History Music / Apostrophe

''Apostrophe (')'' is a 1974 album by Music/FrankZappa, often considered to be a SpiritualSuccessor to ''Music/OverNiteSensation'' (1973). It has a similar heavy rock sound that helped it become a considerable bestseller among rock fans. In the USA it was his biggest commercial success.

* FaceOnTheCover: The album cover is just an close-up of Zappa's face.

* CoolPet: Nanook's baby seal.

* {{Corpsing}}:
--> ''Right down to the parish of St. Alphonso (A-ha-ha-ha)''
** Before "Cosmik Debris" starts off a small interlude can be heard where a xylophone seems to miss a beat and Napoleon Murphy Brock laughs at it.
** Zappa also cracks up during "Stink-Foot" when Fido comes to fetch the slippers and rushes off because of the horrible smell of the stinky feet.

* EpicRocking: "Apostrophe" and the first four tracks on the album, which could be considered one musical piece.

* {{Cuckold}}: After turning the tables on the Mystery Man in "Cosmik Debris," the narrator implies that he’s going to bang the Mystery Man’s wife.
-->''I proceeded to tell his future then, as long as he was hanging around\\
I said, "The price of meat has just gone up, and your old lady has just gone down."''

** The line "I can't wait 'til my [[FunnyAfro 'fro]] is full grown" in "Uncle Remus" is reminscent of "oh my hair is getting good in the back" from ''Music/WereOnlyInItForTheMoney'' and ''Music/LumpyGravy''.

* UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement: "Uncle Remus", where the Afro-Americans being sprayed with hoses by white policemen and fighting back in TheSixties now accept the hoses turned on them: "It ain't bad in the day/ If they squirt it your way/ 'Cept in the winter, when it's frozen/ An' it's hard if it hits/On yer nose". They are more occupied with growing a FunnyAfro ("I can't wait 'til my 'fro is full-grown") and their main act of rebellion is knocking off little statues of black jockeys on the lawns of white people. This is why they ask Uncle Remus from ''Film/SongOfTheSouth'' whether he has seen them?

* {{Blindness}}: The fur trapper in "Nanook Rubs It" is blinded by the urine drenched snow crystals Nanook rubs in his eyes.

* FindTheCure: The fur trapper runs off to find a cure for his deflicted eyes. Zappa visits "The Mystery Men" in "Cosmik Debris" and is shown a miracle medicine that "will cure your astma too." In "Stink Foot" Zappa brings us to the "place where they keep the imaginary diseases".

* HermitGuru: The Mystery man in "Cosmik Debris" sells himself as an all-knowing guru with magic powers that will improve your life for a price. It’s obvious from the start that he’s full of shit.

* ConMan: The Mystery Man from “Cosmik Debris” is a petty grifter who dupes people into thinking he can magically improve their lives for a nominal fee. The narrator isn’t fooled for a second, of course, and in the end, he turns the tables on the Mystery Man by hypnotizing him, robbing him blind, and sleeping with his wife.

* {{Cuckold}}: After turning the tables on the Mystery Man in “Cosmik Debris,” the narrator implies that he’s going to bang the Mystery Man’s wife.
-->I proceeded to tell his future then, as long as he was hanging around\\
I said, “The price of meat has just gone up, and your old lady has just gone down.”

* FortuneTeller: "Cosmik Debris", though he turns out to be a fraud, naturally.

* HermitGuru: The Mystery man in "Cosmik Debris".

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'''Personnel'''

* MundaneMadeAwesome: "Stink Foot", an epic song about SmellyFeet.

* SmellyFeet: "Stink-Foot".

* BadassPreacher: Father Vivian O' Blivion in "Father O' Blivion" bakes pancakes for breakfast and has a leprechaun who likes to stroke his private parts.

* YellowSnow: In "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow", Nanook is warned by his mother "Watch out where the huskies go, don't you eat that yellow snow!" He doesn't eat it, but he does blind himself with it after seeing the fur trapper kill his pet seal. In "Nanook Rubs It", he blinds the fur trapper with it.