Music News
Zappa Records Releases Frank Zappa’s Album ‘Understanding America’
By April MacIntyre Oct 31, 2012, 5:16 GMT
Zappa Records Releases and the Zappa family trust is excited to announce a new 2-CD set released via iTunes and Universal Music Enterprises Tuesday, October 30.
Zappa Records Releases and the Zappa family trust is excited to announce a new 2-CD set released via iTunes and Universal Music Enterprises Tuesday, October 30.
Understanding America is one of only three compilation albums produced and titled by FZ himself. (Ironically, Mothermania is another and is also on schedule for October 30.)
From the release:
The project comprises by less than a quarter titles available in current release, other prior versions and many items including the title, “Porn Wars Deluxe,” a 25-minute work, unique to this Release.
A message from the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen (Frank Zappa’s proximate Laurel Canyon studio) proclaims: “This work is about love, peace, justice and the American way.
It’s about compassion and responsibility. It’s about ethics and honor. It’s about time and it is about money. And bogus pomp and circumstance. Predictions and politics. It is the low-down on high altitudes.
Check out the menu for yourself and you will see that the main ingredients, each in their own persuasion and marinating well into the next century, have been carefully skewered and roasted to the peak of perfection by the Master chef, author of one of the all time great cook books, Understanding America. Oh, and finally, it is about Music. Put some in your cauldron and please, don’t forget to vote!”
“From the uniquely specialized repertoire of an artist who never failed to understand that he was working for a highly specialized audience, this is for you.”
The track listing is:
DISC 1
1. Hungry Freaks, Daddy
2. Plastic People
3. Mom & Dad
4. It Can't Happen Here
5. Who Are The Brain Police?
6. Who Needs The Peace Corps?
7. Brown Shoes Don't Make It
8. Concentration Moon
9. Trouble Every Day
10. You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here
11. We're Turning Again
12. Road Ladies
13. What Kind Of Girl Do You Think We Are
14. Camarillo Brillo
15. Find Her Finer
16. Dinah-Moe Humm
17. Disco Boy
18. 200 Years Old
DISC 2
1. I'm The Slime
2. Be In My Video
3. I Don't Even Care
4. Can't Afford No Shoes
5. Heavenly Bank Account
6. Cocaine Decisions
7. Dumb All Over
8. Promiscuous
9. Thing-Fish Intro
10. The Central Scrutinizer
11. Porn Wars Deluxe
12. Tinseltown Rebellion
13. Jesus Thinks You're A Jerk
Meanwhile back in Hollywood where dreams sometimes DO come true, Frank Zappa is back where he belongs--on Zappa Records--in the hands of the Zappa Family Trust--headed by Zappa’s widow Gail Zappa--the releases will honor the iconic legacy of the Composer, Guitarist, Bandleader, Filmmaker and Wit.
Zappa was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997 (although the family would like to know where it is--does anyone have any information??? Seriously.). The official biography: Frank Zappa, American composer, fl. 1940-1993. The UME deal is for the entire Zappa Catalog as it appeared on Frank Zappa's own independent label, Barking Pumpkin Records.
