THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION: WEASELS RIPPED MY FLESH

well, yes, most of it is. Some of it even would be recognised to the non-prog-listening majority as music. By Joove, most of the music is even of great quality. Zappa really plays a mean guitar on this record, and the other musicians are extremely talented as well, albeit a little on the cacophonous side.

'Didja Get Any Onya?' is an example of free avant-jazz that really works. There's humour, great msuicianship, and everything seems in its right place, while staying mentally stimulating and challenging. This increases the surprise and effect of hearing a straight blues cover, by, I believe, Little Richard, an influential early rock n' roller. The song is a simple love song, with a brilliant vocal. The song is called 'Directly From My Heart to You. Next is the highly unusually titled 'Prelude to the Afternoon of a Sexually Aroused Gas Mask'. The music, I assure you is marginally odder than the title. Startign off as a jazzy jam, it soon makes way for a section of only vocals, emulating laughing screaming, and other weird affectations of the voice. Great for freaking out parents. 'Toads of the Short Forest' is the weaker track so far, sounding totally free and structureless. Experimentation's good, but this is a pretty nasty cacophony. 'The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue' is a better improvisational jazz piece, even progressive in structure. 'Dwarf Nebual Processional March and Dwarf Nebula' showcases Zappa's studio experimentaions, with bacwards music and so forth. 'My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama' is a brilliant straight rock song, with lead vocals by the man himself. Very vicious yet fun, it provides respite from the heavy experimentation. 'Oh No' is kind of a progressive pop song, with a great tune. The lyrics are attacking someone but I'm not quite sure who. Hippies? It segues into the instrumental 'Orange Country Lumber Truck'. This is a great showcase for guitar and saxophone, and these instruments compliment each other unbelievably well, and for the first time on the albumwe get to see how good Zappa can solo on that axe. Now we have got to the final track; the title track in fact; we see on the album cover that it is only two miutes long, but it must be special right? Well, the surprise is, it is two minutes of instrumental feedback. Of course this isn't a track meant to be ENJOYED as such. It's jsut an artistic statement at the end of the album, to prove that this is Frank Zappa and he can do anything. In that context, ending an album like that makes sense, and does not take away from the quality.

Well, I admit that there is some over-experimental stuff on this album, but there's plenty of good music there if you're open minded to weirdness. I would give 3.5 stars based on its quality, but in the end it is FUN to listen to, so I will round it up.

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