Man, I have some strange, strange stuff on my record shelves. I don't know where or when I got this. In fact, I have several Zappa albums and I really only remember how three of them came into my possession. This one, with Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention and Captain Beefheart just doesn't seem like the kind of thing I'd expect me to have. Yet here it is. In terrific shape, even. As I listen to this, I'm not sure I've ever played it before. I doubt that, because I think I've played every record I own, because I think it's stupid to just hoard the damned things. Records are for listening to, and I don't feel the need to save every record from the garbage pile, nor do I buy records I just think I should have. I should have records that make me happy, and I shouldn't have records just because someone else thinks they're important. So I'm kind of surprised this oddball thing is on my shelf.
It starts off with a live track with Captain Beefheart called Debra Kadabra. I'm not exactly sure what the good Captain is on about, but he's on to something. He's ranting over some kind of weird beats and guitar blasts. I can't imagine anyone ever walking around trying to hum these songs. I mean, every time it gets a little melody or rhythm going, they completely change things up or Captain Beefheart howls about some new thing. But then Frank starts riffing a little and we get into Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy, which is sort of what I expect from Frank. It's got some odd time signatures in parts, but lyrically it's about a groupie. FZ has done some of those songs better, and some worse.
The album is mostly live and part studio, and I kind of like how they just decided that that's the way it was going to be. Why does a record have to be one or the other, or even live on one side and studio on the other? It still works out to be a pretty weird, but pretty listenable blast of weirdness. It came out in 1975, when I was 13. I wonder what I'd have thought of this back then? I know 13 year old me would have absolutely loved Advance Romance, because right now much older me is really getting into it. I have no idea what the vocals are on about, but Frank tears some ass on his guitar, which is always a good thing. It's a really long song and it's real weird, but the line, half an hour later she had frenched his fry is gong to have me chuckling to myself all night long. I'm enjoying it. Especially the stupid shit about cupcakes and muffins. I'm assuming that we've morphed into Muffin Man, which has some more blistering guitars on it. I think I'm all in on this one.
Mine had a promo sticker on it, but it fell off. It didn't leave a mark, but I'll keep it in the record bag. There's a corner bump, but otherwise the cover is pretty nice. The record sounds terrific. It's flat, dead quiet and ya gotta love those old DiscReet labels. I really wonder where I got this from. I wonder if it was a gift, or one of those times where I bought a bunch of records and thought I had listened to everything, but I missed some (I've missed some great bands for years because I did that - more on that some other time). I'm glad I dug this one out!
