Joe's garage

Joe's garage
Studio album by Frank Zappa
Publication (s)	September 3, 1979 (Act I) November 19, 1979 (Act II & III)
Label (s)	Zappa Records CBS Rykodisc
Format (s)	LP vinyl , CD
Genre (s)	Rock music
Title (number)	18th
running time	115: 05
occupation	Frank Zappa - lead guitar , vocals Warren Cuccurullo - rhythm guitar , vocals Denny Walley - slide guitar , vocals Ike Willis - lead vocals Peter Wolf - keyboard Tommy Mars - keyboard Arthur Barrow - bass , guitar (on Joe's Garage ), vocals Patrick O'Hearn - bass on Outside Now and He Used to Cut the Grass Ed Mann - percussion , vocals Vinnie Colaiuta - drums , explosive liquids, optometrical abandon Jeff Hollie - tenor saxophone Marginal Chagrin - baritone saxophone Stumuk - bass saxophone Dale Bozzio - vocals Al Malkin - vocals Craig Steward - Harmonica
production	Frank Zappa
Studio (s)	Village Recorders , Los Angeles, Ken-Dun , Los Angeles
chronology Orchestral Favorites (1979) Joe's garage Tinsel Town Rebellion (1981)

Joe's Garage is a rock opera by Frank Zappa that appeared on two albums in 1979 - Joe's Garage Act I and the double album Joe's Garage Act II & III .

action

Against the background of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, in which, according to Zappa in the album's booklet, music was banned, the rock opera is set in an American fascist society in which - based on the principle of “total criminalization” - the oppression of the population serves - music is illegal. The Central Scrutinizer is responsible for enforcing “laws that have not yet been passed” . As a warning to the audience, he tells the story of the musician Joe, who almost came to a bad end because of his love for music.

Joe is a musician who makes music in a garage with friends, celebrates initial success with the audience and finally gets a record deal - whereupon the band breaks up. After losing his girlfriend Mary to joining a traveling group of musicians as a groupie or “crew slut” and another disappointment that happens to him with Lucille, Joe turns to “L. Ron Hoover's First Church of Applientology ”. There he learns that he is a "latent household appliance fetishist". As a result, he meets with Sy Borg , a cross between a vacuum cleaner and a pig, whom he accidentally destroys in the course of a sadomasochistic act of love. As a result, Joe is sent to prison, which also houses other musicians and former music producers. He is oppressed and abused by fellow prisoners. Physically and mentally pushed to his limits, Joe only plays the guitar in his imagination after his release. Finally, after one last imaginary guitar solo (Watermelon in Easter Hay), Joe decides to “do the only right thing”: forsake music and take a job as a baker's assistant.

Track list

Act I.

page 1

1. The Central Scrutinizer - 3:27
2. Joe's Garage - 6:10
3. Catholic Girls - 4:26
4. Crew Slut - 5:51

Page 2

1. Wet T-Shirt Nite - 5:26
2. Toad-O Line - 4:18
3. Why Does it Hurt When I Pee? - 2:35
4. Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up - 7:17 am

Act II

page 1

1. A Token of My Extreme - 5:28
2. Stick it Out - 4:33
3. Sy Borg - 8:50

Page 2

1. Dong Work for Yuda - 5:03
2. Keep it Greasey - 8:22
3. Outside Now - 5:52

Act III

Page 3

1. He Used to Cut the Grass - 8:34
2. Packard Goose - 11:38

page 4

1. Watermelon in Easter Hay - 10:00
2. A Little Green Rosetta - 7:25

reception

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

Joe's Garage, Act I.   US 27 10/20/1979 (25 weeks) Joe's Garage, Act II & III   US 53 01/26/1980 (12 weeks)

Don Shewey characterized the work in Rolling Stone Magazine as "ambitious and crazy, brilliant, strange and incoherent" and compares it with Büchner's Woyzeck . On the surface full of cheap gags and musical mishmash, the soul of Joe's Garage finds itself in deep sorrow, Joe's Garage is "Zappa's Apocalypse Now."

Kelly Fisher Lowe sees Zappa's masterpiece in the albums - because of the musical expertise presented there, the technical brilliance and ability and not least because of the highly politically charged lyrics.

literature

• Don Shewey: Album Reviews. Joe's Garage Acts I, II & III . In: Rolling Stone magazine . March 20, 1980 ( rollingstone.com [accessed June 15, 2011]).
• Kelly Fisher Lowe: The Words and Music of Frank Zappa . University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London 2007, ISBN 978-0-8032-6005-4 , Chapter 6, Section Joe's Garage, Acts I, II & III , pp. 149-160 .
• Barry Miles : Zappa . Rogner & Bernhard bei Zweiausendeins, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-8077-1010-8 , p. 321-325 .
• Ben Watson: Frank Zappa. The Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play . Quarted Books Ltd., London 1996, ISBN 0-7043-0242-X , Chapter 8, Section Joe's Garage , p. 365-379 .
• Frank Wonneberg : Grand Zappa - International Frank Zappa Discology . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, 2010, ISBN 978-3-89602-581-4 .

Web links

• Joe's Garage Act 1 in the official discography on zappa.com.  , Act II & III
• Frank Zappa. Texts and background information on Joe's Garage Acts I, II, III on globalia.net. 
• Joe's Garage (CD version) on Allmusic (English)
• Reviews of Joe's Garage on the Baby Blue Pages

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Frank Zappa Album Versions Guide. Joe's garage . Retrieved June 15, 2011 .  
2. ↑ Charts US
3. ↑ Don Shewey: Album Reviews. Joe's Garage Acts I, II & III . In: Rolling Stone magazine . March 20, 1980 ( rollingstone.com [accessed June 15, 2011]).
4. ↑ Kelly Fisher Lowe: The Words and Music of Frank Zappa . University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London 2007, ISBN 978-0-8032-6005-4 , Chapter 6, Section Joe's Garage, Acts I, II & III , pp. 149-160 .