Published on Jan 1, 2000
I may as well get this out of the way right now: I love
Apostrophe, the 1974 release from Frank Zappa. I mean, I
love this album. Love it, love it, loveitloveitloveitlo… oh,
wait, I guess you want a little more detailed of a review than
that. Fair enough.
After the success of
Over-Nite Sensation in 1973, Zappa seemed primed to burst
forth with a major offering. Sure, he might not have been topping
the charts, but he was starting to reach a wider audience thanks to
songs like “Dirty Love,” “Camarillo Brillo” and “Montana”. But what
he would unleash just one album later was a major surprise.
Apostrophe contained some of Zappa’s best songwriting
efforts to that point – and remains one of the “must-own” albums of
his vast discography. Likewise, the musicianship is flawless
throughout this album, and it became a high-water mark that Zappa
would find difficult to top. (While he came close many times, I
question if he ever indeed did top this album.) It should be noted
that it’s been re-released in a few different remasters over the
years; the version I have was the “two-fer” disc from 1988, which
paired it with
Over-Nite Sensation.
The suite of songs that kicks off the album lets you know that
Zappa is running on high octane fuel and is ready to light up the
tires. “Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow” became legendary, and it still
is a killer track that serves to begin the tale of Nanook the
eskimo. But without the other three songs in the suite, “Don’t Eat
The Yellow Snow” doesn’t have the same kind of power. This is one
of the times where Zappa’s segueing directly from one song to
another works well.
“Nanook Rubs It” has the sound of an impromptu jam, and you
could almost imagine Zappa making up the lyrics as he went along.
However, it’s far more of a complex piece of work whose humor is
discovered more and more as you listen to the track repeatedly. As
it leads in to the song “St. Alphonzo’s Pancake Breakfast,” it
feels like everything you’ve listened to has all been leading up to
one major musical moment.
With that, the incredible guitar lick of “Father O’Blivion”
kicks in, and everything wraps up, if not neatly, then enjoyably.
“Father O’Blivion” has hints of the jazz leanings that Zappa had
toyed with for most of his career to that point, and is highlighted
by the guitar and drum work. (The jazz theme would be continued
with “Excentrifugal Forz,” another track that has the sound of
free-form improvisation – and is one that ends too soon for
me.)
Three “single” tracks stand out in my mind each time I listen to
Apostrophe – and I’ve probably listened to this album 100
times since I bought my first copy on cassette (and watched in
horror as my cheese-box deck ate the tape on the 60th or so
listen). The first is the instrumental title track, one which
allows the entire band to literally “whip it out” and get funky
without wrecking the structure of the original song. This could
well be one of Zappa’s best guitar lines ever – and I consider his
solo on “Rat Tomago” to be his best. This one is a close
second.
The other two tracks – “Cozmik Debris” and “Stinkfoot” – show
that Zappa could tone down his style of humor without losing any of
the power of his words, all backed by powerful musical
performances. To this day, “Stinkfoot” remains one of my favorite
Zappa tracks, and contains yet another of his finest guitar
performances. (Side note: If you’ve not heard
Over-Nite Sensation first, you might not get the reference
to the dog in the song – a reference that goes back to “Dirty Love”
from
Over-Nite Sensation.)
But wait, you say – what about “Uncle Remus,” the only track I
haven’t talked about? If anything, this track acts as a transition
piece from the wild instrumentation that Zappa and crew utilize on
“Apostrophe” to the more controlled, more mellow beats of
“Stinkfoot.” This isn’t a bad track at all – and, in retrospect,
seems to be a little too short.
I once said a long time ago that if someone were just getting
into Zappa’s work, they’d probably want to start with
Hot Rats. As much as I still love that album, I’m now going
to waffle a bit and suggest that anyone looking at discovering who
Zappa was might want to pick up both
Apostrophe and
Hot Rats. After all, excellence should be experienced in
massive doses.