Thing Fish

Thing Fish

In my opinion this is one of the weirdest FZ recordings ever. Its so wierd, it draws you to listen to it. Great Album.

FZ followed some musical ideas which failed to produce a product with his usual quality -- Thing-Fish is one of those very very few failed projects. A mock off-off-off Broadway production with some pretty daring racial, sexual, and political themes, FZ imagined a conceptual album much different than Joe's Garage -- and no one will accuse Thing-Fish of being standard fare. However, for whatever reason, Zappa didn't take the time to provide this project with all-original material. Its major shortcoming is that music all-too-often takes a backseat to the "play." This is a 2-disc set with, in total, maybe a little under one disc of original material -- and most of that material is given bad treatment.

A lot of material is borrowed from the following albums: You Are What You Is (3 tracks), Ship Arriving Too Late... (2 tracks), Zoot Allures (3 tracks), Tinsletown Rebellion (1 track).

The first disc is the wierdest. The first three numbers are originals -- but PROLOGUE and HARRY AND RHONDA are merely background for dialogue, and THE MAMMY NUNS, frankly, was given much superior treatment as "The Mammy Anthem" on YCDToSA vol.1. THE GALOOT UPDATE is a subpar rehash of "The Blue Light" from Tinsletown Rebellion, and the following track is yet another of the five releases of the mediocre (and excessively long) "The Torture Never Stops" from Zoot Allures.

THAT EVIL PRINCE is an interesting original. Its sounds like an early version of Zappa's beautiful "Amnerika," which was featured on two of his last albums (Civilzation Phaze III and Everything is Healing Nicely). Unfortunately, Ike Willis is monologuing over the whole piece (it does return as WHITE BOY TROUBLES on disc 2). Three, count em three tracks from You Are What You Is follow. CLOWNS ON VELVET is another brilliant original, and unfortunately this is the only version in Zappa's official releases -- an incredible piece yet again rendered almost worthless because its monologued over by Ike Willis. HE'S SO GAY, also original, is featured on several other albums without the dialogue on it.

The second disc is a little better. There some great original material here, left alone in many places by dialogue. BROWN MOSES (this one, and THE EVIL PRINCE, were given better treatment on the YCDToSA series) is a fantastic song, and WIST-FUL WIT A FIST-FULL is probably the only essential track on this album -- a brilliant mock broadway piano number.

Overall,  Most of the original material was given better treatment on other FZ releases -- what wasn't, like CLOWNS ON VELVET and WIST-FUL WIT A FIST-FULL, simply doesn't warrant the purchase of a double album. As much as I hate to say it about an FZ album, the bad outweighs the good on this one.

This album divides Zappa fans -- you either love it or hate it. In its defense, I will say that there are many Zappa fans who adore this album and stick by it. I like it