Joe's Garage

Joe's Garage is a 1979 rock opera by Frank Zappa. Zappa self-deprecatingly described the album as a "stupid little story about how the government is going to do away with music." Originally released as two separate studio albums on Zappa Records, the project was later remastered and reissued as a triple album box set, Joe's Garage, Acts I, II & III, in 1987. The story is told by a character identified as the "Central Scrutinizer" narrating the story of Joe, an average adolescent male, who forms a garage rock band, has unsatisfying relationships with women, gives all of his money to a government assisted and insincere religion, explores sexual activities with appliances, and is imprisoned. After being released from prison into a dystopian society in which music itself has been criminalized, he lapses into insanity.

The album encompasses a large spectrum of musical styles, while its lyrics often feature satirical or humorous commentary on American society and politics. It addresses themes of individualism, free will, censorship, the music industry and human sexuality, while criticizing government and religion, and satirizing Catholicism and Scientology. Joe's Garage is noted for its use of xenochrony, a recording technique that takes guitar solos from older live recordings and overdubs them onto new studio recordings. All of the guitar solos on the album are xenochronous except for "Crew Slut" and "Watermelon in Easter Hay", a signature song that Zappa has described as the best song on the album, and according to his son Dweezil, the best guitar solo his father ever played.

Joe's Garage (song)

"Joe's Garage" was a single on Frank Zappa'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 Norway and Sweden (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, 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.

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 and would play the same simple song. This was a mocking commentary on many garage and punk bands 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 for some unexplained reason soon after the band broke up. Eventually they're playing in the garage so loud a neighbor calls the police on them. 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 easy and tells him to "stick to church oriented activities." another commentary about how adults of the era felt religion was a good cleanser of the evil sins of rock. This line delivered by the Central Scrutinizer also introduces the next song on the album "Catholic Girls."

G.I. Joe's

G.I. Joe's was a privately owned retailer of sporting goods, ready-to-wear clothing, and auto parts, operating in the Northwestern United States. Founded in 1952, the company had as many as 31 stores, located in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. It was based in Wilsonville, Oregon. In 2007, the company changed its name to Joe’s. In 2009, it filed for bankruptcy and was liquidated.

20th century history

G.I. Joe’s began in 1952 when Edward Orkney purchased army surplus sleeping bags and then set up a tent in Portland, Oregon, to sell them to the public. Orkney sold out of the sleeping bags and then started selling other army surplus merchandise in a store that then doubled in size by 1956, making it Portland's largest retailer of sporting goods and outdoor gear.

During the 1960s, Orkney transitioned the company away from military surplus and towards an eclectic combination of sporting goods, automotive parts, and hardware; the 1970s saw the company become a chain within the Portland metropolitan area, with its line of merchandise expanding to include housewares, lawn and garden supplies, and apparel. In 1976, Orkney died and his son, David Orkney, took over the business. A distribution center was built in 1979 in Wilsonville, with that facility expanded in 1986. G.I. Joe's opened its eighth store, located in Eugene, Oregon, in 1983. At the time, the company also operated 16 The Jean Machine stores, and the two chains had combined annual revenue of $68 million in 1982.