Thing-Fish

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Thing-Fish
Thing-Fish cover
Studio album by Frank Zappa
Released December 21, 1984
Recorded 1982 – 1984
Genre Rock
Length 90:58
Label Barking Pumpkin
Producer(s) Frank Zappa
Professional reviews
Frank Zappa chronology
Them or Us
(1984)		 Thing-Fish
(1984)		 Francesco Zappa
(1984)


Thing-Fish is a 1984 concept album from Frank Zappa (released as an "orginal cast recording"). It was first released as a triple-vinyl recording and later by Rykodisc as a two CD set. It is the soundtrack to a musical that Zappa failed to sell on Broadway and contains many references to famous Broadway musicals and plays.

In promotion of the album and proposed musical, a layout was prepared for Hustler magazine in 1983. Larry Flynt paid a total of $55,000 for the spread and for the Thing-Fish mask and Ob'Dewlla 'X' doll.[1] Zappa also appeared on Late Night with David Letterman to promote the musical, showing photos of the unfinished mask and doll.[2][3]

In 2001, a group of students performed a section of Thing-Fish as final year project at LIPA in Liverpool. This production took place with the express permission of Gail Zappa (Frank's widow). Three of these students formed the company Stagecraft Entertainment Ltd. and managed to get Zappa's permission to perform an adaptation of the Musical in London in 2003.[4][5][6]

Thing-Fish is in the same vein as Joe's Garage and is loosely based on the Tuskegee Experiment, where the effect of syphilis was noted in a poor, black community.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The story goes that the government has experimented on inmates, turning them into hideous creatures known as "Mammy-Nuns," thanks to a substance known as "Galoot Cologne" (cf. Brut) which was invented by an Evil Prince (and part-time theater critic) to get rid of selected "highly-rhythmic individj'lls an' sissy-boys." Being unable to return to their original jobs, the Mutant Mammy-Nuns are forced to perform in a Broadway musical about their plight.

During a stage show of the Mammy-Nuns, Harry and Rhonda (your average white, middle-class couple) are kidnapped by Mammy-Nuns and are forced to witness and perform many twisted things. In "flashback" segments, we learn that as a boy, Harry briefly became homosexual after he lost all desire for intercourse with females because of the women's liberation movement, before falling in love with a rubber sex doll called "Artificial Rhonda." Harry and Rhonda can be taken to represent the listener, with the stage show representing the album.

Much of the album's material originates from heavily overdubbed versions of recordings originally released on albums like Tinsel Town Rebellion, Zoot Allures, You Are What You Is, and Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch. In most of these tracks, the vocals of "white" singers have been removed from the original recordings in addition to new overdubs, giving the final product a general sound of heavy bass vocals.

Contents

[edit] Track listing

[edit] Original release (vinyl box set)

[edit] Side one

  1. "Prologue" – 2:56
  2. "Mammy Nuns" – 3:31
  3. "Harry and Rhonda" – 3:36
  4. "Galoot Up-Date" – 5:27

[edit] Side two

  1. "'Torchum' Never Stops" – 10:32
  2. "That Evil Prince" – 1:17
  3. "You Are What You Is" – 4:31

[edit] Side three

  1. "Mudd Club" – 3:17
  2. "Meek Shall Inherit Nothing" – 3:14
  3. "Clowns on Velvet" – 1:51
  4. "Harry-as-a-Boy" – 2:34
  5. "He's So Gay" – 2:44

[edit] Side four

  1. "Massive Improve'lence" – 5:07
  2. "Artificial Rhonda" – 3:32
  3. "Crab-Grass Baby" – 3:48
  4. "White Boy Troubles" – 3:34

[edit] Side five

  1. "No Not Now" – 5:49
  2. "Briefcase Boogie" – 4:10
  3. "Brown Moses" – 3:01

[edit] Side six

  1. "Wistful Wit a Fist-Full" – 4:00
  2. "Drop Dead" – 7:56
  3. "Won Ton On" – 4:19

[edit] Re-release (1995 on CD)

[edit] Disc 1 (Part I)

  1. "Prologue" – 2:56
  2. "Mammy Nuns" – 3:31
  3. "Harry and Rhonda" – 3:36
  4. "Galoot Up-Date" – 5:27
  5. "'Torchum' Never Stops" – 10:32
  6. "That Evil Prince" – 1:17
  7. "You Are What You Is" – 4:31
  8. "Mudd Club" – 3:17
  9. "Meek Shall Inherit Nothing" – 3:14
  10. "Clowns on Velvet" – 1:51
  11. "Harry-as-a-Boy" – 2:34
  12. "He's So Gay" – 2:44
  13. "Massive Improve'lence" – 5:07
  14. "Artificial Rhonda" – 3:32

[edit] Disc 2 (Part II)

  1. "Crab-Grass Baby" – 3:48
  2. "White Boy Troubles" – 3:34
  3. "No Not Now" – 5:49
  4. "Briefcase Boogie" – 4:10
  5. "Brown Moses" – 3:01
  6. "Wistful Wit a Fist-Full" – 4:00
  7. "Drop Dead" – 7:56
  8. "Won Ton On" – 4:19

NOTE: On the original 1986 CD issues, the tracks "The Massive Improve'lence" and "Artificial Rhonda" were at the beginning of Disc 2, rather than the end of Disc 1. The 1995 track listing is closer to the way the songs would appear in a performance of the musical, Artificial Rhonda being the end of the first act. There were two versions of the 1986 Rykodisc CD release—the first had the original vinyl mix; later pressings had a remix which would appear on all future CD issues. The remix fixes some sound quality problems and adds some additional comments by Brown Moses (Johnny "Guitar" Watson) to the song "He's So Gay" (a version which had been released by Frank on an EP in the 1980s.)

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Cast

  • THING-FISH—IKE WILLIS
  • HARRY—TERRY BOZZIO
  • RHONDA—DALE BOZZIO
  • EVIL PRINCE—NAPOLEON MURPHY BROCK
  • HARRY-AS-A-BOY—BOB HARRIS
  • BROWN MOSES—JOHNNY 'Guitar' WATSON
  • OWL-GONKWIN-JANE COWHOON—RAY WHITE

[edit] Musicians

[edit] Production staff

  • Bob Fletcher – costume design
  • Ladi Von Jansky – photography, cover photo
  • Bob Stone – engineer

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Info about and images from the Hustler spread can be found here
  2. ^ The David Letterman interview can be viewed on YouTube
  3. ^ Frank Zappa Videography
  4. ^ The Idiot Bastard Son of T’Mershi Duween
  5. ^ Stagecraft Entertainment
  6. ^ Frank Zappa's Thing-Fish

[edit] External links


Frank Zappa
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Main Albums
Lumpy Gravy | Hot Rats | Chunga's Revenge | Waka/Jawaka | The Grand Wazoo | Apostrophe (') | Zoot Allures | Zappa in New York | Studio Tan | Sleep Dirt | Sheik Yerbouti | Orchestral Favorites | Joe's Garage | Tinsel Town Rebellion | Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar | You Are What You Is | Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch | The Man from Utopia | London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. 1 | Boulez Conducts Zappa: The Perfect Stranger | Them or Us | Thing-Fish | Francesco Zappa | Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention | Does Humor Belong in Music? | Jazz from Hell | London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. 2 | Guitar | Broadway the Hard Way | The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life | Make a Jazz Noise Here | The Yellow Shark
You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore
Vol. 1 | Vol. 2 | Vol. 3 | Vol. 4 | Vol. 5 | Vol. 6
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Civilization, Phaze III | The Lost Episodes | Läther | Mystery Disc | Everything Is Healing Nicely | FZ:OZ | Halloween | Joe's Corsage | QuAUDIOPHILIAc | Joe's Domage | Joe's XMASage | Imaginary Diseases | Trance-Fusion
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Mothermania | The Guitar World According to Frank Zappa | Strictly Commercial | Frank Zappa Plays the Music of Frank Zappa: A Memorial Tribute | Have I Offended Someone?
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The Old Masters Box One | The Old Masters Box Two | The Old Masters Box Three | Beat the Boots | Beat the Boots II | MOFO
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200 Motels | Baby Snakes | The Dub Room Special | Video from Hell | Does Humor Belong in Music? | The True Story of Frank Zappa's 200 Motels | The Amazing Mr. Bickford | Uncle Meat
Unreleased
The Rage and The Fury | Dance Me This
Related articles
Frank Zappa trivia | Frank Zappa discography | The Mothers of Invention


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