Product Description

One of Frank Zappa's most commercially successful albums, APOSTROPHE is also among his goofiest. The album found its way to the semi-mainstream chiefly on the strength of "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow". As the title of that single indicates, the scatological humor and cheap jokes that are part of Zappa's stock in trade abound here (see also the self-explanatory "Stink-Foot"). Part of Zappa's genius, though, much like that of Gong's Daevid Allen, was to deflate his sophisticatedinstrumental excursions and conceptual work with lowbrow humor and downright silliness. Nowhere is that process more apparent than on APOSTROPHE.
The typically large band (including violin and horns) that accompanies Zappa here follows him through daunting twists and turns as tempos get turned around and counterpoint riffs bounce off each other at breakneck speed. In the midst of all this instrumental facility, Zappa's satirical side blazes forth, as on "Uncle Remus", which addresses racial strife, and the bluesy "Cosmik Debris", where he casts aspersions on the idea of gurus. APOSTROPHE finds Zappa at a peak: successfully mingling humor with harmonic exploration, yet succumbing to the excesses of neither.

Track Listing

1. Don't Eat The Yellow Snow
2. Nanook Rubs It
3. St Alfonzo's Pancake Breakfast
4. Father O'Blivion
5. Cosmik Debris
6. Excentrifugal Forz
7. Apostrophe
8. Uncle Remus
9. Stinkfoot

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31750 in Music
• Released on: 2002-04-01
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Frank Zappa warns us: "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow"
"Apostrophe," in its own words, "is an album of songs and stories set to music performed for your dining and dancing pleasure." The first four songs are about an Eskimo that almost makes sense, which makes this something of an actual concept album, at least for the first "side" of the record. What I remember is that "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" was my first exposure to the musical stylings of Frank Zappa (my roommate did the "listen to this" bit with me). The best guitar solos are on "Cosmik Debris," "Stink-Foot," and the title cut. The lyrics are perhaps a dark shade of Zappa than you usually find, but it was 1974 and that could explain it right there since you should look for deep, hidden meanings in the songs of Frank Zappa, but just not in any conventional way.

Now, the reason I have this album can easily be explained by quoting the chorus of the first track, "Camarillo Brillo":

She had a snake for a pet
And an amulet
And she was breeding a dwarf
But she wasn't done yet
She had gray-green skin
A doll with a pin
I told her she was awright
But I couldn't come in
(actually, I was very busy then).

The lyrics are what hooked me, but I also like the way George Duke pounds the ivories during that song. But my argument is that if you only know one Frank Zappa song, this is the song to know.

zappa for beginners
I now possess something like 15 Zappa albums, and this, though not the "best" I have heard (in terms of desert island status) is probably the best place for new "users" of Zappa to start (believe me, he does become addictive) An engaging blend of story - telling lyrics, restrained to the point you can almost get away with listening in mixed company ( if the urinary habits of husky dogs don't offend your audience)- just cough politely when FZ starts descibing the sexual preferences of Father Vivian O'Blivion. Musically one of the most listenable albums he's done - almost leaning towards the dreaded mainstream, but retaining enough individuality to make it Zappa. The title track is a fuzzy - bassed jam with Jack Bruce, so may appeal to Cream completeists