FRANK ZAPPA Sheik Yerbouti Classic 1979 US 18-track double vinyl LP. Music features the then new Zappa discovery, a pre-King Crimson Adrian Belew and was recorded mostly live in London...


Year: 1979
Lable: Zappa Records, SRZ-2-1501
Style: Rock
Country: USA
Audio: 24bit-96kHz - Vinyl Rip, FLAC
Size: 1,095 MB


About the Recording

To paraphrase the composer himself, Frank Zappa isn't dead. He just smells funny to a lot of posthippie pundits who claim the master Mother made his point with Freak Out, Absolutely Free and We're Only in It for the Money before descending into the depths of pornographic cheap shots and jazz-rock redundancy for most of his next twenty odd albums.

As the first release on Zappa's own label, the four-sided Shcik Yerbouti won't change everybody's mind, but it reaffirms (at least for the faithful) Zappa's chops as a bandleader and rock & roll wit who doesn't have to be socially relevant to get a laugh. The opening salvo, "I Have Been in You," is a marvelously snide sendup of Peter Frampton's wimpiest hour ("I'm in You") that does for putzy love songs what "Dancin' Fool" does later for uncoordinated nerds with fatal John Travolta complexes. Indulgent scatological exercises like "Broken Hearts Are for Assholes" and "Bobby Brown" (in which the artist unleashes a few zingers at record companies) continue to raise the question of Frank Zappa's lyrical gift and just what's left of it. But even when Zappa and crew come on like the avant-garde answer to Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts, they do so with such self-parodying panache ("I'm So Cute," "Jewish Princess") that you're just as likely to laugh with them as at them.

Instrumentally, Sheik Yerbouti is a refreshingly straightforward record. Zappa refrains from pulling too many doo-wop gags or musique concrète tricks, instead conducting his tight, punkish ensemble through hard-rock operettas (e.g., "Flakes," "City of Tiny Lites") that actually score points over some of his clever concertos of yore. Despite his cynicism and classical pretensions, Frank Zappa is still a first-class rock & roll musician, capable of peeling off on a hot guitar solo (the live "Yo' Mama" here) and penning a riveting riff. If this LP does nothing else, it offers proof that, ten years after his supposed heyday, this sheik can still shake it.


Track Listing:

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... (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)


Musicians:

- Frank Zappa / lead guitar, vocals
- Adrian Belew / rhythm guitar, vocals
- Tommy Mars / keyboards, vocals
- Peter Wolf / keyboards
- Patrick O'Hearn / bass, vocals
- Terry Bozzio / drums, vocals
- Ed Mann & David Ocker / clarinets on "Wild Love"
- Napoleon Murphy Brock, Andre Lewis, Randy Thornton & Davey Moire / background vocals


Ripping Equipment:

Turntable: Nottingham Analogue Interspace;
Cartridge: Shelter 501 MKII Low Output MC;
Phono amp: Ray Samuels Audio Emmeline XR-2;
Power cables: Black Sand Cables Silver Reference MKV with Wattgate 330i-350i Ag;
Computer: MacBook Pro (FireWire out);
ADC: Edirol FA-66 FireWire
Software: Soundtrack Pro @ 96kHz/32-bit floating point.

Rapidshare Links:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8