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Over-Nite Sensation
Over-Nite Sensation is the twelfth album by The Mothers of Invention (credited as The Mothers), and the seventeenth album overall by Frank Zappa, released in September 1973. It was Zappa's first album released on his DiscReet label.
Frank Zappa wanted to use backup singers on the songs "I'm the Slime", "Dirty Love", "Zomby Woof", "Dinah-Moe Humm" and "Montana". His road manager suggested The Ikettes, and Ike & Tina Turner were contacted. Ike Turner insisted that Zappa pay the singers, including Tina Turner, no more than $25 per song (equivalent to $180 in 2024). However, an invoice shows that they were actually paid $25 per hour, and in total $187.50 each for 7+1⁄2 hours of work (equivalent to $1,330 in 2024). During the recording sessions at Bolic Sound, Tina brought Ike into the studio to hear the highly difficult middle section of "Montana" which had taken the Ikettes a few days to learn and master. Ike listened to the tape and responded "What is this shit?" before leaving the studio. Ike later insisted that Zappa not credit the Ikettes on the released album. Zappa confirmed in 1973 that Tina and the Ikettes did appear on the record even though he was "not supposed" to say so.
The recording sessions which produced Over-Nite Sensation also produced Zappa's followup, Apostrophe (') (1974), released as a solo album rather than a Mothers of Invention release.
Much of the album's lyrics deal with sex. For example, "Dinah-Moe Humm" describes a woman who wagers that the narrator can't give her an orgasm and is ultimately aroused by watching him have sex with her sister.
On other topics, "I'm the Slime" criticizes television, and the playful and musically adventurous "Montana" describes moving to Montana to grow dental floss.
The music of Over-Nite Sensation draws from rock, jazz and pop music. "Zomby Woof" has been described as a "heavy metal hybrid of Louis Jordan and Fats Waller".
The cover was done by Dave McMacken as somewhat in the vein of Salvador Dalí's surreal imagery depicting a two-headed man sitting on a waterbed in a Holiday Inn hotel room surrounded by various objects like a Mothers backstage pass and a television set showing Zappa's face with slime oozing out of it. The entire painting is depicted in a frame showing many sexual acts.
The album initially received mixed reviews due to its lyrical content, which some critics found puerile. Rolling Stone magazine disliked the album, describing Zappa as a "spent force", and saying that his best work had been recorded with earlier incarnations of the Mothers. New Musical Express said that the album was "not one of Frank's most outstanding efforts." Robert Christgau gave the album a C, mocking the notion that Zappa's humor underscores serious commentary by asking "where's the serious stuff?"
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Over-Nite Sensation
Over-Nite Sensation is the twelfth album by The Mothers of Invention (credited as The Mothers), and the seventeenth album overall by Frank Zappa, released in September 1973. It was Zappa's first album released on his DiscReet label.
Frank Zappa wanted to use backup singers on the songs "I'm the Slime", "Dirty Love", "Zomby Woof", "Dinah-Moe Humm" and "Montana". His road manager suggested The Ikettes, and Ike & Tina Turner were contacted. Ike Turner insisted that Zappa pay the singers, including Tina Turner, no more than $25 per song (equivalent to $180 in 2024). However, an invoice shows that they were actually paid $25 per hour, and in total $187.50 each for 7+1⁄2 hours of work (equivalent to $1,330 in 2024). During the recording sessions at Bolic Sound, Tina brought Ike into the studio to hear the highly difficult middle section of "Montana" which had taken the Ikettes a few days to learn and master. Ike listened to the tape and responded "What is this shit?" before leaving the studio. Ike later insisted that Zappa not credit the Ikettes on the released album. Zappa confirmed in 1973 that Tina and the Ikettes did appear on the record even though he was "not supposed" to say so.
The recording sessions which produced Over-Nite Sensation also produced Zappa's followup, Apostrophe (') (1974), released as a solo album rather than a Mothers of Invention release.
Much of the album's lyrics deal with sex. For example, "Dinah-Moe Humm" describes a woman who wagers that the narrator can't give her an orgasm and is ultimately aroused by watching him have sex with her sister.
On other topics, "I'm the Slime" criticizes television, and the playful and musically adventurous "Montana" describes moving to Montana to grow dental floss.
The music of Over-Nite Sensation draws from rock, jazz and pop music. "Zomby Woof" has been described as a "heavy metal hybrid of Louis Jordan and Fats Waller".
The cover was done by Dave McMacken as somewhat in the vein of Salvador Dalí's surreal imagery depicting a two-headed man sitting on a waterbed in a Holiday Inn hotel room surrounded by various objects like a Mothers backstage pass and a television set showing Zappa's face with slime oozing out of it. The entire painting is depicted in a frame showing many sexual acts.
The album initially received mixed reviews due to its lyrical content, which some critics found puerile. Rolling Stone magazine disliked the album, describing Zappa as a "spent force", and saying that his best work had been recorded with earlier incarnations of the Mothers. New Musical Express said that the album was "not one of Frank's most outstanding efforts." Robert Christgau gave the album a C, mocking the notion that Zappa's humor underscores serious commentary by asking "where's the serious stuff?"