Frank Zappa 'Thing-Fish' Triple Vinyl Box-Original Complete Near Mint

$

55

First vinyl pressing of the iconic Zappa album.  Contains three original vinyl Lps on Zappa's Barking Pumpkin label.  All inserts and adverts are here.  Comes with the classic parental warning.

Thing-Fish is an album by Frank Zappa, originally released as a triple album box set on Barking Pumpkin Records in 1984.

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.

The release of the album was delayed when Barking Pumpkin Records' previous distributor, MCA, refused to distribute the album. It was instead released by Capitol Records in the United States, accompanied by a "Warning/Guarantee" written by Zappa himself. Thing-Fish was initially received poorly by critics, who criticized the use of previously recorded material, but has since been reappraised for its highly satirical content.

Zappa attempted to produce Thing-Fish as a Broadway production.[1] In promotion of the planned musical, a photo sequence based upon the "Briefcase Boogie" scene was shot for the pornographic magazine Hustler, accompanied by plot excerpts from the scene.[5] The sequence was 28 pages long.[6] While the album was released, Zappa was unable to raise the $5 million budget in order to produce the play, and shelved the project.[1] Subsequently, Thing-Fish dialogue appeared on the album Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention, during the piece "Porn Wars".[7] The album was adapted for a limited stage production that took place in England in 2003. Many elaborate details were changed due to the small scale of the production.

The Thing-Fish album was identified as an "original cast recording". Barking Pumpkin Records prepared to release the album with distribution by MCA Records.[1][20] MCA produced a test pressing of the triple LP set, but withdrew their distribution after a woman in their quality control department became offended and upset by the album's content.[1][20]

A deal was quickly made with EMI Records, which would allow Them Or Us and Thing-Fish to be distributed by Capitol Records in the United States.[1][20] Zappa wrote a "warning" which appeared on the inner sleeves of these albums, as well as Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention, which stated that the albums contained content "which a truly free society would neither fear nor suppress", and a "guarantee" which stated that the lyrics would not "cause eternal torment in the place where the guy with the horns and pointed stick conducts his business."[1][20]

The original vinyl mix of Thing-Fish was only briefly available on CD via a 1987 EMI release in the United Kingdom. All other CD releases contain modifications, edits, re-equalization, and some minor remixing (the most significant difference—Johnny "Guitar" Watson's spoken vocals during "He's So Gay"—was not implemented immediately). This new version was initially released on CD by Rykodisc, and along with most of Zappa's catalogue was reissued in 1995, also by Rykodisc.

In 2012, after the Zappa Family Trust had regained the rights to Zappa's catalogue, Zappa Records, along with Universal Music reissued the album (still in revised form) on CD.