Weasels Ripped My Flesh

Weasels Ripped My Flesh
Cover art by Neon Park
Studio album by The Mothers of Invention
Released August 10, 1970
Recorded December 1967 – August 1969 at various locations
Genre
Length 43:03
Label Bizarre, Reprise
Producer Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa chronology
Burnt Weeny Sandwich
#9 (1970)Burnt Weeny SandwichString Module Error: Match not found		 Weasels Ripped My Flesh
#10 (1970)		 Chunga's Revenge
#11 (1970)Chunga's RevengeString Module Error: Match not found
Alternative covers
German album cover
2 Originals of the Mothers of Invention
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[1]
Robert ChristgauB+[2]

Weasels Ripped My Flesh is the seventh studio album by the American rock band the Mothers of Invention, and the tenth overall by Frank Zappa, released in 1970. It is the second album released after the Mothers' disbanded in 1969,[3] preceded by Burnt Weeny Sandwich. In contrast to its predecessor, which predominately focused on studio recordings of tightly arranged compositions, Weasels Ripped My Flesh largely consists of live recordings and features more improvisation.

Album information

Given Zappa's already stated penchant for expressing his music in "phases"—We're Only in It for the Money was written up as "phase one of Lumpy Gravy"— Zappa fans occasionally label this album Phase Two of Burnt Weeny Sandwich. Both albums consist of previously unreleased Mothers tracks released after Frank Zappa disbanded the original group in 1969.

Whereas all but one of the pieces on Burnt Weeny Sandwich have a more planned feel captured by quality studio equipment, five tracks from Weasels Ripped My Flesh capture the Mothers on stage, where they employ frenetic and chaotic improvisation characteristic of avant-garde jazz and free jazz. This is particularly evident on "The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue," a tribute to the multi-instrumentalist, who died in 1964 and is cited as a musical influence in the liner notes to the band's Freak Out! album. The song opens with a complex melody over a 3/4 rhythm, breaking into howls and laughter at the three-minute mark, then the theme is repeated and elaborated; after a brief rave-up section, the number concludes in stop-start fashion.

Zappa's classical influences are reflected in characteristically satirical fashion on "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Sexually Aroused Gas Mask", a play on Claude Debussy's "Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun)". "Oh No" is a vocal version of a theme that originally appeared on Zappa's Lumpy Gravy album, as well as a pointed barb aimed at the Beatles and John Lennon's "All You Need Is Love". "The Orange County Lumber Truck" incorporates the "Riddler's Theme" from the Batman TV show. The album's closer and title track consists of every player on stage producing as much noise and feedback as they can for two minutes. An audience member is heard yelling for more at its conclusion. The All-Music Guide concludes that the track is "perfectly logical in the album's context."

In contrast to the experimental jazz material, the album also contains a straightforward interpretation of Little Richard's R&B single "Directly From My Heart to You", featuring violin and lead vocal from Don "Sugarcane" Harris. This song is actually an outtake from the sessions for the Hot Rats album.

The album also documents the brief tenure of Lowell George (guitar and vocals), who went on to found the band Little Feat with Mothers bassist Roy Estrada. On "Didja Get Any Onya?", George affects a German accent to relate a story of being a small boy in Germany and seeing "a lot of people stand around on the corners asking questions, 'Why are you standing on the corner, acting the way you act, looking the way you look, why do you look that way?'"

The Rykodisc CD reissue of the album features different versions of "Didja Get Any Onya?" and "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Sexually Aroused Gas Mask", which featured music edited out of the LP versions. The extended version of "Didja Get Any Onya?" features a live performance of the composition "Charles Ives", a studio recording of which had previously been released as the backing track for "The Blimp" on the Captain Beefheart album Trout Mask Replica, produced by Frank Zappa. The 2012 Universal Music reissue reverts to the original LP versions.[4]

Album cover

The two images that inspired the cover art by Neon Park: the September 1956 cover to Man's Life magazine (left) and a 1953 Schick electric shaver ad (right).

Frank Zappa recruited artist Neon Park to create a subversive image based on a cover story from the September 1956 issue of Man's Life, a men's adventure magazine. The magazine's cover story depicts a shirtless man being attacked by numerous weasels, above the caption "Weasels Ripped My Flesh". After showing Neon a copy of the magazine, Zappa inquired, "This is it. What can you do that's worse than this?" Neon's answer was to craft a parody of an advertisement for Schick brand electric razor based on the "Weasels Ripped My Flesh" theme.[5] The record company released the album despite its reservations about the album cover.[6]

German releases of the album featured an album cover showing a metal baby caught in a rat trap. This cover was not approved by Zappa.

Burnt Weeny Sandwich and Weasels Ripped My Flesh were also reissued together on vinyl as 2 Originals of the Mothers of Invention, with the original covers used as the left and right sides of the inner spread, and the front cover depicting a pistol shooting toothpaste onto a toothbrush.

Reception

Contemporary reviews of the record called it "far-out" (Billboard, August 29, 1970) and a "random collection of editing room snippets recorded at the Mothers' concerts" (Rolling Stone, October 1, 1970). Now placed in its historical context, modern reviewers tend to appreciate it more critically. A typical example of such appreciation is Christgau's Record Guide (from 1981), which grades the album a B+. In a retrospective review, Allmusic gave it 4.5 stars out of 5, calling it a "fascinating collection", and stating that "Zappa's anything-goes approach and the distance between his extremes are what make Weasels Ripped My Flesh ultimately invigorating"[7] In his book Viva Zappa!, Dominique Chevalier wrote that the album is "one of Zappa's most aggressively bizarre works, full of cross-references to free jazz and modern classical musicians such as Luciano Berio. He also said that the best piece was undoubtedly "Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue", calling it "the cleverest tribute that could have been paid to him".[8]

Track listing

All tracks written by Frank Zappa except where noted.

Side one
No.TitleRecordedLength
1."Didja Get Any Onya?"March 2, 1969, Philadelphia Arena, Philadelphia6:51
2."Directly from My Heart to You" (Richard Wayne Penniman)July 1969, TTG Recording Studios, Hollywood5:17
3."Prelude to the Afternoon of a Sexually Aroused Gas Mask"October 25, 1968, Royal Festival Hall, London3:35
4."Toads of the Short Forest"August 1969, Whitney Studios, Glendale and February 7–8, 1969, Thee Image, Miami4:48
5."Get a Little"February 13, 1969, The Factory, New York City2:35
Side two
No.TitleRecordedLength
6."The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue"June 1969, A&R Studios, New York City6:53
7."Dwarf Nebula Processional March & Dwarf Nebula"December 1967-February 1968, Apostolic Studios, New York City2:12
8."My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama"February 1969, Criteria Studios, Miami and August–September 1969, T.T.G. Studios, Hollywood3:35
9."Oh No"December 1967-February 1968, Apostolic Studios, New York City1:46
10."The Orange County Lumber Truck"October 25, 1968, Royal Festival Hall, London3:18
11."Weasels Ripped My Flesh"May 30, 1969, Town Hall, Birmingham2:05

Personnel

Production

  • Producer: Frank Zappa
  • Art Direction: John Williams
  • Cover art: Neon Park
  • Photography: John Williams
  • Digital art: Bob Stone

Charts

Album – Billboard (United States)

Year Chart Position
1970 Billboard 200 189

References

  1. ↑ Huey, Steve (2011). "Weasels Ripped My Flesh – The Mothers of Invention | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved 11 July 2011.
  2. ↑ Christgau, Robert (2011). "Robert Christgau: CG: Artist 4155". robertchristgau.com. Retrieved 11 July 2011.
  3. ↑ Frank Zappa#Disbanding the original Mothers of Invention (1969)
  4. ↑ Archived August 2, 2012, at the Wayback Machine.
  5. ↑ "the big nOte files". Black Page. April 2005. Retrieved 2006-06-13.
  6. ↑ Thorgerson, Storm; Powell, Aubrey (1999). 100 Best Album Covers: The Stories Behind the Sleeves. Dorling Kindersley. p. 152. ISBN 0-7513-0706-8.
  7. ↑ http://www.allmusic.com/album/weasels-ripped-my-flesh-r22638/review allmusic review
  8. ↑ Viva Zappa 1986 Chevalier, Dominique Page 64
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