Customer Reviews

Bongo Fury

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This live Zappa album, featuring the added talents of avant-garde/psychedelic jazz/beat poet guru Captain Beefheart, is indescribably excellent. Zappa's band lay a lush bluesy backdrop to his and the Captain's abstract lyricism, and the performances as a whole are absolutely gorgeous. "Carolina Hardcore Ecstasy" will sweep you off your feet, while one of my faves "Poofter Froth Wyoming Plans Ahead" will have you in fits of laughter and amazement over the ingenious rhyming and intonation of the Captain. This joint effort is a mammoth merging of Zappa's raging musical hormones with Beefhearts outerworldly illogic, culminating in THE perfect encore - "Muffin Man", which has to be heard to believed. Who else but Zappa would stop in the middle of a song's prologue, claiming to have gotten a phrase wrong, and try it again, with the results sounding as professional as ever? This is the kind of offbeat stuff that makes die-hard Zappa maniac-pe! rsons like myself treasure the antics contained within Bongo Fury ever more. Highly recommended.

I bought this recording back when "Bongo Fury" was first released. I eventually wore out the vinyl. Then I bought a cassette version, which I also wore out before the mid-90s. The CD should last longer. Zappa and Beefheart seem to bring out the best in each other. The performance captured here is better than anything I've heard from Zappa (except for maybe "Freak Out!" and "Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar"). And it's up there with the best of Beefheart's records, though I admit to being a big fan of the Captain's later work such as "Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)" and "Ice Cream for Crow." Although this live performance was a sort of "celebration" of America's bicentennial, it still holds up...things really haven't changed all that much. This is great in-your-face stuff. There are no losers on this CD, with "Sam With The Showing Scalp Flat Top" and "Poofter's Froth Wyoming Plans Ahead" being my favorites. Get it and see what all the excitement is about!

Due to a dispute between Beefheart's label (Virgin) and Zappa's, this album was never released in the UK as an LP, so we had to buy it as an expensive import. Fortunately Zappa cleared up the problem when he bought the rights to all his recordings in preparation for CD re-mastering.

It is a strangely operatic masterpiece -- the horns, the poetic ramblings by Beefheart, the multiple taunting voices and the narrative structure of live songs such as 'Debra Kadabra' and 'Caroline Hard-core Ecstasy' give the album the qualities of a modern-day opera.

Much of Zappa's own comments are directed at the prevailing commercialism of the time -- for the forthcoming 1976 bicentennial celebrations -- which would seem trivial today.

On the first few listens, the stand-out track, musically, is the 'Muffin Man', a straightforward rock tune with a great solo. But flip back a couple of tracks and you soon discover that the brilliancy on the album is 'Advance Romance', where another of Zappa's discoveries, Denny Whalley, provides a fantastic slide guitar solo.

I've enjoyed this more than any other Zappa album in the 25 years I've known it, although I might be persuaded to admit that 'Hot Rats' is the greater masterpiece.

This one's a real rarity in the FZ catalog for a number of reasons, the first and most obvious one being the partnership with Donnie Van V...the Captain. More important, however, is the rare hit and miss ratio of two of Zappa's trademark styles, those being comedy and no-nonsense, end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it guitar solos. In many of Franks' releases, one style ultimately wins out over the other...the comedy is top-heavy or it's an afterthought. Not here. This is Zappa's L.A. Pachuco doo-wop humor married to some of the most talented musicians he ever assembled under one roof. In addition to Frank's own fretboard pyrotechnics, we get Denny Walley on slide guitar. Add Napoleon Murphy Brock, George Duke, and Terry Bozzio and you have one of the greatest all-time "stamina" bands. I saw the Berkeley Community Theater leg of the "Bongo Fury" tour...unfortunately, Beefheart never shared the stage with FZ, but he did perform a mighty tasty "Orange Claw Hammer." Zappa tied his hair back into a ponytail and proclaimed "this is SERIOUS music" as he launched into an extended, brutal "Black Napkins." Brock prowled and stomped and roamed the stage like a werewolf under a full moon, honking brilliant solos from his sax. The same power is found on "Bongo Fury." In "Advance Romance," Zappa invites the Armadillo World Headquarters audience to "look what she did to Denny right now," as rips a beautifully aggressive solo, which blends into a firestorm from Zappa himself. In "Muffin Man"...well, what can I say? As impossible and ridiculous as it might be to attempt a "10 best FZ solos of all time" list, if you COULD, there'd have to be room for this one. From the "Mr. Tambourine Man" reference in "Debra Kadabra" to the interspersed weirdness of Captain Beefheart, this is one of the richest, most complex, most rewarding FZ albums of all time. If you are a fan of "Guitar Frank," grab this one.

Again Zappa produced a jewel with this album by allowing Captain Beefheart - who worked with him on "Hot Rats" in 1969 - to be full of unrestrained irreverence. The live performances are out of this world. I have had the chance to see Zappa twice in Paris in the seventies and Zappa had the audacity at one concert to tell the audience that we all looked liked rats from the stage.... I also saw him four times in the U.S. in the 80's. Zappa was a master conductor on stage. His band members had to keep a close eye on his hand-gestures and body postures at all times. At any moment, he would turn to his band and showed a specific hand-signal to tell them to immediately change the current beat to a "Weather Report" fast-pace beat. The guitar solos on this album are Vintage Zappa. He did not miss a note. I used to describe Zappa as a scientist of Music. He treated Music as if it was constantly evolving. He was never afraid of exploring new sounds and arrangements. That's why he could never be pinned down as a rock, blues, jazz, funk, punk or classical musician. He was all of it and none of it. His music was different because Zappa was unique. "Bongo Fury" allows us again to spend a wonderful moment with a Genius....

I really, really like Bongo Fury. This is actually the second Zappa album I bought. My older brother bought "Sheik Yerbuti" home the week it was available & we both fell in love with it. Soon after I found myself flipping through the Zappa albums at the local "Record Bar" (remember them?) For some reason the one that caught my eye was "Bongo Fury". Having recently aquired a pair of bongos, I could relate to the title.
The album was one of my favorites from the first listen and I still have it, even though the cd version is what I listen to.
If you are already a Zappa/Beefheart fan then you know about this one- if you have never heard it, I would recommend you get it & immerse yourself in the madness! SAM WAS A BASKET CASE!!!!

This was actually my introduction to Zappa. When I was 13 (1976) a relative bought me this album. Many years later I asked him how he picked it and he had no idea. I played "Debra Kadabra" and nearly fell out of my chair. I had never heard anything like it. I couldn't deal with it. I put it away! A year later I revisited it and began to appreciate it. That introduction was truly revelatory, as it opened my ears and mind to a world of alternate possibilities beyond the mainstream 70's rock I was used to.

"Debra Kadabra" starts the album off with a full-blast attack of manic dissonance - wonderful! "Carolina Hardcore Ecstasy" combines an absurdist vaguely off-color storyline with one of Zappa's best and most melodic guitar solos ever, IMO. "Sam with the Showing Scalp Flat Top" and "Man with the Woman Head" are great examples of Beefheart surrealist word soup imagery, with the Mothers providing the instrumental backdrop. The instrumental second part of "Muffin Man" is one of Zappa's most memorable riffs, and a concert favorite throughout his career. "Advance Romance" is not an outstanding song, but the instrumental from Zappa and Denny Walley, plus Napoleon Murphy Brock's vocals and Beefheart's harmonica and grunting, are great. "200 Years Old" is a bit of a throwaway tune, but very nice guitar from Zappa and harmonica from the Captain.

Aside from "Willie the Pimp" on "Hot Rats", this is the only album where Zappa and Beefheart play together, and for that alone it's worth owning. This is the last album with the mid-70's band with George Duke, etc., which was one of his best. This is perhaps not the most crucial Zappa album, but certainly a worthy addition to a Zappa collection.

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I love it, it's perfect, but I'm a Zappaphile.

The most perfect moment on it for me is simply when the tempo changes in Sam with the Showing Scalp Flattop and Beefheart says, "Sam was a basket case...!" and the blues guitar kicks in. Wow. And the segue into Carolina... yum. I think it's a studio segue, though.

FZ's Mufin Man solo is of course superb, sublime even, it overshadows the other exremely fine guitar work on the album. And the little comeback after the closing band introductions just sends the song right over the top into a universe all its own. It's such a unique FZ solo, just pure id, and maybe even some love, or maybe it's just because Denny Walley was listening, I dunno. By far the most superior version of the song available.

Carolina, 200 years, Advance Romance... it's all great. I have a longer bootleg version of the concert from the night before this one was recorded (as have most of you, I'm sure, lol) and I think this was most certainly one of FZ's best lineups. The bootloeg is pretty crappy quality, but it shows how much more juicy material was available for Bongo Fury. Shame it wasn't a doule album. FZ doesn't seem to have given this one much thought, he didn't put any eyebrows on it, maybe it had to do with Beefheart's presence?

I would never try to argue with someone who doesn't like this album, except maybe for Muffin Man. Bongo Fury's plenty weird enough for us to all agree that it's a matter of taste and generally a matter for those already accustomed to FZ, and hopefully Beefheart as well.

Bongo Fury and Roxy & Elsewhere are probably the two FZ CDs that spend the most time in my car's stereo...

If you're a fan and you're considering buying this album, my advice is to just do it, now.

If it wasn't for this album, I probably never would have gotten into The Captain. I used to skip over the Beefheart tracks and just play the Zappa tunes. But no more. Beefheart's lyrics and vocal inflections are both hysterically funny and scary at the same time. Zappa's Muffin Man is probably the ultimate electric guiter solo. And Carolina Hardcore is just plain fantastic. This album grows on you. Buy it now!

This was the first Zappa album I bought. I payed a sum that would have been enough to purchase any double album although the playing time of "Bongo Fury" lasts only half an hour, but I would do it again.

The lyrics are full of irony (most of all "Poofter's Froth Wyoming Plans Ahead", "Carolina Hard Core Ecstasy" and "Muffin Man"), like I expected it. But that is not everything. When I listened to the album, I noticed that all band members were truly great musicians: Zappa's own guitar, the "choir" singing on "Carolina Hard Core Ecstasy", the trombone player and all the others. This band could knock out any other. I'm very sorry that the producer cut out a lot of the performance. I would have liked to hear Captain Beefheart playing saxophone, and I hope that this is still to come.