I dislike Cruising with Ruben and the Jets
I dislike Cruising with Ruben and the Jets
This was one album I was kinda dreading. I’m not that big a fan of doo
wop from the early 60’s. Think, “Sherry, Sherry baby”, that annoying
falsetto vocals with some bass singing, literally, “doo wop a doo wop”
(provided, I am pretty sure by Fz) I didnt hear this until the mid 80s
when all the old, out of print zappa records were being re-released on
cd. I bought this as one of the first, since i’d never heard it. I
listened to it about twice, and then took it back. It’s the only Zappa
take-back that i have absolutely no regrets for. I thought I was gonna
start listening to Uncle Meat (another sellback), but that’s tomorrow,
so we’ll see. I listened to this twice today, and didn’t really like any
of it much. There’s a certain sexual humor that was probably quite racy
in 1968, but to an audience accustomed to “I want to fuck you like an
animal”, it’s hard to shock any more. A lot of this is typical bad love
song crap, only with some interestin guitar solos on a couple. Almost 40
years it’s hard to find what the point was. It’s just not my favorite
style of music. “Jelly Roll Gumdrop” could have been done by any of a
half a dozen mid 60’s bands. The only song that really grabbed my
attention was the last one, “Stuff the Cracks”, which describes how to
get a car ready to commit suicide. There, I’ve reviewed this record, but
I have much more important news to impart tonite. As you might imagine,
I’m doing a lot of reading about fz on the web, and it was in these
searches that I found out about the zappa plays zappa show, where
Dweezil Zappa, fz’s oldest son and a decent rock guitarist in his own
right, is taking his dad’s music on the road along with drummer Terry
Bozzio and guitarist Steve Vai. The reviews I’ve read from the European
tour have been very positive, acknowledging that this is not Frank
Zappa, but it’s still a good show and something worth going to. this
show is coming to Denver on October 18 at the Paramount Theater. (John,
closest to Detroit is Cleveland a couple nights later). Tickets go on
sale in mid July, and I want to invite anyone who’s reading this LJ to
join me in listening to a little bit of Frank Zappa’s music played live
by some of the original musicians who made it in the first place. here is the website about
it