Release
Joe's Garage was initially released in separate units, beginning with the single LP Act I in September 1979. For the album artwork, Zappa was photographed in blackface, holding a mop. The gatefold sleeve of Act I was designed by John Williams, and featured a collage, which included a naked Maya, vague technical drawings, pyramids and fingers on the fret of a guitar. The lyric insert featured similar illustrations, which related to the content of the songs and storyline. The title track was released as a single, with "The Central Scrutinizer" as its B-side. It did not chart.
Act I peaked at #27 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart. It was followed by the double album Acts II & III in November. The gatefold of Acts II & III featured collages taken from a medical journal, while the cover for Acts II & III featured a makeup artist applying blackface makeup to Zappa's face. Acts II & III peaked at #53 on the Pop Albums chart.
Joe's Garage was reissued in 1987 as a triple album, combining Acts I, II & III into a single box set, and as a double album on compact disc. The song "Wet T-Shirt Night" received two alternate titles, when the album was released on CD: the libretto referred to the song as "The Wet T-Shirt Contest", while the back cover referred to the song as "Fembot in a Wet T-Shirt". In an interview, Zappa explained that the "fembot" was the name given to a female robot in an episode of the TV series The Six Million Dollar Man. Additionally, the instrumental "Toad-O Line" was renamed "On the Bus". The Central Scrutinizer monologue at the end of "Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up", which concludes the story's first act, was indexed as its own track on the CD reissue, under the title "Scrutinizer Postlude".
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