Lumpy Gravy
| Lumpy Gravy | ||||
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Lumpy Gravy was originally released by Capitol Records in 1967.
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| Studio album by Frank Zappa and the Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra & Chorus | ||||
| Released | August 7, 1967 | |||
| Recorded | February 1967 | |||
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| Length | 22:37 (1967 release) 31:45 (1968 reissue) |
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| Label | Capitol | |||
| Producer | Nick Venet | |||
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| Reissue cover | ||||
Following threatened litigation from MGM Records, Lumpy Gravy was reedited by Zappa and reissued by Verve Records in 1968.
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
| Rolling Stone | (negative) |
| Uncut | 7/10 |
Lumpy Gravy is the debut solo album by Frank Zappa, an album of orchestral, electric and concrete sound written by Zappa and performed by a group of session players he dubbed the Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra. Zappa conducted the orchestra but did not perform on the album. It is his third album overall: his previous releases had been under the name of his group, the Mothers of Invention.
It was commissioned and briefly released, on August 7, 1967, by Capitol Records in the 4-track Stereo-Pak format only and then withdrawn due to a lawsuit from MGM Records. MGM claimed that the album violated Zappa's contract with their subsidiary, Verve Records. In 1968 it was reedited and reissued by MGM's Verve Records on May 13, 1968. It consisted of two musique concrète pieces that combined elements from the original orchestral performance with elements of surf music and the spoken word. It was praised for its music and editing.
Produced simultaneously with We're Only in It for the Money, Zappa saw Lumpy Gravy as the second part of a conceptual continuity that later included his final album, Civilization Phaze III.
Later it was re-edited by Zappa as part of a project called No Commercial Potential, which included three other albums: We're Only in It for the Money, Cruising with Ruben & the Jets and Uncle Meat.
Following the release of Freak Out!, the debut album of the rock band the Mothers of Invention, Capitol Records A&R representative Nick Venet commissioned an album of orchestral music composed by the Mothers of Invention's leader, Frank Zappa, a self-taught composer. Venet spent $40,000 on the album. Because Zappa's contract with Verve and MGM Records did not allow for him to perform on albums recorded for any other label, he could not play any instrument on the proposed album, and instead served as the conductor of an orchestra consisting of session musicians hired for the recording. Zappa states that "my contract [with MGM] did not preclude me from doing that. I wasn't signed as a conductor."
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