Frank Zappa: Chunga's Revenge [HIP-O]

Why you'll love it

This EU pressing is remastered from the original 1970 analog master and comes in a gatefold jacket. Chunga's Revenge is Zappa's third solo album and the first Zappa record with former Turtles singers Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, better known as Flo & Eddie.

This edition

• Remastered from the original analog master
• Gatefold jacket
• Pressed in the EU

About the album

Frank Zappa never did make the same record twice, and Chunga's Revenge catches him mid-leap between bands. Side one draws on the jazz-rock lineup he'd been running since Hot Rats, side two previews the new Mothers, and the whole thing hangs together on his guitar and his ear for a tune.

"Transylvania Boogie" is a stretched-out guitar jam, "Road Ladies" ambles in a blues mood, and "Twenty Small Cigars," from the Hot Rats sessions, is a delicate jazz interlude. The early 1970 band with Ian Underwood, Don "Sugarcane" Harris, Max Bennett and Aynsley Dunbar drives the title track, a live improvisation fills out the first side, and the poppier "Tell Me You Love Me," "Would You Go All the Way?" and "Sharleena" showcase Flo & Eddie's harmonies, a taste of the forthcoming 200 Motels.

It came out on Zappa's own Bizarre label, the start of one of his most colourful stretches. With two ex-Turtles on board, nothing about the Mothers was going to move at a turtle's pace again.

Also at Kops: more Frank Zappa on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Zappa Records (cat# ZR 3844-1), a reissue of the 1970 album.