Ship Arriving Too Late

Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch is the album with Frank Zappa's biggest single hit “Valley Girl”. Written and recorded with his then 14-year-old daughter Moon Unit Zappa, the song conquered the Californian poppers of the early 1980s with their affected slang: Valspeak, the US top 40. In 1983, there was a film of the same name with 18-year-old Nicolas Cage and Deborah Foreman. Zappa on page B of the original LP contrasts the pop appeal of “Valley Girl” with the hyper-complex 12-minute “Drowning Witch”, on which he processes TV melodies and Stravinsky alike.