Like Sgt. Pepper or the first Velvet Underground album, Uncle Meat is one of about ten rock albums that throws out the rule book and starts over again.

Conceptually, this record is a revolution. Zappa dismantles the whole idea of the rock album as a collection of songs. He fills Uncle Meat with litterally 100s of ideas that flow into each other. The music and sound-bytes don't have beginnings in endings. Rather, they simply set up the next piece, as the album gathers a run-away, hillucanatory momentum. Yet, every sound on this album has merit in and of itself. Zappa was able to let go of the steering wheel only because he understood his craft so well.

You don't hear many albums like Uncle Meat. Even in the context of 1969 experimentation, Zappa's ideas are simply too esoteric and sophistacated for mass conception. Only very obscure bands like Henry Cow even hinted at picking up Uncle Meat's massive torch. In an age of Hendrix, Joplin, and Led Zeppelin blasting out flame-thrower blues, Zappa's brillant, mad-geunius confetti was bound to get lost beneath the whale of Stratocasters.

One of the problems with Frank Zappa's immense catalog (nearly 60 releases) is that it can take an interested listenter a long time to find the cream of the crop. I hiope to solve that for you by telling you to BUY THIS CD AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. The "Uncle Meat" double CD contains what could be some of the best and most interesting music of our century.

The CD has more than Rock and Roll. In fact, some of the most wonderful things on the discs are the marimba-laden "classical" tracks. Not that the disc doesn't contain fanstatic rock. Zappa knew how to make an _album_, though; the individual songs are difficult to isolate because you will soon think of "Uncle Meat" as a single compositional entity.

There is one hitch to this concept-album-like flow. The CD version (as opposed to the cassette or LP) contains nearly a half an hour of audio footage from the filming of the never-really-completed Uncle Meat movie. Instead of putting the "bonus" stuff at the end of the disc, it has been inserted between songs on the second disc. Your listening enjoyment of the music will come to a grinding halt as you reach for the remote. Don't get me wrong! Listen to the audio footage. There's some great stuff. Listen to it often, if you like. But just be prepared when you're lost in the music to bounce out of your reverie. The position of the bonus audio footage is the only thing that holds me back from heartily and readily giving the CD a perfect 10 rating. END

Of the almost thirty Zappa albums I own, I can only think of a few that I liked during the very first listen. This is one of them. I had read the reviews and inevitably formed my preconceptions about it, and literally during the first few seconds of the very first song I thought, "YES!!! This is EXACTLY what I was hoping for!!!" As I continued to listen, a whole new universe of sound was slowly opening up before me. Each track got me more and more consumed by this strange and incredible musical journey, and soon I didn't want it to end. This is my all-time favorite Zappa Album.

I've often thought about what makes the original Mothers' music so good, and I think it is because in the late 60's, Frank Zappa hadn't yet formed the lyrical and musical persona that we know today (Arguably, that wouldn't come until 1973's Overnight Sensation). At this point in his career, he was experimenting with all sorts of styles, perhaps subconsciously trying to pinpoint where he wanted to go with his music. In this album, Frank is pushing his band both musically and stylistically to meet his artistic needs. And the results are priceless.

This is the kind of music that just can't be described in words. It's one of those albums that shatters all your preconceptions of what music is, and makes you rethink the very nature of music. I will say this, however: "Dog Breath in the year of the Plague" is one of the most beautiful songs ever released. As well as "Electric Aunt Jemima." And "Sleeping in a Jar." And "The Air." And... ok, well I'll just stop right there.

A lot of people have complained about the film excerpts on disc 2. But you know what? I actually LIKE it. Seriously. It's fun, and interesting as well. And I'm not even a HUGE Zappa nut. So here's my advice for the film excerpts: Listen to it once. If you like it, great. If you don't like it, SKIP it next time. That's what the SKIP button is there for. But at least give it a chance.

All in all, this is a PERFECT album that I would recommend not only for all Zappa/Mothers fans, but for all music fans who crave adventuresome and even strange music. This is a masterpiece that stands apart from all the rest.

This is usually held up as 1 of Zappa's finest achievements or as a bit excessive. I'd say the former. I've got the video of the film & very fun though it can be fun, the album is a lot better [the reverse would be true of 200 Motels, though much of the music there is difficult]. A long double album is made even longer w/ film excerpts. It opens w/ Uncle Meat (Main Title Theme), 1 of his utter best instrumental tunes up there w/ Holiday In Berlin & Peaches En regalia [off the following 2 lps], then we have the Voice Of Cheese, as in Suzy Creamcheese aka Pamela Zarubica w/ a little bit of commentary about a European tour. A definite highlight is Dog Breath, In The Year Of The Plague, simultaneously a catchy tune w/ nostalgia for a closed down football stadium & a grand composition & technology experiment. We then have the Dog Breath Variations, as well as a couple more preludes & variations. In the liner notes FZ states that this is basically an instrumental album & that the words were randomly selected from various dreams thus songs like Sleeping In A Jar & Electric Aunt Jemima. A Pound For A Brown On The Bus is another memorable instrumental. Ian Underwood Whips It Out has an amusing spoken intro of how he got in the Mothers before setting off into pure skronkdom w/ his sax, not very clearly recorded but a preview of his work on Hot Rats. That album also famously reused Mr. Green Genes, a tune about eating yr greens, yr socks & the truck they came in. The album contains little oddities like "If We'd All Been Living In California...", Jimmy Carl Black's complaint about never getting paid for this & having 5 kids to feed & the line between comedy & serious real life concerns get blurred. On disc 2 of the cd version you get 2 long excerpts from the movie [which itself has a lot of repetition of phrases like "I'm using the chicken to measure it" & "silence fools don't you know anything about progress?"] & a song from that which is slightly irrelevant to the others in that it's from the 80s not the 60s, Tengo Na Minchia Tanta & the literal meaning of that is something phallic in Italian, then we have what was side 4 of the lp, King Kong in all its glory, though there are about 6 or 7 titles listed, it is all sewn together & mostly from the 1 same performance. Overall it's a very impressive creation & the packaging w/ the glorious 12 page booklet [looks even better in 12" format] & Cal Schenkel art & lyrics & photos, a drawing of a giraffe listening to the radio, which must be some very hip station since Moonlight on Vermont by Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band is coming out of it, especially since Trout Mask wasn't even released yet then. Whilst lyrically it doesn't say as much as We're Only In It For the Money or Absolutely Free, musically it says more than enough & I'm happy to pay attention. You need this.

I'd give this five stars for the music, but after doing an A-B comparison of this CD set and the original vinyl, I give the CD set three stars for its 1987 remix. I rate the vinyl as far better--not because of arcane "vinyl has more tang and warmth in itself" arguments, but because the 1968 mix kicks the feathers out of the 1987 digital remix, which is all one can get on CD. The 1968 mix sounds like 1968. The 1987 mix sounds like 60s musicians teleported to a 1987 studio. The aural image or "soundstage" in the original is quite tight, but with justice--it's not too cramped. But it features a sharp drum sound without a lot of cymbal sibilance and it does have other "saxy" high-mid range sounds involving keys and reed instruments that the remixers decided they didn't like anymore, so that the instruments have a wildly different EQ and are spread out on the soundstage like raisins taken out of the box and laid neatly onto a table. Well, Ok, but it doesn't sound like the Mothers in 1968 anymore--too much digital air, sweetness, and sibilance is added. The tight, dark sound quality of the vinyl mix, like that of a "band in a good basement club" sound, is lost.
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Don't let this review stop you from getting the CD--as it is not an "abomination" remix, as some 80s remixes were, but consider the vinyl if you like vinyl . . .