Suzy Creamcheese starts ""The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet." This song carries a sci-fi style rhythm into a horribly named track (I don't think I want to say it) that is more drugged up than the rest of the album, and it gets more drugged up throughout. It's all strange one-note chanting, heavy cymbals, and a couple of radio sounds. And yet, this not only adds to the satirical flow, it creates an artistic collage of sounds that are so good it's mind-boggling. This goes on for a long time, but it never gets tiring. Eventually it gets into a tribal-style sound which is like a musical zoo, where instruments mimic zoo creatures. This is short, and it gets into a strange romantic sounding conversation in Spanish. Is this all just a sorry excuse for music, or an artistic look on the free experimentation of music and a compliment to how comedic one can make it? The latter.

Overall, Frank Zappa's debut is satirical, out-of-place in grand ways, diverse, and lovable because of those traits. The strange traits are created by the influence taken from avant-garde, blues rock, pop, doo-wop, psychedelic rock, rock and roll, garage rock, and R&B. It's both an album that radio-players would love, and one that is so experimental they'd probably stay away from it. But that's part of the reason why it's so comedic. Not only may one find entertainment in the most unexpected places in this album, it's the best experimental album in my opinion, and one of the greatest albums and prime examples of the 60's music scenes. 100. Perfect.

Likely this will be my number 1, but my prediction for the winner is Kid A.