Lawrence University Chapel, Appleton, Wis. 1969

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

The Weasel Music

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)

Amougies, Belgium, 1969

After the success and notoriety of Woodstock spread around the world, someone got the idea of doing something similar in Europe. It became known as the Actuel Festival. Some of you may be wondering what this might have to do with Frank Zappa, while others are thinking, “Ah yes, Actuel, I remember it well.” Actually, remembering it well seems to be a problem for many, even for those who were there, like Frank Zappa. Ironically, Zappa doesn’t talk about the festival in Amougies, Belgium, in his autobiography, and when he did talk about it with journalists, his recollections were not just unfavorable, but potentially erroneous as well. Nonetheless, the festival in Amougies was a significant event in Zappa’s life for a number of reasons, and while this blog has been devoted to official recordings in his catalogue, this event gets an entry because of a particularly fascinating bootleg to come out of it.


That bootleg is a jam with Pink Floyd. It has cropped up on the Internet primarily under two titles: “Pink Floyd Meets Frank Zappa,” which is the more prevalent version, and “Inter-Zappa Overdrive.” It was recorded by a listener in the crowd at the Actuel Festival, Oct. 24-28, 1969. Originally, the promoters wanted to host this concert festival in Paris, but that wasn’t going to happen for a number of reasons, so they settled on a turnip field just the other side of the border in Amougies, Belgium. I managed to track down a copy of the latter to listen to. The track listings for this bootleg are as follows:

1. Aynsley Dunbar's Retaliation: unknown title (7:08) [October 24] Victor Brox (vocals, harmonica); John Moorshead (guitar); Alex (Erroneous) Dmochowski (bass); Aynsley Dunbar (drums)
2. Pink Floyd: Interstellar Overdrive (20:25) [October 25] David Gilmour (guitar); Richard Wright (organ); Roger Waters (bass); Nick Mason (drums)
3. Caravan: If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You (7:55) [October 26] Pye Hastings (guitar & vocals); David Sinclair (keyboards); Richard Sinclair (bass & vocals); Richard Coughlan (drums)
4. Blossom Toes: unknown title (26:10) [October 26] Brian Godding (guitar, vocals & keyboards); Jim Cregan (guitar & vocals); Brian Belshaw (bass & vocals); Kevin Westlake (drums)
5. Sam Apple Pie: unknown title (6:04) [October 27] Sam Sampson (vocals & harmonica); Danny Barnes (lead guitar); Andy Johnson (slide guitar); Bob Renny (bass & vocals); Lee Baxter Hayes Jr (drums)


As is noteworthy by the personnel identified in the first track, this is where and when Zappa met Aynsley Dunbar. After this encounter, Dunbar joined Zappa to play drums with Zappa from 1970-74, including those albums associated with Flo and Eddy. But also worthy of note is the fact that playing bass with Dunbar at the time was Erroneous, who later appeared with Dunbar on three Zappa albums as well.


What became the most notorious of the jams was the one with Pink Floyd, so significant an event that both bootlegs make a reference to the connection by either referring directly to Pink Floyd or to the song “Interstellar Jam.” With the other subsequent jams, in which Zappa’s guitar playing, while notable, is subordinate to the guitarists of the bands he accompanies, Zappa’s playing with Pink Floyd is prominently featured in “Interstellar Overdrive.” You can hear David Gilmour’s guitar, but Zappa’s playing is distinctive and comes out front and center. The entire composition sounds like Tim Burton and David Lynch, after dropping huge doses of LSD, collaborated for a new soundtrack and sound effects for the 1963 movie, “The Haunting.”

About two minutes into the song, Zappa starts playing guitar (a borrowed one) with his very distinct, staccato style that includes a couple licks that sound like something from “Hot Rats." I actually think that Zappa’s playing here is what motivates the band to slip into a bit of avant-garde, atonal playing just before returning to Richard Wright on the organ. Then follows some unmistakably Zappa guitar playing before the song concludes.




How did all this happen? Zappa originally attended the festival as a road manager for Captain Beefheart, something that showed up as a brief mention in a Rolling Stone article Oct. 18 that year. You can see Zappa in this YouTube video of Beefheart performing.



It's interesting to see how Beefheart and his band reacted to the festival, as revealed in a post at Floppy Boot Stomp. Guitar player Bill Harkleroad has this to say about the event:

"All I can remember is playing in front of thousands of people huddled together in sleeping bags at three in the morning in this huge circus tent. It's 27 degrees out, and there's frost on my strings! It was Don, Victor, Mark, me and Jeff Burchell on drums. Frank was sitting in with us, because he was supposed to be the festival MC - a difficult job when he spoke no French and most of the audience spoke no English. Having Frank play with us made me a little more nervous than normal. I think we played 5 tunes - the five tunes Jeff knew and that was it. Pretty weird flying us all the way over there and playing one gig!"

Compare that with Van Vliet's comments about the show:

"We had a good time. I don't know, what they were doing; they were throwing what looked like birds nests at us, and then one fellow out of the audience - between one of the compositions - said my name was Captain Bullshit, and I said: "Well, that's all right baby, you're sitting in it." You know what I mean? I don't know if he was an American; I'm not sure, because he was using early Gary Cooper movie talk. Like "yep", things like that. I think they did well in five days and moving it from France to Belgium. But it was awfully cold... the people in the audience, I don't know how they did it. I think it was probably pretty nice for them to leave their bodies... but the amplifiers were blown out by the time we got to them, and we need clarity for that, and there wasn't any. I don't know. I hope they enjoyed it. I enjoyed it."

While it seems that this festival carried some significance, not much has turned up in legitimate recordings since, largely because the promoters were disorganized and no one seemed to have secured the proper copyrights necessary to release any recordings from the performances. Pink Floyd, in particular, objected to anything being released. Even a video from the festival managed only brief television play in France before being yanked from the airwaves. This 19-minute documentary on the festival shows a date of Nov. 17, 1969, which is most likely the date the documentary was aired. Despite its limited play, the documentary has an entry on the Internet Movie Database.

Another reason there were no LP releases from the festival may include Zappa’s unkind memory of the event, as revealed in this 1973 interview at the Web site Kill Ugly Radio. Zappa was asked to be a master of ceremonies for the festival, but that didn’t work out so well because he couldn’t speak French and most of the audience couldn’t understand English. So instead, he was cajoled into playing with some of the bands. This was problematic as well because he had traveled there as Captain Beefheart’s manager and had none of his guitars.


Zappa makes no mention of the festival in his autobiography, and there’s scant information out there about the event. This Web site provides some information, identifying Zappa as the “master of ceremonies,” as well as describing the bootleg recording that was titled “Inter-Zappa Overdrive.” Zappa also mentions in the previously cited interview posted on Kill Ugly Radio that he was there as a sort of MC for the event. This bootleg was mostly intended to be a recording of Beefheart’s performance at the festival, with side 1 devoted to Zappa and Pink Floyd, and side 2 covering the Beefheart songs “My Human Gets Me Blues,” “When Big Joan Sets Up,” and “Who Will be the Next?” Zappa apparently joins Beefheart on the last number to jam and help out a bit.

Interestingly, during a 1989 interview, Zappa denies (although hesitantly) that he jammed with Pink Floyd, a denial that the interviewer appears to confirm. He does provide a lot of other information about the festival, however, during this portion of what was a more-than four-hour interview, which was later published in the June 1990 edition of Society Pages. This interview was transcribed and reprinted on the Wiki Jawaka, as well as other information about the festival, including an itinerary.

Where are the master tapes from this festival? No one seems to know. And if they did turn up, it is dubious as to whether anyone would have legitimate rights to re-master and release them. Which means for the time being, we are stuck with these interesting, but dirty, recordings.

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



A new link was added to this post on April 4, 2009. New content was added May 10, 2009.

Uncle Meat

Whenever I think of the double-album recording “Uncle Meat,” two things immediately come to mind: the extraordinary composition “King Kong,” and the thought, “What is this monster movie garbage?”

I am perplexed by some of the praise that is heaped upon this album, but I suspect that is the result of my limited background in some of the technically arcane aspects of music composition. For example, Nick Paluzzi writing for Ground and Sky calls “Uncle Meat” a “Rosetta Stone in experimental progressive rock.” Bob Eichler, also writing for Ground and Sky, calls the recording “a cornerstone of the Zappa catalog,” an interesting metaphor because it implies that without “Uncle Meat,” Zappa’s catalog would collapse without having the benefit of the musical techniques and thematic concepts that were developed during the album’s recording. The moniker “Rosetta Stone” is also interesting because it, too, heaps a ton of responsibility on “Uncle Meat,” suggesting that one cannot properly decipher, understand or interpret any other experimental progressive rock by any other artist without first mastering an understanding of “Uncle Meat.”


That just sounds like an awful lot of misplaced hyperbole to me. True, “Uncle Meat” is a significant album in Zappa’s repertoire; there are amazing compositions in this recording, finely polished ones. However, the album could have been even better had Zappa shown more discretion over what was to be released. The lengthy dialogue from the ill-fated movie of the same name is a distraction and detracts from the overall piece. The conversations revealed in the dialogue are lame and repetitive, even more so than what Zappa admitted to in his autobiography. The conversations in “Lumpy Gravy” fit well into the overall composition of that album, but the dialogue from “Uncle Meat” sounds beyond trivial and mundane.

The real gem of “Uncle Meat” is “King Kong” and all its variations. The musical theme of this composition is one of Zappa’s most recognizable melodies. And it must have been one of his and the band’s favorites, as it is among the most ubiquitous songs in his live sets. That is probably attributed to what Francois Couture describes as the piece’s flexibility, allowing a wide range of interpretations in playing what was essentially a very simple musical theme. The band Babe Ruth did a very interesting interpretation of the song on its "First Base/Amarcabellero" LP in 1973. It's worth checking out.


Another song that got frequent live play was “Dog Breath, in the Year of the Plague,” which was often credited with the shorter title of “Dog Breath,” such as on the live album “Just Another Band From L.A.” There’s a bit of personal and regional history in this song in its reference to the lyric, “Going to El Monte Legion Stadium.” The photograph of Legion Stadium I provide is of dubious origin. I initially found it with one individual taking credit for snapping the image. However, I found other strikingly similar images on other Web sites without any credit or attribution as to the photographer or date the photo was taken. Having said that, Legion Stadium was quite the famous venue, not only playing host to boxing events, but to such bands as the Grateful Dead, who played a three-night gig there from Dec. 26-28 in 1970, to The Penguins, and even Zappa, who allegedly announces “Welcome to El Monte Legion Stadium” on the bootleg “Safe Muffinz.” I can’t verify that because I have not listened to this bootleg.

The structure was originally built for the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles as a wrestling venue, and later it played host to dances and shows by Art Laboe, who may be credited with creating the hackneyed phrase “Be there or be square,” whenever he did a radio spot to promote one of his dances. It was demolished in 1974 and a post office erected in its place. Everything from concerts to roller derby went on in Legion Stadium as it became a well-known local entertainment venue.


By and large, the majority of compositions on “Uncle Meat” defy categorization. Some sites have labeled it as fusion jazz, or avant-garde. Certainly, there are moments of avant-garde, such as the frenetic squeaking of Ian Underwood’s saxophone, but the majority of music seems to be in another realm; not quite jazz, not quite pop, not quite orchestral, and not quite ethnic. There are a few that musically are identifiable by genre, such as “Electric Aunt Jemima,” or “Nine Types of Industrial Pollution,” which represent Zappa’s interpretations of doo-wop and fusion respectively.


And then there is what I call the utter waste of time, the pathetically mundane conversations that were taken from the aborted movie project, including all the idiotic references to “measuring it with a chicken.” It is so out of place that it almost renders the recording unlistenable. At least with the vinyl release, you could skip over this garbage and get right to side four and “King Kong.” But with the CD release, additional effort is necessary to skip over this content. Eliminate this from the recording, and I say it is worthy of four or five stars, but with this tripe included, I can only give it three stars. Interestingly enough, Zappa told Chris Welch for an Oct. 5, 1968, article in Melody Maker that “Uncle Meat” and “Cruising With Ruben and the Jets” were two of his most satisfying albums.

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


New content and a new link were added June 10, 2009.

Released: April 1969, Warner Reprise/Bizarre.

LP Release

Side One
Uncle Meat: Main Title Theme (1:54) - related to Uncle Meat
The Voice Of Cheese (0:27)
Nine Types Of Industrial Pollution (5:56)
Zolar Czakl (0:57)
Dog Breath, In The Year Of The Plague (5:51) - related to Dog Breath
The Legend Of The Golden Arches (1:24) - related to A Pound For A Brown On The Bus
Louie Louie (At the Royal Albert Hall in London) (2:28)
The Dog Breath Variations (1:36) - related to Dog Breath

Side Two
Sleeping In A Jar (0:49)
Our Bizarre Relationship (1:05)
The Uncle Meat Variations (4:40) - related to Uncle Meat
Electric Aunt Jemina (1:53)
Prelude To King Kong (3:24) - related to King Kong
God Bless America (Live At the Whisky A Go Go) (1:22)
A Pound For A Brown On The Bus (1:29)
Ian Underwood Whips It Out (Live On Stage In Copenhagen) (5:08)

Side Three
Mr. Green Genes (3:10)
We Can Shoot You (1:48)
"If We'd All Been Living In California..." (1:29)
The Air (2:57)
Project X (4:49)
Cruising For Burgers (2:19)

Side Four
King Kong Itself (As Played By The Mothers In A Studio) (0:53)
King Kong (It's Magnificence As Interpreted By Don DeWild) (1:15)
King Kong (As Motorhead Explains It) (1:44)
King Kong (The Gardner Varieties) (6:17)
King Kong (As Played By 3 Deranged Good Humor Trucks) (0:29)
King Kong (Live On A Flat Bed Diesel In The Middle Of A Race Track At A Miami Pop Festival...The Underwood amifications) (7:22)

CD release

Disc One
Uncle Meat: Main Title Theme (1:55) - related to Uncle Meat
The Voice Of Cheese (0:26)
Nine Types Of Industrial Pollution (6:00)
Zolar Czakl (0:55)
Dog Breath, In The Year Of The Plague (3:59) - related to Dog Breath
The Legend Of The Golden Arches (3:27) - related to A Pound For A Brown On The Bus
Louie Louie (At the Royal Albert Hall in London) (2:19)
The Dog Breath Variations (1:48) - related to Dog Breath
Sleeping In A Jar (0:51)
Our Bizarre Relationship (1:05)
The Uncle Meat Variations (4:46) - related to Uncle Meat
Electric Aunt Jemima (1:46)
Prelude To King Kong (3:38)
God Bless America (Live At The Whisky A Go Go) (1:11)
A Pound For A Brown On The Bus (1:29)
Ian Underwood Whips It Out (Live On Stage In Copenhagen) (5:05)
Mr. Green Genes (3:14) - Remix
We Can Shoot You (2:03)
"If We'd All Been Living In California..." (1:14)
The Air (2:57)
Project X (4:49)
Cruising For Burgers (2:18)

Disc Two
Uncle Meat Film Excerpt Part I (37:34) - Bonus Track
Tengo Na Minchia Tanta (3:46) - Bonus Track
Uncle Meat Film Excerpt Part II (3:51) - Bonus Track
King Kong Itself (0:51)
King Kong II (1:19)
King Kong III (1:45)
King Kong IV (6:18)
King Kong V (0:34)
King Kong VI (7:25)

Personnel

The Mothers:
Frank Zappa (guitar, 'low grade' vocals, percussion)
Ray Collins ('swell' vocals)
Jimmy Carl Black (drums, 'droll humor', 'poverty')
Roy Estrada (electric bass, 'chesseburgers', 'Pachuco falsetto')
Don (Dom De Wild) Preston (electric piano, 'tarot cards', 'brown rice')
Billy (The Oozer) Mundi (drums 'on some pieces before he quit to join RHINOCEROS')
Bunk (Sweetpants) Gardner (piccolo, flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, soprano sax, alto sax, tenor sax, bassoon '(all of these electric and/or non-electric depending)')
Ian Underwood (electric organ, piano, harpsichord, celeste, flute, clarinet, alto sax, baritone sax, 'special assistance', 'copyist', 'industrial relations' & 'teen appeal')
Artie (With the Green Mustache) Tripp (drums, timpani, vibes, marimba, xylophone, wood blocks, bells, small chimes, 'cheerful outlook' & 'specific enquiries')
Euclid James (Motorhead/Motorishi) Sherwood ('pop star', 'frenetic' tenor sax 'stylings', tambourine, choreography, 'obstinance' & 'equipment setter-upper when he's not hustling local groupies')

Also:
Pamela Zarubica as Suzy Creamcheese, uncredited (vocals)
Ruth Komanoff (marimba and vibes with Artie 'on many of the tracks')
Nelcy Walker (soprano voice with Ray & Roy on Dog Breath & The Uncle Meat Variations)

Hot Rats

Considering the variety, depth, complexity and originality of the music in Frank Zappa’s catalog, it can be very difficult to say with any certainty that this album or that album represents the best of his material. But certainly, in my view, the recordings released post “Uncle Meat” up to and through at least “Sheik Yerbouti” represent a period when Zappa was completing his best work. And this period of uncompromised and brilliant composing began with a burst upon the music scene: “Hot Rats,” released Oct. 10, 1969.

Ironically, Zappa considered “Hot Rats” to be a flop at the time of its release. In his autobiography, “The Real Frank Zappa Book,” Zappa explains, “The album, which I happened to like a lot, sneaked onto the Billboard charts somewhere around 99 and vanished immediately. In the United States, at least, I had produced another flop.” However, Zappa also notes that “Hot Rats” over time came to be considered among his best works. In his autobiography, he continues; “As it turned out, that album, as a catalog item, has outlived just about everything else released in 1970, and, for our beloved friends in the British Isles, stands out as the only ‘good’ Zappa album ever released….”

It also came at a time when Zappa was feeling very ambivalent about what kind of future a musician and composer could have with jazz. There’s another revealing snippet in his autobiography that he subtitles, “Jazz: The Music of Unemployment.” It briefly describes a short-lived jazz tour Zappa went on with Duke Ellington that was already ill-fated because of the dearth of adequate equipment and cash flow. “Before we went on, I saw Duke Ellington begging – pleading – for a ten-dollar advance.” That was enough for Zappa to drop out of the tour.

There is no doubt that a jazz influence, particularly that of the avant-garde, remained strong in Zappa’s subsequent works. But what is exceptional about “Hot Rats” is that was among the first (perhaps even the first) successful melding of jazz and rock. It is a searing recording and brought forward a new genre of music, simply called jazz-rock. “Jazz isn’t dead, it just smells funny,” Zappa famously said during a lengthy performance of “Be-Bop Tango” in 1974.

Unsurprisingly, many have written about what makes “Hot Rats” hot. Was it the fantastic and almost spastic saxophone playing by Ian Underwood on “The Gumbo Variations”? The soaring electric violin by Sugarcane Harris? Captain Beefheart’s seemingly mentally deranged vocals (reminds me of a Howlin’ Wolf having a nervous breakdown) on “Willie the Pimp”? Zappa’s maniacal guitar solos? It’s really all of those items combined, and when you say that, it comes down to Zappa and his brilliant composing. Frank Zappa’s idea, brought to perfect fruition, is what makes this recording hot.

Reviews of the specific tracks on this recording frequently repeat each other’s praises. The one at Pigs & Sheeps is good. And a common accolade rightfully goes to Zappa’s guitar solo on “Willie the Pimp.” As one reviewer on Amazon.com puts it: “… the guitar solo that follows (Beefheart’s vocals) will take the roof off your head every time you hear it.”

Can Zappa be credited as being among the musical pioneers that made the “guitar solo” the ubiquitous feature of rock music that it is today? I think he can be, because at the time of this recording – the late 1960s – there weren’t a lot of extended guitar solos being made part of popular rock tunes. Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton with Cream were doing it, as were others like Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac. But for the most part, guitar solos were more like punctuation marks in a song, rather than the thematic center of a song.

“I waited for records that had guitar solos on them, but they were always too short,” Zappa writes 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.” And the blues players that influenced his playing style were notably Guitar Slim, Johnny “Guitar” Watson, and Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown. Zappa gave the guitar solo a prominent position in most of his work, and despite his self-deprecating description of his own skill (“I still have to look down at the neck to see where my hand is when I’m playing,” he said in his autobiography), became a revered guitar player among many serious players of all skill-level (at least among those I met).

Worth noting about this recording: it is significantly different from the original vinyl release. It’s the same songs, but with the CD, Zappa was able to put together a lengthier version of “The Gumbo Variations,” using material that was cut from the vinyl. There are other, subtler differences as well that those thoroughly familiar with the original release will hear.

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


Album release date: Oct. 10, 1969, on the Bizarre/Reprise label.

Track listings:

LP version
Side one
Peaches en Regalia - 3:58
Willie the Pimp - 9:25
Son of Mr. Green Genes - 8:58

Side two
Little Umbrellas - 3:09
The Gumbo Variations - 12:55
It Must Be a Camel - 5:15

CD version
"Peaches en Regalia" – 3:38 (song sample, 670Kb)
"Willie the Pimp" – 9:16
"Son of Mr. Green Genes" – 9:00
"Little Umbrellas" – 3:04
"The Gumbo Variations" – 16:56
"It Must Be a Camel" – 5:15

Personnel:

Frank Zappa – Guitar, percussion, octave bass
Ian Underwood – organ, clarinet, flute, piano, saxophone

also featuring

Max Bennett – bass on all tracks except "Peaches en Regalia"
Captain Beefheart – vocals on "Willie the Pimp"
John Guerin – drums on "Willie the Pimp", "Little Umbrellas" and "It Must Be a Camel"
Don "Sugarcane" Harris – violin on "Willie the Pimp" and "The Gumbo Variations"
Paul Humphrey – drums on "Son of Mr. Green Genes" and "The Gumbo Variations"
Shuggie Otis – bass on "Peaches en Regalia"
Jean-Luc Ponty – violin on "It Must Be a Camel"
Ron Selico – drums on "Peaches en Regalia"
Lowell George - guitar (uncredited)
Harvey Shantz – Snorks