16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good Stuff for the Hard-Core FZ Fan, February 20, 2002
This review is from: Ahead of Their Time (Audio CD)
You get two performances for the price of one: enforced recreation/drama and musical presentation.
This is a FZ/Mothers of Invention London Royal Festival Hall concert from October 28th, 1968. The FZ faithful have heard a litle bit of this show before, specifically "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Sexually Aroused Gas Mask" and "The Orange County Lumber Truck" on
Weasels Ripped My Flesh. Other than these (edited) bits, this is newly released material.
FZ calls the first half of the album a "cheesy little psycho drama," and if you're a fan of traditional Mothers of Invention stage antics, you're in hog heaven. By comparison, this is no involved epic a la
Fillmore East: June 1971. The cheez factor is pretty high here, with some sight gags onstage, easy enough to figure out if you're really listening and have read the liner notes. It's standard FZ on-the-road musical theater, with shots at pop music and pop culture, with a mildly enthusiastic and strictly polite English audience laughing and applauding in all of the right places.
This album doesn't warm up musically until track 11 and "King Kong," and it's only after track 15, "Sleeping in a Jar" that this musical portion of the show really picks up and starts to rock. The album then just steamrolls through the finale, a wonderful, extended, full, boss-band "Orange County Lumber Truck (Part II)." FZ himself, true to form, is a bit more critical, describing this musical portion of the album (tracks 11-20) as "a fair-not outstanding--1968 MOI rock concert performance."
The liner notes are a true winner, produced like an old-timey theater handbill. On one side you've got a great full-color Cal Schenkel portrait-suitable for framing! On the flip side you've got the handbill itself, also illustrated by Cal Schenkel, with a list of the artists, background on the show and its recording, a plot of the psycho drama, and a semi-detailed track listing.
Is this album for the FZ novice? Nope. This is not an entry-level FZ recording. It's a bit too esoteric, a little too deep into the FZ/MOI cosmology. But, for the true FZ/MOI fan-you betcha; it's a must. This is well worth the investment for the first ten tracks alone, and is a keeper for the great live FZ/MOI songs in the second half of the album.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
First half comedy, second half serious get out of the way, June 6, 2003
This review is from: Ahead of Their Time (Audio CD)
The first half of this cd is amusing FZ mothers bantor, which in itself is not a bad reason to buy this cd. Funny and imaginative.... but, track 13-20 starting with 'Transylvania Boogie' on through 'Orange County Lumber Truck prt 2' is serious mother smashing down some grooves. Way wonderful. Worth the price of admission.. and if you don't have any early mother material, this is a great one to start out with. very enjoyable.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Original Mothers at their Live Best, January 11, 2000
This review is from: Ahead of Their Time (Audio CD)
This is an excellent album. It contains most of a concert that the Mothers of Invention performed in London in 1968. The first half of the album features the London Philharmonic Orchestra performing some of Zappa's chamber music that eventually appeared in the film 200 Motels two years later. This music is interspersed with a semi-improvised psychodrama performed by the members of the Mothers. The chamber music is beautiful, if somewhat primitive by the standards of Bogus Pomp from Zappa's London Symphony Orchestra album. The play's dialog is entertaining. Especially enjoyable is Roy Estrada's 'audition' consisting of an abbreviated version of Holiday in Berlin.
The second half of the album is a performance of early Mothers' music, brilliantly sequenced. The rendition of King Kong on the album contains the seldom heard Ark segment. Zappa's guitar soloing on the Orange County Lumber Truck is an extended version of that found on the album Weasels Ripped My Flesh and is very masterful.
This is an album that I never grow tired of hearing. The orchestral music combined with the driving musical power of the Mothers makes for very enjoyable listening.
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