THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION: OVER-NITE SENSATION

I remember as a teenager in 1989 listening to the Doctor Demento show and he would play some ZAPPA. Amongst these songs played were "Dirty Love", "I'm the Slime" and "Montana". These three songs alone are featured on this album from 1973. In 1994 some hippie type from Eugene, Oregon that I was friends with for a few months simply gave me the LP (it was a later print on the Reprise label, not the original on DiscReet). Basically at this point, the MOTHERS only existed as name only. Ian Underwood who was with the MOTHERS since 1967 is on this album, but he's hardly noticed here. The MOTHERS simply became ZAPPA with whoever he can find at the time. "Over-Nite Sensation" became his most accessible album at that point, he decided to stick with music, probably in reaction to the bathroom humor albums he did with the Flo & Eddie lineup ("Fillmore East", June 1971 and Just Another Band From L.A.), and the two big band jazz/fusion albums he did in '72 ("Waka/Jawaka", "The Grand Wazoo"), probably to sell a few more copies.

No doubt the best songs on here are the ones I heard on the Doctor Demento Show. I have made a joke had ZAPPA still lived past 1993, he could have re-written "Montana" to go something like this: "Moving to Montana to join a right-wing militia group". OK, so the words don't exactly fit in with the song, but back around the mid '90s, Montana was getting media attention for being a hotbed of militia activity, so I couldn't help but think of the ZAPPA song, and altered lyrics. The actual song of course, went something like "Moving to Montana soon/gonna be a dental floss tycoon". The song is pure silly, referring to how some idiot is going to move to Montana to grow dental floss bushes. Sounds like he's poking fun at ignorant people here. Then there's "Dinah-Moe Humm", which seems to be a song about taking a bet with a prostitute. What's really silly is there's no such thing as a 40 dollar bill (which was used as a bet). Then there's "I'm the Slime" poking fun at the mindless drivel emanating from the television (ZAPPA should see how pathetic television became in 2003, where in '73 you're lucky to have three channels, and only a few had cable). He basically treates the television as a brainwashing tool. Certainly this album alienated some of his old fans from the original MOTHERS, but if you enjoy a more humorous ZAPPA, you're sure to enjoy this album.