Editing Uncle Meat (section)

== Recording ==

For the recording sessions, Zappa worked at [[Apostolic Recording Studio|Apostolic Studios]] in Manhattan employing an unusual and innovative [[Multitrack recording|12-track]] machine built by [[Scully Recording Instruments|Scully]]. Zappa included a large number of [[overdubs]], playing unconventional instruments through studio effects, and speeding up or slowing down recordings for artistic effect.<ref name=Lowe/> Zappa wanted to make an album that would challenge the complacency of contemporary music fans, as he felt that his fanbase was "accustomed to accepting everything that was handed to them&nbsp;... politically, musically, socially{{snd}}everything. Somebody would just hand it to them and they wouldn't question it. It was my campaign in those days to do things that would shake people out of that complacency, or that ignorance and make them question things."<ref name=Lowe>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uAYfqgGf4yYC&pg=PA64 |title=The Words and Music of Frank Zappa |first=Kelly Fisher |last=Lowe |date= October 2007|publisher=U of Nebraska Press |access-date=2012-11-11|isbn=978-0803260054 }}</ref>

By the time the album was released, [[Lowell George]] and [[Buzz Gardner]] had joined the band, and both have their names listed in the inside cover despite joining after the album was recorded. George and bassist [[Roy Estrada]] would go on to form the band [[Little Feat]] in late 1969.

=== Music and lyrics ===

''Uncle Meat'' featured a variety of music styles, including [[orchestra]]l [[symphony|symphonies]], [[free jazz]], [[blues]], [[doo wop]] and [[rock and roll]].<ref name=Lowe/> The album also contains [[spoken word]] segments featuring Suzy Creamcheese, and features a stronger focus on [[percussion]] instrumentation than previous works by Zappa, as well as emphasizing his strengths as a composer and arranger.<ref name=Lowe/>

"Nine Types of Industrial Pollution" is melodically formless, rooted in percussion instrumentation, and features a guitar solo that was sped up in post production.<ref name=Lowe/> "Dog Breath, in the Year of the Plague" is delivered as a rock and roll song, with the same theme being repeated as an instrumental later in the album, performed by keyboards, percussion and acoustic guitar. The rock and roll version features three verses with the first chorus being delivered by opera singer Nelcy Walker, and the second chorus featuring sped up vocals. After the third verse, the song becomes an [[avant-garde]] orchestral piece performed by percussion, keyboards and instruments; the album liner notes "The weird middle section of DOG BREATH (after the line "Ready to attack") has forty tracks built into it. Things that sound like trumpets are actually clarinets played through an electric device made by Maestro with a setting labeled Oboe D'Amore and sped up a minor third with a V.S.O. (variable speed oscillator). Other peculiar sounds were make[sic] on a Kalamazoo electric organ. The only equipment at our disposal for the modification of these primary sounds was a pair of [[Pultec]] Filters, two [Lang Equalizers], and three Melchor Compressors built into the [[mixing console]]. The board itself is exceptionally quiet and efficient (the only thing that allowed us to pile up so many tracks) and is the product of Mr. Lou Lindauer's imagination & workmanship."<ref>{{Cite AV media notes| title=Uncle Meat | year=1987| last=Zappa | first=Frank | page=7 | type=8-page booklet | publisher=Rykodisc | id=RCD 10064/65}}</ref>

In addition to the studio recordings, ''Uncle Meat'' featured live recordings made at the [[Royal Albert Hall]], including a recording of [[Don Preston]] playing "[[Louie Louie]]" on the Albert Hall pipe organ, at the end of which Zappa announces it as having been performed by the "[[London Philharmonic Orchestra]]". The doo wop-influenced "Electric Aunt Jemima" refers to Zappa's guitar amplifier, equating it with the advertising character [[Aunt Jemima]].<ref name=Lowe/> Zappa explained, "I get kind of a laugh out of the fact that other people are going to try to interpret that stuff and come up with some grotesque interpretations of it. It gives me a certain amount of satisfaction."<ref name=Lowe/>

The album concludes with "King Kong", a piece in 3/8,<ref>{{Cite AV media notes| title=Uncle Meat | year=1987| last=Zappa | first=Frank | page=10 | type=12-page booklet | publisher=Rykodisc | id=RCD 10064/65}}</ref> although the instrumental's prelude, a free jazz improvisation over a rhythm section playing in a 5/8 time signature, occurs much earlier in the album. Six variations of the melody appear as the album's finale, with the first establishing its simple melody, the second being a Fender Rhodes Electric Piano solo by Preston, the third showcasing a saxophone solo by [[Motorhead Sherwood]], and the fourth featuring [[Bunk Gardner]] playing a soprano saxophone through various electronic effects that emulate the sound of a contrabassoon doubling his solo lines.  Two more variations conclude the piece, which include a live recorded performance featuring a saxophone solo by Ian Underwood and then finally ending with a version with sped up gongs, overblown saxophones and other instruments.<ref name=Lowe/>