Frank Zappa's Revenge

London Symphony Orchestra Vol. I & II

2011-04-22T15:44:00.003-05:00

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If we are to listen to what Frank Zappa said, we are not supposed to like the London Symphony Orchestra recording. But Frank’s castigation of the recording is largely based on what he describes as his less-than-enjoyable experience in working with the orchestra, an experience that tainted his perspective on orchestras in general for nearly all of the rest of his life.

To get a grasp on this, it’s worth reviewing the process, because it not only reveals all the work that goes into producing and recording symphonic music, but the composer’s ego as well, an ego just as big as the egos he criticizes.

In his autobiography, Zappa talks about how he used to get a great thrill writing music on paper, largely because as he wrote the notes on the paper, he could hear the tune in his head, which, he noted, is “a completely different sensation from the ordinary listening experience.”

It is time consuming work, particularly when it comes to writing the entire score. “One page of full orchestral score that takes 45 seconds to play can take 16 hours to draw,” Frank says in his autobiography.

When the score is written, the next step is copying each individual part so that sheet music can be provided to the appropriate musician. A copyist is hired to do this and is paid a lot of money to do it. And who pays for the copyist? The composer and it doesn’t take long while reading anything about Zappa for you to learn that he didn't like paying people a lot of money.

By the time he encountered the LSO, he had already had a series of negative experiences with various orchestras in the Netherlands, Vienna and Denmark. Those experiences cost him several hundred thousand dollars, all for naught. To gather the money needed for a copyist and all the other production costs for recording and editing, Zappa used income from the songs “Dinah Moe Humm,” “Titties and Beer,” and “Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow.” That provided him with enough cash to complete the LSO project, the finished product of which he describes as “performances which come off like high-class ‘demos’ of what actually resides in the scores.”

Kent Nagano, who conducted the performances, recognized the complexity of the music, but thought the orchestra performed it well given the short period they had for rehearsing. In Barry Miles’ book, Nagano said: “I think it’s fair to say that the London Symphony, when they heard they were doing Frank Zappa’s music, had no idea what that really meant in terms of the complexity. But I will say that they were really quite phenomenal; they worked so hard and I really fell in love with the orchestra, just as a group.”

Any friction between Zappa and the orchestra might be attributed to the way he rearranged musician seating, often making changes from one rehearsal to another, an action he was cautioned against because musician seating is a fairly standard and established item among orchestras. To disrupt this without any meaningful explanation put Zappa in a position of leading with his chin, as he was wont to do far too frequently.

And while Zappa complains in his autobiography of musicians drinking during the recording breaks, Nagano and others do not corroborate his description of events. Interestingly too is the fact that while Zappa was essentially uninterested in the live performances – he thought of them as rehearsals prior to the recording – and criticized them, Nagano and others thought the performances went exceptionally well. And something that Zappa fails to mention, the orchestra itself gave Zappa a standing ovation. You don’t see an orchestra do that very often.

Despite Zappa lambasting his final product, when you read what others say at Kill Ugly Radio about the two-CD set, you find comments that reflect that just maybe this vile recording actually contains some very enjoyable music and pretty cool interpretations of more familiar pieces.

As ‘jim” mentions at KUR, the orchestral version of “Envelopes” becomes “so drastically mutated” from the release on “Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch” that “it trumps it.” Despite that, jim and I both love the version on SATLTSADW.

“Bob in Dacron” almost takes on a story-like quality to the music, although one must remain dubious about this as often the titles Zappa gave to some of his more serious compositions were so absurd and irrelevant to the material that it seemed he was intentionally giving them nonsensical titles to diminish their sincerity.

Paul Semptschi describes the recording as one that grows on you and certainly one that has a rightful place in Zappa’s repertoire. And I agree with Marco J who opines if there is really something wrong and disappointing about the LSO sessions it’s the recording itself. I, too, thought it was a bit cold and stretched. While I agree with the assessment that “The Yellow Shark” is a much warmer recording more skillfully performed, I do think the LSO’s performance is on par with those on “Orchestral Favorites,” despite the latter also being better recorded and mixed.

True, as Marco J points out, the LSO sessions lack humor in any sense. Even with “Strictly Genteel,” one has a sense of a well-played piece that nonetheless fails to express any humor or satire to the listener. In fact, it comes off like a nice piece of sentimentality, one that you can enjoy over brandy with your grandmother.

But should these pieces, particularly the ones finishing the recording, be “humorous?” When you think about it, aren’t “Strictly Genteel” and “Bogus Pomp” more than just tangentially associated with “200 Motels”? For many of us, our first experience with these compositions occurred while listening to that soundtrack, which was filled with prurient humor. I don’t know. Perhaps someone can weigh in on this.

I rate this with three of five stars. Add your own rating below.

Two-CD set released April, 1995, Rykodisc; Recorded Jan. 12, 13, and 14, 1983.

Track listing:

Disc One
Bob In Dacron
• First Movement (5:36)
• Second Movement (6:32)
Sad Jane
• First Movement (4:47)
• Second Movement (5:02)
Mo 'n Herb's Vacation
• First Movement (4:47)
• Second Movement (10:04)
• Third Movement (12:50)

Disc Two
Envelopes (04:04)
Pedro's Dowry (10:25)
Bogus Pomp (24:31)
Strictly Genteel (06:56)

Personnel:

The London Symphony Orchestra
Kent Nagano, conductor
Frank Zappa, composer and arranger
David Ocker, solo clarinet
Chad Wackerman, drum set
Ed Mann, featured percussionist

Captain Beefheart, Jan. 15, 1941 – Dec. 17, 2010

2010-12-19T12:34:00.000-06:00

Despite this blog being about Frank Zappa’s catalog, and despite I haven’t devoted any previous posts to other musicians who have played with Zappa or were founding members of the Mothers of Invention, I thought it appropriate to write something about Don Vliet, a.k.a Captain Beefheart. In keeping with the subject matter of this blog, however, I will stick with information about Vliet connected with Zappa.

Their relationship was an amazing collaborative effort that goes back to their high school days; it was also an at times awkward and strained relationship that, based on some key comments made individually by each, hit patches of mutual alienation.

“I spent more time with Don (Captain Beefheart) Van Vliet when I was in high school than after he got into ‘show business,’” Zappa writes in his autobiography. “Life on the road with Captain Beefheart was definitely not easy … The last time I saw Don was 1980 or ’81. He stopped by one of our rehearsals. He looked pretty beat … I suppose he is still living in Northern California, but not recording anymore. He bought some property up there – someplace where he could see whales swim by.”

Vliet was more terse. Speaking to Musician Magazine for an article published in February 1994 about Zappa’s passing, Vliet said, “I knew him for 35 years, and in the end the relationship was private.”

Beefheart was also connected with one of the biggest myths about Zappa, the shit-eating event that allegedly occurred during a fabricated gross-out contest between Zappa and Beefheart on stage.

According to Neil Slaven, author of the Zappa biography Electric Don Quixote: The Definitive Story of Frank Zappa, Vliet’s unique way of interacting with the rest of the world began very early. He told interviewers that his parents were his “gas station,” as well as that his musical interests began quite early at age 3 when he first learned the harmonica. A truant most of his school life, Vliet’s artistic talents developed early as well, an avocation that occupied him in his later years until his death.

Probably the most significant collaboration between Zappa and Vliet was the production of the album “Trout Mask Replica,” which became the quintessential recording of Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band. Vliet was adamant about not being marketed as a “freak” (or being marketed at all for that matter), which seemed a bit ironic at the least, if not downright “disingenuous” as Slaven writes in Electric Don Quixote.

“I was told by Frank that I would have, if you want to call it, special treatment, that I would not be advertised or promoted with any of the other groups on the label,” Vliet told Slaven. “But somehow, I guess he (Zappa) got hard-pressed for cash, and decided that he’d round me up and sell me as one of the animal crackers. I didn’t like the idea of being labeled and put aside as just another freak.”

Labeled as a freak? As Slaven notes, given the rather curious attire Beefheart and his band wore and “marketed” themselves as, Vliet’s fear of being labeled a freak comes off as a stretch.

If there were any true animosity between the two musicians, the bulk of the evidence suggests that Zappa was the cause. Still, there continued to be collaborative efforts, everything from Vliet’s vocals on “Willie the Pimp” on “Hot Rats,” the live recording “Bongo Fury,” and even more arcane and hidden contributions such as Vliet’s harmonica in “San Ber’Dino” from “One Size Fits All,” where he is identified in the credits as Bloodshot Rollin’ Red. Zappa also went with Beefheart to help manage the Magic Band for a performance in Amougies, Belgium at a festival where Zappa played with Pink Floyd, among other groups (Zappa denied having ever played with Pink Floyd at Amougies despite recorded evidence).

Having said that, Vliet had his own issues as well, particularly when it came to signing contracts, something that Zappa noted that Vliet did without even remotely considering what he had been obligating himself to via his signature.

I’m not familiar with what happened to Vliet following the Bong Fury tour. He dropped out of the music scene for the most part to take up his painting. I had no idea that he had developed multiple sclerosis until much later. When I learned that he had died, my first thought was of “Ella Guru.”

If you’re interested in some live recordings of Beefheart and the Magic Band, you might want to visit here. The album art displayed with this post comes from this live recording.

Vitamin Deficiency

2010-10-02T17:19:00.001-05:00

This surreptitious recording is a compilation of a few rather poor quality audience recordings of shows Zappa did with the Mothers of Invention circa the Flo and Eddie years. The performances include one from the Ahoy, in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, from Nov. 27, 1971; another from the Santa Monica Civic Center on Aug. 21, 1970; and some studio material.

The first 13 tracks are from the Ahoy, and as the notes that came with the boot say, it’s a “worse than live” recording. It was released as the bootleg “Poot Face Boogie,” and misidentified the venue as being in Amsterdam. It’s typical Flo and Eddie fair. The crowd’s clapping along with “Who Are the Brain Police” makes it very difficult to hear the intro and most of the song. This version was decidedly more upbeat than the studio version from “Freak Out!” It has a rollicking guitar solo, but the recording is so poor, it’s a strain to hear it.

With the next song, the recording switches to an early studio version of “My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama,” the 1969 single release. There is a brief interview in which Zappa explains that it’s “better” to explain the band’s various sexual peccadilloes through song rather than to let the stories come out in other forms. This is followed by another studio version of “Dog Breath in the Year of the Plague” from “Uncle Meat.”

With the next track, we’re back live in Rotterdam with the song “Once Upon a Time Sofa.” Zappa announces the song will be sung in Dutch and features Mark Volman. This is similar to the routine recorded from the Rainbow Theater in London from Dec. 10, 1971, and which was released on YCDTOSA Vol. 1 as “Once Upon a Time.” However, the bootleg version has the complete musical number, rendering an early version of Sofa #1 that was to be released later on “Once Size Fits All.”

The song “Stick It Out” is just a bunch of prurient screaming from Howard and Mark, aka Flo and Eddie. “Divan” provides more Dutch vocal porn that was common with the shtick this particular touring group was famous for.

“Lightning-Rod Man” is a 1966 recording of Lowell George & the Factory, produced by and featuring Frank Zappa, officially released on the album Lightning-Rod Man in 1993. Has kind of a Captain Beefheart feel to it.

The next series of songs on this bootleg are allegedly from the Santa Monica Civic Center on Aug. 21, 1970, but the first track, “Call Any Vegetable,” has Frank welcoming the audience to El Monte Legion Stadium. So this recording had apparently been long thought to be a 1971 one show from El Monte Legion Stadium. Notes with the boot, however, suggest “it's clearly the 1970 band on the record, and the recording has been identified as Santa Monica.”

I say hmmm, because this version of “Call Any Vegetable” is very similar to the one released on “Just Another Band From L.A.”, which was recorded from a 1971 show at the Pauley Pavilion at UCLA. It wasn’t uncommon for vinyl boot releases to have misinformation on the album cover, such as incorrectly identifying the venue. This item was no exception, but it remains curious that the cover art, which was based on a Cal Shenkel poster for the 1971 Pauley Pavilion, also asserts that the show was from El Monte Legion Stadium.

This half of the boot is a better recording than the first half, although it is still an audience recording. Zappa’s guitar work comes through more clearly.

Flo and Eddie do a decent job on “Mother People,” and it’s evident the crowd enjoyed it as well. There’s a medley of songs from “Chunga’s Revenge,” with “Would You Go All the Way?”, “Rudy Wants to Buy Yez a Drink,” and “Road Ladies.” I’ve always liked “Road Ladies,” a very basic 12-bar blues tune that Zappa can do some heavy shredding on. Mark Volman, however, is the star on this song.

Frank introduces the next series of songs by telling the crowd to imagine themselves staying at the Holiday Inn in a “dumpy little town” called Traverse City, Mich., and the band members are about to go out to the local bar to get some girls. Pretty funny that they call Traverse City a dumpy little town, which it certainly was back in 1970. This eventually leads into the routine made famous on the Fillmore album.

There an obligatory version of “Happy Together,” but it’s pretty lame.

All in all, this isn’t a very inspiring recording. Besides being a poor quality audience boot, the material isn’t that great. Unless you’re the type that absolutely has to have it, I would skip it.

I rate this with two of five stars. Add your own rating below.

Track listing

1. Peaches En Regalia
2. Tears Begin to Fall
3. She Painted Up Her Face
4. Half a Dozen Provocative Squats/Shove It Right In
5. Who Are the Brain Police
6. My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama
7. Interview
8. Dog Breath in the Year of the Plague
9. Once Upon a Time Sofa
10. Stick It Out
11. Divan
12. Interview
13. The Factory Lightning-Rod Man
14. Call Any Vegetable
15. The Air
16. Dog Breath
17. Mother People
18. You Didn't Try to Call Me
19. Would You Go All the Way?
20. Rudy Wants to Buy Yez a Drink
21. Road Ladies
22. What Will This Morning Bring Me This Evening
23. What Kind of Girl Do You Think We Are?
24. Bwana Dik
25. Latex Solar Beef
26. Daddy, Daddy, Daddy [partial]
27. Do You Like My New Car?
28. Happy Together [Bonner/Gordon]
29. What Will This Evening Bring Me This Morning?

Personnel

Frank Zappa, Mark Volman, Howard Kaylan, Jeff Simmons (Santa Monica), Aynsley Dunbar, Ian Underwood, Don Preston (Rotterdam), Jim Pons (Rotterdam) and George Duke

Lawrence University Chapel, Appleton, Wis. 1969

2010-09-19T11:14:00.003-05:00

While this bootleg is a bit rough around the edges in terms of sound quality, it contains some of Zappa’s most rhythmically intense and interesting interpretations of early Mothers of Invention of material. Sure, it has some killer guitar work, like the solo in “Little House I Used to Live In,” as well as Zappa playing on guitar the piano part for “Aybe Sea.” But what really stands out in this recording is the intensity and articulation of the rhythm section. In fact, Frank was reported to comment that the concerts he had played in Appleton were two of the best performances the band ever gave.

There were several permutations of this concert bootlegged, none of which appear to have the entire show. The boot “Days of Yore,” for example, has just five tracks from the concert, with a sixth, spurious track added from a Berlin concert 5 years after Appleton. The tracks were identified as: 1) Some Ballet Music; 2) Uncle Meat; 3) Eye of Agamotto; 4) My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama; 5) Clap & Vomit; and 6) Dickie’s Such an Asshoe (from Deutschlandhalle, Berlin, Sept. 14, 1974).

A different boot, “Mothers of Invention Appleton Album,” included six tracks from Appleton, but also had an added track from a different show from about a month later. The tracks included were: 1) Eye of Agamotto; 2) My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama; 3) Clap & Vomit; 4)The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue; 5) Hungry Freaks, Daddy; 6) The Return of the Son of the Hunchback Duke; and 7) The Story of A Pound for a Brown on the Bus (from a June 5 performance same year at Guild Hall in Portsmouth, UK).

The “Appleton Album” boot did promise a follow-up release, which came in the form of “Appleton Volume 2.” That release included the last half of the show: 1) Hungry Freaks, Daddy; 2) The Return of the Son of the Hunchback Duck (this also identified that included a medley of Little House I Used to Live In); 3) Help I’m a Rock; and 4) King Kong.

A fourth variation appeared under the title “Got Zapped Back in ’69,” which provided some spurious titles to some of the concert tracks. As pointed out at the site I linked above, the opening number was titled “Flute Solo (from The Adventures of Greggary Peccary),” a bit of misinformation because Greggary Peccary hadn’t been written at the time.

You can see by the track listing below that the recording I’m referring to includes the entire show and provides a bit more detail of some of the other tunes that were included in the show. For example, the song misidentified as “Flute Solo” Frank introduces as some ballet music that the band had made part of its live shows at the time and which included some bizarre dancing on the stage.

What I find really amazing about this concert is the complexity of the music and its flawless delivery. And just as interesting is the audience’s response to the show: they loved it! Art Tripp during the introduction to “The Eye of Agamotto” is brilliant.

I rate this recording four out of five stars. Add your own rating below.

Lawrence University Chapel, Appleton, Wis., May 23, 1969.

Track listing:

1. intro
2. Some Ballet Music
3. Uncle Meat
4. Eye Of Agamotto
5. My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama
6. Clap & Vomit (audience participation)
7. Kung Fu
8. Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue (q: Teddy Bears' Picnic, Tea For Two, It Had To Be You, Octandre)
9. Hungry Freaks Daddy
10. Little House I Used To Live In
11. Aybe Sea
12. Transylvania Boogie / Help I'm A Rock / Transylvania Boogie
13. King Kong
14. Igor's Boogie / Little Doo-Wop

Personnel:

Frank Zappa – guitar, vocals
Jimmy Carl Black – drums, percussion
Roy Estrada – bass, vocals
Bunk Gardener – woodwinds
Buzz Gardener – trumpet, flugel horn
Lowell George – rhythm guitar, vocals
Euclid James "Motorhead" Sherwood – woodwinds, vocals
Art Tripp – percussion
Ian Underwood – woodwinds, piano, keyboards

Them or Us

2010-05-09T15:59:00.004-05:00

Some consider “Them or Us” Zappa’s last studio album, inasmuch as a typical rock studio album. But “Thing-Fish” was released just a month later and it, too, is largely a studio album. Both albums contain live elements as well, despite the material being predominately recorded in a studio. However, with Zappa, it’s difficult to find any “studio” album that didn’t have some live material in the mix. If one wants to differentiate between “Them or Us” and “Thing-Fish,” the former is Zappa’s last mostly-studio release general song material, whereas “Thing-Fish” is a studio release of a themed, concept album reflecting a failed attempt by Zappa to produce a Broadway show.

But a lot of that is just blah-blah-blah.

“Them or Us” presents us with a wide variety of material, from the doo-wop cover opener “The Closer You Are,” to the hard-rock blues cover of The Allman Bros. “Whippin’ Post.” There’s even some of Zappa’s more complex material, such as “Sinister Footwear.” Originally released as a double album, it goes all over the place. Not a bad release, as it has some gems, but not a great one among Zappa’s releases either. Unless you’re a collector and must have every Zappa release possible – such as with my curse – you can easily skip this one. Most every tune on it, including the really good ones, can be found on other releases and compilations, often with better arrangements and performances. Except, perhaps, “Ya Honza,” and “Marque-son’s Chicken.” But more on them in a moment.

The opening cover song by Earl Lewis and Morgan “Bobby” Robinson, for example, can be found on YCDTOSA Vol. 4, and the second song, “In France”, shows up as well on YCDTOSA Vol. 3. Of course, the difference being with the version of “In France” on this release you get Johnny “Guitar” Watson along with Napoleon Murphy Brock, who are not in the YCDTOSA version.

Then along comes “Ya Honza,” which is “Sofa” from “One Size Fits All” with the lyrics backwards, as well as backward fragments of “You’re a Lonely Little Girl” from “We’re Only In It For The Money.” Among Zappa’s studio tracks, this is one of his best. This interesting twist on two of his earlier songs is accompanied by a hard-driving guitar rhythm and ends with a searing shred of a guitar solo that knifes through your brain like a sonic scalpel. You aren’t going to find this track any where else.

This arrangement of “Sharleena” is better than the performance on YCDTOSA Vol. 3, even if it does have Dweezil playing on it, but it’s not a reason to buy this release.

While “Sinister Footwear II” shows up in many places, this particular performance – mixed from two shows – is really interesting. The first half comes from a Nov. 15, 1981 performance at the Painter’s Mill Music Fair in Owings Mill, Md. The guitar solo is taken from a June 23, 1982 performance at Sporthalle, Boeblingen, Germany. It is a huge, soaring solo with frenetic picking and maniacal string bending driven by Chad Wackerman’s relentless drumming.

There’s nothing particularly exciting about the next track, “Truck Driver Divorce,” other than the segue guitar solo, which is actually a solo from a performance of “Zoot Allures” from the Nov. 17, 1981 show at The Ritz in New York City. It’s an odd splice of the tape, as it appears to me that these two songs share nothing in common musically.

Next comes one of Zappa’s best straight-up hard rock songs, “Stevie’s Spanking.” Zappa takes a back seat on this one, playing rhythm guitar while Steve Vai – of whom the song is about – plays the first solo and Dweezil performs the second solo. This song also demonstrates how pointless it is sometimes to call a Zappa album a studio album. This performance is pieced together with at least three segments from shows in Minneapolis, New York City, and Munich, Germany.

Zappa throws in a prurient song with “Baby Take Your Teeth Out,” from which we are thankfully relieved with the instrumental “Marque-son’s Chicken,” which, unfortunately, doesn’t turn up anywhere else.

“Planet of My Dreams” is a curious number from Zappa’s never-produced “Hunchentoot,” a play that went nowhere. But it’s a throw-away, nonetheless. “Be In My Video” doesn’t excite me much either. It’s a rip on David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance!” and the music videos of the era, and not a very sophisticated one at that. The title track gives us a decent guitar solo taken from the Stadio Communale show in Bolzano, Italy, from July 3, 1982.

The next song, “Frogs With Dirty Little Lips,” is one Zappa co-authored with his son, Ahmet. This puerile little ditty uses a Landini cadence, according to the book Cosmik Debris: The Collected History and Improvisations of Frank Zappa.

The real star of this release is the last track, The Allman Bros. classic “Whippin’ Post.” The back story on this song begins in a 1974 concert in Helsinki (see YCDTOSA Vol. 2) when a fan shouts out “Whippin’ Post!” Ten years later, Zappa has a band that can deliver and they learn this rocking blues number that not only keeps true to the Duane Allman composition, but carries Zappa’s unique signature as well. You should also compare it with the performances on “Does Humor Belong in Music” and the bootleg “Frank Zappa’s Best Band,” which covered a show in Binghampton, N.Y.

This is a decent release, but not necessarily a “must-have” for your collection. Unless, of course, you are a complete Zappa geek like I am. By the way, I would like to express my great appreciation for Román García Albertos, whose website Information Is Not Knowledge I have found to be invaluable. Check it out.

I rate this three of five stars. Add your own rating below.

Released Oct. 18, 1984, Barking Pumpkin Records/Capitol Records.

LP release:

Side One

The Closer You Are (2:58)
In France (3:30)
Ya Hozna (6:26)
Sharleena (4:33)

Side Two

Sinister Footwear II (8:40)
Truck Driver Divorce (9:03)

Side Three

Stevie’s Spanking (5:24)
Baby, Take Your Teeth Out (1:24)
Marque-son’s Chicken (7:34)
Planet Of My Dreams (1:40)

Side Four

Be In My Video (3:39)
Them Or Us (5:08)
Frogs With Dirty Little Lips (2:46)
Whipping Post (7:32)

CD release

1. The Closer You Are (2:55)
2. In France (3:33)
3. Ya Hozna (6:27)
4. Sharleena (4:33)
5. Sinister Footwear II (8:39)
6. Truck Driver Divorce (8:59)
7. Stevie’s Spanking (5:24)
8. Baby, Take Your Teeth Out (1:54)
9. Marque-son’s Chicken (7:34)
10. Planet Of My Dreams (1:37)
11. Be In My Video (3:39)
12. Them Or Us (5:23)
13. Frogs With Dirty Little Lips (2:42)
14. Whipping Post (7:32)

Personnel:

Frank Zappa – guitar, keyboards, vocals, arranger, producer, main performer, assistant
Tommy Mars – keyboards, vocals, soloist
Patrick O'Hearn – wind, bass guitar
Scott Thunes – vocals, Minimoog, synthesizer, bass guitar
Johnny “Guitar” Watson – vocals, guitar
Ray White – guitar, vocals, backing vocals, choir, chorus, harmony vocals, harmony
Moon Unit Zappa – vocals
Ed Mann – percussion
Chad Wackerman – drums, vocals
Ike Willis – vocals, backing vocals, choir, chorus, harmony vocals, harmony
Arthur Barrow – bass guitar
Napoleon Murphy Brock – saxophone, vocals, harmony vocals, harmony
Brad Cole – piano
Roy Estrada – vocals, backing vocals, choir, chorus, harmony, bass guitar
Bob Harris – keyboards, vocals, harmony vocals
Thana Harris – vocals, harmony
Steve Vai – guitar, soloist, fills
Dweezil Zappa – soloist, guitar
George Duke – keyboards, vocals, piano
Bobby Martin – keyboards, saxophone, vocals, falssetist, harmony vocals, harmonica

You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol 4

2010-05-02T13:11:00.006-05:00

With the fourth installment of the “You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore” series, Zappa returns with a song lineup from a variety of shows covering many different periods of time. And while many individual songs include parts from different performances mixed together, there are several songs that were not mixed that way, presenting an unedited version of a song from a single show. That can be a rarity with Zappa recordings.

As mentioned, Vol. 4 lacks a specific theme or show for focus, covering instead a wide array of eras and bands in much the same way Vol. 1 did. There are a few gems on this release that are special not so much because of their performances, but because they show up at all.

The first track, “Little Rubber Girl,” typifies how many of Zappa’s live songs were put together for release. The intro portion of the song comes from a 1984 show at the Bismark Theater in Chicago, while the main song is taken from the 1978 Halloween show at the Palladium in New York City. If you hear something familiar in this song, it’s because it contains a quote from “Go Cry On Somebody Else’s Shoulder,” from the debut album “Freak Out!”

The next three songs are single edits: “Stick Together” is from the Dec. 18, 1984 show at the Queen Elizabeth Theater in Vancouver, and both “My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama” and “Willie the Pimp” are from the Dec. 23, 1984 show at the Universal Amphitheater at Universal City, Calif. This performance of “MGWTKYM” is very tight and includes an intense, albeit very brief, guitar solo.

One of the intriguing items on this release is track 7, “The Evil Prince,” a song from Zappa’s ill-fated attempt at a Broadway show, “Thing-Fish.” This version is pieced together from two performances with the main portions of the song coming from the 1984 Vancouver show, and the guitar solo coming from the Sept. 24-26, 1984 shows at the Hammersmith Odeon in London. Ray White’s vocals are outstanding in this, his voice strong and clear. Zappa’s guitar solo is inspired and delicious; it’s some of his best picking.

The “Let’s Move to Cleveland Solos” include saxophonist Archie Shepp during this performance from an Oct. 28, 1984 show at the Fine Arts Center Concert Hall in Amherst, Mass. Shapp plays an inspiring solo that includes beautifully rendered melodies as well as precision squawks and squeaks that are both amazing and spot-on in terms of the composition’s structure. Allan Zavod provides the keyboard solo, an up-tempo jazz performance that I think would sound positively heavenly had it been played on a grand piano as opposed to the electronic instrument.

The interesting rarity “You Call That Music?” goes all the way back to the original Mothers of Invention as it comes from a Feb. 14, 1969 show at the McMillin Theater at Columbia University in New York City. This piece is focused on percussive instruments, something that Zappa really had an affinity for (his musical career began as a teenager playing drums).

The solos in “Pound for a Brown” are taken from the Oct. 28, 1978 show at the Palladium in New York City. Originally released on “Uncle Meat,” this song shows up frequently at Zappa shows and in many mutations (it’s one of the bonus tracks on the CD release of “Zappa in New York”). This release also has a very rare performance of “Filthy Habits,” which comes from “Sleep Dirt” and “Lather.” It is pieced together from two performances from the 1988 European leg of the ill-fated Best Band tour. Zappa’s solo on this is really filthy, and I mean that in a good way. While this sounds great on electric guitar, it’s solos like this that lead me to often wonder what Zappa’s scores would have sounded like had be become the “classical” composer that he always wanted to be.

Zappa’s relationship with Captain Beefheart was always a tortured one, but when the two high school friends clicked, they produced together some fantastic music. This “original version” of “The Torture Never Stops” from “Zoot Allures” is a prime example. Next to “Inca Roads” from “One Size Fits All,” “Torture” is one of Zappa’s most popular songs in his concert lineups, with variations of solos showing up sampled in much of his later works and releases. But this performance is really like none you’ve probably heard released anywhere else. With this May 21, 1975 performance from the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin, Texas, we get a bluesy interpretation of the song with Captain Beefheart’s guttural voice and shrieks set to a hand-clapping rhythm. Classic stuff. If you were in Austin to see that show, you witnessed something special and rare.

On Disc Two, we get a crazy performance of “Stevie’s Spanking,” which is pieced together from three European performances in 1982. Steve Vai kicks off the first solo with some maniacal shredding, with Frank following up with the second (Zappa’s solo begins at 4:41 into the song). Then at about 7:27 the two of them start shredding together, creating a sonic wall of guitar power. There’s only one other dueling guitar solo that comes close to this explosion of controlled distortion, and that is the solo during “Oh Jim” on the “Lou Reed Live” release.

We get another great solo from Frank in the next song, “Outside Now,” which comes from “Joe’s Garage.” What makes this track particularly nice is that it is taken from a single show at the Tower Theater in Upper Darby, Pa., from Nov. 10, 1984. The later track “Florentine Pogen,” a complex but very cool piece, is interestingly not only pieced together from different performances, but different bands as well: a 1974 performance in Helsinki and a 1979 show from the Hammersmith Odeon in London.

This is followed by three arcane bits that ought to please any Zappaphile. The first, “Tiny Sick Tears,” is based on the pop song “96 Tears” by ? And The Mysterians and includes a reference to Jim Morrison and The Doors’ song “The End.” What I find very interesting about this song is the way Frank describes mundane activities by using terms that reflect the described action as it really is. There are references in some biographical works that Zappa dabbled with Buddhism for a bit, and evidence of this periodically turns up in his work. The way the lyrics describe going to the kitchen and getting a raisin cookie and putting it in “your eating hole” might sound a bit stupid initially, but these concrete description of everyday activity is really quite brilliant in my view. As Zappa says on the track, “Some people would say it’s bullshit, but we love it, don’t we kids?”

And then there’s “Smell My Beard,” from a 1974 show at the Capitol Theater in Passaic, N.J. This is a sort-of quasi-spoken word bit accompanied by George Duke’s wild keyboards emitting a variety of somewhat cosmic-like sounds. This “story” leads into the next track from the same gig, “The Booger Man.” What’s a Zappa show without a bit of puerile humor?

Doo-wop fans are treated with this CD as well, with the second disc closing with a medley of this genre.

There’s a lot of good material on this release, something for just about every Zappa fan, with a smattering of nearly every major lineup. Realistically, anyone interested in Zappa could simply collect the YCDTOSA series and have a respectable representation of Zappa’s material from throughout his career.

I rate this 4.5 of five stars. Add your own rating below.

Release date: June 14, 1991 on Rykodisc

Track listings

Disc One

1. Little Rubber Girl - 2:57
2. Stick Together - 2:05
3. My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama - 3:20
4. Willie The Pimp - 2:06
5. Montana - 5:48
6. Brown Moses - 2:38
7. The Evil Prince - 7:12
8. Approximate - 1:49
9. Love Of My Life (Mudd Club Version) - 1:59
10. Let’s Move To Cleveland Solos (1984) - 7:10
11. You Call That Music? - 4:07
12. Pound For A Brown - Solos (1978) - 6:30
13. The Black Page (1984) - 5:15
14. Take Me Out To The Ball Game - 3:01
15. Filthy Habits - 5:40
16. The Torture Never Stops (Original Version) - 9:16

Disc Two

1. Church Chat - 2:00
2. Stevie’s Spanking - 10:51
3. Outside Now - 6:09
4. Disco Boy - 3:00
5. Teen-age Wind - 1:54
6. Truck Driver Divorce - 4:47
7. Florentine Pogen - 5:10
8. Tiny Sick Tears - 4:30
9. Smell My Beard - 4:31
10. The Booger Man - 2:46
11. Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy - 6:28
12. Are You Upset? - 1:30
13. Little Girl Of Mine - 1:41
14. The Closer You Are - 2:05
15. Johnny Darling - 0:52
16. No, No Cherry - 1:26
17. The Man From Utopia 1:15
18. Mary Lou - 2:16

Binghampton, N.Y., St. Patrick’s Day 1988

2010-03-17T06:10:00.009-05:00

Have we got a treat for you, boys and girls! This boot was given the moniker of “Frank Zappa’s Best Band,” and indeed, it’s the same lineup that was presented in the official release, “The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life.” This lineup did some crazy and outstanding shit during its brief incarnation – it’s also known as the last tour – and this particularly delightful example is from the St. Patrick’s Day show at the Broome County Veteran’s Arena in Binghampton, N.Y. This was a very high-quality audience recording filled with searing and down-in-the-dirt guitar solos, impeccable percussion, and a priceless capture of the band doing satirical renderings of Beatles songs, in particular songs long attributed to John Lennon.

There is also a minor political theme running through this show, as indicated by the liner notes. There are frequent, seemingly spontaneous mentions of bananas, Nicaragua, and a training exercise in Central America. All of this was in reference to Ronald Reagan’s ventures in Central American against all types of bad guys, such as Sandanistas who wanted to oust the puppet dictator we were keeping there in Nicaragua. Hence we have the brief, but poignant, “When the Lie’s So Big.”

Overall, this was a really great show. But there were some standouts in the set list. For example, there was Ike Willis doing a great job at getting the words out during “Montana” when he sings, “even though he’s a bit dinky to strap a big saddle or blanket on anyway.” Now, in the original release on “Over-nite Sensation,” this song has a killer guitar solo: not during this show. Just when you think the solo is going to begin, Ike Willis is singing away.

But then comes, “City of Tiny Lites.” This song was made for a guitar solo, and Zappa delivers one here that is just so twisted and delicious.

“A Pound for a Brown” comes along next, with its silly segue into audience participation, “Make a Sex Noise.” The band is really tight during this number, a complex instrumental filled with thematic changes and time signatures varying all over the place. Walt Fowler’s horn solo is excellent. “Make a Sex Noise” wound up on YCDTOSA Vol. 6, but when the band finishes with this diversion and returns to playing, it’s so much more interesting. It’s finished off with a scintillating guitar solo and some very beautiful piano playing by Mike Keneally.

Other tunes from this show that were later released officially include parts of “Dickie’s Such an Asshole,” which turned up on “Broadway the Hard Way.” And the brief bits including “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” and “Theme from ‘The Godfather II’” are on “The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life.”

The first CD closes with “Jesus Thinks You’re a Jerk,” a song filled with so many wonderful lyrics and which also shows up on “Broadway the Hard Way.” I think my favorite line is, “Convinced they the chosen ones, and all their parents carry guns.”

CD 2 opens with three songs from the brilliant album “Once Size Fits All.” It starts with “Florentine Pogen,” followed by a killer performance of “Andy.” The guitar solo on “Inca Roads” is good, but not outstanding. Ike Willis also briefly forgets how to count and starts to sing before Zappa’s through playing.

There are a lot of – how shall we say? – covers on the second CD, beginning with some quick quotes from “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling,” and “Theme from ‘The Godfather II.’” After a brief interruption of sorts with “Who Needs the Peace Corps” from “We’re Only In It For The Money,” the band plays another short cover with “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” a sort of final ode to the San Francisco scene, perhaps, that Zappa and the early Mothers of Invention had derided so well.

Then comes some really interesting stuff. First, after a somewhat awkward and rambling start, Ike Willis launches into singing the opening to Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” This also shows up, although from a different performance, on the official release of TBBYNHIYL. Zappa plays a great solo here that even approximates the original by pulling a few quotes from Jimmy Page’s performance. And the horns playing at the final chorus is thrilling, playing note-for-note the Page solo.

While that was an exciting treat, the medley that follows is probably the coolest part of the show – three songs satirizing Beatles compositions, more specifically compositions attributed to John Lennon. We first have “Norwegian Jim,” which plays off the melody of “Norwegian Wood” from “Rubber Soul.” This is followed by “Louisiana Hooker With Herpes,” sung to the melody of “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” from “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” The last is “The Texas Motel,” which is sung to the tune of “Strawberry Fields,” from “Magical Mystery Tour.”

While these songs are all technically Lennon/McCartney compositions, they tend to be largely attributed to Lennon, with whom Zappa had an interesting relationship. Lennon, along with Yoko Ono, joined Zappa on stage in New York during one of the Flo & Eddie shows when Yoko let loose some of her infamous howling and shrieking. This showed up on Zappa’s “Playground Psychotics.” But there were plenty of problems that followed over copyrights and other problems, particularly when the same material showed up on a Lennon live release. Some of these alleged problems are alluded to here in an extrapolation from an interview during which Zappa reveals that the song on the Lennon album identified as “Jam Rag,” was in fact “King Kong,” a Zappa composition, and yet it was identified as a Lennon/Ono composition.

Obtaining this boot just for this medley of Beatles spoofs is worth the effort alone.

For an audience recording, this is a good boot. And the fact that it contains a raw performance of this final touring band of Zappa’s is great too, as it contains mistakes and all, unlike the official version of TBBYNHIYL that contains songs with quotes and portions from different shows mixed to sound like what your hearing was actually played that way live at one particular show.

I rate this four of five stars. Add your own rating below.

Disc 1

1. The Black Page (New Age Version) incl. Intro – 9:36
2. Dickie’s Such An Asshole – 6:15
3. Stick Together – 1:58
4. My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama – 3:31
5. Willie The Pimp – 2:11
6. Montana – 4:00
7. City Of Tiny Lites – 9:49
8. A Pound For A Brown (Make a Sex Noise) – 18:10
9. When The Lie’s So Big – 0:33
10. Jesus Thinks You’re A Jerk – 7:19

Disc 2

1. Florentine Pogen – 8:17
2. Andy – 5:31
3. Inca Roads – 10:24
4. Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up – 3:06
5. Let’s Move To Cleveland – 7:40
6. When Irish Eyes Are Smiling – 0:47
7. Theme from ‘The Godfather II’ – 0:28
8. Who Needs The Peace Corps – 3:08
9. I Left My Heart In San Francisco – 1:12
10. Stairway To Heaven – 10:10
11. Norwegian Jim – 2:57
12. Louisiana Hooker With Herpes – 3:23
13. The Texas Motel – 3:08
14. Sofa No. 1 – 3:06
15. The Illinois Enama Bandit – 7:12

Personnel:

Frank Zappa – lead guitar, computer synclavier, vocals
Mike Keneally – rhythm guitar, keyboards, vocals
Ike Willis – rhythm guitar, synclavier, vocals
Bobby Martin – keyboards, vocals
Scott Thunes – bass, mini moog
Chad Wackerman – drums, electronic percussion
Ed Mann – vibes, marimba, electronic percussion
Kurt McGettrick – baritone sax, bass sax, contrabass clarinet
Bruce Fowler – trombone
Walt Fowler – trumpet, flugelhorn, synthesizer
Albert Wing – tenor sax
Paul Carman – also sax, soprano sax, baritone sax
Also, special guest Eric Buxton.

Piquantique

2010-03-14T17:09:00.006-05:00

Another release in the Beat the Boots box sets, “Piquantique” ostensibly contains material from a single 1973 concert in Stockholm, Sweden. At least, that is what we are led to believe if we go by what is on the cover art. But that appears suspect. There is some question about the fourth track, “T’Mershi Duween.” At the Web site Information Is Not Knowledge, site owner Román García Albertos suggests the recording is from a 1974 show at an unknown venue. Wikipedia suggests that it comes from a December, 1973 show at the Roxy. KillUglyRadio, however, does not confirm that suggestion, going, instead, with the unknown venue. It could very well be from the Roxy, as the lineup on the fourth track is identical to the lineup from the release Roxy & Elsewhere.

Also connected with the songs from the Stockholm show is video from the concert that was shown on Swedish TV. You really need to do yourself a favor and check out this site and the video stills from this show. Frank is wearing a green and white plaid blazer over a burgundy turtle neck. It is total dorkdom.

As with most of the Beat the Boots CDs, the sound quality of this recording is only fair. But the material is really quite good, as we get 40 minutes of some quality avant-garde jazz.

There was a lot more improvisation going on with the original Mothers of Invention during their live shows than what went on with later incarnations of Zappa’s traveling troupe. And while Ian Underwood is the only member of this lineup from the latter incarnation of the Mothers, the playing is definitely more free-form that what you get from later lineups.

The CD opens with “Kung Fu,” a short, but interesting composition that includes the opening theme from “The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue,” which had officially appeared on “Weasels Ripped My Flesh.” Ruth Underwood’s percussion is sweet in this number, but she really brings it on during “Redunzl.” Jean-Luc Ponty also cranks it out during this piece. I wish the recording was just a tad better because Ralph Humphrey’s drumming sounds pretty awesome as well.

Zappa’s guitar solo during “Redunzl” has that characteristic fuzz sound that showed up frequently during the jazzy albums of 1969 through 1972.

Things get funky and out there with “Dupree’s Paradise,” George Duke getting crazy and throwing in some Space Invader types of sounds as the song increasingly takes on a cosmic sort of oeuvre. Zappa interjects a bluesy guitar that seems to bring a bit of sanity to the number. After Zappa chimes in about how cold it is at this outdoor venue, George Duke slips into some basic boogie-woogie piano, which brings some off-beat clapping that Frank makes fun of. It’s a good groove that devolves into Duke’s fingers running all over the keyboard giving it the sound as though he were playing a harp. The band joins in lending a music theme to what previously had initially sounded aimless. Jean-Luc Ponty delivers some searing violin now, killing the crowd with triplets and sixteenth notes.

I think the real treasure of this recording, however, is “T’Mershi Duween,” a really cool number that is delightfully percussive and filled with rhythmic surprises. It’s hard to tell, however, if it is from a Roxy show. Could very well be.

Next is “Farther O’Blivion,” a song that had been included in the Petit Wazoo tour, and a version of which shows up on “Imaginary Diseases.” Again, it’s Jean-Luc Ponty’s playing that sends this song into the realm of gods, and he doesn’t waste time. Right from his opening notes he sets straight for the musical stratosphere. This piece contains a theme from “The Be-Bop Tango,” which gives Ponty something musically different to play around. But wait until Bruce Fowler comes in with his trombone! I bet you didn’t think a trombone could sound like that! And Ian Underwood gets very spooky with his distorted soprano saxophone. Jean-Luc Ponty returns to expand on the ghostly theme while Ralph Humphrey keeps a steady boogie beat going. Ruth Underwood comes in and the boogie section of this piece comes to a slow, fading end. After a brief, sort of avant-garde coda (was this the “fast instrumental arrangement of ‘Cucamonga’”?), Humphrey delivers a drum solo that surely must has hurt his hands tremendously if it indeed was as cold as Zappa had said earlier.

There’s great stuff on this recording, but among all the bootlegs out there, the sound quality is still pretty poor.

I rate this three of five stars. Add your own rating below.

Released as part of Beat the Boots box set, July 7, 1991, Rhino Records.

Track listing:

“Kung Fu” – 2:12 (includes the opening theme from “The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue”)
“Redunzl” – 4:26
“Dupree's Paradise” – 11:25
“T’Mershi Duween” – 1:55
“Farther O’Blivion” – 20:41 (including themes from the “Steno Pool” section of “The Adventures of Greggary Peccary”, “The Be-Bop Tango” and a fast instrumental arrangement of “Cucamonga”.)

Personnel:

Frank Zappa (guitar, vocals)
George Duke (keyboards)
Bruce Fowler (trombone)
Tom Fowler (bass)
Ralph Humphrey (drums)
Jean-Luc Ponty (violin)
Ian Underwood (woodwinds)
Ruth Underwood (percussion)

Personnel on track 4?:

Frank Zappa (guitar, vocals)
Napoleon Murphy Brock (tenor sax, flute)
George Duke (keyboards)
Bruce Fowler (trombone)
Tom Fowler (bass)
Ralph Humphrey (drums)
Jeff Simmons (rhythm guitar)
Chester Thompson (drums)
Ruth Underwood (percussion)

As An Am

2010-03-13T15:20:00.008-06:00

The entire Beat the Boots series is an exercise in irony. Zappa had a special dislike for bootleggers, which he shares on the opening track of “As An Am,” the first CD in Volume 1 of the Beat the Boots series.

“The bootleg problem as it applies to the work that I do is very much, uh, out of control, and so the FBI is working on it for us … As far as my material goes, it’s a very big business … They’ve already got the stuff recorded live and in concert before I can even release it on a record, and that makes me mad.”

And yet, the entire Beat the Boots series is nothing more than bootlegs Zappa got a hold of and which he dubbed for his own release. Clinton Heylin writes in his 1995 book, “Bootleg: The Secret History of the Other Recording Industry”: “Beat the Boots I and II consisted of two eight-album boxed-sets that were simply counterfeits of existing bootlegs, dubbed direct from the original versions, complete with pops and crackles and original artwork … The Beat the Boots volumes were not intended to legitimize this part of his oeuvre but to undercut the bootleggers and make Zappa money from the bootleggers’ industry (and make money they did).”

But what makes this irony complete is that with the Beat the Boots series, the listener gets unmodified concert recordings. Despite how crappy the sound is with some of them, you are hearing the real deal. These “boots” are real, raw, live recordings without any studio overdubs or modifications or additional parts added or removed or re-done – the opposite of how every legitimate “live” recording was packaged that Zappa officially released.

“As An Am” is not a single-concert boot. It covers two shows from 1981 and 1982. Both the songs “Young & Monde” and “Sharleena” came from a May 21, 1982 show at Sporthalle in Cologne, Germany. The final three tracts come from the late show from Halloween night, 1981, which I’ve already reviewed. So I am just going to stick with the first two songs.

“Young & Monde” (which is also known as "Let's Move to Cleveland") is a very cool mini suite that explores syncopated rhythms around a relatively secure musical theme. It opens with the syncopation, but switches back and forth with a soaring guitar theme. After a few of these presentations, the song devolves into a whining and groaning guitar solo with some machinegun guttural picking, eloquent feedback pumped by a whammy bar, and several time signature changes that only Chad Wackerman can keep up with. About 6 minutes into the song, Frank pulls out some industrial sounds out of his guitar, then goes into a series of repeated oscillating rhythms punctuated with a return to the song’s central theme. But the feedback keeps going, and then there’s another burst of this industrial like sound, like huge manufacturing machines above which are triplets of high notes that are sheer brilliance. It all abruptly stops as the band then begins to return to the original theme as Frank squeezes out a few more fuzzed up chords. The song concludes with some brief, but excellent, vocals by Ray White.

Quite tasty.

With this version of “Sharleena,” I end up asking myself, why didn’t Frank include this live recording on the YCDTOSA series instead of the one he released on Vol. 3. The interplay on this version between Zappa and Steve Vai is so much more interesting than what was going on between Frank and Dweezil on the other release.

I still cannot find the words to describe the solo as it begins. It varies so quickly from fuzzed up bass to trilling notes and squeaks – it even includes a bit of a march tempo mixed in a Hendrix-like acid rock sound that electrifies my scalp as I listen. There are periods in this solo that my hair is standing on end. But then again, my hair is so short, it’s always standing on end. And when the jamming starts to include Steve Vai, I am in guitar heaven. Stick a fork in me, I’m done.

If you’re a hardcore Zappa fan, then you will want to collect the Beat the Boots series, if you haven’t already. But if you’re only a strident fan or a moderate fan, you might want to pass on the investment. As noted, these are unpolished copies of bootlegs, so you really got to love the music and not be bothered by how sucky the recording is.

I rate this recording three of five stars. Add your own rating below.

Released as part of Beat the Boots box set, July 7, 1991, Rhino Records.

Track listing:

“That Makes Me Mad” – 0:51
“Young & Monde” – 11:24
“Sharleena” – 9:09
“Black Napkins” – 3:58
“Black Page #2” – 7:12
“The Torture Never Stops” – 11:03

Personnel:

FZ--lead guitar/vocal
Ray White--guitar/vocal
Steve Vai--stunt guitar
Tommy Mars--keyboards/vocal
Bobby Martin--keyboards/sax/vocals
Ed Mann--percussion
Scott Thunes--bass
Chad Wackerman--drums

Jones Crusher!

2010-02-13T15:19:00.004-06:00

The 1977 Halloween show produced a number of bootlegs, including this one, which erroneously states on the cover that it is from the 1977 show at the Felt Forum. The show was at the Palladium, as documented here and here; Zappa played a Halloween show at the Felt Forum in 1976, which I’ve already reviewed.

Much of this material has appeared on official releases, such as “Baby Snakes,” both on the CD release and the movie release. “Black page #2” and the title track, “Jones Crusher,” appear in both the movie and the CD release of “Baby Snakes,” while “San Ber’dino,” “City of Tiny Lites,” “Camarillo Brillo,” and “Black Napkins” were only on the movie release. “Tryin’ to Grow a Chin,” was released on YCDTOSA Vol. 6.

While most of this material was later officially released, it’s worth noting that with this boot, you’re getting the raw performance. The 1995 CD edition of “Baby Snakes” uses a new master made from the remixed version of the album release, for example.

This boot begins with an intro from “Flakes,” followed by Zappa introducing the band. They launch into “San Ber’dino,” which on this recording sounds a bit thin and pinched, but the playing is really fabulous. The tempo is also much faster than the studio release on “One Size Fits All.” Adrian Belew’s guitar on this is stinging, as are Terry Bozzio’s vocals. Bozzio continues with vocals on “Tryin’ to Grow a Chin,” and he’s just as guttural and frenetic as he is on “Sheik Yerbouti.”

“City of Tiny Lites” has always been one of my favorites, and not just for the guitar solo this song is built around. But when Zappa and Belew start trading licks, it is positively scintillating. A minor disappointment, however, is this performance lacks the typical extended guitar solo normally associated with it.

We do get a solo out of Frank in the next track titled “The Squirm.” This also appears as “Bowling on Charen” from “Trance-Fusion.” Although from the same tour, the version released on “Trance-Fusion” was recorded Oct. 28, 1977. This solo begins similar to other Zappa solos found on his guitar solo albums, but his playing soon transitions into an ethereal quality that literally lifts the listener skyward. It’s even reminiscent of “Watermelon in Easter Hay” in some respects. There are also some musical themes that reach back to “Burnt Weeny Sandwich.” It’s really quite beautifully composed.

After that solo, the band drops into “Big Leg Emma,” or rather devolves into the song. While “Emma” can be a fun song, coming after “The Squirm,” it comes off as odd and jarring.

“Invocations” is an audience participation routine that serendipitously includes allusions to previous material with a couple of women who say their names are Janet the Planet and her friend, Donna Youwanna, who has a bottle of Yoohoo. (Interestingly, in this routine, the word “fuck” is bleeped out, as are other expletives). The routine is another one of Frank’s pointless attempts at mocking Warner Bros. It transitions into “Dance Contest,” which was a common routine in Zappa’s tours. It’s set against “The Black Page #2,” a rhythmically complex song that would be a challenge to any dancer. It must have been a joy to watch the contestants try to find a beat in that number.

The band gets to jamming with the next song, “Jones Crusher,” a song about a woman who has a love so strong that she crushes penises. After all, “she can push, she can shove, until it’s just a nub.”

It becomes obvious with the next song, “Camarillo Brillo,” that the song sequence on this boot bears little resemblance to the actual set list. At the show, the song was followed with “Muffin Man,” as it almost always was. Instead, it is followed with “Black Napkins,” which was, in fact, the last song of the show. But while the boot opens with “San Ber’dino,” that song was played just before “Black Napkins.” The intro at the start was actually followed by “Peaches En Regalia.”

Despite all that, the solo in “Black Napkins” on this boot is really amazing, one of the best solos for this song Zappa ever performed.

I rate this four of five stars. Add your own rating below.

Tracks:

1. San Bernadino
2. Grow Me a Chin
3. Tiny Lights
4. The Squirm
5. Big Leg Emma
6. Invocations
7. Dance Contest
8. Black Page #2
9. Jones Crusher
10. Camarillo Brillo
11. Black Napkins

Personnel:

Frank Zappa: guitar, vocals
Adrian Belew: guitar, vocals
Roy Estrada: guest vocals
Patrick O’Hearn: bass
Terry Bozzio: drums, vocals
Ed Mann: percussion
Tommy Mars: keyboards, vocals
Peter Wolf: keyboards

Baby Snakes

2010-02-06T17:28:00.010-06:00

One of the fascinating things about Frank Zappa’s career is all the musicians he worked with and how many of them went on to form significant groups of their own. And with the album “Baby Snakes,” we have three musicians on the album that went on to form a major New Wave band in 1980, albeit a short-lived one.

Those three were Terry Bozzio, Warren Cuccurullo, and Patrick O’Hearn. The band they formed was Missing Persons, which presented an image that comingled punk, New Wave and glam. Their almost-eponymous album, “Spring Session M,” was an outstanding debut for a full-length album. I played the hell out of that album, as every song was fresh and exciting. But alas, they were to be a flash in the pan and by 1984 everyone was going their own way. Still, Bozzio, Cuccurullo and O’Hearn didn’t disappear from the music scene, as their talents carried them forward. Bozzio went on to play with Jeff Beck (was he there when I went to see the Beck/Stevie Ray Vaughn tour?), Cucurullo to join the 80s supergroup Duran Duran, and O’Hearn to continue recording instrumental New Age albums.

The fact that Missing Persons was such a short-lived effort causes me to wonder just how prescient Zappa was when he wrote “Tinseltown Rebellion.” I wonder how much of Missing Person’s sound was their own and how much was concocted by the record company. Bozzio was certainly around Zappa as he ridiculed hair bands, and there was always the song about Punky Meadows. And, ironically, just look at all that hair on those band members in Missing Persons! Zappa always had exceptional musicians playing with him, but for these three to flame out so quickly working together brings me pause.

Cuccurullo’s appearance on “Baby Snakes” is strictly related to the movie, as the opening dialogue on the CD includes him; he didn’t join Zappa’s band until 1978, and the songs in the movie soundtrack that were compiled for this CD come from the 1977 Halloween shows at the Palladium in New York City (coming soon). Interestingly, the bootleg “Jones Crusher” asserts itself to be the 1977 Halloween show at the Felt Forum (Zappa played there the year before).

The movie “Baby Snakes” represents well the dichotomy of reactions Zappa faced regarding his work, a split of opinion that was often clearly marked by the Atlantic Ocean. Recordings that only faired decently in the U.S., or even failed miserably, were frequently better received in Europe, and the movie “Baby Snakes” was no exception. Zappa couldn’t find a distributor for the film in the U.S., even after he had hacked its length from 166 minutes down to 90 minutes. He ended up distributing the film on his own. Barry Miles writes in “Zappa: A Biography” –

“It premiered on 21 December, 1979, at the Victoria Theater in New York to less than ecstatic reviews, probably because of the extended footage featuring an inflatable sex toy. Typical of this criticism was Tom Carson’s piece in Village Voice: ‘Once, Zappa built a satirist’s career on the idea that all of life was just like high school; now it turns out that all he ever wanted, apparently, was a high-school clique of his own – and on the evidence of Baby Snakes he’s found one.’ Zappa was unfazed by the criticism. Foreign critics were more sympathetic and in 1981 Baby Snakes won the Premier Grand Prix at the First International Music Festival in Paris.”

Perhaps what was most amazing about the film was a clay animation sequence by Bruce Bickford, an interesting character who, as described by Barry Miles, speaks like “the people under the piano on Lumpy Gravy.”

Zappa, as told to Barry Miles, describes Bickford: “He talks real slow – as he states in the film he has had some contact with chemical alteration of his consciousness and his speech pattern is probably related to the fact that he’s been chemically modified … For some of the more complex parts (of the film) in there he could shoot only four frames in a day. And remember 24 frames go by in a second. If it takes him one day to shoot four frames of something complicated, it’ll take him six days to shoot one second of complicated stuff. So, what you see in the film is a product of about three years’ work to give you a half hour of animation. But not all the stuff he does is complicated.” Once sequence in the animation, Zappa notes, was shot in one evening.

Cuccurullo’s intro rap at the start of the CD introduces the sole studio track on this “live” recording, the title song, which is from “Sheik Yerbouti.” It’s a fun song to get things going, but the real gems are the concert items, which start with “Titties & Beer.” This is not the same version as what appears on “Zappa in New York,” as those songs were recorded between Christmas and New Year in 1977.

This is followed by “The Black Page #2,” which is really very cool and well played. Ed Mann is outstanding on this. This transitions right into “Jones Crusher,” a rocking song that has one of the oddest lyrics in the Zappa catalogue: “The Wind can’t blow because the sky is gone.”

“Disco Boy” is one of the few direct musical commentaries Zappa made into the realm of disco. Originally from “Zoot Allures,” I’ve always like this song despite its rather shallow description of the disco scene. Granted, the disco scene was shallow, but one cannot always count on Zappa having intimate knowledge of all the topics he writes songs about; one must remember that he is, more often than not, commenting on the musical nature of his target, not the actual social scene. For example, virtually all of his songs reflecting the gay scene are focused on the leather and S&M crowd.

The obligatory performance of “Dinah-Moe Humm” is hardly worth noting. While I really love the album “Over-nite Sensation,” as well as this song, I would never be disappointed at a concert if the song wasn’t played.

“Punky’s Whips” is great performance that is filled with musical variance and Terry Bozzio’s faux-Zappa vocalizations are really spot on; how ironic that he mentions Jeff Beck. And finally, we get a song with a Zappa guitar solo. A delicious solo. Listen to Bozzio’s drumming too, it’s perfectly maniacal.

Overall, I rate this recording 4.5 of five stars. Share your rating below.

Released: March 28, 1983, Barking Pumpkin Records. Recorded Oct. 28-31, 1977, The Palladium, NYC.

Track listing:

1. Intro Rap/Baby Snakes – 2:22
2. Titties & Beer – 6:13
3. The Black Page #2 – 2:50
4. Jones Crusher – 2:53
5. Disco Boy – 3:51
6. Dinah-Moe Humm – 6:37
7. Punky’s Whips – 11:29

Personnel:
Roy Estrada – vocals, voices
Frank Zappa – director, keyboards, vocals, guitar
Adrian Belew – vocals, guitar
Tommy Mars – keyboards, vocals
Peter Wolf – keyboards
Patrick O’Hearn – bass guitar
Terry Bozzio – drums
Ed Mann – percussion

You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore Vol 3

2010-01-16T18:28:00.008-06:00

With six volumes to this collection, I wanted to break up the monotony of simply posting about the tracks on each issue. And with Volume three, I thought it might be a good time to explore the issue of bootlegging again.

Clinton Heylin reveals in his 1995 book “Bootleg: The Secret History of the Other Recording Industry,” Zappa’s intense hatred of bootleggers. But this hatred was not simply over money, as Zappa suggests in the opening track of the first “Beat the Boots” release, “As An Am.” In that sound bite, Zappa states that it angers him that bootleggers will record concert performances of material he hasn’t released yet. But there was another factor in Zappa’s antipathy for bootleggers, and that centered on Zappa’s control issues.

“Zappa had always been a control freak,” writes Heylin, “and hated the idea of bootleggers offering an alternative to his own, sometimes questionable, decisions about what should and should not be made available.”

Heylin interviewed a particularly prolific bootlegger identified as “Richard,” who was very likely a huge thorn in Zappa’s side.

“I’m a big Zappa fan,” says Richard. “In fact, my ‘Mystery Box’ got Zappa as upset as Columbia got over ‘Ten of Swords’ (a Dylan bootleg that Richard compiled).” Zappa was apparently so upset about the release of ‘Mystery Box’ that he contacted the FBI, which apparently had no interest in investigating the allegations.

“I guess,” Richard continues, “the problem was that Zappa was doing his (own) ‘You Can’t Do That on Stage Anymore,’ his ongoing series which has just ended, and ‘Mystery Box’ was like a giant ‘You Can’t Do That on Stage Anymore.’ A lot of reviews were saying that ‘Mystery Box’ was better because it was chronological and didn’t jump all over the place and didn’t have all these stupid edits in it. That kind of thing can annoy you if you’re an artist putting out your own thing.”

Zappa blamed bootleggers for profiting off his material and that caused him to lose money. But Zappa had so many other things going on in the legal realm that were costing him money that to point to bootleggers as a culprit seems more like an effort to eschew responsibility for his own travails. And besides, as “Richard” points out, most Zappa bootleggers recorded concerts and distributed their recordings for free or at a cost that was just enough to cover their own costs. The Zappa audience was too esoteric to make any real money off of, so most Zappa bootleggers were doing it because they loved his music.

And besides, the criticism that Zappa was a bit overzealous with his editing that turned a song from one performance into a quilt of sound clips from multiple shows was justified. What started as a technique in the early days that enhanced the quality of his recordings later turned into an obsession that might have improved the sound quality of a recording, but which also led some of his music losing its gut.

This was because Zappa believed that music was unemotional, that it was merely sound. The idea that music had an emotional element was absurd to him.

From Barry Miles’ “Zappa: A Biography”: “See, I take a real cold view about that stuff. I think that music works because of psycho-accoustical things – like the way in which a line will interact with the harmonic climate that’s backing it up. And all the rest of it is subjective on behalf of the listener.”

One of Zappa’s musical idols and influences, Igor Stravinsky, was even harsher in his view regarding music’s ability to convey emotion: “I consider that music, by its very nature, essentially powerless to express anything at all, whether a feeling, an attitude of mind, a psychological mood, a phenomenon of nature, etc… Expression has never been an inherent property of music.”

From that perspective, it is no wonder that Zappa spent hours and hours splicing bits and pieces of performances together and calling it a “live” performance, even when he would dub in a studio cut. To him, it was just music, just notes on a sheet of paper.

It is incredible that both Zappa and Stravinsky would have such points of view given that it is quite clear that each composed music that told stories. And how do you tell an emotionless story?

Two tracks on this recording really challenge this notion, both on Disc two: “Zoot Allures,” and “King Kong.” I can’t see how Zappa can play “Zoot Allures” without him channeling emotion into his guitar playing. He could play it strictly as music, as lines and dots on a page, but it is clear that he doesn’t. And the classic piece “King Kong” in all its many permutations; does not the fact that a performance is altered either through style or time signature change the impression the audience experiences from the piece? Zappa seems to lay all responsibility for any emotional response on the listener rather than the music; yet he ignores how that listener response changes when he changes the timbre or tempo of a song.

Just a few comments about this particular recording, which overall is pretty damn good.

Dweezil’s guitar solo on the opening track “Sharleena” is competent, but rather boring and simplistic. It is only when father and son begin playing together that the solo finally gets interesting.

“Lucille Has Messed Up My Mind” is actually a composition by former Mothers of Invention member Jeff Simmons, which he released on an album of the same name in 1970. Zappa plays guitar on the Simmons release as well.

“Drowning Witch” is a compilation of edits from shows at Stadio Communale, Bolzano, Italy, July 3, 1982 and the Bayfront Center Arena, St. Petersburg, Florida on Dec. 1, 1984 and the Bismarck Theater, Chicago, from Nov. 23, 1984, and the Paramount Theatre, Seattle, Wash., Dec. 17, 1984. It also contains musical quotes from a Hawaiian Punch commercial, Dragnet (Schumann/Rósza) and Le sacre du printemps (Stravinsky).

This CD contains the only releases of “Ride My Face to Chicago,” “Carol, You Fool,” and “Chana in De Bushwop,” which were performed at the Bismarck Theater, Chicago, Nov. 23, 1984. The latter song also included Diva Zappa.

“Zoot Allures” contains two edits, with the first part from Kosei Nenkin Kaikan, Osaka, Japan on Feb. 3, 1976, and the guitar solo from Les Arenes, Cap D'agde, France May 30, 1982.

The sequence of “Society Pages” through “Charlie’s Enormous Mouth” comes from the Halloween show at the Palladium in New York in 1981.

“Cocaine Decisions” is comprised of two edits from the Bismarck Theater, Chicago, Nov. 23, 1984, and Stadio Communale, Palermo, Sicily, July 14, 1982.

This is the only official release that has “Nig Biz,” and it comes from the show at the Stadio Communale, Palermo, Sicily, July 14, 1982. It also contains a musical quote from “The Tracks Of My Tears” (Robinson/Moore/Tarplin).

“King Kong” contains musical quotes from “Shakin’ All Over” (Heath), “Big Swifty,” “Yo Cats” (FZ/Mariano), “Uncle Meat,” “A Love Supreme” (Coltrane), “Midnight Sun” (Hampton/Burke/Mercer) and the “William Tell Overture” (Rossini). It is also comprised of too many edits from various shows to enumerate.

“Cosmik Debris” contains portions from three shows including the Paramount Theatre, Seattle, Wash., Dec. 17, 1984; the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Portland, Ore., Dec. 20, 1984; and the ending from The Pier, New York City, Aug. 25-26, 1984. It also contains a musical quote from “Who Knows” (Hendrix).

I rate this four out of five stars. Add your own rating below.

Released Nov. 13, 1989 on Rykodisc; various live recordings from Dec. 10, 1971 to Dec. 23, 1984.

Track listings:

Disc one
1. “Sharleena” – 8:54
2. “Bamboozled by Love/Owner of a Lonely Heart” – 6:06
3. “Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up” – 2:52
4. “Advance Romance” – 6:58
5. “Bobby Brown Goes Down” – 2:44
6. “Keep It Greasey” – 3:30
7. “Honey, Don’t You Want a Man Like Me?” – 4:16
8. “In France” – 3:01
9. “Drowning Witch” – 9:22
10. “Ride My Face to Chicago” – 4:22
11. “Carol, You Fool” – 4:06
12. “Chana in de Bushwop” – 4:52
13. “Joe’s Garage” – 2:20
14. “Why Does It Hurt When I Pee?” – 3:07

Disc two
1. “Dickie’s Such an Asshole” – 10:08
2. “Hands With a Hammer” (Bozzio) – 3:18
3. “Zoot Allures” – 6:09
4. “Society Pages” – 2:32
5. “I’m a Beautiful Guy” – 1:54
6. “Beauty Knows No Pain” – 2:55
7. “Charlie’s Enormous Mouth” – 3:39
8. “Cocaine Decisions” – 3:14
9. “Nig Biz” – 4:58
10. “King Kong” – 24:32
11. “Cosmik Debris” – 5:14

Personnel:

Frank Zappa – arranger, editing, keyboards, lyricist, vocals, producer, main performer, liner notes, guitar, compilation
Mark Volman – vocals
Howard Kaylan – vocals
Lowell George – guitar
Denny Walley – guitar
Steve Vai – guitar
Dweezil Zappa – guitar
Jim Sherwood – guitar, vocals, wind
Ray Collins – guitar, vocals
Ike Willis – rhythm guitar, vocals
Ray White – rhythm guitar, vocals
Ian Underwood – guitar, wind, alto saxophone, keyboards
Patrick O'Hearn – bass guitar, wind
Roy Estrada – bass guitar, vocals
Jim Pons – bass guitar, vocals
Scott Thunes – bass guitar, vocals, synthesizer
Tom Fowler – bass guitar, trombone
Peter Wolf – keyboards
Allan Zavod – keyboards
Andre Lewis – keyboards
Don Preston – keyboards, electronics
George Duke – keyboards, vocals
Tommy Mars – keyboards, vocals
Bobby Martin – keyboards, vocals, saxophone
Napoleon Murphy Brock – saxophone, vocals
Bruce Fowler – trombone
Bunk Gardner – horn, wind
Ralph Humphrey – drums
Art Tripp – drums
Chester Thompson – drums
Chad Wackerman – drums, vocals
Jimmy Carl Black – drums, percussion
Aynsley Dunbar – drums
Terry Bozzio – drums, soloist, lyricist
Ruth Underwood – percussion, keyboards
Ed Mann – percussion
Diva Zappa – lyricist
Mark Pinske – engineer
Kerry McNabb – engineer
Bob Stone – engineer, engineering supervisor, remixing, supervisor

You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore Vol 2

2009-12-19T13:43:00.008-06:00

While Volume 1 of the “You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore” series lacked an overt theme for the selected songs, Volume 2’s material is focused around two 1974 concerts at the Kulttuuritalo in Helsinki, Finland.

There are two very remarkable items on this recording that are worthy of mention. First is Zappa’s performance of “Inca Roads” from one of the shows. A portion of his amazing guitar solo was used for the studio release of “One Size Fits All” for the same track. However, there is some disagreement about the origin of the solo edit. Both the Wikipedia entry for Vol. 2, as well as the Wiki song entry for “Inca Roads,” mention that the solo edit was taken from the Helsinki show that was published on YCDTOSA Vol 2. But Barry Miles’ “Zappa: A Biography” states that the solo was taken from an Aug. 7, 1975, show in Helsinki. That doesn’t seem to make sense, because “One Size Fits All” was released in June, 1975, and he wasn’t in Europe touring at that time either. Zappa played for KCET-TV in August 1974, where he performed “Inca Roads,” ostensibly dropping in the solo from Helsinki. But again, he wasn’t to play Helsinki until a month later, and the record isn’t clear anyway as to whether the KCET-TV show was Aug. 7 or Aug. 18. Miles also asserts that YCDTOSA Vol. 2 is from a single Helsinki show, which is contrary to most other sites that credit the double-CD as culling material from both shows. While Miles’ biography is a good read, I find myself frequently confused about when some of the events he describes take place.

The second is an audience member shouting out “Whipping Post!” at the band just before they begin playing “Montana.” Besides that outburst prompting Zappa to ad lib the lyrics a bit in “Montana,” it also was very likely the incident that prompted Zappa to later have the band learn the Allman Brothers classic, versions of which showed up on “Them Or Us,” as well as the bootleg from the 1981 Halloween early show.

All in all, this is a really outstanding and diverse recording. Zappa had often said he enjoyed his Finnish audiences, perhaps in part because he could perform some of his more obscure works and receive great appreciation from these crowds. Interestingly, the band’s lineup at this time was similar to, if not identical with, the lineup I saw at the Ferris State Field House in April, 1974, in Big Rapids, Mich. And with this lineup, when it comes to guitar, it’s all FZ. In fact, he opens the show with two guitar-centric numbers, “Stinkfoot” and “Inca Roads.”

With the former, Franks makes his guitar howl like a dog in a narcotic swoon over the stench of his python boots. The band then launches into “Inca Roads.” This is a really great orchestration of this number; Ruth Underwood and George Duke are both outstanding.

Ruth Underwood continues to display her extraordinary talent with “RDNZL,” a song that was released on “Studio Tan.” Zappa is killer on this as well, his guitar playing sounding a bit like Al Dimeola after swallowing huge doses of LSD and then channeling Eric Clapton. Seriously though, it is totally Zappa.

We get a swinging “Village of the Sun,” which had just been released on “Roxy & Elsewhere,” with Napoleon Murphy Brock rockin’ and rollin’ on saxophone. The next song “Echidna’s Arf (Of You)” is so cool (Also from Roxy, in fact, we have four songs in a row here from Roxy). The incredible rhythmic variations are superbly rendered. After an interlude that includes the ramblings of “Room Service,” and “The Idiot Bastard Son,” from “We’re Only In It For the Money,” the first disc closes out with more Roxy fare with “Cheepnis,” Zappa’s ode to cheesy sci-fi movies. Oh, by the way, did you catch the nod to War’s “The World is a Ghetto” during “Pygmy Twylyte”? (The Mozart nod is an easy catch, as well as the reference to “The Twilight Zone.”)

Disc two starts with “Approximate,” which contains an allusion to “Eva’s Wedding,” a reference to an incident Zappa had at the hotel where he was staying that involved a Finnish bachelorette party and a wedding invitation.

We get a very long and avant garde rendition of “Dupree’s Paradise” that is both intriguing and chilling. Things build up after the band gets through the dialogue portions with the full theme coming through. Napoleon Murphy Brock plays some totally kick ass flute, which is followed by a very cosmic and mysterious bass segue by Tom Fowler, whose plucking is accentuated with brief rhythmic interplays by Chester Thompson on drums. The piece drifts into jazz fusion as George Duke comes back on the keyboards and Thompson goes very heavy on the cymbals. This is followed by a Thompson drum solo that carries with it a bit of “Uncle Meat.” Ruth Underwood’s quote in the February 1994 edition of Musician magazine that carried Frank’s obituary is relevant: “Frank really lived in a world of percussion.”

It all finishes with a musical quote from “Louie Louie” as the band moves into playing a Finnish tango called “Satumaa,” which brings the cheers and hand clapping from the audience. In fact, the band moves through several short bits, including “The Dog Breath Variations” and “Uncle Meat” before they perform the next major piece, “Montana,” from “Over-nite Sensation.”

Another interesting item regarding “Montana” is that Frank starts the song at, what sounds to me, an incredibly fast pace. He stops everything to slow the tempo down. I’m not completely sure, but I think he really wanted to play the song with that fast a tempo, which seems incredulous to me; true, it should have been a bit faster, but I’m not sure as fast as he tried to start it. Despite it being “such a ballad” at that tempo, Frank delivers a righteous solo.

The show concludes with Frank performing on guitar the closing melody from "Big Swifty," which is normally a horn part from "Waka/Jawaka."

There was an interesting Finnish article regarding Zappa’s experiences in Finland that included a description of his mercurial nature, as well as his being treated like a prima donna because he had burned his fingers on a hot shish kebab.

I rate this 4.5 of five stars. Add your own rating below.

Released Oct. 25, 1988, on Rykodisc; Recorded Sept. 22-23, 1974 at the Kulttuuritalo, Helsinki, Finland.

Track listings:

Disc one
1. “Tush Tush Tush (A Token of My Extreme)” – 2:48
2. “Stinkfoot” – 4:18
3. “Inca Roads” – 10:54
4. “RDNZL” – 8:43
5. “Village of the Sun” – 4:33
6. “Echidna’s Arf (Of You)” – 3:30
7. “Don’t You Ever Wash That Thing?” – 4:56
8. “Pygmy Twylyte” – 8:22
9. “Room Service” – 6:22
10. “The Idiot Bastard Son” – 2:39
11. “Cheepnis” – 4:29

Disc two
1. “Approximate” – 8:11
2. “Dupree’s Paradise” – 23:59
3. “Satumaa (Finnish Tango)” (Mononen) – 3:51
4. “T’Mershi Duween” – 1:31
5. “The Dog Breath Variations” – 1:38
6. “Uncle Meat” – 2:28
7. “Building a Girl” – 1:00
8. “Montana (Whipping Floss)” – 10:15
9. “Big Swifty” – 2:17

Personnel:

Frank Zappa – lead guitar, vocals
Napoleon Murphy Brock – saxophone, flute, vocals
George Duke – keyboards, vocals
Ruth Underwood – percussion
Tom Fowler – bass guitar
Chester Thompson – drums

You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 1

2009-12-13T14:13:00.004-06:00

With all that recording going on during the 1981 Halloween shows at the Palladium, some of that material was bound to be released by Zappa. What was a bit strange, perhaps, was how long it took for the material to be published, and the form it took.

In 1984, portions of the concert appeared on the video “The Dub Room Special,” but even that release included just five songs from the shows, with only three of them in sequence. The video with the most material from the 1981 shows was “The Torture Never Stops,” but that wasn’t released until 2008. Despite that, “TTNS” is the most complete package released, coming the closest to a true live release of the shows.

More material from the shows was eventually released while Zappa was still alive through the “You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore” series, beginning with Vol. 1, which was released in 1988. Three songs from the 1981 early show appear in sequence on this release: “Dumb All Over,” “Heavenly Bank Account,” and “Suicide Chump,” all of which are from “You Are What You Is.”

The YCDTOSA series is a six-volume collection, plus one sampler. Most of the subsequent volumes have a theme, although sometimes a loose one, around which the song selection is focused. But Vol. 1 appears to have no theme at all, taking material from a wide variety of sources performed by many variations of Zappa’s touring ensemble. There’s material from 1969 all the way to 1984, including a complete performance of the “Yellow Snow Suite” from a London show that includes some of Zappa’s famous audience participation.

Some of the more interesting items on this double CD are tracks 2 and 3 on Disc One. These consecutive takes were recorded Dec. 10, 1971, at the Rainbow Theater in London, just a week after the band lost its equipment at the Casino de Montreux in Geneva, Switzerland, in a fire immortalized by Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water.” The song “Once Upon a Time” acts as an introduction into “Sofa No. 1” with Mark Volman setting things up with allusions to both the upcoming song as well as to material the band had been playing in previous concerts, in particular the song “Eddie Are You Kidding Me,” which was released on “Just Another Band from L.A.” Of course, the song “Sofa No. 1,” as well as its companion “No. 2,” weren’t released until 1975 with “One Size Fits All.”

Another interesting song is the guitar solo “The Mammy Anthem,” which pulls heavily from themes developed and later released as the instrumental “Zoot Allures,” from the album of the same title. However, this particular item later appeared as “The Mammy Nuns” on “Thing-Fish,” with vocals by Ike Willis and Ray White.

There are two songs set to the musical signature of “Louie Louie,” about which Zappa comments on the second of these two songs, “Plastic People,” which was originally released on “Absolutely Free.” While introducing “Plastic People” in 1969 to the folks at The Factory in the Bronx, Zappa tells the crowd, “Now, if you’ll analyze what we’re playing here, if you use your ear and listen, you can learn something about music, y’see? ‘Louie Louie’ is the same as the other song with one extra note, see? . . . They’re, they’re very closely related and they mean just about the same thing.”

The song “Ruthie Ruthie” is also based on the “Louie Louie” melody, this time the lyrics themed around an homage to Ruth Underwood, who performs on this song and the next, “Babbette.”

The performance of “I’m the Slime” (from “Over-Nite Sensation”) on this release was taken from a couple 1973 gigs at The Roxy in Los Angeles. It includes a very tasty and heavily fuzzed guitar solo. This transitions right into “Big Swifty,” also recorded at The Roxy, a sweeping orchestration that debuted a year and a half earlier on “Waka Jawaka.” There’s a really fine keyboard solo by George Duke here. Gotta love Ruth Underwood’s playing during this as well, she was brilliant. But the really delectable treat during this performance is Zappa’s solo. It pulls the band away from the original musical theme into a much funkier and more rock-n-roll timbre that is beautifully executed rhythmically by the dual drumming of Chester Thompson and Ralph Humphrey. It all smoothly returns to the “Big Swifty” theme, played by Zappa on his guitar.

Disc One closes out with a complete “Yellow Snow” suite that also includes “Rollo.” Of course, there is Zappa’s famous audience participation throughout this with apparently deranged audience members reading bizarre poetry, etc.

Unsurprisingly, on Disc Two, there is a performance of “The Torture Never Stops.” I say unsurprising because this composition shows up on a lot of Zappa recordings, both official and bootlegs. This performance is credited to being from an “unknown venue,” likely during the band’s European tour during the winter of 1978. It doesn’t sound like any of the performances from that tour that I have, so I remain stumped.

“Torture” is followed by “Fine Girl” and “Zomby Woof,” both recorded at the infamous concert in Milan, Italy, on July 7, 1982, when the band was nearly eaten alive by swarms of mosquitoes, an incident immortalized on the cover of “The Man From Utopia.” Despite that annoyance, the band’s performance of “Zomby Woof” is chilling. Steve Vai’s “stunt guitar” is crisp and fantastic, and Zappa’s guitar solo is the best I’ve heard for this song ever – even better than the studio solo.

“The Deathless Horsie” comes next from a 1984 performance at The Pier in New York City. Although a frequent number in the sets lists for live performances, it was first officially released on the “Shut Up ‘N Play Yer Guitar” series in 1981, and then again later on “Halloween” in 2003.

I rate this 4.5 stars out of five. Add your own rating below.

Released May 16, 1988, Rykodisc.

Track listing

Disc One

1. The Florida Airport Tape (1:04)
2. Once Upon A Time (4:38)
3. Sofa # 1 (2:53)
4. The Mammy Anthem (5:41)
5. You Didn’t Try To Call Me (3:39)
6. Diseases Of The Band (2:22)
7. Tryin’ To Grow A Chin (3:44)
8. Let’s Make The Water Turn Black (3:28)
9. The Groupie Routine (5:41)
10. Ruthie-Ruthie (2:57)
11. Babbette (3:36)
12. I’m The Slime (3:13)
13. Big Swifty (8:47)
14. Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow (20:16)

Disc Two

1. Plastic People (4:38)
2. The Torture Never Stops (15:48)
3. Fine Girl (2:55)
4. Zomby Woof (5:39)
5. Sweet Leilani (2:39)
6. Oh No (4:34)
7. Be In My Video (3:30)
8. The Deathless Horsie (5:29)
9. The Dangerous Kitchen (1:50)
10. Dumb All Over (4:20)
11. Heavenly Bank Account (4:06)
12. Suicide Chump (4:56)
13. Tell Me You Love Me (2:09)
14. Sofa # 2 (3:01)

Halloween 1981 The Palladium late show

2009-12-06T15:55:00.006-06:00

What is really amazing about the 1981 Halloween shows at the Palladium is that they were simultaneously broadcast live over radio and on MTV. And the second show kicks off with a kickass performance of “Black Napkins” from “Zoot Allures.” Granted, Zappa had already warmed up pretty well with the early show, but opening a show with this number, composed around an intense guitar solo, is very ballsy.

Probably because of the live broadcasts as well, the set list is actually pretty tame, although the songs are performed exceptionally well. But even the second song, “Montana” is nothing like the studio version or any other live version I have heard. It is frankly quite tame and even a tad disappointing.

The band is tight, however. Their playing during “Easy Meat” is outstanding. And we're treated to another stupendous Zappa solo. But what really gets me is the polyrhythmic structure to the solo section. Chad Wackerman is really amazing during this section, which finishes with a time signature I still haven’t figured out.

Both the early and the late shows pull heavily from “You Are What You Is.” The band gives “Society Pages” a very funky beat that is utterly delicious. Ray White gives “I’m a Beautiful Guy” a very Rat Pack sound that is sumptuously glib. The band’s expertise is exemplified again with “Beauty Knows No Pain,” a number so tightly orchestrated that any fuck up would stand out like a hardon at a junior high dance.

Steve Vai’s guitar playing is a bit understated on “Charlie’s Enormous Mouth,” but make no mistake, it is excellent. We get a reggae rhythm with “Fine Girl,” as well as some keyboard playing by Tommy Mars that I actually enjoy; his falsetto singing is also quite good.

The bands returns to “You Are What You Is” with a couple very tightly performed songs: “Teenage Wind,” and “Harder Than Your Husband.” About the latter, I get the feeling that the song is both a rip and an homage to the Rolling Stones’ “Girl with the Far Away Eyes.” What some listeners fail to grasp is that a Zappa spoof that is obviously directed at a particular artist or band isn’t necessarily done because Zappa dislikes the target. Some were darts thrown with unmistakable disdain. But remember that Zappa often did satires of doo-wop music; yet he held a deep regard for that genre.

Talk about a heavy rock beat, “Bamboozled By Love” comes along and crushes your head. Ray White is getting off on his Allman Bros. muse. It is an incredible interpretation of the song. And the guitar solo is worthy of adoration, although it is too short.

“Sinister Footwear” comes along, showing some more of Zappa the composer, and for true Zappa fans, pieces like this are gems. I really like Bobby Martin’s keyboards just before Zappa’s guitar solo. The precision of the setup is chilling, as the mood is completely translated and delivered with impeccable skill. Jesus, this shit is good! Again, even Tommy Mars’ keyboards are excellent, recalling a choir of voices bringing a triumphant crescendo (sorry, I’ve never been a fan of Tommy Mars’ style of playing. It has always struck me as rather pedestrian, like he was stroking Keith Emerson).

“Stevie’s Spanking” is a grandiose heavy metal head-banging splurge of electronic musical madness that delights the synapses. After all, “it’s not that he required grooming.” You can tell how Stevie Vai was influenced by Zappa with his guitar solo. While distinctly different in timbre, you nonetheless hear the Zappa influence. And when the two of them are jamming together, it’s killer.

The two CDs that make up this boot are nicely divided, with the first disc ending with a commercial break for the live FM broadcast. CD 2 picks up with “Cocaine Decisions,” a song that wouldn’t be released for another two years on “The Man From Utopia.”

Next comes an obscure blues number, “Nig Biz,” a substantial surprise in many ways considering the concert was still being broadcast. This is a rollicking blues number that officially appears only on YCDTOSA Vol. 3 and “The Dub Room Special” DVD. Next come another two songs from “You Are What You Is,” beginning with “Doreen,” which in this live version really lacks the oomph of the official release. This is followed by “Goblin Girl,” a song seldom performed live, but which was a welcomed number in the show’s lineup considering it was, after all, Halloween. It’s a very short rendition of the song, coming in at less than two minutes, quickly transitioning into the more complex “The Black Page #2.” I have to comment here that Ed Mann’s percussion, particularly with the vibraphones, is outstanding and precise. Wackerman’s drumming is also spot-on. But, of course, Zappa’s solo on this number is exquisite as well.

This concert’s performance of “Tryin’ to Grow a Chin” in my opinion is merely mediocre. The playing is great, but it’s just not the same without Terry Bozzio singing. What follows is much better, a very cool interpretation of “Strictly Genteel,” sans vocals. While there are a lot of good songs on this boot, this performance of “Strictly Genteel” is worth tracking it down alone. There’s even a section almost four minutes into the song that recalls sounds from the “Burnt Weeny Sandwich” era. The song acts as an end to the FM broadcast, with Frank coming in and saying goodnight. However, the FM broadcast didn’t end until about half way through the next song, “The Torture Never Stops,” which Zappa proclaims is “a traditional Halloween number.” It is the title number for a DVD released in 2008 that contains video from both the early and late shows. Frank says “Good night to our television audience” at the end of this, but there is still plenty more.

The “rest of the show” starts with “Joe’s Garage,” which is followed by “Why Does It Hurt When I Pee.” Unfortunately, there is some feedback buzz in the background during portions of these songs. Two long classics come up next with “The Illinois Enema Bandit” and perhaps one of Zappa’s most brilliant as well as flexible compositions he ever wrote: “King Kong.” To demonstrate its flexibility, the band performs it with a reggae beat and a variety of interesting percussive solos, featuring some very cool “outside” playing by Ed Mann. Of course, there is a guitar solo. The show closes with “Auld Lang Syne.”

This Web site outlines the various official formats that material from the two 1981 shows was released on.

I rate this 4.5 of five stars. Add your own rating below.

Track listing

CD1
Black Napkins – 6:53
Montana – 3:44
Easy Meat – 6:44
Society Pages – 2:29
I’m A Beautiful Guy – 1:53
Beauty Knows No Pain – 2:52
Charlie’s Enormous Mouth – 3:36
Fine Girl – 3:09
Teenage Wind – 2:57
Harder Than Your Husband – 2:23
Bamboozled By Love – 5:26
Sinister Footwear – 6:38
Stevie’s Spanking – 6:32

CD2
Cocaine Decisions – 4:48
Nig Biz – 5:03
Doreen – 2:02
Goblin Girl – 1:45
The Black Page #2 – 4:14
Tryin’ To Grow A Chin – 2:27
Strictly Genteel – 6:41
The Torture Never Stops – 12:46
Joe’s Garage – 3:40
Why Does It Hurt When I Pee? – 2:38
The Illinois Enema Bandit – 10:44
King Kong – 11:59
Auld Lang Syne – 2:57

Players

Frank Zappa – guitar and vocals
Steve Vai – guitar
Ray White – guitar and vocals
Scott Thunes – bass
Chad Wackerman – drums
Ed Mann – percussion
Tommy Mars – keyboards
Bobby Martin – keyboards

The Palladium 1981 Halloween Early Show

2009-11-21T12:28:00.008-06:00

The year 1981 saw a flurry of releases from Frank, beginning with the live release of “Tinseltown Rebellion” in May, followed by the “Shut Up ‘N Play Yer Guitar” series (also all in May) and then in September that year came the release of “You Are What You Is.” The set list for the early show at the Palladium on Halloween night in New York drew heavily from “You Are What You Is,” with seven of the first eight songs performed at the show coming from that album; those seven tunes were also preformed consecutively. Overall, the show’s material primarily came from albums released in the late 1970s, with a small preview of Zappa’s next album to be released in 1982, “Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch,” which was to come out the following May.

In terms of audio quality, this boot isn’t quite as clear as the one for the 1978 show. Despite that, a considerable amount of material from both the 1981 early and late shows was re-mastered and released on “You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore” volumes 1, 3, and 6, on the “Beat the Boots” release “As An Am,” as well as on “The Dub Room Special,” and “One Shot Deal.”

The shows were also filmed, and this footage was variously released on the DVDs “The Dub Room Special” and “The Torture Never Stops.” Bits were released on a video “Dumb All Over,” and a lot of film was released as well on MTV. Details on all of this can be found here.

Given the fact that there are plenty of official releases of material from both the 1981 shows, there’s no strong need to go out and find the boot releases because, as I said, the sound quality on this boot in particular is not all that great. However, there is still plenty of material on this boot that was not subsequently released. And with some of the audio releases, the guitar solo was edited out.

Rather than run through the set list song by song as I have done with previous posts, I just want to cover some of the highlights. And one is the performance of “Envelopes,” a song that would be released later on “Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch.” This bit of avant-garde is not only really interesting, but very well-played by the band. Chad Wackerman’s drumming is precise. The song segues into another song from the same up-coming album, “Drowning Witch.” The variation in musical themes, rhythms and vocal styles lends a sense that the material is ad-libbed, but of course it is not. Certainly the band rehearsed this over and over according to Zappa’s infamous reputation of rehearsing bands to the extreme to ensure the material was performed flawlessly. I have to mention Wackerman’s drumming again, as his precision is key to one’s enjoyment of Zappa’s solo.

In an article following Zappa’s death in 1993 in the February 1994 edition of “Musician,” Wackerman was among those interviewed for the piece.

“I knew the reputation of how difficult Frank’s music was to play and I wasn’t disappointed when I saw the music,” Wackerman told the magazine. “It was extremely intricate and detailed.

“The working process really varied. Often you would learn a rock song by rote, without any paper, which didn’t mean it was a simple thing to learn. Some of his material would be a rock song until you to an interlude section, when he’d bring in a piece of paper.

“You had to use your ears a lot, be able to memorize things quickly. When we went on the road, all this music we’d accumulated had to be memorized because it was a rock’n’roll show, basically. You had rock’n’roll lighting and you couldn’t have your face buried in any music.

“Also, he tended to change things all the time. A piece we might have learned as a heavy-metal song, he’d give the cue and it might become a reggae song, just spontaneously. So every show was completely different ….

“It’s amazing – so many people don’t know about Frank or don’t know how deep he was. They just think that he was this rock’n’roll star. To me, Frank was this amazing composer who happened to play great rock’n’roll guitar. Some very different combinations of influences came out of that. To me, nobody’s ever going to touch it or come close.”

This interlude of songs begun with “Envelopes” and carried forward by “Drowning Witch” comes to a close with a really delightful performance of “What’s New in Baltimore?” While these tunes reach forward (“What’s New in Baltimore?” wasn’t released until “Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention” and “YCDTOSA Vol.5”), this avant-garde section of the show continues with a brilliant performance of “Moggio,” from “The Man From Utopia.”

The next song in the set, “We’re Turning Again,” reaches forward again to FZMTMP. What I find interesting in this song is not only Zappa’s commentary on how the vision of the 60s and 70s had been supplanted by empty consumerism, but his almost affectionate and wistful homage to Jimi Hendrix. The more you learn about Frank, the more you recognize his connections with so many different musicians who he encountered, many of whom went on to form recognizable and influential bands of there own. While Zappa respected the skill of and the music created by many of these musicians he worked with and encountered, he wasn’t one to be necessarily awed by them – except perhaps one: Jimi Hendrix. In Barry Miles’ “Zappa: A Biography,” shares some insight into Zappa’s experience with Hendrix in the late 1960s when The Mothers of Invention were playing at the Garrick Theater in New York City.

“In July (1967) Jimi Hendrix played the Café Au Go Go directly beneath the Garrick and Zappa went to see him” Miles writes, then quotes Zappa: “’He had a whole stack of Marshalls and I was right in front of it. I was physically ill – I couldn’t get out; it was so packed I couldn’t escape. And although it was great, I didn’t see how anybody could inflict that kind of volume on himself, let alone other people. That particular show he ended by taking that guitar and impaling it in the low ceiling of the club. Just walked away and left it squealing.’

“Frank invited Jimi to see the Mothers play, and Jimi and his drummer Mitch Mitchell sat in with them. Frank was so intrigued by what Hendrix was doing that he left the stage and sat in the audience to watch him play with the band, indicating a previously unseen level of respect for another musician’s work.”

Another tasty tidbit from this concert is the final song, a cover of The Allman Brothers’ “Whippin’ Post.” While a different version of this cover appeared later on “The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life,” this one is just as kick-ass. The guitar interplay between Vai and Zappa is tight and incredible as the band not only brings authenticity to the cover, but interprets the song with that unique Zappa flare. It sets your hair on fire.

I rate this four of five stars. Add your own rating below.

Track listing:

Disc 1
01) Chunga’s Revenge (fades in) – 4:15
02) You Are What You Is – 5:05
03) Mudd Club – 2:56
04) The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing – 316
05) Dumb All Over – 5:48
06) Heavenly Bank Account – 4:10
07) Suicide Chump – 5:49
08) Jumbo Go Away – 3:56
09) Envelopes – 3:11
10) Drowning Witch – 8:46
11) What’s New in Baltimore – 3:45
12) Moggio – 2:43
13) We’re Turning Again – 5:00

Disc 2
14) Alien Orifice – 5:10
15) Teenage Prostitute – 2:28
16) Flakes – 5:11
17) Broken Hearts Are For Assholes – 4:06
18) The Blue Light – 4:42
19) Tinseltown Rebellion – 4:52
20) Yo Mama – 9:08
21) Bobby Brown – 3:52
22) City of Tiny Lights – 9:52
23) Strictly Genteel – 9:01
24) Dancin’ Fool (cuts in) – 3:47
25) Whippin’ Post – 6:54

Musicians:

Frank Zappa – guitar, vocals
Steve Vai – guitar and etc.
Ray White – guitar, vocals
Scott Thunes – bass
Chad Wackerman – drums
Ed Mann – percussion
Tommy Mars – keyboards
Bobby Martin – keyboards

Halloween 1978 The Palladium NYC

2009-10-31T13:55:00.006-05:00

In 1978, Zappa played the Palladium in New York City for six shows: one on Halloween, two each on Oct. 27 and 28, and one on Oct. 29. As mentioned in my post on the official “Halloween” audio DVD release, Zappa recorded all these shows, leaving behind a ton of taped material. This boot from the Halloween night show is what should have been re-mastered and officially released. Why a cut-and-paste release of various songs from these shows was put together is beyond me. And added to my dismay is the fact that the official recording was released on an audio DVD, severely limiting how folks can play it. I don’t have a home theater to play it on and it won’t play in my CD changer or in my car stereo, so I had to download someone else’s rip so I could listen to it in my car. The official release sits on my CD shelf as a testament of how I occasionally waste my money.

But when you listen to the 1978 Halloween show in its entirety, it’s like WTF! Why wasn’t this put together into a three or four CD release? It is freaking outstanding, one of the most amazing concert recordings I’ve heard!

How amazing? This concert had some serious head-banging heavy metal guitar solos that stimulate your entire body with scintillating current; you will hear the magical musicianship of the band as it displays complete mastery of some of Zappa’s most difficult material; you will be awed by Denny Walley’s super sweet and melodious slide guitar delivered with a Delta blues fingerprint so implacable and delicious that it’s like a savory sweet potato pie; and the interplay between L. Shankar’s electric violin and Zappa’s guitar approaches the mystical.

And you’ll also hear Zappa just being himself as he includes some of his famous audience participation.

Granted, this recording is a bit rough due to the fact that it is a bootleg, but the material is so incredibly awesome that it really doesn’t matter. The only portion of the recording that is so rough that the final maniacal interplay between Shankar and Zappa is almost lost is at the very end. That part of the show was re-mastered and released on the official “Halloween” recording.

This was a very long show, as you can see by the track listing, so I’m only going to touch on some of what I consider to be the highlights.

Frank shreds on the fourth track, “Easy Meat,” which was also on the “Halloween” recording, except that the performance on that release came from the second show on Oct. 27. I really like the rhythmic and melodic progression of the solo as well as Vinnie Colaiuta’s aggressive drumming.

The band is incredibly tight on “Keep it Greasy,” and Frank’s vocals on “The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing” are really good, his singing effortless. And you can hear Denny Walley warming up the slide in preparation for the next song.

“City of Tiny Lights” always gives me the shivers, and this performance delivers. Walley’s slide guitar is electrifying, his solo brings a flavor of Texas and Delta blues while still retaining that cosmic aura of floating chaotically above the twinkling lights of Los Angeles. Frank picks up on the shred to continue the guitar part while Walley’s guitar hums menacingly in the background. The two of them finish off with a note-for-note pairing of the song’s theme.

The band is fantastic during “Pound for a Brown,” a demanding piece. Ed Mann’s percussion is brilliant and the bass playing by both Arthur Barrow and Patrick O’Hearn is flawless. But it’s Mann’s vibraphone playing that stars.

L. Shankar is introduced for the next song, “Thirteen.” This is beautiful stuff. Shankar starts low, but gradually works his way up the musical scale. You begin to notice something rhythmically going on, you’re not quite sure what it is, but Vinnie Colaiuta’s drumming keeps you safe. Because when Shankar begins to unload and let it rip on that violin, it leaves me stunned every time. When Zappa begins to play, the rhythm becomes so complex that there isn’t anyone else playing except for Colaiuta. The bass begins to rejoin as Zappa goes deep into the register to haul out a solo as if from the depths of oblivion. Then Frank, I believe, becomes possessed, his playing so inspired and amazing that I am in eternal regret that I never saw this performance. Shankar comes back, his playing bordering on the outside, giving Frank’s extended feedback an aural texture that becomes transcendent; Zappa takes it another step leaving you in the cosmos, but Shankar is right there as he becomes like a chaotic comet zipping about following no course, bouncing between quasars and super novas.

Both Shankar and Zappa bring the crowd back to earth, slowly bringing them back as the band joins back in for a crescendo that makes me cry. Why this was not included on the official release stupefies me. It is 17 minutes of outstanding music.

The infamous Warren Cucurullo is introduced in this show as well, as he comes up on stage to tell a pretty interesting story of becoming infatuated with a woman who he later finds out, is someone compromising manner, is a transvestite.

Frank pays homage to doo-wop with “Go Cry On Somebody Else’s Shoulder,” and delivers very nicely on the vocals. It’s really ironic in that Zappa did so many covers of doo-wop and R&B tunes that could be construed as satirical, as well as wrote many of his own, but the man had a deep love for this music. Check out the backing vocals on this, as they transition the song into “Little Rubber Girl,” which again is used as a transition into the “Idiot Bastard Son,” which is actually a waltz.

L. Shankar returns for more violin playing on “Conehead,” who, as Zappa says at his re-introduction, “give(s) them the works.” The band provides a really cool groove in the background for this as well. Good Zappa guitar solo too with some lovely feedback.

Disc 3 has a lot of treats on it, including “Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance” sans vocals (L. Shankar again on this, putting his interpretation of surf music on this), a decent performance of “Peaches En Regalia,” and “Strictly Genteel.” I really like “Sofa” on this, and “Magic Fingers” is decent as well. The standout, however, in this section of the show is “Packard Goose,” a song filled with time changes and one not often played, but which contains Zappa’s famous progression quote about “Music is the best!” This is followed by Shankar and Zappa trading riffs that rip the top of your head off. It’s probably the most impressive and synergistic part of the show.

Disc 4 begins with the “Yellow Snow Suite,” presented in its entirety as it was always performed. It was a serious blunder, in my opinion, that on “Halloween” only “Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow” was included.

As I mentioned earlier, the last part of this bootleg probably has the worst noise, which interferes significantly with one’s auditory pleasure while listening to “The Black Napkins” and “Deathless Horsie.” However, the recording was cleaned up and used on “Halloween.”

A note: There was no artwork with this boot, so I scanned some of the cover art from “Halloween” and used that.

I rate this 4.5 stars out of five despite the somewhat substandard audio. Add your own rating below.

Disc 1
1 Ancient Armaments
2 Intro
3 Dancin’ Fool
4 Easy Meat
5 Honey Don’t You Want A Man Like Me?
6 Keep It Greasy
7 The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing
8 City Of Tiny Lights
9 Pound For A Brown
10 Thirteen

Disc 2
11 Ms. X
12 Nancy’s Life Story
13 Dinah-Moe Humm
14 Go Cry On Somebody Else’s Shoulder
15 Little Rubber Girl
16 Idiot Bastard Son
17 Bobby Brown
18 Conehead
19 Suicide Chump
20 Little House I Used To Live In
21 Watermelon In Easter Hay

Disc 3
22 Preamble
23 Stink Foot
24 Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance
25 Peaches En Regalia
26 Strictly Genteel
27 Sofa
28 Packard Goose
29 Magic Fingers

Disc 4
30 Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow
31 Nanook Rubs It
32 St. Alphonso’s Pancake Breakfast
33 Father O’Blivion
34 Rollo
35 Camarillo Brillo
36 Muffin Man
37 Black Napkins
38 The Deathless Horsie

Frank Zappa – guitar, vocals
Patrick O’Hearn – bass
Arthur Barrow – bass
Denny Walley – slide guitar, vocals
Vinnie Colaiuta – drums
Ed Mann – percussion
Tommy Mars – keyboards
Peter Wolf – keyboards

Guests:
L. Shankar - electric violin
Warren Cucurullo - monologue
Nancy - monologue

With L. Shankar on tracks 10, 18, 20-21, 24, 28, and 38.

Halloween

2009-10-25T18:43:00.005-05:00

With 20 live performances on Halloween, and with Zappa’s penchant for recording practically everything he did on and off stage, it’s really quite surprising to see the dearth of Halloween live recordings in the official catalog.

It wasn’t until 2003 that a posthumous release came out that ostensibly was a live recording of a Halloween show, the DVD audio disc dubiously titled “Halloween,” the title being suspect because even that release was not strictly a Halloween show. It contains material (allegedly the best in Dweezil’s opinion) from the 1978 shows at the Palladium, recorded from Oct. 27 through 31.

Perhaps the only true Halloween show pressed by the Zappa Family Trust into media fit for an electronic device is the DVD “The Torture Never Stops,” which represents the two 1981 Halloween shows at the Palladium. All that material from all those Halloween shows, and this is all that’s available. Thank god for bootlegs! Oh sure, there are a few cuts from Halloween shows on various releases of YCDTOSA (which I will address in future posts), but “Halloween” and “The Torture Never Stops” are pretty much it in the legitimate recording arena. And unfortunately, I do not have a copy of “The Torture Never Stops” to review. I do have a bootleg of the 1981 shows, a review of which will be showing up shortly.

And so it is I must begin by saying that “Halloween” is a major disappointment. I admit that’s difficult to say because there are some excellent guitar solos on this recording, and the song set list on this release is not that bad, although it is very predictable. No, what is really disappointing is how the album is set up by Zappa speaking to the crowd. He tells them that the show will first start off with material that everybody knows, but that he also promises material that is new and different.

Believe me, those Halloween shows had some great material that went way beyond what is normally associated as being Zappa’s more popular songs, particularly the 1978 show. After all, he warns the crowd that this one is going to be a long one. And yet, on the official release, we are only teased. Yes, and frustratingly so. I mean, how can you release a recording in which Zappa states clearly that something more is promised, and then not deliver on that?

Mark Prindle has at times been harsher with his comments about various Zappa recordings than I would be, but his review of “Halloween” awards it way too many stars – six out of 10 – particularly in light of what he actually says about the recording.

“Supposedly a big selling point of this record is that it features violinist L. (or Lakshminarayana, as his friends called him as a Nick Name) Shankar… Some of the songs just don’t ZING in these renditions though: ‘Camarillo Brillo’ is rushed through with no soul at all; ‘Easy Meat’ loses its way to boring axe wank; and as beautiful as ‘Black Napkins’ and ‘The Deathless Horsie’ are, you’d have to be a member of the Zappa Family Trust to enjoy seventeen minutes of him soloing over them.”

The track selection was allegedly made by Dweezil. As accomplished a guitar player that he is, the Dweez has been in the business for more than 20 years, and this is the song selection he comes up with? Come on, Dweez, what’s up with that?

According to the liners note with the official release: “When it came time to put together this disc, the issue of sequencing, pacing and continuity became the order of the day. In other words, Joe (Cicarelli) and Dweezil needed to come up with about 70 minutes that played like a show, with all the ebb and flow and peaks and valleys of a continuous performance.

“The only answer was to go back to the vault, find all the original material, listen to it and decide what should go on the finished program.”

Zappa played five nights for the Halloween season that year, and to make this release, all the material was available to them! It seems the entire process could have been made much simpler if the notion of “sequencing, pacing and continuity” had just been tossed out the window and the Palladium show from Halloween night on 1978 was released in its entirety. Instead, with “Halloween” we have a faux show.

It’s incredible how the liner notes really hype everything up, and there was a lot to hype. The 1978 band was pretty awesome. The lineup Zappa had for the Halloween shows in 1978 was stellar and powerful. And the set list for Halloween night that year was a grand slam! But instead of that, Dweezil settles for getting on base with a walk. And add to that it was released in a format that barely anyone has the equipment to appreciate.

All right, enough of why this recording is a disappointment. Let’s look at the material talk about how good it is.

This “show” starts of with “Ancient Armaments,” a totally kick-ass guitar solo piece that has outstanding percussion coming from the great Vinnie Colaiuta. It is also during this track that Zappa announces to the crowd that “This is the big one!” And then he goes on:

“Let me tell you what I’m gonna do tonight. Tonight, since this is the big one, we’re going to play a very long show… What we’re going to do for those of you who have been here before … we are going to play a whole collection of stuff that we don’t normally do. But before we do that, we’re going to play our normal show for those of you who haven’t seen any of the other shows.”

This big band then launches into “Dancin’ Fool.” The numerous musicians in this line up really give this tune a big sound and feel, as well as a deep texture in sound. Plus you can hear Frank having fun with the crowd.

While the first two tracks are from the show Halloween night, Frank’s banter with the girl he pulls up on stage is cut short by the recording switching to “Easy Meat,” which was recorded four nights earlier on Oct. 27. My god, Zappa rips your head off with his guitar solo, the sound just sears your scalp and electrifies your ears. And Vinnie’s drumming is right there, spot on.

The next song, “Magic Fingers” from “200 Motels” is a composite, taking tracks from two shows: Oct. 27 and Halloween. The band is truly tight on this, and Denny Walley’s vocals on this are decent. “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow” is from Halloween night, but the major problem here is that this song is part of a suite that was always performed in its entirety, including Halloween night 1978. Here we only get the first song.

What follows is “Conehead” from “You Are What You Is.” It’s a fairly boring performance, only made marginally better by L. Shankar’s violin solo. However, Shankar had much better solos that night that were not included in this release.

Next, we get a drum solo by Vinnie Colaiuta called “Zeets.” While a great solo, I remain dubious about how it fits in following Shankar’s solo. This moves into “Stink Foot,” which was performed on Halloween and includes some interesting interaction with the audience. But the sweetest part is the solo. Many of Zappa’s solos are orchestrated numbers during which he plays precise parts, but in this one, I swear he gets lost and just soars. There are some pre-programmed parts; you can tell because Vinnie Colaiuta’s drumming is so tight, he has to know what’s coming. But there are other parts when Zappa shifts time signature and Colaiuta is still there, but you can tell he’s anticipating. Not catching up mind you; Zappa would never tolerate a drummer who had to catch up.

Although “Dinah-Moe Humm” was also played on Halloween, the version on this release is from Oct. 27. There’s some interesting audience participation during this, but overall, this song is nothing all that special.

The traditional combination of “Camarillo Brillo” and “Muffin Man” come next, which are both from Oct. 27. Frank’s guitar solo on “Muffin Man” is, well, all I can think of are hackneyed expressions filled with superlatives. However, I agree with the liner notes: it’s too short.

“Black Napkins (The Deathless Horsie)” is from Halloween night, and is nearly 17 minutes of some incredible guitar work. Not only does Frank deliver on this very recognizable theme, but he delves into other musical themes and progressions, seemingly spontaneously, because at times the band – except for Vinnie – just stops playing. Frank goes off into his own little guitar world, just like Joe from “Joe’s Garage,” playing those guitar riffs that must have filled his head while Frank was in Tank C after that bogus pornography charge he spent time in jail for. L. Shankar comes in for support, but that’s about it. Shankar’s truly stellar playing is omitted from this recording.

The Audio-DVD also includes a radio interview with WPIX on Oct. 30, 1978 in which Frank reveals that some police danced on the stage during one of his shows because they were “moved to dance by the majesty of the music, are you kidding?” He also reveals that he likes Devo, Blondie and The Stranglers. Cool. I love Devo and Blondie, but I’ll have to check up on The Stranglers. He also mentions an album in the works called “Martian Loves Secrets.” Huh?

I rate this three of five stars. Add your own rating below.

Released Feb. 4, 2003, on the Vaulternative label.

Audio content
“NYC Audience” – 1:17
“Ancient Armaments” – 8:23
“Dancin’ Fool” – 4:35
“Easy Meat” – 6:03
“Magic Fingers” – 2:33
“Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow” – 2:24
“Conehead” – 4:02
“Zeets” (Vinnie Colaiuta) – 2:58
“Stink-Foot” – 8:51
“Dinah-Moe Humm” – 5:27
“Camarillo Brillo” – 3:14
“Muffin Man” – 3:32
“Black Napkins (The Deathless Horsie)” – 16:56

Track 5, “Magic Fingers”, is edited together from versions from the Halloween show on October 31, 1978 and from the two shows which took place on October 27. The other tracks were taken from the following shows:

October 27, first show — tracks 10–12
October 27, second show — track 4
October 28, first show — track 7
October 31 — tracks 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 9 and 13

Additional content
“Suicide Chump” – 9:31
Video in Black and White, recorded at Capitol Theatre, Passaic, New Jersey October 13, 1978
“Dancin’ Fool” – 3:48
Color video taken from Zappa’s appearance on Saturday Night Live, in New York City October 21, 1978
Radio interview – 9:41
Audio only; conducted at WPIX with Mark Simone, October 30, 1978

Personnel
Frank Zappa – lead guitar, vocals
Vinnie Colaiuta – drums
Arthur Barrow – bass guitar
Patrick O’Hearn – bass guitar
Tommy Mars – keyboards
Denny Walley – guitar, vocals
Peter Wolf – keyboards
Ed Mann – percussion
L. Shankar – violin

Halloween 1976 Felt Forum Late Show

2009-10-24T19:33:00.011-05:00

The late show at the Felt Forum in New York City on Halloween, 1976, was a decent concert. When Frank teases the crowd after the “Purple Lagoon Intro,” which includes Terry Bozzio’s outstanding drumming, with the promise, “I just hope we can make this program everything you hoped for tonight,” you know this is going to be a good show.

But this particular bootleg, an audience recording, really sucks. You can barely hear the concert’s greatness through the crowd chatter, and the guy that keeps yelling “Frank Zappa sucks donkey balls!” is really super annoying. There is also the small matter that I don’t have any art work to go with this. Hence the lame images.

The opener “Stink Foot,” from “Apostrophe(‘)” is a song that Frank tells the crowd he opened the early show with. This is significant because when Zappa played back-to-back shows on a single night, the song sets were never identical and seldom included any of the same individual songs. The guitar solo on this, although muffled in the bootleg, comes forward enough for you to hear Zappa inject a bit of blues into the tune. And then you hear him interrupt the song, apparently to re-tune his guitar, after which he goes through a series of ripping arpeggios to ensure his axe is truly in tune. After that, I believe he slips back into the solo he initially intended on playing. Bozzio does an outstanding job of staying in time with this unpredicted interruption.

The “Poodle Lecture” is a routine that Frank included in a lot of shows during that era, but here it’s not that enjoyable because instead of just hearing the crowd’s general response to Zappa’s narration, you get to hear individual voices, like that annoying guy who was yelling “Frank Zappa sucks donkey balls!”

Bianca Thornton belts out the vocals to “Dirty Love” from “Over-nite Sensation,” but you can barely hear her. What you do hear, however, is enough to make you wish you were there to hear it. We do get to hear another great solo from Frank. However, it appears that he was having some trouble that night keeping his guitar in tune. He abandons his efforts to move into “Pound For A Brown,” a tune from “Uncle Meat,” which turns out to be the band’s first live performance of the tune. A few more attempts at tuning his guitar and then the song begins.

You can hear Frank starts things with a “One-two-three-four,” but this song is way beyond and normal 4/4 time signature. There’s so much going on with this song with Patrick O’Hearn’s bass playing and Terry Bozzi’s precision drumming. All that frenetic activity initially sounds somewhat out of line with Zappa’s playing, but as the song progresses, the synchronicity of the players activity becomes apparent. Things finish with an excellent drum solo from Bozzio, so impressive you can hear the comments and awe from the audience.

Not sure, but when the band slows things down during “Wind Up Workin’ in a Gas Station,” a song from “Zoot Allures,” it sounds like they are either taking a shot at Grand Funk or maybe Kansas. Probably the latter, as about that time Kansas was fairly popular.

Bozzio gets to work his vocal cords in “Tryin’ to Grow a Chin” from “Sheik Yer Bouti,” but the substandard recording of the bootleg is such you really can’t hear much beyond the bass and rhythm guitar lines.

Normally, live performances of “The Torture Never Stops” include famously intense guitar solos out of Frank. Halloween 1976 was a bit of an exception to this. In addition to the performance being marred by the chatter of some guy who is close to the person recording the show, Frank is still having trouble with his guitar. He goes through a solo, but you can tell he seems to be preoccupied with his guitar. And then later in the solo, someone yells, “What is this shit?” To which Zappa replies that he’s tuning his guitar, followed with a “Why don’t you go fuck yourself?”

Ray White and Zappa trade solos during “City of Tiny Lights,” a song constructed to accommodate a lengthy guitar solo. However, the solo isn’t as imaginative as what one might expect out of Frank, leading me to think that he was holding back a lot during this show because of whatever problems he was having with his instrument.

Bianca Thornton’s voice comes through much more clearly during the last song on Disc 1, “You Didn’t Try to Call Me,” a song that goes all the way back to “Freak Out!” She’s gives it a really full, bluesy and spiritual feel. Yet, the band sort of disintegrates into a bunch of dinking around. To me, another solo was probably intended to go along with this song, which would have been bitchin’ to go along with Thornton’s singing, but given what happened early in the show, I think Frank basically punted.

Disc 2 continues with “Manx Needs a Woman,” a short piece that was on the “New York” release, which is followed by “Titties ‘n Beer,” featuring Terry Bozzio as the Devil. Eddie Jobson has some trouble keeping the beat on his keyboards while Bozzio is busy in his role as the Devil, but the routine apparently works the crowd into an enthusiastic frenzy. You get a better sense of Bianca Thornton’s voice toward the end of this, as she sounds very Stevie Nicks.

Zappa overcomes the previous issues with his guitar as he rips into “Black Napkins,” but two-and-a-half minutes into the song, the guitar playing abruptly stops to be replaced by some vocalizations by it sounds like both Zappa and Bianca Thornton. The crowd does not sound all that pleased, recognizing something wrong with the sound. Was Frank having another guitar issue? But the crowd slowly gets into the vocalizations despite the fact that the sequence lacks any cohesion. Someone eventually starts playing an electric violin, but there is no credit for this, and there doesn’t appear to be any reference of someone playing electric violin here as well. The style of playing sounds very much like Jean Luc Ponty. That’s my guess, supported in part by the fact someone in the crowd shouts his name. Some subdued guitar playing follows this, but Frank picks up the intensity a bit when we’re about 12 minutes into the song. If he did have guitar issues earlier in the show, by the end of this song he has surely overcome them: you hear Zappa losing himself in the song, his playing becoming effortless. I have to wonder, however, if it’s a different guitar, because it has a slightly different sound than the one he started with. You can’t tell because this is an audience recording, and the sound quality shifts frequently because of that alone.

Next come “Advance Romance,” a very heavy song that Zappa played a lot, but didn’t show up on any official “studio” recording. Rather, it appears on the live recordings “You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore” volumes 3 and 5, as well as on “Oz.” This concert’s version has a pretty kick-ass bass solo by O’Hearn, if you can make it out. Plus, Zappa’s guitar playing has definitely overcome whatever problems were encountered earlier in the show. Again, despite how shitty this bootleg recording is, the ability to hear solos like this make having these bootlegs rewarding. The solo in this song is why this recording gets two stars instead of one.

Zappa delves into a pretty sweet performance of “What Kind of Girl Do You Think We Are?” with Bianca Thornton, who sings a soulful accompaniment that also shoots back with a satirical tongue that keeps Frank in his place. While I still like the version from the “Fillmore East” concert recording, this one is good too.

Of course, after a song like that, it’s not surprising the group launches next into “Dinah-Moe Humm.” This is followed with “Camarillo Brillo,” which slows down toward the end as was typical of concerts from this era, because it was usually followed, as it is here, with “Muffin Man,” a song first released on “Bongo Fury.” In this case, John Smothers sings the song. Was this someone from the audience? This was not unusual for a Zappa show, as long as you were well-behaved, but as it turned out, Smothers was Zappa's long-time bodyguard. And Zappa delivers again with outstanding playing, albeit interrupted by a glitch in the download.

I rate this recording two of five stars. Add your own rating below.

Content was edited and a correction made on Oct. 25, 2009, correcting the name John Scuthers to John Smothers.

Disc 1:
Crowd Noise
1 Purple Lagoon Intro
2 Stink Foot
3 Poodle Lecture
4 Dirty Love
5 Pound For A Brown
6 Wind Up Workin’ In A Gas Station
7 Tryin’ To Grow A Chin
8 The Torture Never Stops
9 City Of Tiny Lights
10 You Didn’t Try To Call Me

Disc 2:
11 Manx Needs Women
12 Titties ‘n Beer
13 Black Napkins
14 Advance Romance
15 What Kind Of Girl Do You Think We Are?
16 Dinah-Moe Humm
17 Camarillo Brillo
18 Muffin Man

Frank Zappa-vocals, guitar
Ray White-vocals, guitar
Patrick O’Hearn-vocals, bass
Terry Bozzio-drums
Eddie Jobson-keyboards
Bianca Thornton-vocals

Trick or Treat, London 1968

2009-10-03T19:30:00.006-05:00

Despite this bootleg’s title (it was also released by Rhino in 1991) and the overtly Halloweenish cover art, this is not a true Halloween performance, as the live tracks are from the Oct. 25, 1968, show at the Royal Festival Hall in London. And the first half of this boot includes studio tracks that were all officially released, except for Track 3, “Lonely Little Girl.”

According to the notes that come with this:

“From Biffy the Elephant Shrew:

“No, the Trick or Treat cut is not really the single version, except for the last line (where you'll note that it does switch to mono). The single consists of the first verse of ‘Lonely Little Girl’, in mono, with a different ending (like on the Trick or Treat boot), followed by the celesta tinkle and cough. This cuts to ‘Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance’ in its entirety (indeed, the single is more about ‘Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance’ than it is ‘Lonely Little Girl’), make a musique concrete noise here, and finally a sax-led shuffle riff that repeats and fades. This sax passage appears nowhere else in the Zappa oeuvre. [This sax riff is also at the end of side one of the Trick or Treat boot - JWB.]

“This riff is known in the trade as the ‘Bunk Gardner riff’. From Johan Lif:

“During the fade-out of the rare single version of ‘Lonely Little Girl’, there is a repeated brass riff, believed to have been added by Bunk Gardner during the ‘Big Leg Emma’ sessions after Zappa had left the studio [see Chevalier, pp. 224-5]. This riff has now been identified as a copy of the opening bass riff from ‘What’s So Good About Goodbye’ with Smokey Robinson & the Miracles.”

I dunno. (Read the comments to this post. Someone fesses up!)

Things kick off with a hard-driving “Why Don’tcha Do Me Right?” Nice guitar solo, although brief, in this song that reveals the strong blues roots that have influenced Zappa’s playing. In fact, Zappa admits in his autobiography that in learning to play the guitar, all he learned were blues riffs. From that comes his distinct style of playing.

Although released with a re-release of “Absolutely Free,” I had always preferred the version of “Big Leg Emma” released with “Zappa in New York.”

“Lonely Little Girl” comes from “We’re Only In It For The Money,” launched with Eric Clapton announcing “I see God, I see God,” finished with some snorks before heading into “Dog Breath,” which appears on “Uncle Meat.” However, this version is primarily instrumental, heavy on Ian Underwood’s saxophone.

Next up is “My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama,” which first appeared on “Weasels Ripped My Flesh.” However, this stripped down version is very cool. I like the “Weasels” cut, but this one is so spare that it’s delicious.

The next cut is taken from the “Fillmore East” album with Flo & Eddie singing “Tears Begin to Fall.” This is followed by the “Junier Mintz Boogie.” This appears to be a live recording, probably circa the Flo & Eddie tours, with Frank jamming away on his guitar. It is sizzling. This solo is a precious moment captured in time, the reason why I like bootlegs. Christ almighty, Frank is killing that guitar, it is so divine.

The London live stuff comes next, with a performance of “Uncle Meat” unlike anything you’ve probably heard, unless you’ve been lucky enough to see Zappa play live during this era. He brings the song down to “one note at a time,” giving the song a completely different interpretation from the official release. This is a character trait of Zappa’s, that even when he plays consecutive shows that include the same songs, they will not be performed the same way in each show. So when we come to the live performance of “Son of Prelude to the Afternoon of a Sexually Aroused Gas Mask,” it’s similar enough to the performance on “Weasels,” but is different in its own right.

No Zappa performance would be complete without a doo-wop number, and “In the Sky” delivers on this genre. The sides closes with an instrumental medley. Zappa pulls off several nice solos when the band switches into “The Orange County Lumber Truck,” then blends into one of my all time favorite Zappa numbers, “King Kong.” This is rock-n-roll. It’s avant-garde too. Aw, what the hell, it’s freaking great!

I rate this four out of five stars. Add your own rating below.

PREVIOUS PLASTIC:

1. Why Don’tcha Do Me Right? [listed as “Why Don't You Do Me Right”]
2. Big Leg Emma
3. Lonely Little Girl
4. Dog Breath
5. My Guitar [Wants to Kill Your Mama]
6. Tears Began to Fall
7. Junier Mintz Boogie

TREAT SIDE:

8. Uncle Meat (One Not[e] at a Time)
9. Son of Prelude to the Afternoon of a Sexually Aroused Gas Mask
10. Oh, in the Sky [listed as “In the Sky”]
11. The Big Medley [“Let's Make the Water Turn Black / Harry, You're a Beast / Oh No / The Orange County Lumber Truck / King Kong” - largely officially released on Ahead of Their Time]

The Man From Utopia

2009-09-29T09:54:00.007-05:00

“Cold and digital” is a common phrase used to describe Zappa’s production during the mid-1980s. Repetitive is one that comes to mind as well. And mechanical, as it seems that Frank would develop a musical or recording technique during this time and then clone that development for unimaginative re-use.

As an example, consider “I Come From Nowhere,” which was released on “Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch.” The unusual timbre that Zappa used for the vocals in this song, while odd, provided a point of interest against the incredibly strong guitar riff driving the melody. But then this same vocalization technique shows up on “The Radio is Broken,” from “The Man From Utopia.” Boring.

And yet, this very disappointing recording starts off quite strong, beguiling the listener with the first three tracks (on the CD release) that this might actually be something nearing the compositional quality of “You Are What You Is.” The letdown, however, is substantial (it occurs more quickly on the vinyl release).

Following the order from the CD release, “The Man From Utopia” opens with “Cocaine Decisions,” a simple song with a nice harmonica part by Craig “Twister” Steward that punctuates the folksy rhythm and presentation. Zappa always had time with his material to ridicule drug use and users, but with this song, he reveals his personal animus toward cocaine. He saw the ripple effects of cocaine use not only in the music industry, but everywhere, from hypocritical politicians to doctors and lawyers. The musical interlude in between the repeated bridge has some delightful keyboards, I am presuming by Tommy Mars.

Next comes “SEX,” which starts with a strong, in-your-face rhythm, coupled with a lighter bridge finished off with what the “sniffer says.” Hmmm, lot going on in this song.

Arthur “Tink” Barrow shines on the next song, the instrumental “Tink Walks Amok.” This fantastic polyrhythmic tune with multiple bass lines, all provided by Barrow, is very cool. Listening to this I’m beginning to think that this CD has got a good groove going on. But ACK! Along comes “The Radio Is Broken.” Shit.

Lyrically, Zappa is lampooning the cheesy story lines from TV science fiction programming and SciFi movies. But the sing-speak delivery is just plain annoying. About the only redeeming quality the song has are the brief interludes of spastic guitar and drums. Things improve with “We Are Not Alone.” I really like the baritone sax in this by Bobby Martin. And musically, the song is so much more interesting than the nonsense in “The Radio is Broken.”

The first time I heard “The Dangerous Kitchen” was at the live show I saw in Tucson. I liked it then, and I enjoy the song now. Having said that, it would be even more enjoyable if the sing-speak delivery technique was limited to this song, and not used so frequently with other songs. Nothing more annoying than Zappa slipping into this sing-speak during live performances of songs like “The Torture Never Stops.”

Things pick up with “The Man From Utopia Meets Mary Lou,” and then really get going with the reggae-style “Stick Together.” This is a very cool song, from the impeccable rhythm section to the backing vocal harmonies that bring a spiritual quality to the song.

The sing-speak delivery that I hate so much returns with “The Jazz Discharge Party Hats,” which strikes me as laziness on Zappa’s part. The story is interesting enough in its own right, so why not just tell it? Or write a real song about it?

Frank returns to his doo-wop roots with “Luigi & The Wise Guys,” an a cappella song complete with falsetto harmonizing and snapping fingers, along with completely stupid lyrics.

The CD finishes with “Moggio”, a welcome respite from some of the other items on the release that were passed off as music. It features superb vibraphone playing by Ed Mann, and concludes with Zappa’s trademarked snorks.

All in all, I find this to be a mediocre release. In fact, I’d like to see it repackaged, taking the better items on this release and putting them together with the better songs from “Sleep Dirt.” Then I think you might have something there.

I rate this three of five stars. Add your own rating below.

Released March, 1983, Barking Pumpkin Records.

Track listing

LP release:

Side One
1. Cocaine Decisions (2:56)
2. The Dangerous Kitchen (2:51)
3. Tink Walks Amok (3:40)
4. The Radio Is Broken (5:52)
5. Mõggio (3:05)

Side Two
1. The Man From Utopia Meets Mary Lou (Medley) (3:19)
2. Stick Together (3:50)
3. SEX (3:00)
4. The Jazz Discharge Party Hats (4:30)
5. We Are Not Alone (3:31)

CD release:

1. Cocaine Decisions (3:54)
2. SEX (3:43)
3. Tink Walks Amok (3:39)
4. The Radio Is Broken (5:51)
5. We Are Not Alone (3:18)
6. The Dangerous Kitchen (2:51)
7. The Man From Utopia Meets Mary Lou (Medley) (3:22)
8. Stick Together (3:14)
9. The Jazz Discharge Party Hats (4:29)
10. Luigi & The Wise Guys (3:25)
11. Moggio (2:36)

Personnel:

Frank Zappa (guitar, vocals, ARP 2600, Linn Drum Machine)
Steve Vai ('impossible' guitar parts on strat and acoustic)
Ray White (guitar, vocals)
Roy Estrada (pachuco falsettos etc)
Bob Harris (boy soprano)
Ike Willis (bionic baritone)
Bobby Martin (keyboards, sax, vocals)
Tommy Mars (keyboards)
Arthur Barrow (keyboards, bass, micro-bass, rhythm guitar)
Ed Mann (percussion)
Scott Thunes (bass)
Chad Wackerman (drums)
Vinnie Colaiuta (drums on "The Dangerous Kitchen")
Dick Fegy (mandolin)
Marty Krystall (sax)
Craig “Twister” Steward (harmonica)

Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch

2009-09-12T21:21:00.009-05:00

When I first heard the single “Valley Girl” on the radio, I was like, this is awesome! How gnarly is that? Zappa is on the radio! But I quickly grew tired of its repeated play and the ubiquitous phrase, “Gag me with a spoon!” As a result, I didn’t take the entire album it was released on all that seriously.

Boy, was that a mistake. Because I really like “Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch.” The album followed “You Are What You Is,” which admittedly was a tough act to follow. Couple that with the commercialism of “Valley Girl,” and you might understand how at first I didn’t think much of this album. Thankfully, time heals all wounds, as they say.

Case in point is the first track, “No, Not Now.” Initially I was put off by the shrill vocals, but the hammering drums and bass line wouldn’t let me ignore the song entirely. Former Mothers of Invention member Roy Estrada is among those shrieking in the song. But repeated plays have led this number to grow on me; I have even been known to let my head to bob up and down while listening to it. Rhythmically, this is a very straight-forward composition for Zappa: steady time signature with a repetitive rhythm line that kinda gets ya to wanna dance.

The famous – or infamous – “Valley Girl” comes next. This song, despite its attempt to be a satire of “valley speak,” became both an anthem for and against what became, and remains, an ubiquitous style of speech among sorority girls. The song reached 32 in the Billboard Hot 100, making it Zappa’s only top 40 single in the U.S. What is truly amazing is that today, I still hear college co-eds speaking with the same tonal quality and cadence as Moon Unit did when she provided the speaking parts to the song. Some of the phrases may have changed, but the other qualities of “valley speak” remain and continue to flourish. It makes me wonder if these young women today speak like that intentionally, or it’s just something they pick up through the associations they create with other pseudo-valley girls. As Moon Unit chimes, “It’s like/I do not talk funny!”

Musically, the song retains a similar simplicity heard in “No Not Now,” but with a theme that mocks the hair band sound developing at the time. Chad Wackerman provides excellent hammering on the drums, as well as outstanding use of his cymbals. “It’s like tubular.”

With “I Come from Nowhere,” Zappa delivers a song that has an incredibly strong guitar riff coupled with a powerful, simplistic rhythm line; but juxtaposed against this musical background are the lyrics, sung in a very odd, somewhat distorted timbre. It’s a similar vocalization technique that he reused on “The Man from Utopia,” particularly in the song, “The Radio is Broken.” The people from nowhere appear to be drug users, a topic Zappa had in part touched in past work, but upon which, during the 1980s, his material became much more focused. While Zappa had always been negative on drug use, he really had a dislike for cocaine users, people who variously were either tangential targets of his critique – such as in the song “Tinseltown Rebellion” – or who were directly mocked, as in “Cocaine Decisions.”

Following the vocal part of “I Come from Nowhere” is some amazing guitar work by Patrick O’Hearn.

It has been widely reported that what was Side 1 of the original LP release was never performed live. Side 2, however, is composed entirely of live tracks. It’s sort of ironic, because as I explained, the songs on Side 1 are mostly straightforward rock pieces that lack any overt complexity. In contrast, the songs on Side 2 present some of Zappa’s most complex musical work for a rock band.

“Drowning Witch” starts off simple enough, but even the brief into shows some rhythmic variation. Then comes the sing-song presentation Zappa used in other works (such as “The Dangerous Kitchen”), but this style isn’t as annoying to me as when he used it as a transition in other songs. Following this is some really interesting percussive and keyboard material that leads into one of Frank’s most bizarre guitar solos that I’ve heard. It’s good stuff.

After that cosmic guitar solo, “Drowning Witch” switches with a brief segue into some more percussive material before transitioning back to his guitar. Chad Wackerman smoothly beats his way through the time changes and with brilliant musical alacrity, his steady drumming keeps up with, or leads (depending how think about it), Zappa’s guitar.

The last two songs, “Envelopes” and “Teen-age Prostitute,” may be short – both less than three minutes – but musically represent some of Frank’s most interesting and challenging compositions, from both a performing and listening perspective. And with the latter, we have Lisa Popeil providing an operatic quality. Really fascinating stuff.

I rate this four of five stars. Add your own rating below.

Released May 3, 1982, Barking Pumpkin Records

Track listing:

Album release:

Side One
1. No Not Now (5:50)
2. Valley Girl (4:59)
3. I Come From Nowhere (6:20)

Side Two
1. Drowning Witch (12:01)
2. Envelopes (2:44)
3. Teen-age Prostitute (2:40)

CD release:

1. No Not Now (5:51)
2. Valley Girl (4:50)
3. I Come From Nowhere (6:09)
4. Drowning Witch (12:03)
5. Envelopes (2:45)
6. Teen-age Prostitute (2:42)

Personnel:

Frank Zappa (lead guitar, vocals)
Steve Vai (guitar)
Ray White (rhythm guitar, vocals)
Tommy Mars (keyboards)
Bobby Martin (keyboards, sax, vocals)
Ed Mann (percussion)
Scott Thunes (bass)
Arthur Barrow (bass)
Patrick O'Hearn (bass)
Chad Wackerman (drums)
Roy Estrada (vocals)
Ike Willis (vocals)
Bob Harris (vocals)
Lisa Popeil (vocals)
Moon Zappa (vocal on Valley Girl)

Shut Up ‘N Play Yer Guitar

2009-08-23T11:27:00.007-05:00

There is little doubt that Frank Zappa was one of the most accomplished electric guitar players in rock music; anyone who knows anything about guitar playing, or is a guitar player him or herself, knows about Frank Zappa. Appropriate words fail to materialize when attempts are made to describe his brilliant playing ability and his mastery of the form in terms of composition and timbre, which is all the more amazing in light of the fact he was self-taught. His influence on guitar playing in rock music is significant as well, an influence that many casual listeners of guitar-oriented rock may be unaware of. Because it is not hyperbole to assert that Zappa influenced the nature and direction of the guitar solo, largely introducing it to the listening public as an integral part of any rock song.

“I waited for records that had guitar solos on them, but they were always too short,” says Zappa in his autobiography. “I wanted to play my own solos – long ones – so I taught myself how to play the guitar. I didn’t bother to learn any chords – just blues licks.”

In terms of his own style, Zappa pointed to three primary influences on his guitar playing: Guitar Slim, Johnny “Guitar” Watson, and Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown. I would strongly recommend to anyone who thinks him or herself a Zappa fan to go out and listen to these legends.

With the guitar commanding such a significant role in Zappa’s music, it was unsurprising that he should eventually release something in which his guitar playing held the starring role. What an extraordinary idea, when you think about it: an album made up entirely of guitar solos. Clearly, the concept of such an album is exciting, but what about in its actual execution?

And that’s my dilemma with “Shut Up ‘N Play Yer Guitar.” The idea of an album composed entirely of guitar solos, particularly Frank Zappa guitar solos, strikes me as a no-brainer. Of course it’s a great idea, right? But when I sit down and listen to SUNPYG, this sense that something is missing overwhelms me, and what is missing is context.

The idea that a guitar solo can be a self-contained composition is beguiling; we all have our favorite solos and love to listen to them over and over again. But these solos are always placed within the context of the larger composition surrounding them. Even songs that were primarily written as vehicles to deliver a guitar solo, like “City of Tiny Lites,” provide very important musical structure in which the solo exists. Remove the solo from that structure and what do you have? Add to this the fact that on SUNPYG, many of the solo titles have nothing to do with the song from which they were taken.

I should explain myself before I go any further. I am not a guitar player. While I dabbled with the instrument for a few years in the early 1990s, I would never classify myself as a real guitar player. Real guitar players – musicians who perform professionally – might very well have a completely different reaction to SUNPYG than I do, or for that matter, with Zappa’s other guitar-solo albums, like “Guitar” or “Trance-Fusion.” While my interest in music can be esoteric at times, I am more like the general listener than the musician listener.

As an example, the first solo on Disc 1, “Five-Five-Five” is truly an amazing solo, and a great way to start the CD, but there’s no way I would ever be able to identify it as a solo from a performance of “Conehead.” By contrast, I can recognize the title track on the first disc as being a solo from a performance of “Inca Roads.” Incidentally, four solos on the three-disc box set are extracted from “Inca Roads”: “Shut Up ‘N Play Yer Guitar” from Disc 1; “Gee, I Like Your Pants” and “Shut Up ‘N Play Yer Guitar Some More,” both from Disc 2; and “The Return of Shut Up ‘N Play Yer Guitar,” from Disc 3. (I know a lot of folks rank “Watermelon in Easter Hay” as Zappa’s best guitar work, but “Inca Roads” is top for me)

And yet, with the song “City of Tiny Lites,” which is structured to accommodate a lengthy guitar solo, I would never recognize it as being the source for the solo titled “Variations on the Carlos Santana Secret Chord Progression” from Disc 2. Even after looking that up, I am unable to mentally provide the context to attach to the solo.

Reviews of this release vary widely, from those who call it “musician wankery” to others who classify it as the best Zappa release ever. There is no doubt that these solos are extraordinary; taken individually, they are magnificent examples of Zappa’s ability. But, frankly, packaged together one after the other, lacking the full context of the composition of origin, I easily become bored listening to it. And I find that very exasperating: How can I become bored with Zappa’s guitar solos?

I know I will upset some with my three-star rating, but I cannot honestly rate it any higher. This should in no way be taken as an indication that I dislike this recording. In fact, I listen to this release far more often than any of the other three-star albums I’ve written about, and more often than some with four-star ratings. But I seldom listen to it all the way through. After a while, the solos all start to sound the same to me. I find that rather disappointing.

I rate this three of five stars. Add your own rating below.

Released May 11, 1981, Barking Pumpkin Records.

Track listing on original vinyl release:

Disc 1 (Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar)

Side one
“Five-Five-Five” – 2:35 (1979-02-19)
“Hog Heaven” – 2:46 (1980-10-18)
“Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar” – 5:35 (1979-02-18)
“While You Were Out” – 6:09 (1979)

Side two
“Treacherous Cretins” – 5:29 (1979-02-17)
“Heavy Duty Judy” – 4:39 (1980-12-05)
“Soup 'n Old Clothes” – 7:53 (1980-12-11)

Disc 2 (Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar Some More)

Side one
“Variations on the Carlos Santana Secret Chord Progression” – 3:56 (1980-12-11)
“Gee, I Like Your Pants” – 2:32 (1979-02-18)
“Canarsie” – 6:06 (1979-02-19)
“Ship Ahoy” – 5:26 (1976-02-03)

Side two
“The Deathless Horsie” – 6:18 (1979-02-19)
“Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar Some More” – 6:52 (1979-02-17)
“Pink Napkins” – 4:41 (1977-02-17)

Disc 3 (Return of the Son of Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar)

Side one
“Beat It With Your Fist” – 1:39 (1980-10-30)
“Return of the Son of Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar” – 8:45 (1979-02-19)
“Pinocchio's Furniture” – 2:04 (1980-12-05)
“Why Johnny Can't Read” – 4:04 (1979-02-17)

Side two
“Stucco Homes” – 8:56 (1979)
“Canard Du Jour” – 10:12 (1972)

Personnel:

Tommy Mars – Keyboards, Vocals
Kerry McNabb – Engineer
Steve Nye – Engineer
Patrick O'Hearn – Wind, Bass
Denny Walley – Guitar (Rhythm), Guitar
Ray White – Guitar (Rhythm), Guitar
Jo Hansch – Mastering
John Swenson – Liner Notes
Bob Harris – Keyboards
Peter Wolf – Keyboards
John Livzey – Photography
John Vince – Graphic Design
Ed Mann – Percussion
Ike Willis – Guitar (Rhythm), Guitar
Bob Stone – Remixing
Arthur Barrow – Bass
Terry Bozzio – Drums
Joe Chiccarelli – Engineer, Mixing, Recording
Vinnie Colaiuta – Drums, Percussion
Warren Cuccurullo – Guitar (Rhythm), Electric Sitar, Guitar
George Douglas – Engineer
Roy Estrada – Vocals, Bass
Frank Zappa – Arranger, Composer, Conductor, Keyboards, Vocals, Producer, Main Performer, Bouzouki, Guitar
Tom Flye – Engineer
Mick Glossop – Engineer
Bob Harris – Keyboards
Andre Lewis – Keyboards
Eddie Jobson – Keyboards, Vocals, Violin
Steve Vai – Guitar (Rhythm), Guitar
Jean-Luc Ponty – Keyboards, Baritone Violin, Violin

Orchestral Favorites

2009-08-15T17:36:00.008-05:00

Among the broken up parts to “Lather” that were released as individual recordings was “Orchestral Favorites,” a nice addition to anyone’s Zappa collection, although not necessarily essential. Zappa had several orchestral releases, all of which are good. But if you’re looking for an essential orchestral recording, go for “The Yellow Shark.”

All but the first and second tracks on this release appear on “Lather.” Both “Strictly Genteel” and “Bogus Pomp” are compositions carried from “200 Motels,” with the latter being an instrumental interpretation of the themes from “This Town Is A Sealed Tuna Sandwich.” These tunes, omitted from “Lather,” again form the musical bread for this particular recording, a technique that Zappa had used in the past, most pointedly with “Burnt Weeny Sandwich.”

If there is a flaw with “Strictly Genteel,” it is in the fact that it was originally composed as a lyrical piece. It was the closing composition to the movie “200 Motels,” when the entire cast gathers on the set with the orchestra; indeed, it is a very genteel salutation to the audience, just before Howard Kaylan rips into his guttural finale. As an instrumental piece, it doesn’t quite work; its structure reveals the fact that something is missing – the vocals.

The fourth track, however, does work as an instrumental. “The Duke of Orchestral Prunes” is a good interpretation, sans lyrics, of the song “The Duke of Prunes,” which first appeared on “Absolutely Free.” Zappa’s guitar solo on this piece also adds a nice touch.

“Pedro’s Dowry” is a really interesting composition. It’s atonal and complex rhythmic structure draws you in and demands your attention. It has a soundtrack quality to it, in that it is easy to envision the music accompanying a series of movie scenes. But it doesn’t require a visual element; the music tells its own story, allowing the listener to create his or her own visual representations of what is heard.

And with “Naval Aviation in Art?” we have a very brief, but intense interlude, a sort of abbreviated tone poem. It could easily be mistaken for an extension of “Pedro’s Dowry,” it is that similar.

As a package, the compositions within “Orchestral Favorites” work out alright. But spread out as they are, mixed in with other songs of different genres and structure, on “Lather,” they work much better. Still, the fact that not all of these pieces appear on “Lather” is reason enough to have both.

I rate this three of five stars. Add your own rating below.

Released May 4, 1979, DiscReet Records; Recorded at Royce Hall, UCLA, Sept. 19, 1975.

Track listing:

1. Strictly Genteel (7:04)
2. Pedro’s Dowry (7:41)
3. Naval Aviation In Art (1:22)
4. The Duke Of Orchestral Prunes (4:20) (titled “The Duke Of Prunes”)
5. Bogus Pomp (13:28)

Personnel:

Frank Zappa (guitar)
Terry Bozzio (drums)
Dave Parlato (bass)
Mike Lang (keyboards)
Emil Richards (percussion)
Pamela Goldsmith (viola)
John Wittenberg (violin)
Bobby Dubow (violin)
Jerry Kessler (cello)
Bruce Fowler (trombone)
Earle Dumler (oboe)
Mike Altschul (flute, trumpet)
Malcolm McNabb (trumpet)
David Duke (french horn)
Dana Hughes (bass trombone)
Ray Reed (flute)
David Shostak (flute)
Tommy Morgan (harmonica)
Marty Perellis (?)
Captain Beefheart (dancing)

The Weasel Music

2009-08-07T10:52:00.009-05:00

Perhaps the most mysterious item I have encountered in my review of Frank Zappa’s recordings – both official and bootleg – is the item known as “The Weasel Music.” This recording’s provenance has not been well documented on the Web, at least as far as I am able to determine. And the few sites where downloads are still available all seem to repeat verbatim the same “history” of the recording. Below is what these various sites inevitably post as information regarding the recording:

Here it is:

1/24th of “The History and Collected Improvisations of the MOI.”

THE STORY OF THE ACQUISITION: A firsthand account from my source ...

So I get a call from the widow of the great artist, Neon Park. She says, “I’ve been going through Marty’s stuff (Neon’s real name was Marty) and I have a lot of records of his. I was talking to (mutual friend) Betzy and she said you like records. Do you want them?” and, being the vinyl hound I am, I said, “You bet! I’ll take ‘em all sight unseen.” She said, “Okay, I’ll go pull the can back in from the street.” She had had them all in a trash can waiting for the Sanitation Engineers to pick them up.

Now I know Neon worked for many years doing album art for Warner Brothers (best known for Zappa’s WEASELS RIPPED MY FLESH and his string of covers for LITTLE FEAT) and was on their mailing list for new releases. Upon going through the LPs from the trash bin I found the usual assortment of product, some good, some not to my liking.

But then...

In an envelope addressed to Mr. Frank Zappa at his Laurel Canyon address, I found three studio acetate test recordings: a early ELO LP, a copy of Jean-Luc Ponty’s Zappa tribute LP, KING KONG, and a curious disc labeled “The Weasel Music”. Suspecting that this might indeed BE SOMETHING, I cautiously played it once. It seemed to be a live recording of the Mothers goofing around on stage doing what I guessed to be a mock-ballet. While light pseudo-classical piano arpeggios play (Ian Underwood?) you can hear the shuffling of feet and various antics while the crowd respond with laughter and amusement. I would imagine that it was mostly a visual presentation as opposed to an essential Zappa musical composition.

I kept this relic in good condition, still in its original envelope and cardboards. I lent it to my new friend and Zappaphile, Krel, when I moved to Little Rock. He has played it only twice, recording it both times.

So there you go.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I have been unable to precisely identify the author of the above. I believe he or she was identified in the post where I first found this FLAC file, but the original post has been removed since that time, and none of the other sites I have found that post this identify the author.

The current owner of this one-sided disc may know who received that serendipitous call from Neon Park’s widow; the original recording sold in an eBay auction in August, 2008, for $2,125. However, it is possible that the true provenance of the recording remains unknown.

A Rolling Stone article from Oct. 18, 1969, identified “The Weasel Music” as part of a 12-LP project Zappa had in mind for something called the Mothers of Invention Record Club. Neil Slaven briefly mentions this same information in his Zappa biography, “Electric Don Quixote.” So it seems that “The Weasel Music” was among those of Zappa’s projects that never saw the light of day, or if they did come to fruition, fell short of his original vision (think Lather).

So what is on “The Weasel Music”? It’s a live recording apparently from a performance by the Mothers of Invention at the Royal Albert Hall in London. It begins with Zappa addressing the audience. He tells them they are about to hear some chamber music, as well as some “zany Mothers of Invention bullshit.” He also introduces Noel Redding, guitarist from the Jimi Hendrix Experience, who is to perform some dancing during the “ballet” portion of the concert.

“Chamber Music Piece 1” is very representative of the style of music Zappa was recording for “Burnt Weeny Sandwich.” Hardly the melodic chamber music one associates with the genre, this piece is a complex avant-garde mixture of unusual time signatures and woodwinds that move from dolorous tones to soaring notes that remind me of a frenetic humming bird.

It is clear with the next track, “Mozart Ballet,” that this performance had visual elements to it, which makes one wonder; if Zappa took the time to record this concert for a future project, and there were visual elements, it would seem logical that there is film out there as well. Anyone out there who was at this performance? If so, did you see anyone filming it? This “performance art” is set to Ian Underwood’s playing fragments from Mozart’s “Piano Sonata in B Flat” while other members of the band are “hopping around” on stage. Judging by the audience’s audible reaction, it was a delightful and amusing performance.

This blends into the next track, “Some Zany MOI Bullshit,” after the Mozart piece breaks down into some cacophony reminiscent of “Weasels Rip My Flesh.” The vocals have a feel of some of the choral bits from the “2001: A Space Odyssey” soundtrack, which, incidentally, was released the year before. The recording finishes with a brief track titled “Chamber Music Piece 2,” which to my ear sounds like a studio track, rather than something from the Albert Hall performance.

Overall, a very interesting, albeit arcane, recording of slightly more than 19 minutes representative of the musical styles and head space Zappa was exploring at the time.

I rate this four of five stars. Add your own rating below.

Unreleased recording allegedly made in 1969; only one vinyl copy apparently in existence.

Track listing:

1. Albert Hall Spoken Introduction (2:05)
2. Chamber Music Piece 1 (4:04)
3. Mozart Ballet (9:47)
4. Some Zany MOI Bullshit (2:41)
5. Chamber Music Piece 2 (0:40)

Falkoner Theater, March 1979

2009-08-02T13:03:00.008-05:00

It was at the Falkoner Theater in Copenhagen, Denmark, where Ian Underwood’s saxophone solo during “King Kong,” following his explanation of how he met Frank Zappa found within the track “Ian Underwood Whips It Out” on Uncle Meat, was recorded. That event occurred on Oct. 1, 1967. This bootleg, however, is a recording from a show at the same venue from March 5, 1979.

Frank has some outstanding guitar solos on this boot, so don’t be misled by my rating. It’s the sound quality of this alleged soundboard recording that brings it down to the four-star level, not the material. In general, I have vowed not to award five stars to a boot, simply because of the diminished sound quality with boots. However, this concert boot is one that I could easily give five stars to had the sound quality been better.

A picture LP bootleg was apparently released of this concert, with the Falkoner show on one side, and on the other side, a February show from Gothenburg, Sweden, from a year earlier. I’ve read in a few spots, such as here, that the 1979 tour was very erratic, with some outstanding shows like at the Falkoner, as well as some very mediocre performances. This should come as no surprise, really. When you’re touring and performing that many shows, it’s difficult to call up every night the same inspiration to play equally well as the night before. It’s like the NBA; there are so many games scheduled in the NBA season that if you were a season ticket holder, you’re inevitably going to watch some very boring games during which the home team gets its ass whupped. You follow any rock band’s tour, you’re bound to hit a few bummer shows.

The Falkoner show begins with “The Deathless Horsie,” which was a common opener during the 1978-79 tours. Frank puts his guitar through the wringer on this number, cranking out an amazing solo as he tests his axe from one extreme to the other. Many bands would avoid this type of solo as the first number in a set, as the opening number is usually a fairly routine item used to make sure everyone’s instruments are functioning properly and are in tune. The next tune, “Dead Girls of London,” never showed up on an official, Zappa “studio” release, the closest official recording it was released on being YCDTONA Vol. 5. However, Zappa recorded it with Lakshminarayana Shankar for the latter’s 1979 release of “Touch Me There,” an album that Zappa produced and on which he appeared, along with Ike Willis.

After a quick “I Ain’t Got No Heart,” we get a decent, full-blown performance of “Brown Shoes Don’t Make It,” one of my favorite Zappa compositions. There’s a brief, but searing, guitar solo on “Cosmik Debris,” (I suspect by Warren Cuccurullo), followed by “Tryin’ to Grow a Chin,” with competent vocals turned in by Denny Walley. But there’s a special treat coming up next with “City of Tiny Lites,” a song constructed with a guitar solo in mind, and with this performance we get two good solos, one each from Frank and Denny Walley. Denny starts first with a furious slide guitar, followed by a demented Frank, who is almost vicious with the way he takes his playing to the high end of the neck. Arthur Barrow and Vinnie Colaiuta provide a rhythm line in the background on bass and drums respectively that sends this song into the stratosphere of kick-ass arena rock. It’s tracks like this one that I would normally give a recording 4.5 or five stars, but the recording isn’t that clear or mixed well, so alas, I can’t give it a higher rating than I did.

The band zips through “Dancin’ Fool,” followed by “Easy Meat,” featuring another of Frank’s amazing solos. And again, Colaiuta’s pounding on the drums really turns this song into an intense, heavy-metal of a head-banger. Good god, those Danes were treated to a musical miracle that night. And we’re not even half way into this more-than two-hour show.

Things slow down a bit with “Jumbo Go Away,” but the heavy intensity remains (the sound quality is very muddled through this as well). Following is one of the few live performances of “Andy” that I’ve heard, followed by “Inca Roads,” a song of such rhythmic complexity that it frustrated George Duke to no end. One of the few times I saw Zappa in concert, the band played “Inca Roads,” but the solo he played in that show was nothing like on this boot. This is certainly one of Zappa’s more cerebral, yet still accessible, works.

Another song from “One Size Fits All” comes along with a tune about a cookie, “Florentine Pogen.” This brings the band into a period of the show when they sweep through a series of songs from, at the time, yet-to-be-released albums, including “Tinseltown Rebellion,” (which wasn’t released for another two years) “Joe’s Garage,” (released later in 1979) and “You Are What You Is” (released two years later). This is followed by one of Zappa’s most recognizable melodies, “Peaches En Regalia.” Better sound quality would have made this version much more enjoyable, as there are some very interesting rhythmic interpretations going on here. The song is the concert’s closer, but there is an encore!

That encore begins with “The Yellow Snow Suite,” which includes the first four songs from “Apostrophe(‘).” You can hear the crowd digging this performance. “St. Alphonzo’s Pancake Breakfast” and “Father O’Blivion” are normally fast-paced songs, but the tempos of these two numbers during this concert are amazingly frenetic; the band is spot-on.

Next comes “A Pound For a Brown (On the Bus),” which demonstrates again the band’s tight playing on some very complex rhythms. Ed Mann on the vibes is fantastic, as are Tommy Mars and Peter Wolf, who play some brilliant keyboards (normally, Tommy Mars’ keyboard playing bores me). And Vinnie Colaiuta provides a rare and outstanding drum solo.

The concert closes with the dark “Treacherous Cretins,” a very grand piece featuring Frank’s virtuoso guitar. This is a more-than eight-minute song with Zappa’s guitar front and center. It is a beautiful piece, one that rivals “Watermelon in Easter Hay.”

I give this four of five stars. Add your own rating below.

Recorded live at the Falkoner Theater, Copenhagen, Denmark, March 5, 1979

Set list:

The Deathless Horsie
Dead Girls Of London
I Ain't Got No Heart
Brown Shoes Don't Make It
Cosmik Debris
Tryin' To Grow A Chin
City Of Tiny Lites
Dancin' Fool
Easy Meat
Jumbo Go Away
Andy
Inca Roads
Florentine Pogen
Honey Don't You Want A Man Like Me
Keep It Greasy
The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing
For The Young Sophisticate
Fembot in A Wet T-Shirt Nite
Why Does It Hurt When I Pee?
Peaches En Regalia
The Yellow Snow Suite
A Pound For A Brown (On The Bus)
Treacherous Cretins

Personnel:

FZ (guitar, lead vocals)
Arthur Barrow (bass)
Vinnie Colaiuta (drums)
Warren Cuccurullo (guitar)
Ed Mann (percussion)
Tommy Mars (keyboards)
Denny Walley (slide guitar, vocals)
Ike Willis (vocals, guitar)
Peter Wolf (keyboards)

Playground Psychotics

2009-07-26T12:50:00.007-05:00

I am somewhat surprised by the fact that the All Music Guide gives “Playground Psychotics” three of five stars. Even with all the caveats mentioned in the AMG review – that it’s a recording only for true Frank Zappa fans, and more specifically, fans of the Flo & Eddie era – I find this recording barely listenable.

“Aficionados of this particular period will find most of this album amusing; others will get profoundly bored,” states the AMG entry on this album. I fall within the latter camp. I like the concept of a sort of audio-documentary of the bizarreness of life on the road; I just believe that “Playground Psychotics” fails miserably in its execution.

Mark Prindle in his review of the album also is generous, in my opinion, in his review, rating it with a six out of 10. Despite that, Prindle provides an excellent explanation backing up his discourse on the recording’s merits. Prindle is uncharacteristically persuasive with his remarks.

Musically, there are some very interesting items on this double CD set. Perhaps the most intriguing is the set performed with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, including the Lennon number “Say Please,” which includes Yoko’s bizarre caterwauling that reminds me of a psychotic Olive Oil (remember Popeye’s girlfriend?) in the throes of narcotic withdrawal, and “Scum Bag,” which ends with Yoko still on stage wailing her gibberish. Zappa more than sufficiently fills in during the Lennon song with an outstanding guitar solo, able to smoothly adjust to the song just on listening to Lennon going through a single sequence of the 12 bars in the progression. Those two songs alone almost make the double-CD bearable. But there are others.

The eerie “Mom and Dad” is outstanding, the prescience of this song all the more impressive when considering it was written prior to the Kent State shootings. And “The Mudshark Interview” provides fascinating background to the “Mud Shark,” recorded for the “Fillmore East” LP. And the apparent “secret recording” of a conversation among the band members found on “It’s a Good Thing We Get Paid to do This” provides an amazing glimpse into what the band members thought about Zappa’s bizarre peccadilloes as well as their reaction to Zappa’s obsession with what they were up to.

But there’s no getting around that it’s boring and repetitious; even the performance of “Billy the Mountain,” somewhat longer than the version recorded for JABFLA, cannot pull this recording out of the depths of awful mediocrity.

I rate this two out of five stars. Add your own rating below.

Recorded at various locations from September, 1970, through Dec. 10, 1971; released Oct. 27, 1992 through Barking Pumpkin; re-released May 30, 1995 through Rykodisc.

Track listing:

Disc One
A TYPICAL DAY ON THE ROAD, PART 1 -

1. Here Comes The Gear, Lads (01:00)
2. The Living Garbage Truck (01:21)
3. A Typical Sound Check (01:19)
4. "This Is Neat" (00:24)
5. The Motel Lobby (01:21)
6. Getting Stewed (00:55)
7. The Motel Room (00:30)
8. "Don't Take Me Down" (01:11)
9. The Dressing Room (00:25)
10. Learning "Penis Dimension" (02:02)
11. "You There, With The Hard On!" (00:25)
12. Zanti Serenade (02:40)
13. Divan (01:46)
14. Sleeping In A Jar (01:30)
15. "Don't Eat There" (02:26)
16. Brixton Still Life (03:00)
17. Super Grease (01:40)
18. Wonderful Wino (04:52)
19. Sharleena (04:23)
20. Cruising For Burgers (02:54)
21. Diphteria Blues (06:19)
22. Well (04:43)
23. Say Please (00:57)
24. Aaawk (02:59)
25. Scum Bag (05:54)
26. A Small Eternity With Yoko Ono (06:08)

Disc Two
A TYPICAL DAY ON THE ROAD, PART 2 -
1. Beer Shampoo (01:39)
2. Champagne Lecture (04:30)
3. Childish Perversions (01:31)
4. Playground Psychotics (01:08)
5. The Mudshark Interview (02:39)
6. "There's No Lust In Jazz" (00:55)
7. Botulism On The Hoof (00:47)
8. You Got Your Armies (00:11)
9. The Spew King (00:25)
10. I'm Doomed (00:25)
11. Status Back Baby (02:50)
12. The London Cab Tape (01:24)
13. Concentration Moon, Part 1 (01:21)
14. The Sanzini Brothers (01:34)
15. "It's A Good Thing We Get Paid To Do This" (02:45)
16. Concentration Moon, Part 2 (02:05)
17. Mom & Dad (03:16)
18. Intro To Music For Low Budget Orchestra (01:32)
19. Billy The Mountain (30:26)

The True Story Of 200 Motels:
20. He's Watching Us (01:21)
21. If You're Not A Professional Actor (00:23)
22. He's Right (00:15)
23. Going For The Money (00:12)
24. Jeff Quits (01:34)
25. A Bunch Of Adventures (00:56)
26. Martin Lickert's Story (00:39)
27. A Great Guy (00:30)
28. Bad Acting (00:11)
29. The Worst Reviews (00:21)
30. A Version Of Himself (01:00)
31. I Could Be A Star Now (00:36)

You Are What You Is

2009-07-11T22:04:00.009-05:00

Many Zappa albums are built around a musical theme or concept and carry this structure through from start to finish successfully. Among the better examples of this is probably the avant-garde and jazz fusion album series that included “Burnt Weeny Sandwich,” “Hot Rats,” “Waka/Jawaka“ and “The Grand Wazoo.” “Rueben and the Jets“ is another example that was an homage to a particular musical style. The best was probably “Jazz From Hell.” Of course, there are others.

And then there were the concept albums built around content themes. The first three releases of “Freak Out!“, “Absolutely Free,” and “We’re Only In It For The Money“ are probably the most successful examples. Not until “200 Motels“ does Zappa deliver this type of album again, and then the lapse before another true concept album is produced is eight years when “Joe’s Garage“ is released.

Zappa comes close to another full concept album built around a singular content theme with “You Are What You Is,” but it’s probably more effective to think of this double album as one with two, somewhat related themes. There is the overt theme of race, anchored by the title song. But interwoven throughout this is the secondary theme dealing with religion, a favorite target of Zappa’s for lampooning, particularly televangelism. Because often at the center of our racial and ethnic identities is a religious style that enables this identity to exist. And yet, Zappa broadens this concept to include other cultural hegemonies around which we build our identities, whether it be the drug culture or the empty commercialism that is constantly telling us we must have things that we don’t need.

Stick with me on this please; I am going out on a limb here by positing that with “You Are What You Is,” Zappa is putting right in front of our face the notion that we have no real identity because everything we use to create what we think is the “me” in all of us is an ever-changing concept that is outside of us, rather than inside. This delusion propels us to continue to chase this ephemeral self, but instead of finding fulfillment, we continue to feel empty and unhappy. While this may sound all very depressing and a particularly melancholy theme for Zappa to build an album around, the entire notion was laughable to him. We get what we deserve in Zappa’s perspective, because most of us are too stupid to recognize that we create our own misery. Hence, you are what you is.

How does this alienation from self start? The explanation begins with the first track, “Teen-Age Wind.” The notion that our education system pushes us into the vapid emptiness we are constantly trying to escape is a theme that goes all the way back to “Freak Out!” The pip-squeaky character in “Teen-Age Wind” sings about parents who don’t love their children, teachers that deliver unimaginative curriculums (a common theme with the early Mothers albums), which gives rise to the desire to escape it all: “Nothing left to do but get out the ‘ol glue.” It also feeds the false notion of what freedom really is: “Freedom is when you don’t have to pay for nothing/or do nothing!/We want to be free!”

Our delusion carries into adult life where many follow the path of meaningless love affairs, as portrayed in “Harder Than Your Husband.” It’s not that Zappa was a puritan by any means: rather, the woman that Jimmy Carl Black’s character is saying goodbye to in this song is an unhappy married woman who thinks she’s going to find happiness by sleeping with this peripatetic cowboy. Expertly delivered, by the way, in a country style (With this song, we also get a bit of project/object in that Zappa has an Indian singing the character of a white cowboy, as he did in “200 Motels” with “Lonesome Cowboy Burt”).

The tables are turned in the next song, “Doreen.” This time it is the man dependant on Doreen to come make him feel good. The theme remains, however: someone seeking fulfillment through another. This song has a great ending and is among my favorite tracks on the album.

“Goblin Girl” is probably the weakest song on the album in terms of sticking within the overall theme. It’s a song that doesn’t appear often in live shows, as it would be pretty difficult to perform live given all the studio effects that were used in its production. “Theme from the 3rd Movement of Sinister Footwear” is an instrumental that was often played live and also shows up on “Them Or Us,” “Guitar,” and “Make a Jazz Noise Here.”

People often create their own sense of self-importance, not just for their own benefit, but for the promotion of that pretension among others. However, anyone who does that must eventually face how fragile the façade is when some event or person comes along to screw things up. That’s the scenario we get with the next series of songs on the album.

With “Society Pages,” we get a clever little song about the self-important matriarch of a small town that Franks sings, “didn’t appeal to me.” The old lady in the song owns the newspaper and is involved in a variety of civic projects, but her motivation for such philanthropy is self-promotion, as evidenced by her always being on the society pages of the paper she owns.

But she brings forth a son who believes that he is “a beautiful guy.” With the song, “I’m a Beautiful Guy,” we have a self-centered egoist who charms all the vacuous ladies, who also are so infatuated with maintaining their beauty and presentation that they will go to any lengths to preserve it, even painful ones. Hence, along comes the song, “Beauty Knows No Pain.” This delicious little ditty succinctly clarifies that the pursuit of beauty (“Beauty is a pair of shoes that makes you wanna die”) is, of course, “a lie.”

The next musical vignette on the album centers around the demise of a girl named Charlie. With “Charlie’s Enormous Mouth,” we learn of a girl with an enormous mouth about which, “we can only assume how she’s been usin’ it.” Charlie also has a very large nose, and we get a bit more information about how she’s been using it: snorting cocaine. Her demise is foreshadowed by the line, “Kind of young/Kind of dead.” We get a glimpse into her disgusting brain, as well as meet her stupid friends who were either too indifferent or too ignorant to see that Charlie was headed for a train wreck. And when she does die, her stupid friends at the funeral can only inquire whether anyone has “Any Downers?” We’re all “Coneheads,” Zappa implies in the next song. Everyone else is strange or odd or screwing up their lives, but not us!

The title track comes on side three of the LP release, an up tempo number that has some outstanding vocals from Ray White. It tells the hapless tales of a white man trying to be black, and of a black man trying to be white. Zappa’s sage advice is simply, “Do you know what you are?/You are what you is/You is what you am/A cow don’t make ham.” Yet we continue to wear whatever costume is demanded by the tribe we want to identify with, and then drag ourselves to places like the “Mudd Club” to find whatever we’re looking for: sex, recognition, a sense of belonging, whatever.

There are those among us, however, who believe they are above all that hedonism; they are following a higher calling. But those who seek solace in religion are just following a different delusion, as Zappa opines that “The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing.” As an alternative to blindly following an austere doctrine promising you something that it cannot deliver, Zappa offers something simpler: “Do what you wanna, do what you will/Just don’t mess up your neighbor’s thrill/’N when you pay the bill, kindly leave a little tip/And help the next poor sucker on his one-way trip.”

Sage advice, but there’s always someone who thinks they know better and want to dictate to you how to live your life. To Frank, they’re just “Dumb All Over.” And not to mention, “a little ugly on the side.”

This song, which is really a spoken-word piece set to a driving beat that adds to both the seriousness of Zappa’s thesis and the pseudo-seriousness of the doctrines he criticizes. Right down the line, Zappa spells out how monotheistic religion has been a root cause of all our troubles throughout all of history. It isn’t a faith in god that screws things up; it’s doctrine, as doctrine is simply a different form of politic.

Among Zappa’s favorite targets are televangelists, whom he goes after in the next song, “Heavenly Bank Account.” After being exposed to all this charade, this chicanery, Zappa recognizes that some folks might feel a bit helpless and depressed. So with his typically terse delivery, he suggests the option of bailing out, which would make one a “Suicide Chump.” All of this is really quite harsh, and might be over the top for some listeners. But Zappa’s message is clear: if your life is a mess, you made it that way, and suicide is just a chicken shit way of avoiding personal responsibility. If you screwed up your life, you can unscrew it. Suicide is so chicken shit, in fact, that Zappa suggests that anyone going through the theatrics often associated with suicide just might “want a little attention.”

Our sorry suicide chump is saved by a girl “with a head like a buffalo,” leading to the next song, “Jumbo Go Away,” the tale of a girl who has an insatiable appetite for giving head. The vignette moves into “If Only She Woulda,” which begins to stretch the thematic glue of the album. Our suicide chump gets saved by Jumbo only to be drafted. The last song, “Drafted Again,” was written at a time when reinstating the draft was under consideration during the Reagan administration, a notion that resulted with a requirement that all men of draftable age register, and that subsequently, anyone who turns 18 must register. It’s a situation that continues today.

Granted, the thematic notion I present at the outset for “You Are What You Is” requires a few interim songs to sort of string some of the concepts together. And one has to wonder if Zappa had intentionally set out to construct such an album, or was it serendipity that he had the base material available and all he had to do was write material to bring it all together.

Don’t be too harsh with me in your own personal assessment. But I am inclined to think it was serendipity. Had Zappa intended to write such a concept album, I think it would have been constructed differently with compositions that blended seamlessly, rather than finding filler material to bring the sort of ad hoc material together.

And yet, if you read the liner notes from the album, you have to wonder.

I rate this four of five stars. Add your own rating below.

Released: Sept. 23, 1981, Barking Pumpkin Records.

Track listing (from original double LP):

Side one
“Teen-Age Wind” – 3:02
“Harder Than Your Husband” – 2:28
“Doreen” – 4:44
“Goblin Girl” – 4:07
“Theme from the 3rd Movement of Sinister Footwear” – 3:34

Side two
“Society Pages” – 2:27
“I'm a Beautiful Guy” – 1:56
“Beauty Knows No Pain” – 3:02
“Charlie's Enormous Mouth” – 3:36
“Any Downers?” – 2:08
“Conehead” – 4:24

Side three
“You Are What You Is” – 4:23
“Mudd Club” – 3:11
“The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing” – 3:10
“Dumb All Over” – 5:45

Side four
“Heavenly Bank Account” – 3:44
“Suicide Chump” – 2:49
“Jumbo Go Away” – 3:43
“If Only She Woulda” – 3:48
“Drafted Again” – 3:07

Personnel:

Tommy Mars – Keyboards, Vocals
David Ocker – Clarinet (Bass), Clarinet
Mark Pinske – Vocals, Engineer
Motorhead Sherwood – Sax (Tenor), Vocals
Allen Sides – Engineer
Craig "Twister" Stewart – Harmonica
Denny Walley – Vocals, Slide Guitar
Ray White – Guitar (Rhythm), Vocals
Ahmet Zappa – Vocals
Moon Unit Zappa – Vocals
Jo Hansch – Mastering
Dennis Sager – Digital Engineer
Santi Rubio – ?
Amy Bernstein – Artwork
John Livzey – Photography, Cover Photo
Thomas Nordegg – Engineer
John Vince – Artwork, Graphic Design
Ed Mann – Percussion
Jimmy Carl Black – Vocals
Ike Willis – Guitar (Rhythm), Vocals
Bob Stone – Remixing, Digital Remastering
Arthur Barrow – Bass
George Douglas – Assistant Engineer
Frank Zappa – Arranger, Composer, Vocals, Producer, Main Performer, Guitar
Bob Harris – Boy Soprano, Trumpet
David Logeman – Drums
Steve Vai – Guitars, listed as "Strat Abuse" on album cover

Moby Gym, 1980

2009-07-04T18:30:00.011-05:00

This bootleg from a Dec. 2, 1980 show at the Moby Gym in Fort Collins, CO, has three really outstanding tracks that make this rather mediocre concert recording worth having. Like many of the 1980 shows, and many from 1981 as well, the band drew heavily from material that was released on “Sheik Yerbouti,” and “You Are What You Is,” with a few songs that appeared on “Tinseltown Rebellion,” which became the release in Zappa’s catalog representing this tour.

The Fort Collins concert opens with the “Panty Rap,” which became feature of this tour. It was also very well-rehearsed, offering little spontaneity, as heard through an explanation by Zappa to the crowd that varied minimally from what was recorded for the “Tinseltown Rebellion” release. This is followed by a decent performance of the title track from “You Are What You Is,” although it’s missing Ray White’s beautiful, sweeping, high-range vocals found on the official release.

We get some decent harmonizing out of Bob Harris for the next song, “Love of My Life,” but again, not quite the stunning falsetto that he delivers on “Tinseltown Rebellion.” Close, but not quite. Not sure who does a fairly decent Bob Dylan on “Flakes, but it’s nothing like Adrian Belew’s impersonation, and I really miss the harmonica that was part of the performance recorded for “Sheik Yerbouti.” When the bridge occurs, launched by the lyric, “I am a moron and this is my wife,” I’m digging the song as it builds, but then it just moves right along into the next segment that begins with the lyric “We are millions and millions” and completely lacks the dramatic build up I was expecting.

But that minor disappointment was quickly dispersed as the band jumps into “Magic Fingers.” Ray White’s vocals on this are great and not for one second was I missing the lack of Howard Kaylan’s screeching vocals normally associated with this song. This is one of the true standouts of this show. So imagine my anticipation as the bands moves into “The Blue Light.” Despite the unfinished and rambling nature of this song, I’ve tended to like it since first hearing it on “Tinseltown Rebellion.” Frank takes a decent jab Colorado’s granola culture, followed by the song’s expected final crescendo with a few more cultural jabs (“Drink that carrot juice”).

With “Tinseltown Rebellion,” Frank takes advantage of the fact that there are three other guitars on stage with a rocking guitar-centered intro to the song, something I wished he would have done with “Flakes.” Musically, I find this song enjoyable. What has always annoyed me about “Tinseltown Rebellion” was Frank’s holier-than-thou attitude regarding music; that only his and a few select others had real “substance.” Well, I’m sorry Frank, but I like all types of music, everything from empty pop and dance music, to complex orchestral pieces and avant-garde jazz. I don’t subscribe to this elitist attitude Zappa apparently held and from which he looked with disdain upon those who did not measure up.

Next comes “Pick Me I’m Clean,” which segues into a stellar guitar “Sex Jam” that is accented with vocalizations of a moaning, orgasmic woman reminiscent of “The Torture Never Stops.” This, however, abruptly stops. Our bootlegger must have run out of tape.

The recording picks up with the sing-songy “The Dangerous Kitchen,” one of the few songs that worked well with this delivery method. The best song performance comes next with “City of Tiny Lights,” an item composed with a lengthy guitar solo in mind, and Frank doesn’t disappoint. This is a real hard rock jam with amazing ambience and feedback. It is jams like this that will always keep me hungry for Zappa bootlegs. Gotta love Ray White’s vocals following the solo as well.

The last two songs, “Ain’t Got No Heart” and “The Torture Never Stops,” the former of which was competently performed, exhibit nothing special about them. Frank, however, delivers again with “Torture.” This trickles away into some rather boring keyboard sonics, except for a bit of tinkling by Bob Harris. This blather really lacks any inspiration and strikes me as very formulaic, but that has often been my criticism of Tommy Mars. Harris, however, manages to bring some character and interest into this final section of the song that would otherwise cause me to get up and leave my seat to beat the crowd exciting the venue. By the time the song returns to “Torture,” it’s lost all connection and the remaining drumming by Vinnie Colaiuta seems like filler, or worse yet, like he’s warming up by simply testing and tuning his drums. It’s the song that should have ended 10 minutes before it did. And even more astounding is the fact that the song fades out! There was even more of that!

Overall, a relatively mediocre bootleg that is saved by the presence of a few outstanding songs and guitar solos.

I give this three of five stars. Add your own rating below.

Track listing:

1. Panty Rap/You Are What You Is
2. Love Of My Life
3. Flakes
4. Magic Fingers
5. The Blue Light
6. Tinseltown Rebellion
7. Pick Me I'm Clean
8. The Dangerous Kitchen
9. City Of Tiny Lights
10. Ain't Got No Heart
11. The Torture Never Stops

Personnel:

Frank Zappa (guitar, vocals)
Arthur Barrow (bass)
Vinnie Colaiuta (drums)
Bob Harris (keyboards, vocals)
Tommy Mars (keyboards)
Steve Vai (guitar)
Ray White (guitar, vocals)
Ike Willis (guitar, vocals)

Dallas Convention Center Arena 1980

2009-07-02T10:54:00.008-05:00

The 1980 tour could almost be given one of either two monikers: the Tinseltown Rebellion Tour or the Chunga’s Revenge Tour, as both these songs were played at many of these concerts, based on the bootlegs that are out there from the era.

With the Oct. 17, 1980 show at the Dallas Convention Center Arena, we get a blistering guitar solo out of Frank with “Chunga’s Revenge” opening the show. The sound quality of this boot fluctuates a bit throughout the song, and with the next tune, “I Don’t Wanna Get Drafted,” a song Zappa jointly composed with one of his major influences, Johnny Guitar Watson, the audio comes across very compressed, like listening to an AM radio. Incidentally, the song appeared on the album “You Are What You Is” as “Drafted Again.”

We have a decent, but brief, guitar solo, possibly out of Steve Vai, during “Cosmik Debris,” but with this bootleg the solo doesn’t come forward; you really have to listen hard to hear it. Also, this brief solo is nothing like the solo that shows up on the studio release from “Apostrophe(‘).” The band then launches into a frenetically-paced “Keep It Greasey” from “Joe’s Garage.”

The vamp and intro to “Tinseltown Rebellion” is actually pretty cool. I admit that this is not one of my favorite Zappa songs, but this particular performance actually comes pretty close to getting me to like it. And the lapse into the sing-songy presentation style at the end of the song doesn’t bother me like it does when Frank uses the technique during live performances of other songs (such as on the last track on this boot).

When you got four guitar players on stage, you have to expect some guitar-centric work during this show. This boot doesn’t disappoint on that point when “Outside Now” comes along. Deliciously eviscerating.

A primary reason that I enjoy listening to bootlegs, despite their at times substandard sound quality, is the opportunity to hear the wide variety guitar solos that Zappa performs. Another reason is to have the opportunity to hear performances of the many different musicians he played with, particularly those occasions when it was only during a concert solely available via bootleg.

But given the number of shows Zappa performed, hearing how some very standard songs get tweaked a bit for live performance – largely for the band’s benefit, I’m sure, so they wouldn’t get bored with playing it. “Honey Don’t You Want a Man Like Me?” fits into this category with this particular show.

Ah, but the guitar solo returns with the next track “Pick Me I’m Clean,” a funny song I’ve always enjoyed apparently written about a real groupie that wanted to stand out among all the others at a show, so she hollered out, “Pick me! I’m clean!”

Another excellent song that is structured to accommodate a guitar solo is “City of Tiny Lights.” However, in this boot, the song begins well after its start, moving into that guitar solo. I realize that this is a bootleg, but it sure would have been nice to hear the song from the beginning. Nonetheless, the guitar solo here (or solos? Are Vai and Zappa trading licks?) is thrilling. It smoothly transitions into a vamp from Rod Argent’s “She’s Not There” before returning back to “City of Tiny Lights.”

The next song, “Easy Meat,” also has an outstanding extended guitar solo.

Following “Ain’t Got No Heart,” the bootleg closes with “The Torture Never Stops.” Aside from the annoying sing-song segue that was common with live performances of this, we get another great guitar solo. And what is really intriguing about this solo is that you can hear how well orchestrated it is. Sometimes people think of guitar solo as purely extended improvisations, which many are, following a steady beat. The guitar player gets up there and plays what ever comes out of his fingers; when finished, he usually nods to the rest of the band to indicate he’s done, they collect themselves around a few bars to get back into synch, and then return to the song. But listening to this particular solo, you can hear quite plainly the time signature changes, as well as the melodic theme shifts, that occur and which are followed precisely by Vinnie Colaiuta’s expert drumming. Zappa’s playing is followed by a segue led by Arthur Barrow’s bass playing followed by some keyboard playing that could either be Tommy Mars or Bob Harris. But unlike other segues, the band never returns to the main theme of “Torture,” and in fact, the song ends, as does the bootleg.

Overall, not a bad bootleg despite some fluctuations in the sound quality. And while the set list was a common representation of the 1980 tour, the show contains some interesting variations that will keep a true Zappa fanatic pulling it out from time to time for a listen.

I rate this four of five stars. Add your own rating below.

Track listing:

1. Chunga's Revenge
2. I Don't Wanna Get Drafted
3. Cosmik Debris
4. Keep It Greasey
5. Tinseltown Rebellion
6. Outside Now
7. Honey Don't You Want A Man Like Me?
8. Pick Me I'm Clean
9. City Of Tiny Lights (incl. She's Not There)
10. Easy Meat
11. Ain't Got No Heart
12. The Torture Never Stops

Personnel:

FZ, guitar, vocals
Ike Willis, vocals, guitar
Steve Vai, guitar, vocals
Ray White, vocals, guitar
Arthur Barrow, bass
Vinnie Colaiuta, drums
Tommy Mars, keyboards, vocals
Bob Harris, keyboards, trumpet, high vocals

Tinseltown Rebellion

2009-06-23T18:15:00.007-05:00

There are several Zappa albums that upon first listen, I was not sure what I thought. For example, with “200 Motels,” I liked the comedic aspect, but was very ambivalent about its musical quality. Then again, at the time I was only 14. Over the years, however, I have grown to really appreciate this soundtrack. And there are also the albums that on first listen, I knew right away that I loved; releases like “Weasels Ripped My Flesh,” “One Size Fits All,” or “Burnt Weeny Sandwich.”

When I heard a mediocre album, I knew right away it was a mediocre album; “Sleep Dirt” comes to mind in this category, although there are others.

And then there are a few that when I first listened, I thought the album was good and played it often; but over time, I have listened to some albums less and less because I come to categorize them as only fair or mediocre. “Tinseltown Rebellion” falls into this category.

When I first bought this double album in 1981, Zappa played a show at Main Auditorium at the University of Arizona campus in Tucson, where I lived. I went to the second show and my recollection is that it was a great show. This set list, however, appears to exclude “The Dangerous Kitchen” and I am virtually positive he performed that. Which means that maybe I attended the Oct. 10, 1980 second show rather than the 1981 show. The site also indicates a bootleg exists of both the early and second show from 1981, but I have not found either. I know the show I attended included a brief interruption because someone allegedly broke into the tour bus and stole a gun. It occurred right in the middle of one of Zappa’s solos.

I bought a T-shirt at this show also, a canary yellow shirt that had the Barking Pumpikin logo on it. If you recall, that logo has a screeching cat hissing at a pumpkin. Out of the cat’s mouth is a balloon with Chinese characters. I had no idea what the characters said. Then, one day, I was wearing the shirt on a trip from Tucson to Puerto Penasco in Mexico to buy shrimp. A Chinese girl was on the trip with us, and she looked at my shirt and busted out laughing. I said, “Oh my god, you can tell me what it says on the shirt!” And she translated the Chinese characters as saying, “God is shit.”

Anyway, the band Zappa toured with for “Tinseltown” in 1978-80 was similar to the band I saw in Tucson. The double-album “Tinseltown” had a similar set list to the show I attended, and it got lots of play in my home.

Other than the first track “Fine Girl,” which is strictly a studio recording, and the second track “Easy Meat,” which has some studio overdubs, the rest of “Tinseltown Rebellion” is pure live taken from five different shows. And it was the third track, “Love of My Life,” that really hooked me initially on this album. The falsetto vocals are so delicious.

But nowadays, the version of “I Ain’t Got No Heart,” and the segue of “Panty Rap” just don’t entertain me much. I feel a bit reprieved by “Now You See It – Now You Don’t,” but again, “Dance Contest” doesn’t enthuse me as much as it did when I first bought the album. And “The Blue Light” has lost its appeal as well. And then there’s the title track.

This song has always annoyed me, even when I first bought the album. Ostensibly, the song is supposed to be about punk bands, but it’s just a vehicle for Zappa to attack the record companies with which he was always embattled. I knew he had troubles with the record companies, and the reps’ style of business did make them pricks. But do you have to sing about it Frank? Why do I have to listen to your troubles with record company executives? That’s not musical: it’s just Frank Zappa bitching.

I feel a bit better with “Pick Me, I’m Clean,” which is really quite funny. And with “Bamboozled By Love,” we get a delicious heavy, funky tune that has some decent guitar licks. And the double-album closes out with “Brown Shoes Don’t Make It,” which has always been one of my favorite songs, followed with “Peaches III.”

It’s worth pointing out that this album marks the album debut of Steve Vai.

So in general, “Tinseltown” is just an OK album for me now, although I admit that when I first bought it, I played it to death.

I rate this album three out of five stars. Add your own rating below.

Released May 7, 1981, Barking Pumpkin Records.

Album release:

Side One
1. Fine Girl (3:30)
2. Easy Meat (9:17)
3. For The Young Sophisticate (3:13)

Side Two
1. Love Of My Life (2:15)
2. I Ain't Got No Heart (2:00)
3. Panty Rap (4:36)
4. Tell Me You Love Me (2:06)
5. Now You See It - Now You Don't (5:03)

Side Three
1. Dance Contest (3:01)
2. The Blue Light (5:26)
3. Tinsel Town Rebellion (4:36)
4. Pick Me, I'm Clean (5:37)

Side Four
1. Bamboozled By Love (5:46)
2. Brown Shoes Don't Make It (7:14)
3. Peaches III (4:56)

CD release:

1. Fine Girl (3:31)
2. Easy Meat (9:19)
3. For The Young Sophisticate (2:49)
4. Love Of My Life (2:15)
5. I Ain't Got No Heart (1:59)
6. Panty Rap (4:36)
7. Tell Me You Love Me (2:07)
8. Now You See It - Now You Don't (4:45)
9. Dance Contest (2:59)
10. The Blue Light (5:27)
11. Tinsel Town Rebellion (4:36)
12. Pick Me, I'm Clean (5:08)
13. Bamboozled By Love (5:47)
14. Brown Shoes Don't Make It (7:15)
15. Peaches III (5:03)

Personnel:

Frank Zappa (lead guitar, vocals)
Ike Willis (rhythm guitar, vocals)
Ray White (rhythm guitar, vocals)
Steve Vai (rhythm guitar, vocals)
Warren Cuccurullo (rhythm guitar, vocals)
Denny Walley (slide guitar, vocals)
Tommy Mars (keyboards, vocals)
Peter Wolf (keyboards)
Bob Harris (keyboards, trumpet, vocals)
Ed Mann (percussion)
Arthur Barrow (bass, vocals)
Patrick O'Hearn (bass on Dance Contest only)
Vinnie Colaiuta (drums)
David Logeman (drums on Fine Girl and Easy Meat)
Creg Cowan (voice)

Sheik Yerbouti

2009-06-07T12:52:00.008-05:00

I find considerable irony in the fact that “Sheik Yerbouti” is among the Zappa recordings that fall into the category of either loving it or hating it. I can see such a dichotomy of opinion existing when it comes to some of the more complex works, such as “200 Motels,” or “Uncle Meat.” But with “Sheik Yerbouti,” it’s the simplicity of much of the material that seems to be at the center of all the controversy. That, and the album’s prurient humor.

For example, there is the ever-so-terse Robert Christgau who opines with, “If this be social ‘satire,’ how come its sole targets are ordinary citizens whose weirdnesses happen to diverge from those of the retentive gent at the control board? Or are we to read his new fixation on buggery as an indication of approval? Makes you wonder whether his primo guitar solo on Yo' Mama and those as-unique-as-they-used-to-be rhythms and textures are as arid spiritually as he is. As if there were any question after all these years.”

Mark Prindle in his comments divides his opinion based on the two LPs contained in the original release, castigating sides 1 and 2, but heaping praise on sides 3 and 4. “If anything, his unfunny X-rated comedy made his music LESS palatable to most sensible listeners!” writes Prindle. “There’s a great 30-minute EP hidden within this double-album, but boy do you have to swog and swishle your way through reams and reams of smelly smelly chicken bellies to get to it.”

The replies to Prindle’s comments on his blog exemplify the split in opinion, as all of them laud the album.

But in some respects I agree with Prindle. Sides 3 and 4 are stronger than 1 and 2, but the first album in this double album set remains good stuff in my opinion. And let’s face it; Zappa himself has admitted that his material can often be stupid. It’s a joke, and if taken too seriously, well, you’ll just be unhappy.

Consider my situation: what do you think my reaction to songs like “Broken Hearts Are For Assholes” and “Bobby Brown” might be considering the fact I am gay? Admittedly, I wondered if Zappa were a homophobe. But that would also make him an anti-Semite and a misogynist, and the release of “You Are What You Is” would confirm him as being a racist. That’s nonsense. So when I consider how Zappa showed very little discretion when choosing targets to lampoon, as well as the fact that his satirical snipes are often so far over the top that their hyperbole requires them to be taken as less-than-serious, I have to conclude that either Zappa hated everybody, or that he hated the way that all people lull themselves into comfortable zones of ignorance. I choose the latter conclusion. We are all deluded in some way, and Zappa time and time again exposed our delusions for us with such sophomoric delivery that we often just didn’t get it.

Which is probably why the two sides of the LP release I found myself playing over and over again were sides 1 and 3. And of these two sides, my favorite tracks have been “Flakes” and “City of Tiny Lites.”

With “Flakes,” we not only have a humorous story line, but great song structure and orchestration as well. And when the song cuts into the bridge section with the lyrics, “I am a moron and this is my wife/ she’s frosting a cake with a paper knife,” Zappa effectively pulls into the song icons of American culture and advertising and couples them with a description of the lemming-like behavior of the consumer mentality. And Adrian Belew’s impression of Bob Dylan during this song is spot on. Still, despite the musical structure of “Flakes,” it is the lyrical content that impresses me the most.

However, it’s the music in “City of Tiny Lites” that makes it a favorite for me. Lyrically, there’s not much to this song. There’s no real narrative, overtly at least. But listening to the sweeping sound of the melody’s theme combined with the mundane lyrics, it’s not difficult to call up an image of seeing the flickering lights of Los Angeles from a view high up in the hills. “You’re so big/It’s so tiny/Every cloud is silver liney.” And the song is structured in a manner to easily accommodate a long guitar solo, which made this item a fixture in many a Zappa concert.

Side 2 has two outstanding guitar solo tracks that were both taken from the Feb. 15, 1978 show at the Deutschlandhalle in Berlin; “Rat Tomago” and “The Sheik Yerbouti Tango.” The former was taken from the solo during the 1978 concert’s performance of “The Torture Never Stops,” while the latter was pulled from a performance of “Little House I Used to Live In.” And, of course, there is the solo within “Yo’ Mama.” But, as was often the case with much of Zappa’s material, this song is a mix of live material from multiple performances and studio overdubs. Somewhere there is an article that alludes to the song’s origin. The lyrical theme has to do with an individual’s ineptitude. Allegedly, Zappa wrote it after one of the musicians failed miserably to properly know his or her material prior to a performance and was subsequently fined as punishment. Please leave a comment if you know the link to this article, which was published I believe in the mid-1980s.

Almost everyone I know who is familiar with the album will immediately mention “Bobby Brown.” It’s like a Freudian word association: I say “Sheik Yerbouti” and the immediate reply is, “Bobby Brown.” Interesting, in a way, when you consider the song’s content: A straight man who eventually drifts into the gay S&M subculture. Probably the second song to come to mind for many is “Jewish Princess,” a song that drew condemnation and a request for an apology from Zappa by the Anti Defamation League of the B’nai B’rith. Needless to say, Zappa refused. However, the song was seldom, if ever, played live following this incident. Francois Couture opines that it may have been the extensive overdubbing Zappa did with the song for the vinyl release that may have rendered it virtually impossible to effectively perform live, although Couture does not discount the possibility that Zappa’s decision to avoid live performances of the song may have been influenced by reaction to it.

Two other songs I really like are “I’m So Cute” and “Trying to Grow a Chin.” Terry Bozzio’s screeching vocals on “I’m So Cute” are spot on, the shrill hyperbole making the necessary point; not so much about “pretty people” being self-centered prigs, but rather, regarding the circular logic behind the lyrics, “Ugly is bad/And bad is wrong/And wrong is sinful/and sin leads to eternal damnation/And hot burnin’ fire!” Bozzio’s shrill timbre in his voice is effectively used again for “Trying to Grow a Chin,” with a reprise line that is just plain awesome despite its dark message: “I wanna be dead/In bed/Please kill me/’Cause that would thrill me.”

Overall, I think “Sheik Yerbouti” is among Zappa’s finest material, a tour de force mix of comedic and intricate musical themes served up for your listening pleasure … or not.

I rate this 4.5 out of five stars. Add your own rating below.

Album released March 3, 1979, Zappa Records.

LP release:

Side One
1. I Have Been In You (3:33)
2. Flakes (6:41)
3. Broken Hearts Are For Assholes (3:46)
4. I'm So Cute (4:20)

Side Two
1. Jones Crusher (2:49)
2. What Ever Happened To All The Fun In The World (0:33)
3. Rat Tomago (5:15)
4. We've Got To Get Into Something Real (0:32)
5. Bobby Brown (2:43)
6. Rubber Shirt (2:58)
7. The Sheik Yerbouti Tango (2:44)

Side Three
1. Baby Snakes (1:50)
2. Tryin' To Grow A Chin (3:32)
3. City Of Tiny Lites (5:30)
4. Dancin' Fool (3:43)
5. Jewish Princess (3:16)

Side Four
1. Wild Love (4:10)
2. Yo' Mama (12:38)

CD release:

1. I Have Been In You (3:34)
2. Flakes (6:42)
3. Broken Hearts Are For Assholes (3:42)
4. I'm So Cute (3:09)
5. Jones Crusher (2:50)
6. What Ever Happened To All The Fun In The World (0:33)
7. Rat Tomago (5:16)
8. Wait A Minute (0:33)
9. Bobby Brown Goes Down (2:49)
10. Rubber Shirt (2:45)
11. The Sheik Yerbouti Tango (3:56)
12. Baby Snakes (1:50)
13. Tryin' To Grow A Chin (3:31)
14. City Of Tiny Lites (5:32)
15. Dancin' Fool (3:44)
16. Jewish Princess (3:17)
17. Wild Love (4:10)
18. Yo' Mama (12:37)

Personnel:

Frank Zappa (lead guitar, vocals)
Adrian Belew (rhythm guitar, vocals)
Tommy Mars (keyboards, vocals)
Peter Wolf (keyboards)
Patrick O'Hearn (bass, vocals)
Terry Bozzio (drums, vocals)
Ed Mann, David Ocker (clarinets on "Wild Love")
Napoleon Murphy Brock (background vocals)
Andre Lewis (background vocals)
Randy Thornton (background vocals)
Davey Moire (background vocals)

Deutschlandhalle Berlin, 1978

2009-06-06T16:09:00.015-05:00

One of the better bootlegs out there is of the Feb. 15, 1978 concert at the Deutschlandhalle in Berlin (don't be concerned that the order of the material does not follow the show’s format). The show occurred slightly more than a year prior to the 1979 release of “Sheik Yerbouti,” and listening to the Berlin show you quickly realize that it is quite nearly a song-for-song preview of that album. This bootleg might in fact be the one Zappa talks about at the start of “As An Am” from the Beat The Boots series, when he complains about a bootlegger that essentially recorded an entire album before he was able to release it.

Even “songs” that were really guitar solos within songs played at the Berlin concert show up as separate musical entities with new names on “Sheik Yerbouti.” For example, the Berlin guitar solo in “The Torture Never Stops” may sound very familiar, and it should. That solo appeared later on the official release of “Sheik Yerbouti” with the title “Rat Tomago.” Another killer guitar solo also shows up on “Sheik Yerbouti,” and that’s from the lengthy, avant-garde Berlin interpretation of “Little House I Used to Live In.” This solo shows up as “The Sheik Yerbouti Tango.”

So, out of the 18 songs listed on “Sheik Yerbouti,” 11 of them were played and bootlegged in Berlin a year earlier, and if you include the guitar solos I mentioned, 13 of the 18 compositions from “Sheik Yerbouti” were recorded and bootlegged from the Berlin show.

And my, what a delicious bootleg it is. Even with the sub-par sound by virtue of the fact that it is an unofficial release, it is a recording of a superb show. Had this boot been re-mastered and released officially, I would unhesitatingly give if a five-star rating.

It is that freaking awesome. It is nearly two-and-a-half hours of ripping kick ass music played with expert precision that includes some of Zappa’s best live guitar solos. There is some really outstanding and beautiful keyboard playing as well and some freaky funky bass playing by Patrick O'Hearn. The show easily swings from hard rock to sweet stylin’ jazz funk, with effortless segues into avant-garde, then back to jamming arena rock.

Frank introduces the band while they play a motif from “One Size Fits All,” then launch into “Dancin’Fool,” the first of the 11 tracks this concert covered from “Sheik Yerbouti.” I find it curious that when Frank goes through the abbreviated version of the dialogue portion of the song, he speaks with an exaggeratedly slow cadence, the way people speak to someone whom they believe can’t understand what is being said because of a language barrier. He does this in other portions of the show as well. Was he intentionally mocking the crowd? Or was he just that ignorant of his German audience’s ability to be bilingual, given his experience at Amougies?

They next move into a very cool rendition of “Peaches En Regalia.” They’ve got the crowd warmed up now, so next comes “The Torture Never Stops,” which brings Frank’s guitar out. His solo is roughly six minutes of virtuosity, which was pared down to 5:15 for appearance on “Sheik Yerbouti” as “Rat Tomago.” This was a very special moment for those in the audience; this guitar solo stands out as one of Zappa’s most self-contained musical compositions for guitar. When he finishes and returns to “Torture” I get the sense that the audience was stunned by what it just heard.

The band then sweeps into three songs from “Sheik Yerbouti,” tightly and flawlessly played. Bozzio’s vocals on “Tryin’ to Grow a Chin” are so viscerally ridiculous that it’s a perfect match for the shrill hysteria within the song’s content. Andrew Belew comes in for the vocals on “City of Tiny Lights,” which also presents us with another of Frank’s guitar solos. Ed Mann’s percussion work starts to get notice here as well; his playing certainly rivals, in my opinion, anything Ruth Underwood has done with Frank.

After “Baby Snakes,” the band moves into “Pound for a Brown,” an outstanding jazz and funk piece that I believe first officially appeared on “Zappa in New York.” I’ve been trying to track down what solos in the song Tommy Mars and Peter Wolf are performing on the keyboards here, but so far have been unsuccessful. I think both take turns with solos, but I just haven’t been able to confirm that. Anyone have some better information of this?

The band returns to some more “Sheik Yerbouti” material with “I Have Been in You,” which Zappa nicely sets up for the crowd (again apparently presuming the audience has no clue as to what he’s saying). It’s a brilliant set up for the song, which mocks Peter Frampton’s “In You.” The sixth release of the YCDTOSA series also has a similarly satirical setup for the song. In the next song, Belew does a nice job with an impression of Bob Dylan during the second portion of the song (the impression improves on "Sheik Yerbouti"), which then has a very cool guitar solo to segue into the final section of the song; not sure if it’s Belew or Zappa, but both are playing during the song’s climax just before what would have been the chorus finishing the song (which is omitted from the concert). Based on my ear alone, I’m guessing it’s Zappa’s guitar solo first, followed by Belew joining him. Could be the other way around, but because the band quickly moves into “Broken Hearts Are For Assholes,” which has Zappa singing, I’m guessing when Belew comes in with his solo, Zappa is putting his guitar down to prepare for the next song. Zappa admits in his autobiography “The Real Frank Zappa Book” that he can’t sing and play guitar at the same time.

One of my favorite compositions comes next with “King Kong.” The tempo in this version is much faster than in others, which normally had featured Ian Underwood on saxophone. But at this concert, Ed Mann comes in for some outstanding vibraphone playing, again at such a frenetic (and precise) pace that his skill rivals Ruth Underwood’s command of the instrument. We get a bit of audience participation here as well when the song moves into some avant-garde vocalizations and free-form styles. Patrick O’Hearn finishes up with some funky fusion bass grooves. It’s performances like this that keeps me hooked on Zappa bootlegs. He played so many times with so many different musicians that to be able to hear performances like this is priceless.

Performed in the same order as they appear on “Sheik Yerbouti,” the first CD of this bootleg closes with “Wild Love” and “Yo Mama,” the latter of which was played for the first time at this concert (details sketchy on this, but that appears to be the case based on some information from the All Music Guide entry on this song). Shall I say again, “killer guitar solo here”? Incidentally, the guitar solo on “Wild Love” was reportedly by Adrian Belew.

CD two begins with material that was officially released a month after this concert in “Zappa in New York.” These include “Titties ‘n Beer” and “Black Page #2.” While introducing the latter, Zappa chides the crowd, saying he won’t embarrass them by asking them to clap with the song. Indeed, that would have been a laughable feat, I believe, for any audience, given the complex time signatures within the “Black Page #2.”

After another brief diversion with more material that would eventually wind up on “Sheik Yerbouti,” this time with “Jones Crusher,” the band moves into “Little House I Used To Live In.” As mentioned earlier, it is from this song that the guitar solo later dubbed “Sheik Yerbouti Tango” was taken. But before that solo, there is some very lovely piano in this; but again, I’m not sure if it was Mars or Wolf that provided that delightful interlude (I’m guessing Wolf). Very different from the original version released on “Burnt Weeny Sandwich,” but still a great interpretation. The piece is constructed in a manner that could be construed to be a mini version of how “Burnt Weeny Sandwich” was constructed. The album was a sort of musical sandwich with the two doo-wop numbers at the beginning and end acting as the bread. In this version of “Little House,” the main theme of the song begins and ends the piece, with a bit of meandering avant-garde and the “Sheik Yetbouti Tango” in the middle.

“Dong Work for Yuda,” the next track, was later released on “Joe’s Garage.” But after that, it’s back to more “Sheik Yerbouti” material with “Bobby Brown.” Frank announces the song is named “Bobby Brown Goes Down,” although when it was first released on vinyl, it was listed as just “Bobby Brown.” The next song is a curious number titled “Envelopes.” Although we have this short number performed at this concert, it wasn’t released on vinyl until 1980 with “A Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch.” However, by the time it shows up on that album, the lyrics have been abandoned for an instrumental form. The item was also performed on the London Symphony Orchestra release.

We get a rare drum solo on this bootleg as well, rare in the sense that it was recorded. While many musicians who played with Zappa performed many solos, I really can’t think of very many drum solos. And even this one doesn’t quite qualify as a true drum solo because of the other accompanying space sounds.

The show finishes off with material from “Zoot Alures” and “Over-nite Sensation.” I’m not totally certain, but “Disco Boy” contains a vamp that I think Scissor Sisters later used. With this concert, you get both songs that Zappa wrote that explicitly deal with the disco phenomenon, the other being “Dancin’ Fool,” with which he opened the concert. “Disco Boy” is followed with “Dinah-Moe Humm,” (which has a verse skipped) “Camarillo Brillo” and “Muffin Man.” Zappa a number of times paired “Camarillo Brillo” with “Muffin Man,” starting the former out with a rapid temp that drops into a slower tempo just before it segues into “Muffin Man.”

I rate this four out of five stars. Add your own rating below.

Frank Zappa: Deutschlandhalle Berlin, Feb. 15, 1978.

Track List:

CD1:
01.Intro
02.Dancin' Fool
03.Peaches En Regalia
04.The Torture Never Stops (includes Rat Tomago)
05.Tryin' To Grow A Chin
06.City Of Tiny Lights
07.Baby Snakes
08.Pound For A Brown
09.I Have Been In You
10.Flakes
11.Broken Hearts Are For Assholes
12.King Kong
13.Wild Love
14.Yo Mama

CD2:
01.Titties 'n Beer
02.Black Page #2
03.Jones Crusher
04.Little House I Used To Live In (includes Sheik Yerbouti Tango)
05.Dong Work For Yuda
06.Bobby Brown
07.Envelopes
08.Drum Solo
09.Disco Boy
10.Dinah-Moe Humm
11.Camarillo Brillo
12.Muffin Man
13.fade in
14.fade out

Personnel:

Frank Zappa: guitar, vocals
Adrian Belew: guitar
Patrick O’Hearn: bass
Tommy Mars: keyboards
Terry Bozzio: drums
Peter Wolf: keyboards
Ed Mann: percussion

Sleep Dirt

2009-06-03T20:10:00.009-05:00

I was surprised when I read the reviews for “Sleep Dirt” at Ground and Sky. Both Bob Eichler and Gary Niederhoff were effusive with their praise for this recording.

“Sleep Dirt remains one of Zappa’s better works,” writes Eichler.

“This is a great Zappa album,” writes Niederhoff.

And then Robert Christgau gives the album a B+. “For what it's worth, I thought I'd mention that this collection of outtakes showcases more good music than any Zappa album in years,” opines Christgau.

Wow. I wasn’t as enthusiastic about this “collection of outtakes” as these guys. To me, “Sleep Dirt” is mediocre at best. Was I missing something?

Curiously, the All Music Guide review of the album gives it 3.5 stars, compared to the 3 stars it awarded for “Studio Tan.” Ironically, I think “Studio Tan” is the better collection. Yet, I am comforted by Francois Couture’s words when he writes, “There are strong guitar solos, but the whole thing lacks panache (and the cover artwork is truly awful).”

And I was disappointed that Mark Prindle omited both albums from his litany of reviews. I was hoping I might find some common ground with Mark; we at times disagree on a few albums, but by and large I respect his thoughts on Zappa’s works.

So I gave it another listen to make sure I was certain about my opinion. By the way, I have the album version, which is deliciously devoid of lyrics and singing.

The album opens with “Filthy Habits,” which starts with a forlorn and dolorous sound that is almost painful, but don’t take that as a criticism. When this song begins, I am extraordinarily optimistic about my listening experience with this album. This is one of the leftovers from “Zoot Allures.” The chilling guitar work is clearly stylistically connected to the dark and ponderous sound that dominated that album.

Then comes “Flambay,” a song filled with promise, opening with a pretty piano introduction, but which devolves into the style of extraordinarily bland lounge music. I can picture myself in a bar while the band plays this piece, and I can hear the chatter of all the patrons rising above the musicians because the music just isn’t interesting enough to warrant rapt attention. And for me, that is what Zappa’s music is all about: it requires your rapt attention, and most of the time you are willing to give it because the music is so damned interesting and stimulating. I’m sure the musicians are playing this piece expertly; you can’t argue with Ruth Underwood’s skill. It’s just a tune that doesn’t grab me.

“Spider of Destiny” isn’t any better, and in fact, sounds like a somewhat more robust relative of “Flambay.” But frankly, I think I’m being kind in saying that. I do like George Duke’s delicate piano when he provides a tinkling interlude.

I’m feeling optimistic again when “Regyptian Strut” comes along. Bruce Fowler’s horns really add some class to this song. Unfortunately, this would sound so much better if it weren’t associated with the two previous tunes, “Spider of Destiny” and “Flambay.” The melodic similarity between the pieces detracts from “Regyptian Strut”’s strength. Nonetheless, I am feeling better when this tune comes along.

“Time is Money,” however, resumes my disappointment. The timbre is just wrong. In fact, I think this would likely sound better performed by a string quartet or small orchestra, rather than the band Zappa used.

Ah, but I get a reprieve with “Sleep Dirt.” It’s not often you get to hear Zappa play acoustic guitar, and the duet he plays with James Youman is just freaking excellent! And you don’t feel let down when Youman caves and the piece stops, as he explains that “my fingers got stuck.” It is an awesome piece.

Both “Sleep Dirt” and the final cut on the album, “The Ocean is the Ultimate Solution” are leftovers from “Zoot Allures,” and frankly, it is these songs that were cut from that album that are best pieces on the album “Sleep Dirt.” The last cut is great jazz fusion; Patrick O’Hearn’s bass playing is outstanding. Such a simple song in terms there are just three musicians on this (Terry Bozzio is on drums), but it is quintessential Zappa in that it demands your delighted attention. And the guitar solo is stellar too.

So my conclusion? I’m still sticking with my original opinion, and that is overall, “Sleep Dirt” the album is just mediocre. It has three outstanding pieces that definitely project themselves beyond the other rather dull tracks.

I rate this album three out of five stars. Add your own rating below.

Released Jan. 19, 1979, DiscReet Records.

Album release:

Side One
1.Filthy Habits (7:33)
2.Flambay (5:02)
3.Spider Of Destiny (2:54)
4.Regyptian Strut (4:15)

Side Two
1.Time Is Money (2:52)
2.Sleep Dirt (3:20)
3.The Ocean Is The Ultimate Solution (13:20)

CD release:

1.Filthy Habits (7:34)
2.Flambay (4:54)
3.Spider Of Destiny (2:33)
4.Regyptian Strut (4:13)
5.Time Is Money (2:49)
6.Sleep Dirt (3:21)
7.The Ocean Is The Ultimate Solution (13:20)

Personnel:

Frank Zappa (guitar, keyboards)
Dave Parlato (bass)
Terry Bozzio (drums)
George Duke (keyboards)
Patrick O'Hearn (bass)
Ruth Underwood (percussion)
Chad Wackerman (drum overdubs on CD)
Thana Harris (vocals overdubs on CD)
Bruce Fowler (all brass)
James Youman (bass)
Chester Thompson (drums)

Studio Tan

2009-05-26T22:11:00.009-05:00

“Studio Tan” is a studio album that Frank Zappa released that largely features leftovers from other releases that were either withheld because Zappa had second thoughts, or because he faced resistance from the record companies. The latter issue largely concerns Zappa’s original vision for “Lather.” But even that is open to debate. However, my blog is not to sort through, nor clarify, the legal issues, obstacles, problems and shenanigans that Zappa faced during the mid- to late-1970s when his recording and production efforts were gradually morphing into a completely independent company and publishing firm.

It’s about the music. And the most important observation that can be made about “Studio Tan” can be summed up in one song title: “The Adventures of Greggery Peccary.” There’s a lot going on in this piece, and its sheer brilliance makes purchasing “Studio Tan” worth the price.

To begin with, “Greggery Peccary” is an immense musical piece, filled with complexity that calls forth images within the listener to match the comedic story line. It’s literally like a cartoon, but unlike any cartoon you have likely seen. And to liken this opus to a cartoon in no way besmirches its brilliance. This is no child’s cartoon; this ain’t Bugs Bunny. I find it rather amazing that this item was initially created with the thought that it would be performed as a ballet. Unsurprisingly, however, the piece is filled with classic “project/object” references from Zappa’s catalog, including “Billy the Mountain” and “Big Swifty.” There’s also a reference to the “short forest,” which alludes to “Weasels Ripped My Flesh.”

Despite the cartoonish nature of the composition, the seriousness is not lost, particularly with the “fourth movement,” which introduces the “New Brown Clouds” theme in all its gloriousness. This particular track appears also on the bootleg “Great Wazoo EP,” as well as the official release of “Wazoo!” covering the Grand Wazoo form of the touring band (The bootleg has only this fourth movement, while “Wazoo!” has the entire “Greggery Peccary.”)

After all this musical brilliance comes the rest of the album, which unfortunately launches into the inane “Let Me Take You to the Beach.” I mean, gee, after the sublime “Gregerry Peccary,” we get a cheesy song with lyrics like, “Eat a candy!/You are dandy!/Can I kiss you?/Maybe I’ll just hold your hand-dee!” Not one of Frank’s better compositions. “Wowie Zowie” from “Freak Out!” had more class than this.

Next comes “Revised Music for Guitar and Low Budget Orchestra” (which is in reverse order on the CD release). This has a very nice piano set piece early on by George Duke, but the piece is largely guitar-centric, despite a brief march-style segue about two minutes into the song. This is followed by a guitar theme that is very reminiscent of “Burnt Weeny Sandwich.” Just before the five-minute mark on this song, the sound takes on a very large feel, with a big band style in the likeness of “The Grand Wazoo.” This is good stuff. Interestingly, the composition also goes by the title “Music for Electric Violin and Low Budget Orchestra,” with uncredited strings coming in toward the end.

“RDNZL” comes in to finish the album, a piece that has also appeared as “Redunzel” on the Beat the Boots release of “Piquantique,” and as “RDUNZL” on the LP release of this recording. This has a pretty decent guitar solo reminiscent of the style found on “One Size Fits All,” although it was written in 1972. Incidentally, RDNZL is a constellation in the “universe” of “One Size Fits All.” Check the original album cover. There’s been wide speculation as to what the title means or implies. Zappa allegedly has said it had something to do with the sequence of gears on an automatic. I think he was joking and nobody got it, especially Warner Bros., which changed the title to “Redunzel.”

I rate this album four out of five stars. Add your own rating below.

Released Sept. 15, 1978; DiscReet Records.

LP release:

Side One
Greggery Peccary (20:40)

Side Two
Let Me Take You To The Beach (2:44)
Revised Music For Guitar & Low Budget Orchestra (7:36)
REDUNZL (8:12)

CD release:

The Adventures Of Greggery Peccary (20:35)
Revised Music For Guitar And Low Budget Orchestra (7:37)
Lemme Take You To The Beach (2:45)
RDNZL (8:14)

Personnel:

Frank Zappa – guitar, vocals, percussion
George Duke – keyboards
John Berkman – piano
Michael Zearott – conductor
Pamela Goldsmith – viola
Murray Adler – violin
Sheldon Sanov – violin
Jerry Kessler – cello
Edward Meares – bass guitar
Bruce Fowler – trombone
Don Waldrop – trombone
Jock Ellis – trombone
Dana Hughes – bass trombone
Earle Dumler – oboe
JoAnn Caldwell – McNab bassoon
Mike Altschul – flute
Graham Young – trumpet
Jay Daversa – trumpet
Malcolm McNab – trumpet
Ray Reed – flute
Victor Morosco – saxophone
John Rotella – woodwind instruments
Alan Estes – percussion
Emil Richards – percussion
Tom Fowler – bass guitar
Chester Thompson – drums
Davey Moire – vocals
Eddie Jobson – keyboards, yodeling
Max Bennett – bass guitar
Paul Humphrey – drums
Don Brewer – bongos
James "Bird Legs" Youmans – bass guitar

The Ahoy, Rotterdam, May 24, 1980

2009-05-25T10:29:00.013-05:00

This little gem I recently stumbled upon and was delighted at the sound quality, given that it is a bootleg. This was taken from a Dutch FM radio program, and, as it is with many bootlegs, appeared on the market in a variety of forms, often with erroneous information.

This site identifies the variety of bootleg incarnations – “Boot the Beats” being just one – the concert showed up as, including an item that incorrectly lists this concert as occurring on June 24, 1980. Even the “Boot the Beats” item contains misleading information, suggesting it was recorded in New York. Several sites note that the guitar solo during “The Illinois Enema Bandit” was interrupted on many of these boots; however, the one I listened to has a full guitar solo as far as I can tell, because the recording ends with the radio show outtake. After reviewing all these sites and the set lists put together by others, I’ve concluded that the concert recorded for the radio show was from May 24, 1980.

Zappa writes in his autobiography about working in The Ahoy, although not necessarily about this particular concert. He identifies this experience he writes about in “The Real Frank Zappa Book” as his “orchestral stupidity #2.” It was 1980 and he states that he was in Amsterdam at the time when he was propositioned on working with a few Dutch ensembles to perform his orchestral work.

Knowing the complexity of his work, Zappa demurred, saying that he didn’t want to have anything to do with the project unless he would be guaranteed a minimum of three weeks of rehearsal time. He got that commitment, as well as assurances that he wouldn’t have to spend any of his own money to pull it off.

On page 148, Zappa describes The Ahoy as “a charming sort of Dutch indoor bicycle racing arena with a concrete floor and a banked wooden track all around the room.” On page 149 he gives a timeline of the rehearsals, which were mixed in with a rock tour he would plan for the summer throughout Europe to raise money to pay the American musicians involved in the project. The final rehearsals were to occur in the final weeks of May just before the performance.

This site shows that Zappa played in Rotterdam on May 24, 1980, the only identified show in The Netherlands in May that year (note also that on June 24, 1980, he was traveling between shows in Germany, and would have no opportunity to do a live show in New York City as referenced on the boot cover I have posted). That was the rock concert recorded for Dutch radio and which was pressed into boots. The day before he performed in Brussels, Belgium; two days after the gig at The Ahoy, he was in Germany where he gave three concerts for three days in a row in three different locations. He was pretty busy until early July with the rock tour he put together, so it’s difficult to determine precisely when this meeting in Amsterdam occurred (he was very busy touring through the U.S. during April). But all that is moot because the orchestral project completely fell apart and Zappa writes in his autobiography that he pulled the plug on it.

The show at The Ahoy was performed by a relatively small band by Zappa standards, and has some really good guitar solos by the master. That is evident with the concert starting off with the guitar-centric “Chunga’s Revenge.” Zappa’s solo is – using a word frequently cited to describe his playing – blistering. There is a bit of angry energy in it, and given the circumstances outlined above, I must wonder how much of that he transferred into his playing. After some brief introductions, he quickly launches into a couple songs from “Joe’s Garage,” including the dreamy guitar piece “Outside Now.” In fact, not surprisingly, the concert pulls material from several albums released at the time, including “Tinsel Town Rebellion,” to be released the following year, “Sheik Yerbouti,” and “You Are What You Is.” The performance of “City of Tiny Lights” on this boot is just OK to me, except for the guitar solo, which pulls it out of mediocrity. I don’t care much for Tommy Mars’ keyboards on this one; very uninspired. Of course, one must consider the fact that Mars is compensating for the lack of a horn section on this particular tour.

Following a perfunctory performance of “Teenage Wind,” we get the heavy, boogie-ish “Bamboozled by Love,” which had plenty of potential, but again gets marred by Mars’ keyboards. Makes me wonder why the song was included in the set because it would have sounded so much better backed by a strong horn section. Thank god for Zappa’s guitar coming in and re-inserting the heavy rock feel into this. He pulls off a bit of outside, atonal playing that grinds power into the song. Ike Willis, however, sounds a bit anemic. After “Pick Me I’m Clean” comes “Society Pages”, which quickly segues into “I’m A Beautiful Guy,” and then “Beauty Knows No Pain.” This “suite” from “You Are What You Is” is concluded with “Charlie’s Enormous Mouth.”

Zappa goes a bit retro with his next group of songs, reaching slightly into the past with “Cosmik Debris,” (which really suffers from the lack of Ruth Underwood) from “Apostrophe(‘),” but going way back to “Freak Out!” for “You Didn’t Try to Call Me” and “I Ain’t Got No Heart.” Not sure who’s playing the guitar solo on this performance of “Cosmik Debris.” It’s an excellent soaring blues interpretation of the song that lacks Zappa’s signature style, which leads me to think it was either Willis or Ray White. Disc One is completed with “Love of My Life,” from “Cruising with Ruben and the Jets.”

Disc Two returns the show to more contemporary selections from Zappa’s catalog, starting with the title track from “You Are What You Is.” There’s nothing remarkable about this performance; in fact, the musicians sound like they’re just going through the motions. Things perk up when the group launches into “Joe’s Garage.” The concert appears to end after “Why Does It Hurt When I Pee,” but an encore quickly develops with “Dancin’ Fool.” Something to note: When Zappa at the end of the show is re-introducing band members, he repeats Ray White’s name several times as though he was being introduced again and again as different individuals. Was Zappa playing with the fact that the band he was touring with was considerably smaller than what he normally travels with?

With “Dancin Fool,” the band manages to use its small size to its advantage. That song is followed by “Bobby Brown,” also from “Sheik Yerbouti.” In both songs, Zappa delivers well with his vocals. Even “Ms. Pinky” comes off well despite it’s missing the extraordinarily fuzzed and heavy guitar and bass from “Zoot Allures.” This boot also has one of the few pre-release recordings of a live performance of “I Don’t Want To Get Drafted.” The show finishes with “The Illinois Enema Bandit,” in a great performance with Ray White’s vocals and with Zappa’s guitar work. Zappa’s solo is searing in its precision. He gave the crowd at The Ahoy that night a real gift with that solo.

I give this recording four out of five stars. Add your own rating below.

I did some light editing on this post on May 26, 2009.

Frank Zappa: The Ahoy, Rotterdam NL, May 24, 1980

Disc One
01. Chunga's Revenge
02. Keep It Greasey
03. Outside Now
04. City Of Tiny Lights
05. Teenage Wind
06. Bamboozled By Love
07. Pick Me I'm Clean
08. Society Pages
09. I'm A Beautiful Guy
10. Beauty Knows No Pain
11. Charlie's Enormous Mouth
12. Cosmik Debris
13. You Didn't Try To Call Me
14. I Ain't Got No Heart
15. Love Of My Life

Disc Two
01. You Are What You Is
02. Easy Meat
03. Joe's Garage
04. Why Does It Hurt When I Pee?
05. (crowd)
06. Dancin' Fool
07. Bobby Brown
08. Ms. Pinky
09. (crowd)
10. I Don’t Want to Get Drafted
11. The Illinois Enema Bandit
12. (radio outro)

Personnel:

Frank Zappa, lead guitar, vocals
Ike Willis, guitar, vocals
Tommy Mars, keyboards and vocals
Arthur “Tink” Barrow, bass
Ray White, guitar and vocals
David Logeman, drums

Zappa in New York

2009-05-17T10:09:00.011-05:00

Frank Zappa was well-known for inserting enigmatic references to all types of “relevant” musical and lyrical material into his music. These arcane references could be lyrics that either recall previously released material, or even foreshadow material that was yet to be produced. It can be references to other works by other composers; references to current events; historical figures; places and people from his personal past.

The 1978 live recording “Zappa in New York” is a good example of how Zappa wove outside influences into his music, as well as a prime example of how easy it can be to over-read inferences into his material. Case in point: the first track on the release, “Titties & Beer.”

The discussion on this song at the Web site Arf alludes to a connection between “Titties & Beer” and “L'histoire du Soldat,” an old Russian folk tale that Igor Stravinsky had set to music. While the connection is plausible, perhaps it is more likely that Zappa just took the libretto from “L'histoire du Soldat” and altered it in his own twisted way. The song is among his better comedic material, showing much more imagination musically than much of the previous comedic material he composed with Flo & Eddie (see “Fillmore East: June 1971” and “Just Another Band From L.A.”) While the Flo & Eddie material became quite tiresome at times, “Titties & Beer” has an engaging, albeit old-as-the-hills, story line that is carried by truly astounding music.

When I bought the LP the year it was released, the next track was “I Promise Not To Come in Your Mouth.” However, the CD version of this release gives us a much broader experience of the concerts it was taken from, a series of shows between Christmas and New Year’s in 1976 at the Palladium in New York City. On the CD, the second track is an instrumental version of “Cruising for Burgers,” which first appeared on “Uncle Meat.”

The LP release I purchased in 1978 didn’t have “Punky’s Whips,” but this is a great addition to the CD release. First you’ve got Don Pardo introducing the song. Pardo was gigging with “Saturday Night Live,” and Zappa had guest-hosted the show in 1976, as well as appeared as its musical guest. It was a brilliant show because he played “The Slime,” a superb coup to the inanity of broadcast television. Zappa re-wrote a portion of the song for Pardo to be performed on the show, and apparently a musical relationship was struck, leading to Pardo joining Zappa at the Palladium.

Let’s recall the era. In 1976, the sexual revolution in America was reaching its, err, climax, as was the gay movement. Sexual freedom was so prevalent – as was the androgyny of the time exemplified by such musical artists as Marc Bolan, David Bowie, Lou Reed and Brian Eno – that it was not uncommon for straight guys to take a walk on the wild side from time to time. So the story line in “Punky’s Whips” is quite plausible: a self-professed straight man develops a sexual obsession for glam rock star famous for his pouty lips. Not that Terry Bozzio (Zappa’s drummer at the time and the target of the song) himself had a true yen for a sexual liaison with Punky Meadows of the glam band Angel; rather, Frank was using as his story-telling vehicle that element of bisexuality that briefly showed its face before the advent of AIDS. After all, Bozzio sings quite plainly that “I ain’t really queer.” Zappa’s intent for the song was strictly to zing Meadows for his outrageous pout.

The Washington City Paper in 2002 reported that most of Angel’s members didn’t like Zappa’s song so much, temporarily blocking its release on the original vinyl version that was pressed. But Punky Meadows told the reporter that he was flattered by the song. “I thought it was cool. Frank is very satirical, so you can’t have a thin skin. I found it kind of flattering.”

Good for you Punky.

Next comes “Honey, Don’t You Want A Man Like Me?”, but let’s move on to the last song on the first CD; “The Illinois Enema Bandit.” Reality makes its way into the Zappa catalog, as Don Pardo sets the story line. I like how this is set to a traditional blues style, as this makes the song. And I also really like the lyric, “The Illinois enema bandit/I heard he’s on the loose!” While the rest of the song is explicit in its content, the double entendre in this lyric is beautiful. Zappa, also, takes the traditional blues style to exciting new extremes with his guitar solo, coupled with seamless time changes managed expertly by Bozzio’s drumming.

The true Illinois enema bandit was a man named Michael Kenyon, who, for approximately 10 years, had committed a series of robberies during which he also gave his female victims enemas. According to Neil Slaven’s book, “Electric Don Quixote,” Zappa reveals that he first heard about the enema bandit from a radio news report while travelling after a gig that was in Normal, Ill.

The end of the song is filled with several “project/object” references, such as when Ray White sings that he “ain’t talkin’ bout Fontana,” an allusion to Potato-headed Bobby, a character who first appeared on the album “One Size Fits All” in the song “San Ber’dino.” And just before the finish, Zappa brings in a reference from the “Freak Out!” album with a bit from the “It Can’t Happen Here” section of the song “Help, I’m A Rock.”

By the time I heard the album “Apostrophe(‘)” I was recognizing how Zappa continually referenced other material from his catalog. While I knew the references were intentional, I didn’t know the reason behind them. Consider what he says in his autobiography:

“Project/Object is a term I have used to describe the overall concept of my work in various mediums. Each project (in whatever realm), or interview connected to it, is part of a larger object, for which there is no ‘technical name.’”

There are many other good songs on this recording. When first released on vinyl, this was the recording that debuted “Big Leg Emma,” a song originally recorded to appear on “Absolutely Free,” and which appeared later in the CD release of that album. Personally, I’m glad it was not released with “Absolutely Free.” The song works well on the New York album, but is really out of place on the former.

I rate this recording four out of five stars. Add your own rating below.

Album release date: March 1978, Warner/Discreet Records.

Original vinyl release:

Side One
Titties & Beer (5:31)
I Promise Not To Come In Your Mouth (3:31)
Big Leg Emma (2:09)

Side Two
Sofa (3:15)
Manx Needs Women (1:39)
The Black Page Drum Solo/Black Page #1 (4:06)
Black Page #2 (5:25)

Side Three
Honey, Don't You Want A Man Like Me? (4:18)
The Illinois Enema Bandit (12:09)

Side Four
The Purple Lagoon (16:20)

CD release:

Disc One
Titties & Beer (7:36)
Cruisin' For Burgers (9:12) - bonus track
I Promise Not To Come In Your Mouth (3:32)
Punky's Whips (10:50)
Honey, Don't You Want A Man Like Me? (4:12)
The Illinois Enema Bandit (12:42)

Disc Two
I'm The Slime (4:24) - bonus track
Pound For A Brown (3:41) - bonus track
Manx Needs Women (1:50)
The Black Page Drum Solo/Black Page #1 (3:50)
Big Leg Emma (2:17)
Sofa (2:56)
Black Page #2 (5:36)
The Torture Never Stops (12:35) - bonus track
The Purple Lagoon/Approximate (16:41)

Personnel:

Frank Zappa (conductor, lead guitar, vocals)
John Bergamo (percussion overdubs)
Terry Bozzio (drums, vocals)
Mike Brecker (tenor sax, flute)
Randy Brecker (trumpet)
Ronnie Cuber (baritone sax, clarinet)
Eddie Jobson (keyboards, violin, vocals)
Tom Malone (trombone, trumpet, piccolo)
Ed Mann (percussion overdubs)
Lou Marini (alto sax, flute)
Lou Anne Neill (osmotic harp overdubs)
Patrick O'Hearn (bass, vocals)
Don Pardo (sophisticaded narration)
David Samuels (timpani, vibes)
Ruth Underwood (percussion, synthesizer)
Ray White (rhythm guitar, vocals)

Great Wazoo EP

2009-05-03T15:31:00.009-05:00

Both the Grand and Petit Wazoo tours in the fall of 1972 went without any official releases of any of the shows until January 2006 when “Imaginary Diseases” was released representing the Petit Wazoo, and November 2007 when “Wazoo!” was released to represent the Grand Wazoo tour. So for 34 years, Zappaphiles had to rely on bootleg releases to get anything on the tour, which covered mostly the U.S., but had three gigs in Europe. And the price tag on the “official” releases proved to be a shocker for more than just a few fans: $30 for the latter release ($26.99 at Amazon.com).

One of those bootlegs is the “Great Wazoo EP”, which appears to be a recording from the Sept. 15, 1972, show at Deutschlandhalle in Berlin. That conclusion is based on a number of somewhat conflicting factors. The cover art of the EP explicitly states it was recorded at this show. The only other European venues on the tour were in London and the Netherlands. The Grand Wazoo tour schedule here indicates that there was a stop on this date at the identified venue, as does this site. This information seems to outweigh the text on the EP cover, which identifies it as a recording of the Petit Wazoo tour (the EP’s title is “Frank Zappa & the Petit Wazoo Orchestra”) rather than the Grand Wazoo, as well as the inconsistencies in the set list established for that date and the songs that are identified on the bootleg.

The EP has three songs identified as “Berlin Blues,” “Variant Processional March (Regyption Strut),” and “Die Neuen Braunen Wolken.” That seems to fit with the set lists for the Sept. 15, 1972, concert as identified by the Zappateers site as well as this one, which were listed as follows: New Brown Clouds, Big Swifty, Approximate, For Calvin And His Next Two Hitch-hikers, Think It Over (The Grand Wazoo), The Adventures Of Greggery Peccary, Dog Meat, improvisations, Blues For A Minute, Penis Dimension, Variant Processional March (Regyptian Strut), Chunga’s Revenge.

“Die Neuen Braunen Wolken” translates into “New Brown Clouds,” and the “Variant Processional March” is clearly identified. The only dubious song left is “Berlin Blues,” as it is identified on the bootleg, which might be “Blues for A Minute.” If I am in error, I hope someone will correct me.

Enough of all that, let’s get to the music!

“Berlin Blues” is likely a representation of one of the few times Zappa bothered to play a solo during the Grand Wazoo tour. Conducting and managing a 20-piece band didn’t necessarily leave a lot of time for Frank to cut loose on his axe. This song is a very laid back blues piece that has minimal accompaniment and could possibly have been something he would do to give the larger band a rest. It may also have been something Zappa would play to give his audience a rest too, by providing some more “accessible” and listenable music between the more demanding pieces.

Next is “Variant Processional March,” more commonly known as “Regyptian Strut,” which has the full band playing. Nothing particularly interesting in this, given the quality of the bootleg. The orchestration of the number sounds impressive, but its depth just doesn’t get carried through the bootleg.

The final song on the EP is “Die Neuen Braunen Wolken,” which is also listed on “Wazoo!” as the fourth movement to “The Adventures of Greggery Peccary.” Despite the poor sound quality, the impeccable playing of the musicians during this complex and undoubtedly difficult piece comes through beautifully.

This is a very simple EP bootleg that provided for many years one of the few glimpses of what the Grand Wazoo touring band sounded like. Obviously, it’s not for everyone, particularly in light of the subsequent release of “Wazoo!”

I give this recording three of five stars. Provide your own rating below.

The twenty musicians in the Grand Wazoo band were:

Jay Migliori--flute, saxophone, clarinet
Mike Altschul--piccolo, bass clarinet
Ray Reed--saxophone, clarinet
Charles Owens--saxophone, clarinet
Joann Caldwell McNab--bassoon
Earle Dumler--oboe
Jerry Kessler--cello
Malcolm McNab--trumpet
Sal Marquez--trumpet
Tom Malone--tuba
Bruce Fowler--trombone
Glenn Ferris--trombone
Ken Shroyer--trombone
Ian Underwood--synthesizer
Jim Gordon--drums
Dave Parlato--bass
Tony Duran--slide guitar
Tom Raney--percussion
Ruth Underwood--percussion
Frank Zappa--guitar

Zoot Allures

2009-05-02T15:49:00.010-05:00

One of the few Zappa albums I purchased at the time of its release was “Zoot Allures,” which was released in October of 1976 while I was a freshman at Western Michigan University. The opening track, “Wind Up Workin’ in a Gas Station,” was welcomed by my “ready ears,” so to speak. As a college freshman, I had some ideas about what I might want to do with my life, but I honestly had no burning ambition. To me, it was all pointless, and to a large degree today it remains all pointless. Zappa’s lyrics, to some degree, undoubtedly influenced me while growing up, revealing in some way the chimeras of the world. But I think my mind in many ways was already seeing significant contradictions between how I was being told the world worked and how it actually worked well before I heard “Plastic People” for the first time while listening to “Absolutely Free” when I was 10.

Many of the rules of society are, indeed, there to help us all get along, to keep the peace. But I was quickly learning as a child that perhaps most of society’s rules were there to protect a minority of well-established powers. So by the time I was in high school, I was already doubting the point of seeking a career, of finding my “place in the world.” Don’t confuse this with any high-minded values here. I was also extraordinarily lazy. I had fantasies of becoming an important social leader, but I lacked the discipline necessary to follow through on this dream.

However, I did recognize how the world worked, whether I liked it or not. So I have always striven to do my best in whatever I’ve done professionally, not just because the world expects it, but also so that I may achieve some personal satisfaction.

Nonetheless, when I first heard “Wind Up Workin’ in a Gas Station,” I believed that my feelings were being validated.

“Zoot Allures” contains three outstanding guitar pieces; the title track, “Friendly Little Finger,” and “Black Napkins.” The latter also sets the tone for the majority of the album. In a fashion similar to “Burnt Weeny Sandwich” – which had avant-garde jazz pieces sandwiched between two doo-wop numbers – “Zoot Allures” is largely a group of somber, yet still excellent pieces, sandwiched between opening and closing tracks that tend to be musically anachronistic. The strictly instrumental “Black Napkins” smoothly transitions into the prescient “The Torture Never Stops,” a song that more than likely referred to Augusto Pinochet and his dictatorial regime in Chile, but which has uncanny relevance in 2009.

With this number, Zappa brilliantly blends the horrors of torture when used as an interrogation technique with the bizarre attraction it has for some sexual fetishists. The screaming and wailing woman accompanying the song expresses both arduous pain and sexual bliss, linking within the song the well-documented notion that those who employ torture against prisoners are not only attempting to extract information, but are also fulfilling a deep sexual perversion.

As if intending to more succinctly make that connection, the song swiftly moves from the female’s final orgasmic wailing to the funky “Ms. Pinky,” a song about sex with a blow-up doll. Captain Beefheart, appearing as Donnie Vliet, plays some ripping great harmonica here.

Sticking with the sexual theme, the B side of the album release opens with “Find Her Finer,” an OK piece that brings the tempo back down from the prior track. It’s a song that I can take or leave. The next piece, however, has Zappa returning with an awesome guitar solo-centered piece, “Friendly Little Finger.” Behind this soaring guitar work is the frenetic drumming of Terry Bozzio (who debuted with Zappa on “Bongo Fury”) and Zappa pulling double duty on bass. His bass playing on this jam is just as chillingly delicious as his guitar riffs, which come so close to an absolute loss of control, yet stick within the realms of human over-achievement.

The transition from “Friendly Little Finger” into “Wonderful Wino” is brilliant, a combination of bombastic orchestration with in-your-face heavy metal. While the fade out on “Wonderful Wino” works, the fade out at the end of the title track is soooo frustrating!

With “Zoot Allures,” Zappa gives his guitar an ethereal sound centered by superb use of distortion and a whammy bar. It almost strikes me as an ode to Jimi Hendrix’s “Third Stone from the Sun,” albeit a more laid-back nod. The song moves into stinging, staccato plucking at the strings that almost sound vicious, followed with some picking and finger-floating across the neck that zings right up scale to fall like a floating feather back down to earth. I want to hear more of this, but the damn song fades out while Zappa continues to play, a frustrating taunt that equally infuriates me and leaves me exhausted.

The advent of disco music was nearing a zenith at the time of the release of “Zoot Allures,” and there was no way someone like Zappa was going to let this phenomenon go by without comment. The last track of the album, “Disco Boy,” is a sardonic reflection of the disco lifestyle, but unlike the later “Dancin Fool,” is set to a hip beat with a rockin’ guitar riff.

As many have noted elsewhere, the album’s title is an allusion to a French phrase, “Zut alors!” It’s an idiom that is difficult to translate, but seems to be one of those utterances of mild surprise, such as a muttering of, “Well, I’ll be damned!” An interesting tidbit, but it doesn’t seem to have much to do with the recording’s overall musical theme. Interestingly, the recording was originally conceived as a double album, according to a variety of sources. The additional tracks of “Sleep Dirt,” “Filthy Habits,” and “The Ocean is the Ultimate Solution” were omitted and later released on the album “Sleep Dirt.”

I rate this with 4.5 out of 5 stars. Add your own rating below.

Released: Oct. 20, 1976, Warner Bros.

Track listings:

Vinyl release:

Side One
Wind Up Workin' In A Gas Station (2:35)
Black Napkins (4:18)
The Torture Never Stops (9:52)
Ms. Pinky (3:49)

Side Two
Find Her Finer (4:22)
Friendly Little Finger (4:19)
Wonderful Wino (3:05)
Zoot Allures (4:15)
Disco Boy (5:28)

CD release:

Wind Up Workin' In A Gas Station (2:30)
Black Napkins (4:15)
The Torture Never Stops (9:46)
Ms. Pinky (3:40)
Find Her Finer (4:07)
Friendly Little Finger (4:17)
Wonderful Wino (3:38)
Zoot Allures (4:13)
Disco Boy (5:10)

Personnel:

Frank Zappa (guitar, bass, synth, vocals, keyboards)
Terry Bozzio (drums, vocals)
Napoleon Murphy Brock (sax, vocals)
Ruben Ladron de Guevara (vocals)
Roy Estrada (bass, vocals)
Andre Lewis (organ, vocals)
Davey Moire (vocals)
Lu Ann Neill (harp)
Sparkie Parker as Sharkie Barker (vocals)
Dave Parlato (bass)
Ruth Underwood (synth, marimba)
Captain Beefheart as Donnie Vliet (harmonica)

Imaginary Diseases

2009-04-26T17:56:00.008-05:00

Why the Zappa Family Trust hasn’t been more energetic in re-mastering and releasing the plethora of live material it undoubtedly has is beyond me. There have been a few posthumous releases, but not nearly as many, in my opinion, that could be potentially released. One that allegedly was pressed into a limited CD release (I question the “limited” designation because it can be readily ordered from online retailers) is “Imaginary Diseases,” a musical quilt of outstanding live performances that included some of the musicians from a “big band” Zappa had assembled, composed of players primarily associated with the “Grand Wazoo” through “Apostrophe(‘)” era. If you don’t have this one in your Zappa collection, you’re really missing out.

Some interesting background on this recording in light of the fact it was dubbed the Petit Wazoo tour, a 10-piece band that Zappa toured with that was a smaller version of the 20-piece Grand Wazoo band that had also briefly toured.

That era of recordings and the sound it produced is primarily exemplified by the albums “Waka/Jawaka” and “The Grand Wazoo.” However, the Petit Wazoo tour really only had a few of the musicians from either album. Slide guitarist Tony Duran shows up in the credits on “Waka/Jawaka,” “The Grand Wazoo,” and “Apostrophe(‘),” but not “Over-nite Sensation.” Jim Gordon (more on him in a moment) shows up only on “Apostrophe(‘)”, while horn player Malcolm McNabb appears on “The Grand Wazoo.” Bruce Fowler’s trombone debuts on “Over-nite Sensation,” and appears as well on “Apostrophe(‘).” Many of the other musicians that appeared on these recordings, particularly the jazz-fusion albums, don’t show up at all on “Imaginary Diseases.”

What did show up consistently is the sound that had its genesis on “Waka/Jawaka,” and which fully flowered on “The Grand Wazoo.” The latter album was released at the time “Imaginary Diseases” was recorded. This sound had in many ways influenced almost every composition Zappa did from then on.

The recording opens with the curious “Oddients,” a bit of avant-garde inviting Zappa’s signature audience participation. But the curiosity quickly vanishes with “Rollo,” an instrumental that also appears on some bootlegs with vocals.

“Been to Kansas City in A Minor,” is classic 12-bar blues with some ripping great guitar work by Zappa. This is also when Jim Gordon’s drumming becomes very noticeable. His beat keeping is outstanding, sounding very basic and yet filled with a soaring personality that gives his drumming a character I have heard very few times from others. Why then, with such skill, does Gordon not play on more recordings with Zappa? His background as a session drummer is vast, having played with Delaney & Bonnie, which then led to a gig on Eric Clapton’s first solo album. He’s banged skins with Traffic, Joe Cocker, Buddy Guy, Joan Baez, George Harrison … the list goes on and on.

But alas, Jim Gordon had a dark side that included battles with mental illness, some think schizophrenia, that eventually rendered him incapable of sticking in the music business and which led to him murdering his mother in 1983. Gordon already had reportedly established a somewhat erratic pattern within the music business, and with Zappa’s low tolerance for musicians who require too much management, Zappa probably saw a glimpse of Gordon’s demons and likely decided he didn’t want anything to do with them.

While the next track’s title somewhat resembles the song from “Apostrophe(‘),” the song “Farther O’Blivion” has very little to do with the suite that ends with “Father O’Blivion.” But this little gem, which Zappa announces at its start has a tango in the middle of it, is an excellent jazz smoothie that features, of all things, a tuba solo! And an outstanding one at that. This song also contain musical themes and set pieces that Zappa later incorporated into future items, such as “Gregerry Peccary.” Gary Barone’s trumpet work during the tango section is excellent. The frenzied horn section as well during the latter part of the second third of the song is again excellently accentuated by Gordon’s flawless drumming. Gordon’s drum solo is equal parts fascinating and thrilling; it’s almost as though he is telling Ginger Baker, through his drumming, to take a break. You can hear people in the background cheering him on, as he is seemingly possessed – yet he doesn’t forget himself. He finishes right on cue for the rest of the band to come in and complete the song.

Things return to a meatier audio treat with “D.C. Boogie,” which starts out in a very soporific (and by that I mean morphine-like rather than sleep inducing) bluesy style that reminds me of something that The Velvet Underground wished it could have done, or something that Can would likely have done, except that Can would recognize Zappa’s genius and brilliant playing and just sit back and enjoy the damn thing. This groove is good, and it contains some guitar work by Zappa that truly is something different. He ventures into a musical and tonal realm in this song that I, frankly, haven’t heard out of him that often. The Muse captured Frank that night, and thankfully wouldn’t let go for 13 minutes. Again, Gordon’s drumming is beautifully subdued, yet right on target. The song is called a boogie largely because of its second half, when Frank calls upon the crowd to offer its input as to how the song ought to end. The crowd’s choice was a boogie, although one has to wonder if Frank had already had his mind made up. But when the song resumes after this brief respite, a freaking awesome boogie it is. And again, I cannot comment enough about Gordon’s drumming here, because it sounds like two drummers, in the style, for example, of The Grateful Dead. The final guitar solo in this would make Duane Allman weep.

The title track is full-blown Wazoo-ness. And, I’m sorry to keep repeating myself, but when Zappa takes off in his searing guitar solo, Gordon is right there keeping tempo perfectly. The guitar solo is very “Apostrophe(‘)” as well. While Zappa supposedly never played this jam live that he recorded with Jack Bruce, this track comes closest to what I think it might have sounded like. And incidentally, Gordon was on “Apostrophe(‘),” so he would have been keenly familiar with Zappa’s style on that song.

The CD closes with “Montreal”, which probably has my favorite guitar solo on the entire album. My favorite, again, because of Gordon’s drumming. It’s almost like Zappa and Gordon are sharing musical brains. It’s a very basic rhythm, but soooo effectively delivered you can hear the crowd getting into the jam. I really think that Zappa and Gordon connected musically on this tour in a way Zappa hasn’t been able to do with a drummer very often. He mentions in his autobiography that it was difficult to find a drummer that would keep up with what he was doing on the guitar. But somehow, I feel that Gordon does more than keep up with Zappa on this set. Listen closely. I think Gordon anticipates Zappa.

I rate this recording with five out of five stars. Leave your rating below.

Recorded at various live gigs Oct. 27, 1972 to Dec. 15, 1972; Released Jan. 13, 2006 on Zappa Records (limited release).

All tracks by Frank Zappa.

"Oddients" – 1:13
"Rollo" – 3:21
"Been to Kansas City in A Minor" – 10:15
"Farther O'Blivion" – 16:02
"D.C. Boogie" – 13:27
"Imaginary Diseases" – 9:45
"Montreal" – 9:11

Personnel:

Frank Zappa – Conductor, Guitar, Vocals
Malcolm McNabb – Trumpet
Gary Barone – Trumpet, Flugelhorn
Tom Malone – Tuba, Saxes, Piccolo Trumpet, Trumpet
Earl Dumler – Woodwinds
Glenn Ferris – Trombone
Bruce Fowler – Trombone
Tony Duran – Slide Guitar
Dave Parlato – Bass
Jim Gordon – Drums
Composed/Produced/Performed/Edited/Mixed/Tweaked by Frank Zappa

Vaultmeistered by Joe Travers/Mastered by Doug Sax & Robert

Hadley/Liner notes by Steve Vai.

Bongo Fury

2009-04-17T14:44:00.012-05:00

“Bong Fury” was a decent live recording representing some shows Zappa did while paired up with Captain Beefheart. But like some of Zappa’s other projects, was spoiled by Frank’s impulsive need to re-mix material in the studio, even adding tracks that were entirely studio produced at the expense of removing live tracks.

Zappa’s relationship with Beefheart was never an easy one. He spends considerable time in his autobiography discussing his encounters with the avant-garde musician nee Don Van Vliet. That relationship went back to the days not only prior to Beefheart’s Magic Band and before the Mothers as well, but back to the two men’s school days. It’s worth mentioning what went on during the production of “Trout Mask Replica,” as Zappa’s description of this project provides an excellent vignette on Van Vliet’s manic persona.

Recorded between November 1968 and April 1969, the production of “Trout Mask Replica” presented some interesting challenges, Zappa writes in his autobiography. For example, Zappa got the idea of recording the tracks at the house where the band lived, placing the various instruments in different rooms to take advantage of the unique acoustics offered in each room. But Beefheart apparently accused Zappa of trying to produce the album “on the cheap,” and demanded that they finish the project in a real studio.

Now, if you’re familiar at all with Beefheart’s voice, you know he sounds like a crazed Howlin’ Wolf amped up on handfuls of amphetamines and on the verge of his vocal cords exploding.

“Ordinarily a singer goes in the studio, puts earphones on, listens to the track, tries to sing in time with it and away you go,” Zappa writes in his autobiography. “Don couldn’t tolerate the earphones. He wanted to stand in the studio and sing as loud as he could – singing along with the audio leakage coming through the three panes of glass which comprised the control-room window. The chances of him staying in sync were nil – but that’s the way the vocals were done.”

Van Vliet and the Magic Band loved the final product, and it became the group’s quintessential recording. The album was released in June 1969, and later in the year, Zappa accompanied Van Vliet and his group to Europe as their road manager for the Amougies festival. “Trout Mask Replica” at the time and to this day remains highly regarded as a masterpiece of avant-garde and blues despite its at times atonal and rhythmically difficult delivery. Matt Groening’s comments about the album demonstrate that it was not an easy one to grasp for many listeners. I also admit that while I did not hate the album on its first listen, it kind of bugged me. Nonetheless, it really is a brilliant recording because of both Van Vliet’s incredible lunatic genius and Zappa’s outstanding recording and mixing.

Despite that, and despite the continued influence the album has had on the pop music world, Beefheart always remained on the far extreme of the business. He recorded many other albums, some of which came close to the brilliance of “Trout Mask Replica,” but as Zappa described it, Van Vliet was in continual contractual bondage with record companies and couldn’t make a dime. Zappa re-connected with Van Vliet in mid-1970s for the “Bongo Fury” tour, at a time when Van Vliet, as Zappa described it, was “just about destitute.” (A note here: Zappa states in his autobiography, “The Real Frank Zappa Book,” that Van Vliet joined him for the Bongo Fury tour in 1976. Yet the album “Bongo Fury” was released in late 1975, having been recorded earlier that same year. This curious error should be evidence to anyone who wants to develop any expertise on any subject that even the subjects of such investigation occasionally have mistaken memories and sometimes muff the facts.)

“Life on the road with Captain Beefheart was definitely not easy,” Zappa relates in his autobiography. “He carried the bulk of his worldly possessions around in a shopping bag. It held his art and poetry books and a soprano sax. He used to forget it in different places – just walk away and leave it, driving the road manager crazy. Onstage, no matter how loud the monitor system was, he complained that he couldn’t hear his voice. (I think that was because he sings so hard he tenses up the muscles in his neck, causing his ears to implode.)”

Which brings us to the opening track of “Bongo Fury.” This live performance from the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin, Texas, launches with the track “Debra Kadabra,” complete with Van Vliet’s raucous vocals and guttural beat poetry style delivery. Things get a bit more melodic with the next track, “Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy,” a song that shows up frequently in Zappa’s live shows. Great guitar solo here; pure jam. Beefheart returns with a spoken-word piece, “Sam with the Showing Scalp Flat Top,” that has an intriguing story line that is made all the more interesting by Van Vliet’s alliterative delivery. This is followed by Beefheart’s vocals on the country-esque ditty “Poofter’s Froth Wyoming Plans Ahead.” The bluesy “200 Years Old” is an added studio track that on first listen might sound like it’s still part of the live show.

Good stuff so far, but it all gets spoiled by the frustrating fade out at the end. I mean, why? That’s followed by another studio track, “Cucamonga” that really sounds out of place. It just doesn’t fit in with the mood that was established by the prior tracks. Placed in different context (like maybe on “Zoot Allures”), “Cucamonga” might have sounded much better, but stuck on “Bongo Fury,” it sounds like crap.

Eliminate that song, extend the harmonica and guitar at the end of “200 Years Old,” and the rest of the album would seamlessly return with “Advance Romance.” I would even accept wholeheartedly the fact that “200 Years Old” is a studio intrusion and was not part of the show. You got to love Denny Walley’s slide guitar on “Advance Romance,” it is sweet stuff. And Zappa’s guitar work on this track is brilliant as well, as usual. The spoken-word “Man with the Woman Head,” reminds me of a smoky café straight out of the 1950s Beat scene.

But what really makes this album memorable is “Muffin Man.” It represents one of Zappa’s most recognizable melodies.

Despite the other gems on this recording, I’m only rating this album as OK, largely because of the two studio tracks. Those items, in my view, should have been left off to allow more room for other songs out of the Bongo Fury tour. Interestingly, those two studio tracks apparently were never performed live.

I rate this three out of five stars. Add your rating below.

Released Oct. 2, 1975, DiscReet Records.

Track listing:

Side one
"Debra Kadabra" (live) – 3:54
"Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy" (live) – 5:59
"Sam With the Showing Scalp Flat Top" (live) – 2:51
"Poofter's Froth Wyoming Plans Ahead" (live) – 3:03
"200 Years Old" – 4:32

Side two
"Cucamonga" – 2:24
"Advance Romance" (live) – 11:17
"Man With the Woman Head" (live) – 1:28
"Muffin Man" (live) – 5:34

Personnel:

Terry Bozzio – drums
Michael Braunstein – engineer
Napoleon Murphy Brock – saxophone, vocals
Captain Beefheart – vocals, harmonica
George Duke – keyboards, vocals
Bruce Fowler – trombone, dancer
Tom Fowler – bass, dancer
Frank Hubach – engineer
Kelly Kotera – engineer
Kerry McNabb – engineer
Davey Moire – engineer
Cal Schenkel – design
Bob Stone – engineer
Mike Stone – engineer
Chester Thompson – drums
Denny Walley – vocals, slide guitar
John Williams – photography, cover photo
Frank Zappa – vocals, guitar

About bootlegs

2009-04-17T07:39:00.006-05:00

From time to time in this blog I will be reviewing bootlegs. Initially, I wanted to stick with Zappa’s “official” catalog, but as devoted a fan as I am, I realized that I couldn’t ignore these “illegitimate” recordings. However, unlike other bloggers, I do not provide any direct download links to any of his recordings, bootlegs or not. Some of the links I do include provide access to downloads, but that is the decision of that Web site. If someone really wants a bootleg, they’re not hard to find.

Obviously, not everyone is interested in obtaining bootleg recordings. I’m a fan of a lot of musical artists, but I’m not terribly interested in getting bootleg recordings of every artist I like. Bootlegs, by virtue of the fact that they are often recorded with substandard equipment, often have terrible sound quality. Why would I want to listen to a shitty recording of the Grateful Dead, for example, even though that band had no qualms with audience members making their own bootlegs? (It’s worth pointing out here that the Grateful Dead’s benign attitude toward audience bootlegging played an integral role in the band’s marketing strategy, undoubtedly contributing to the fact that the Dead’s franchise was among the most profitable in rock-and-roll)

But Zappa is a different situation for me. And it’s not just the fact that with all the touring he had done, and the wide variety of musicians he performed with, there was a subsequent enormous variety in the performances of his music. Other rock musicians often shared the stage with other stars. In Tucson, Ariz., (in 1979 I think) I saw the Rolling Stones share the stage with Linda Ronstadt and Etta James. Zappa certainly shared the stage with others in legitimately released recordings, as he did with Captain Beefheart in “Bongo Fury,” or John Lennon and Yoko Ono on “Playground Psychotics.” And he also shared the stage in many bootleg recordings, such as that from the Amougies festival when he played with Pink Floyd and others, or as he did during a bootleg recording from one of the many Halloween shows in New York City, like the 1978 show at The Palladium when Lakshminarayana Shankar played some blistering violin with Zappa.

That performance with Shankar is reason enough for me to want to collect Zappa bootlegs, but it’s not my primary reason. The real reason is regardless of how shitty a bootleg recording may be, the opportunity to listen to as many of Zappa’s live guitar solos is thrilling. Hearing some of these solos, their variety of technique and pacing, more than makes up for the fact the recording was dirty, substandard or marred by crowd noise. For example, as I write this, I am listening to a bootleg recording of Captain Beefheart from Amougies. It’s a piece of crap recording, the sound is awful, and yet at the same time, it’s really quite thrilling for me to be listening to this little gem. Beefheart’s harmonica playing is just plain sizzling; you can feel its scintillating energy despite the lousy recording. It’s a snapshot from the past, albeit a very poor snapshot, that elicits a special emotional response in much the same way a prized photo from a memorable event or trip can instantly recall a past experience.

Clearly, the Zappa Family Trust saw an opportunity when it released “legitimate” bootlegs through the Beat the Boots series. This was truly an ironic move; releasing authorized bootlegs for sale. After all, is it still a bootleg if it’s legitimately released by the artist or his or her representatives for sale? And frankly, releasing the Beat the Boots series as is was quite lazy, in my opinion. No effort, as far as I can tell, was made to clean up and remaster the recordings. It seems that all the ZFT managed to do was acquire the original boots and press them into compact discs to sell for profit.

What harm do bootlegs pose to musicians? On the opening track of “As An Am” from Beat the Boots I, Zappa offers his thoughts about bootlegs: “As far as my material goes, it’s (bootlegging) a very big business. I don’t think it’s the work of a couple of individual guys who went out to make a record for fun. It’s one or two people who are releasing vast quantities of material…They’ve already got the stuff recorded live in concert before I can even release it on a record and that makes me mad.”

In this quote, Zappa is referring to the business of bootlegs, and that is a legitimate concern for any artist. Bootleggers who make unauthorized live recordings and then sell those recordings are stealing from the performer. And bootleggers who make pirated versions of authorized recordings to sell are also stealing from the artist. But what of the bootleg recording of a live show made by an audience member and which is made available for free? Where’s the harm there? If no official release of the material was made, the potential royalties and sales from the recording are not lost. And no one is passing off the material as their own, so how is any copyright violated?

I am continuing to look for more quotes by Zappa that have him commenting on bootlegs and what harm they present, but all I am presently aware of is the quote above from “As An Am.” And if that is the only representation on record of his opinion regarding bootlegs of his shows, then it is clear his primary concern was loss of income. If that is the case, free distribution of bootleg recordings from shows that Zappa showed no inclination of officially releasing should present no problem because such recordings lack any potential for leading to a loss of income. If it’s distributed for free, where’s the harm other than to someone’s ego?