Uncle Meat

by The Mothers

Uncle Meat cover art
  • Type: Album
  • Released: April 21, 1969
  • Label: Bizarre, Reprise, Rykodisc
  • Country: United States
  • Length: 2:00:39
  • Community rating: 4.26/5 from 7 ratings

Artists on this release: Ray Collins, Euclid James "Motorhead" Sherwood, Bunk Gardner, Don Preston, Frank Zappa, Artie Tripp, Ian Underwood, Jimmy Carl Black, Billy Mundi, Roy Estrada

Album Notes & Community Reviews

A sprawling double album conceived as the soundtrack to an unfinished film, 'Uncle Meat' is a landmark of experimental rock that blends avant-garde composition, free jazz, and parodies of doo-wop and rock and roll. Frank Zappa's pioneering production features extensive overdubbing and tape-speed manipulation, creating a dense collage of meticulously arranged instrumental passages, studio effects, and spoken-word segments. The album showcases the virtuosic range of The Mothers of Invention, moving from complex, percussion-driven pieces to live improvisations and establishing a new level of compositional focus in Zappa's work.

Genres

Descriptors: avant-garde, experimental, sprawling, soundtrack, suite, progressive, fusion, conceptual

Tracklist

  1. Uncle Meat: Main Title Theme (01:56)
  2. The Voice Of Cheese (00:26)
  3. Nine Types Of Industrial Pollution (06:00)
  4. Zolar Czakl (00:54)
  5. Dog Breath, In The Year Of The Plague (03:59)
  6. The Legend Of The Golden Arches (03:27)
  7. Louie Louie - Live At The Royal Albert Hall, London/1967 (02:19)
  8. The Dog Breath Variations (01:48)
  9. Sleeping In A Jar (00:50)
  10. Our Bizarre Relationship (01:05)
  11. The Uncle Meat Variations (04:46)
  12. Electric Aunt Jemima (01:46)
  13. Prelude To King Kong (03:38)
  14. God Bless America - Live At The Whisky A Go Go/1968 (01:10)
  15. A Pound For A Brown On The Bus (01:29)
  16. Ian Underwood Whips It Out - Live At The Falkoner Theater, Copenhagen/1967 (05:05)
  17. Mr. Green Genes (03:13)
  18. We Can Shoot You (02:03)
  19. If We'd All Been Living In California (01:13)
  20. The Air (02:57)
  21. Project X (04:49)
  22. Cruisin' For Burgers (02:21)
  23. Uncle Meat Film Excerpt Part I (37:35)
  24. Tengo Na Minchia Tanta (03:46)
  25. Uncle Meat Film Excerpt Part II (03:51)
  26. King Kong Itself (as played by the Mothers in a studio) (00:51)
  27. King Kong (Its Magnificence As Interpreted By Dom DeWild) (01:19)
  28. King Kong (As Motorhead Explains It) (01:44)
  29. King Kong (The Gardner Varieties) (06:20)
  30. King Kong (As Played By 3 Deranged Good Humor Trucks) (00:31)
  31. King Kong (Live On A Flat Bed Diesel In The Middle Of A Race Track At A Miami Pop Festival...The Underwood Remifications) (07:28)

Credits

  • Frank Zappa - guitar, low grade vocals, percussion, producer, composer, arranger
  • Ray Collins - swell vocals, vocals
  • Jimmy Carl Black - drums, droll humor, poverty
  • Roy Estrada - electric bass, cheeseburgers, pachuco falsetto, prop design
  • Don Preston - electric piano, pipe organ, tarot cards, brown rice
  • Billy Mundi - drums on some pieces
  • Bunk Gardner - piccolo, flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, soprano sax, alto sax, tenor sax, bassoon
  • Ian Underwood - electric organ, piano, harpsichord, celeste, flute, clarinet, alto sax, baritone sax, special assistance, copyist, industrial relations & teen appeal
  • Artie Tripp - drums, timpani, vibraphone, marimba, xylophone, wood block, bells, small chimes, cheerful outlook & specific enquiries
  • Euclid James "Motorhead" Sherwood - pop star, frenetic tenor sax stylings, tambourine, choreography, equipment technician
  • Ruth Komanoff - marimba, vibes
  • Nelcy Walker - soprano voice
  • Cal Schenkel - design, artwork design, package designed by
  • Jerry Hansen - percussion effects, engineer
  • Richard Kunc - engineer
  • Lou Lindauer - imagination & workmanship
  • Ferenc Dobronyi - design [cd repackage]

More from The Mothers: full discography