SHEIK YERBOUTI

Zappa trying to go commercial as he is more and more including tits and ass into his text to appeal to sex-hungry kids. Not that I didn't find it funny when a teenager, but it never made me buy an album of his, but was able to borrow them from a friend who loved that scatological humour stuff. You can guess that my friends threw themselves onto this one album and Joe's Garage for kicks and thrills. Behind the disco "Shake Your Body" pun, this album is definitely one of Frank's best selling album, despite it being a double-disc affair.

Opening on the openly sexual I Have Been In You and the arduous Flakes, the album takes a plunge in my esteem with Broken Hearts, well known by all teenagers chanting the "you're an asshole" and the "Ram It Up Your Poop Chute" lines in the high school corridors or at morning breaks. Another easy cheap shot is the slightly doo-wopish Bobby Brown with semi-hilarious and salacious lyrics, but we're a far cry from Sleep Dirt. Baby Snakes, Dancing Fool, Jewish Princess, Bobby Brown, Yerbouti are among the best-known songs of Zappa, and all are good (sometimes fun) tracks, adding some lesser-known funks (the excellent Grow A Chin and the City Of Tiny Lites) that adds substance to this double-disc extravaganza.

When not taking the easy "sex-and-shit" road, Frank pulls a mean guitar solo (Rat Tornago or the Yerbouti title track) or a good "Pastorius" bass solo (Rubber Shirt) or an extended solo showpiece like Yo Mama to please the kids not convinced by the crap he dealt us elsewhere (I was one of these). This took major pokes at the disco stuff polluting the airwaves of the times, so I still have a soft spot for it. Even though this album fails to captivate me nowadays, it might be enjoyed by those looking for musical smut. Not all is bad in Yerbouti, and even I will re-listen to this album once in a while with renewed interest, trying to forget the cheap tricks pulled in the present.

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