THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION: OVER-NITE SENSATION

Somehow, FRANK ZAPPA found a way on "Overnite Sensation" to package his oddball humor and complex arrangements into a commercially palatable package. It was the first ZAPPA album to go gold, and contained songs (like "Montana") that could actually be played on FM radio without frightening away listeners. For this reason, AMG rightly refers to this as a "watershed album." It marked a clear and conscious departure from the complex, often orchestral jazz rock of earlier efforts like "Hot Rats" and "The Grand Wazoo", succinctly summing up the traits that made ZAPPA so special: the brilliant guitar leads, luminous contributions from fellow artists (Jean-Luc Ponty, George Duke, Ruth Underwood), and the perverse sense of humor. Because folks who might not ordinarily buy this album did, some were shocked to hear lyrics about bestiality ("Dirty Love"), orgasms ("Dinah Moe Humm"), and a Mexican witch who just happens to be breeding a dwarf ("Camarillo Brillo"). However, longtime listeners were used to this sort of thing; after all, is anything on here less tasteful than "Magdalena" or "The Mud Shark?" If the material is a little off color, Frank delivers it in a good-humored growl more mischievous than menacing. What's most impressive about "Overnite Sensation" is that so much music finds its way into these six-minute tunes without bursting the confines of the standard lyric rock song. The band's ability to start a track like "Zomby Woof" in a relatively straightforward manner, veer off into extracurricular melodies and solos, and then bounce back to find the original structure still intact is amazing. Some might argue that Underwood, Duke and Ponty are given limited roles in these arrangements, but all the better to hear Frank's guitar burn up the place on "Dirty Love" and "I'm The Slime." "Overnite Sensation" is probably the most accessible entry point for adventurous rock fans to approach the work of FRANK ZAPPA. The guitarist himself was obviously pleased with his newfound ability to write in a more concise format, and continued in this idiom for the remainder of the decade, relegating his experimental side to his unreleased leviathan, Lather (which escaped in drips and drabs over the '70s and '80s).