Thing-Fish
Release Info
Released November 1984
Tracks
Disc One
- Prologue
- The Mammy Nuns
- Harry & Rhonda
- Galoot Up-Date
- The "Torchum" Never Stops
- That Evil Prince
- You Are What You Is
- Mudd Club
- The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing
- Clowns On Velvet
- Harry As A Boy
- He's So Gay
- The Massive Improve'lence
- Artificial Rhonda
Disc Two
- The Crab-Grass Baby
- The White Boy Troubles
- No Not Now
- Briefcase Boogie
- Brown Moses
- Wistful Wit A Fist-Full
- Drop Dead
- Won Ton On
Players
Frank Zappa (guitar, synclavier), Steve Vai (guitar), Ray White (guitar), Tommy Mars (keyboards), Chuck Wild (broadway piano), Arthur Barrow (bass), Scott Thunes (bass), Jay Anderson (string bass), Ed Mann (percussion), Chad Wackerman (drums), Steve De Furia (synclavier programmer), David Ocker (synclavier programmer)
- Thing Fish: Ike Willis
- Harry: Terry Bozzio
- Rhonda: Dale Bozzio
- Evil Prince: Napoleon Murphy Brock
- Harry-as-a-boy: Bob Harris
- Brown Moses: Johnny Guitar Watson
- Owl-Gonkwin-Jane Cowhoon: Ray White
Background
The main character was named to recall the stereotypically black Kingfish from the old Amos & Andy radio show.
In the plot, Thing-Fish has been deformed by the government’s biochemical warfare against gays and minorities as part of the right-wing plan to cry “divine retribution” (a’la Frank’s theory about how Republicans started AIDS via religious missionaries’ vaccinating of overseas primitives). The resulting “fear of God” helps value-preaching conservatives get elected, and also allows them to return favors to religious groups and televangelists who’ve donated campaign funds (cf. “Heavenly Bank Account” on You Are What You Is).