Uncle Meat

Infobox Album |
Name = Uncle Meat
Type = Album
Artist = The Mothers of Invention


Released = April 21, 1969
Recorded = October 1967–September 1968
Genre = Jazz fusion, experimental rock
Length = 120:44
Label = Bizarre/Reprise
Producer = Frank Zappa
Reviews = *Allmusic Rating|4.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:gikvikk6bb29~T1 link]
*Yahoo! Music (favorable) [http://music.yahoo.com/read/review/12028956 link]
Chronology = Frank Zappa
Last album = "Mothermania"
(1969)
This album = "Uncle Meat"
(1969)
Next album = "Hot Rats"
(1969)
Misc = Extra chronology 2
Artist = The Mothers of Invention
Type = Studio album
Last album = "Mothermania"
(1969)
This album = "Uncle Meat"
(1969)
Next album = "Burnt Weeny Sandwich
(1970)

"Uncle Meat", released in 1969, is the soundtrack to The Mothers of Invention's long-delayed film of the same name; the front cover, designed by Cal Schenkel, included the words "(Most of the Music from the Mother's [sic] Movie of the Same Name Which We Haven't Got Enough Money to Finish Yet)". The film was released straight to video in 1987.

"Uncle Meat" marked an evolution in frontman Frank Zappa's career, moving further into jazz and classical music—as Zappa saw them. It also contains half-mocking, half-homage elements of doo-wop, blues, rock and roll, and sound clips from the movie. The album is united by its dreamy melodies, stream of consciousness lyrics (many about places and events in suburban LA teenagers' lives), and a set of musical themes and subthemes and variations idiomatic of film soundtracks. It also features Suzy Creamcheese.

The CD version was released in 1987, and contained a new song, "Tengo Na Minchia Tanta" (meaning "I've Got a Big Cock" in Sicilian), sung in Italian by Massimo Bassoli, and nearly 40 minutes' worth of sound-bites from the movie. However, many fans have resented these additions, since "Tengo Na Minchia Tanta" was recorded in an entirely different time period, and the movie soundbites are considered by some to be superfluous to the listening tracks. Additionally, their additions force the reissue to use two discs, when the album in its original form could fit on just one disc. Many fans refer to these so-called bonuses as "penalty tracks."

Track listing

All tracks by Frank Zappa, except where noted.

Vinyl release

ide one

#"Uncle Meat: Main Title Theme" – 1:56
#"The Voice of Cheese" – 0:26
#"Nine Types of Industrial Pollution" – 6:00*
#"Zolar Czakl" – 0:54
#"Dog Breath, in the Year of the Plague" – 3:59
#"The Legend of the Golden Arches" – 3:28
#"Louie Louie (At the Royal Albert Hall in London)" (Richard Berry) – 2:19
#"The Dog Breath Variations" – 1:48

* On 8-track copies of the album, this song was titled "400 Days of the Year." It is the same track as what appears on vinyl.

ide two

#"Sleeping in a Jar" – 0:50
#"Our Bizarre Relationship" – 1:05
#"The Uncle Meat Variations" – 4:46
#"Electric Aunt Jemima" – 1:46
#"Prelude to King Kong" – 3:38
#"God Bless America" (Irving Berlin) – 1:10
#"A Pound for a Brown on the Bus" – 1:29
#"Ian Underwood Whips It Out" – 5:05

ide three

#"Mr. Green Genes" – 3:14
#"We Can Shoot You" – 2:03
#"If We'd All Been Living in California..." – 1:14
#"The Air" – 2:57
#"Project X" – 4:48
#"Cruisin' for Burgers" – 2:18

ide four

#"King Kong Itself (as played by the Mothers in a studio)" – 0:49
#"King Kong II (its magnificence as interpreted by Dom DeWild)" – 1:21
#"King Kong III (as Motorhead explains it)" – 1:44
#"King Kong IV (the Gardner Varieties)" – 6:17
#"King Kong V (as played by 3 deranged Good Humor Trucks)" – 0:34
#"King Kong VI (live on a flat bed diesel in the middle of a race track at a Miami Pop Festival . . . the Underwood ramifications)" – 7:24

CD release

Disc one

#"Uncle Meat: Main Title Theme" – 1:56
#"The Voice of Cheese" – 0:26
#"Nine Types of Industrial Pollution" – 6:00
#"Zolar Czakl" – 0:54
#"Dog Breath, in the Year of the Plague" – 3:59
#"The Legend of the Golden Arches" – 3:28
#"Louie Louie (At the Royal Albert Hall in London)" (Richard Berry) – 2:19
#"The Dog Breath Variations" – 1:48
#"Sleeping in a Jar" – 0:50
#"Our Bizarre Relationship" – 1:05
#"The Uncle Meat Variations" – 4:46
#"Electric Aunt Jemima" – 1:46
#"Prelude to King Kong" – 3:38
#"God Bless America" (Irving Berlin) – 1:10
#"A Pound for a Brown on the Bus" – 1:29
#"Ian Underwood Whips It Out" – 5:05
#"Mr. Green Genes" – 3:14
#"We Can Shoot You" – 2:03
#"If We'd All Been Living in California..." – 1:14
#"The Air" – 2:57
#"Project X" – 4:48
#"Cruisin' for Burgers" – 2:18

Disc two

#"Uncle Meat Film Excerpt, Pt. 1" – 37:34
#"Tengo Na Minchia Tanta" – 3:46
#"Uncle Meat Film Excerpt, Pt. 2" – 3:50
#"King Kong Itself (as played by the Mothers in a studio)" – 0:49
#"King Kong II (its magnificence as interpreted by Dom DeWild)" – 1:21
#"King Kong III (as Motorhead explains it)" – 1:44
#"King Kong IV (the Gardner Varieties)" – 6:17
#"King Kong V (as played by 3 deranged Good Humor Trucks)" – 0:34
#"King Kong VI (live on a flat bed diesel in the middle of a race track at a Miami Pop Festival . . . the Underwood ramifications)" – 7:24

Personnel

Musicians

*Frank Zappa – guitar, percussion, vocals
*Jimmy Carl Black – percussion, drums, poverty
*Ray Collins – vocals
*Roy Estrada – bass guitar, vocals
*Bunk Gardner – clarinet, flute, bass clarinet, piccolo, alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone
*Ruth Komanoff – marimba, vibraphone
*Billy Mundi – drums
*Don Preston – electric piano
*Euclid James Sherwood – tenor saxophone, tambourine, voices, choreography
*Art Tripp – percussion, chimes, drums, marimba, xylophone, bells, tympani, vibraphone, wood block
*Ian Underwood – clarinet, flute, piano, celeste, harpsichord, alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, wind, electronic organ
*Nelcy Walker – soprano vocals
*Pamela Zarubica as Suzy Creamcheese

Production

*Frank Zappa – producer
*Jesper Hansen – engineer
*Euclid James Sherwood – equipment technician
*Art Tripp – advisor
*Cal Schenkel – package design
*Euclid James Sherwood – choreographer
*Roy Estrada – prop design
*Ian Underwood – copyist, public relations, special assistance

Charts

Album - Billboard (North America)

Cover versions

"King Kong" has been covered by Babe Ruth on their album "First Base".It was also covered by The Residents in 1971; their version is available on The Residents Radio Special cassette and CD release, as well as on internet-only bootlegs such as the still-officially-unreleased Baby Sex. Other cover versions of the song include one by the keyboard trio Niacin on their album "Organik" and one by Zappa collaborator Jean-Luc Ponty. The composition was also featured as a sax solo gag in the opening credits of four episodes of "The Simpsons", beginning with Simpsons Bible Stories. [http://globalia.net/donlope/fz/videography/The_Simpsons.html]

Independent hip hop producer Madlib, who often references Zappa's work, samples "Sleeping in a Jar" on the Madvillain track "Meat Grinder."

References

External links

* [http://globalia.net/donlope/fz/lyrics/Uncle_Meat.html Lyrics and details]
* [http://www.lukpac.org/~handmade/patio/vinylvscds/uncle_meat.html Release history]