You Are What You Is [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]

Frank Zappa

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 2, 1995)
• Original Release Date: September 1981
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Zappa Records
• ASIN: B0000009T3
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #9,015 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Track Listings

1. Teen-Age Wind

2. Harder Than Your Husband

3. Doreen

4. Goblin Girl

5. Theme from the 3rd Movement of Sinister Footwear

6. Society Pages

7. I'm a Beautiful Guy

8. Beauty Knows No Pain

9. Charlie's Enormous Mouth

10. Any Downers?

11. Conehead

12. You Are What You Is

13. Mudd Club

14. Meek Shall Inherit Nothing

15. Dumb All Over

16. Heavenly Bank Account

17. Suicide Chump

18. Jumbo Go Away

19. If Only She Woulda

20. Drafted Again

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

You Are What You Is trades in much of Zappa's usual musical acrobatics for more polished and understated fare and increasingly political satire. Released in 1981, this album contains Zappa's takes on the smell of teen spirit, organized religion, Saturday Night Live's Coneheads, and even racial issues. Highpoints include the mock country of "Harder Than Your Husband," pure-FZ injection of "Theme From 3rd Movement of Sinister Footwear," and the kinetic vocal-drenched title track. --Andrew Boscardin

From the Label

Lots of social commentary on this one, particularly on the dangers of "organized religion." Originally released as a double album in 1981 (and now on one CD), this set is unusually heavy on vocals; in fact only one track, a brief excerpt from the ballet "Sinister Footwear," is an instrumental. With a cast including Moon Zappa, Steve Vai, Ike Willis and returning Mother Jimmy Carl Black, FZ takes stabs at punk fashion ("Mudd Club", "I'm a Beautiful Guy"), salutes his pals from the planet Remulak ("Conehead"); and closes it out with "Drafted Again," a remake of his topical 1980 single "I Don't Wanna Get Drafted." But the sharpest satire is reserved for the churches, on a pointed sequence of tunes including "The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing" (first performed on "Saturday Night Live"), "Dumb All Over", and "Heavenly Bank Account."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful, but VERY mishandled..., June 24, 2000

By	David Goodwin (Westchester, NY United States) - See all my reviews

Well, everyone else has piled on the superlatives and the denigrations, so I might as well add my own 2 cents. You Are What You Is is simultaneously wonderful and a fascinating misfire. It's sprawling and overreaching, but unlike some of Frank's other albums (think Thing-Fish) it manages to contain itself to a certain degree. Even better, the lyrics are mostly smart (except for Conehead, and Jumbo Go Away, which...well, it's just MEAN, darnit).

Anyway, I like this album very much. So why is it a misfire? Copies of earlier mixes of these songs are easily obtainable, and if Frank had mixed the entire album the way he did those songs (from the Crush All Boxes LP), I would enjoy the whole shebang a lot more.

And a warning! This album has TONS of REALLY BAD ISSUES. The original Ryko, the original Zappa Records, and the '95 Rykodisc release all sound AWFUL, and it's all Zappa's fault: he reprocessed the album realllllly badly, and it shows. And this isn't some audiophile-only-on-my-$30,000-stereo-system bad....this is VERY, VERY BAD. Dropouts, phasing, what have you. Thankfully, an earlier EMI issue was fine, and engineer-god Spencer Chrislu fixed it back in 1998. Problem is, you can't tell the '98 CDs from the '95 CDs just by looking at them, but all new copies should be fine (if your disc is +69 minutes long, it's the good version). Complex, but necessary. Hope this helps!

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Zappa's '80s masterpiece, July 7, 2001

By	rockland6674 (Massachusetts, USA) - See all my reviews

I was introduced to Frank Zappa's music twenty years ago through his then-new LP, "You Are What You Is," and a well-worn copy of "We're Only In It For The Money," which I picked up at a record show. They remain my two favorite Zappa albums. Some people like to put down "You Are What You Is" for its lack of FZ guitar solos, but I've never considered it a drawback. Musically and satirically, this was Zappa's strongest LP in years. The targets of his satire were many, including: Teenage rebellion ("Teen-age Wind,") high-society pretentiousness and snobbery ("Society Pages,") the new wave/punk nightclub scene ("Mudd Club,") Country music ("Harder Than Your Husband," featuring former Mothers of Invention bandmate Jimmy Carl Black on lead vocals) and religion (the three-song suite of "The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing," "Dumb All Over" and "Heavenly Bank Account"). For those who really LISTEN to lyrics, the anti-drug message of "Charlie's Enormous Mouth" is chilling: "She's got dirt all around the hole/Where they dumped her box in/They call it THE GRAVE/Which is as good a place as any for a chump to repose in." Just another O.D. statistic.

As another reviewer has already mentioned, this CD was remastered in 1998. If you have an earlier Rykodisc pressing of this CD, you should definitely upgrade. This isn't some minor improvement only a trained ear would notice--this is night and day. I've compared the old and new Ryko CDs to the original vinyl LP. The remastered CD is faithful to the sound of the LP, with the added dynamic range and clarity of the CD format. By comparison, the earlier Ryko CD sounds TERRIBLE--one of the worst CD mastering jobs I've heard: The EQ (equalization) is completely messed-up, the vocals are out-of-phase on many tracks, there's a bad dropout on "Mudd Club" and there's a low-level background hum through the ENTIRE disc. It's too bad Ryko didn't put a "REMASTERED EDITION" sticker on the shrink wrap of the new disc. Since the outer packaging is unchanged from a 1995 release, you need to buy the disc and open it up to find out if it's the good pressing. The remastered disc is over 69 minutes long and has a notation at the bottom of page 3 of the CD booklet, stating that the CD was remastered in 1998 by Spencer Chrislu.

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not for Zappa music and composition fans, July 25, 2000

By	Steve Roehr "skroehr" (Las Vegas, NV USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I didn't notice any negative reviews here, and that doesn't surprise me since Zappa is one of the most important figures in American music, and for fans of his satire stuff, this is a fine album. Personally, I like a little bit of Franks humor and satire mixed in with good healthy doses of his incredible music. I'm sure there are other fans who are the same, and they should know that with the exception of 3rd Movement from Sinister Footwear, there are no instrumentals, and no brilliant compositions to speak of. This album has a huge audience and is loved by many Zappa fans, so I don't want to knock it much really. The humor and satire here are first rate, but that's all this album is really about. My low rating is from the standpoint of Frank and his music. If these songs had been spread out on two or three albums and intercut with his brilliant musical compositions, (a la Waka Jawaka), they would be just fine. It's just too one dimensional, and focusing on too little of what Frank has to offer. I can't think of any other albums of his to compare it to. Even his other pop/satire oriented albums such as Overnight Sensation and One Size Fits All had plenty of excellent music and playing. This album was an uncharacteristic one off. Depends on what you like. I just thought someone should offer a different perspective on this album.