Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy:Frank Zappa

Artist: Frank Zappa & Captain Beefheart

Album: Bongo Fury

Appears On (Mixes): Mp3s Posted At Phancy.Com

Song Notes: It was awesome, as a few days ago (Friday, to be exact -- St. Paddy's Day, which is great, what with us being Irish and all) was my Dad's birthday. And a couple days before that, Aila and I went to the record stores to shop for him (I knew mostly what I wanted, but just had to get it). I found my stuff pretty well, but it being a record store, we couldn't actually leave without getting a bunch of other stuff. I found a cool copy of the expanded edition of Titanic Days by Kirsty MacColl for pretty cheap, and the Jon Auer/Ken Stringfellow Private Sides Split EP, however, it wasn't until Aila found the Cheap Bin that I got excited. After looking through most of it and seeing the Usual Suspects (why is Maroon constantly in the cheap bin? It's the only actually GOOD Barenaked Ladies album if you ask me...  Put Everything To Everyone in the cheap bin, why don't you?  Hell, should have to pay ME to take that one, ecch...) as I got to the Z section, I noticed some of the familiar green Rykodisc cases. I thought to myself "Hm, wonder what those are -- can't be Frank Zappa albums, can they?" and they WERE. FOUR of them. All for 10 bucks, new. And all four ones I didn't have (which is kind of surprising considering the amount of his records I have). I got Apostrophe (') (Yeah, I know -- that's an odd one to not have; it's just that it's only about a half hour long and usually about 18 bucks list, which is a bit much -- also, it's pretty easy to find folks who have it, so...), One Size Fits All (which I often neglected to get since the one time I'd heard it before it didn't click with me, but I am listening to it now, and am absolutely baffled why it didn't click with me before -- it's an outstanding record), Fillmore East and the selection this cut comes from, Bongo Fury, featuring Captain Beefheart. This is one of the Zappa albums I've always wanted, but I'd always held off -- basically EVERYONE says that this one kinda sucks, despite being Beefheart and Zappa. Even though the cuts I'd heard from it already were excellent, I still figured that those must have been the fluke cuts or something... but, for 10 bucks, I figured I'd pick it up at least for those two or three which were apparently the Only Good Songs.

Man, those people were wrong. Bongo Fury is EXCELLENT. I put it on for the first time this morning and MAN. What a fine, fine, superfine record. Here's one of the cuts I hadn't heard (but has, like, basically every Zappa song, popped up on a few different releases and compilations anyway) until now, and it's a really great one. Still, though, it probably still would be worth it for the cuts I'd heard before ("Debra Kadabra", "200 Years Old" and "Muffin Man" from the Strictly Commercial compilation) So, anyway, I'm sharin' this one with y'all, just so you know that despite what everyone says, 'Bongo Fury'' does NOT suck. - Rev. Syung Myung Me