| "Cocaine Decisions" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Frank Zappa | ||||
| from the album The Man from Utopia | ||||
| B-side | "SEX" | |||
| Released | 1982 | |||
| Recorded | 1982 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 2:56 | |||
| Label | Barking Pumpkin | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Frank Zappa | |||
| Producer(s) | Frank Zappa | |||
| Frank Zappasingles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Cocaine Decisions" is a 1983 single by American musician Frank Zappa, from the album The Man from Utopia . A live version was on the album You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 3 (1989). It was played in concert from 1981 to 1984. [1]
Zappa had earlier anti-drug songs including "Who Needs the Peace Corps?" from We're Only in It for the Money (1968), "Cosmik Debris" from Apostrophe (') (1974), "Charlie's Enormous Mouth" from You Are What You Is (1981), and "I Come From Nowhere" from Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch (1982). Though unlike the hippies, drug dealers, youth, and junkies mentioned in previous songs, the targets of this song are instead rich Wall Street executives, doctors, and lawyers. Specifically the lyrics...
"I don't wanna know 'bout the things that you pull
Outta your nose, or where they goes
But if you are wasted
from the stuff you're stickin' in it
I get madder every day
'cause what you do 'n' what you say
affects my life in such a way
I learn to hate it every minute!"
...are targeted at music business executives. The vocals display a tone making it one of Zappa's more angry songs. In 2000, the CMJ Music Marathon magazine jokingly stated that "Cocaine Decisions" would be a great song to characterize presidential candidate George W. Bush. [2] [3]
During a concert in Palermo, Italy in 1982, a riot occurred during "Cocaine Decisions" in which the police shot tear gas into the crowd. [4] Zappa was reported stating "We played for an hour and a half with tear-gas in our face and everything else, and when it was all over we went off stage and we were trapped inside this place". The riot inspired the back cover of the album The Man from Utopia.
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by nonconformity, free-form improvisation, sound experimentation, musical virtuosity and satire of American culture. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed rock, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestral and musique concrète works; he also produced almost all of the 60-plus albums that he released with his band the Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist. Zappa also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed album covers. He is considered one of the most innovative and stylistically diverse musicians of his generation.
Joe's Garage is a three-part rock opera released by American musician Frank Zappa in September and November 1979. Originally released as two separate albums on Zappa Records, the project was later remastered and reissued as a triple album box set, Joe's Garage, Acts I, II & III, in 1987. The story is told by a character identified as the "Central Scrutinizer" narrating the story of Joe, an average adolescent male, from Canoga Park, Los Angeles, who forms a garage rock band, has unsatisfying relationships with women, gives all of his money to a government-assisted and insincere religion, explores sexual activities with appliances, and is imprisoned. After being released from prison into a dystopian society in which music itself has been criminalized, he lapses into insanity.
George M. Duke was an American keyboardist, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer. He worked with numerous artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and as a professor of music. He first made a name for himself with the album The Jean-Luc Ponty Experience with the George Duke Trio. He was known primarily for 32 solo albums, of which A Brazilian Love Affair from 1979 was his most popular, as well as for his collaborations with other musicians, particularly Frank Zappa.
Freak Out! is the debut studio album by American rock band the Mothers of Invention, released on June 27, 1966, by Verve Records. Often cited as one of rock music's first concept albums, it is a satirical expression of frontman Frank Zappa's perception of American pop culture and the nascent freak scene of Los Angeles. It was also one of the earliest double albums in rock music, as well as the first two-record debut album. In the UK, the album was originally released as an edited single disc.
Sheik Yerbouti is a double album by American musician Frank Zappa, released in March 1979 as the first release on Zappa Records, distributed by Phonogram Inc. in the United States and Canada. The album was released in other countries by CBS. It is mostly made up of live material recorded in 1977 and 1978, with extensive overdubs added in the studio. In an October 1978 interview, Zappa gave the working album title as Martian Love Secrets. It was later released on a single CD.
200 Motels is a 1971 surrealist musical film written and directed by Frank Zappa and Tony Palmer, and featuring music by Zappa. An international co-production of United States and the United Kingdom, the film stars the Mothers of Invention, Theodore Bikel, Keith Moon and Ringo Starr.
Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch is an album by American musician Frank Zappa, released in May 1982 and digitally remastered in 1991. It features five tracks composed by Zappa, and one song, "Valley Girl", co-written with his daughter, Moon Zappa, then a teen, who provided the spoken monologue mocking Valley girls, including phrases like "Gag me with a spoon!".
The Mothers of Invention was an American rock band from California. Formed in 1964, their work is marked by the use of sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows.
Jazz from Hell is an instrumental album whose selections were all composed and recorded by American musician Frank Zappa. It was released on November 15, 1986, by Barking Pumpkin Records on vinyl and cassette, and in 1987 by Rykodisc on CD.
You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 3 is a double disc live album by Frank Zappa, spanning from December 10, 1971, to December 23, 1984. It was released in 1989.
The Man from Utopia is an album by American musician Frank Zappa, released in March 1983 by Barking Pumpkin Records. The album is named after a 1950s song, written by Donald and Doris Woods, which Zappa covers as part of "The Man from Utopia Meets Mary Lou".
This is a list of albums by Frank Zappa, including all those credited to the Mothers of Invention. During his lifetime, Zappa released 62 albums. Since 1994, the Zappa Family Trust has released 64 posthumous albums as of June 2023, making a total of 126 albums/album sets.
Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention is a 1985 album by American musician Frank Zappa. The album was originally released in two slightly different versions in the US and Europe.
Isaac Willis is an American vocalist and guitarist who was a regular member of Frank Zappa's studio and touring bands from 1978 until the last tour in 1988. He did not tour with Zappa in 1981 and 1982 because he wanted to be at home for the birth of his two children, and returned to touring with Zappa for his final two tours in 1984 and 1988. He currently tours with the Frank Zappa tribute bands Bogus Pomp, Ossi Duri, Project/Object, Pojama People, Ugly Radio Rebellion and ZAPPATiKA. He also performed several times with the Brazilian Zappa cover band, The Central Scrutinizer Band, The Muffin Men, and with the Italian bands Ossi Duri and Elio e le Storie Tese. Additionally, he has appeared multiple times at the annual Zappanale Festival in Bad Doberan, Germany. He is most recognized for his involvement in Zappa records such as playing Joe in Joe's Garage, providing vocals on Tinsel Town Rebellion, You Are What You Is, and The Man from Utopia, and as the title character and narrator in Zappa's off-Broadway-styled conceptual musical Thing-Fish.
As an icon of counterculture and underground rock the American rock musician and composer Frank Zappa has been featured and referenced in various different media.
Arthur Barrow is a multi-instrumental musician, best known for his stint as a bass guitar player for Frank Zappa in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
"Wind Up Workin' in a Gas Station" is the opening song on Frank Zappa's 1976 album Zoot Allures. The song contains a fake German accent from Zappa as a result of Zappa's fascination with the German culture. In concert, the extensive repetition of the lines "Show me your thumb if you're really dumb" was given the response by the audience members putting both thumbs firmly in the air. Despite the lyrics being pessimistic, the song became a fan favorite. A live version can be found on You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 6.
Cheap Thrills is a compilation album by Frank Zappa, with material from previously released albums.
"I Don't Wanna Get Drafted" is a 1980 single by American musician Frank Zappa. The song peaked at #103 US Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 and #68 on the Cash Box charts, but more successfully reached #3 in Sweden. The original single version has never been reissued on LP or CD.
"You Are What You Is" is a single which Frank Zappa released from his 1981 album of the same title. The song is known for going out of its way to use improper English, basically mocking the rest of its context. It was the B-side for 1982 single "Valley Girl". This song was also remixed for the 1984 album Thing-Fish.
