Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention | ||||
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Studio album with live elementsby | ||||
Released | November 21, 1985 | |||
Recorded | November 1981–September 1985 | |||
Studio | UMRK (Los Angeles) | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 37:31 | |||
Label | Barking Pumpkin | |||
Producer | Frank Zappa | |||
Frank Zappa chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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.
The album's title is a reference to the lobby group, the PMRC, who were campaigning to require record companies to put warning stickers on albums they considered offensive, and to Zappa's former band, the Mothers of Invention.
Following distribution problems with Zappa's album Thing-Fish (1984), which former Barking Pumpkin distributor MCA Records refused to distribute, [2] Zappa made a deal with EMI Records, which would allow Them or Us and Thing-Fish (both 1984) to be distributed by Capitol Records in the United States. [2]
Zappa wrote a "warning" which appeared on the inner sleeves of these albums, as well as Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention, it read:
WARNING/GUARANTEE:
This album contains material which a truly free society would neither fear nor suppress.
In some socially retarded areas, religious fanatics and ultra-conservative political organizations violate your First Amendment Rights by attempting to censor rock & roll albums. We feel that this is un-Constitutional and un-American.
As an alternative to these government-supported programs (designed to keep you docile and ignorant). Barking Pumpkin is pleased to provide stimulating digital audio entertainment for those of you who have outgrown the ordinary.
The language and concepts contained herein are GUARANTEED NOT TO CAUSE ETERNAL TORMENT IN THE PLACE WHERE THE GUY WITH THE HORNS AND POINTED STICK CONDUCTS HIS BUSINESS. This guarantee is as real as the threats of the video fundamentalists who use attacks on rock music in their attempt to transform America into a nation of check-mailing nincompoops (in the name of Jesus Christ).
If there is a hell, its fires wait for them, not us.
The liner notes also contained a quote from Senator Fritz Hollings, who testified during the PMRC hearings: "…if I could find some way constitutionally to do away with it [foul language in music], I would", as well as Zappa's oft-repeated liner notes request for his fans to register to vote.
The original US version of the album contains the track "Porn Wars" – a sound collage featuring excerpts from PMRC hearings. This track was omitted from non-US versions, and replaced with three other pieces: "I Don't Even Care", co-written by Zappa and Johnny "Guitar" Watson, and two instrumental tracks – "One Man, One Vote" (a Synclavier composition) and "H.R. 2911", which collates some of the backing music from "Porn Wars", without the PMRC hearing excerpts and other dialogue. The EMI CD (coupled with 1986's Jazz from Hell ) only included the European Version. The original Rykodisc CDs added two of the three European tracks and shuffled around the running order. The 1995 Rykodisc remaster added the third European track after the same shuffled order.
All tracks written by Frank Zappa, except where noted.
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "We're Turning Again" | 4:55 |
2. | "Alien Orifice" | 4:03 |
3. | "Yo Cats" (Zappa, Tommy Mars) | 3:31 |
4. | "What's New in Baltimore?" | 5:21 |
Total length: | 18:35 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
5. | "Little Beige Sambo" | 3:02 |
6. | "Porn Wars" | 12:04 |
7. | "Aerobics in Bondage" | 3:16 |
Total length: | 18:56 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "We're Turning Again" | 4:55 |
2. | "Alien Orifice" | 4:03 |
3. | "Yo Cats" (Zappa, Tommy Mars) | 3:31 |
4. | "What's New in Baltimore?" | 5:21 |
Total length: | 18:35 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
5. | "I Don't Even Care" (Zappa, Johnny "Guitar" Watson) | 4:39 |
6. | "One Man, One Vote" | 2:35 |
7. | "H.R. 2911" | 3:35 |
8. | "Little Beige Sambo" | 3:02 |
9. | "Aerobics in Bondage" | 3:16 |
Total length: | 17:45 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "I Don't Even Care" (Zappa, Johnny "Guitar" Watson) | 4:39 |
2. | "One Man, One Vote" | 2:35 |
3. | "Little Beige Sambo" | 3:02 |
4. | "Aerobics in Bondage" | 3:16 |
5. | "We're Turning Again" | 4:55 |
6. | "Alien Orifice" | 4:10 |
7. | "Yo Cats" (Zappa, Tommy Mars) | 3:33 |
8. | "What's New in Baltimore?" | 5:20 |
9. | "Porn Wars" | 12:03 |
10. | "H.R. 2911" | 3:35 |
Total length: | 47:17 |
Album – Billboard (United States)
Year | Chart | Position |
---|---|---|
1986 | Billboard 200 | 153 [3] |
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. 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. His work is characterized by nonconformity, improvisation sound experimentation, musical virtuosity and satire of American culture. 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.
The Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) was an American committee formed in 1985 with the stated goal of increasing parental control over the access of children to music deemed to have violent, drug-related, or sexual themes via labeling albums with Parental Advisory stickers. The committee was founded by four women known as the "Washington Wives"—a reference to their husbands' connections with government in the Washington, D.C. area. The women who founded the PMRC are Tipper Gore, wife of Senator and later Vice President Al Gore; Susan Baker, wife of Treasury Secretary James Baker; Pam Howar, wife of Washington realtor Raymond Howar; and Sally Nevius, wife of former Washington City Council Chairman John Nevius. The PMRC eventually grew to include 22 participants before shutting down in the mid-to-late 1990s.
Uncle Meat is the sixth album by the Mothers of Invention, and seventh overall by Frank Zappa, released as a double album in 1969. Uncle Meat was originally developed as a part of No Commercial Potential, a project which spawned three other albums sharing a conceptual connection: We're Only in It for the Money, Lumpy Gravy and Cruising with Ruben & the Jets.
Civilization Phaze III is the sixty-third album by Frank Zappa, released posthumously as a double album on October 31, 1994. It was the first studio album of new material from Zappa since 1986's Jazz from Hell. The album marks the third part of a conceptual continuity that started with We're Only in It for the Money (1968), with the second part being a re-edited version of Zappa's 1967 album Lumpy Gravy. Zappa described the album as a "two-act opera", but in lieu of traditional recitatives and arias, it alternates brief spoken word passages with musical numbers created on a Synclavier using a combination of sampled and synthesized sounds. Much of the sampled material in the second half of the album was originally recorded by Ensemble Modern and other musicians to Zappa's specifications.
Them or Us is an album by American musician Frank Zappa, released in October 1984 by Barking Pumpkin Records.
Fillmore East – June 1971 is a live album by The Mothers, released in 1971. It is the twelfth album in Frank Zappa's discography, and was produced by Zappa and mixed by Toby Foster.
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 then-14 year old daughter Moon Zappa, who provided the spoken monologue mocking Valley girls, including phrases like "Gag me with a spoon!".
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.
Thing-Fish is an album by Frank Zappa, originally released as a triple album box set on Barking Pumpkin Records in 1984. It was billed as a cast recording for a proposed musical of the same name, which was ultimately not produced by Zappa, but later performed partially in 2003, ten years after his death.
One Size Fits All is the fourteenth album by the Mothers of Invention, and the twentieth overall album by Frank Zappa, released in June 1975. The album reached #26 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart in the United States in August 1975.
You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 5 is a double compact disc collection of live recordings by Frank Zappa. Disc one comprises performances by the original Mothers of Invention, spanning the period from 1965 to 1969. "My Guitar" had been previously released as a single in 1969. Disc two comprises performances from the summer 1982 tour of Europe. It was released in 1992 under the label Rykodisc. The last track on this collection ends with Zappa's anger at some audience members tossing cigarettes on stage; after a warning to stop was not obeyed, the disc ends with Zappa stating, "Houselights! The concert's over!"
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".
Läther is the sixty-fifth official album by Frank Zappa. It was released posthumously as a three-CD set on Rykodisc in 1996. The album's title is derived from bits of comic dialog that link the songs. Zappa also explained that the name is a joke, based on "common bastardized pronunciation of Germanic syllables by the Swiss."
The Perfect Stranger is a 1984 album featuring the music of Frank Zappa, conducted in part by Pierre Boulez. It was originally issued on vinyl in 1984 and on CD in 1985 by Angel, and then in remixed and resequenced form on CD by Barking Pumpkin in 1992. Later reissues were by Rykodisc in 1995 and Zappa/Universal in 2012.
Playground Psychotics is a two-CD live album by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. It was originally released in 1992 through his mail order label, Barking Pumpkin, and was re-released in 1995 through Rykodisc. The album features recordings of Zappa and his band, the Mothers of Invention, around the time of the film 200 Motels. The live material on Playground Psychotics is interspersed with excerpts from taped conversations among band members whilst on tour, and the release includes three conceptual sections: A Typical Day on the Road, Part 1, a collage of dialogue which opens the first disc; A Typical Day on the Road, Part 2, which opens the second disc and The True Story of 200 Motels, which appears at the end of disc two. The album also includes a live session with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, an alternate mix of which appears on Lennon and Ono's Some Time in New York City (1972).
Barking Pumpkin Records is an American record label founded by Frank Zappa in 1981. Zappa named the label after his wife's smoker's cough when she tried to quit the habit. Barking Pumpkin was initially distributed by CBS Records.
Tinsel Town Rebellion is a double live album released by Frank Zappa in May 1981. The album was conceived by Zappa after he scrapped the planned albums Warts and All and Crush All Boxes, and contains tracks that were intended for those albums.
The Old Masters is a box set series by Frank Zappa, released in three volumes on Barking Pumpkin Records from April 1985 to December 1987, consisting of studio and live albums by Zappa and The Mothers of Invention originally released from 1966 to 1976 on other labels, as well as "Mystery Discs" which contained previously unreleased material. The graphics on all three sets was airbrush illustrated by Larry Grossman. 200 Motels was not included in the series as it was the only Zappa/Mothers album for which Zappa was unable to secure the rights.
Ahead of Their Time is a live album by The Mothers of Invention. It was recorded at the Royal Festival Hall, London, England, on October 25, 1968, and released in 1993 on CD by Barking Pumpkin. It was reissued on Rykodisc in 1995.
"G-Spot Tornado" is a piece of programmed Synclavier DMS music written by American musician Frank Zappa, released in 1986 on his instrumental album Jazz from Hell.
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