930 The Mothers of Invention - Cruising With Ruben & The Jets (1968)

Studio Album - Doo-Wop

About the Act:

It’s hard to know what to say about Frank Zappa. There has been a lot written about him and it would be easy to parrot a lot of that. If you want to dig into his history, there’s plenty to go at.

He was prolific. Between 1966 and his death in 1993 he released 62 albums. Since then, 50 more albums have been released. Oh, he was American, I guess that’s relevant. He had a band in the early days, The Mothers of Invention. Soma albums are credited to "The Mothers of Invention" some to "Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention" and after the band was disbanded, they were just credited to him.

He is musically hard to describe, some of his output could be classified as Prog, some as Jazz-Rock, some as Avant-Garde Classical, and often it owes more to German Cabaret than anything. It can be complex, and he was an amazing guitarist, who surrounded himself with amazing musicians. He apparently got frustrated with orchestras for hire because they couldn’t play what he wanted them to. Later in life he was starting to embrace cutting-edge synths and sequencing.

So sometimes, the music is front and centre, but often it is the backdrop to his songs. Subject matter: social satire, often disguised as songs about banal things, but then he seems to take just as seriously songs that truly are about banal things. It would not be safe to put one of his albums on at work, or in front of the kids, if you didn’t already know the content, as it is often very adult. And that includes the spoken stuff on live albums. Be prepared for explicit sexual content, political commentary and anti-religious sentiment, all of which is mixed up with a peculiar absurdist humour.

He has a cult following. Presumably some people have bought all 100+ albums. I have listened to a good number of them and am still undecided about him. 

About the Album:

Frank Zappa had fond memories of Doo-Wop music from his youth, and so, with his band, produced this album. Some of the songs are re-workings of songs on other albums. It forms part of a collection of four albums (together with Uncle Meat, We're Only In It For The Money, and Lumpy Gravy) that was called "No Commercial Potential".

My History with this Album:

I've heard it once before

Review:

Doo-Wop is a style of American black music that originated in the 40s, but hit peak popularity in the 50s and 60s. It features a wide range of male vocal harmonies, from low bass to falsetto, with simple instrumental backing, often with simple instrumental backing. The harmonies often include nonsense words to simulate instruments ("doo-wop" itself is meant to sound like a double bass). You might know songs like "Blue Moon", "Three Steps to Heaven", "The Great Pretender" and "Only You".

I assume that this is meant to be in essence parody, because, in typical Frank Zappa style, the vocals are slightly accented to make it sound silly, and are often somewhat out of tune. Maybe if I had the Zappa sense of humour (I do sometimes but this time it doesn't tickle me) or a fondness for Doo-Wop, or even just a fondness for Zappa... In the end it's just grating. It's badly done, maybe deliberately, but... no. I'm not offended, just irritated, like the grain of sand in an oyster.

Sorry Frank, you have done so much better than this.

4/10

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/3S5MLt9uoIGx9GialSuBq6

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPXnjn8pYN7zdEe-2td6fkCe8iL6AGAQH

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruising_with_Ruben_%26_the_Jets