Lumpy Gravy

Uncle Meat The soundtrack for a film that remained incomplete for over a decade, Uncle Meat is one of the finest albums produced by Zappa and the original Mothers of Invention. Showcasing every facet of the band, Uncle Meat is filled with quirky Zappa instrumentals like the title track and ...	Cruising with Ruben & the Jets	Burnt Weeny Sandwich	Absolutely Free Sandwiched as it is between Freak Out!, Zappa's 1966 debut with the Mothers of Invention, and We're Only in It for the Money, arguably his artistic zenith, Absolutely Free comes in a distant third--but that's only because the competition is so darn fierce. Absolutely Free is a co...	Chunga's Revenge
We're Only in It for the Money The Mothers of Invention answer the sentiments of the suits, the suburb dwellers, and flower children of the 60's with a big fat raspberry. Considered by many to be the Mothers' (and some would say Zappa's) best album, We're Only in it for the Money deals with harsh subject matte...	Weasels Ripped My Flesh	Waka/Jawaka One of two sets recorded with a mini-big band in the early seventies, Waka/Jawaka is one of the most eclectic releases of Frank Zappa's hyper-eclectic career. The album's dual showpieces, the opening "Big Swifty" and the title track, combine dynamic horn arrangements and free-for...	The Grand Wazoo	Freak Out! "This is the voice of your conscience, baby..." The recording debut of the Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention is a brilliantly wicked counter-strike to the flower power sensibilities prevalent at the time of it's release in 1966. Arguably rock music's first true "concept al...

Daring Ugliness
Zappa liked the concept of sounding ugly, thus the review's title. But actually there are moments filled with beauty mixed with furious sound collages and delirious talking from inside the piano. It can sound shocking when first listened, but later on the listener gets accostumed and finds a real sense in this piece that (in FZ's words) started out to be a ballet but probably did not make it. Furthermore, this is, in a way, the birth of "conceptual continuity" and the first record in which FZ showed why he was one of the best editors to ever work in a recording studio. Try and imagine Frank cutting and pasting tape like a mad sciencetist and putting bags of sand over the sustain pedal of a piano while already thinking about what to do on the next album. It must be said, though, that this album is not recommendable for those not interested in deep in FZ or avant-garde music.

The Ultimate Goofball Nightmare Opera Gone Haywire
No normal person can enjoy this. I love being strange, And this is one of my top 10 most out there albums, it gets alot of play on my stereo, odd noises talking about living in a drum and a couple of chicano teens talking about boogeymen. deranged orchestrations, opera and surf music parody, plus it sounds way ahead of it's time, it still does now in the 2000's. crazy, sounds like a psycho's sweetest nightmare.

Sounds Like A Dream
One thing that I noticed right away upon listening to this for the first time, was how essential Frank Zappa is to his own work. Let me explain. I have been a fan of Zappa's music for as long as I can remember, but I didn't hear "Lumpy Gravy" for the first time until I bought the box sets called "The Old Masters, (Volumes One, Two, and Three)" released in the 1980's. The front cover (and rear, for that matter) features a picture of him, as he looked in 1967; strange clothes, grubby appearance, and that Mediterranian intensity he always had about him. He is listed as composer, producer, and conductor. I didn't know what to expect. When I looked at the musician credits, I noticed he didn't play one note of this music, nor did he speak or sing a single word. But that was okay, it was his work. And right away, I noticed the missing element. FZ, and the Mothers. Bunk Gardner is in the orchestra, and the voices of "Motorhead" Sherwood, Roy Estrada, and Jim Black are featured, but Zappa is conspicuous in his absence from the sound. Even though he wrote, arranged, and conducted the music passages, and edited the tapes from the sessions. It is his work, and I haven't found any comments by him dismissing this work, so I am sure it is what he wanted it to be. I understand the fragmented approach to this recording, and I often think of it as a dream set to music. The random-sounding dialogue, the sound effects, the augmenting of traditional instrument sounds into something new, all figure into later works. His "Conceptual Continuity" is all over this release. Though it was released after "We're Only In It For The Money," it was recorded before, and it features many similarities, even with the word balloon on the inside picture calling it 'Phase 2 of "We're Only In It For The Money.'" Personally, I enjoy listening to this recording, even though it is a little frustrating at times to only hear fragments of what would become full-length, better-known pieces. I also look at it as a sampler of the ideas he expanded on in later years. So many of the little things here pop up all over his catalogue, and it reminds me a lot of one of his final works, "Civilization, Phaze III," only not quite as sophisticated. And it is a good companion to "Civilization..." or "We're Only In It..." But a lot of his work can be jumbled together, even at random, and still make sense. "Lumpy Gravy" is the first solo release by Frank Zappa, but still has the spirit of the Mothers Of Invention's records, a sense of people working together, a mood that seemed to slowly fade away as the 70's wore on, and disappeared quicker through the 80's. Every band had a lot of incredible talent, but as time wore on, the "group" idea diminished as the "soloist" idea became more prevalent. And even though the band that performed on the "Broadway The Hardway" tour in 1987 and 1988 was the quote-unquote, "Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life," the elements that brought "Lumpy Gravy" about, twenty years earlier, were all but history, maybe for the better, but alienation became his career's most prominent theme, as rock and jazz musicians were gradually replaced by classically trained musicians exclusively, and ultimately, the digitally sampled recordings from his Synclavier were all he needed. "Lumpy Gravy" WAS "Civilization Phaze III," but done on real instruments. Don't expect mainstream, accessible "songs," per se, and it really is a good piece of Zappa's recorded legacy.

For Experienced Zappa Fans and Fans of Musique Concrete Only
Warning *** If you have never listened to Frank Zappa's music and are interested in experiencing it, this is "definitely" not the place to start. I recommend either "Freak Out!" or "Over-nite Sensation" as the albums to first listen to. This album is divided into two 15 minute parts (a short album at less than 32 minutes). The problem with the cd version of this album is the decision not to divide the many different sections of each part into separate tracks. Therefore, there are only 2 tracks that are each 15 minutes long. Lumpy Gravy Part 1 is, by far, the superior part of the album. You hear the opening Lumpy Gravy Theme, which unfortunately is only available on only one other FZ album (Make A Jazz Noise Here). The song "Oh No" first appears here in an instrumental version...the vocal version would first appear on the "Weasels Ripped My Flesh" album. It's difficult to fully enjoy the song since it is too short (the superior instrumental "Oh No" version is found on the concert album "Ahead Of Their Time") and it does not contain a separate cd track so that you can repeat it. There is more talking in Part 2 and more Musique Concrete -- very fast experimental and disorganized musical instruments played together-- although one plus is that "King Kong" makes its first appearance here (the superior "King Kong" version may be found on either "Uncle Meat" or Jean-Luc Ponty's album "King Kong"). The instrumental version of "Take your clothes off when you dance" makes its premiere here but, again, it is performed better in later albums ("Ahead of their time" and "Lost Episodes"). The brief instrumental part from "Mother People" that occurs near the end of that song is heard on this album too (but it is not longer than the original and a longer version would have been fun to listen to and would have improved this album). This is not a bad album but it can be considered the weakest FZ album of the 60's and the 2 long cd tracks is no help to its credibility either.

Essential Early Zappa
Frank Zappa was gifted with a long and stylistically varied career that few before or since have been able to equal. Like any other artist/composer his style changed over time. By the time "Lumpy Gravy" was recorded in 1968 for the Verve Records label he had already released two great albums of biting social satire set against quirky musical compositions with highly unusual instrumentation and arrangements (Freak Out! and "Absolutely Free", both credited to "The Mothers Of Invention"). One need only compare these albums to what the Beatles, the Rolling Stones were doing at the time to see just how brave Verve was to release them at all. With "Lumpy Gravy" and it's companion piece "We're Only In It For The Money" (released at the same time, and to me, two halves of a single work), Zappa reached his zenith at poking his finger into the eyes of the musical and political/social establishments respectively. With "Gravy" Zappa seems to be trying to open the ears of his audience to something different than the dance-along-to three-minute love songs that they were hearing on the radio while "Money" takes sharp lyrical aim at the vapid `Peace and Love' generation and their parent's empty lives, with an accuracy and humor that no one else in the pop music world seemed capable of and that Zappa himself was never again able to equal. "Lumpy Gravy" is essential listening for anyone who wishes to get a complete picture of what the genius of Frank Zappa was all about. If such a thing exists, it is a surrealist musical painting; a mixture of musical styles (from surf-like rock to jazz to Varese-esque pieces) interspersed with humorous spoken word dialogs about subjects like what its like to live in a drum, dark water, hot rods, jobs or agressive pigs and ponies, interupted by electronically produced sounds, or "normal" voices and instruments either sped up or slowed down. It is challenging listening if your experience with Zappa's work runs more toward his "Watch out where the huskies go and don't you eat that yellow snow" period, or one of his self-indulgent "Shut Up and Play Your Guitar" albums. My guess is that you will either love or hate this album, but I can't imagine anyone being ambivelent toward it.