Though the title song [on Joe's Garage, Act 1] is a delightful history of every garage band that ever came out of rock & roll, the album is marred by a fault that has dogged Zappa's career since its beginning: sheer overindulgence. The narrative, otherwise perceptive and satiric, is weighed down with an overtext supplied by a computer voice dubbed The Central Scrutinizer, an icon which represents the establishment.

In both the album notes and the spoken narration, Zappa uses the Scrutinizer to say that higher authority is trying to a) do away with music; b) enslave the population through use of music. Forget the paradox; despite the pun (the Scrutinizer is screwing us, see?) these tract-like ravings don't in any way illuminate the high-schoolish (he admits it) plot.

Besides, with music co-opted by huge conglomerated labels, and with punk groups graduating to the money-making ranks of New...