Really thoughtful and focused reaction, I love this song from Zappa in how it dirges like you said but still paints a distinctive picture with a nice obscure moral twist at the end of a mostly image-centric song
The whole album has that whispering and Frank holding back character. "Zoot allures" (title Track) and "Friendly Little Finger" are my favs, both wonderful instrumentals.
Yes that’s Eddie Jobson on the cover but he does not play on the album. He did tour with Zappa for a while around this time and of course went on to form the supergroup U. K. where Terry Bozzio would replace Bill Bruford a year later. Zoot Allures has always been one of my favorite Zappa albums. Terry Bozzio is a monster on drums. Thx for the great reaction!
Maybe not a "funny" song, but still amusing in a Zappa sort of way. A "sinister midget with a bucket and a mop" is Zappa unleashing his love of silly, low-budget horror movies.
There’s a version on You Can’t Do That On Stage volume 4 sung by Captain Beefheart complete with harmonica accompaniment. A perfect example of how Zappa songs evolve. Give that a listen if you want your mind blown.
@@SpaceCattttt No, The Torture Never Stops. I see people with tubes and wires and things sticking out of them. It never stops. Sometimes, it stinks so bad. Inside, we are disgusting and smell bad
Thanks JP! Happy Halloween! If you like those chord changes and that guitar sound I highly recommend the title song Zoot Allures at some point in time 🎃👍😂
This is a catch phrase I use all the time when pursuing the completion of a difficult task . The older I get , the fewer people that get the reference ❗
P.S. Zappa was famous for his specific and extensive arrangements, I have to wonder if he coordinated the shrieks and growns supplied by female vocals ?
The Zappa collection-CD "Cheap Thrills" has a very energetic live version of this song. I love that version, it is very different from the studio album version. This version I never actually heard before, but I'm enjoying it too!
Night of the Iron Sausage was the original name of the album... it was a double album that will be released for the first time almost exactly 2 years from today on Oct 20th 2026... probably. It will be the 50th anniversary of Zoot Allures and Universal, Ahmet and Joe Travers will almost certainly release it as part of the Zoot Box.
There are at least FIVE different versions of this song over the years... one of them COMPLETELY different from this (first official release) version. That one is the one with Captain Beefheart (first recorded version) on vocals.
Frank Zappa is a personality, he always experiments on himself, and always surprises, such musicians do not like to repeat themselves, it is simply not interesting, not typical for them.
When ZA the album was released all my school friends were bonkers about Boston and I told them I wanted the new zappa. All I heard was, who the hell is that.. lol
There are a few live versions, but I always come back to this. Preference of early listening, I guess. And, apart from that, it's a grim satire of the society he perceived to be living in, which is fine by me
Halloween and Zappa - he used to play The Palladium in NYC every year for Halloween. I remember seeing him do that a number of times. Good times, yes good times.
On the back cover of this album, on this song, FZ is listed as "director of recreational activities". Possibly something to do with the moaning in the background?
1. Interesting to consider the story Frank told about the "sound effects" being recorded in an initimate evening with Gail and an unnamed female friend. If that's true it marks a change in his relationship with Gail - for years he'd been unsuccessfully trying to involve Gail in threesomes with his Other Women ("Pete" Belcher, Nigey Lennon, Jenny Brown). This unknown lady must have been special indeed for Gail to get down and dirty with her. 2. Has anyone else pointed out the Bluebeard's Castle imagery scattered through the song? Or that a couple of early live recordings have spoken intros with Frank relating it to Captain Beefheart and his "torture" of the musicians he cohabited with?
Love this song and album. Have you listen played Little Feat? If not try Feats don't fail me now or Waiting for Columbus their great live album. Love to hear your thoughts on Little Feat
OK JP, you have done a fair amount of Zappa, but you really haven't revisited the same song, but as a live performance. There is a video out there on YT of this song, live in New York in the early eighties. That version is not somber at all, in fact he made it sound humorous and more upbeat instead. I think you ought to check it out, it shows how he constantly modified his music, especially in live performances.
I've said it before. Some of his stuff is unlistenable humourless rubbish, some very intelligent great songwriting played by virtuosos and very little middle of the road anyone-could make-that music whether good or bad. This for me is a good song made magical by the slow pace and arrangement. The nice thing is that I've probably still only heard 60% of Frank's output so I've still got some gems to discover (but also some shit to wade through!)
This is a fantastic (and disturbing) song. It's rare for any song to conjure up such a vibe and place, and this one definitely makes you imagine horrible things happening in sweaty dungeons of despair. On a less positive note, perhaps, the moaning woman on this particular recording isn't simply "acting" those moans. Oh no. Frank and his wife Gail actually invited one of Gail's friends for "some fun" in their bedroom, and it is the resulting noises that you hear on the record. No acting involved! Maybe I'm a bit of a prude, but I find that in somewhat poor taste. Not too many artists have done it. Guns 'n Roses come to mind. Axl Rose did something similar with his current squeeze at the time on "Rocket Queen". I don't know. I feel conflicted. The result is excellent, but I don't like when you mix art with reality in this way. Still, it's an S-tier song.
I know Zappa said this, but I'm absolutely sure this is Zappa the marketing man fooling the public, very well knowing people are eager to hear those kind of nonsense stories. The female screams, if you really listen, are so on point rhythmically and so carefully developed in the sequence of their different ways of moaning, screaming, hollering that it should be clear this is absolutely professional "scat"- well... singing - just in a special Zappa-like version. :-) This story isn't true. Try to produce something remotely similar like this with taping "real action" in bed or something the like - never!
@@KlausFindl It could very well be true. Of course the lady in question was probably performing a bit more LOUDLY knowing she was being recorded, but that's not to say that "things" weren't happening.
@@SpaceCattttt Well, we both weren't there, but... Let me put it this way: If I were the kind of controlling perfectionist like Zappa I certainly would say: You can make these moanings much more fitting to the track in question if you do them in a studio with all your concentration behind a microphone and perform "as if" than having to concentrate on rhythms, effective changes of sounds and microphone distance etc. while uh getting laid at the same time. Having to do these two things simultaneously is very and unnecessarily difficult. You cannot control it enough. - It's much better to do it professionally - and then tell a little "kinky" story about it to the press afterwards. - That's what I think at least.
Superb Zappa. Just gotta love The Torture, it Never Stops. The only really good cover of this I have ever heard is by a Festival band called The F.O.S. Brothers. More percussive than Frank's original but it is their tribute to a master. They are lovely people too. ruclips.net/video/QQDysUv8zW0/видео.html
This is more to my liking, less humor and more terrifyingly great playing. Yes, Sleep Dirty… Studio Tan too. A few goofy songs but more music is my thing.
BEST HALLOWEEN SONG from Zappa. Tells a Great Story too...! Just a few choice words and you feel like you are hanging on chains in the Dungeon of Despair. PS: That is Franks Wife "GAIL" on background vocals.
Zappa has been my favourite artist (along with Rush) for my whole life. However, despite its popularity, this track doesn't really work with me. I find it a bit pedestrian. Maybe it's the tempo.
I mean, the "tortured" moans seemed overtly sexual to me. I bet he wanted highlight innuendo here and mask it within a theme of Medieval torture scenes, to the chagrin of the moralizing American right.
Some of his lyrics seem very puerile, but overall I wouldn't call him shallow. He's made some great and complicated music and done some great performances.
Re me prev comment, Oops, just remembered you did do WIMV a while ago.... so make that Beat my Guest, and/or Nine Plan Failed. NPF's not about torture, but does concern murder :)
A decent track, nice slow groove etc, but maybe just too drawn out... Once you've heard it a few times, it becomes a definite skipper. And the fact most of the wailing doesn't sound like people in pain, necessarily, deffo takes the edge off. *Now for pithier songs re torture, sadomasochism, you should give 'Whip in my Valise', and 'Beat my Guest' by Adam and the Ants a listen... Top tunes both.
💚 the music 👎the voice, words, and guitar. For me, FZ would be a top band if Frank stuck to composing and conducting and left the playing, singing, and lyrics to others.
@pentagrammaton6793 They're his bands and he plays a mean guitar. You can't expect him to sacrifice his brilliance for some other guy who's half as good.
@@Owlstretchingtime78 I think we differ on how we see the quality of Frank's playing. I improvise a lot, but I have plenty of discipline and structure to my playing as well, hence the annoyance.😁
I think Zappa could’ve been a brilliant guitar player if he devoted the time to it. His playing is too sloppy and his tone too harsh for my liking. It’s all subjective, though.
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
Had the cops come by after I apparently freaked out a neighbor when I cranked this up one day after school back in the ‘80s. Good times.
I'm hoping the cops had a good laugh when you were explaining it.
@@EdwardGregoryNYC A laugh and a “careful what you turn up”, yeah 😏
This is the Police, we have the garage surrounded. Give yourself up and we will not harm you or maim you !!! Lol !!
Just a great album. Every single track. I guarantee you will be astounded by the guitar solo which is the title track Zoot Allures.
We used to wake my mom up with this song when I was a teenager. She's 83 years old now and still remembers it. LOL
This is Terry Bozzio on drums...and Zappa on everthing else...the bass, the normal guitars the fretless guitar and the keyboards...all Frank.
Really thoughtful and focused reaction, I love this song from Zappa in how it dirges like you said but still paints a distinctive picture with a nice obscure moral twist at the end of a mostly image-centric song
The whole album has that whispering and Frank holding back character. "Zoot allures" (title Track) and "Friendly Little Finger" are my favs, both wonderful instrumentals.
Zappa would extend guitar solos when he played this live. Master class musician.
Yes that’s Eddie Jobson on the cover but he does not play on the album. He did tour with Zappa for a while around this time and of course went on to form the supergroup U. K. where Terry Bozzio would replace Bill Bruford a year later. Zoot Allures has always been one of my favorite Zappa albums. Terry Bozzio is a monster on drums.
Thx for the great reaction!
One of my favorite FZ songs.
JP, your eyerolls at the 5:00 mark were precious.😆
😅
Maybe not a "funny" song, but still amusing in a Zappa sort of way. A "sinister midget with a bucket and a mop" is Zappa unleashing his love of silly, low-budget horror movies.
There’s a version on You Can’t Do That On Stage volume 4 sung by Captain Beefheart complete with harmonica accompaniment. A perfect example of how Zappa songs evolve. Give that a listen if you want your mind blown.
I work in a hospital. This song runs through my head sometimes at work
You have flies buzzing around inside of the hospital? Err...
@@SpaceCattttt No, The Torture Never Stops. I see people with tubes and wires and things sticking out of them. It never stops. Sometimes, it stinks so bad. Inside, we are disgusting and smell bad
My buddy and I used to crank this up in his car when we'd cruise Whittier Blvd way back in the late '70s
Got more than a few odd looks 😀
Hey JP...thanks for the sumo shout out...:) Keep up the good work mate!
Absolutely! Hakkyeoi!
Thanks JP! Happy Halloween! If you like those chord changes and that guitar sound I highly recommend the title song Zoot Allures at some point in time 🎃👍😂
This is a catch phrase I use all the time when pursuing the completion of a difficult task . The older I get , the fewer people that get the reference ❗
P.S. Zappa was famous for his specific and extensive arrangements, I have to wonder if he coordinated the shrieks and growns supplied by female vocals ?
No humour? It's one of his funniest songs ever.
The Zappa collection-CD "Cheap Thrills" has a very energetic live version of this song. I love that version, it is very different from the studio album version. This version I never actually heard before, but I'm enjoying it too!
Night of the Iron Sausage was the original name of the album... it was a double album that will be released for the first time almost exactly 2 years from today on Oct 20th 2026...
probably.
It will be the 50th anniversary of Zoot Allures and Universal, Ahmet and Joe Travers will almost certainly release it as part of the Zoot Box.
There are at least FIVE different versions of this song over the years... one of them COMPLETELY different from this (first official release) version. That one is the one with Captain Beefheart (first recorded version) on vocals.
Frank Zappa is a personality, he always experiments on himself, and always surprises, such musicians do not like to repeat themselves, it is simply not interesting, not typical for them.
Zappa and his music are a free artist.
When ZA the album was released all my school friends were bonkers about Boston and I told them I wanted the new zappa. All I heard was, who the hell is that.. lol
I like this version, my first with this song was in Thing Fish. I don’t think my friends were ready for that album.
Oh dear. Thing-Fish is his only bad album. Out of 120+ albums, you dove straight into his only stinker. Ouch...
Always a great one to put on at other people's parties.
Frank Zappa music is like a movie for your ears.
There are a few live versions, but I always come back to this. Preference of early listening, I guess. And, apart from that, it's a grim satire of the society he perceived to be living in, which is fine by me
'Slime 'n' rot 'n' rats 'n' snot and vomit on the floor.' One of the finest lyrics ever...
Halloween and Zappa - he used to play The Palladium in NYC every year for Halloween. I remember seeing him do that a number of times. Good times, yes good times.
On the back cover of this album, on this song, FZ is listed as "director of recreational activities". Possibly something to do with the moaning in the background?
1. Interesting to consider the story Frank told about the "sound effects" being recorded in an initimate evening with Gail and an unnamed female friend. If that's true it marks a change in his relationship with Gail - for years he'd been unsuccessfully trying to involve Gail in threesomes with his Other Women ("Pete" Belcher, Nigey Lennon, Jenny Brown). This unknown lady must have been special indeed for Gail to get down and dirty with her.
2. Has anyone else pointed out the Bluebeard's Castle imagery scattered through the song? Or that a couple of early live recordings have spoken intros with Frank relating it to Captain Beefheart and his "torture" of the musicians he cohabited with?
Good wholesome family entertainment.
🫣
Love this song and album. Have you listen played Little Feat? If not try Feats don't fail me now or Waiting for Columbus their great live album. Love to hear your thoughts on Little Feat
Great track, cinematic, dark fun. Yeah its smelly and scary and..... famiar??
Ms. PINKY is the next tune. JP I DARE YOU TO PLAY IT....!
He durst not.
oh oh oh oh... I like your eye-rolling, eye-blinking reaction on it. Don't worry, Frank is not raping anybody - this is just his wife :)
Ty Waterpumpkin :)
This one is way better live.
OK JP, you have done a fair amount of Zappa, but you really haven't revisited the same song, but as a live performance. There is a video out there on YT of this song, live in New York in the early eighties. That version is not somber at all, in fact he made it sound humorous and more upbeat instead. I think you ought to check it out, it shows how he constantly modified his music, especially in live performances.
there are great live versions of this song....
I was expecting it to run into "Ms. Pinky."
In todays dystopian times you shouldnt listen to this without headphones...
I've said it before. Some of his stuff is unlistenable humourless rubbish, some very intelligent great songwriting played by virtuosos and very little middle of the road anyone-could make-that music whether good or bad. This for me is a good song made magical by the slow pace and arrangement. The nice thing is that I've probably still only heard 60% of Frank's output so I've still got some gems to discover (but also some shit to wade through!)
This is a fantastic (and disturbing) song. It's rare for any song to conjure up such a vibe and place, and this one definitely makes you imagine
horrible things happening in sweaty dungeons of despair.
On a less positive note, perhaps, the moaning woman on this particular recording isn't simply "acting" those moans. Oh no.
Frank and his wife Gail actually invited one of Gail's friends for "some fun" in their bedroom, and it is the resulting noises that you hear on the record.
No acting involved! Maybe I'm a bit of a prude, but I find that in somewhat poor taste. Not too many artists have done it. Guns 'n Roses come to mind.
Axl Rose did something similar with his current squeeze at the time on "Rocket Queen".
I don't know. I feel conflicted. The result is excellent, but I don't like when you mix art with reality in this way. Still, it's an S-tier song.
I know Zappa said this, but I'm absolutely sure this is Zappa the marketing man fooling the public, very well knowing people are eager to hear those kind of nonsense stories. The female screams, if you really listen, are so on point rhythmically and so carefully developed in the sequence of their different ways of moaning, screaming, hollering that it should be clear this is absolutely professional "scat"- well... singing - just in a special Zappa-like version. :-) This story isn't true. Try to produce something remotely similar like this with taping "real action" in bed or something the like - never!
@@KlausFindl It could very well be true. Of course the lady in question was probably performing a bit more LOUDLY knowing she was being recorded, but that's not to say that "things" weren't happening.
@@SpaceCattttt Well, we both weren't there, but... Let me put it this way: If I were the kind of controlling perfectionist like Zappa I certainly would say: You can make these moanings much more fitting to the track in question if you do them in a studio with all your concentration behind a microphone and perform "as if" than having to concentrate on rhythms, effective changes of sounds and microphone distance etc. while uh getting laid at the same time. Having to do these two things simultaneously is very and unnecessarily difficult. You cannot control it enough. - It's much better to do it professionally - and then tell a little "kinky" story about it to the press afterwards. - That's what I think at least.
Is the female voice Gail Zappa or Dale Bozzio? Who knows this important information?
The female voices are courtesy of Gail and one of her friends supposedly stimulated and recorded by Frank at home one night
Superb Zappa. Just gotta love The Torture, it Never Stops. The only really good cover of this I have ever heard is by a Festival band called The F.O.S. Brothers. More percussive than Frank's original but it is their tribute to a master. They are lovely people too. ruclips.net/video/QQDysUv8zW0/видео.html
This is more to my liking, less humor and more terrifyingly great playing. Yes, Sleep Dirty… Studio Tan too. A few goofy songs but more music is my thing.
"Durst" could be a German word. Durst = thirst.
No one durst means no one dared to.
@@josdurkstraful Ah, thanks.
BEST HALLOWEEN SONG from Zappa. Tells a Great Story too...! Just a few choice words and you feel like you are hanging on chains in the Dungeon of Despair. PS: That is Franks Wife "GAIL" on background vocals.
PPS:.....yep, and some of her friends recorded "beeing tortured" in a hotel room
This is a disturbing reflection of the worst of humankind
Zappa has been my favourite artist (along with Rush) for my whole life. However, despite its popularity, this track doesn't really work with me. I find it a bit pedestrian. Maybe it's the tempo.
I mean, the "tortured" moans seemed overtly sexual to me. I bet he wanted highlight innuendo here and mask it within a theme of Medieval torture scenes, to the chagrin of the moralizing American right.
Liked him as teenager but later on he seemed to infantile and shallow......
Then you haven’t listened
To enough of Zappa’s
Music, because he’s so
Much more than that…
His scope is VERY wide.
One could never accuse Zappa of being shallow, and there's two o's in 'too'.
@@leddygee1896 know the most, for instance Perfect Stranger....
The simplicity of a maturing mind .
Some of his lyrics seem very puerile, but overall I wouldn't call him shallow. He's made some great and complicated music and done some great performances.
Great choice and reaction, but a better version is Dweeil Zappa's live cover on the Zappa plays Zappa DVD.
Re me prev comment, Oops, just remembered you did do WIMV a while ago.... so make that Beat my Guest, and/or Nine Plan Failed. NPF's not about torture, but does concern murder :)
i prefer the Thing Fish version with Ike Willis on vocals.
I can't listen to that album, it's pure recycling - except for a few tunes
The torture indeed, never stops; Life in general, but also Zappa.
A decent track, nice slow groove etc, but maybe just too drawn out... Once you've heard it a few times, it becomes a definite skipper. And the fact most of the wailing doesn't sound like people in pain, necessarily, deffo takes the edge off.
*Now for pithier songs re torture, sadomasochism, you should give 'Whip in my Valise', and 'Beat my Guest' by Adam and the Ants a listen... Top tunes both.
💚 the music
👎the voice, words, and guitar.
For me, FZ would be a top band if Frank stuck to composing and conducting and left the playing, singing, and lyrics to others.
No Zappa guitar?? Impossible!!
Yeah, his playing gets really annoying tbh. Too much mess and chaos.
@pentagrammaton6793 They're his bands and he plays a mean guitar. You can't expect him to sacrifice his brilliance for some other guy who's half as good.
@@Owlstretchingtime78 I think we differ on how we see the quality of Frank's playing. I improvise a lot, but I have plenty of discipline and structure to my playing as well, hence the annoyance.😁
I think Zappa could’ve been a brilliant guitar player if he devoted the time to it. His playing is too sloppy and his tone too harsh for my liking. It’s all subjective, though.