Progarchives, the progressive rock ultimate discography
Frank Zappa - Cucamonga Years - The Early Works of Frank Zappa (1962-1964) CD (album) cover

CUCAMONGA YEARS - THE EARLY WORKS OF FRANK ZAPPA (1962-1964)

Frank Zappa

 

RIO/Avant-Prog

2.00 | 3 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

TCat
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin
2 stars Way back before Frank Zappa was a famous name, and even back further than the Mothers of Invention, Zappa wrote doo- wop music. These years were known as his Cucamonga Years. This collection, released in 1991, was made to bring these early doo-wop songs back out into the light, and to give credit where credit was due. The collection is known as 'The Cucamonga Years ' The Early Works of Frank Zappa (1962-1964)'. This probably won't sound anything like what you might be expecting if you think you are going to get anything similar to Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention albums, except that they sound like the era they come from. Some of it is decent and some of it is bad. But, none of it is really progressive, it just pays homage to Zappa's development as an artist.

The first track is 'Memories of El Monte' and was sung by The Penguins. Zappa co-wrote this (when he was merely a teen- ager) along with Ray Collins. The Penguins are famous for their top 40 hit 'Earth Anger (Will You Be Mine)', and this recording sounds much like that, the slow r&b sound of the time. Zappa shows up on the track playing the vibes. The next two tracks are done by Baby Ray and the Ferns which is made up of Ray Collins and 'The Ferns' being a circle of friends doing Zappa's work. 'How's Your Bird?' will remind you more of Zappa's silliness starting with the snarking sound he is famous for (except the sounds in this case are done by Paul Buff) with the early rock n roll sound of the time. The lyrics are silly ('How's your bunion?/ And how's your grunion?') and are taken from a Steve Allen saying/act, who Collins was a big fan of. Zappa plays guitars, drums and percussion on this track. This continues with 'The World's Greatest Sinner' but the song is a little better, with more 50s style rock and roll, and you can hear Zappa doing the backing vocals on this one along with guitars.

The two songs that follow are done by LA based producer/actor best known as the host of 'Jeepers Creepers Theater' of which Zappa was a fan of. This was a local TV show that presented horror films every Saturday night at 10 PM. Jeepers was the name of the host who would rise up out of a coffin and read fan letters. This connection between Bob Guy, Paul Buff and Zappa led to a brief collaboration between the two and is mostly spoken word silliness with the character actor, kind of in the same realm as 'Monster Mash', but without singing, just Halloween puns and humor, and you get two tracks of that in 'Dear Jeepers' and 'Letter from Jeepers'. It's corny. Bob Guy does his Jeepers act while prehistoric rock riffs play in the background. Zappa plays guitars, does the sped-up vocals and plays drums. The next two tracks are by The Hollywood Persuaders, which was made up of only one key figure, Paul Buff, who had a studio in Cucamonga that later became Zappa's 'Studio Z'. Buff engineered surf bands for a flat rate fee to get up-and-comers a kickstart. 'Grunion Run' was written by Zappa and 'Tijuana Surf' was written by Buff and both are nice surf rock style instrumentals. Zappa played all of the instruments except for the sax which was played by Buff. 'Tijuana Surf' ended up being a number one hit in Mexico.

Mr. Clean is credited as the author of the next two tracks, which is really an alias and title for work by Zappa, recorded and engineered again by Paul Buff. 'Mr. Clean' and 'Jessie Lee' are vocal r&b doo wop songs. Robert Davis (AKA Mr. Clean) does the vocals and harmonica for both tracks, and Zappa does the background vocals, guitars and drums. Following this are two tracks from The Rotations, which is another Paul Buff and Frank Zappa surf rock collective. 'Heavies' and 'The Cruncher' are both surf rock instrumentals complete with wave effects and brass. The last two tracks are done by The Heartbreakers (nothing to do with Tom Petty). They were brothers Benny and Joe Rodriguez from Roosevelt High School in East LA. They are best known for their 1963 hit single 'Cradle Rock'. Zappa and Ray Collins wrote the song 'Every Time I See You' which is another doo-wop song with vocals by the brothers (with Zappa playing lead guitar) and so is the last track 'Cradle Rock', which I believe has nothing to do with Zappa. Ray Collins had nothing to do with the recording session for the b-side to Cradle Rock even though he co-wrote it, however, Zappa did tell him that it was covered by the group and released as the b-side to that hit record.

So, there you have it. The story behind these unusual songs in Zappa's early discography, the ones that not many fans knew about prior to the release of this collection. This is not really a progressive record at all, but it is an important document to Zappa's beginnings in the recording industry, and these years were important to his development as a major artist. This collection can be rather hard to find, but these songs have been included in other collections, including the collection that is similar to this one that came out a few years later, simply entitled 'Cucamonga', and probably a little easier to find. This collection, in the meantime, is rather obsolete and only of interest to fans and collectors. But everyone that considers themselves a true Zappa fan should hear these songs in one manner or another.

TCat | 2/5 |

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).

Forum user
Forum password

Share this FRANK ZAPPA review

Social review comments () BETA







Review related links

Copyright Prog Archives, All rights reserved. | Legal Notice | Privacy Policy | Advertise | RSS + syndications

Other sites in the MAC network: JazzMusicArchives.com — jazz music reviews and archives | MetalMusicArchives.com — metal music reviews and archives

Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.