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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bongo_fury_8949.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:350: ''Music from the other side of the fence...'']]
3
4''Bongo Fury'' is a 1975 live collaboration album by Music/FrankZappa, Zappa's band The Mothers of Invention and Music/CaptainBeefheart. The album was made when Beefheart's career was in the dumps. His former albums hadn't sold well and even an attempt to go commercial failed miserably, causing even Beefheart himself [[CreatorBacklash to disown himself from the material]]. On top of that he was in a position where he couldn't record or tour without causing contractual problems. So Zappa helped his old high school buddy out by taking him on tour. The result of their collaboration was the LiveAlbum ''Bongo Fury''.
5
6For fans this was the [[FanService long anticipated collaboration between two giants of avantgarde rock]]. Expectations were high, maybe too high, because the album felt disappointing to most, despite some fan favorites like "Advance Romance" and "Muffin Man". Nevertheless this was reportedly the favorite Zappa album of Czech President Vaclav Havél, who tried to name Zappa his Cultural Ambassador in 1990.
7
8!!Tracklist
9[[AC:Side One]]
10# "Debra Kadabra" (3:54)
11# "Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy" (5:59)
12# "Sam With the Showing Scalp Flat Top" (2:51)
13# "Poofter's Froth Wyoming Plans Ahead" (3:03)
14# "200 Years Old" (4:32)
15
16[[AC:Side Two]]
17# "Cucamonga" (2:24)
18# "Advance Romance" (11:17)
19# "Man with the Woman Head" (1:28)
20# "Muffin Man" (5:33)
21
22!!Personnel
23* Music/FrankZappa: vocals, lead guitar
24* Music/CaptainBeefheart: vocals, harp, soprano sax
25* George Duke: vocals, keyboards
26* Napoleon Murphy Brock: vocals, sax
27* Bruce Fowler: trombone
28* Tom Fowler: bass
29* Denny Walley: vocals, slide guitar
30* Terry Bozzio: drums
31* Chester Thompson: drums
32* Robert "Frog" Camarena: vocals on "Debra Kadabra".
33
34!! Advance tropes
35* AlbumTitleDrop: "Sam With The Showing Flat Top".
36--> ''I wish I had a pair o' bongos! Bongo Fury!''
37* AllWomenAreLustful:
38** "Carolina Hardcore Ecstasy"
39---> ''Is this something new having people stomp on you?''\
40''Is this what I need to do for your pleasure?''\
41''What is this, a quiz?''\
42''Don't you worry what it is''\
43''It is merely just a moment I can treasure''
44** "Advance Romance"
45---> ''Told her all he wanna do''\
46''Was step up and say "Hi"''\
47''Half an hour later''\
48''She had frenched his fry''
49* AmbiguousGender: "The Man With The Woman Head".
50--> ''The man with the woman head''
51--> ''Polynesian wallpaper made the face stand out,''
52--> ''A mixture of oriental and early vaudeville jazz poofter,''
53--> ''Forming a hard, beetle-like triangular chin much like a praying mantis.''
54--> ''Smoky razor-cut, low on the ear neck profile.''
55--> ''The face the color of a nicotine-stained hand.''
56--> ''Dark circles collected under the wrinkled, folded eyes,''
57--> ''Map-like from too much turquoise eyepaint.''
58* CallBack and ContinuityNod:
59** "Debra Kadabra" references "The Braniac", another monster movie reference in Zappa's work. The protagonist in the song adds some "Avon Cologna" (eau de cologne) to his face, which would be referenced again in "The Blue Light" from ''Music/TinseltownRebellion'' (1981) as "Brut Cologne" and during several songs from ''Music/ThingFish'' (1985). The "Pachuko Hop" is also referenced, which happened before in "Jelly Roll Gum Drop" from ''Music/CruisingWithRubenAndTheJets''.
60** "Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy" has the line: "there was dew out on the lawn/ in the sunrise", which brings up memories of "Uncle Remus" from ''Music/{{Apostrophe}}'' (1973) in which the little jockeys are also knocked over early in the morning "down in the dew". Zappa also had a song called "Down In The Dew", released later on ''Music/{{Lather}}'' (1993). The song also mentions Carolina's shoes were "plastic leather, 14 Triple D", which references Zappa's conceptual continuity items plastic and leather again.
61** Zappa quotes "Louie Louie" again in "Sam With The Showing Scalp Flat Top".
62** Beefheart sings "We've all come out to show dem" in "Poofter's Froth Wyoming Plans Ahead", which is a quote from his own song "Moonlight on Vermont" from ''Music/TroutMaskReplica''.
63** The line "Nanook-a no no" in "Cucamonga" is a callback to "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow" from ''Music/{{Apostrophe}}''.
64** A character named Potato Headed Bobby is introduced in "Advance Romance". He would later reappear in the song "San Ber'dino" from ''Music/OneSizeFitsAll'', "The Legend Of The Illinois Enema Bandit" in ''Music/ZappaInNewYork'' and as a character in ''Thing-Fish'' (1985).
65** Beefheart calls the "Man with the Woman Head" "a mixture of Oriental and early vaudeville jazz poofter", which is a call back to "Poofter's Wroth Wyoming Plans Ahead".
66** "Muffin Man" refers to a man working in the utility muffin research kitchen making green rosetta's, which was referenced again during "A Little Green Rosetta" on ''Music/JoesGarage''. The chrome spoon and an utensil have been part of Zappa's previous conceptual continuity.
67** "Debra Kadabra" mentions a "rancho granny shook her wrinkled fanny", while in "200 Years Old" another old woman is described. Even "The Man With The Woman Head" may be related to them. Also note that "Poofter's Wroth Wyoming Plans Ahead" handled the 200th birthday of the USA.
68* CapitalismIsBad: In "Poofter's Froth Wyoming Plans Head". Zappa attacks the marketing around the bicentennial of the United States in 1976.
69* ConfessionCam: Zappa and Beefheart are photographed from bird-eye's view on the album cover.
70* CrossOver: For many AvantGardeMusic lovers this collaboration was close to a wet dream.
71* DidNotDoTheBloodyResearch: Zappa and Beefheart used the Australian word "poofter" in "Poofter's Froth Wyoming Plans Ahead" without knowing the actual meaning behind it. They just thought it sounded funny and were amazed to find out later it was a derogatory term for "gay man".
72* EpicRocking: "Advance Romance", which takes 11:17 minutes.
73* FaceOnTheCover: Zappa and Beefheart, though Beefheart looks down.
74* IncrediblyLamePun:
75** In "Debra Cadabra" Beefheart sings: "Give me bas relief", a pun on the decorative molding/sculpture term "bas-relief".
76** In "Poofter's Wroth Wyoming Plans Ahead" Beefheart says: "This is "Buy-Cent-Any-All" salute, a pun on "bicentennial" and the fact that the 200th birthday of the USA was used for marketing purposes.
77** "She had frenched his fry" in "Advance Romance" is a pun on French fries.
78* IncredibleShrinkingMan and PerspectiveMagic: From "Sam With The Showing Flat-Top":
79--> ''When I was knee high to a grasshopper''
80* InTheStyleOf: Zappa introduces and plays "Poofter's Froth Wyoming Plans Ahead" as "a sort of a cowboy song".
81* ItCameFromBeverlyHills: Apparently "The Man With The Woman Head" is sitting in a drive-in restaurant in Hollywood.
82* LiveAlbum: Most tracks were recorded live, except for "200 Years Old", "Cucamonga" and the intro of "Muffin Man", which were done in the studio.
83* MinisculeRocking: "Man with the Woman Head" is only 1:28 long.
84* MyCountryTisOfTheeThatISting: In "Poofter's Froth Wyoming Plans Head". Zappa attacks the marketing and merchandising around the 200th birthday of the United States in 1976.
85* OneManSong: "Man with the Woman Head" (could count as an OneWomanSong too) and "Muffin Man".
86* OneWomanSong: "Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy".
87* ProductPlacement:
88** "Carolina Hard-core Ecstasy"
89---> ''She wore a Milton Bradley crayon''
90** "Advance Romance"
91---> ''It was a Timex too.''
92* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: "She's 200 Years Old".
93--> ''She's 200 Years Old''
94--> ''So mean she couldn't grow lips''
95* TheRival: Zappa and Beefheart were childhood friends who both gained a reputation for making groundbreaking bizarre AvantGardeMusic. It was Zappa himself who started off Beefheart's career by having him record his voice in his studio. Beefheart tried his own career, but by 1969 he felt disillusioned about the ExecutiveMeddling and lack of album sales. Zappa produced his next album ''Music/TroutMaskReplica'' and gave him total creative freedom, but the record hardly sold and Beefheart blamed Zappa for this. For years they remained bitter towards each other until Beefheart found himself broke and contractually unable to record anything. Zappa took him up for the Bongo Fury (1975) tour, until they once again had a fall-out. Only when Zappa fell terminally ill with cancer in the 1990s did the two friends reconcile.
96* ShoutOut:
97** In "Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy" Zappa sings: "She put a Music/TheDoobieBrothers tape on", as his band quotes the Doobie Brothers' song "Listen to the Music". He also mentions he had a [[Music/TheWho Roger Daltrey]] cape on. The final line: "It might seem strange to Herb and Dee" references Zappa's then manager Herb Cohen and his wife Dee.
98** "Sam With The Showing Flat Top" quotes from the song "Louie Louie".
99** The line "make me grow Braniac fingers" in "Debra Kadabra" is a reference to the 1962 Mexican horror movie "El barón del terror", nicknamed "The Braniac" in the USA. Zappa even quotes the soundtrack music, as he explained in an interview:
100---> ''"Oh the ultimate worst is in a Mexican science fiction movie called "The Brainiac". It's one of the worst movies ever made and when the monster appears, not only is the monster cheap, he's got a rubber mask that you can see over the collar of the guy's jacket and rubber gloves that don't quite much up the sleeves of his sport coat. When the monster appears there's this trumpet lick that isn't scary. It's not even out of tune, it's just exactly the wrong thing to put there it doesn't scare you, that's the greatest example I can think of. Did you ever hear the song 'Debra Kadabra'? That's what that song is about and when you hear in the background "DA-DA-DA-DA-DAHHH", that's making fun of that stupid trumpet line that's in the movie but nobody's seen it over here so you can't appreciate the humour of the song. When he's saying "Make me grow Brainiac fingers" that's what he's referring to, because Vliet and I have both seen that movie and it's fucking stupid. Mexican monster movies are great, "The Aztec Mummy's Ghost" that's a good one too."'' The song also references Channel 13, the horror TV show "Jeepers' Creepers Theater" and Chuck Higgins' song "Pachuko Hop".
101** In "Advance Romance" a shout-out is provided to Zappa singer and keyboardist George Duke: "Took George's watch like they always do. (It was a Timex too!)" The line "chicken was never like this!" is a quote from André Williams' song "Bacon Fat".
102** Both "Debra Kadabra" and "Advance Romance" musically quote "All Night Long" by jazz and R&B saxophonist Joe Houston, an artist Zappa named as an influence in the sleevenotes of his album ''Music/FreakOut'' (1966).
103* SpecialGuest: Despite the album being credited as a collaboration between Zappa and Beefheart it's obvious that Beefheart is treated more as a guest musician. He sings and performs mouth harmonica during most of the material and only two tracks are written by him: "Sam With The Showing Scalp Flat Top" and "Man With The Woman Head".
104* ThreeQuartersView and TopDownView: Zappa and Beefheart are photographed from this viewpoint on the album cover.
105* TimeMarchesOn: During the intro of "Poofter's Froth Wyoming Plans Ahead" Zappa informs the audience that the song is about the "rapidly approaching 200th birthday of the United States", which happened in 1976.
106* YourLittleDismissiveDiminutive: "Poofter's Froth Wyoming Plans Ahead".
107--> ''Little packets full of jackets''
108--> ''Little rackets, little rackets''
109--> ''Little Poofter-Cloth Appointments''
110--> ''Little Poofter's Froth Anointments''
111--> ''Little hoods, little goods''
112--> ''Little doo-dads from the woods''

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