ROXY & ELSEWHERE

This is one of the greatest albums from one of the world's greatest musical treasures. This album was recorded at a time when Frank was at one of his musical peaks. At this point, Zappa was primarily writing and performing his own brand of electric jazz rock fusion. And his band was as good as any other out there, and better than most. His music here is as progressive, and prog, as ever, and since these performances were being videotaped for television, the lyrics are nowhere near as crude as we know Zappa can get. So you prigs and prudes out there should even enjoy it.

Now, I won't go into detail about every track here, although each one has it's merits, I will mention the highlights (for me). "Cheepnis" is a hilarious ode to classic monster movies, and the quirks of the genre. The song is a rocking roller coaster ride through an imaginary movie, featuring an enormous poodle named "Frunobulax".

An absolute work of musical genius is the entire side 2 of the original LP. This suite begins with "Village Of The Sun", a catchy song about Palmdale California, and the aromatic effects of a local turkey farm there. This segues into what I believe is Zappa's most amazing song (and he has made quite a few amazing songs), "Echidna's Arf (Of You)". This is a wild piece of fusion that shows the band's virtuosity. Then the song turn's into "Don't You Ever Wash That Thing?", where the incredible Ruth Underwood gets to show us why she may have been the greatest percussionist ever. Side note: Dweezil's band did a fantastic job of recreating this suite during their show last weekend. I bet dad would have been proud.

The remainder of the album is superb. Even the audience participation segments recorded for this album are fun to hear. If you only buy one Zappa album, this is the one I would recommend.