Frank Zappa : Jewish Princess
On March 3, 1979 Zappa Records released Frank Zappa's Sheik Yerbouti. On the double album Zappa focuses his wit on Peter Frampton's "I'm In You" ( with "I Have Been In You"), anal sex ("Broken Hearts Are For Assholes"), the disco scene ("Dancin' Fool") and Jewish Princesses (I want a steamy little Jewish princess /With over-worked gums, who squeaks when she cums/ I don't want no troll/ I just want a Yemenite hole.")
Those lyrics attracted the attention from the Anti-Defamation League, to which Zappa denied an apology, arguing: "Unlike the unicorn, such creatures do exist—and deserve to be 'commemorated' with their own special opus". Catholic Girls would get their due on the next album.
Zappa, who would often signal what he thought was a funny line, with a streak of Ruth Underwood xylophone notes, suggested it was everyone else whose sense of humor needed to be check. I'll toss in my two cents here: this album gradually irritates me. I don't think I can listen to an entire side without getting annoyed.
British music critic Nick Kent summed up the album as "wall-to-wall four sided dreck ( by a ) man obsessed with peddling cheap laughs that, beyond the witty couplet or two, aren't worth even a gratuitous smirk most of the time."
Zappa would get the last smirk. Sheik Yerbouti is the best selling album of Zappa's career, peaking at #21 on the U.S. album charts and selling two million copies around the world. "Bobby Brown" topped the singles charts in Norway and Sweden while the grammy nominated "Dancin' Fool" would peak at US#45.
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