DANCIN FOOL

"Dancin Fool" is a single release by US experimental rock artist Frank Zappa. The single was released through CBS Records in 1979. Both the A-Side (the title track) and the B-side ("Baby Snakes") tracks are also featured on the "Sheik Yerbouti (1979)" album. It´s the second highest ranking Frank Zappa single (and the highest ranking at the time of release, making it to number 45 on the US charts), only beaten by "Valley Girl (1982)", which is the only Zappa single to enter top 40 on the US charts.

The title track is Zappa´s second attempt at mocking the disco culture of the seventies (the first being "Disco Boy" from "Zoot Allures (1976)") and it´s quite a funny track with some pretty brilliant satiric lyrics about a guy who is a terrible dancer, but still insists on commiting social suicide by entering the dancefloor. Obviously it´s not a very serious song and Zappa actually succeed in incorporating a line about his own physical incapabilities in the track (the line "One of my legs is shorter than the other and both my feet's too long", is about himself. One of Zappa´s legs actually was shorter than the other, as a result of the severe damages to his body after the December 1971 attack on stage in London). A kind of hidden self-parody, or real life conceptual continuity inserted into his art.

The music is upbeat, catchy and accessible. "Baby Snakes", featuring those lovely dirty lyrics, is also a high quality track. Very funny and very clever. So all in all a great single release from Frank Zappa. A 3 star (60%) rating is enough though as both tracks are already available on "Sheik Yerbouti (1979)", making this single a bit redundant to most listeners.