Reissues by Frank Zappa (YCDTOSA 5, 6, BTB2)
By Michael P. Dawson
FRANK ZAPPA
You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 5 Rykodise
(RCD 10089/90)
You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 6 Rykodisc (RCD 10091/92)
Beat The Boots #2 Rhino/Foo-eee (70372)
You've got to hand it to Frank Zappa: he isn't letting a little thing like cancer interfere with his release schedule. In 1991 alone he released two double CDs of music from his 1988 tour, plus the fourth double-CD installment in the You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore series, plus the first Beat The Boots set (eight titles, two of them doubles), plus a half-dozen remastered back catalog CD reissues. The first half of 1992 saw the release of three more catalog reissues, and then this further outpouring of live Zappa. The man is nothing if not prolific.
The first disc of You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 5 will be the most exciting of the whole series to many fans, focusing as it does on the '60s Mothers of Invention. "The Downtown Talent Scout" opens the album with a hitherto unheard R&B blast from the Freak Out lineup, strongly reminiscent of "Trouble Every Day." Even the bootleggers never got hold of this tune, which sets the pace for the remarkable wealth of unreleased material that follows.
Many of the tracks on this disc feature Lowell George, whose tenure with the Mothers was brief and has never been well represented on disc. George comes to the fore vocally on a cover of Mr. Undertaker's "Here Lies Love" (the flip side of "WPLJ" by the Four Deuces, also covered by the Mothers) and the spoken-word farce "German Lunch." George's guitar solo on "No Waiting For The Peanuts To Dissolve" is upstaged by the far more fluid and imaginative Zappa solo that follows.
Zappa gets his comeuppance, however, on "FZ/JCB Drum Duet": after Zappa's surprisingly fluent percussion showcase (he did start out as a drummer, after all), the conservatory-trained Art Tripp takes over, displaying infinitely superior stick technique. The height of absurdity comes with a straight performance of a Mozart sonata by Ian Underwood, during which Mothers road manager Dick Barber noisily mauls a rubber chicken and guest Noel Redding is flung bodily about the stage – in the absence of a video you'll have to use your imagination on this one. There are a few off-stage recordings thrown in, including some clowning on the tour bus, the aforementioned "German Lunch," and even an edit of the single version of "My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama."
Disc two flashes forward to Zappa's European tour of 1982. Although the music here is solid and exciting, there are far fewer surprises than on the first disc. Only one song is completely new: "Shall We Take Ourselves Seriously," an in-joke about German promoter Fritz Rau and a platter of backstage goodies (hint: Spargel means asparagus). Still, the lack of unfamiliar material doesn't detract from the excellence of the music here. Even the few compositions that have already appeared in the Stage series, such as the wonderful instrumental "RDNZL" and the gutsy, bluesy "Advance Romance," are welcome inclusions. As usual, Zappa provides plenty of steaming guitar work. The disc, recorded primarily at a show in Geneva, ends on a downbeat note as an angry Zappa declares the concert over after a (lit?) cigarette is thrown onstage.
The first disc of Stage Vol. 6 focuses on things of a sexual nature, so it's no surprise that the emphasis is on verbal rather than musical content. Of the nine unfamiliar titles, most are spoken word routines (such as the introductions to songs) or audience participation events. On the other hand, two are instrumentals, with lewd sound effects linking them to the disc's theme. Otherwise, the disc is full of dirty ditties like "Dinah-Moe Humm" and "He's So Gay." The one song that doesn't fit the sexual motif is "Wind Up Working In A Gas Station," notable for being the only track Zappa has ever released from the short-lived 1976 lineup with singer/keyboardist Bianca Odin.
Things get more musical on the second disc, a potpourri of guest appearances, Halloween and New Years shows, and leftover material from the 1988 tour. Unique moments include Indian violinist L. Shankar joining in on "Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance," and a seamless cut-and-paste job on "Lonesome Cowboy Burt" which combines versions from 1971 (with Jimmy Carl Black singing) and 1988 (with improvised lyrical deviations that result in this version's being dubbed "Lonesome Cowboy Nando"). Stage Vol. 6 is initially only available as part of a boxed set with Vol. 5 (the box is designed to house the whole Stage series, in the tradition of Rykodisc's Bowie "tech" unit).
While the Stage volumes can be recommended without reservation to anyone interested in Zappa's music, Beat The Boots #2 is strictly for the hard-core devotee. Unlike the first Beat The Boots set, most of the original bootlegs from which these were copied were compact discs, but despite the absence of an extra generation of vinyl noise, the sound quality remains less than ideal. Still, these were all better-than-average boots to begin with, and each contains moments of historical interest (and Zappa's celebrated "conceptual continuity") which casily outweigh any sonic deficiencies for the serious Frankophile.
The current set offers considerably less variety than the first one. All but two of the 11 LPs (or eight CDs) concentrate on either the instrumental-oriented 1968 Mothers or the 1970-71 band with Flo and Eddie. This results in some inevitable duplication, to the tune of five versions of "A Pound For A Brown On The Bus" and four of "King Kong."
Electric Aunt Jemima, recorded "circa 1968," opens with an instrumental jam/medley in which "Little House I Used To Live In," "The Dog Breath Variations" and "Hungry Freaks Daddy" are interspersed with old popular tunes and classical themes. The performances are freewheeling, and frequently rough and tentative. Zappa can at times be heard calling out instructions to the band, as in the album's stunningly cacophonous climax, when he directs the horns to play "King Kong" while the rhythm section plays "Louie Louie" and Zappa himself plays "America Drinks."
The soundboard tape that became Our Man In Nirvana is rumored to have been "liberated" from a former band member who had hoped to sell it. An ailing Ian Underwood missed this 1968 performance, but there is a guest appearance by the infamous Wild Man Fischer. The band covers Andre Williams's "Bacon Fat" with the original lyrics – compare this with Zappa's 1988 version on Broadway The Hard Way. "Valarie" is tantalizingly incomplete, comprising a Zappa monologue joined in progress, some audience interaction, and a scant few bars of the song's coda. By contrast, "King Kong" stretches to a half-hour.
Tengo Na Minchia Tanta (don't ask), although excellent as bootlegs go, is an odd choice for inclusion in this set as it is from the same concert as Freaks And Motherf*#@%! from the first Beat The Boots box. (The band lineup indicates that neither the date given here nor the one on Freaks And Motherf*#@%! is correct. Half of the material on the earlier disc is duplicated here, but the remaining 33 minutes includes some vintage Flo and Eddie clowning, some very abstract jams and some stage business that probably had to be seen as well as heard.
The double CD Swiss Cheese/Fire! (originally two separate bootlegs) presents the infamous Montreux casino concert, as immortalized by Deep Purple in "Smoke On The Water." The performance begins with a lengthy free-form improvisation, all feed- back and synthesizer burps. There follows 70-odd minutes of old Mothers favorites and new material, the latter including the epic "Sofa" suite, never released by Zappa in its full form. Finally, as the band launches into – what else – "King Kong." Howard Kaylan blurts out "Fire! Arthur Brown, in person!" as Zappa calmly directs the audience to leave the burning building.
Conceptual Continuity at last leaves the Flo and Eddie era for 1976 and the stripped-down five-man Mothers. Ironically, Flo and Eddie did make a surprise appearance at this Detroit concert, but that's not included here. Instead we get Zappa's whimsical, X-rated "Poodle Lecture" (almost identical to the version on Stage Vol. 6) and an amusing bit where Zappa vents his wrath at a bootleg t- shirt vendor in the audience. Oh yeah – the band plays some music, too. Zappa gets off a sterling solo in "The Torture Never Stops" – his use of speech-like rhythms and of tension-and-release patterns gives his guitar playing here an almost narrative quality. And catch Patrick O'Hearn's nifty bass interjections at the solo's climax.
Most of At The Circus is taken from a 1978 European TV special, with the band running through some of the more concise, less ambitious numbers that Zappa concentrated on in the late '70s. Experimentation is pretty much limited to silly noises, as on the improvised "Seal Call Fusion Music." And just in case you haven't had enough of Flo and Eddie, there's a flashback to that era smack dab in the middle of the disc, with 1970 versions of "Mother People" and "Wonderful Wino."
As before, the whole extravaganza comes in a cheesy brown cardboard box replete with various bonus goodies. Last time we got a stand-up, a button and a t-shirt; this time there's a scrapbook (wanna see what Zappa looked like in high school?) an enamel pin and, of all things, a beret. Hmm ... what article of clothing will they include in Beat The Boots #3?
Rhino's attempts to provide correct dates and band lineups for these recordings are haphazard, providing some clearly incorrect dates and omitting a band member here and there. Zappa's own documentation on the Stage series seems to be no more reliable, with quite a few of the tracks on the present volumes attributed to the wrong year.