Tracks
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Without question, the under appreciated gem in the Frank Zappa catalog. This period, in general, the 2nd Mother's incarnation (despite the album being called a Zappa solo project) is under appreciated. The lead singer(s) of the 60's pop band The Turtles are the frontmen of this line-up, but you also get superb jazz keyboardist George Duke's first appearance on a Zappa release, plus the already famous (heart throb) of the band) the power rock English drummer Aynsley Dunbar, already famous for outings with Jeff Beck, among many album appearances.
That alone, should spark anyone's interest, but I haven't even started on the wide pallet of material Frank covers on this album. Split between instrumental and vocal tracks, this is one of Zappa's early works (1970) to really prove his amazing versatility as an artist. The album starts out with a raging guitar driven instrumental called "Transylvania Boogie", an early example proving Zappa is one of the greatest (albeit most underrated) guitarist rock has ever known. He would prove this to a much greater extent later in his vast recording career. The next track, "Road Ladies", a heavy blues song about touring and groupies introduces "the Phorescent Leech and Eddie", namely Howard Kaylan (former lead singer of the Turtles) and Mark Volman (his cohort and fabulous backup singer in the Turtles) and is one of the highlights of the album. Unable to use their real names, due to a pending lawsuit, Kaylan & Volman use this moniker. Frank starts the singing, but hands it over to Flo & Eddie (what their stage names were ultimately shortened to), while Dunbar kicks the beat up to high gear and Frank starts right in on soloing. Along those same lines of heavy blues type numbers the original version of "Tell Me You Love Me" really shows Flo & Eddie have chops way beyond Turtle ballads like "You Showed Me" or their happy go lucky "Happy Together". This song rocks like nothing from the original Mothers of Invention or The Turtles.
Other highlights on the album include the beautiful instrumental "Twenty Small Cigars" highlighting piano, sax and guitar, shows Zappa is equally comfortable in the lounge jazz arena. The title track, "Chunga's Revenge" starts out as a jazzy sax showcase, using a wah-wah pedal on the sax, before Zappa lets another great guitar solo rip.
Finally, there is the comedy, musically vaudeville-esque "Rudy Wants To Buy Yez A Drink" focusing in on rock promoters and "Would You Go All The Way", another groupie number that show Kaylan and Volman as not only great singers, but great and goofy showmen that Zappa would fully capitalize on in the following album/ movie, 200 Motels. Only the "Nancy and Mary Music" track fails to live up to the high standard of the music throughout.
While not as experimental as the first Mothers group, this line-up can rock, but also have a lot of fun. The groups reputation became sullied in the following years by the substandard (especially by Zappa standards) "Billy the Mountain" from Just Another Band From LA, as well as a decent, but hardly exceptional "Live at the Fillmore East". But this album I consider to be one of the (okay there are a bunch) highlights of Frank's brilliant, prolific career.
That alone, should spark anyone's interest, but I haven't even started on the wide pallet of material Frank covers on this album. Split between instrumental and vocal tracks, this is one of Zappa's early works (1970) to really prove his amazing versatility as an artist. The album starts out with a raging guitar driven instrumental called "Transylvania Boogie", an early example proving Zappa is one of the greatest (albeit most underrated) guitarist rock has ever known. He would prove this to a much greater extent later in his vast recording career. The next track, "Road Ladies", a heavy blues song about touring and groupies introduces "the Phorescent Leech and Eddie", namely Howard Kaylan (former lead singer of the Turtles) and Mark Volman (his cohort and fabulous backup singer in the Turtles) and is one of the highlights of the album. Unable to use their real names, due to a pending lawsuit, Kaylan & Volman use this moniker. Frank starts the singing, but hands it over to Flo & Eddie (what their stage names were ultimately shortened to), while Dunbar kicks the beat up to high gear and Frank starts right in on soloing. Along those same lines of heavy blues type numbers the original version of "Tell Me You Love Me" really shows Flo & Eddie have chops way beyond Turtle ballads like "You Showed Me" or their happy go lucky "Happy Together". This song rocks like nothing from the original Mothers of Invention or The Turtles.
Other highlights on the album include the beautiful instrumental "Twenty Small Cigars" highlighting piano, sax and guitar, shows Zappa is equally comfortable in the lounge jazz arena. The title track, "Chunga's Revenge" starts out as a jazzy sax showcase, using a wah-wah pedal on the sax, before Zappa lets another great guitar solo rip.
Finally, there is the comedy, musically vaudeville-esque "Rudy Wants To Buy Yez A Drink" focusing in on rock promoters and "Would You Go All The Way", another groupie number that show Kaylan and Volman as not only great singers, but great and goofy showmen that Zappa would fully capitalize on in the following album/ movie, 200 Motels. Only the "Nancy and Mary Music" track fails to live up to the high standard of the music throughout.
While not as experimental as the first Mothers group, this line-up can rock, but also have a lot of fun. The groups reputation became sullied in the following years by the substandard (especially by Zappa standards) "Billy the Mountain" from Just Another Band From LA, as well as a decent, but hardly exceptional "Live at the Fillmore East". But this album I consider to be one of the (okay there are a bunch) highlights of Frank's brilliant, prolific career.