798 Frank Zappa - Joe's Garage 1,2 & 3 (1979)

Studio Album - Progressive Rock

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:

So this is a triple album, which was originally released as a single followed by a double, and later released as a triple. The original releases were his released albums number 28 and 29. It is a story-based concept album, which uses the curious technique of taking guitar solos from completely different songs (often live) and building new tracks around them.

My History with this Album:

I'm not sure if I have listened to this album before.

Review:

Frank Zappa was an eclectic, profound and profane character who produced an incredible and varied output. This was fairly late on (relatively) in his living career (he has had about as many albums release posthumously as when he was alive). Apparently it started as disparate songs and started to come together as a theme, so he swerved it into a story album. There is lots to talk about but I will try to be brief while doing it justice. 

Musically it is very varied, around different types of rock, mostly mainstream styles throwing in things like reggae and do-wop and blues rock, and lounge rock and... well varied. All pretty well done in my opinion, and pretty much to my taste as well to be honest. I enjoyed the music, and the variety. The thing with the solos is odd, but I have heard of Zappa doing this, where he takes guitar solos from other songs (or often from live recordings) and fashions entirely new tracks around them. Anyway, you can't tell, they don't sound out of place.

But the album is more about the story, and therefore the lyrics. The story is a nonsensical fantasy about a guy (Joe) who starts out practicing with his band in his garage, gets a girl, loses her, gets another, goes to jail, comes out, joins the "church of appliantology" and eventually hocks his imaginary guitar on which he composes imaginary guitar solos, and gets a job in a bakery. It is narrated by Frank through some kind of squawk-box as the "central scrutinizer", who is narrating the tale as a cautionary tale on the dangers of music. This kind of random fantasy story is par for the course for Prog Rock, but actually as far as Frank Zappa goes, quite restrained. The themes are less restrained, and there is a good deal of swearing and explicit sexual content and imagery. This is more typical of Zappa, and definitely not safe for the kids, work, the wife, the mother-in-law or anyone who isn't ready for a pretty x-rated experience.  

I have decided that I like it. The musical strengths are good, and enjoyable to listen to. The story is fairly imaginative and the 18-rated content I found to be more naughty than sleazy. Maybe I was just in the right kind of mood. There is no denying the creativity and skill that has gone into this.

For years I have claimed the Microsoft are too big to only have one opinion of. I think the same applies to Frank Zappa, he produced so much and it is so varied in style, approach and sensibility that I have pretty much realised that there will be albums I like and albums I don't like, and I'm OK with that. This one, this time, I enjoyed.

7.7/10

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/6uJkCskko3O83SRYWQVsjS

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPSqbHbxawbyTwtIzYZ-g6CbPEBJOyjTr

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe%27s_Garage