Frank Zappa Meets The Mothers of Prevention
	Produced by Frank Zappa
	Released on 1985
	no chart information
	Find it at GEMM
ST 72403 cover [high resolution photo]

A long time ago, in a gaveling far away, the wives of several prominent senators simultaneously tired of playing tennis and making little sandwiches. What to do with their newfound freedom? Why, erase large portions of the Constitution, of course! Led by the ever-lucid Tipper Gore, the wives withheld sex from their husbands (or reasoned with them, or threatened to go public with compromising photos of the men wearing the top half of a chicken costume) until their husbands agreed to do something about that filth on the radio. Well, not actually the radio, since the FCC was already handling that, but the filth pouring into the little minds of impressionable youth in the privacy of their own homes (in the room under the attic where their parents’ chicken costume is stored). This raised the ire of FZ, who testified in defense of the freedom of musical expression along with Dee Snider and John Denver (a motley crew if ever there was). Frank Zappa Meets The Mothers of Prevention is based on this experience and includes a twelve-minute song, “Porn Wars,” that chops up little bits of testimony and speech from the proceedings to create a veritable mosaic of Hell. The rest of the album isn’t much different than Thing-Fish, featuring complicated instrumentals and vocals from Ike Willis. Some of the material is not-the-top-shelf-but-the-shelf-underneath-that Zappa, including “We’re Turning Again” and “What’s New In Baltimore.” However, as “Yo Cats” reveals, there’s nothing being said here about the government that “Brown Shoes Don’t Make It” didn’t already make plain. The way it was packaged, I assumed that FZ Meets The Mothers of Prevention would be more ideological diatribe than THE NEXT ALBUM FROM FRANK (which is really what it is). You get the very-nearly-almost-normal song, the funniness, the fiery instrumentals, the interminable synclavier noodling, and the one musical/dialogue pastiche. Honestly, most of Frank’s albums offer more treats than Meets The Mothers of Prevention, which may prevent most listeners from making this album’s acquaintance until they’ve acquired Zappa’s masterworks.

ST 74203 back cover	ST 74203 inner sleeve

TRACK LISTING

LP track listing

1. WE'RE TURNING AGAIN    4:55
2. ALIEN ORIFICE    4:03
3. YO CATS    (Frank Zappa/Tommy Mariano)    3:31
4. WHAT'S NEW BALTIMORE?    5:21
5. LITTLE BEIGE SAMBO    3:02
6. PORN WARS    12:04
7. AEROBICS IN BONDAGE    3:16
   
   CD track listing
   
1. I DON'T EVEN CARE
2. ONE MAN ONE VOTE
3. LITTLE BEIGE SAMBO
4. AEROBICS IN BONDAGE
5. WE'RE TURNING AGAIN
6. ALIEN ORIFICE
7. YO CATS
8. WHAT'S NEW IN BALTIMORE?
9. PORN WARS
10. H.R. 2911
    
    All songs written by Frank Zappa unless noted

CREDITS

FRANK ZAPPA -- voices, guitar, Synclavier
ED MANN -- percussion
TOMMY MARS (MARIANO) -- keyboards
BOBBY MARTIN -- voices, keyboards
SCOTT THUNES -- bass
STEVE VAI -- guitar
CHAD WACKERMAN -- drums
RAY WHITE -- voices, guitar
IKE "THING-FISH" WILLIS -- voices, guitar
Dweezil -- voices
Moon -- voices
Senator Danforth, Senator Hollings, Senator Trible, Senator Hawkins, Senator Exon, Senator Gorton, Senator Gore, Tipper Gore, Revered Jeff Ling, Spider Barbour, All Nite John, Unknown Girl In Piano -- voices
Bob Stone -- engineer
Bob Rice -- computer assistant
Chris Whorf & Jeffery Fey for Art Hotel, Inc. -- art direction & design
John Dearstyne -- illusration

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