Joe's Garage

By Nick Kent

New Musical Express, 12 January 1980

FRANK ZAPPA: Joe's Garage (CBS).

The modern day composer refuses to die. Unfortunately the same is true of Frank Zappa, who in a decent interview summed up both himself and his painful failure to say anything constructive in the last ten years. "I think cynicism is a positive value," quoth the gnarled old auteur/voyeur. "The more I can encourage people to be cynical, the better job I think I've done."

'Joe's Garage' is the title track of a triple 'concept' album (wowee zowee) which finds the wonderful Mr. Zappa dredging the shit-pits once again for more toilet humour, jokes about cripples and sexual perverts plus the obligatory half-arsed plot to corral all this crap with. The single however simply gives us a typically Zappa-esque (i.e. ultra-cynical, lacking any style or substance) commentary on a rock band success and break-up cycle in a fashion that Nick Lowe succeeded in doing with twenty times more wit, verve and style in 'They Call It Rock'. Musically, it masticates on most of Zappa's usual cliches. Cynicism be damned, this is downright pitiful.