HAVE I OFFENDED SOMEONE?

Excellent cross section of humorous/offensive Zappa songs from the 70's & 80's. "Dumb All Over" is a previously unreleased live gem that is far superior to the over-dubbed studio version and is very appropriate for today's world of war mongering religious fanatics. Our red-state brothers should be forced to listen to it. Frank trashes the gay lifestyle, disco, France, ex-hippies stuck in the 60's, Jewish & Catholic girls & the crooked music business. "Dinah-mo Humm" features Tina Turner & the Ikettes and tells a twisted story of a sexual encounter without using any cuss-words. Terry Bozio plays the devil in another twisted sex number. Finally, his daughter goes valley-speak on Frank's biggest selling single. This is classic Zappa, crude, rude & funnier than hell!

This adequate release was apparently compiled shortly before Uncle Frank's untimely demise. Mischievously collecting some of his naughtiest and bawdiest tracks, this CD manages to convey the sheer expanse of his social criticism. No one is spared from the sting of satire.

At this point, the die-hard might ask "Why own this?" The Zappaholic will revel in knowing that this collection features several alternate and/or extended mixes of well-worn warhorses. Often, these mixes are quite revealing and the nuances are more forthcoming than they'd ever been.

If you already own most of Frank's output or if you're a novice, you should take the time to invest in this. You will no doubt be satisfied by this brew. That said, a mid-level collector might find this a tad unrewarding and potentially redundant, since he already knows Zappa can offend yet might not be too keen on the alternate mixes.

Frank Zappa always seemed proud of the fact that his music could offend just about anyone. Shortly before his untimely demise, he created this collection of some of his most offensive material. In this collection, there are songs to offend gays, straights, French people, radio people, bikers, hippies, studio musicians, pop groups, Jews, Catholics, religious fanatics of all sorts, and, most of all, prudes.

Frank made this album desirable to Zappaphiles by remixing and re-editing many of the songs, and using an unreleased live version of the great Dumb All Over. In all, this is a fun collection to listen to. But since all of the songs are previously available, I can only give it 3 stars.

If you like Frank Zappa's humor but you don't want to sift through his other great music to find it, then this is the collection for you. Yes, for the most part, these are remixes or different versions from what you might have heard previously, but they are not different enough to be disappointed for the lovers of his humor. For me, I would rather hear it in lesser concentrated amounts, because even though I find some of the humor funny, I would rather listen to the challenging music that he produces, so this album is a little too much of the same for me. But it does serve the purpose of gathering most of the funny music all in one place.

For those Zappaphiles that have to have everything, this collection might have some value because of the alternative versions that are one here. In some cases, like "Bobby Brown" and "We're Turning Again" the new versions are better than the originals (especially "we're Turning Again" because that annoying processed vocal has been replaced by a regular live vocal which is much better). In other cases, the changes are not better, but worse as in the case of "Disco Boy" which wasn't that great before but now have even worse vocals. "Goblin Girl" was bad enough before, but is another one that is even worse now with the stupid sound effects now put on reverb making them more annoying. By the way, did you know that song was originally written to sell to the Disney corporation?

There are some surprises here including "Yo Cats" which doesn't change much, and "Tinsel Town Rebellion" which are pleasant additions and lesser known of the tracks. The much better "Dumb all Over" is a much better live version compared to the original and is also extended to include a great guitar solo, but that is the only real guitar solo on the collection. This also contains no fusion or avant garde music, it's pretty much straightforward in order to appeal to those who are just looking for the humorous songs.

That's it, it's pretty much a novelty item with remixes and different versions. But some of the songs really don't sound much different while others are obviously different, some for the better and some for the worse. There is enough variation from the originals though to generate interest for Zappa collectors, including the addition of new lyrics in a few songs, but others are actually edits like "Titties and Beer". So just know that some changes are worth while where others are not or even non-existent. Decent enough with appeal for the masses, but nothing out of the ordinary is on this collection. 3 stars.