MY MOTHER IS A SPACE CADET
Speaking of Frank Zappa, he is a musical genius who will be discussed at greater length some other time. But one of Zappa’s most successful ventures from the standpoint of record sales is the song “Valley Girl” that he put together with his daughter Moon Zappa. Behind a rock beat with Dad singing a chorus that said in part “Okay, fine, fer sure, fer sure / She’s a Valley Girl, and there is no cure”, Moon delivered a whiny, stream-of-consciousness monologue in “valleyspeak” featuring teenage slang of the time. Several phrases from the song entered into popular culture, like “grody to the max” and “gag me with a spoon”.
Moon Zappa had a follow-up song called “My Mother is a Space Cadet” where she was accompanied by her brother Dweezil Zappa on guitar. I can only remember hearing the song once or maybe twice, and there didn’t seem to be a lot to it; but the song kept replaying in my head for what seemed like decades.
(March 2013)
