The Mothers of Invention, "Weasels Ripped My Flesh" (Reprise, 1970)

A quick look at the cover tells you this is one of those love-it-or-hate-it albums: The comical or disturbing image, depending on your point of view, of a merry-looking gentleman apparently shaving. Only his razor turns out to be a ferret-looking animal that's sinking its teeth into the guy's jugular.

Likewise, the music (and other sounds) on the Mothers of Invention's "Weasels Ripped My Flesh" is divisive. Some of it skirts on the fringes of pop, rock, jazz and blues; some of it pretty much escapes definition. But that was the story most of the time with Mothers leader Frank Zappa, who (like that other Frank) did things his way.

"Weasels" represents the last album issued by the band that launched Zappa's career, at least until the archives opened nearly two decades later. It anthologizes material recorded but never released before Zappa disbanded the Mothers in the summer of 1969.

Frank assembled "Weasels" as a series of counterpoints, sequencing the tracks as a series of contrasting styles. He launched the album in the avant-garde realm with the cacophonous hornfest called "Didja Get Any Onya," which features a young Lowell George singing (sort of) and giving a spiel in a German accent, a regular routine onstage during his short tenure with the Mothers. On the Rykodisc CD release of "Weasels," the song is expanded to include a section that's appeared elsewhere titled "Charles Ives," after one of the composers who was a big influence on Zappa.

"Onya" segues into a cover of Little Richard's "Directly from My Heart to You," sung by the late Don "Sugarcane" Harris (previously half of the duo Don and Dewey) and featuring his violin playing. The song represents one of Zappa's very few forays into straight blues and, as such, is one of the more accessible tracks on the album.

That's not quite the case with the succeeding "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Sexually Aroused Gas Mask," which sounds as bizarre as the title implies, especially Roy Estrada's falsetto "pitched mouth noises." The recording was taken from the Mothers' legendary Royal Festival Hall concert in London in October 1968, a show that appeared 25 years later as the album "Ahead of Their Time," but lacking "Gas Mask" because it appeared elsewhere.

"Toads of the Short Forest" starts as one of those charming little Zappa ditties, then shifts abruptly into some harsh live improvisation. "Get a Little" is a wah pedal-and-feedback guitar solo by Frank, recorded at a club in the Bronx in '69.

"The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue," named after the jazz multi-instrumentalist, explores modern jazz in a way that's quintessential Zappa. "Dwarf Nebula Processional March & Dwarf Nebula" is structured along the lines of "Toads," a nice tune interrupted by studio experimentation.

"My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama" is a great parody of the "us vs. them" mentality of early rock 'n' roll, and it plays like a fairly straightforward rock tune, except for a horn-driven interlude. The song appeared in a different version as a single (or at least, that's what some sources say) in 1968.

"Oh No" first appeared as one of the instrumental sections on Zappa's solo montage, "Lumpy Gravy," in 1968. On the "Weasels" version, original Mothers vocalist Ray Collins delivers Frank's response to John Lennon's "All You Need Is Love": "You say that you think you know the meaning of love/I don't really think it can be told."

"The Orange County Lumber Truck" also comes from the Festival Hall concert and is available in full-length glory on "Ahead of Their Time," on which Zappa's energetic guitar solo goes on for quite a while longer. On "Weasels," it abruptly shifts into the title track and what amounts to the final statement from the Mothers of Invention: two minutes of ear-splitting feedback from the tail end of a concert in Birmingham, England.

Zappa enthusiasts always have enjoyed "Weasels" for the variety it offers, but novices might find the going a bit tough with all the stylistic shifts, many of them veering way out into left field.

Also noteworthy about "Weasels" is its connection to Little Feat: George and Estrada were original members of that band, and the late Neon Park, who's responsible for the unforgettable "Weasels" cover, went on to do a good bit of the Feat's album art. (Deborah Chesher shot the photo of Lowell on the inside of "Waiting for Columbus." Check out her blog.)