Over-Nite Sensation, released in the fall of 1973, was one of the records that lifted Frank Zappa out of cult status. It was his first gold album, and while most of the songs retain the musician’s characteristic eccentrically satirical tone, they have a greater degree of popular appeal than most of Zappa’s previous work. Among the highlights of the album is “Zomby Woof.” The song is particularly complicated, and freely mixes the sounds of heavy metal, jazz, 1970s pop electronica, and horn parts that would not be out of place in a Chicago song. As Kelly Fisher Lowe has observed, the lyrics (“I might snatch you up screamin’ through the window all nekkid/An’ do it to you on the roof, don’t mess with the/ZOMBY WOOF”) reflect Zappa’s “obsession with cheesy fifties horror film references … neatly juxtaposing them with a story of morning-after regret.”

A Deruchie