Frank Zappa Cucamonga CD

CUCAMONGA is a collection of Frank Zappa recordings from the pre-Mothers Of Invention days of the early '60s.
Personnel includes: Frank Zappa (various instruments); Ray Collins, Bob Guy (vocals); The Heartbreakers, Paul Buff, Baby Ray & The Ferns, The Pauls, The Rotations, Mr. Clean.
Producers: Frank Zappa, Paul Buff.
Reissue producer: Gary Tanenbaum.
Includes liner notes by Bryan Thomas.
Personnel: Frank Zappa (vocals, guitar); Cleveland Duncan, Ray Collins, Bob Guy (vocals); Paul Buff (guitar); Mike Dineri (saxophone).
Illustrator: Dennis Loren.
Before forming the Mothers of Invention, Zappa made numerous recordings at small studios. Several tracks that he had a hand in, as producer, instrumentalist, or writer, were issued on extremely rare singles in the early and mid-1960s. This collects 14 such numbers that found their way to the L.A. Del-Fi label, including items by Paul Buff, the Rotations, the Pauls, Mr. Clean, the Heartbreakers, and Baby Ray & the Ferns, the last of which featured future Mother Ray Collins on vocals. It's largely eccentric -- but not that eccentric -- doo wop and R&B with a humorous/novelty bent, though there's also a surf single by the Rotations. You can hear the seeds of the production techniques of the Mothers albums occasionally, particularly on Bob Guy's weird horror-rock ditties, "Dear Jeepers" and "Letter From Jeepers"; a snippet of the Rotations' "Heavies" even showed up on the Mothers' We're Only in It for the Money. Yet this stuff wasn't outrageously funny enough to be novelty hits, or original or hooky enough to be straight pop or R&B successes. Put another way, in hindsight they show elements of Zappa's later work, but at the time no one could have guessed that he would develop into a major force in experimental rock. About half of this has shown up on reissues before, but the rest can't be found elsewhere on CD, so it's useful to Zappa collectors. It does not, however, collect all of his pre-Mothers releases, notable omissions being the Penguins' "Memories of El Monte" (which he co-wrote with Ray Collins) and "Drums A-Go-Go," the go-go-rock-in-a-harem instrumental by the Hollywood Persuaders. ~ Richie Unterberger
Equally enamored of Hubert Sumlin and Edgard Varese, Frank Zappa's musical experimentation in the early '60s was a springboard for his more ambitious latter work. Collaborating with fellow technical iconoclast Paul Buff, Zappa produced and played much of this material at Buff's Pal Recording Studio. At the time, Zappa signed to Bob Keane's Del-Fi Records for a series of singles released under different pseudonyms and with different musicians.
Zappa's writing ranged from straightforward doo-wop (The Heartbreakers' "Everytime I See You" and "Cradle Rock") to novelty songs (the Bobby "Boris" Pickett-flavored shenanigans of Bob Guy's "Dear Jeepers" and "Letter From Jeepers"). Despite the straightforward nature of many of these compositions, Zappa still injected left-field nuances; mixing crashing waves into the Rotations' surf instrumental "Heavies" and inserting a croaking frog and a disembodied whiny voice into the greasy R&B of Baby Ray & the Ferns' "How's Your Bird" (named for an expression used by talk show host/comedian Steve Allen, on whose show a young Zappa appeared playing a bicycle).
Before forming the Mothers of Invention, Zappa made numerous recordings at small studios. Several tracks that he had a hand in, as producer, instrumentalist, or writer, were issued on extremely rare singles in the early and mid-'60s. This collects 14 such numbers that found their way to the L.A. Del-Fi label, including items by Paul Buff, the Rotations, the Pauls, Mr. Clean, the Heartbreakers, and Baby Ray & the Ferns, the last of which featured future Mother Ray Collins on vocals. It's largely eccentric -- but not that eccentric -- doo wop and R&B with a humorous/novelty bent, though there's also a surf single by the Rotations. You can hear the seeds of the produMojo (Publisher) (p.112) - 3 stars out of 5 - "[G]ritty R&B, doo wop, drag race anthems and novelty songs..."