Frank Zappa - Zoot Allures
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CD Details
Artist: Frank ZappaEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 1995-05-02
Music Label: Zappa Records
Soundtracks:
- Wind Up Workin' in a Gas Station
- Black Napkins [Live]
- The Torture Never Stops
- Ms. Pinky
- Find Her Finer
- Friendly Little Finger
- Wonderful Wino
- Zoot Allures
- Disco Boy
Music reviews of Zoot Allures
Music Review: The turning point for FZ, as well as many fans
Rating: 5 Stars
Originally tiled "Night Of The Iron Sausage," this 1976 release was a bit of a departure for Zappa. Even though it includes many of the earlier musicians from The Mothers (Roy Estrada, Don Vliet, Ruth Underwood, and Terry Bozzio), it was pretty much a two-man effort, Bozzio on drums and Zappa on guitars, bass, and keyboards (via overdubs), with a stripped-down sound. The sound is also very compressed sounding, for better or worse. It is its own item, not sounding like any of his records before or since.
It starts off with the usual commentary on our underachieving species, "Wind Up Workin' In A Gas Station," featuring the trademarked falsetto vocal of Davey Moire. High-energy and very complex in texture, it is based on a top-heavy 5/4 rhythm, not a foot-tapper, but who needs that anyway? "Black Napkins" has been a stage favorite since the time of its release, a solo where FZ gets to show you what he's made of, and in later years, it became a vehicle for the brass section usually featured. But here, it's the original. And speaking of stage favorites, "The Torture Never Stops" has been recorded many, many times since 1975, when the "Bongo Fury" band premiered it in Austin, Texas. Originally written around a repetitive blues riff, and featuring slide guitar solos by Denny Walley and vocals and harmonica by Captain Beefheart (Vliet), it was drastically changed for this release, and virtually every version after. The original can be heard on Volume 4 of the "You Can't Do That On Stage..." series, and where it has its own atmosphere, the deep, dark dungeon quality is conveyed perfectly here. You can just get lost in the guitar solo he played on it, as well. "Ms. Pinky;" oh my. This is a song about a self-gratification device, a prosthetic head with the mouth shaped in a way for the user to fulfill his deepest, most perverted desires, no apologies, no commitments. It was songs like these which caused his very conservative (yet extremely funny) daughter, Moon, frequent embarrassment. But, as he has always said, "...Hey, it's just words, and words in music don't hurt people..." And he was right. "Find Her Finer" is a simple song about simple people; if you over intellectuallize, you probably won't get very far with the opposite gender, if you are just looking for a quickie. A Free-Form jam is featured in "Friendly Little Finger(dontcha just love these titles?)," a guitar-drum duet with some anchoring by the bass, but not really. It reminds me of the jams some bands like Cream did in the 1960's, just thrashing away at their instruments, but to do melodically, as we have here, takes more than just a little talent, as Cream and Zappa have shown. "Wonderful Wino" dates back to the days of The Mothers, when Jeff Simmons played bass (before the "200 Motels" fiasco), and once again, it has been recorded many times by many line-ups, but never released until this release. Many people call the title track Frank Zappa's signature guitar solo. It is gentle, emotional, even. When a rock band plays modern jazz with this conviction, how can you go wrong? This set closes with another anthropological study, "Disco Boy." In the 1970's the whole disco thing was really big, and people like me said "WHY?" It was just gaudy clothes, cocaine, meaningless sex, and really, REALLY lame music. This is a playful rock number, but the content tells the story perfectly. The dance floors were, and still are, full of perrennial losers, and this song is about them.
In the big picture, "Zoot Allures" is a very good record, but several Amazon reviewers have said it doesn't translate very well to CD. The analogue record (the one I have) is supposedly better sounding, but maybe one of these days, as with "Fillmore East, 1970," some day, a version will appear to make everyone happy.
As a P.S.:
I eventually did get the CD, and it sounds fine.
Description of Zoot Allures
Japanese exclusive reissue of 1976 album, packaged in a miniature LP sleeve.Classic Rock CDs
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