Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention - Uncle Meat
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Free Music Notes for Uncle Meat
Free Music Review: Even a Genius Can Make a Mistake
Hit: 5 Stars
I've been a total Frank Zappa and original MOI fan since first hearing W'ere Only in It for the Money in 1968. It was clear from the first that Zappa was an absolute musical genius, who's incredible creativity, energy, iconoclasm, hard work, and chutzpah make him the greatest composer and musician since the likes of Stravinsky and Prokofiev. His ability to compose in a variety of styles -- rock, doo-wop, jazz, country, and neo-classical (to name a few) -- seems unmatched; and he is probably the most prolific musician ever.
That he was primarily a "Rock" musician (who sometimes pandered to a teenage audience often less interested is his music than his audacity) should not be envoked to attempt to diminish his accomplishments and talent. The orchestral scores scattered throughout 200 Motels are proof of his exceptional ability for innovative and complex composition. No less extraordinary are the remarkable and progressive pieces found on Lumpy Gravy, Uncle Meat, Hot Rats, Jazz From Hell, The Yellow Shark, and Civilization Phase III (to mention a few) -- the likes of which have not been approached, let alone equalled.
As his guitarist, he is unsurpassed -- and his oeuvre is replete with some of the most amazing, beautiful, intelligent, and scintillating solos and passages ever heard. Frank referred to his playing as "air sculpture." But I always thought of it like "expositions" or "conversations," as Zappa's playing seems distinctly related to language and the spoken word, with its exclamations, pronouncements, and subtle nuance. Examples include Son of Mr. Green Genes (Hot Rats), the two extended solos on side one of Burnt Weenie Sandwich as well as the shorter solos on side two (within The Little House I used to Live In), The Orange Country Lumber Truck (Weasels Ripped My Flesh), Transylvania Boogie and The Nancy & Mary Music (Chunga's Revenge), Magdalena (Just Another Band from LA), Son of Orange County/More Trouble Every Day (Roxy and Elsewhere), and Inca Roads (One Size Fits All) -- just to mention some of my favorites.
But geniuses can and do make mistakes -- and one of Zappa's (IMHO) was to include Uncle Meat Film Excerpt Part I, Tengo Na Minchia Tanta, and Uncle Meat Film Excerpt Part II as part of both the original CD and remastered CD releases of Uncle Meat. These 3 pieces were NOT part of the original 1969 vinyl-album release of Uncle Meat. I think their CD inclusion definitely detracts thematically and musically from the original -- and I urge listeners to simply SKIP them when they listen to Uncle Meat. Similarly, Frank made (and subsequently corrected) a mistake when he changed the bass and drum tracks for the original CD release of We're Only in It for the Money (and I remember my disappointment when I first heard that original CD).
Maybe, if Frank had not died he would have expunged Uncle Meat of these 3 "spurious" pieces (which are far better suited to CDs like Playground Psychotics or The Lost Episodes) from a new original-version Uncle Meat CD. Hopefully, the Zappa Family Trust will do the same at some point.
Zappa said "Music is the best" -- likewise, Frank is the BEST...
P.S. I recommend "Ahead of Their Time" to all Zappa fans -- on which you can hear the extended/complete Orange Country Lumber Truck guitar solo (about half of which is on Weasels Ripped My Flesh), as part of the last track entitled Orange County Lumber Truck (Part 2). The solo and the entire CD is AMAZING..!!
Free Music Review: zorch strokin'!
Hit: 5 Stars
This is usually held up as 1 of Zappa's finest achievements or as a bit excessive. I'd say the former. I've got the video of the film & very fun though it can be fun, the album is a lot better [the reverse would be true of 200 Motels, though much of the music there is difficult]. A long double album is made even longer w/ film excerpts. It opens w/ Uncle Meat (Main Title Theme), 1 of his utter best instrumental tunes up there w/ Holiday In Berlin & Peaches En regalia [off the following 2 lps], then we have the Voice Of Cheese, as in Suzy Creamcheese aka Pamela Zarubica w/ a little bit of commentary about a European tour. A definite highlight is Dog Breath, In The Year Of The Plague, simultaneously a catchy tune w/ nostalgia for a closed down football stadium & a grand composition & technology experiment. We then have the Dog Breath Variations, as well as a couple more preludes & variations. In the liner notes FZ states that this is basically an instrumental album & that the words were randomly selected from various dreams thus songs like Sleeping In A Jar & Electric Aunt Jemima. A Pound For A Brown On The Bus is another memorable instrumental. Ian Underwood Whips It Out has an amusing spoken intro of how he got in the Mothers before setting off into pure skronkdom w/ his sax, not very clearly recorded but a preview of his work on Hot Rats. That album also famously reused Mr. Green Genes, a tune about eating yr greens, yr socks & the truck they came in. The album contains little oddities like "If We'd All Been Living In California...", Jimmy Carl Black's complaint about never getting paid for this & having 5 kids to feed & the line between comedy & serious real life concerns get blurred. On disc 2 of the cd version you get 2 long excerpts from the movie [which itself has a lot of repetition of phrases like "I'm using the chicken to measure it" & "silence fools don't you know anything about progress?"] & a song from that which is slightly irrelevant to the others in that it's from the 80s not the 60s, Tengo Na Minchia Tanta & the literal meaning of that is something phallic in Italian, then we have what was side 4 of the lp, King Kong in all its glory, though there are about 6 or 7 titles listed, it is all sewn together & mostly from the 1 same performance. Overall it's a very impressive creation & the packaging w/ the glorious 12 page booklet [looks even better in 12" format] & Cal Schenkel art & lyrics & photos, a drawing of a giraffe listening to the radio, which must be some very hip station since Moonlight on Vermont by Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band is coming out of it, especially since Trout Mask wasn't even released yet then. Whilst lyrically it doesn't say as much as We're Only In It For the Money or Absolutely Free, musically it says more than enough & I'm happy to pay attention. You need this.Free Music Review: Choice Cuts - Some Spoilage
Hit: 5 Stars
This 2-CD set delivers the entire Zappa experience, with all its nagging and annoying contradictions. The negatives - nearly 40 minutes of Mothers stalwarts overheard discussing an early version of the film, Uncle Meat, and the infantile and smutty Tengo Na Minchia Tanta - cannot be blamed on the 1969 release, which was free of this mind-numbing, self-indulgent stupidity. However, they can be blamed on Zappa, who padded out what would have been a superb single CD into a 2-CD set with a lot of dreck on it, the proverbial "thumb on the scales."
Uncle Meat was the second two-album set from the Mothers, and very different from the first. The first, Freak Out!, was also the group's debut effort. The two disks broke out very neatly; the first was a collection of songs structured along traditional lines featuring decidedly non-traditional themes and lyrics. The second, which got very little airplay, was much more experimental, foreshadowing inspired lunacy to come. But, however demented and unorthodox, Freak Out! was a tightly integrated work.
Uncle Meat put an end to that for good, and introduced a Zappa that believed "anything can be music". Conversations among band members about sub-standard working conditions are cheek by jowl with exquisite scored orchestral segments, followed by tight doo-wop songs about suburban life. Zappa also introduces themes he would revisit later, a favorite techniques of his, and other composers. Mr. Green Genes makes his debut, we see him again on Hot Rats. Uncle Meat was noticed by a wide variety of players. The Persuasions, (who owe their start to Zappa), covered Electric Aunt Jemima memorably. And while King Kong in all its variations has merit, (especially the version played on the back of an ice cream truck), the last word on this melody belongs to Zappa friend and collaborator Jean Luc Ponty - I highly recommend tracking down his tribute CD - King Kong.
Those of you yet unconvinced that Zappa was arguably our most innovative composer after Monk, yet struggled through life with a level of sexual/emotional maturity an 11 year-old boy would find embarrassing - and have already translated Tengo Na Minchia Tanta - need only skim the 12-page booklet that comes with this 2 CD-set, a miniature replica of the original. That, my friends, is no way to treat a giraffe.
So many favorites, I wore this one white when it came out in 1969. The Air, Project X, Cruising For Burgers, Sleeping In A Jar, Ian Underwood Whips It Out, and many more. As with all music by Zappa and Mothers Of Invention, you simply have to embrace in its totality - mad as a March hare, brilliant, and absolutely unique.
Free Music Review: Il Monstro....
Hit: 5 Stars
This is one of Zappa's true monsters, a great, ambitious album that is one of his masterworks. It's arguably the most complex album he ever did, especially in musical terms. Many of the themes on this album were revamped for orchestra years later (like on Zappa's last classical album, The Yellow Shark), which shows you the great complexity of this work. This album was actually a soundtrack for a film that took years for Frank to complete, but more on that later.
This album has many, many great Zappa tracks. Some of my particular favorites are Nine Types of Industrial Pollution, the main title theme, the "return" of Suzy Creamcheese, Dog Breath (a theme that would later be orchestrated), a funny, kazoo laden version of God Bless America, a great free jazz workout by Ian Underwood, one of Zappa's most amazing musicians, but the award has to go to one of Zappa's signature instrumentals, King Kong. The themes of King Kong kept drifting back into Zappa's universe, but here you hear the song in its pure, unbridled majesty. All of the movements are equally mesmerizing, and you can hear why this song is considered one of Zappa's best.
On this CD edition, there is about 45 minutes or so of dialogue from the film Uncle Meat. Personally, I could have done without it, as it adds nothing to the CD itself. Zappa started filming it film around 1968, but he couldn't find the money to finish it until years later. When Frank finally finished it, he released it on VHS in the 1980's, and honestly, if he never finished it, I would have been OK with that. While the album Uncle Meat is one of Zappa's greatest albums, the accompanying film is really bad. It has a home movie quality, and it's not particularly endearing. The film is rambling and incoherent, and the only scene that really sticks out is an endless scene where a woman takes a shower eating a hamburger, and professes how much she's enjoying it. It's not a good scene, but it just goes on and on until it becomes unbearable. Zappa only made a few feature films (200 Motels and Baby Snakes), but 200 Motels was co-directed by Tony Palmer, a professional filmmaker from the U.K. (which may explain why 200 Motels is actually pretty coherent for a surreal film), and Baby Snakes is essentially a concert documentary (and a very good one). Zappa was a master musician, one of the greatest this country ever produced, but he was never much of a filmmaker.
So listen to this album over and over again, and witness with your ears one of the pinnacles of Zappa's mastery and majesty of music.
Free Music Review: Nothing Comes Close to This
Hit: 5 Stars
Of the almost thirty Zappa albums I own, I can only think of a few that I liked during the very first listen. This is one of them. I had read the reviews and inevitably formed my preconceptions about it, and literally during the first few seconds of the very first song I thought, "YES!!! This is EXACTLY what I was hoping for!!!" As I continued to listen, a whole new universe of sound was slowly opening up before me. Each track got me more and more consumed by this strange and incredible musical journey, and soon I didn't want it to end. This is my all-time favorite Zappa Album.I've often thought about what makes the original Mothers' music so good, and I think it is because in the late 60's, Frank Zappa hadn't yet formed the lyrical and musical persona that we know today (Arguably, that wouldn't come until 1973's Overnight Sensation). At this point in his career, he was experimenting with all sorts of styles, perhaps subconsciously trying to pinpoint where he wanted to go with his music. In this album, Frank is pushing his band both musically and stylistically to meet his artistic needs. And the results are priceless.
This is the kind of music that just can't be described in words. It's one of those albums that shatters all your preconceptions of what music is, and makes you rethink the very nature of music. I will say this, however: "Dog Breath in the year of the Plague" is one of the most beautiful songs ever released. As well as "Electric Aunt Jemima." And "Sleeping in a Jar." And "The Air." And... ok, well I'll just stop right there.
A lot of people have complained about the film excerpts on disc 2. But you know what? I actually LIKE it. Seriously. It's fun, and interesting as well. And I'm not even a HUGE Zappa nut. So here's my advice for the film excerpts: Listen to it once. If you like it, great. If you don't like it, SKIP it next time. That's what the SKIP button is there for. But at least give it a chance.
All in all, this is a PERFECT album that I would recommend not only for all Zappa/Mothers fans, but for all music fans who crave adventuresome and even strange music. This is a masterpiece that stands apart from all the rest.