I TRIED TO MAKE YOU HAPPY,
I GAVE YOU ALL MY LOVE
THERE'S NOTHING LEFT
FOR ME TO DO
BUT CRY..
Cruising with Ruben & the Jets
is the
fourth album
by
and fifth overall by
released under the alias
Released on
December 2, 1968
on Bizarre
and
Verve Records
with distribution by
MGM Records,
it is a concept album,
influenced by
1950s doo-wop
and
rock and roll.
The album's concept
deals with a
fictitious Chicano
doo-wop band
called
Ruben & the Jets,
represented by
the cover illustration
by Cal Schenkel,
which depicts
the Mothers of Invention
as anthropomorphic dogs.
It was conceived
as part of a project
called
No Commercial Potential,
which produced
three other albums:
Lumpy Gravy,
We're Only in It for the Money
and
Uncle Meat.
The album
and its singles
received some
radio success,
due to its
doo-wop sound.
Subsequently,
the name
Ruben and the Jets
continued with a
different lineup,
led by musician
Rubén Guevara Jr.,
who recorded
the albums
For Real!
(1973)
and
Con Safos
(1974).
Zappa produced
the former.
Background
During a previous
recording session,
engineer
Richard Kunc
and
The Mothers of Invention
discussed their
high school days
and love for
doo-wop songs.
Ray Collins
and some of
the other members
of the band
started singing
and performing
the songs,
and Zappa
suggested that they
record an album
of doo-wop music.
Zappa described
the album as an
homage to the 1950s
vocal music
that he was
"crazy"
about.
Collins later left
the Mothers of Invention,
and Zappa
began working on a
project entitled
No Commercial Potential,
which included sessions
that produced
Cruising with Ruben & the Jets,
as well as
We're Only in It for the Money,
a revised version of
Lumpy Gravy,
and
Uncle Meat.
After
the Mothers of Invention's
contract with
MGM and
Verve Records
expired,
Zappa and
Herb Cohen
negotiated to
form Bizarre Productions,
with Verve releasing
three Bizarre releases
with distribution by
MGM:
a new
Mothers of Invention album,
Cruising with Ruben & the Jets,
the compilation
Mothermania,
and an album by
Sandy Hurvitz,
Sandy's Album
is Here at Last.
Zappa stated,
regarding the releases
Lumpy Gravy,
We're Only in It for the Money,
Cruising with Ruben & the Jets
and
Uncle Meat,
"It's all one album.
All the material in
the albums is
organically related
and if I had all
the master tapes
and I could take a
razor blade
and cut
them apart
and put it
together again
in a different order
it still would make
one piece of music
you can listen to.
Then I could take
that razor blade
and cut it apart
and reassemble
it a different way,
and it still would
make sense.
I could do this
twenty ways.
The material is
definitely related.
Concept
Within the concept
of the album,
Ruben Sano was
the leader of the
fictitious
Chicano band
"the Jets".
The back cover depicted
Ruben with an
early high
school photograph
of Zappa.
According to artist
Cal Schenkel,
"I started working on the story
of Ruben and the Jets
that is connected with
the Uncle Meat story,
which is this old guy
turns this
teenage band
into these
dog snout people
We started that before
it actually became
Ruben and the Jets.
That came out of
my love for comics
and that style,
the anthropomorphic animals,
but also it was
part of a
running story line."
Zappa stated
regarding the
album's lyrics,
"I detest 'love lyrics'."
He intentionally
wrote lyrics he
described as
"sub-Mongoloid"
to satirize the genre.
The music of
Cruising with Ruben & the Jets
was the most
straightforward
genre work
the Mothers of Invention
had performed yet,
attempting to
faithfully reproduce
the sound of 1950s
doo-wop
and
rock and roll.
However,
the arrangements
included quotes
from
Igor Stravinsky pieces
and unusual
chord changes
and tempos.
TRACK LIST
Cheap Thrills
Love Of My Life
How Could I Be Such A Fool
Deseri
I'm Not Satisfied
Jelly Roll Gum Drop
Anything
Later That Night
You Didn't Try To Call Me
Fountain Of Love
No. No. No.
Anyway The Wind Blows
Stuff Up The Cracks
In 2009,
the original mix
of the album
was released as
part of a
compilation entitled
Greasy Love Songs.
Allmusic's
François Couture
gave the album's
1984 remix
3 out of 5 stars.
Another writer
for the site,
Sean Westergaard,
gave
Greasy Love Songs
4 out of 5 stars
MORE
FRANK ZAPPA
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