"...Bizarre Relationship..."
Uncle Meat and Bimbo - fast
and bulbous - dissolve to bleachers and dwarves dressed as cheerleaders...
Ah the wonder that was THE
MOTHERS OF INVENTION and their mad scientist leader, arranger and composer
FRANK ZAPPA.
But would you buy a used car
from this anti-Establishment maverick of a man for your impressionable daughter
- possibly not? But while you send your wayward gal back to finishing school
for the emotionally inept, you secretly might want to buy the Oldsmobile he's
flogging at a knockdown rate.
In April 2020 - the July 2012
double-CD Remaster of 1969's
mad-as-a-mushroom-convention-during-Summer-solstice "Uncle Meat" is
indeed available to you at a knockdown rate (a paltry eight quid). It sounds
the absolute business too - and if you put a quality hi fi speaker up to your
Georgian sash window and played it ear-splitten-boomer LOUD - its frankly
disturbing and discordant 2LP madness would probably permanently clean out
those stubborn blocked drains in your backyard (microbes and bacteria would
leave in protest). But sanitation benefits aside, do you want it?
As all music lovers of a
certain vintage know - "Uncle Meat" (Frank Zappa too in fact) is an
acquired taste at the best of times - especially a largely instrumental
double's worth. But I say don the King Kong, swing those undoubtedly big brass
balls of his and hope the Government doesn't kill us all because we know too
much (love those liner note scribbles). And any band that has a Saxophone
geezer in it called Motorhead and thereby one day may inspire Lemmy of Hawkwind
to form a metal band – gets my vote. Let's go cruising for burgers, children of
the big cheese…
UK released 30 July 2012 -
"Uncle Meat" by THE MOTHERS OF CONVENTION on Zappa Records 0238392
(Barcode 824302383926) is an Expanded Edition 2CD Reissue and Remaster (also
credited as Official Release No. 6). It plays out as follows…
CD1 (57:25 minutes):
1. Uncle Meat (Main Title
Theme) [Side 1]
2. The Voice Of Cheese
3. Nine Types Of Industrial
Pollution
4. Zolar Czakl
5. Dog Breath, In The Year Of
The Plague
6. The Legend Of The Golden
Archies
7. Louie Louie (At The Royal
Albert Hall in London)
8. The Dog Breath Variations
9. Sleeping in A Jar [Side 1]
10. Our Bizarre Relationship
11. The Uncle Meat Variations
12. Electric Aunt Jemima
13. Prelude To King Kong
14. God Bless America (Live
at The Whisky A Go Go)
15. A Pound For A Brown On
The Bus
16. Ian Underwood Whips It
Out (Live Onstage in Copenhagen)
17. Mr. Green Genes [Side 3]
18. We Can Shoot You
19. "If We'd All Been
Living In California..."
20. The Air
21. Project X
22. Cruising For Burgers
CD2 (63:28 minutes):
1. Uncle Meat Film Excerpt
Part I [Side 4] – BONUS TRACK
2. Tango Na Minchia Tanta –
BONUS TRACK
3. Uncle Meat Film Excerpt
Part II
4. King Kong Itself I
5. King Kong II
6. King Kong III
7. King Kong IV
8. King Kong V
9. King Kong VI
"Uncle Meat" by THE
MOTHERS OF INVENTION (their fifth album) was released April 1969 in the USA as
a double-album on Bizarre Records 2MS 2024 and September 1969 in the UK on
Transatlantic Records TRA 197. The original double-album ran to about 76
minutes, this Expanded Edition 2CD reissue runs to over 120-minutes.
You get two inserts - an
eight-square double-sided colour foldout that lays out on all the wild
ramblings of the original double album including Zappa's self-deprecating
assessment of the project as "…neurosis and private jokes...secret
underground candy-rock psychedelic profundities." Over on the left is the
technical stuff – 1630 Transfers by JOE TRAVERS in 2011 using the 1993 Masters
– the first three tracks on CD2 being the new stuff – huge chunks of dialogue
from the unfinished Science Fiction film project that gave the whole thing its
name (Part I is 37:34 minutes and Part II is 3:51 minutes) and an unreleased
song "Tango Na Minchia Tanta" at 3:46 minutes. The second inlay is a
repro of the ultra-rare booklet that came with Bizarre Records original copies.
But in truth, you kind of wish that someone would just lump all of this
together into one cohesive read and more crucially, put in some present-day
history of the project, new liner notes to shed light on this audio montage of
Music Concrete, Vocal Groups, Experimental, Sixties Avant Garde, Comedy,
Dialogue and Mad Rock. To the fun…
Recorded across five months
and using editing techniques then unique – it opens with rapid vibes and
keyboards only to segue into Suzie Creamcheese giving us her less-than-delicate
dialogue tale of woe (home to mom). You're struck by the brilliance of the
playing and the power of the transfer – a powerhouse of clarity too as we go
into the very Trout Mask Replica guitar soloing of “Nine Types Of Industrial
Pollution”. Zappa finally steps up to the microphone for the brilliant
"Dog Breath..." - Nelcy Walker giving it the Soprano voice. It's arguable that few would get away with
the sheer treated vocals kookiness of "Electric Aunt Jemima" these
days. Jazz is never far away either as we "Prelude To King Kong" -
but it's hard to take Ian Underwood's mad Alto Sax stuff in "Whip It
Out" and soon we're "...cruising for burgers in Daddy's
car..."
The near 38-minute 'Part I'
of Uncle Meat Film Excerpt is a hard ride by any man's reckoning - intriguing
one minute and obvious rubbish the next. There is an almost Thin Lizzy rock
riffage to the unreleased "Tango Na Minchia Tanta" and it's a
fascinating extra. The 'King Kong' suite is more Jazz-Rock noodling with
fabulous Audio for 'Part II' and that kicking combo of instruments that brings
'Part VI' on home to a conclusion.
For sure taking "Uncle
Meat" in one 2020 dollop is going to be a challenge for many and if I'm
honest there will be 20's teens who will dismiss it as period twaddle that has
no relevance in the present day (I see their point). But you have to admire its
sheer bravura and this digital transfer gives it the oomph fans have always
craved...
