The first real exposure I had to Frank Zappa’s music — with the
\nexception of riding in a high school friend’s car, when I was too
\nyoung and stupid to appreciate what I was hearing — was thanks to
\na Chicago disc jockey a few years ago who played the extended mix
\nof “Dancin’ Fool” as a tribute to 1979. I was hooked instantly, and
\nsearched out the album —
\nSheik Yerbouti<\/i> — that had the song in question.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the version I heard was only available as a promo
\ndisc; I found it back in 1995, and paid the shop owner $20 in blood
\nmoney… but it was worth every penny. Unfortunately for me, I got
\ninto Zappa’s music in the period when he was dying of prostate
\ncancer, so the discovery process into his music was quite
\nbittersweet.<\/p>\n
It’s been 20 years since this album came out, and about five or
\nsix years since I fell in love with it. Through all that time, two
\nthings remain crystal clear about it. First, it’s an album that’s
\nnot for the easily offended; second, it’s arguably Zappa’s best
\nwork.<\/p>\n
Released after the fracas with Warner Brothers over the proposed<\/p>\n
Lather<\/i> set (which was released legally for the first time a
\ncouple of years ago) and incorporating snippets from that
\ncollection,
\nSheik Yerbouti<\/i> is irreverent, filled with sexual innuendo,
\nand contains some of the best goddamn playing you will ever hope to
\nhear blaring from your speakers.<\/p>\n
Quick, put on the disc now, and skip to the track “Rat Tomago.”
\nA guitar solo lifted from a performance of “The Torture Never
\nStops” (I can tell from hearing the orgasmic cries of a woman in
\nthe background at the start of the song), Zappa whips out a
\nperformance that truly describes what a guitar solo is. Part
\nshowmanship, part free-form improvisation, part madman, Zappa lays
\ndown a five-minute piece of tape that is the guitar in its most
\nprimordial form. I honestly don’t think that any performance off of
\neither
\nShut Up And Play Yer Guitar<\/i> or
\nGuitar<\/i> match the raw emotion heard on this track.<\/p>\n
Right from the start of
\nSheik Yerbouti<\/i>, you can tell this is going to be a fun trip
\nwithout the seatbelt. The first three tracks — “I Have Been In
\nYou” (a pimp-slap against the popular Peter Frampton album
\nI’m In You<\/i> from that time), “Flakes” and “Broken Hearts Are
\nFor Assholes” — lays everything on the anvil, and wails away with
\nthe sledgehammers. Granted, Zappa’s pension for layering his vocals
\nis clearly evident many times, but it almost gives a surreal
\nfeeling to the performances to hear them not sync up — and knowing
\nhow much of a perfectionist Zappa was, it had to have been done on
\npurpose.<\/p>\n
This isn’t to say that
\nSheik Yerbouti<\/i> is a smooth ride. Zappa got in trouble for
\nthe song “Jewish Princess,” and some of the lyrics, while funny,
\ncould be construed as offensive, especially to those who could not
\nappreciate the type of humor that Zappa had. Likewise, “Bobby Brown
\nGoes Down” has some content that would make people blush, but this
\nsong holds a special place in my heart — possibly because I once
\nhad a boss by that name who was a real asshole.<\/p>\n
Fact is,
\nSheik Yerbouti<\/i> is a solid album from note one to the final
\nflourish and crowd applause. The musicianship of players like
\ndrummer Terry Bozzio and bassist Patrick O’Hearn shine through on
\nthis album, and Zappa is at his creative, sarcastic best.<\/p>\n
Oh, wait — I can’t end the review without talking about
\n“Dancin’ Fool”, the track that turned me onto Zappa Road in the
\nbeginning. While I was disappointed that the extended mix was
\nnowhere to be found (and I wonder why, prior to Zappa’s death, he
\ndidn’t choose to tack the extended mix onto this CD), this song is
\na great slap in the face to the disco era that was so prevalent in
\n1979. Still, I’ll always prefer the extended mix, possibly because
\nit was what I heard first.<\/p>\n
I take some pride in the fact that, thanks to some of the Zappa
\nreviews we’ve done in the past, I’ve helped to get a few readers
\ninterested in this modern-day Varese with a Stratocaster. And any
\ntime someone asked me to recommend an album of Zappa’s to purchase
\nfirst, I’ve always been torn between
\nHot Rats<\/i> and
\nSheik Yerbouti<\/i> — but now, I’ve got to give props to
\nSheik Yerbouti<\/i>. It was — and remains — Zappa’s high-water
\nmark.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5625],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-36232","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-frank-zappa","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36232"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36232"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}