chunga's revenge is, by far, fz's most underrated album. many consider it just an average album from his early years but that's as far from the truth as one can get. it's only 40 minutes long. a very quick and easy listen that should be played over and over again. the album's highlights are the hard-rocking song "tell me you love me" and the commercially potential "sharleena" (there is a slower and smoother 11 minute version of sharleena on the lost episodes cd. many people consider that version superior. i don't. the 4 minute version here is the best.), "twenty small cigars" (a tune reminiscent to "little umbrellas" from "hot rats" ; it can easily be called "son of little umbrellas"). there's a gothic instrumental "transylvania boogie" that makes you feel like you're face-to-face with count dracula himself. a sex-oriented pop tune "would you go all the way?" asks the question to a naive female u.s.o. dancer. there's the union-bashing "rudy wants to buy yez a drink"...the definitive song to depict the attitudes and activities of union big shots nationwide. the instrumental head-banging "chunga's revenge" is a cross between hard-rock and international music from far away places. the album really has to be heard to be believed. one of the top 5 zappa albums ever! essential! don't listen to the others...what you've heard about chunga's revenge is wrong! it's great!

Before the "Groupie Routine," before mudsharks, before "Bogus Pomp" and "Penis Dimension," there was this album: Chunga's Revenge, the opening salvo of Frank's Flo and Eddie era. With a re-formed group that included Aynsley Dunbar, Jeff Simmons, and the aforementioned Phlorescent Leech and Eddie (Jim Pons doesn't seem to be around yet), Zappa backed away slightly from the classical experimentalism that had marked "Weasels" and "Weenie," and the jazz-fusion of Hot Rats...but only slightly. Chunga's Revenge is full of great performances and great songs, and is all-too-often overshadowed by what came before (the aforementioned "Hot Rats") and what came after ("Fillmore" and "200 Motels").

Standouts include the awe-inspiring "Chunga's Revenge," the sublime "Twenty Small Cigars" (Ponty's arrangement of this on "King Kong" is also worth checking out), and album-opener "Transylvania Boogie." On the vocal side of things, "Rudy," "Would You Go All The Way," "Road Ladies" and "Tell Me You Love Me" (surely one of the most straightforward things Zappa ever recorded) are all standouts, and tend more towards Turtles-style melodicism than the usual Zappa compositional style. "Sharleena" is also a strong entry, and although it isn't quite as spectacular as the archive version on "The Lost Episodes," it soundly bests the why-did-they-bother re-make on "Them Or Us."

All in all, Chunga's Revenge is a surprisingly solid album from a Zappa era that's more than a little speckled with the "you-had-to-be-there" sort of releases. And at its current, bargain price-point, it's also a completely sensible entry into this area, and would make a reasonable "first few albums" Zappa purchase. A quick warning, though: the sound quality of all CDs of this title isn't too hot, with gobs of unnecessary reverb and compression thrown on top of everything (dig, if you will, the way the tambourine on "Rudy" sounds like it's flying about the stereo spectrum). This 1989 post-processing by Zappa and Stone makes Chunga sound almost bizarrely low-fi at times, and the CD has little of the richness of most vinyl incarnations. Sadly, this altered version of the album is all that's available nowadays, so it's something of a moot point.

This is one of Frank's most curious albums. It is stuff from flo and eddie and also hot rats leftovers and also guitar solos and instrumental stuff. So its a bit uneven, you have some really great music alongside some fairly good songs. Let's look at the fairly good stuff ie flo and eddie. Tell me you love me is a good song but it was never up there with stuff like city of tiny lights. And you say the same for Rudy wants to buy you a drink and would ya go all the way? They are fun tunes but there is nothing magical really. Sharleena is a better song. However , i prefer the lost episodes version which has two incredible solos and different singers (frank and sugercane instead of flo and eddie). Road ladies is good too. It's a bluesy song with quite funny lyrics. We also have a drum thing by fz called the clap which is only of minor interest. Love the chinese blocks though! So far, 6 good enough tracks. Nancy and Mary music is a big long jam, which is terrific. Guitar , organ, vocal madness, sax. It might take a while to grow on you, but it should do. The hot rats leftover is a 2 minute tune called '20 small cigars', very nice tune. Worthy of hot rats i would have said!! Chunga's Revenge is awesome. A simple little melody, then bang! ian underwood whips it out. wah-wah saxophone solo of the highest quality. There is nice organ playing too. Frank gets to shine in his guitar solo, very melodic solo. That just leaves Transylvania Boogie..what a guitar solo. Maybe Frank's best playing up to that point in his career. We have great playing, really fast. The guitar tone has never sounded better. Frank gives us the little transylvania tune, it sounds very exotic/vampirelike. He then goes off and..boogies. Awesome groovy playing. And it builds up to such a great climax..then it fades out. Worth the album price alone...i had to say it. In summary-a mixed bag of tricks. There's too much great stuff on it to dismiss it though!! Thank you

I like the way that "Transylvania Boogie" changes from one beat to another without skipping a beat. Not sure of the musical term for that but I'm sure there is one. You have to hear it to understand. Very cool.

IMO this isn't the best Zappa album in my collection, but it's good and I enjoy listening to it. My favorite still is "One Size Fits All" and "Roxy and Elsewhere" , maybe because those were basically my first exposure to Zappa. Wow, thirty years ago... The music has really held up over the years.

I just listened to Chunga's Revenge for the first time in about 30 years. I am more impressed now than ever before. If you've been thinking about adding a little Zappa to your collection and didn't know where to begin ... look no further. This is a super addition to your rock collection.