27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Offbeat Musical Mastery, January 22, 2001
This review is from: Burnt Weeny Sandwich (Audio CD)
This album contains a mix of studio recordings and live material blended together masterfully. Like 'Weasels Ripped My Flesh' it was released after the breakup of the original Mothers of Invention.
The first cut, WPLJ, is a doo-wop number originally written and performed by the Four Deuces. The Mothers show their considerable skill with this musical form while they sing the praises of drinking White Port and Lemon Juice. Roy Estrada flavors the song with some off-color Spanish commentary.
The instrumental Igor's Boogie appears in two different forms; Phase 1 and Phase 2. Both are short tributes to Igor Stravinsky, one of Zappa's great influences and bear some passing similarity to 'Histoire du Soldat' by that composer. The phases contain strong saxaphone playing by Bunk Gardner and honks by what might be a bicycle horn.
Both the 'Overture to A Holiday in Berlin' and 'Holiday in Berlin, Full Blown' are strange, beautiful melodies with a feeling of something out of 'Caberet'. There are also lyrics to 'Holiday in Berlin' on other recordings that describe a riot staged by Berlin revolutionaries and their attempt to coerce Zappa to help them. There even seems to be a theme in these songs that later appears, only slightly modified, in the Star Wars soundtrack, written by John Williams many years later! The Full Blown version contains one of the most accessible of Zappa's guitar solos, very melodic and to the point. There is an almost worshipful atmosphere created by the Mothers as they back Zappa in this live recording that was spliced onto the preceding studio material.
The 'Theme from Burnt Weeny Sandwich' is a long guitar jam with various percussion effects and organ backing. It is beautiful and danceable.
'Aybe Sea' which used to close side one and open side two of the original vinyl release is a very fine, haunting solo which segues nicely into 'The Little House I Used To Live In', one of Zappa's finest tunes. The full power of the Mothers is evident in this mixture of live and studio material. The music can scarcely be contained, it is so joyous and flamboyant! Highlights are the violin playing of SugarCane Harris, Zappa's manic guitar work, Don Preston's piano solo and Zappa's concluding frenetic organ solo. This nearly-nineteen minute piece is the highlight of the album.
Before the concluding doo-wop number 'Valerie' with Roy Estrada singing a very fine falsetto, there is a short live recording of Zappa 'interacting' with an audience member which should be heard to be appreciated. Zappa makes one of his straightforward statements that shoots an arrow of truth for those who will see it.
All in all this is a wonderful album, very well recorded and well played and is one of the finest albums that Zappa produced in his long career.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A favorite meal, July 25, 2006
This review is from: Burnt Weeny Sandwich (Audio CD)
I've been a Zappa fan for a very long time. I've owned Burnt Weeny Sandwich (on LP) for a long time. The odd thing is that I didn't figure out until just recently that Burnt Weeny Sandwich is one of my favorite Zappa albums. I think that part of the problem is that I didn't really understand the album when I was a kid--although I certainly didn't dislike it. It was one of the last ones I picked up on CD, so that after not really hearing it for years, I mostly heard a song at a time in isolation with the disc in my CD changers on random shuffle.
But as someone else mentioned, this is really a concept album of sorts, and needs to be listened to in its entirety to "get it". It's an odd concept, because it's not linked by lyrics or music so much as it is by a structural meta-concept--that of a sandwich. The first and last tracks, two pseudo-doo-wop songs, serve as the bread. All the songs up to "Little House I Used to Live In" are the toppings, condiments, and so on, and "Little House I Used to Live In" is the meat . . . well, er, the big burnt weeny. What's remarkable is that the basic tracks consisted of Mothers of Invention "outtakes", but Zappa, being a skilled Dadaist/collagist, could turn "outtakes" into beautiful, cohesive, seemingly composed from scratch works faster than you can say "Max Ernst". At any rate, let's look at the tracks.
Track 1: "WPLJ" 5/5
This has been performed live on a number of occasions--it appears on the Does Humor Belong in Music? disc, for example--but without a doubt, this is my favorite version of the song. Zappa achieves an appropriate 1950s-sounding production, including the female backup singers, and the music has a great, grooving looseness, including the horns. Roy Estrada's falsetto makes it even better, as does the Cheech-Marin sounding chicano dialogue over the end.
Track 2: "Igor's Boogie, Phase One" 5/5
No one, not even Zappa, loves/loved Stravinsky more than I do, plus I love Zappa just as much, so this "L'Histoire du Soldat" tribute/spoof works brilliantly for me.
Track 3: "Overture to a Holiday in Berlin" 5/5
. . . and it leads beautifully to this severely bent-intonation wonder. God I love that brief sax solo. And the outtro melody is gorgeous and orchestrated gorgeously.
Track 4: "Theme from Burnt Weeny Sandwich" 5/5
It begins as a guitar solo track, but with an extension of the orchestration from the previous track creating multiple layers underneath. It segues to some tape-speed manipulation percussion, ala that heard accompanying the Bruce Bickford animation in Baby Snakes. There it piqued your interest, but here it grows perfectly, organically out of the composition until it consumes everything in its path. Something like a melodic Tony Williams-on-a-ton-of-acid-and-speed drum solo.
Track 5: "Igor's Boogie, Phase Two" 5/5
The bookend (within a larger bookended work) that matches Track 2. Shorter, but just as good, and not just because of the added honking, although that rocks.
Track 6: "Holiday in Berlin, Full Blown" 5/5
Later used again on 200 Motels. Here it's a bit like "Peaches en Regalia's" mellow cousin. Gorgeous melodies, wondrous orchestration, and an amazing soprano sax solo leading to more tape-speed manipulation percussion. It ties a lot of the elements of tracks 2 through 5 together very nicely, then moves to one of Zappa's more lyrical extended solos.
Track 7: "Aybe Sea" 5/5
Speaking of lyrical guitar work, this is a mostly delicate, almost kinda traditional classical piece for guitars, keyboards and a bit of percussion. Of course, there's lots of twentieth century stuff in there, too, and in a surprising change for this album, the piano solo that closes it gets pretty quiet, sparse, and not so surprisingly, increasingly "outside", as it segues to--
Track 8: "Little House I Used to Live in" 5/5
In a very smooth transition, the continuing solo piano is suddenly more jazzy--kind of a cross between Gershwin and Copland's (underrated) piano pieces. It's contemplative and moving. Then the whole band joins in a Zappa-ish fusion groove. After the drum break, there's a great 11/8 groove that turns into some wicked carousel orchestration. Then more complex, fusiony, uptempo 3/4 stuff becomes some extremely skilled interplay between Zappa and his drummer (probably Art Tripp) before the extended, burning and soulful Don "Sugarcane" Harris violin solo, interpolated by a typically odd Don Preston piano solo. There is a couple of short, interesting "stomping" vamps to listen for here--one halfway between 3/4 and 5/8, one halfway between 4/4 and 7/8. I love those kinds of "in-between" grooves. It's difficult to say how intentional they were here, but they work. The end of this track becomes composed 20th Century classical again. The transition between a melancholic hurdy-gurdy block chord structure and a spastic carnival-gone-haywire groove is primo. Although the ending pretty much remains in 4/4, there is a lot of creative rhythmic and playing-with-tempo stuff between the keyboards and drums. After the track is over, we get the Zappa's infamous quote, "Everybody in this room is wearing a uniform, and don't kid yourself".
Track 9: "Valarie" 5/5
This is the bottom piece of bread, the second pseudo doo-wop song. It has an appropriate and enjoyable lazy, sloppy--maybe even "skanky"--groove, enhanced by the guitar fluttering through Leslie speakers. Especially with the vocals, it sometimes sounds like we're trudging through molasses. In other words, holy cow we're pleasantly stuffed after eating all of that Burnt Weeny Sandwich!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My favorite mothers album., December 11, 2001
This review is from: Burnt Weeny Sandwich (Audio CD)
This is, by far and away, my favorite album from the Mothers of Invention. I completely fell in love with it the first time I heard it and will probably stay in my top-ten favorite list until I die.
Starting with the fifties doo-wop of "WPLJ" and ending with the fifties doo-wop of "Valerie", Burnt Weeny Sandwhich is a beautiful recording of live and studio instrumentals that is further proof that Frank Zappa, was indeed, WAY ahead of his time. He and good buddy, Captain Beefheart, presented the world with some of the greatest and most eccentric music ever recorded. No, Beefheart is not on this record (please check out "Trout Mask Replica"), but what we get here is some great musical arrangements and some damn fine guitar playing (wait till you hear track 4).
Among many other things, I believe that this album (or any album by the Mothers) enhances creativity. Billy Bob Thornton once said that "if you listen to this stuff while you write, no matter what you're workin' on, it's gonna come out a little different." He was right. He listened to this over and over while writing "Sling Blade" and that screenplay won him an Oscar. I believe he knows what he's talking about.
Anyway, if you still have some doubts, just get the album and let the music do the talking. They really don't make music like this anymore. I miss Frank Zappa...
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
