Frank Zappa
Peaches En Regalia (Rykodisc CD3 1001)

I get more fascinated with CD3s the more I think about them. I still think they're a great idea, more than ten years after they've gone obsolete. Tiny little CD's that hold a little bit of music, just like 45s. You can keep them separate from your regular collection, just like 45s. They need an adaptor, just like 45s. You know, if punk kids were really punk, they'd put out CD3s rather than 7-inch's. I may have to put a revival in action – retro marketing from the CD era, which we're still in. I'm a genius!

Um, okay, so the disc. Peaches En Regalia is a three-track sampler of Frank Zappa put out by Ryko during the first wave of their CD reissuing of Zappa's catalog back in '87. It features three of Zappa's more innocuous tracks, and is sort of misleading in representing Zappa as kind of a smooth-jazz pioneer. "Peaches En Regalia," from Hot Rats, is fusion a la Mahavishnu Orchestra with shades of ELP (before both groups, I think). Tuneful, catchy fusion. "I'm Not Satisfied" is a doo-wop send-up/homage from Cruising With Ruben & the Jets that sounds very straightforward even though it's got the expected "bent" feeling below the surface. "Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up," from Joe's Garage, is a reggae-tinged blues song that wouldn't sound out of place on a Robert Cray album from the 80s.

The effect of these three tracks together (spanning a little over a decade of Zappa's career) is to posit a portrait of the artist as a clever songwriter a la NRBQ and Warren Zevon, giving absolutely no indication of the potty-mouth theatrics of so much of Zappa's output. And you know what, I like that. Sure, it isn't the Zappa of "Bobby Brown Goes Down" or "Catholic Girls," and you know what? Good! One of the biggest shames in pop music history is that Frank Zappa chose to apply his gargantuan talent to so much miserable bat-shit.

They don't make 'em like this anymore. Literally. Long live the legend of the CD3, dead in the water before it really got a chance to shine. You gotta love a format that can promote such a simple reduction of an artist like Zappa, making no claim for comprehensiveness. Just 3 good tracks and you're done. Play it again if you like it, just like a 45.

Loud Bassoon rating scale

Review by Jean Ocular-Migraine