"Joe's Garage" is a single on

Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American guitarist, composer, and bandleader. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestra ...

's 1979 album '' Joe's Garage Act I''. After the introductory track, "The Central Scrutinizer", this song begins the story of Joe's Garage. Although it only charted in

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and

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

(where it was a top 20 hit in both countries), it was one of Zappa's songs which had the most airplay on American

FM radio FM broadcasting is a method of radio broadcasting that uses frequency modulation (FM) of the radio broadcast carrier wave. Invented in 1933 by American engineer Edwin Armstrong, wide-band FM is used worldwide to transmit high fidelity, high-f ...

, at the time still album-centered. The song was played in concert from 1980 to 1988 along with the song "Why Does it Hurt When I Pee?" in all tours of Zappa's after the single's release. The single version of the song lacks many of the special effects that the album version contains. The single version of "Joe's Garage" was put onto Zappa's best-of ''

Strictly Commercial ''Strictly Commercial'' is a compilation album by Frank Zappa. It was released in 1995, two years after his death. The album was named as part of a 2011 lawsuit by Gail Zappa towards Rykodisc, claiming the label released several vault masters wi ...

''.

The story

The song introduces the main character Joe and another band member, Larry Fanoga. It explains that Joe, Larry, and their friends were in a band together in Joe's garage, in

Canoga Park, Los Angeles Canoga Park is a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of the City of Los Angeles, California. Before the Mexican–American War, the district was part of a Ranchos of California, rancho, and after the American victory it was converted ...

, and would play the same simple, repetitive

three-chord song A three-chord song is a song whose music is built around three chords that are played in a certain sequence. A common type of three-chord song is the simple twelve-bar blues used in blues and rock and roll. Typically, the three chords used are th ...

. This was a mocking commentary on many

garage A garage is a covered structure built for the purpose of parking, storing, protecting, maintaining, and/or repairing vehicles. Specific applications include: *Garage (residential), a building or part of a building for storing one or more vehicl ...

and

punk bands Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

of the era. They started to play this one song in a go go bar and eventually their repetitive music became well enough known where they were offered a record deal, but when the promised "good times" never materialized, the band abruptly broke up. The song then flashes back to the band playing a distorted parody of their song in the garage at a loud and annoying volume, much to the chagrin of Joe's mother and a complaining neighbor. As the years go past, heavy metal,

glam rock Glam rock is a style of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s and was primarily defined by the flamboyant clothing, makeup, and hairstyles of its musicians, particularly platform shoes and glitter. Glam artists d ...

("snotty boys with lipsick on"),

disco Disco is a music genre, genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightclub, nightlife, particularly in African Americans, African-American, Italian-Americans, Italian-American, LGBTQ ...

and new wave each successively become popular, the band's song comes back into style and it is implied they reunite, when the same complaining neighbor calls the police who, with car sirens blaring, surround the garage. Then it's explained that this is "Joe's first confrontation with the law," implying that later in the story he would have more trouble with the police. The officer lets him off. The Central Scrutinizer explains that Joe was advised to "stick closer to church oriented social activities" – a reference to how adults of the era felt religion was a good cleanser of the evil sins of rock.

Overture

The song foreshadows musical styles to be later used in the album such as sleigh bells more prominent in "Why Does it Hurt When I Pee?" an odd-sounding guitar line used in "He Used to Cut the Grass", and the line "It makes its own sauce if you add water" (a slogan for Gravy Train dog food) is later stated in the song "Crew Slut." These foreshadowings make the song more of an overture to the album.

Themes

The underlying themes of the song as well as most of the album was based upon Zappa's hatred for

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governmen ...

corporate abuse A corporate collapse typically involves the insolvency or bankruptcy of a major business enterprise. A corporate scandal involves alleged or actual unethical behavior by people acting within or on behalf of a corporation. Many recent corporate col ...

, and untalented bands becoming famous. The song was more commercial sounding than most of the other tracks on the album because it was intended to be a single as well as the main song on the album.

Differences live

When played live, the song tended to be played at a faster tempo as well as having inside jokes inserted into it.

Track list

7" single (CBS 7950) *A. "Joe's Garage" – 4:07 *B. "Catholic Girls" – 4:00

Charts

References

{{authority control 1979 singles 1979 songs CBS Records singles Frank Zappa songs Songs written by Frank Zappa Song recordings produced by Frank Zappa Songs about rock music Songs about musicians