Wednesday, December 5, 2012

The Mothers Of Invention -- Cruising With Ruben and The Jets

  Totally bizarre Doo Wop concept album by Frank Zappa and his troop of Mothers.  Word is they did this album half as a joke and half exploring their love for Doo Wop music.  Story goes that the first press of the record didn't even credit The Mothers Of Invention, it was meant to look like a long lost Doo Wop album by a group called Ruben And The Jets.  Their theory was to release it under the Ruben guise to get some AM radio play, which the group would have never gotten with their reputation as The Mothers Of Invention, point is it worked, they got the radio play until rumor came out that it was a total hoax/ prank.  Musically it is almost believable Doo Wop, maybe a little off kilter, but those groups did exist, due to shotty recording techniques and just plain old bad equipment.  Personally I love this record, I am such a huge Doo Wop fan that I found it fun that someone out there wanted to recreate a style that was so creative and lost!  Oh and what's with the phallic anthropomorphs on the cover???