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You Are What You Is is an album by Frank Zappa. It was originally released as a two-record set in 1981 and later by Rykodisc as a 20-song CD. The album relies on a heavy use of overdubbing. This album was the first one to feature material recorded using Zappa's home studio Utility Muffin Research Kitchen.

The title track "You Are What You Is" is an up-tempo pop rock style song that was released as a music video in 1984. Although the film clip used advanced colour graphics on normal dance and singing type footage, its circulation was restricted due to parts of it where an actor, who was made to look like Ronald Reagan, was sitting in what looked like an electric chair whilst applying hair creme and singing. The song also contained the word nigger, which likely also had an effect on its broadcast.

The album was first issued on CD by EMI in the mid 1980s, albeit only in the UK and Japan. It received a worldwide release on both Ryko and Zappa Records CD in 1990, and was standardized under the Ryko banner in 1995. However, the digital master prepared for both the original Ryko/Zappa release and the later Ryko 1995 release suffered from several severe audio problems that appear to be caused by an overuse of digital techniques like compression and reverb, and also contained a shortened version of the track "Dumb All Over." In 1998, the problems of these previous CD issues were fixed in a "silent remaster", and the guitar solo from "Dumb All Over" was mostly restored.

Track listing

1. "Teen-Age Wind" – 3:02
2. "Harder Than Your Husband" – 2:28
3. "Doreen" – 4:44
4. "Goblin Girl" – 4:07
5. "Theme from the 3rd Movement of Sinister Footwear" – 3:34
6. "Society Pages" – 2:27
7. "I'm a Beautiful Guy" – 1:56
8. "Beauty Knows No Pain" – 3:02
9. "Charlie's Enormous Mouth" – 3:36
10. "Any Downers?" – 2:08
11. "Conehead" – 4:24
12. "You Are What You Is" – 4:23
13. "Mudd Club" – 3:11
14. "The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing" – 3:10
15. "Dumb All Over" – 5:45
16. "Heavenly Bank Account" – 3:44
17. "Suicide Chump" – 2:49
18. "Jumbo Go Away" – 3:43
19. "If Only She Woulda" – 3:48
20. "Drafted Again" – 3:07

Personnel

• Tommy Mars – Keyboards, Vocals
• David Ocker – Clarinet (Bass), Clarinet
• Mark Pinske – Vocals, Engineer
• Motorhead Sherwood – Sax (Tenor), Vocals
• Allen Sides – Engineer
• Craig "Twister" Stewart – Harmonica
• Denny Walley – Vocals, Slide Guitar
• Ray White – Guitar (Rhythm), Vocals
• Ahmet Zappa – Vocals
• Moon Unit Zappa – Vocals

• Jo Hansch – Mastering
• Dennis Sager – Digital Engineer
• Santi Rubio – ?
• Amy Bernstein – Artwork
• John Livzey – Photography, Cover Photo
• Thomas Nordegg – Engineer
• John Vince – Artwork, Graphic Design
• Ed Mann – Percussion

• Jimmy Carl Black – Vocals
• Ike Willis – Guitar (Rhythm), Vocals
• Bob Stone – Remixing, Digital Remastering
• Arthur Barrow – Bass
• George Douglas – Assistant Engineer
• Frank Zappa – Arranger, Composer, Vocals, Producer, Main Performer, Guitar
• Bob Harris – Boy Soprano, Trumpet
• David Logeman – Drums
• Steve Vai – Strat Abuse

Notes

• "The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing" was covered by The Persuasions on their 2000 tribute to Zappa.

• A music video was shot for the title track, featuring a Ronald Reagan lookalike given the death penalty by electric chair. MTV rarely played the video because of this, although it turned up during an episode of Beavis and Butt-head. It was also included in Zappa's VHS release Video from Hell.

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• Frank Zappa albums
• 1981 albums
• Double albums