Playground Psychotics

Frank Zappa - Playground Psychotics

Playground Psychotics
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CD Details

Artist: Frank Zappa
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 1995-05-30
Music Label: Zappa Records
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
  1. Here Come The Gear, Lads
  2. The Living Garbage Truck
  3. A Typical Soundcheck
  4. 'This Is Neat
  5. The Motel Lobby
  6. Getting Stewed
  7. The Motel Room
  8. 'Don't Take Me Down'
  9. The Dressing Room
  10. Learning 'Penis Dimension'
  11. 'You There With The Hard On!'
  12. Zanti Serenade
  13. Divan
  14. Sleeping In A Jar
  15. 'Don't Eat There'
  16. Brixton Still Life
  17. Super Grease
  18. Wonderful Windy
  19. Sharleen A*
  20. Crusin' For Burgers
  21. Diptheria Blues
  22. Well
  23. Say Please
  24. A A A Wk
  25. Scumbag
  26. A Small Eternity WIth Yoko Ono
Music CD 2
  1. Beer Shampoo
  2. Champagne Lecture
  3. Childish Perversion
  4. Playground Psychotics
  5. The Mudshark Interview
  6. 'There Is No Lust In Jazz'
  7. Botulism On The Hoof
  8. You Got Your Armies
  9. The Spew King
  10. I'm Doomed
  11. Status Back Baby
  12. The London Ca8 Tape
  13. Concentration Moon, Part One
  14. The Sanzini Brothers
  15. 'It's A Good Thing We Get Paid To Do This'
  16. Concentration Moon, Part Two
  17. Mom & Dad
  18. Intro To Music For Low Budget Orchestra
  19. Billy The Mountain
  20. He's Watching Us
  21. If You're Not A Professional Actor
  22. He's Right
  23. Going For The Money
  24. Jeff Quits
  25. A Bunch Of Adventures
  26. Martin LIckert's Story
  27. A Great Guy
  28. Bad Acting
  29. The Worst Reviews
  30. A Version Of Himself
  31. I Could Be A Star Now

Music reviews of Playground Psychotics

Music Review: The best band you probably heard in your life
Rating: 4 Stars

It took me a long time to see the light, but Playground Psychotics finally set the record straight. I now see the '71 line-up of The Mothers as - yes - the quintessential Frank Zappa group, that is the combo that synthesizes best, IMO, the most main elements that go into Zappa's thing, in a single tourable outfit. Think about it. It combines formidable old Mothers (Underwood, Preston), formidable new Mothers (Ainsley Dunbar, Bob Harris #1, vocalists Flo & Eddie), a rare collective vocal strength (Flo & Eddie + bassist Jim Pons + Zappa), and last but not least, a delightfully much present FZ on lead/rhythm guitar (solos of all sizes and shapes - ah, the sadly lost art of the wah-wah pedal! - but also plenty of imaginative and fun comping and fillings, and performing of written lines along with the group). The ability of the band to get away convincingly with nearly anything thrown at it: stately classical material, atonal improvisations, circus incidental stuff, traditional blues, hymns and marches, R&B, serial music, electronics, "Turtle pop", then some red hot modal jazz... is simply awe-inspiring... There was humor aplenty... of many dimensions ... (if you consider all of their recordings and not just "Fillmore East, June 1971"), which is something that's been often overlooked: from politics to rock 'n' roll impersonations, regionalisms/folklore to pure surrealism, vaudevillian skits to news media and publicity lampoons... Although I missed them when they were around, I think I can now see that these Mothers were THE "global Zappa experience".

As previous reviewers indicated, "Playground" features a LOT of "anthropological road tapes". As many, I don't see much relevance into that, besides maybe 1st time interest. But if you bear with it, these 2 CDs also offer tons of excellent live music: different versions of known pieces from this same band, new versions of older pieces, an interesting and revealing fresh mix of the Lennon/Ono/Zappa gig (featured up to then only on Lennon's "Sometime in New-York City"), and new pieces, mostly strange and captivating instrumental improvs. Mini (!)-opera "Billy the Mountain" has Ian Underwood playing on a lovely clarinet what was the synth part of the then-known version, and its "Studebacker Hoch" section features one exciting jam with Bob Harris on electric piano. It is fascinating to behold, with this recording, how such an involving, long piece was presented to the audience so well rehearsed, but also that the band had so much flexibility as to add-lib in it, here and there, adapt bits of dialogues to the geographical context of the tour, in other words, to actually make the thing (and what a "thing": a bass-voice, mobile mountain married to a tree growing off of his shoulder and roaming through America with unspeakable intents!) live and breathe every night... Special mention should go here to the incredible Ainsley Dunbar, with his sense of humor built in an always exciting, passionate drumming style.

One might be less enthusiastic about some tempo variations tried here by Zappa on certain Mothers of Invention classics of the past. This is sometimes unfortunate because the versions would otherwise be very lively and exciting, in part because Kaylan, Volman (Flo & Eddie) and Pons are great at recreating/revamping the doo-wop vocal style that was a specialty of the 60s line-up of this group.

But those reserves aside, the whole thing is pure Wagnerian Vaudeville Supreme... What other band of then or now could claim coming even close to that with those chops and humor? So go ahead and make your day with Billy the Mountain and his friends!

More Playground Psychotics free music reviews:
1 2 3 4

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