Uncle Meat [Original recording remastered]

 

 

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Of the almost thirty Zappa albums I own, I can only think of a few that I liked during the very first listen. This is one of them. I had read the reviews and inevitably formed my preconceptions about it, and literally during the first few seconds of the very first song I thought, "YES!!! This is EXACTLY what I was hoping for!!!" As I continued to listen, a whole new universe of sound was slowly opening up before me. Each track got me more and more consumed by this strange and incredible musical journey, and soon I didn't want it to end. This is my all-time favorite Zappa Album.

I've often thought about what makes the original Mothers' music so good, and I think it is because in the late 60's, Frank Zappa hadn't yet formed the lyrical and musical persona that we know today (Arguably, that wouldn't come until 1973's Overnight Sensation). At this point in his career, he was experimenting with all sorts of styles, perhaps subconsciously trying to pinpoint where he wanted to go with his music. In this album, Frank is pushing his band both musically and stylistically to meet his artistic needs. And the results are priceless.

This is the kind of music that just can't be described in words. It's one of those albums that shatters all your preconceptions of what music is, and makes you rethink the very nature of music. I will say this, however: "Dog Breath in the year of the Plague" is one of the most beautiful songs ever released. As well as "Electric Aunt Jemima." And "Sleeping in a Jar." And "The Air." And... ok, well I'll just stop right there.

A lot of people have complained about the film excerpts on disc 2. But you know what? I actually LIKE it. Seriously. It's fun, and interesting as well. And I'm not even a HUGE Zappa nut. So here's my advice for the film excerpts: Listen to it once. If you like it, great. If you don't like it, SKIP it next time. That's what the SKIP button is there for. But at least give it a chance.

All in all, this is a PERFECT album that I would recommend not only for all Zappa/Mothers fans, but for all music fans who crave adventuresome and even strange music. This is a masterpiece that stands apart from all the rest.

The early Zappa recordings were somewhat murky in sonic quality. With Uncle Meat, as FZ explains in the original liner notes, they booked into this fabulous studio with an exceptionally clean board, so clean that they were able to do over 100 overdubs in the middle section of Dog Breath, In The Year Of The Plague. Though all the old Zappas have been cleaned up and sound much better than the original vinyls, Uncle Meat always sounded exceptional in vinyl form. The excellent studio cuts start with the experimental mostly instrumental cuts at the beginning, then turning into the Reuben and the Jets style doo wop tunes. These are intermixed with excerpts from field recordings and dialog in the usual Dada style. King Kong is a groovy little quick tempo waltz number that features each member of the band soloing over the riff. (See also John-Luc Ponty "King Kong: JLP plays the music of Frank Zappa" for excellent jazz instrumental versions of early Zappa material featuring Zappa sidemen and FZ himself!)Also featured are original Mothers vocalist Ray Collins singing lead on several cuts (I think this was the last album he was on before Flo and Eddy showed up) and bassist Roy Estrada singing "pachucho falsetto" (Dog Breath). I think Jimmy Carl Black contributes some vocal, but I don't recall right now. Anyway excellent clear sound and exzentrifugal performances on experimental but pleasing tunes make this album impossible to get tired of. Not as much social satire but there's plenty of that Zappa in other albums. This also is the first album where Ruth Underwood appears, playing lots of marimba and percussion.

This fabulous recording of the great composition entitled UNCLE MEAT lost FZ many of his original 'fans' and led to a basic restructuring of his career, though his musical vision never changed (I will come back to this). I was a young (teenage) professional musician when UNCLE MEAT emerged in '69 and had been a passionate FZ admirer since the emergence of FREAK OUT! in '66. For me and my friends who learned and played FZ's music either in performance or for personal pleasure it was obvious that UNCLE MEAT was a continuing, deepening, and logical development of FZ's art. It was also obvious that the reason this album was a commercial flop was that without the continuous flow of entertaining, intriguing, controversial lyrics such as were found on the first three MOTHER'S albums the listeners were suddenly confronted with Zappa music in the raw and many of these listeners were incapable of listening to this music with any understanding or enjoyment and, more importantly, were not interested in learning how to listen to it. Over three decades later, it is a pleasure to see that UNCLE MEAT has moved closer to having the esteem it deserves. It is one of FZ's finest creations. But I would like to focus here on something important that I believe is still lacking in our understanding of Zappa by going back to the subject of his musical vision.
Obviously there are many Zappa fans with many different, sometimes conflicting, perspectives and preferences concerning the assumed various stylistic elements that make up FZ's entire body of work. This not surprising and it is good that FZ could appeal to listeners with varying tastes, but I would like to focus on trying to give a picture of FZ's own perspective on his work as it became clearly revealed to the public with UNCLE MEAT. I will illustrate my view with a look at CRUISING FOR BURGERS.
First, I think it is incorrect to see FZ's entire body of work as a hodgepodge of styles. Its appearance as such is due to the difficult cultural and industry conditions FZ had to work through rather than to his intentions. FZ was not merely a rock songwriter who was also a modern classical composer who was also a jazz composer who was also a concrete music composer, etc... Rather, FZ was, in intention even if he could not completely overcome the obstacles in his path, a post-modern composer who utilized all of what were in his view valid musical possibilities in an attempt to create a new musical language that was more than the sum of its parts. This was not a mere intellectual attempt at synthesis, it was rather the organic musical vision of an artist who experienced these different 'styles' as actual parts of a whole musical reality. To see my point in a relatively small-scale, uncomplicated context look at CRUISING FOR BURGERS. I strongly suggest that you listen to it alone, very carefully, without any of the rest of the recording preceding your listening. You hear echoes of doo-wop, echoes of modern classical, echoes of jazz, etc... But these things neither separately nor together define this piece. When you become familiar with it as a whole it becomes clear that it has an identity of its own. It is a post-modern mini-composition, or movement, if you like, set within the larger post-modern composition of UNCLE MEAT itself. Finally, I would like to note that it is crucial to see that FZ considered purely electronic or electronically altered sounds of voices and instruments to be genuine elements of his musical language. It is too often wrongly assumed that he used such sounds merely as a trivial novelty or a merely unusual means of connecting different musical pieces together on a recording. These sounds are essential elements of the composition that they occur in. If you look at FZ's work in this way it will greatly deepen your perspective on his work and give you a better picture of the difficulties this important artist struggled with. Learning to listen to FZ well is work. If you are a music listener with only elementary music knowledge and want to learn more please look at part 2 of my review of UNCLE MEAT.

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1.0 out of 5 stars Overrated? You Bet.
This was the last of the original MOI line-up and sadly it is their worst! The critics love this album but that doesn't mean that the consumer should! Read more

Published on Sep 19 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars THE MYSTERY OF UNCLE MEAT, Part 2
This second part of my review of UNCLE MEAT is directed at those primarily Rock music listeners with some elementary knowledge of music theory who are really interested in this... Read more

Published on Jan 10 2004 by artist with no country

5.0 out of 5 stars Franks Best
This was Franks White album. Enough said!!

Published on Dec 19 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Freaky Jazz
Excellent album. Not accessible unless you like something a bit "different," though. The dialogue is fun, although sometimes a bit tedious. Read more

Published on Dec 18 2003 by David Richard Adair

5.0 out of 5 stars Great film music!
This is one of Zappa's more inaccessable albums and you probably shouldn't listen to it unless you are already a fan. Read more

Published on Sep 2 2003 by TheIntruder

5.0 out of 5 stars Very ambitious and satisfying cd
Okay, when I first heard this CD, which was about the 3rd FZ CD I bought.. I was totally confounded. I had no idea what was going on. Read more

Published on May 30 2003 by K. L. Woomer

1.0 out of 5 stars Okay, but where is the idea?
I will try to be as elegant as possible. First, to record, (or create something in general) one needs an idea. Read more

Published on April 30 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Surprise from Zappa! His first really progressive...
i bought the vinyl version of this long ago because i was getting more and more into zappas music... Read more

Published on Feb 3 2003 by miguel hiraldo

5.0 out of 5 stars Great; Great!
Technically, this cannot be beat. Jazz, Chamber Music, Blues, Electronic experiments (i.e. Project X) etc; this recording is spookadelically wonderful. Read more

Published on April 5 2002 by Al Brooks

5.0 out of 5 stars Strange, disjointed, fantastic
It was 1969 and many of the finest artists in the history of rock were doing some of their best work. Read more

Published on Jan 14 2002

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