Released: March 22 1974
Tracklist
- Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow
- Nanook Rubs It
- St-Alphonzo’s Pancake Breakfast
- Father O’Blivion
- Cosmic Debris
- Excentrifugal Forz
- Apostrophe
- Uncle Remus
- Stink-Foot
Line-up
Jim Gordon, Johnny Guerin, Aynsley Dunbar, Ralph Humphrey (drums) Jack Bruce, Erroneous, Tom Fowler, FZ (bass) George Duke (keyboards) Sugar Cane Harris, Jean-Luc Ponty (violin) Ruth Underwood (percussion) Ian Underwood, Napoleon Murphy Brock (saxophone) Sal Marquez (trumpet) Bruce Fowler (trombone) Ray Collins, Kerry McNabb, George Duke, Susie Glover, Debbie, Lynn, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Ruben Ladron De Guevara, Robert “Frog” Camarena (backing vocals)
Excelente de principio a fin, uno de los mejores albunes.
This has to be his most popular album. It went GOLD back in the day. All of the songs are very well known except Excentrifical Forz. Just give this tune a listen!
Zappa’s first and only top twenty album wasn’t a commerical sellout. It’s just that for a brief moment in time the mainstream culture and FZ’s absurdist humor crossed paths. Who said nothing good happened in the seventies? The Yellow Snow Suite even got some airplay in my area. “Apostrope” with Jack Bruce and Jim Gordon is a killer hard rock jam.
Don’t start with this album or you might not listen to anything else… You’ll end up with one casette in your car, like I have: Apostrohpe on one side, Waka-Jawaka on the other.
c’est la pure classe c’es très difficile pour nous à traduire à cause du slang mais je me fais aider stink foot quel délire
it one of my favorit album but i like really all black page or the song about Baltimore the beginning it’s really a great compositeur glory to mr Varese
I’m fifty and only one time I saw him in France but I have the video
bye joni
apostrophe first and overnight sensation second are among the best music ever released by Zappa in the seventies.
pure genius! silly and humorous but with an important message.
Like “Waka/Jawaka” paired with “The Grand Wazoo”, “Apostrophe” is always paired with “Over-nite Sensation”, which Zappa himself did when first released on CD. This is understandable, because the same general musical and instrumental approach/sound graces both releases. I, for one, find “Apostrophe” the better album, in terms of raw musical compositional material, as well as the masterful arrangement of the whole “Yellow Snow” medley. I spent many a month transcribing the entire “Yellow Snow” medley from scratch, and all that hard work did was help me appreciate just what an amazing composer of music Frank was, much less arranger. Ruth Underwood, George Duke and Tom Fowler are AMAZING in terms of their playing prowess on this record, and they top even that on “One Size Fits All” and the “Roxy” live set. This was one amazing band, Frank knew it, and set to writing for them some chops-breaking work-outs that STILL possessed true musical integrity and depth. Don’t be fooled into treating this material as a big joke just because of the superficial “stupidity” of the subject matter. Within the world of “Yellow Snow” and the tale of “Nanook” resides some very deep ruminations on our society, organized religion, the role of the free-thinking outsider (“Nanook”/Zappa himself?), and many other fascinating notions. The playing on this album is nothing less than thrilling and superb. This is very listener-friendly, engaging stuff, even with all the “hot-licks” swirling around your ears, and I can completely understand why it was and still remains one of Zappa’s most popular and accessible records. I have always wondered why Zappa retained the little flubbed out-take of the beginning of “St. Alphonzo’s Pancake Breakfast” right before the track “Cozmik Debris” kicks in with Ruth Underwood laughing at her folly. This is one of the top five greatest Zappa albums, well-deserving of all the praise it has received. Enjoy and “don’t be a naughty eskimo!!”
the only bad track on this album is: st.alphonsoz`s breakfeast……. and the live version of “cosmic debris” from “a token of his extreme” is ten times better with a funky sax solo from napoleon m brock, a killer keyboard solo from duke. and a bluesy kick ass guitar solo from mr. zappa himself….. the apostrophe version is not so god…..
I’m still lost in “St.Alphonzo’s pancake breakfast”…i listen it 200 times …oh!!! excuse me I must go to listen it again!!!
I’ve just listened to ‘St Alfonso’ for the 100th time! ‘Rollo’ (end bit of song) is spectacular!
In 1996 Ryko released the Audiophile Au20 Gold CD of this album. It was a limited / numbered release, which went out of print and so off the shelves quickly. Not so long ago, I was lucky to purchase a sealed copy of this CD. The sound is marvellous. If you can get one and even if it is only a CDR of it – get it and listen.
I’m sorry about the misplaced apostrophe, wherever it is!
Is this Zappa’s parody of Pink Floyd’s Meddle?