Uncle Meat | ||||
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Studio album with live elementsby | ||||
Released | April 21, 1969 (Original LP version) October 1987 (CD version) | |||
Recorded | October 1967 –February 1968 (studio tracks) September 23, 1967 –July 23, 1968, [1] July 14, 1982 [2] (live elements) 1970 and 1982 (film excerpts) | |||
Venue | Royal Albert Hall, London, England Whisky a Go Go, Los Angeles, California Falkoner Theatre, Copenhagen, Denmark Stadio Communale la Favorita, Palermo, Italy Miami Pop Festival, Hallandale, Florida | |||
Studio | ||||
Genre | ||||
Length |
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Label | Bizarre/Reprise | |||
Producer | Frank Zappa | |||
Frank Zappa chronology | ||||
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The Mothers of Invention chronology | ||||
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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 .
The album also served as a soundtrack album to the film of the same name, which Zappa eventually finished and released direct-to-video in 1987.
The music is diverse in style, drawing from orchestral, jazz, blues and rock music. The Uncle Meat album was a commercial success upon release, and has been highly acclaimed for its innovative recording and editing techniques, including experiments in manipulation of tape speed and overdubbing, and its diverse sound.
Frank Zappa, who had been interested in film since high school, decided to develop a film vehicle for the Mothers of Invention, titled Uncle Meat . The film would combine elements of science fiction and road stories inspired by the band's sexual escapades. [3] Subsequently, Zappa began working on a project called No Commercial Potential, which eventually became the albums We're Only in It for the Money , Lumpy Gravy , Cruising with Ruben & the Jets and Uncle Meat. Zappa stated, "It's all one album. All the material in the albums is organically related and if I had all the master tapes and I could take a razor blade and cut them apart and put it together again in a different order it still would make one piece of music you can listen to. Then I could take that razor blade and cut it apart and reassemble it a different way, and it still would make sense. I could do this twenty ways. The material is definitely related." [4]
According to artist Cal Schenkel, who worked extensively with Zappa, "I started working on the story of Ruben and the Jets that is connected with the Uncle Meat story, which is this old guy turns this teenage band into these dog snout people ... We started that before it actually became Ruben and the Jets. That came out of my love for comics and that style, the anthropomorphic animals, but also it was part of a running story line." [4]
For the recording sessions, Zappa worked at Apostolic Studios in Manhattan employing an unusual and innovative 12-track machine built by Scully. Zappa included a large number of overdubs, playing unconventional instruments through studio effects, and speeding up or slowing down recordings for artistic effect. [3] Zappa wanted to make an album that would challenge the complacency of contemporary music fans, as he felt that his fanbase was "accustomed to accepting everything that was handed to them ... politically, musically, socially –everything. Somebody would just hand it to them and they wouldn't question it. It was my campaign in those days to do things that would shake people out of that complacency, or that ignorance and make them question things." [3]
By the time the album was released, Lowell George and Buzz Gardner had joined the band, and both have their names listed in the inside cover despite joining after the album was recorded. George and bassist Roy Estrada would go on to form the band Little Feat in late 1969.
Uncle Meat featured a variety of music styles, including orchestral symphonies, free jazz, blues, doo wop and rock and roll. [3] The album also contains spoken word segments featuring Suzy Creamcheese, and features a stronger focus on percussion instrumentation than previous works by Zappa, as well as emphasizing his strengths as a composer and arranger. [3]
"Nine Types of Industrial Pollution" is melodically formless, rooted in percussion instrumentation, and features a guitar solo that was sped up in post production. [3] "Dog Breath, in the Year of the Plague" is delivered as a rock and roll song, with the same theme being repeated as an instrumental later in the album, performed by keyboards, percussion and acoustic guitar. The rock and roll version features three verses with the first chorus being delivered by opera singer Nelcy Walker, and the second chorus featuring sped up vocals. After the third verse, the song becomes an avant-garde orchestral piece performed by percussion, keyboards and instruments; the album liner notes "The weird middle section of DOG BREATH (after the line "Ready to attack") has forty tracks built into it. Things that sound like trumpets are actually clarinets played through an electric device made by Maestro with a setting labeled Oboe D'Amore and sped up a minor third with a V.S.O. (variable speed oscillator). Other peculiar sounds were make[sic] on a Kalamazoo electric organ. The only equipment at our disposal for the modification of these primary sounds was a pair of Pultec Filters, two [Lang Equalizers], and three Melchor Compressors built into the mixing console. The board itself is exceptionally quiet and efficient (the only thing that allowed us to pile up so many tracks) and is the product of Mr. Lou Lindauer's imagination & workmanship." [5]
In addition to the studio recordings, Uncle Meat featured live recordings made at the Royal Albert Hall, including a recording of Don Preston playing "Louie Louie" on the Albert Hall pipe organ, at the end of which Zappa announces it as having been performed by the "London Philharmonic Orchestra". The doo wop-influenced "Electric Aunt Jemima" refers to Zappa's guitar amplifier, equating it with the advertising character Aunt Jemima. [3] Zappa explained, "I get kind of a laugh out of the fact that other people are going to try to interpret that stuff and come up with some grotesque interpretations of it. It gives me a certain amount of satisfaction." [3]
The album concludes with "King Kong", a piece in 3/8, [6] although the instrumental's prelude, a free jazz improvisation over a rhythm section playing in a 5/8 time signature, occurs much earlier in the album. Six variations of the melody appear as the album's finale, with the first establishing its simple melody, the second being a Fender Rhodes Electric Piano solo by Preston, the third showcasing a saxophone solo by Motorhead Sherwood, and the fourth featuring Bunk Gardner playing a soprano saxophone through various electronic effects that emulate the sound of a contrabassoon doubling his solo lines. Two more variations conclude the piece, which include a live recorded performance featuring a saxophone solo by Ian Underwood and then finally ending with a version with sped up gongs, overblown saxophones and other instruments. [3]
Uncle Meat was released as a double album by Bizarre and Reprise Records, subtitled, "Most of the music from the Mothers' movie of the same name which we haven't got enough money to finish yet." [3] Despite the album's experimental nature, it peaked at No. 43 on the Billboard charts. [3]
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Allmusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Encyclopedia of Popular Music | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Louder Sound | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The Great Rock Bible | 8/10 [10] |
MusicHound Rock | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
OndaRock | 9/10 [12] |
Sputnikmusic | 4.5/5 [13] |
Rolling Stone Album Guide | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Contemporary reviews of the album were highly favorable, recognizing it as an important album in Zappa's discography. The New Rolling Stone Album Guide described the album as an "inspired monstrosity ... [an] assault of glorious noise". [3] AllMusic writer Steve Huey wrote, "despite the absence of a conceptual framework, the unfocused sprawl of Uncle Meat is actually a big part of its appeal. It's exciting to hear one of the most creatively fertile minds in rock pushing restlessly into new territory, even if he isn't always quite sure where he's going." [7]
The Uncle Meat film was finally completed and released on home video in 1987. The Uncle Meat album was reissued as a double CD on Rykodisc that year. This release included a song recorded in 1982, "Tengo na minchia tanta", sung in Sicilian and Italian by Massimo Bassoli, who identifies the song as being translated as "I've Got a Big Bunch of Dick". Also added to the 1987 CD is over 40 minutes of sounds and dialogue from the film. The track listing programs the new tracks at the beginning of the second disc, placing the material between the album's original third and fourth sides. The original 1969 vinyl mix was reissued in 2016 as the first disc of Meat Light: The Uncle Meat Project/Object Audio Documentary .
All tracks are written by Frank Zappa, except where noted
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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1. | "Uncle Meat: Main Title Theme" (instrumental) | 1:54 | |
2. | "The Voice of Cheese" | 0:27 | |
3. | "Nine Types of Industrial Pollution" (instrumental; listed as "400 Days of the Year" on the label of the original vinyl release) | 5:56 | |
4. | "Zolar Czakl" (instrumental) | 0:57 | |
5. | "Dog Breath, in the Year of the Plague" | 5:51 | |
6. | "The Legend of the Golden Arches" (instrumental) | 1:24 | |
7. | "Louie Louie" (At the Royal Albert Hall in London) | Richard Berry | 2:28 |
8. | "The Dog Breath Variations" (instrumental) | 1:36 | |
Total length: | 21:42 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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1. | "Sleeping in a Jar" | 0:49 | |
2. | "Our Bizarre Relationship" | 1:05 | |
3. | "The Uncle Meat Variations" | 4:40 | |
4. | "Electric Aunt Jemima" | 1:53 | |
5. | "Prelude to King Kong" | 3:24 | |
6. | "God Bless America" (Live at the Whisky a Go Go) | Irving Berlin | 1:22 |
7. | "A Pound for a Brown on the Bus" (instrumental) | 1:29 | |
8. | "Ian Underwood Whips It Out" (Live on stage in Copenhagen) | 5:08 | |
Total length: | 20:38 |
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "Mr. Green Genes" | 3:10 |
2. | "We Can Shoot You" | 1:48 |
3. | "'If We'd All Been Living in California...'" | 1:29 |
4. | "The Air" | 2:57 |
5. | "Project X" (instrumental) | 4:47 |
6. | "Cruising for Burgers" | 2:19 |
Total length: | 17:06 |
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "King Kong Itself (As Played by the Mothers in a Studio)" (instrumental) | 0:53 |
2. | "King Kong (Its Magnificence as Interpreted by Dom DeWild)" (instrumental) | 1:15 |
3. | "King Kong (As Motorhead Explains It)" (instrumental) | 1:44 |
4. | "King Kong (The Gardner Varieties)" (instrumental) | 6:17 |
5. | "King Kong (As Played by 3 Deranged Good Humor Trucks)" (instrumental) | 0:29 |
6. | "King Kong (Live on a Flat Bed Diesel in the Middle of a Race Track at a Miami Pop Festival...The Underwood Ramifications)" (instrumental) | 7:22 |
Total length: | 18:41 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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1. | "Uncle Meat: Main Title Theme" | 1:55 | |
2. | "The Voice of Cheese" | 0:26 | |
3. | "Nine Types of Industrial Pollution" | 6:00 | |
4. | "Zolar Czakl" | 0:54 | |
5. | "Dog Breath, in the Year of the Plague" | 3:58 | |
6. | "The Legend of the Golden Arches" | 3:27 | |
7. | "Louie Louie (At the Royal Albert Hall in London)" | Richard Berry | 2:19 |
8. | "The Dog Breath Variations" | 1:48 | |
9. | "Sleeping in a Jar" | 0:50 | |
10. | "Our Bizarre Relationship" | 1:05 | |
11. | "The Uncle Meat Variations" | 4:45 | |
12. | "Electric Aunt Jemima" | 1:46 | |
13. | "Prelude to King Kong" | 3:38 | |
14. | "God Bless America (Live at the Whisky a Go Go)" | Irving Berlin | 1:10 |
15. | "A Pound for a Brown on the Bus" | 1:29 | |
16. | "Ian Underwood Whips It Out (Live on stage in Copenhagen)" | 5:05 | |
17. | "Mr. Green Genes" (remixed) | 3:14 | |
18. | "We Can Shoot You" | 2:03 | |
19. | "'If We'd All Been Living in California...'" | 1:13 | |
20. | "The Air" | 2:56 | |
21. | "Project X" | 4:48 | |
22. | "Cruising for Burgers" | 2:17 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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1. | "Uncle Meat Film Excerpt Part I" | 37:34 | |
2. | "Tengo na minchia tanta" | Bassoli/Zappa | 3:46 |
3. | "Uncle Meat Film Excerpt Part II" | 3:51 | |
4. | "King Kong Itself (as played by the Mothers in a studio)" | 0:49 | |
5. | "King Kong II (its magnificence as interpreted by Dom DeWild)" | 1:21 | |
6. | "King Kong III (as Motorhead explains it)" | 1:44 | |
7. | "King Kong IV (the Gardner Varieties)" | 6:17 | |
8. | "King Kong V (as played by 3 deranged Good Humor Trucks)" | 0:34 | |
9. | "King Kong VI (live on a flat bed diesel in the middle of a race track at a Miami Pop Festival...the Underwood ramifications)" | 7:23 | |
Total length: | 120:44 |
The Mothers – at the time of this recording were: [15]
Special thanks to:
Uncredited:
Only on the CD version: [16]
Album – Billboard (United States)
Year | Chart | Position |
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1969 | Pop Albums | 43 |
We're Only in It for the Money is the third album by American rock band the Mothers of Invention, released on March 4, 1968, by Verve Records. As with the band's first two efforts, it is a concept album, and satirizes left- and right-wing politics, particularly the hippie subculture, as well as the Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It was conceived as part of a project called No Commercial Potential, which produced three other albums: Lumpy Gravy, Cruising with Ruben & the Jets, and Uncle Meat.
The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life is a double-disc live album by American musician Frank Zappa, released in 1991. The album was one of four that were recorded during the 1988 world tour; the other three were Broadway the Hard Way, Make a Jazz Noise Here, and Zappa '88: The Last U.S. Show.
Cruising with Ruben & the Jets is the fourth album by the Mothers of Invention, and fifth overall by Frank Zappa, released under the alias Ruben and the Jets. Released on December 2, 1968 on Bizarre and Verve Records with distribution by MGM Records, it is a concept album, influenced by 1950s doo-wop and rock and roll. The album's concept deals with a fictitious Chicano doo-wop band called Ruben & the Jets, represented by the cover illustration by Cal Schenkel, which depicts the Mothers of Invention as anthropomorphic dogs. It was conceived as part of a project called No Commercial Potential, which produced three other albums: Lumpy Gravy, We're Only in It for the Money and Uncle Meat.
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!"
You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 6 is the last of six double-disc collection volumes of live performances by Frank Zappa recorded between 1970 and 1988. All of the material on disc one has a sexual theme. Zappa used the monologue in "Is That Guy Kidding or What?" to ridicule Peter Frampton's album I'm in You with its double entendre title and pop pretensions. Disc two includes performances from Zappa's shows between 1976 and 1981 at the Palladium in New York City, as well as material like "The Illinois Enema Bandit" and "Strictly Genteel" that he frequently used as closing songs at concerts. It was released on October 23, 1992, under the label Rykodisc.
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."
Orchestral Favorites is an album by Frank Zappa, released in May 1979 on his own DiscReet Records label. The album is entirely instrumental and features music performed by the 37-piece Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra. It reached No .168 on the Billboard 200 album chart in the United States.
London Symphony Orchestra is a pair of albums by Frank Zappa, featuring his original symphonic compositions conducted by Kent Nagano. They were recorded at the same sessions in January 1983, and originally released as London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. I in 1983, London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. II, in 1987, and later combined and reissued on a Rykodisc CD as London Symphony Orchestra Vol. I & II in 1995.
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.
The Dub Room Special is a film produced by Frank Zappa for direct-to-video release in October, 1982. The video combines footage from a performance at the KCET studios in Los Angeles on August 27, 1974, a concert performed at The Palladium, New York City on October 31, 1981, some clay animation segments by Bruce Bickford, and interviews. The 1974 footage was originally conceived as part of the TV special A Token of His Extreme. The entire production was edited in the "Dub Room" at Compact Video, a post-production facility in Burbank, California. A few of the Compact Video staff members have brief appearances.
Arthur Dyer Tripp III is an American retired musician who is best known for his work as a percussionist with the original version of Frank Zappa's band the Mothers of Invention during the 1960s and Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band during the 1970s. Thereafter, Tripp retired from music. He attended an accredited chiropractic college in Los Angeles from 1980 through 1983, graduating with his Doctor of Chiropractic degree and later practising in Gulfport, Mississippi.
Uncle Meat is a 1987 film written and directed by Frank Zappa. It was conceived in 1968 as a vehicle for the Mothers of Invention, but remained unfinished until 20 years after the production began.
Wazoo is a live album by Frank Zappa, posthumously released in October 2007 as a 2-CD set consisting of the complete concert given by "The Mothers of Invention/Hot Rats/Grand Wazoo" 20-piece big band on September 24, 1972 at the Music Hall, Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is the third installment on the Vaulternative Records label that is dedicated to the posthumous release of complete Zappa concerts, following the releases of FZ:OZ (2002) and Buffalo (2007).
One Shot Deal is an album by Frank Zappa, posthumously released in June 2008.
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.
Euclid James "Motorhead" Sherwood was an American rock musician notable for being a member of the original version of Frank Zappa's band the Mothers of Invention, providing soprano, tenor and baritone saxophone, tambourine, vocals and vocal sound effects. He appeared on all the albums of the original Mothers line-up and the 'posthumous' releases Burnt Weeny Sandwich and Weasels Ripped My Flesh, as well as certain subsequent Zappa albums. He also appeared in the films 200 Motels, Video from Hell and Uncle Meat.
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Bunk Gardner is an American musician who most notably played for the original version of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention until the group disbanded in 1969. He plays woodwinds and tenor sax.
Finer Moments is a compilation album by Frank Zappa. It was compiled and mastered by Zappa in 1972 and released posthumously in 2012.
Meat Light is a 3CD compilation of Frank Zappa's Uncle Meat recordings. It is project/object #5 in a series of 40th Anniversary FZ Audio Documentaries, following MOFO (2006), Lumpy Money (2009), Greasy Love Songs (2010) and The Crux of the Biscuit (2016).