Line #74 Music/Apostrophe


1	[[quoteright:348:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/frank_zappa-apostrophe_4211.jpg]]
2
3	''Apostrophe (')'' is a 1974 album by Music/FrankZappa, often considered to be a CreatorDrivenSuccessor 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.
4
5	The album is notable for "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow" which was a minor hit after a radio DJ in Pittsburgh edited "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow" and "Nanook Rubs It" together into one version. While touring in Europe Zappa heard of its success and edited his own version together to be released as a single. Other fan favorites are "Cosmik Debris" and "Stink-Foot".
6
7	Together with ''Music/OverNiteSensation'' it was subject of an episode of the TV music documentary series ''Series/ClassicAlbums''.
8
9	!! Tracklist
10
11	[[AC:Side One]]
12	# "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow" (2:05)
13	# "Nanook Rubs It" (4:37)
14	# "St. Alphonzo's Pancake Breakfast" (1:50)
15	# "Father O'Blivion" (2:18)
16	# "Cosmik Debris" (4:18)
17
18	[[AC:Side Two]]
19	# "Excentrifugal Forz" (1:33)
20	# "Apostrophe'" (5:50)
21	# "Uncle Remus" (2:50)
22	# "Stink-Foot" (6:38)
23
24	!!Personnel
25	* Music/FrankZappa: vocals, guitar, bass
26	* Napoleon Murphy Brock: saxophone, backing vocals
27	* George Duke: keyboard, synthesizer, backing vocals
28	* [[Music/{{Cream}} Jack Bruce]]: bass
29	* Robert "Frog" Camarena, Ray Collins, Debbie, Ruben Ladron de Guevara, Susie Glover, Kerry [=McNabb=]: backing vocals
30	* Alex Dmochowski: bass
31	* Tony Duran: rhythm guitar
32	* Bruce Fowler: trombone
33	* Tom Fowler: bass
34	* Ralph Humphrey: drums
35	* Aynsley Dunbar: drums
36	* [[Music/DerekAndTheDominos Jim Gordon]]: drums
37	* Johnny Guerin: drums
38	* Sal Marquez: trumpet, vocals
39	* Jean-Luc Ponty: violin, baritone violin
40	* Sugar Cane Harris: violin
41	* Ian Underwood: flute, clarinet, alto & tenor sax
42	* Ruth Underwood: percussion
43
44	!! Watch out where the tropies go!
45	* AlbumTitleDrop: "Stink-Foot"
46	--> ''Fido said: It should be easy to see/ the crux of the biscuit is the apostrophe''.
47	* ArtisticLicenseBiology: How can someone who is blinded "trudge across the tundra mile after mile" to a specific destination without seeing where he is going?
48	* BadassPreacher:
49	** Father Vivian O' Blivion in "Father O' Blivion" bakes pancakes for breakfast and has a leprechaun who likes to stroke his private parts.
50	** Subverted with the Mystery Man in "Cosmik Debris" who is exposed as a total fraud.
51	* BawdySong: "Nanook Rubs It" about snow with urine, from "where the huskies go", rubbed in the eyes of a fur trapper. "St. Alphonso's Pancake Breakfast" with a handsome parish lady abusing "the sausage patty, why don't you treat me mean?" and "Father O' Blivion", in which a lecherous priest has all kinds of sexual deviant activities with a leprechaun. "Stink Foot" to conclude, is about smelly feet scaring a dog away.
52	* BeliefMakesYouStupid: Zappa is not fooled by "The Mystery Man" and his pseudo-mystical religious nonsense in "Cosmik Debris".
53	* UsefulNotes/{{Buddhism}}: "Cosmik Debris"
54	--> ''For a nominal service charge I could reach Nirvana tonight''
55	* CallBack and ContinuityNod:
56	** The baby seal in "Nanook Rubs It" is "hit on the nose". In "Uncle Remus" Zappa also sings: "It's hard if it hits on your nose."
57	** The yellow snow crystals are rubbed "with a vigorous circular motion hitherto unknown to the people of this area, but destined to take the place of the mud shark in your mythology". The mud shark references a famous rock 'n' roll UrbanLegend about members of Music/LedZeppelin who supposedly once sexually gratified a groupie by penetrating her with a mudshark (in reality it were only drummer John Bonham, road manager Richard Cole and a member from the band Vanilla Fudge and the fish was actually a red snapper). Zappa wrote several songs on his album ''Music/FillmoreEastJune1971'' about this story and would namedrop this fish again during the live performance of "Find Her Finer" on ''Music/TheBestBandYouNeverHeardInYourLife'' (1991).
58	** Fido the poodle is called with the phrase "Here Fido" during "Nanook Rubs It" and "Stink-Foot". The phrase "the poodle bits, the poodle chews it" is a CallBack to the end of the song "Dirty Love" from ''Music/OverNiteSensation'' (1973). He made his first appearance on the album back cover of ''Music/AbsolutelyFree'', where one of the advertisements reads "Buy a Fydo fits swell". During "Call Any Vegetable" in the ''Music/JustAnotherBandFromLA'' (1972) version Howard asks: "Where can I go to get my poodle clipped in Burbank?" The dog and his call "Here Fido, Here Fido" would also reappear again during the track "Cheepnis" from ''Music/RoxyAndElsewhere'' (1974).
59	** A sausage is mentioned in "St. Alphonso's Pancake Breakfast", imagery that would evolve into the "iron sausage" in ''The Torture Never Stops'' from ''Music/ZootAllures'' (1976) and "Dong Work For Yuda" on ''Music/JoesGarage'' (1979).
60	** St. Alphonso bakes pancakes, just like the father in "Magdalena" from ''Music/JustAnotherBandFromLA'' makes "maple syrup for the pancakes of his land."
61	** "Hah! Good God! Get off the bus!" in "St. Alphonso's Pancake Breakfast" from ''Music/{{Apostrophe}}'' (1974), evokes tour bus imagery, as happened before on "A Pound For A Brown On The Bus" from ''Music/UncleMeat'' (1969) and would happen again with "On The Bus" from ''Music/JoesGarage'' (1979).
62	** The snow shoes used to beat up the seal in "Nanook Rubs It" are brought by Father O' Blivion to "her highness" in "Father O' Blivion".
63	** "The dust of the Grand Wazoo" in "Cosmik Debris" is a reference to the Zappa album ''Music/TheGrandWazoo'' (1972).
64	** Zappa played "Cosmik Debris" live on ''Music/TheBestBandYouNeverHeardInYourLife'' (1991).
65	** The line "Dominus vobiscum et cum spiritu tuo" in "Father O' Blivion" would later return in "The Mammy Anthem" from ''Thing-Fish'' (1985).
66	** "It set him off in such a frenzy" in "Father O' Blivion". A frenzy was referenced earlier during "Dirty Love" on ''Music/OverNiteSensation'' (1973) and would return again in Zappa songs like "Honey Don't You Want A Man Like Me?" (from ''Music/ZappaInNewYork'' (1978)), "Watermelon in Easter Hay" (from ''Music/JoesGarage'' (1979)), "Smell My Beard" (from "You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Volume 4" (1991).
67	** "Now is that a real poncho or is that a Sears Poncho?" and "the toads of the short forest" in "Cosmik Debris" are a call back to "Camarillo Brillo" on ''Music/OverNiteSensation'' (1973), with "toads of the short forest" being referenced earlier on ''Music/WeaselsRippedMyFlesh'' (1970).
68	** ''Uncle Remus'' refers to being "sprayed with a hose", a line that would later return in ''Be In My Video'' from ''Music/ThemOrUs'' (1984). Another line, ''down in the dew'', would later be the title of a track on ''Music/{{Lather}}'' (1993).
69	** The line "I can't wait 'til my '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''.
70	** Tennis shoes are mentioned in "Stink-Foot". This type of footwear was referenced earlier during "Magic Fingers" (''beat you with a pair of tennis shoes'') on ''Film/TwoHundredMotels'' (1971). "Or an occasional python boot" in "Stink-Foot" would get a CallBack in "Inca Roads" from ''Music/OneSizeFitsAll'' (1975), where Napoleon Murphy Brock asks: "Whose python boot is that? That ain't my sh-What?"
71	* 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 an afro ("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?
72	* ConceptAlbum: The first four songs - originally most of the first side of the LP- are built around the same concept. An Eskimo fighting off a fur trapper for beating up his favorite baby seal. The rest of the album has nothing do with this North Pole concept whatsoever, though "Uncle Remus" refers to "winter when it's cold" and "Stinkfoot" also refers to the phrase "Here Fido!".
73	* 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.
74	* CorruptChurch: "Father O' Blivion" is a lewd priest, "Cosmik Debris" shows that fortune tellers are OnlyInItForTheMoney.
75	* CutLexLuthorACheck: In "Cosmik Debris," Zappa admonishes that the Mystery Man could make better money doing honest work instead of trying to scam people.
76	-->''Don't you know? You could make more money as a butcher\
77	So don't you waste your time on me''
78	* DirtyOldMonk: Father O' Blivion certainly doesn't take his oath of chastity very seriously.
79	* DisproportionateRetribution: The fur trapper beats up Nanook's baby seal and in retribution Nanook blinds him by rubbing urine drenched snow in his eyes.
80	* DreamSequence: "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow".
81	--> ''Dreamed I was an Eskimo...''
82	* EpicRocking: "Stink-Foot" and the first four tracks on the album, which could be considered one musical piece.
83	* EskimoLand: "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow" and "Nanook Rubs It" are full with references to a cliché version of the North Pole, with the Eskimo named "Nanook", living in an igloo and having a pet seal and huskies. The background music even evokes a polar night atmosphere, with reference to the Northern Light.
84	* FaceOnTheCover: The album cover is just a close-up of Zappa's face.
85	* FadingIntoTheNextSong: The first four tracks all fade into each other and are one continuous story.
86	* FindTheCure: The fur trapper runs off to find a cure for his deflicted eyes. Zappa visits "The Mystery Man" 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".
87	* FortuneTeller: The Mystery Man from "Cosmik Debris" claims to be a fortune teller, though he turns out to be a fraud, naturally.
88	* GratuitousLatin:
89	** ''Dominus vobiscum/ Et cum spiritu tuo'' in ''Father O' Blivion'' (''"The Lord be with you: And also with you"'') is a traditional exchange from the Roman Catholic mass, it is most familiar in English post-Vatican II, the priest says, "The Lord be with you", the congregation replies "And also with you."
90	** ''Now scientists call this disease "bromadrosis"'' - "Stinkfoot".
91	* HermitGuru: The Mystery man in "Cosmik Debris" sells himself as an all-knowing guru with magic powers that will improve your life in exchange for a "nominal service charge." It’s obvious from the start that he’s full of shit.
92	* IncrediblyLamePun: "Father O' Blivion".
93	--> ''A leprechaun had stroked his smock/ which set him off in such a frenzy/ he sang "Lock around the crock"''.
94	* {{Instrumentals}}: "Apostrophe".
95	* LaserGuidedKarma: The Mystery Man from "Cosmik Debris" is a phony mystic who cons people out of money by selling them useless junk and false promises of reaching Nirvana; by the end of the song, the tables are turned when he gets hypnotized, robbed, and cuckolded by his most recent mark.
96	* LeftHanging: "Nanook Rubs It"
97	--> ''And it was at that precise moment that he remembered''
98	--> ''An ancient Eskimo legend''
99	--> ''Wherein it is written''
100	--> ''On whatever it is that they write it on up there.''
101	* {{Leprechaun}}: A leprechaun had stroked Father O' Blivion's "smock".
102	* LocationSong: "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow" and "Nanook Rubs It" are both comedic songs taking place at the EskimoLand version of the North Pole.
103	* MickeyMousing: Every line in "Cosmik Debris" is accompanied by a musical illustration.
104	* MisterMuffykins: "Stink-Foot" talks about a dog named Fido, of whom we know is a poodle. Zappa found the entire idea that humans would modify a poodle according to their own kitschy wishes ludicrous and disturbing.
105	* MommasBoy: Nanook's mum warns him "watch out where the huskies go and don't you eat that yellow snow".
106	* MundaneMadeAwesome: "Stink Foot", an epic song about smelly feet.
107	* NoAnimalsWereHarmed: Subverted. A baby seal is hit "with a lead-filled snow shoe" in "Nanook Rubs It".
108	* OneManSong: "Father O'Blivion".
109	* OneWordTitle: "Apostrophe".
110	* PunBasedTitle: "Father O' Blivion" was originally titled ''Further O' Blivion''. For the non-English speakers "oblivion" is "obscurity/forgetability".
111	* SharpDressedMan: "Uncle Remus"
112	--> ''We look pretty sharp in these clothes''
113	* ShoutOut:
114	** Nanook the Eskimo is a reference to ''Film/NanookOfTheNorth''.
115	** "Father O' Blivion" references ''Rock Around The Clock'' by Music/BillHaleyAndHisComets.
116	** "Uncle Remus" references Uncle Remus from the ''Uncle Remus & Br'er Rabbit'' stories, made famous by the Disney movie ''Film/SongOfTheSouth''.
117	** The 1995 Zappa compilation album "Strictly Commercial" took its title from a line in "Nanook Rubs It".
118	** Fido the dog approaching the smelly feet in "Stink-Foot" is a reference to a 1970s tv commercial for Dr. Scholl's foot spray, in which a similar situation took place. Zappa explained this in an interview, though he confused the product with ''Mennen''. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6sF1D0l5qA]]
119	* SiameseTwinSongs: "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow" leads into "Nanook Rubs It", which leads into "St. Alphonzo's Pancake Breakfast", which finally leads into "Father O'Blivion".
120	* SnakeOilSalesman: The Mystery Man from “Cosmik Debris” has a rather dubious line of business; he starts off by telling Zappa that he can help him reach Nirvana for a “nominal service charge” and later tries to convince him to buy an ordinary shaving kit that the Mystery Man claims will work miracles for him. Zappa isn’t fooled for a second.
121	* SoundEffectBleep: "Father O'Blivion".
122	--> ''As he stumbled on his ___''
123	* SpecialGuest: Tina Turner and the Ikettes on background vocals.
124	* SpikingTheCamera: Zappa on the album cover.
125	* {{Spoonerism}}:
126	--> ''It set him off in such a frenzy, he sang Lock Around The Crock!''
127	* SublimeRhyme: Vivian O' Blivion in "Father O'Blivion".
128	* TalkingAnimal: A man and a dog talk in "Stinkfoot".
129	* TitleTrack: "Apostrophe"
130	* ToiletHumour: "Nanook Rubs It" has an Eskimo rubbing urine drenched snow in a fur trapper's eyes. "Father O' Blivion" has zany antics of a lecherous priest and his penis, while "Stinkfoot" is literally about smelly feet.
131	* TotallyRadical: The Mystery Man from "Cosmik Debris" [[EstablishingCharacterMoment introduces himself]] with the conspicuously outdated "I'm outta sight" -- this gratuitous use of dated slang being an early clue that this character is trying too hard to appear trustworthy and approachable.
132	* WhateverHappenedToTheMouse: The fur trapper arrives at the parish of St. Alphonso, but that's the last we hear of him. We never learn whether he found a way to regain his vision there?
133	* WhatASenselessWasteOfHumanLife: "Cosmik Debris"
134	--> ''Look here, brother, don't you waste your time on me."
135	* WordSaladLyrics: "Excentrifugal Forz".
136	* XtremeKoolLetterz: "Cosmi'''k''' Debris"
137	* 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 in "Nanook Rubs It", he blinds the fur trapper who killed his pet seal with it.

Context Music / Apostrophe