SHEIK YERBOUTI

Sheik Yerbouti, get it? Zappa's tribute to the disco era of sorts, though he wasn't through making fun of disco after this one. Possibly one of Zappa's dirtiest albums, lyrics wise. But there are plenty of songs that are just plain funny. Flakes is a personal favorite, particularly the Bob Dylan imitation. Ah, but then you have Broken Hearts Are For A-holes. And Bobby Brown is extremely nasty. A character who starts out as a jerk and well, pretty much ends up one. I'll spare you the gory details, but there's some S&M going on. Thanks to this album when I hear the name Bobby Brown, I don't think of the R&B singer. Then there's what is probably one of the second most shortest progressive songs in my collection: Whatever Happened To All The Fun In The World, clocking in at 33 seconds, were it not for We've Got To Get Into Something Real at 32.

This album is also noteable for being Adrian Belew's big break along with the companion film, Baby Snakes. Hell, Dancin' Fool made it all the way up to #21 in the U.S. This was my second Zappa acquisition and one of my favorites to this day. Most of the songs aren't suitable for airplay, and that's really what appealed to me when I first heard it. And the excellent musicianship doesn't hurt either.

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