Customer Reviews

Chunga's Revenge

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

chunga's revenge is, by far, fz's most underrated album. many consider it just an average album from his early years but that's as far from the truth as one can get. it's only 40 minutes long. a very quick and easy listen that should be played over and over again. the album's highlights are the hard-rocking song "tell me you love me" and the commercially potential "sharleena" (there is a slower and smoother 11 minute version of sharleena on the lost episodes cd. many people consider that version superior. i don't. the 4 minute version here is the best.), "twenty small cigars" (a tune reminiscent to "little umbrellas" from "hot rats" ; it can easily be called "son of little umbrellas"). there's a gothic instrumental "transylvania boogie" that makes you feel like you're face-to-face with count dracula himself. a sex-oriented pop tune "would you go all the way?" asks the question to a naive female u.s.o. dancer. there's the union-bashing "rudy wants to buy yez a drink"...the definitive song to depict the attitudes and activities of union big shots nationwide. the instrumental head-banging "chunga's revenge" is a cross between hard-rock and international music from far away places. the album really has to be heard to be believed. one of the top 5 zappa albums ever! essential! don't listen to the others...what you've heard about chunga's revenge is wrong! it's great!

Before the "Groupie Routine," before mudsharks, before "Bogus Pomp" and "Penis Dimension," there was this album: Chunga's Revenge, the opening salvo of Frank's Flo and Eddie era. With a re-formed group that included Aynsley Dunbar, Jeff Simmons, and the aforementioned Phlorescent Leech and Eddie (Jim Pons doesn't seem to be around yet), Zappa backed away slightly from the classical experimentalism that had marked "Weasels" and "Weenie," and the jazz-fusion of Hot Rats...but only slightly. Chunga's Revenge is full of great performances and great songs, and is all-too-often overshadowed by what came before (the aforementioned "Hot Rats") and what came after ("Fillmore" and "200 Motels").

Standouts include the awe-inspiring "Chunga's Revenge," the sublime "Twenty Small Cigars" (Ponty's arrangement of this on "King Kong" is also worth checking out), and album-opener "Transylvania Boogie." On the vocal side of things, "Rudy," "Would You Go All The Way," "Road Ladies" and "Tell Me You Love Me" (surely one of the most straightforward things Zappa ever recorded) are all standouts, and tend more towards Turtles-style melodicism than the usual Zappa compositional style. "Sharleena" is also a strong entry, and although it isn't quite as spectacular as the archive version on "The Lost Episodes," it soundly bests the why-did-they-bother re-make on "Them Or Us."

All in all, Chunga's Revenge is a surprisingly solid album from a Zappa era that's more than a little speckled with the "you-had-to-be-there" sort of releases. And at its current, bargain price-point, it's also a completely sensible entry into this area, and would make a reasonable "first few albums" Zappa purchase. A quick warning, though: the sound quality of all CDs of this title isn't too hot, with gobs of unnecessary reverb and compression thrown on top of everything (dig, if you will, the way the tambourine on "Rudy" sounds like it's flying about the stereo spectrum). This 1989 post-processing by Zappa and Stone makes Chunga sound almost bizarrely low-fi at times, and the CD has little of the richness of most vinyl incarnations. Sadly, this altered version of the album is all that's available nowadays, so it's something of a moot point.

This is one of Frank's most curious albums. It is stuff from flo and eddie and also hot rats leftovers and also guitar solos and instrumental stuff. So its a bit uneven, you have some really great music alongside some fairly good songs. Let's look at the fairly good stuff ie flo and eddie. Tell me you love me is a good song but it was never up there with stuff like city of tiny lights. And you say the same for Rudy wants to buy you a drink and would ya go all the way? They are fun tunes but there is nothing magical really. Sharleena is a better song. However , i prefer the lost episodes version which has two incredible solos and different singers (frank and sugercane instead of flo and eddie). Road ladies is good too. It's a bluesy song with quite funny lyrics. We also have a drum thing by fz called the clap which is only of minor interest. Love the chinese blocks though! So far, 6 good enough tracks. Nancy and Mary music is a big long jam, which is terrific. Guitar , organ, vocal madness, sax. It might take a while to grow on you, but it should do. The hot rats leftover is a 2 minute tune called '20 small cigars', very nice tune. Worthy of hot rats i would have said!! Chunga's Revenge is awesome. A simple little melody, then bang! ian underwood whips it out. wah-wah saxophone solo of the highest quality. There is nice organ playing too. Frank gets to shine in his guitar solo, very melodic solo. That just leaves <sigh> Transylvania Boogie..what a guitar solo. Maybe Frank's best playing up to that point in his career. We have great playing, really fast. The guitar tone has never sounded better. Frank gives us the little transylvania tune, it sounds very exotic/vampirelike. He then goes off and..boogies. Awesome groovy playing. And it builds up to such a great climax..then it fades out. Worth the album price alone...i had to say it. In summary-a mixed bag of tricks. There's too much great stuff on it to dismiss it though!! Thank you

I like the way that "Transylvania Boogie" changes from one beat to another without skipping a beat. Not sure of the musical term for that but I'm sure there is one. You have to hear it to understand. Very cool.

IMO this isn't the best Zappa album in my collection, but it's good and I enjoy listening to it. My favorite still is "One Size Fits All" and "Roxy and Elsewhere" , maybe because those were basically my first exposure to Zappa. Wow, thirty years ago... The music has really held up over the years.

I just listened to Chunga's Revenge for the first time in about 30 years. I am more impressed now than ever before. If you've been thinking about adding a little Zappa to your collection and didn't know where to begin ... look no further. This is a super addition to your rock collection.

There's a variety of material here, so I'll do something that I don't usually do - review song by song.

Transylvania Boogie - a cool guitar solo instrumental track. A hint of egyption music with boogie style and jazz/rock edge. 5/5

Road Ladies - a bluesy track with some great soloing a la Frank. I didn't like it much at first but trust me, it grows on you. 5/5

Twenty Small Cigars - a short, trippy jazzy instrumental. Recommended for when you feel like chilling out. 4/5

The Nancy And Mary Music - at 9 minutes it takes up almost a quarter of the album, which is a shame because it isn't really much good. This is not so much a song, but a group of musicians messing around and taking turns to make some noise. A waste of a track, because I thought it would be a cool jam. There are some OK moments, but they are few and far between. 2/5

Tell Me You Love Me - a short rocker with some cool guitar work. Not the best, could have done with being longer and having more soloing, but a good and enjoyable track nonetheless. 4/5

Would You Go All The Way - in a similar vien to Tell Me You Love Me, only without its groovy infectious riffs. 2.5/5

Chunga's Revenge - a cool, dark, mid-paced jam with Frank doing some cool soloing and Ian Underwood playing an electro-sax with a wah-wah peddle. Definately one of the better moments on the album. 4/5

The Clap - a short percussion solo. It's simple and sloppy, so the fact that Frank does it means nothing. It [is not good]. 1/5

Rudy Wants To Buy Yez A Drink - didn't like it much, I found it a bit boring. 2/5

Sharleena - a more moody track. A few listens and its fairly good. 3/5

I bought it after Hot Rats and was a bit disappointed. This is in a different vien to Hot Rats, despite being recorded and released within the same 12 months. This album is a little inconsistent, not just in quality but also in musical themes. I found Hot Rats to have a much more consistent theme to the music. However, if you like Frank and have an open mind, there's no reason not to try it. You may not like all the material here, but the good tracks certainly make up for the bad ones.

Frank Zappa's post-Mothers (Flo + Eddie) material is prim yet fun. The musical direction of Chunga's Revenge is wholly eclectic---swopping from Jazz to Blues to Rock n' Roll. As remembered for their raunchy ditties, Flo + Eddie assumes a more "genteel" attitude on songs like "Tell me You Love Me" "Would You Go All The Way" and "Sharleena". I good Zappa album to start with. Also check Flo and Eddie's more daring songs on Zappa's 200 Motels.

Chunga's Revenge was the first record of Frank Zappa that I'd heard, that was way back in 1971. It most certainly took me down a different road of music than I had been travelling on. It was a landmark for me and changed what I listened to from that time on. I loved Chunga's from the first hearing and it has been a favourite ever since, and has been in my collection(s) for 40 years. I love Frank Zappa music period, from the fluffy to the hardcore it doesn't matter.

Chunga's Revenge is a joy to listen to and just long enough that you wish there was more of it as Sharleena fades away with Frank's signature guitar solo wailing like a banshee wanting to stay and play on. Chunga's Revenge is a classic album, and a great lead in to the 1970's and the music revolution that followed.

I have given up comparing this song to that song when it comes to Frank, all have value, all have impassioned integrity that is Frank Zappa. Indeed I think Zappa was one of the premium artists of the last century. Chunga's Revenge is a perfect introduction to Frank Zappa music in my opinion, it certainly was for me. I recommend it highly.

gran disco de los '70 del maestro frank...rocknroll cuadrado y musicos jazzeros, resaca de blues y funk,y ese toque de improvisacion (aunque estudiada en el caso de zappa)y delirio tan caracteristico de toda su obra....ROAD LADIES, TELL ME YOU LOVE ME, RUDY.., WOULD YOU GO ALL THE WAY? SON ALGUNAS DE LAS PERLAS QUE HALLAMOS AQUI...musica que ha logrado vencer el paso del tiempo.

Chunga's Revenge is one of those "It's good but definitely not essential" type albums. It's worth a listen for the sake of curiosity though.

"The Nancy & Mary Music" is the longest track here at nearly 10 minutes, and probably a highlight (despite how horribly dated and old it sounds most definitely because it was recorded live). The guitar solo a couple minutes in is the high point of the entire piece, and Zappa's guitar playing here resembles the work he laid down for Burnt Weeny Sandwich. Actually this guitar solo competes with the other guitar solo (that appears a few minutes later) for "best moment of the jam". It's hard to choose between the two solos.

The drum solo is one of those "take it or leave it" solos as far as I'm concerned (since I've heard so many of them over the years, it's hard to differentiate the good ones from the forgettable) and the keyboard jam near the end is pretty awesome. It speeds along in a way that reminds me of "LA Woman" the Doors song, and sounds remarkably similar as well. Good song overall despite the occasional sloppiness of the instrumental portions.

I swear, when I first heard the 6-minute title song, I thought it was some kind of distorted guitar jam but it's actually an alto saxophone. Tricky! It's successful for the most part. Definitely more jazzy than "rocking out" though. At least for the first 75% of it. The guitar solo at the end makes for a surprising turn of events. This song overall might initially seem rather pointless but the notes will grow on you with repeated listens. On a side note, the very first set of crunchy guitar notes reminds me of the intro from High Tides' "Futilist's Lament".

Man, I have to tell you guys something. I'm the kind of person that likes to play Zappa's guitar jams over and over and absorb as many notes as I can. The reason? Because his guitar style is just so rewarding once you're finally able to grasp the challenge of these jams. More often than not, Zappa had the talent to continue coming up with new ways to make his instrumental skills exciting. A seemingly neverending supply of jamming potential. "Transylvania Boogie" is yet ANOTHER unique guitar jam. It really does resemble a Transylvanian environment (for about 2 minutes in the beginning at least) before switching gears and changing into a more blues-oriented, foot-tapping type jam. Absolutely *amazing*. This guy really was a genius.

Some of the other ones are drastically different. "Sharleena" is a heartfelt ballad (at least, as heartfelt as a man like Zappa can be) and "Road Ladies" is a slow-paced blues song. It's a pretty harmless and mildly enjoyable attempt at the blues.

I recommend Chunga's Revenge only after you've heard several of Zappa's other jam/jazzy albums such as the Grand Wazoo, Hot Rats, Waka/Jawaka and Burnt Weeny Sandwich. Chunga's Revenge *does* offer a lot of entertainment for those who are great admirers of Zappa's jams.