ZAPPA 3LP BOX "THING FISH" w/ BOOKLET 1984 NEAR MINT
$
49
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Description
1984 BARKING PUMPKIN release # SKCO-74201
VINYLS NEAR MINT
BOX VERY GOOD++ a little wear
BOOKLET NEAR MINT & NM AD SHEET FOR MYSTERY BOX
Review by François Couture
Of all of Frank Zappa's discography, Thing-Fish must be his most controversial, misunderstood, overlooked album. Obviously, it is not a masterpiece, but reducing it to a compilation album with a racist plot distorts the reality. First released as a three-LP set (and reissued on two CDs), this album is the "original cast recording" of a never-produced Broadway show. Working-class joes have been mutated into potato-headed, duck-mouthed creatures by a government experiment gone wrong. They put up a Broadway musical in which reality and fiction become one for two members of the audience. The main character, Thing-Fish, is played by Ike Willis. His thick caricatured Negro accent is directly taken from Amos 'n' Andy's King Fish character. Zappa's intention was not to mock African Americans, but to ridicule the way they are depicted on Broadway, mainly a white male-dominated milieu. Harry and Rhonda, the two audience members drawn into the story by force, are played by Terry Bozzio and Dale Bozzio. Harry will realize he is gay, Rhonda will turn into a briefcase fetishist. Zappa exaggerates the yuppie trends of the mid-'80s (Harry is gay for "career purposes"; Rhonda embodies the ultra-feminist) and slips into the plot concerns about the spread of AIDS being the result of governmental scientific experiments. It's crazy, offensive, barely holding together, but it sure is entertaining. To accommodate the plot, Zappa wrote a couple of new songs and re-recorded a handful of tracks from Zoot Allures, You Are What You Is, Tinsel-Town Rebellion, and Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch with new lyrics. It is definitely for the seasoned fan (the conceptual continuity clues make an integral part of the experience), but more than rehashed material.
Tracks Title Composer Time 1 Prologue Zappa 2:56 2 The Mammy Nuns Zappa 3:31 3 Harry and Rhonda Zappa 3:36 4 Galoot Up-Date Zappa 5:27 5 The 'Torchum' Never Stops Zappa 10:32 6 That Evil Prince Zappa 1:17 7 You Are What You Is Zappa 4:31 8 Mudd Club Zappa 3:17 9 The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing Zappa 3:14 10 Clowns on Velvet Zappa 1:51 11 Harry-As-A-Boy Zappa 2:34 12 He's So Gay Zappa 2:44 13 The Massive Improve'lence Zappa 5:07 14 Artificial Rhonda Zappa 3:32 15 The Crab-Grass Baby Zappa 3:48 16 The White Boy Troubles Zappa 3:34 17 No, Not Now Zappa 5:49 18 Briefcase Boogie Zappa 4:10 19 Brown Moses Zappa 3:01 20 Wistful Wit a Fist-Full Zappa 4:00 21 Drop Dead Zappa 7:56 22 Won Ton On Zappa 4:19 On May-04-07 at 11:24:49 PDT, seller added the following information:rokratmusic Store
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