“I’ll Fix This. I Can Make It Cool Again!” (Vol. 11)

In a new occasional series for paid subscribers. I’m going to take albums that need “fixing” and make them what they should have been…

Today’s fix is Joe’s Garage by Frank Zappa.

To be clear at the outset, huge fan of Joe’s Garage — but I do come and go with Zappa. There’s just too much. Of everything. And he was obviously such a huge jerk, and people justify that with the “genius” tag, but the recent book by his daughter Moon is hugely revealing around just what an awful house he and wife/business manager Gail ran. They neglected the kids, Frank hosted all-night parties, had groupies living in the basement, would get the groupies to babysit, etc.

He basically prioritised making music, getting his dick sucked, and smoking cigarettes over his family. And that’s not my words, those are his daughter’s…

But — the best of the music is mind blowing and features so many great players that I can listen to it just for that. Joe’s Garage is phenomenal to me just for the efforts of a very young (22/23?) Vinnie Colaiuta on drums. And obviously there are other individual players I could focus on too. Love Ike Willis’ vocals all over this record!