Zoot Allures
Encyclopedia
Zoot Allures is a 1976 rock album by Frank Zappa
. This was Zappa's only release on the Warner Bros. Records
label. Due to a lawsuit with his former manager Herb Cohen
Frank Zappa's recording contract was temporarily re-assigned from DiscReet Records
to Warner Bros.
The title is a pun on the French expression "Zut alors!" which, though it has no direct translation, conveys mild surprise and may be approximated by "Damn it!".
The album was originally conceptualized as a double LP
, but for unknown reasons Zappa rearranged, edited, and shortened the track listing to what was eventually released as a single LP. Zappa played a test pressing of the original album for Circus
magazine in 1976, which reported a radically different, though slightly erroneous track listing that included "Sleep Dirt", "The Ocean Is the Ultimate Solution", "Filthy Habits", and "Night of the Iron Sausage". The former three tracks eventually surfaced on the 1979 Sleep Dirt
and the posthumous Läther
; "Night of the Iron Sausage" remains unreleased, but was seemingly intended to be a guitar solo of fair length. "Wind Up Workin' in a Gas Station" and "Zoot Allures" were notably absent from test pressings.
"Black Napkins", one of several guitar-driven pieces on Zoot Allures, began life accompanied by themes that would later make up the unique piece known as "Sleep Dirt". The performance heard on the album was culled from Zappa's February 3, 1976 performance in Osaka, Japan, though it was edited for the official release. Along with "Zoot Allures" and "The Torture Never Stops", "Black Napkins" became a signature piece for Zappa, featuring heavily in nearly every subsequent tour and several official releases.
"Wonderful Wino" was originally released on Jeff Simmons
' 1970 LP, Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up
. The album, produced partially by Zappa (though credited as "La Marr Bruister"), also included the titular track, which later appeared on 1979's Joe's Garage
.
Zappa notes in the liner notes to 1979's Sheik Yerbouti
that "Friendly Little Finger" from this album was created using xenochrony
.
, is mixed differently than the original vinyl.
Keyboardist Eddie Jobson
and bassist Patrick O'Hearn
, who by the time of Zoot Allures release were members of Zappa's band, appear on the album's cover but do not perform on any tracks.
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
. This was Zappa's only release on the Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
label. Due to a lawsuit with his former manager Herb Cohen
Herb Cohen
Herbert "Herb" Cohen was an American personal manager, record company executive, and music publisher, best known as the manager of Frank Zappa, Tom Waits, and many other Los Angeles-based musicians in the 1960s and 1970s.-Life and career:Cohen was born in New York...
Frank Zappa's recording contract was temporarily re-assigned from DiscReet Records
DiscReet Records
DiscReet Records was a company founded by Frank Zappa and his then business partner/manager Herb Cohen. It was created in 1973 when their previous companies Bizarre Records and Straight Records were discontinued...
to Warner Bros.
The title is a pun on the French expression "Zut alors!" which, though it has no direct translation, conveys mild surprise and may be approximated by "Damn it!".
The album was originally conceptualized as a double LP
Double album
A double album is an audio album which spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold, typically records and compact discs....
, but for unknown reasons Zappa rearranged, edited, and shortened the track listing to what was eventually released as a single LP. Zappa played a test pressing of the original album for Circus
Circus (magazine)
Circus was a monthly American magazine devoted to rock music. It was published from 1966 to 2006. In its heyday the magazine had a full-time editorial staff that included some of the biggest names in rock journalism, including Paul Nelson, David Fricke, and Kurt Loder, and rivaled Rolling Stone in...
magazine in 1976, which reported a radically different, though slightly erroneous track listing that included "Sleep Dirt", "The Ocean Is the Ultimate Solution", "Filthy Habits", and "Night of the Iron Sausage". The former three tracks eventually surfaced on the 1979 Sleep Dirt
Sleep Dirt
Sleep Dirt is an album by Frank Zappa released in January, 1979 on his own DiscReet Records label. It reached 175 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart...
and the posthumous Läther
Läther
Läther is an album by Frank Zappa which was released on CD posthumously in 1996. Produced by Zappa in 1977, the recordings contained in Läther were made between 1972 and 1977 . A collection of these tapes was delivered to Warner Bros...
; "Night of the Iron Sausage" remains unreleased, but was seemingly intended to be a guitar solo of fair length. "Wind Up Workin' in a Gas Station" and "Zoot Allures" were notably absent from test pressings.
"Black Napkins", one of several guitar-driven pieces on Zoot Allures, began life accompanied by themes that would later make up the unique piece known as "Sleep Dirt". The performance heard on the album was culled from Zappa's February 3, 1976 performance in Osaka, Japan, though it was edited for the official release. Along with "Zoot Allures" and "The Torture Never Stops", "Black Napkins" became a signature piece for Zappa, featuring heavily in nearly every subsequent tour and several official releases.
"Wonderful Wino" was originally released on Jeff Simmons
Jeff Simmons (musician)
Jeff Simmons, born May 1949 in Seattle, Washington, is a rock musician and former member of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention. Simmons provided bass, guitar, and backing vocals for the group between 1970 and 1971. He left The Mothers just prior to the filming of 200 Motels in mid 1971...
' 1970 LP, Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up
Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up
Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up is a 1970 album by Jeff Simmons, produced by Frank Zappa under the pseudonym La Marr Bruister. DescriptionIts title track was later rerecorded as part of Zappa's 1979 album, Joe's Garage...
. The album, produced partially by Zappa (though credited as "La Marr Bruister"), also included the titular track, which later appeared on 1979's Joe's Garage
Joe's Garage
Joe's Garage is a 1979 rock opera by Frank Zappa. Zappa stated that along with Lumpy Gravy, this album was one of his finest achievements. It was originally released as two separate albums, the first comprising Act I, and the second part as a double-album which made up Acts II & III. All three...
.
Zappa notes in the liner notes to 1979's Sheik Yerbouti
Sheik Yerbouti
Sheik Yerbouti is a double vinyl album by Frank Zappa made up of material recorded in 1977 and 1978. It was first released on March 3 1979 as the first release on Zappa Records and re-issued on compact disc, first in unauthorized form by EMI in 1986 and then by Rykodisc in 1990 and then again in 1995...
that "Friendly Little Finger" from this album was created using xenochrony
Xenochrony
Xenochrony is a studio-based musical technique developed at an unknown date, but possibly as early as the early 1960s, by Frank Zappa, who used it on several albums. Xenochrony is executed by extracting a guitar solo or other musical part from its original context and placing it into a completely...
.
Side one
- "Wind Up Workin' in a Gas Station" – 2:29
- "Black Napkins" – 4:15
- "The Torture Never Stops" – 9:45
- "Ms. Pinky" – 3:40
Side two
- "Find Her Finer" – 4:07
- "Friendly Little Finger" – 4:17
- "Wonderful Wino" (SimmonsJeff Simmons (musician)Jeff Simmons, born May 1949 in Seattle, Washington, is a rock musician and former member of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention. Simmons provided bass, guitar, and backing vocals for the group between 1970 and 1971. He left The Mothers just prior to the filming of 200 Motels in mid 1971...
, Zappa) – 3:38 - "Zoot Allures" – 4:12
- "Disco Boy" – 5:11
Release history
| Country | Date | Label | Format | Catalog |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States Canada |
October 20, 1976 | Warner Brothers | LP | BS 2970 |
| United Kingdom | December 1976 | Warner Brothers | LP | K 56298 |
| United States | May 1990 | Rykodisc Rykodisc Rykodisc Records is an American record label. It is owned by Warner Music Group, operates as a unit of WMG's Independent Label Group and is distributed through Alternative Distribution Alliance.-Company history:... |
CD | RCD 10160 |
| United Kingdom | May 1990 | Zappa Records Zappa Records Zappa Records was a short-lived record label founded by Frank Zappa in 1979 after he severed his ties with Warner Bros. Records which distributed his Bizarre Records, Straight Records and DiscReet Records. It was distributed by Mercury Records. Three albums were released on the Zappa label, Sheik... |
CD | CDZAP22 |
| United States | May 2, 1995 | Rykodisc | CD | RCD 10523 |
Rykodisc CD release
Zoot Allures on compact disc, released by RykodiscRykodisc
Rykodisc Records is an American record label. It is owned by Warner Music Group, operates as a unit of WMG's Independent Label Group and is distributed through Alternative Distribution Alliance.-Company history:...
, is mixed differently than the original vinyl.
Musicians
- Frank ZappaFrank ZappaFrank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
–guitar (all tracks), synthesizer (1, 4, 5, 9), bass (1, 3-7, 9), keyboards (3, 5, 7, 9), vocals (3, 5, 7, 9), lead vocals (1, 4) - Terry BozzioTerry BozzioTerry John Bozzio is an American drummer best known for his work with Missing Persons and Frank Zappa.-Biography:Terry Bozzio was born December 27, 1950 in San Francisco, California. He started at age 6 playing makeshift drum sets. At the age of 13 he saw The Beatles premier performance on The Ed...
– drums, backing vocals (5, 9) - Davey Moiré – lead vocals (1), backing vocals (1, 9), engineer
- Andre Lewis – organOrgan (music)The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
(2), vocals (2), backing vocals (5, 9) - Roy EstradaRoy EstradaRoy Estrada is an American musician and backing vocalist, best known for his bass guitar work with Frank Zappa and for co-founding Little Feat.-Biography:With drummer Jimmy Carl Black and Ray Collins, Estrada was an original member of Frank Zappa's...
– bass guitar (2), vocals (2), backing vocals (2, 4, 5, 9) - Napoleon Murphy BrockNapoleon Murphy BrockNapoleon Murphy Brock is an American singer, saxophonist and flute player who is best known for his work with Frank Zappa in the 1970s, including the albums One Size Fits All, Roxy and Elsewhere, and Bongo Fury...
– saxophoneSaxophoneThe saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
& vocals (2) - Ruth UnderwoodRuth UnderwoodRuth Underwood is a retired professional musician, best known for playing xylophone, marimba, vibraphone and other percussion instruments in Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention from 1967 to 1977....
– synthesizer (4, 7), marimbaMarimbaThe marimba is a musical instrument in the percussion family. It consists of a set of wooden keys or bars with resonators. The bars are struck with mallets to produce musical tones. The keys are arranged as those of a piano, with the accidentals raised vertically and overlapping the natural keys ...
(6, 8) - Captain BeefheartCaptain BeefheartDon Van Vliet January 15, 1941 December 17, 2010) was an American musician, singer-songwriter and artist best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. His musical work was conducted with a rotating ensemble of musicians called The Magic Band, active between 1965 and 1982, with whom he recorded 12...
– harmonicaHarmonicaThe harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
(5) (credited as "Donnie Vliet") - Ruben Ladron de Guevara – backing vocals (5)
- Dave Parlato – bass guitar (8)
- Lu Ann Neil – harpHarpThe harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...
(8) - Sparky Parker – backing vocals (9)
Keyboardist Eddie Jobson
Eddie Jobson
Edwin "Eddie" Jobson is an English keyboardist and violinist noted for his use of synthesizers. He has been a member of several progressive rock bands, including Curved Air, Roxy Music, U.K., and Jethro Tull. He was also part of Frank Zappa's band in 1976-77...
and bassist Patrick O'Hearn
Patrick O'Hearn
Patrick O'Hearn is an American multi-instrumentalist musician, composer and recording artist. While his musical repertoire spans a diverse range of music, he is an acclaimed New Age artist in his solo career...
, who by the time of Zoot Allures release were members of Zappa's band, appear on the album's cover but do not perform on any tracks.
Production staff
- Arnie Acosta – mastering
- Amy Bernstein – layout design
- Michael Braunstein – engineer
- Gary Heery – photography
- Cal SchenkelCal SchenkelCal Schenkel is an artist specialising in album cover design. He was the main visual collaborator for Frank Zappa and was responsible for the art and graphic design of many of Zappa's most well-known album covers. Schenkel's work is iconic and distinctive in style; a forerunner of punk art and...
– design - Bob Stone – digital remastering
Charts
Album - Billboard (North America)| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1976 | Pop Albums | 61 |