Frank Zappa - Thing-Fish (1984)

Frank Zappa - Thing-Fish (1984)

Tracklist front / back album covers

Frank Zappa - Thing-Fish

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Side one

1. "Prologue"   2:56

2. "The Mammy Nuns"   3:50

3. "Harry & Rhonda"   3:36

4. "Galoot Up-Date"   5:29

Total length:   15:51

Side two

1. "The 'Torchum' Never Stops"   10:32

2. "That Evil Prince"   1:17

3. "You Are What You Is"   4:31

Total length:   16:20

Side three

1. "Mudd Club"   3:17

2. "The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing"   3:14

3. "Clowns on Velvet"   1:38

4. "Harry-As-a-Boy"   2:51

5. "He's So Gay"   2:48

Total length:   13:48

Side four

1. "The Massive Improve'lence"   5:07

2. "Artificial Rhonda"   3:30

3. "The Crab-Grass Baby"   3:48

4. "The White Boy Troubles"   3:35

Total length:   16:00

Side five

1. "No Not Now"   5:50

2. "Briefcase Boogie"   4:10

3. "Brown Moses"   3:02

Total length:   13:02

Side six

1. "Wistful Wit a Fist-Full"   3:53

2. "Drop Dead"   7:56

3. "Won Ton On"   4:20

Total length:   16:09

Frank Zappa Band Members / Musicians

Ike Willis — Thing-Fish

Terry Bozzio — Harry

Dale Bozzio — Rhonda

Napoleon Murphy Brock — The Evil Prince

Bob Harris — Harry-As-A-Boy

Johnny "Guitar" Watson — Brown Moses

Ray White — Owl-Gonkwin-Jane Cowhoon

Frank Zappa - Book & lyrics, music, arrangements, direction of characterizations and album production

Mark Pinske & Bob Stone - Recording engineers

Mark Pinske - Engineering mixer

Ladi Von Jansky - Cover Photo

Jene Omens - Prosthetics of "THING-FISH" & "SISTER OB'DEWLLA 'X"

Robert Fletcher - Costumes

Frank Zappa - guitar, synclavier,vocals

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 programming

David Ocker - synclavier programming

Thing-Fish is an album by Frank Zappa, originally released as a triple album box set on Barking Pumpkin Records in 1984. It was billed as a cast recording for a proposed musical of the same name, which was ultimately not produced by Zappa, but later performed partially in 2003, ten years after his death.

The album's storyline is inspired by Broadway theatre, AIDS, eugenics, conspiracy theories, feminism, homosexuality and African American culture. It involves an evil, racist prince/theater critic who creates a disease intended to eradicate African Americans and homosexuals. The disease is tested on prisoners who are turned into "Mammy Nuns" led by the story's narrator, Thing-Fish. The story within a story is a satire of a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant couple, Harry and Rhonda (actually played by Italian-Americans), who attend a play performed by the "Mammy Nuns", and find themselves confronted with their pasts: Harry presented as a homosexual boy, Rhonda presented as a sex doll brought to life.