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Chick Corea - 2017 "The Musician" [Audio & Video]

Chick Corea first laid eyes on New York’s Greenwich Village in 1959, fresh from high school, with a head full of music that only he could have imagined. With this new release The Musician, recorded in the epicenter of Chick’s original NYC haunts and more than 50 years later, Corea finally brings all that music together at once.

The live 3-CD and Blu-ray set captures Corea’s 70th birthday celebration at the famed Blue Note Jazz Club in 2011, where he assembled a staggering lineup of musical friends and fellow-travelers – among them Herbie Hancock, Bobby McFerrin, Wynton Marsalis, John McLaughlin and Stanley Clarke – for a month-long residency featuring 10 different bands, including triumphal sets by his own Chick Corea Elektric Band and Return to Forever. All of it is captured brilliantly in the first feature-length documentary on Corea’s life, music and genius musical partners. The film takes you inside the heads and “hangs” of some of the greatest artists of our time – backstage and personal – and the CDs capture almost four hours of live recordings of every band.

Over the course of an artist's lifetime, especially one well into their fifth decade like Chick Corea, it's not uncommon to see a great musician look back and take stock of what he’s done and who he’s worked with, and that's exactly what Corea does on 2017's The Musician. To mark his 75th birthday in 2016, the lauded pianist played a six-week stint of shows at the Blue Note in New York city. During the event, he was joined by a bevy of guests including many longtime friends and collaborators like Herbie Hancock, Bobby McFerrin, Wynton Marsalis, John McLaughlin, Stanley Clarke, and others. The shows were filmed, recorded, and released in 2017 as part of The Musician four-disc album/video and documentary project. It's fascinating to hear Corea take this time-traveling odyssey through his career, and despite the epic nature of the six-week event, he never sounds anything less than engaged, always playing with his trademark intensity and playful spontaneity. His duets are particularly engaging; just listen to his enthralling interplay with singer Bobby McFerrin on "I've Got the World on a String" and "Spain" and you'll be captivated. Similarly compelling are his head-to-head sparrings with pianist Herbie Hancock on "Hot House," "Dolphin Dance," and "Cantaloupe Island." Elsewhere, Corea revisits one of his most popular ensembles, Return to Forever, with bassist Stanley Clarke, drummer Lenny White, and guitarist Frank Gambale. A pre-eminent fusion group, here they take an unexpected acoustic approach to several of their best-known tunes, "Captain Marvel" and "Light as a Feather." We also get a taste of Corea's trio with bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Brian Blade, who deliver a nuanced version of "I Hear a Rhapsody." Other discs showcase equally compelling collaborations with luminaries like pianist Marcus Roberts and vibraphonist Gary Burton, and a reunion with his Elektrik Band featuring drummer Dave Weckl and bassist John Patitucci. We also get a thrilling homage to early Corea employer, jazz trumpet legend Miles Davis, with his From Miles band featuring trumpeter Wallace Roney, drummer Jack DeJohnette, and other Davis alum. Indeed, The Musician is a superb live document spotlighting Corea in settings that recall the best of his classic albums and proving how remarkably well both he and his music have aged.

Track listing/Band/Personnel:

1-1 Return To Forever– Captain Marvel

Bass – Stanley Clarke

Drums – Lenny White

Guitar – Frank Gambale

1-2 Return To Forever– Light As A Feather

Bass – Stanley Clarke

Drums – Lenny White

Guitar – Frank Gambale

1-3 Chick Corea, Gary Peacock, Brian Blade– I Hear A Rhapsody

1-4 Chick Corea, John McLauglin*, Kenny Garrett, John Patitucci, Brian Blade– Spirit Rides

1-5 Chick Corea, John McLauglin*, Kenny Garrett, John Patitucci, Brian Blade– Special Beings

1-6 Chick Corea, Bobby McFerrin– I've Got The World On A String

1-7 Chick Corea, Bobby McFerrin– Spain

2-1 Chick Corea, Gary Burton, Harlem String Quartet*– Overture

2-2 Chick Corea, Gary Burton, Harlem String Quartet*, Gayle Moran Corea– Your Eyes Speak To Me

2-3 Chick Corea, Wallace Roney, Gary Bartz, Eddie Gomez, Jack DeJohnette– If I Were A Bell

2-4 Chick Corea, Wallace Roney, Gary Bartz, Eddie Gomez, Jack DeJohnette– Nefertiti

2-5 Chick Corea, Concha Buika, Carles Benavent, Jorge Pardo, Niño Josele, Jeff Ballard– Zyryab

2-6 Chick Corea, Concha Buika, Carles Benavent, Jorge Pardo, Niño Josele, Jeff Ballard– Mi Nina Lola

3-1 Chick Corea, Marcus Roberts, Wynton Marsalis– CC's Birthday Blues

3-2 Chick Corea, Marcus Roberts– Caravan

3-3 Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock– Hot House

3-4 Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock– Dolphin Dance

3-5 Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock– Cantaloupe Island

3-6 The Chick Corea Elektric Band– Ritual

Bass – John Patitucci

Drums – Dave Weckl

Guitar – Frank Gambale

Saxophone – Eric Marienthal

3-7 The Chick Corea Elektric Band– Silver Temple

Bass – John Patitucci

Drums – Dave Weckl

Guitar – Frank Gambale

Saxophone – Eric Marienthal

The Mahavishnu Orchestra - 1971 [1998] "The Inner Mounting Flame"

The Inner Mounting Flame is the debut studio album by American jazz-rock fusion band Mahavishnu Orchestra.

Conceptually, The Mahavishnu Orchestra was largely a continuation of drummer Tony Williams’ jazz-rock band Lifetime, in which McLaughlin had played with bassist Jack Bruce. The Mahavishnu Orchestra continued in the Lifetime vein, playing raw and upbeat jazz rock with a predominantly rock dominating over jazz.

For the Mahavisnu Orchestra, McLaughlin assembled a truly multinational cast. McLaughlin’s first recruit was supposed to be American bassist Tony Levin, but after Levin declined the honour, Irishman Rick Laird (1941-2021) was chosen to lead the quartet. The drums were filled by the vigorous Panamanian Billy Cobham (b.1944), the keyboards by the Czechoslovakian Jan Hammer (b.1948) and, after Jean Luc Ponty’s entry into the band fell through due to visa problems, the violinist was the American Jerry Goodman (b.1949).

The Inner Mounting Flame is a sovereign combination of hard-rock-like crackling ferocity and jazz virtuosic agility. The album can be considered one of the first jazz-rock records that really rocks like a beast.

Indeed, the band’s rough rock sound is one of the album’s greatest strengths: although the music is full of almost superhuman performances, it still feels edgy and dangerous throughout. The album has not been polished to a sterile flawlessness, but the sound is jagged and the listener is constantly in a kind of fear that the musicians are really playing at the limits of their abilities and there is a possibility that the whole thing could crash to the rocks at any moment. Well, of course that never happens.

McLauglin’s compositions on The Inner Mounting Flame are relatively simple in structure, although the individual sections are challenging due to irregular time signatures, exotic scales and very fast tempos. The band’s unison riffing is also often very impressive to listen to.

And as impressive as the band as a whole is, it is the guitar hero himself, John McLaughlin, who is the main protagonist. McLaughlin’s super-fast guitar playing was something that had never been heard before. McLaughlin was like Jimi Hendrix to the power of two. Or maybe more like a combination of Hendrix and John Coltrane on saxophone. McLaughlin has often said that in his youth he was impressed by saxophones, not guitarists, who he felt in the 60s were nowhere near the skill of the best wind players. McLaughlin’s million-note-per-minute strumming on this album has inspired a huge number of guitarists from fusion jazz, prog and heavy metal. And not always with flattering results. But by this time it was a recent phenomenon, and McLaughlin’s playing, even on the fastest runs, is far more refined than that of almost any guitarist who followed in his footsteps.

One track on the album is ”Noonward Race”, driven by Cobham’s manic drumming. Bassist Rick Laird prevents the song from going completely off the rails by bringing a hypnotic bass groove to the table and letting the four (yep, this band has a solo drummer!) soloists rip it up really tasty. Goodman kicks off the solos with a nice earthy, gruff violin sound, then Hammer gets going with a really exciting, metallically resonant ring-modulated Fender Rhodes sound. One of the most interesting aspects of the album for me is Jan Hammer’s excitingly shrill keyboard sounds. There is still something futuristic, alien and fascinating about his sounds. After Hammer, McLaughlin plays another impressive and super-fast guitar solo, on top of which Cobham forges a solid drum solo. Whoah! No notes are spared in this song. The song is like an exploding volcano that destroys everything in its path. It’s really easy to imagine how impressive the song must have sounded in 1971.

Along with ”Noonward Race”, another key track on the album is ”The Dance Of Maya” which starts with ominous chords reminiscent of King Crimson and after a few minutes turns into irregularly paced blues-rock.

The album also has its quieter aspects, the best example of which is the mainly acoustic ”A Lotus on Irish Streams” which, although it too, moves forward at times with the lightning-fast note claps that McLaughlin creates from his acoustic guitar, and then again calms down to a more lyrical mood, especially with Hammer’s beautiful piano playing. Goodman’s violin also gets a nice space in the song.

Apart from the quieter moments mentioned above, I still miss a bit more subtlety and polish in The Inner Mounting Flame’s compositions. On the other hand, the energetic and fiery jazz-rock of the album, with its virtuoso playing, is a truly moving experience to listen to from time to time.

The Inner Mounting Flame was a strong start for The Mahavishnu Orchestra and the band immediately established themselves as the most popular jazz rock band of the 70s with the only real challengers in terms of popularity being Weather Report and Return To Forever. The band also inspired numerous rock bands, and the likes of Yes and King Crimson have acknowledged their debt to The Mahavishnu Orchestra’s furious jazz-rock.

One is struck by the grandiose reach of the quintet that dared to call itself an orchestra. Pieces like "Meeting of the Spirits" and the fragile, acoustic "A Lotus on Irish Streams" are like classically-inspired suites in miniature. But it was numbers like "Noonward Race", "Vital Transformation" and especially "Awakening", fueled by Cobham’s smoldering intensity on the kit and McLaughlin’s raging, distortion-soaked guitar lines, that really grabbed rock crowds. More ethereal pieces like "The Dance of Maya", with its odd time signatures and arpeggios, and the haunting "You Know, You Know", a drum feature for Cobham, helped to create a kind of mystique about the Mahavishnu Orchestra that was wholly unprecedented for its time.

This is the album that made John McLaughlin a semi-household name, a furious, high-energy, yet rigorously conceived meeting of virtuosos that, for all intents and purposes, defined the fusion of jazz and rock a year after Miles Davis' Bitches Brew breakthrough. It also inadvertently led to the derogatory connotation of the word fusion, for it paved the way for an army of imitators, many of whose excesses and commercial panderings devalued the entire movement. Though much was made of the influence of jazz-influenced improvisation in the Mahavishnu band, it is the rock element that predominates, stemming directly from the electronic innovations of Jimi Hendrix. The improvisations, particularly McLaughlin's post-Hendrix machine-gun assaults on double-necked electric guitar and Jerry Goodman's flights on electric violin, owe more to the freakouts that had been circulating in progressive rock circles than to jazz, based as they often are on ostinatos on one chord. These still sound genuinely thrilling today on CD, as McLaughlin and Goodman battle Jan Hammer's keyboards, Rick Laird's bass, and especially Billy Cobham's hard-charging drums, whose jazz-trained technique pushed the envelope for all rock drummers. What doesn't date so well are the composed medium- and high-velocity unison passages that are played in such tight lockstep that they can't breathe. There is also time out for quieter, reflective numbers that are drenched in studied spirituality ("A Lotus on Irish Streams") or irony ("You Know You Know"); McLaughlin was to do better in that department with less-driven colleagues elsewhere in his career. Aimed with absolute precision at young rock fans, this record was wildly popular in its day, and it may have been the cause of more blown-out home amplifiers than any other record this side of Deep Purple.

Track listing:

1. Meeting Of The Spirits 6:50

2. Dawn 5:15

3. The Noonward Race 6:27

4. A Lotus On Irish Streams 5:41

5. Vital Transformation 6:14

6. The Dance Of Maya 7:15

7. You Know You Know 5:06

8. Awakening 3:30

Personnel:

John McLaughlin – guitar

Rick Laird – bass

Billy Cobham – drums, percussion

Jan Hammer – keyboards, organ

Jerry Goodman – violin

Horacee Arnold - 1974 [2011] "Tales Of The Exonerated Flea"

Reissue of this 1974 album from the Jazz drummer. Horacee Arnold has played with Charles Mingus, Roland Kirk and Bud Powell, just to name a few. His biggest notoriety came with the two Jazz-Fusion albums he cut for Columbia Records in the early 1970s. Tales of the Exonerated Flea features Jan Hammer, Rick Laird, Ralph Towner, John Abercrombie, Sonny Fortune and Art Webb.

In 1974, drummer and composer Horacee Arnold assembled a stellar cast of players for Tales of the Exonerated Flea, his second Columbia album. Following on the heels of 1973's acclaimed Tribe, Tales was recorded at the height of the jazz-rock fusion era. Arnold's vision was a wide-ranging one and he recruited players form all over the jazz world, from stalwarts like bassist George Mraz and flutist Art Webb, to vanguardists like Sonny Fortune, to hardcore fusion players like Weather Report's master percussionist Dom Um Romao, the Mahavishnu Orchestra's bassist Rick Laird, and keyboardist Jan Hammer. As if this weren't enough, Arnold even reached into ECM's roster and signed up their two iconoclastic guitarists Ralph Towner and John Abercrombie. 

The end result is one of the most fascinating, soulful and truly successful albums of the entire genre. What one hears in listening to Tales of the Exonerated Flea is a cast of players who are seeking to open up both rock and jazz to new modes of expression. There are no sterile chops or elongated knotty passages that serve neither rhythm nor harmony. What's happening here is real fusion, of style, language, color, rhythm, harmonic and melodic concepts as well as dynamics. An intense examples is "Sing Nightjar" with its intricate melody and fine, provocative solos by Towner on 12-string and Hammer. 

The initial funky Latin groove of "Benzele Windows" that is introduced to fiery effect by Romao is quickly underscored by Webb's brilliant flute work and added to by Abercormbie and Fortune playing in tandem. When Hammer's electric piano enters the fray, moving in counterpoint with Arnold's lightning rhythmnatism, the piece becomes a startling orgy of rhythm and complexity before the shimmering dark funk of Laird, Hammer, and Arnold creates a dark funky groove for Fortune's soprano solo. The title cut uses a striated, extended and tensely convoluted bop line to introduce a burning Latin flavored stomp undergirding a modal line in the head. 

The chugging rhythmic invention at the heart of "Chinnereth II" belies a rather delicate if involved melody line before the tune becomes a joyful song with many parts and choruses. In all, Tales of the Exonerated Flea is a fusion record of the very best kind, it's full of soul, restless adventure, high-wire soloing and dirty grooves. Reissued on CD by Rock and Groove in 2004, it should be explored by everyone interested in the development of jazz-rock.

A lost fusion classic from the early 70s – one of the only records cut under the leadership of drummer Horacee Arnold, but a heck of a great little set with a soaringly righteous sound! The style here is plenty full-on, but a bit less rock-leaning than some of the other Columbia fusion of the period – thanks to a spacious vision on Arnold's part, and the inclusion of a fair bit of sounds from world music. Players on the set include Art Webb on flute, Sonny Fortune on soprano sax, John Abercrombie on guitar, David Friedman on vibes and marimba, Dom Um Romao on percussion, and Jan Hammer on moog and electric piano – and although there's a fair bit of guitar in the mix, the other acoustic elements are kept nice and high too – for a blend that's almost like some of the best Brazilian fusion from later years, touched by a slightly funkier sound! Tracks really stretch out nicely, allowing for plenty of solo space as they roll on, in a way that's almost a cross between Strata East and some of the more familiar mainstream fusion modes of the time. Very hip stuff, with titles that include "Benzele Windows", "Tales Of The Exonerated Flea", "Euroaquilo Silence", "Puppet Of The Seasons", "Sing Night Jar", and "Delicate Evasions".

Track listing:

1 - Puppett of the Seasons 4:30

2 - Sing Nightjar 11:07

3 - Benzélé Windows - 6:53

4 - Tales of the Exonerated Flea 3:43

5 - Delicate Evasions 4:28

6 - Chinnereth II 8:05

7 - Euroaquilo Silence - 5:41

8 - Timios - 6:22 [Bonus track]

Personnel:

Horacee Arnold - Drums, Percussion, Timpani [Tymps]

Jan Hammer - Synthesizer [Moog], Electric Piano, Piano

John Abercrombie - Electric Guitar

Art Webb - Flute, Flute [Alto] 

Sonny Fortune - Soprano Saxophone, Flute 

Ralph Towner - Twelve-String Guitar 

David Friedman - Vibraphone, Marimba [Bass] 

Rick Laird, Clint Huston, George Mraz - Bass 

Dom Um Romao - Percussion 

Dave Johnson - Percussion, Congas

Weather Report - 1976 [2002] "Black Market"

Black Market is the sixth studio album by American jazz fusion band Weather Report. Released in 1976, it was produced by Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter. It was recorded between December 1975 and January 1976 and released in March 1976 through Columbia Records. Columbia released it again as a digitally remastered CD in 1991.

This is Weather Report's sixth studio album and the first to feature bass player Jaco Pastorius, who appears on two tracks, one of which was his own composition "Barbary Coast." The back cover photo shows Pastorius, Chester Thompson, and Alex Acuña with the band, although bass player Alphonso Johnson played on the majority of the record's tracks. The album draws heavily from African influences and its style could be described as "world fusion". The second track, "Cannon Ball", is a tribute to saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, Zawinul's employer for several years during the 1960s. Adderley died a few months before Black Market was recorded.

The shifts in Weather Report's personnel come fast and furious now, with Narada Michael Walden and Chester Thompson as the drummers, Alex Acuna and Don Alias at the percussion table, and Alphonso Johnson giving way to the mighty, martyred Jaco Pastorius. It is interesting to hear Pastorius expanding the bass role only incrementally over what the more funk-oriented Johnson was doing at this early point -- that is, until "Barbary Coast," where suddenly Jaco leaps athletically forward into the spotlight. Joe Zawinul or just Zawinul, as he preferred to be billed -- contributed all of side one's compositions, mostly Third World-flavored workouts except for "Cannon Ball," a touching tribute to his ex-boss Cannonball Adderley (who had died the year before). Shorter, Pastorius, and Johnson split the remainder of the tracks, with Shorter now set in a long-limbed compositional mode for electric bands that would serve him into the 1990s. While it goes without saying that most Weather Report albums are transition albums, this diverse record is even more transient than most, paving the way for WR's most popular period while retaining the old sense of adventure.

Changing personnel marked each of Weather Report’s first five albums, and Black Market carried forth that tradition, with Chester Thompson, Narada Michael Walden, Alex Acuña, and Jaco Pastorius all making their Weather Report recording debuts.

Asked about the changes in a March 1976 article, Zawinul said, “We’re always happy with the group, because if we’re not happy, we change it. There are a lot of musicians out there in the world. All the people who have played with us are great mother-fucking musicians. They have fantastic skills. But sometimes they’re going in one direction and we’re going in another one, so we have to make a change. Changing musicians gives us fresh blood, new ideas.”

In that article, Shorter and Zawinul said it didn’t really matter who played what–it was the end result that counted. “You can enjoy a symphony orchestra without knowing everybody’s name,” Shorter said. “You don’t have to know who the concertmaster is to know that the string section is incredible.” Zawinul added, “I’ve been playing our new album [Black Market] for some other musicians, and even some of them can’t always tell who’s playing what, or what instruments are being used at a given time. I like that. I like that a lot. Why should people know? We’re not a bunch of individual musicians. We’re a group.”

The personnel for Black Market took shape over the course of 1975, following the release of Weather Report’s previous album, Tale Spinnin’. Early in the year the problematic drum chair was filled by Thompson, who was recommended by Johnson. “Alphonso was in the band,” Thompson recalled, “and we had already played together in a couple of situations, and he urged me to come down and jam, so I guess it was kind of an informal audition, just free playing. And it was one of those bands that just clicked. I was not at all nervous. I knew they’d had several drummers in the year before. I had a large and pretty wide experience. I’d been interested in playing lots of different kinds of music. I’d been in experimental kinds of bands, and in technically demanding kinds of bands — [Frank] Zappa’s was the most technically demanding … I’d had a lot of chance to play jazz; by the time I was 15, I was playing in really good jazz groups. I played funk, too, probably an equal amount, having grown up in the ’60s, with early James Brown and Motown going on.”

“Al Johnson had been on Mysterious Traveller, Tale Spinnin’, and part of Black Market when he told us he wanted to quit,” Zawinul recalled in 1984. “He wanted to form a band with George Duke where he was the co-leader, rather than just a sideman. We felt that everybody should do what they wanted to do, and by that time I had already met Jaco [Pastorius]. Jaco had sent me a tape of his band, and I was really impressed with the way he played; but I wasn’t sure if he could really play funk. [Drummer] Tony Williams had played with him, and assured us that Jaco could play anything. Jaco was a great Cannonball Adderley fan, and I had written a song called ‘Cannon Ball,’ so I said to myself, ‘it might be a good idea, just for the fun of it, to have Jaco play on that tune and audition him at the same time.’ We flew him in, he played on the tune, he wrote a song for Black Market, and the rest is history!”

Track listing:

1. "Black Market" Joe Zawinul 6:28

2. "Cannon Ball" Zawinul 4:36

3. "Gibraltar" Zawinul 8:16

4. "Elegant People" Wayne Shorter 5:03

5. "Three Clowns" Shorter 3:31

6. "Barbary Coast" Jaco Pastorius 3:19

7. "Herandnu" Alphonso Johnson 6:36

Personnel:

Joe Zawinul – Yamaha Grand Piano, Rhodes Electric Piano, 2 × ARP 2600, Oberheim Polyphonic Synthesizer, orchestration

Wayne Shorter – Selmer soprano and tenor saxophones, Computone Lyricon

Alphonso Johnson – electric bass

Jaco Pastorius – electric fretless bass (tracks 2 & 6)

Narada Michael Walden – drums (tracks 1–2)

Chester Thompson – drums (tracks 1, 3–7)

Alex Acuña – congas, percussion (tracks 2–5, 7)

Don Alias – percussion (tracks 1 & 6)

Frank Zappa - 1979 [1987] "Joe's Garage"

 

Joe's Garage is a three-part rock opera released by American musician Frank Zappa in September and November 1979. Originally released as two separate albums on Zappa Records, the project was later remastered and reissued as a triple album box set, Joe's Garage, Acts I, II & III, in 1987. The story is told by a character identified as the "Central Scrutinizer" narrating the story of Joe, an average adolescent male, from Canoga Park, Los Angeles, who forms a garage rock band, has unsatisfying relationships with women, gives all of his money to a government-assisted and insincere religion, explores sexual activities with appliances, and is imprisoned. After being released from prison into a dystopian society in which music itself has been criminalized, he lapses into insanity.

The album encompasses a large spectrum of musical styles, while its lyrics often feature satirical or humorous commentary on American society and politics. It addresses themes of individualism, free will, censorship, the music industry and human sexuality, while criticizing government and religion, and satirizing Catholicism and Scientology. Joe's Garage is noted for its use of xenochrony, a recording technique that takes musical material (in this instance, guitar solos by Zappa from older live recordings) and overdubs them onto different, unrelated material. All solos on the album are xenochronous except for "Crew Slut" and "Watermelon in Easter Hay", a signature song that Zappa described as the best song on the album, and according to his son Dweezil, the best guitar solo his father ever played.

Joe’s Garage initially received mixed to positive reviews, with critics praising its innovative and original music, but criticizing the scatological, sexual and profane nature of the lyrics. Since its original release, the album has been reappraised as one of Zappa's best works.

After being released from his contractual obligations with Warner Bros. Records, Frank Zappa formed Zappa Records, a label distributed at that time by Phonogram Inc. He released the successful double album Sheik Yerbouti (1979, recorded 8/1977-2/1978), and began working on a series of songs for a follow-up album.: The songs "Joe's Garage" and "Catholic Girls" were recorded with the intention that Zappa would release them as a single. Throughout the development of Joe's Garage, Zappa's band recorded lengthy jams which Zappa later formed into the album.: The album also continued the development of xenochrony, a technique Zappa also featured on One Size Fits All (1975), in which aspects of older live recordings were utilized to create new compositions by overdubbing them onto studio recordings, or alternatively, selecting a previously recorded solo and allowing drummer Vinnie Colaiuta to improvise a new drum performance, interacting with the previously recorded piece.

Midway through recording the new album, Zappa decided that the songs connected coherently and wrote a story, changing the new album into a rock opera. Joe's Garage was the final album Zappa recorded at a commercial studio. Zappa's own studio, the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen, built as an addition to Zappa's home, and completed in late 1979, was used to record and mix all of his subsequent releases.

The lyrical themes of Joe's Garage involve individualism, sexuality, and the danger of large government. The album is narrated by a government employee identifying himself as The Central Scrutinizer, who delivers a cautionary tale about Joe, a typical adolescent male who forms a band as the government prepares to criminalize music. The Central Scrutinizer explains that music leads to a "slippery slope" of drug use, disease, unusual sexual practices, prison, and eventually, insanity. According to Scott Schinder and Andy Schwartz, Zappa's narrative of censorship reflected the censorship of music during the Iranian Revolution of 1979, where rock music was made illegal.

The title track is noted as having an autobiographical aspect, as the character of Larry (as performed by Zappa himself) sings that the band plays the same song repeatedly because "it sounded good to me". In real life, Zappa said he wrote and played music for himself, his sole intended audience. The song also takes lyrical inspiration from bands playing in bars like The Mothers of Invention once had, and shady record deals Zappa had experienced in the past. In "Joe's Garage", Joe finds that the music industry is "not everything it is cracked up to be".  The song refers to a number of music fads, including new wave, heavy metal, disco and glitter rock, and is critical of the music industry of the late 1970s. 

"Catholic Girls" is critical of the Catholic Church, and satirizes "the hypocrisy of the myth of the good Catholic girl."  While Zappa was in favor of the sexual revolution, he regarded himself as a pioneer in publicly discussing honesty about sexual intercourse, stating

"American sexual attitudes are controlled as a necessary tool of business and government in order to perpetuate themselves. Unless people begin to see through that, to see past it to what sex is really all about, they're always going to have the same neurotic attitudes. It's very neatly packaged. It all works hand-in-hand with the churches and political leaders at the point where elections are coming up."

This view inspired the lyrical content of "Crew Slut", in which Mary, Joe's girlfriend, falls into the groupie lifestyle, going on to participate in a wet T-shirt contest in the following track, "Fembot in a Wet T-Shirt".

"Why Does It Hurt When I Pee?" was written in the summer of 1978. Zappa's road manager, Phil Kaufman, alleged, that the song was written after Kaufman had asked that very question; within the context of the album's storyline, it is sung by Joe after he receives a sexually transmitted disease from Lucille, "a girl, who works at the Jack in the Box". The Central Scrutinizer continues to express the hypothesis that "girls, music, disease, heartbreak all go together."Halfway through the album's libretto, Zappa expressed the belief that governments believe that people are inherently criminals, and continue to invent laws, which gives states the legal grounds to arrest people, leading to the fictional criminalization of music which occurs towards the end of the album's storyline. 

"A Token of My Extreme" satirizes Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard, as well as new age beliefs and the sexual revolution.: It describes an insincere religion, which co-operates with a "malevolent totalitarian regime." "Stick It Out" contains lyrical references to Zappa's songs "What Kind Of Girl", "Bwana Dik", "Sofa No. 2", and "Dancin' Fool". "Dong Work For Yuda" was written as a tribute to Zappa's bodyguard, John Smothers, and features Terry Bozzio imitating Smothers' dialect and speech. "Keep It Greasy" is a lyrical tribute to anal sex. Following Joe's imprisonment and release, the libretto describes a dystopian future, accompanied musically by long guitar solos, which Joe imagines in his head. The penultimate song, "Packard Goose", criticizes rock journalism, and features a philosophical monolog delivered by the character Mary, who had been absent since the first act.: In the epilogue song "A Little Green Rosetta," Joe gives up music, returns to sanity, hocks his imaginary guitar and gets "a good job" at the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen Facility (a self-reference to Zappa's own personal studio). The Central Scrutinizer sings the last song on the album in his "regular voice", and joins in a long musical number with most of the other people that worked with Zappa around 1979.

Track listing: 

Disc 1

01. "The Central Scrutinizer" 3:27

02. "Joe's Garage" 6:10

03. "Catholic Girls" 4:26

04. "Crew Slut" 5:51

05. "Fembot in a Wet T-Shirt" 5:26

06. "On the Bus" 4:18

07. "Why Does It Hurt When I Pee?" 2:35

08. "Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up" 5:43

09. "Scrutinizer Postlude" 1:35

10. "A Token of My Extreme" 5:28

11. "Stick It Out" 4:33

12. "Sy Borg" 8:50

Disc 2

1. "Dong Work for Yuda" 5:03

2. "Keep It Greasey" 8:22

3. "Outside Now" 5:52

4. "He Used to Cut the Grass" 8:34

5. "Packard Goose" 11:38

6. "Watermelon in Easter Hay" 9:09

7. "A Little Green Rosetta" 8:15

Personnel:

Frank Zappa – lead guitar, vocals

Warren Cuccurullo – rhythm guitar, vocals

Denny Walley – slide guitar, vocals

Ike Willis – lead vocals

Peter Wolf – keyboards

Tommy Mars – keyboards (Act 1)

Arthur Barrow – bass guitar, guitar (on "Joe's Garage"), vocals

Patrick O'Hearn – bass guitar on "Outside Now" and "He Used to Cut the Grass"

Ed Mann – percussion, vocals

Vinnie Colaiuta – drums, combustible vapors, optometric abandon

Jeff (Jeff Hollie) – tenor sax (all tracks Act 1)

Marginal Chagrin (Earle Dumler) – baritone sax (all tracks Act 1)

Stumuk (Bill Nugent) – bass sax (all tracks Act 1)

Dale Bozzio – vocals (all tracks Act 1)

Al Malkin – vocals (all tracks Act 1)

Craig Steward – harmonica (all tracks Act 1)