Artist:Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention
Song:Inca Roads
Album:One Size Fits All
A while back I talked about Frank Zappa's biggest commercial success Valley Girl. This 1974 song Inca Roads is a little more typical of Zappa's music, a combination of goofy humour and musicianship. The least that could be said is that he was interesting but a lot of his music holds up very well. Zappa had reformed the Mothers in 1970 with Matk Volman & Howard Kaylan of The Turtles. The group was shortlived because Zappa was seriously injured when he was thrown off the stage by a deranged fan in London in 1971. He recorded a lot during his recovery and by 1973 he was back touring with an all new Mothers Of Invention. The songs on One Size Fits All are studio versions of songs from that tour. Keyboard player George Duke was a major contributor to this music and sings on Inca Roads. Other musicians are Napolean Murphy Brock on flute, Ruth Underwood on vibes, Tom Fowler on bass and Chester Thompson on drums. The song is supposed to be about UFOs landing in Peru and building the Inca empire but it's mostly about Zappa's outstanding guitar solo and Underwood's vibraphone work. The song is fun and a good example of Zappa's mid-70s music. Of course the other thing legendary about Zappa was his battles with record companies. When he was with Warners, he wanted to release everything he recorded and they just wouldn't allow it. He eventually acquired the rights to all his recordings and they're all available. Frank Zappa died of cancer on Dec. 4, 1993 at age 52. Here's a video of Inca Roads with some excellent claymation.
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