The 1984 Listening Post - Frank Zappa - Thing-Fish

Frank Zappa - Thing-Fish

#323
December 21 1984
Frank Zappa
Thing-Fish
0 out of 5


Just in time for Christmas! It's the third Zappa album of the year and this time he's not settling for a double album, NO! It's a 90 minute, triple album which was supposed to be a stage show but wasn't and then he died and it was.

Side One:
Okay, so this is gonna be a minstrel show, right? It makes sense, Zappa's been aping an afrocentric vocal sound (to the point of parody and offense sometimes) and, according to him, it's also about...AIDS. Which was manufactured as a weapon. And was tested on black inmates.
Did he grow his own shit or did he buy it somewhere?
Okay, "Harry & Rhonda" is actually kind of funny....and the best work Dale and Terry Bozzio have offered in quite a while.

Side One: Excellently repulsive and weird. But also fascinatingly offensive and listenable.

Side Two:
Thing-Fish is narrating something using an old Zappa tune but employing the dialect Ike Willis developed and expanded for this.
There's something about Zombies and an Evil Prince which is sort of like Opera or what Zappa thinks is a Broadway aria/soliloquy but also thinks Broadway sucks. I think.
I'm a third of the way in and I'm still waiting for a plot of some kind.
There's also a lot about cologne that smells like chitlins.
What is this about??
Side Two: plodding.

Side Three:
I have no fucking idea what's going on. What is going on? There's no nuance here and it's incredibly offensive.

Side Four:
Is there some forced mating happening with some doppleganger of an audience member?
Jeepers. Is he having a relationship with an inflatable doll? Sounds like it.
And now women are bad...and so are...men? And they are gay for...work?
WTH?

Side Five:
Someone is having sex with a briefcase and a pen, shouting about her pussy and squirting her tits somewhere.
The PMRC exists for this record.

Side Six:
I don’t know what’s going on. Endings are hard, apparently.

This was a terrible thing and I deserve compensation for getting through it.


https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/thing-fish/551811417