Trouble: Trouble Every Day / More Trouble Every Day

The Mothers of Invention: Trouble Every Day

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Frank Zappa: More Trouble Every Day (Swaggert Version)

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Here we have two versions of the same song--though with different titles and very different arrangements--from opposite ends of Frank Zappa's career. The first track, "Trouble Every Day", comes from the first Mothers of Invention album, 1965's Freak Out. Infused with themes of race, violence, social injustice, and sensationalist journalism, the lyrics are, sadly, timeless.

In later years, Zappa revisited the song, speeding it up, addressing current events, and retitling it "More Trouble Every Day". The version here comes from his last tour in 1988, and was released on the album The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life. Like several songs on the album, Jimmy Swaggert is the main target of Zappa's ire. The '80s were a kind of golden age for hypocritical television evangelists. And for Zappa, it was like shooting fish in a barrel.

Sadly, Zappa passed away in 1993. One wonders what he would have produced were he still with us today.