Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Zappa, Frank
Label: Rykodisc Records
Release: 1979
Runtime: 70:22
Rating: 5/5
In the ocean of brilliant achievements by the immortal Frank Zappa, the genius American composer, guitarist, singer, satirist, producer, director and a whole lot more, there are few releases that made as big a splash and had as much impact worldwide as the one-of-a-kind masterpiece “Sheik Yerbouti”, his first album released on his own independent label, Zappa Records. The cheeky album title comes from a colorful bit of wordplay that Frank pulled off with great skill, linking a parody of the KC and the Sunshine Band disco hit “Shake Your Booty” with his own transformation into an eccentric Arab sheik who loves smoking cigarettes through a holder. Even better, immortalized on the album cover under a traditional Arab headdress with an enigmatic smile, he stares boldly at the listeners as if he wanted to ask them “what happened to all the fun in the world”.
“Sheik Yerbouti” marked a major turning point in Frank’s career, after the end of his unsuccessful relationship with Warner Bros and his return to label independence. Most of the tracks on the album were recorded during live shows in 1977 and 1978 and later given a sharp studio makeover through overdubs and assorted small additions. Over the years this became Frank’s favorite way of recording, and it let him neatly sidestep any studio dawdling from regular and occasional musicians who could barely keep up with his extremely demanding instrumental and technological needs. The lineup he worked with on “Sheik Yerbouti” is without a doubt among the finest and tightest of his career, even though it lasted just one year.
Besides the longtime collaborators, led by charismatic singer and occasional saxophonist Napoleon Murphy Brock, who this time handled the bulk of the backing vocals, bassist Patrick O’Hearn and Frank’s drumming favorite Terry Bozzio, I have to point out what was then a rising musical star in the form of rhythm guitarist and singer Adrian Belew (later of King Crimson), who complemented the maestro superbly on rhythm duties and backing vocals. The versatile Belew, a former member of Sweethearts, was one of Frank’s greatest discoveries and has long since risen to legendary status over the years. After Frank stumbled onto him completely by chance at a show in Nashville, the two sealed a one-year deal with a symbolic handshake. That short but incredibly fruitful collaboration produced one of Frank’s most diligent students, who still doesn’t hide the compositional, instrumental and lyrical influences of his great teacher. Ade still remembers that unforgettable experience, which was also grueling given Frank’s sky-high sonic demands, technologically brutal music and regular hours of specific music theory, with the words “I went to Frank Zappa’s school of rock”. The other important newcomer on the instrumental side was the excellent keyboardist Tommy Mars, who managed to last a full five years with Frank, also because he kept his empire of synthesizers consistently tamed and under disciplined control.
The main result of the fact that the vast majority of the album was recorded live is the incredibly full sound and the strikingly spontaneous energy you can feel from every instrumentalist involved, all of whom Frank squeezed the very best out of. Compared with most of Frank’s earlier experiments, which were bursting at the seams with all manner of highly experimental, avant-garde approaches, “Sheik Yerbouti” is a fairly accessible album with plenty of more compact songs built on melodic structures and the indispensable “Zappaistic” jokey arrangements. The end result is socially provocative, comically tinged progressive rock according to the unique Zappa recipe, with parodies of some of the popular music genres of the day, such as punk and disco. There’s only a sample of avant-garde elements this time around, though in a few spots he has fun again, after a long while, with some forms of so-called musique concrete, which he loved to experiment with in the sixties. Despite the emphatically melodic structures of most of the compositions, every single one of them is rhythmically highly complex. There’s no shortage of dramatic improvisations, long-winded guitar solos from Frank and loads of completely unexpected, spontaneous time changes. Every single piece is built on the most advanced production technique and sound technology of the time.
Lyrically, “Sheik Yerbouti” is one of Frank’s most uncompromising satires of American society. In the lyrics he settles scores in an intelligent and sharp way with some typical social stereotypes and prejudices, often using his trademark toilet humor, which has always gotten on the nerves of America’s far right and self-appointed guardians of public morality. Some of the lyrics, led by “Bobby Brown Goes Down” and “Jewish Princess”, were extremely bold provocations at the time of release, mercilessly poking the ultra-conservative embers and exposing American social hypocrisy. Both Zappa classics were banned on most American radio stations, which was only the prelude to the famous “porn wars” with the yapping lapdogs of the Reagan administration, which followed in the years to come and ended with an epilogue of testifying before the US Congress.
The album admittedly owes much of its big resonance to its tickling lyrics, but its main charm is of course the music. And in that respect it’s teeming with excellent compositions. Some even rank among the best achievements of Frank’s career. You could write a novel about each of them, but I’ll focus only on some of their main sonic qualities and comic touches. On the opening ballad-style satire “I Have Been in You”, Frank and his crew use mocking vocal harmonies to charmingly parody the song “I’m in You”, which most music lovers know as a mega hit by popular singer and guitarist Peter Frampton, while keeping its sexually charged structure. In this fashion, full of sexual allusions about “sticking it in again”, Frank had fun in his career more than once at the expense of overly syrupy love ballads that often have no real contact with reality.
The progressive rock folder “Flakes” is a hugely endearing parody of that eternal American poetic hero Bob Dylan, with an exceptionally juicy dialogue between Frank and a stoned “Dylan”. In the middle section we get one of the funniest moments on the album, when Belew delivers a great vocal impression of the legendary poet, complete with harmonica antics. The country parody is followed by hard rock guitar phrases, pompous synth embellishments and “Heep-style” vocal harmonies. “Broken Hearts Are For Assholes” is one of the most sarcastic and provocative compositions, poking fun at proverbial American pathos and ignorance. Here Frank and his cheeky crew dabble in punk for the first time, courtesy of a series of distorted guitar passages and primitive rhythmic patterns. The sardonic monologues in between, with Frank and Ade, packed with mentions of butt holes and boobs, are accompanied by comical xylophone sounds. The schizoid “I’m So Cute” also wanders through punk waters, with Ade as lead singer. The ultra-distorted guitar is paired with a classic punk rhythm, while the comic elements this time come from the shamelessly high backing vocals, which sound like Siberian hamsters squeaking. This cheeky piece largely serves as a jab at stereotypical punk aggression, self-importance and rebellion without a cause.
“Jones Crusher” is a hoodlum-ish collage of hard rock, rock’n’roll and blues with Ade’s almost unrecognizable vocals. Some of Frank’s solos on the album were born as improvisations on certain earlier pieces from his career. One example is the instrumental “Rat Tomago”, which is basically a shortened version of his classic “The Torture Never Stops” from the album “Zoot Allures” (1976). In between come two pieces of musique concrete, made up of studio dialogue (mostly laughter), sound effects and assorted musical fragments. That’s followed by the notorious pop rocker “Bobby Brown Goes Down”, which originally came out on the European version of the album “Chunga’s Revenge” (1970) as “Bobby Brown”, while the American (official) version dropped it because of the provocative lyrics. “Bobby Brown” is probably Frank’s best-known song of all, at least worldwide. Except, of course, in the US, where it’s still banned from radio today because of its sexually tickling lyrics, in which most capitalist climbers and social strivers who got rich at other people’s expense will recognize themselves. The sarcastic sting hides in the mocking verses that make fun of the classic American dream model. The song smashes it into juicy mush with plenty of toilet phrases. The central protagonist of the lyrics, Bobby, is the typical American “f***er” with an empty head but a knack for manipulation. As the song goes on, it turns out he’s anything but a role model for teenage idols, since he’s a real pervert who would eat his own crap for money.
While hammering out his satires, Frank also regularly tested the most advanced sound technology of the time. One example of such experiments is “Rubber Shirt”, where he demonstrated the scope of innovative recording techniques by combining, in a special way in the production, Terry Bozzio’s drums, which he cut out of one particular sound setup, with O’Hearn’s bass from a completely different setup, and then merging both with a completely third sonic backdrop, resulting in a wonderfully successful rhythmic collage. Frank called this technique xenochrony. The next instrumental, “The Sheik Yerbouti Tango”, is a live version of the classic “Little House I Used to Live In”, which originally came out on the album “Burnt Weeny Sandwich” (1969). This jazz rock fusion-based creation boasts a phenomenal guitar solo and wild improvisational inserts. On “Baby Snakes”, where they again play around with comic vocal harmonies, Frank decides to toy with heavy metal too, and does so very effectively, as the song features a series of mighty guitar phrases and harmonies. A slightly altered version later came out on the album “Baby Snakes” (1983), which was the soundtrack to the film of the same name.
“Trying to Grow a Chin” is a burlesque hybrid of punk and metal, where the lead vocal duties amid the unhinged rhythms go to the ever-in-the-mood-for-a-laugh drummer Terry Bozzio. On “City of Tiny Lites”, which is infused with a genuine live spirit thanks to the crowd noise, Ade is once again on lead vocals and delivers one of his most colorful vocal performances. Then Frank takes over the vocal baton and, accompanied by numerous funny sound effects, serves up a breathtaking hard rock guitar solo. Two more Zappa classics follow. The first, “Dancin’ Fool”, was even nominated for a Grammy and became a popular disco hit, even though in every respect it’s more than obviously a disco parody. The pop-rock-flavored “Jewish Princess”, one of the dirtiest love songs of all time, is an uncompromising satire of established Jewish stereotypes of the kind typically found in the US, and one of the comic highlights of Frank’s career. The burlesque opening kazoo improvisation, which contains a motif from traditional Jewish music, is an indispensable source of laughs even on the blackest of days. Because of its juicy language about Jewish princesses, a self-proclaimed anti-xenophobia group went after him and demanded an apology. Frank refused, saying that he wasn’t the one who invented the term Jewish princess, that they really do exist, and that he’d therefore decided to write a song about them one day. On “Wild Love”, Frank and his crew very elegantly return to good old jazz rock fusion, while the lyrics once again lay bare typical love, American style. The closing jazz rock fusion work of art “Yo-Mama”, running more than 12 minutes, is the peak of the whole album. Amid a wealth of witty improvisations, Frank’s stretched-out guitar solo stands out, joined by Bozzio’s wrecking-ball drum transitions and Mars’s mighty symphonic synth arrangements. A perfect instrumental appetizer for the finale of one of the best albums from the end of the seventies.
“Sheik Yerbouti” is, in every respect, yet another timeless masterpiece from Frank’s one-of-a-kind compositional genius, and through the prism of his unique spin on comedic progressive rock, it has reached cult status worldwide. This is the album that, thanks to its musical accessibility and sharp but highly intelligent lyrics, first opened a window into the genius’s endless musical treasure trove for many new generations of open-minded, unfrustrated heads. More than ever, it put the comic side of Frank’s lyrics front and center, especially his sexually charged social satires. Needless to say, it was precisely this, led by “pop” songs like “Bobby Brown”, that boosted the album’s sales and unexpectedly brought Frank worldwide media attention, something that was never part of his plans. It’s a real irony that this treasure trove of toilet humor, full of colorful mentions of various orifices, bulges and secretions, became one of his most successful albums worldwide. Whether the lyrics are sexually explicit is something you could debate at length, since everything is delivered within the bounds of good taste and in an exceptionally witty way. American phony moralists who recognized themselves in them and felt exposed were of course fuming and tried to shield the ears of their innocent little darlings, but alas, forbidden fruit is usually the sweetest.
Lineup
Frank Zappa – guitar, vocals
Adrian Belew – rhythm guitar, vocals
Tommy Mars – keyboards, backing vocals
Terry Bozzio – drums, backing vocals
Napoleon Murphy Brock – backing vocals
Patrick O’Hearn – bass guitar, backing vocals
Ed Mann – percussion, backing vocals
Andre Lewis – keyboards, backing vocals
Davey Moire – backing vocals
David Ocker – clarinet on Wild Love
Randy Thornton – backing vocals
Peter Wolf – keyboards, butter
Production
Frank Zappa
Track list
1. I Have Been in You [live] (3:33)
2. Flakes [live] (6:41)
3. Broken Hearts Are for Assholes [live] (3:42)
4. I’m So Cute (3:09)
5. Jones Crusher (2:49)
6. What Ever Happened to All the Fun in the World (0:33)
7. Rat Tomago [live] (5:15)
8. Wait a Minute (0:33)
9. Bobby Brown Goes Down [live] (2:49)
10. Rubber Shirt (2:45)
11. The Sheik Yerbouti Tango [live] (3:56)
12. Baby Snakes [live] (1:50)
13. Tryin’ to Grow a Chin [live] (3:31)
14. City of Tiny Lites [live] (5:32)
15. Dancin’ Fool [live] (3:43)
16. Jewish Princess [live] (3:16)
17. Wild Love [live] (4:09)
18. Yo’ Mama [live] (12:36)
