One Of The Oddest Songs About Montana Turns 50

There are few songs about Montana that are talked about or can be remembered by anyone at anytime on the planet. In fact you can count them on a single hand.

In this case is one of the oddest songs ever recorded and offered to the world.

Get our free mobile app

'Montana' from Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention turns 50 years old on September 7. It's the final offering from the 1973 album 'Overnite Sensation'.

It's hard to pin-point the exact meaning of the song other than the fact that Frank just wants to move to Montana to be a "Dental Floss Tycoon" on his mini-horse, raising tiny crops of dental floss bringing a tiny box to "sell uptown".

via GIPHY

Anyone knowing that being a dental floss tycoon and farming the product is ridiculous and not real begs the question of the meaning behind Zappa's composition. Zappa being nuanced but a very astute social commentator, he made a lot of people think about what all his songs said about the current climate of the 1970's.

Some offer some opinions of the commentary of the song saying it's Zappa's thoughts of the labor climate of Montana in the seventies and the state's rejection of some employment policies other states adopted at the time. If that was the case, it would be merely a song about leaving the rat race behind moving on to greener pastures Montana would provide.

In any case, it's impossible to ask Frank Zappa what it's really all about as he passed away from prostate cancer just shy of his 53rd birthday in 1993.

Interrupt what you will of the oddest song about Montana, but just give it a listen and enjoy the dreams of raising dental floss in The Treasure State.