M.Neumann Frank Zappa's 1970 album sounds at first like a mish-mash of outtakes from various unrelated sessions. But closer attention reveals at least some thematic unity, dealing more or less with the trials and tribulations of a working rock musician on the road. Included are some typically tongue-in-cheek songs about groupies, union representatives, venereal disease (a short instrumental called simply "The Clap", but coming from Frank Zappa the title could hardly refer to anything else), and a few sample concert performances, notably the classic Zappa guitar thrash of "Transylvania Boogie", one of his strongest album openers ever.

The title track is another highlight, presenting a loud instrumental jam led by Ian Underwood's wah-wah pedal sax solo, distorted enough to be mistaken for Zappa's electric guitar. Like much of the album it was presumably a genuine live recording, perhaps augmented with overdubs in the studio afterward (a peculiar Zappa habit). The CD notes are reticent on this point. If not actually live, the tapes were at least given a very convincing stage ambience: stadium reverb, occasional feedback, audience noise and so forth.

In keeping with Zappa's philosophy of 'conceptual continuity' the album holds some relation to his "200 Motels" film and soundtrack, possibly intended as a prelude to that notorious project, released the following year. If true, don't let it scare you off: "Chunga's Revenge" might be less focused than other Frank Zappa concept albums, but it covers a lot of contradicting stylistic territory in its all-too brief forty minutes, and thus can serve as a primer of sorts to Uncle Frank's musical trajectory in the early 1970s.

Moshkiae Frank Zappa Chunga's Revenge 1970

There is a lot of Frank Zappa that I enjoy listening to, and appreciate it tremendously, even after all these years. And we're talking 55 years later, though I first heard this album around 1971 and I think it was the first album of his I got.

The one thing that you notice right away on the very first piece "Transylvania Boogie" is that he knows how to move with his instrument, and it is not just a "solo" at all, it is continuous and non stop, making the idea of a solo, just something silly for the average rock'n'roll stuff ... few people can move around with their instrument and constantly maintaining a new feeling for the continuation of a piece. You know right away that this is not a simple guitar tune, but something else, and when it fades out ... you really want to hear more ... much more.

The hard part is to define what it really is that Frank Zappa is doing. In general, I always thought that it was very satirical, even when serious, specially towards the LA area radio and TV, not to mention what he was seeing, when touring with his band. Somehow, even when it is what appears to be just a rock'n'roll song, like the next piece "Road Ladies", and all of a sudden you get a lot more than just a simple rock song ... and it shows you that you can use the lyrics well to the point of having them define and entertain what you do with the instrumentation, and this is where FZ shines the most ... he seems to have had an endless ability in this area, and maybe, we should restate that ... it was there all the time, but we never thought beyond the simplicity of the music, which is what we got on all the radio and albums at the time, a lot of really poor musical stuff, in reality, it should be said.

This is not exactly a "jazz" album per se, but when yu sit back and listen to it, your first thought is ... goodness, so much variation and incredible musicianship, that it is more like a jazz album than it is a rock album, that normally is so defined by its same structure over and over again, and the usual rinse and repeat formula ... you will have a hard time finding that on Frank's albums.

I'm not sure that you can find a lot of jazz artists that can move around a piece of music as well as Frank does in this album, and it is something that leaves us wondering where it comes from, but the firmness and ability he does this with, is obviously a show of how he defines his music and shows it to us ... we will get confused, for sure, because ... hmmm ... is this jazz? is this rock? is this ... what? And if you have to do that, this album and just about any of Frank's albums will not show you a whole lot, except that the guy is obviously talented and way out there, to the point that ... how do you define that?

I don't think you should!

By the time you get to the long piece on side one of this album with The Nancy & Mary Music, you get to see others also flying all over, like George Duke, who, no doubt, could fly with Frank anyday, and did many times.

One thing that will really say a lot about this music ... not many of the musicians involved were known to be big in the jazz or rock areas, and did not have much of an involvement elsewhere, which either says that they were not that great at what they did, but were not interested in the simplistic music of the radio and albums of the time. And I suppose that is a great compliment to Frank's work and we should applaud that because not even George Duke went out and showed he was a star ... he seemed to enjoy playing with Frank ... but the rest of the folks in the band, you could not suggest that they did not know what they were doing, since the cohesiveness of the work is amazing and one of the things that all of us appreciate, regardless of what kind of music, though many think that this does not show itself as well within the rock circles because of an ego factor that says you gotta have a solo here and a chord change there and a ... you know what I mean ... and at least in Frank's work, the changes are a continuation of what he does, not a change for the sake of the change as has become the issue with the majority of progressive and progrock music these days ... not to mention that Frank never seems to worry what this or that piece is about or where it fits, and that's where his talent lies.

And by the time you hear Chunga's Revenge, you know that this is a very special musician and composer and he knows how to use his own instrument, which is less of a show off piece, than it is a true highlight of what the whole of the music really is about ... and, my friends, this is TALENT, at its best.

Warthur If you want to spark controversy amongst a group of Zappa fans, you can do it with three little words: "Flo and Eddie". Zappa's inclusion of Turtles refugees Mark Volman and Howard Kayman in his new Mothers lineup was a short-lived affair, beginning in 1970 and ending at the end of a disastrous 1971 tour which saw the infamous "smoke on the water" incident in Montreux and Zappa confined to a wheelchair after a nasty fall from a stage - both incidents caused by rowdy fans. But overshadowing both incidents in the minds of many Zappa afficionados is the stylistic shift seen during this era, and which is showcased on Chunga's Revenge, in which the comedic aspects of Zappa's work came to the fore.

It simply isn't correct to say that Zappa's sense of humour changed at this point - the original Mothers of Invention material was replete with jokes, of which many had a scatological or sexual basis and of which more than a few were pretty damn crude. However, the delivery with Flo and Eddie in the band does come across as more crass and abrasive than it was previously, and it is brought to the fore more often. On top of that, whilst the duo's vocal harmonies are truly wonderful (I think their performance on T.Rex's Electric Warrior album providing backing vocals was inspired), I've never felt that they were a natural fit for Zappa's sound.

Chunga's Revenge is the Flo and Eddie-era album on which their presence is felt the least, partially because the sense of humour is a bit more varied than the "all sex jokes all the time" concept of the Fillmore East live album, partially because the album includes a clutch of good but not great instrumentals - several of which are cast-offs from the Hot Rats sessions. It's an OK Zappa album, and of the Flo and Eddie tracks I do quite like Rudy Wants to Buy Yez a Drink and Would You Go All The Way, but when the album also includes half-baked ideas like Tell Me You Love Me and Sharleena I can't extend to more than three stars.