Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band • Trout Mask Replica

★★★★★

   As Frank Zappa mentioned in his Real Book, under the ground of California rock scene in sixties, there was many independent musicians driven by ideas of progress and creative spirit. About many of them nobody remembers, but those who were putting their creative contribution in next decades, are now recognized as classics of California scene. Musicians and sound technicians led experiments with new sound and formal elements, trying to invent new possibilities of expression. One of most famous was Don Van Vliet known as Captain Beefheart who was combining raw blues vocal techniques with blues and rock, to create his unique vision of music. It wasn’t rock, although in 1980’s some authors were trying to place Captain Beefheart’s music in proto punk context. It wasn’t even blues, even if he made some efforts to make us think so. This music was his own mixture of avant-garde, blues, modern jazz and rock with citations from popular culture and artistic music, so probably progressive rock is most appropriate category.
   The problem with categorization of Captain Beefheart music is its changeability. He was using some different idioms giving some chances for various interpretations. Most complex and artisticly independent is Captain Beefheart’s third  album. In August 1968 and March 1969 Captain Beefheart recorded material for double LP album produced by his friend Frank Zappa. Released June 16, 1969 album Trout Mask Replica is absolutely the one of crowning moments in history of both progressive rock and experimental music. Whole musical material was created and rehearsed in one year period. Album has benn produced by Frank Zappa and published under Straight Records label being companion to Bizarre Records, the pair of companies for publishing more mainstream or more experimental musical projects. In fact Trout Mask Replica, although published by Straight Records, remains most unusual and un-straight album in both collections.

Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band — Trout Mask Replica (1969)

   The raw sound of and complex rhythmic patterns are most characteristic elements spanning to whole material of this album. Although in 1969, during recording Trout Mask Replica album raw sound was Captain Beefheart’s hallmark, this was first time when production was precisely connected with musical contents. In some parts minimalistic effects and atonality, in others folk blues and free jazz ideas interlock in multidimensional fabric. The precision of this band was legendary in next decades until digital recording technologies made possible similar effects. Most of these elements and ideas in 1969 were not new, but its combination was definitely fresh and for many listeners just shocking. This was time of dividing rock music into more popular, commercial popular music and progressive trends with plenty of formal ideas. As Frank Zappa proposed Captain Beefheart possibility of recording album with complete artistic freedom, this album become perfect example of expanding frontiers of rock and blues-rock genre.
   As a project of Captain Beefheart this was most ambitious and consequent undertaking. The line-up of The Magic Band was refreshed, all musicians’ names were replaced with nicknames. Drummer John French was called Drumbo, guitarist Jeff Cotton was covered under pseudonym Antennae Jimmy Semens, guitarist Bill Harkleroad was noted as Zoot Horn Rollo, playing bass guitar Mark Boston was under name Rockette Morton, and cousin of the leader, bass clarinetist Victor Hayden was The Mascara Snake. This unconventional way of presenting the band was consequence of earlier trend which result was nickname Captain Beefheart Don Van Vliet owed to Frank Zappa. Many uncredited musicians were taken from Zappa’s band Mothers of Invention, bass guitarist Roy Estrada, pianist Don Preston, saxophonists Ian Underwood and Bunk Gardner, trumpet player Buzz Gardner. Zappa himself is heard as speaking voice of engineer, but he was uncredited as engineer neither. Five stars with no redundant comments.

The Mothers • Fillmore East – June 1971

★★★★

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   Exploring the development of Frank Zappa’s creative activities, we need to consider its social factor. He was always emphasized how much he likes “audience participation”, and it was audible since first concerts and improvised happenings through his famous testimony on rock lyrics moral content before the committee of US Congress in September 1985 and later political statements, to his last and unfortunately unfinished 1988 tour and to his late interviews. Crucial moment is to understand the role concerts were playing as element of social experience. The source of his power as composer, text author, guitarist and personality was his understanding of cultural and social mechanisms and sincere way he was communicating common sense point of view. It is fascinating to observe how his eccentricity was becoming more and more understandable and his views were shared by an increasing part of the audience.
   In seventies, as almost always before, concerts were still the primary way musicians earn for living. The same was with The Mothers of Invention. After dense sequence of concerts in last decade of May when Zappa's band was playing in Chicago IL (21st), Delaware OH (22nd), Columbus OH (23rd), Detroit MI (25th), Madison WI (27th), Rochester MI (29th) and Cleveland OH (30th), June was more loose. Two concerts in Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh June 2nd and Harrisburg 3rd) and four concerts in two days in New York were the end of sequence started in May. In first decade of July Zappa with his band were touring in Canada giving again 7 gigs in 9 days. The two day of Fillmore East concerts in June 5th and 6th, with two gigs every day, became heyday of summer 1971 in Frank Zappa and Mothers of Invention career. Songs and concert dialogs recorded these days in Fillmore East became twelfth album in Frank Zappa discography and his first live album, setting new direction in publishing live recordings. 

The Mothers – Fillmore East – June 1971 (1971)

   This is not just live recording album. Edited out of four gigs Zappa and Mothers of Invention played in New York Fillmore East during two days, this set of songs follow show’s main theme, which was explicit relation of legendary excesses with the participation of musicians from Vanilla Fudge and Led Zeppelin. Strange sexual behavior of rock musicians was the part of rock culture mythology and the element of many urban legends. The alleged story took place in Edgewater Inn in Seattle, where guests were fishing directly from apartments’ windows. The relation focused on story of a groupie and her experience with the fish was shown in The Mud Shark which is a narrative episode connected to live interaction with the audience. This was the second presentation of live performance by Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan who were already singing in Chunga’s Revenge. Other songs are full of situation and vocabulary references and this improvised entertaining jokes give the album cohesion as a continuation of Zappa’s conception-albums with clear narrative aspect and some random reactions.
   Although this is live album, its musical quality is far ahead of its time. Zappa’s compositions are perfectly set and beautiful instrumental Peaches En Regalia became his trademark. This album is signed by The Mothers and Zappa alone is visible on credits as musician, composer, leader of the band and producer of the record. But nobody had any doubts, this was next album in his discography. New lineup of The Mothers consists of vocal duo Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan from The Turtles, playing wind instruments and keyboards Ian Underwood, Bob Harris as a second keyboard player, drummer Aynsley Dunbar and bassist Jim Pons, former member of The Turtles who just started his cooperation with The Mothers. The guest performer was Don Preston playing minimoog, a veteran of first Mothers of Invention and one of most interesting musicians playing with Zappa. This was rather small companion for Zappa’s symphonic ideas of this period. The same minimalistic attitude can be seen of the cover designed by Cal Schenkel. But the economic lineup shows its power when listening to these fragments of live music. Especially vocals and dialogue fragments show new face of the band. This was already in use while recording 200 Motels in January 1971, but this album was released in October 4th, 1971, two months after Fillmore East – June 1971. Four stars looks quite fair, but we can be sure for Zappa fans this one, as well as almost every other Zappa’s record is always worth five.

Frank Zappa • Uncle Meat

★★★★★

   After the students' revolt in late 60’s, many hidden issues in politics, education, economics and social life came to light. The necessity of rebuilding some elements of culture became apparent. Some processes of fighting against injustice, segregation or unequal rights were taking place for decades; in sixties moving towards civil rights and social liberation were already quite well underway. With great expectations for the future, artists were trying to free social memory of cold war propaganda and imperial ideology. This was the perfect time to show the world the mirror and even most advanced artistic experiments were absorbed by more and more open society. But even then many noble idealists were unreasonably hopeful, escaping into naïve expectations, and the tragic existence on the edge was a final argument protecting them against absurdity.
   Frank Zappa was clearheaded rationalist from his very beginnings. He started with dual musical creation, from one side there was fusion music with some concepts of avant-garde compositions, elements of jazz, and from the other side with songs about popular culture being more sardonic than satirical or critical. Sometimes he was more composer, sometimes more lyricist and songwriter, sometimes just performer. His shows with Mothers of Invention became famous. One of most complex work were his musical movie projects giving him grounds for joining different musical elements and traditions. It is best feature of early Zappa’s works he was enough complex to be inspiring from every point of view. He was acting as a romantic composer using folk tunes and motifs to build advanced constructions, so he was using popular music and many other genres and artifacts to create his own, original, yet somehow decadent vision.

Frank Zappa & Mothers of Invention – Uncle Meat (1969)

   The sixth Frank Zappa album Uncle Meat was copyrighted in 1968 and released in March 1969. Surprisingly this album was selling much better than many other records with big “commercial potential” and Uncle Meat in short time reached the peak on 43rd position of US album chart. This was probably due to good reception of previous albums but in fact this double LP issue was perfectly produced and seemingly more indiscrete while heterogenic and complex. Under the title Uncle Meat printed with Old English typeface there was a subtitle stated: Most of the music from The Mother’s movie of the same name which we haven’t got enough money to finish yet. The material made for the movie Uncle Meat was reedited as a documentary in kind “making of” and published on videocassette in 1987. Also a CD edition was augmented with more than forty minutes of soundtrack excerpts (predominantly dialogues) and song Tengo Na Minchia Tanta recorded in 1982 with singer Massimo Bassoli.

   The original idea of Uncle Meat album looks as the perfect bunch of various ambitions. Sometime surrealistic lyrics were more readable in era of psychedelic rock but all spoken fragments were clearly taken from movie soundtrack. Experiments with tape, percussion and noise, modal scales and complex rhythms, multitrack recording, these entire elements make some fragments of this album can be quite a challenge for listeners with prejudices. What was avant-garde in sixties, today sounds as classical, well balanced concert music. Original and creative combination of traditional instruments and electronics, complex structures developed from simple melodic motifs, resignation of diatonic function in harmonics and the use of techniques of serialism, all this make the music of the Uncle Meat album one of most interesting documents of its time. Without fail it should be regarded as a serious composition. This is why the original album deserves five out of five stars.

Frank Zappa • Apostrophe (’)

★★★★★

   Eighteenth Frank Zappa’s album – released March 22, 1974 and almost immediately placed on hit lists – remains his greatest commercial success. It had reached 10th position on Billboard Charts and gave artist his first Gold certified by the RIAA only two years later. No wonder listeners had accepted this album – on its semantic level these songs were threaten the cultural taboo melting sexual contents with some jokes and rebel attitude. Musical layer was highly energetic, rhythmic music – from hard rock to comedy, from rhythm & blues to fusion jazz – basically in mainstream of rock fusion. And it was well done, a way much better than many seriously progressive albums. Every genre presented here was connected and interacting with lyrics context.
   The material for the album was recorded in various sessions and studios in five year period since 1969. This resulted in doubles and triples in lineups. On the cover of the record one can find names of four casts of rhythm sections from various periods – four drummers (Jim Gordon, Johnny Guerin, Aynsley Dunbar, Ralph Humphrey) and four bass players (Jack Bruce, Tom Fowler, Frank Zappa and Erroneous what stands for Alex Dmochowski). Great keyboardist George Duke, playing percussion instruments Ruth Underwood whose marimba became hallmark of Zappa’s sound in mid-seventies, two great violinists Sugar Cane Harris and Jean-Luc Ponty, two saxophonists Ian Underwood and Napoleon Murphy Brock, trumpeter Sal Marquez, trombonist Bruce Fowler, nine back-up vocals, even five sound engineers, working in New York Electric Lady Studios, Inglewood Bolic and Hollywood Paramount Studios. Zappa was credited for lead vocals, guitars, production, arrangements and struggle with.

Frank Zappa - Apostrophe (1974)

   The album has been called Apostrophe (’) or A’POS! TRO’PHE(!) as in alternative spelling used on the label. What makes this album so exceptional is fusion of RnB, pop and rock with elements of utilitarian music known from media and associated with advertising jingle style. With seditious obscenity and much inkling suggesting there’s one more mask and deeper sense of the text layer it gave the feeling of revealing the hidden truth. Maybe Frank Zappa was not considered of all these flickering senses. The title of the album came from only instrumental piece. It is an instrumental jam and the fact Zappa gave this name for the whole album may suggest he was intended to turn to more intuitive forms. Although it sounded modern and strong, from intellectual point of view it was weakest fragment of the album.
   The intellectual and philosophical backgrounds of Zappa’s lyrics were unveiled in 1993 in The Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play by Ben Watson. British author has shown Shakespeare and Platonic topics in Apostrophe (’). Brave comparison of Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow suite and King Lear is showing some parallels which are in fact archetypical values common to many cultures. Ban Watson’s dissertation is maybe first critical analysis of this album which for many reviewers was just loathsome and obscene. Zappa’s obscenity, then recognized as a part of sexual revolution, later occurred to be quite serious part of anti-establishment rebellion. His revolutionary and subversive attitude has strong impact for few generations of listeners.

Frank Zappa • MOTHERS • Just Another Band from L. A.

★★★★★

   After few good years of playing and recording with Mothers of Invention, came weariness and disappointment. In December 1971 took place two accidents that changed life of Frank Zappa and career of the group. First took place in Casino de Montreux, where during the concert one member of the public shot the flare causing the fire and burning the building „to the ground” with all they had on the stage. One week later, using rented equipment Mothers were playing in London Rainbow Theatre. A guy from the audience pushed Zappa from the scene to the orchestra pit. The rest of the group were convinced Zappa had been killed. Falling to concrete floor Zappa broke his leg, and had many serious injuries. For months he was confined on the wheelchair what makes impossible cruising or playing live gigs. Due to crushed larynx his voice pitch dropped down a third. 

   What looks like the bad luck, gave musicians a chance to summarize their achievements and regroup to deal with some new plans. First album produced in period of Zappa’s restricted activity was live recording from concert on August 7, 1971 in Pauley Pavilion, widely known sport arena of UCLA in Los Angeles. Frank Zappa and Mothers incorporating three members of The Turtles were playing 7 persons show – Frank Zappa played guitar and sung, Mark Volman and Howard Keylan were singing leading parts, Ian Underwood was playing woodwinds, Aynsley Dunbar – drums, Don Preston – keyboards and Jim Pons on bass guitar who was also singing. 

   New album came March 26, 1972 with Cal Schenkel’s cover including some „intentionally” graphic references to the Uncle Meat and Ruben and the Jets covers. The full title of this work spells: „Was MOTHERS Just Another Band from L. A. – RIFA”. But it’s hard to decide the first words are  „Las Mothers” or „Was Mothers”. There are many different explanations of „RIFA” comment or sign under the title and no one is convincing. Graphic clues are more legible. The group in the car is easy to recognize, and the leader is laying on the rear seats with his head and plastered leg outside side windows of the car. His guitar is erected pushing out through the car’s roof.  

Just Another Band From L. A.

   The most significant part of this album fulfilling the whole A side was 24-minute composition Billy the Mountain. It was shortened version of wider concert event which was parody of rock operas. Growing popularity of projects like Tommy by The Who was the sign of this time but sometimes they gave nothing more than bunch of simple songs illustrating the main and in most cases trite story. Based on expanded song structure, where some episodes added between iterate parts. It’s construction has characteristic features of ritornello form. Billy the Mountain is also continuation of Zappa’s idea of conceptual album he developed in the mid-sixties. Composition is a masterpiece of satirical rock narrative form. In original concert version Billy the Mountain was more than half hour gig, but for LP edition Zappa cut it to fit in one LP side. In abbreviate form composition is 24:42 (in remastered CD reissue 24:46). In 1991 double CD album New York Fillmore East performance of Billy the Mountain recorded June 5-6, 1971 is 30:26 long. 

   The matter of this composition is the story of mountain Billy and his wife Ethell, who was a tree growing off of his shoulder. They were living in Los Angeles area until the day Billy received royalties for posing for the postcards. Billy decides to take a vacation and move with his wife to New York with first stop in Las Vegas. Demolishing everything on their route Billy and Ethell became the sensation in tabloids. After flattening of test stand and rocket sled in Edwards Air Force Base, Billy’s destructive power became attractive to military forces, so he received note he has been drafted. Ethell doesn’t agree, so she has been called a communist practicing witchcraft. To stop Billy comes new hero, man with secret briefcase Studebacher Hoch. Intensification of surrealistic connections to popular culture give this part character of satirical extravaganza leading to final where Studebacher Hoch staying on the Billy’s jaw is threatening Billy and Ethell. Billy laughs and Hoch falls what is leading to the moral: „mountain is something you don’t want to fuck with, don’t fuck around”.

   Some songs played August 7, 1971 in Pauley Pavilion were skipped, especially some known from previous 200 Motels album published in October 1971. Four songs from B side of Just Another Band from L. A. are just perfect life performances of Call Any Vegetable – extended version of song from 1967 Absolutely Free album with improvised scenic dialogues of Frank Zappa, Mark Volman and Howard Keylan, Eddie, Are You Kidding? – song referring to local commercial, Magdalena – bitter satire on Canadian maple syrup worker trying to incest his teenage daughter and Dog Breath known from 1969 Uncle Meat album but here in daring, internally diversified interpretation which is much more lyrical and expressive than before. Although during concert in Pauley Pavilion musicians played many more songs, the whole record should be listen as complete set and remains one of best Zappa’s recordings – no matter live or studio ones.