Customer Reviews

Man From Utopia

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Those who believe FZ's albums decreased in quality and enjoyment as the 80's progressed need to re-listen to this 1983 release.

"The Man From Utopia" is even better than the previous year's "Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch". To begin, the album-cover artwork on this album is much more appealing and clever than the primitive artwork on "...Drowning Witch" (which is the 2nd worst album cover of all of FZ's albums; the #1 place for rotten artwork goes to the "Filmore East 1971" album).

The fact that the All Music Guide rated this FZ's worst official album (2/5 stars) baffles me. The album begins with 2 fantastic songs:

1. "Cocaine Decisions" is about the cocaine fad among yuppies of the 80's that is still a powerful anti-drug song.

2. "Sex" may seem a bit juvenile with its lyrics but it is so catchy and fun to listen to. Its chorus "the bigger the cushin' the better the pushin'" was almost stolen word-for-word by Spinal Tap a year later for their song "Big Bottom."

The next gem on the album is "The Dangerous Kitchen" - with its frightening background music and lyrics about how one's dity kitchen can harm them if they are not careful. PLAY THIS ON YOUR I-POD AT 3AM WHILE YOU'RE WALKING TO THE KITCHEN FOR A LATE-NIGHT SNACK...I DARE YA!!!

In "Stick Together", FZ exposes how Unions are not the perfect organizations they pretend to be. "The Man From Utopia Meets Mary Lou" is an old medley of two oldies tunes that is reminiscent of the songs from the "Cruising With Ruben & The Jets" album...in other words, a real treat.

With these 5 tunes and the rest in between, how can you go wrong if you're an FZ fan??? Maybe you won't like it if you only like Zappa's complex musical compositions and not his semi-raunchy but always amusing lyrics to go with the music. I like it all.

Of course, I didn't start out that way but his music grew on me.

A lot of fun must have been had in the making of this album, which is a bit freer than Zappa's previous album "Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch," but regardless a lot of work has been put into it.
In the sense of humor and lyrical topics, this is the most "stupid" album I believe Zappa has ever recorded, but that stupidity is unusually funny in combination with superb musical performances like these.
"Cocaine Decisions" is a piano and harmonica dominated rock song with an 8th-note based bass line and a lyric that speaks out against drugs, and "SEX" is a heavily laid back rock song with an obvious lyrical topic.
"Tink Walks Amok" should be of great interest to bass players; a tune played in various odd-time signatures on drums, percussion, electric bass and piccolo bass.
"The Radio is Broken" is a very FZ-ish "homage" to old "cheap" science fiction movies and their stars (Richard Basehart, John Agar, Jackie Coogan...). Various styles of music is performed in this song (odd-time fusion/jazz/rock/reggae,) the "melody" is intentionally as out-of key as possible, and for me this is a ROTFL case, as is "The Jazz Discharge Party Hats" (recorded live,) where Zappa improvises both lyrics and melody to an up-tempo accompaniment of double-bass driven jazz. The vocal melodies to the above mentioned song and "The Dangerous Kitchen" have been transcribed and over-dubbed on guitar by Steve Vai - the result is so accurate it's uncanny!
"We Are Not Alone" is an instrumental tune with a baritone sax melody, "The Man From Utopia Meets Mary Lou" is a medley of piano-dominated bluesy rock covers, "Stick Together" is pure reggae, "Luigi & The Wise Guys" is pure doo-wop, and "Moggio" is an amazingly well performed catchy instrumental odd-time composition - there's just so much different stuff here that there's got to be something of interest for everyone.
TMFU is the most entertaining FZ album of the 80's; it's a different album with highly amusing songs, and its overall sound is very clear.

This Zappa record is what "On the Corner" is to Miles Davis.

"The Radio is Broken" is probably the stupidest, funniest and weirdest song Frank Zappa ever wrote. It is "Call any Vegetable" (from Absolutely Free) with Steve Vai on guitar.

"The Radio Is Broken" contains one of the most insanely difficult electric guitar parts Frank ever convinced Steve Vai to play, which Steve plays to the death. But word: the insanely difficult guitar parts steve plays also groove.

Moggio is an incredible song, again showing Frank Zappa and Steve Vai developing a musical language together that only they could deal with. Very difficult music, ala the Black Page, that also swings like a Cab Calloway rave-up song.

The two spoken word songs, The Dangerous Kitchen and the Jazz Discharge Party Hats, were created by Steve Vai listening to live tapes of Frank doing bizarro spoken word Sinatra pieces over drums and bass and then doubling the exact phrases and pitch of Frank's vocals on acoustic guitar. This creates a sound, according to Steve, "like George Benson from Venus."

Is this an IMPORTANT Frank Zappa album? No, nor does it appear meant to be. Frank knew the stuff on this record was so weird and offensive that nobody normal would like it so he just made it even weirder to have fun. But it is probably the best showcase for Steve Vai's playing with Frank.

Because the songs are so weird and so uncommercial, even to Zappa fans, I have always liked it. During this period, Frank did not have a clue how to construct a normal LP of music, since his taste in music was going once again completely over the edge, so he just took what he had made recently and mushed it all together, Ed Wood style.

The Man From Utopia is a freak show with none of the bizarre edges sanded down. The production is incredibly good. The weird mutation of two 1950s doo-wop songs also covered by Bob Seger at about the same time ("The Man From Utopia meets Mary Lou") further heightens the goofiness.

Yes, the 3 instrumentals on this album are pretty damn good, but this is the album which contains the story of the Jazz Discharge Party Hats done in Zappa's famous "meltdown" lyrical style. What can I say-it's some good old-fashioned, offensive, Zappa-style humor!

This is actually a average Zappa album since it has a few tracks I think of as filler;if the lesser tracks had been better this would have been one of the great ones. It is pretty varied in style with rock, meltdown, and jazz mixed in it. Now for a track by track review.

Cocaine Decision - Very funny and grooving track about the blindness of cocaine users (mostly aimed at yuppies) 8/10

Sex - Yet another Zappa track about, you guessed it, sex. The central message is that everyone does it and that ironing board-like woman are no fun - love the chorus. But the song is quite average. 7/10

Tink Walks Amok - Great instrumental work by Arthur ''Tink'' Barrow 10/10

The Radio Is Broken - First meltdown track on this album - very funny with great musicianship by all of the band it is an homage to black and white sci-fi B movies. You can hear the backup singer laughing as Zappa improvises the lyrics (the blobulent suit). 10/10

We Are Not Alone - Another great instrumental 10/10

The Dangerous Kitchen - Another meltdown track funny and disgusting. 8/10

The Man From Utopia Meets Mary Lou - A cover of two classic jazz song, well done and entertaining. But not very Zappa-like. 6/10

Stick Together - Reggae style song about unions - not very good I skip it every time. 4/10

The Jazz Discharge Party Hats - The last meltdown song and the one I like the least, less zany and less entertaining than the other two but still good. 6/10

Luigi And The Wise Guys - Another doo-wop parody by Zappa but not very good, those who like this track should check out Freak Out. 4/10

Moggio- Another great instrumental. 10/10

Due to the meltdown songs this album is not for everyone(it really has no commercial potential) and should be approached by true Zappaphiles. For myself I bought the album after having heard Dangerous Kitchen and I think it is worth having only for that track and for The Radio Is Broken whi is one of my favorite Zappa tracks ever.

A much maligned album, but hilarious stuff. 'sex' and 'cocaine decisions' are amusing, 'luigi and the wise guys' and 'mary lou/man from utopia' are very enjoyable. stick together isn't great, but the 3 instrumentals are tops, especially 'moggio'. Then you have his 3 'meltdown' songs. These are timeless classics. 'radio is broken' is a hilarious song, it's the work of an insane man. As well as being extremely funny ('we fell in love on uranus') it gives you a cosmic scale appreciation of the universe and its phenomena ('the germs from space','the globular stew'). 'dangerous kitchen' is an allegory representing the trials and tribulations of zappa's existence; he must be careful in life, tread with care past the rotten fruit and vegetable armies which conspire to bring his downfall. It shows how materialism conquers mystical pretension and the connection between food and sex in a capitalist economy. 'jazz discharge party hats' is even more hilarious than the previous two songs. You have band members trying to get some action from girls staying in the hotel. There is skinny dipping involved and the wearing of panties on one's head. Frank recounts this hilarious tale in his now infamous meltdown voice...'it looked just like a tiny little party hat'. Extremely funny.

Zappa was not in top shape around this time, but still he turns out some tunes that never cease to amaze me: Tink, Luigi and Moggio are quintessential Zappa, while at the same time something of a surprise. I wonder how Godfather part 1-3 would benefit from the inclusion of Luigi in the soundtrack... I don't like his 'sprech-gesang' really (is this German because it's a typical German habit or what), but generally a good album.

I totally agree with all the previous reviews about this album (except from the guy who gave it 5 stars). I have never seen a grouping of such well written and on the money reviews. Maybe that is because Zappa fans are more articulate and intelligent than the average population.

Some people called Zappa lazy and it does sound like Zappa did not put much work into this album. Some people said you will hate it on first listen. I certainly did, but liked it a little better as I listened more carefully. Some people pointed out that some songs sound derivative of older Zappa material. The beginning of SEX sounds just like "Crew Slut". And another song is just like "Cheepnis" but not nearly as clever.

People described it exactly. Some great, but short instrumental passages. Some songs with not the best Zappa melodies. And about half the album is Zappa doing his sing-song bit. And, there are vocal bits thrown in, doing a bad imitation of the Flo and Eddie days.

Although released in 1983, this was Zappa's second to last "studio" album of original rock music. Ever since Burnt Weenie Sandwich, Zappa has been combing live recordings with studio recordings. So, many of his "studio" recordings have live portions, as does this one. His last studio album of original rock material was "Them Or Us". Thing-Fish was his last studio rock album, but it contained mostly rehashed material. "Broadway the Hardway", which is all live, is his last album of original rock songs. After "Them or US" he must have released 30 albums, but they are either of live concerts, playing old material with a few new songs thrown in, or orchestral music, or his wierd discordant jazz.

There are actually 3 versions of the "Man From Utopia". The original LP. A digitally remixed CD. And since 1992, a radically remixed CD, with an extra song added: Luigi. As with most Zappa LP's, the original LP was short at just over 36 minutes. The addition of Luigi brings this CD up to 40 minutes.

The Man From Utopia is an album that shows some new aspects of Zappa's music and has remained one of my favorites since I originally bought it in 1983. It's difficult to point out one track that stands out as there are many different styles at work throughout the album. Three songs were done in Sprech-Gesang style, which is a mixture of speech and song in a rock context; they are "The Radio is Broken" (originally called "Willing Suspension of Disbelief" during his 1980 tour), "The Dangerous Kitchen" and "Jazz Discharge Party Hats". The title track is a medley of two late 1950's classics: "Man From Utopia" is a cover from the Vel-Aires while "Mary Lou" is a cover from The Coasters - whom Zappa paid tribute on his Absolutely Free album. Interesting note: Steve Miller also did a cover of "Mary Lou" on his Joker album. Another track on the album was done in reggae style, two others are Zappa "rock" numbers, and another "Luigi..." (bonus track on the CD) is done in do-wop style. Finally you have the three instrumental tracks, which tie the whole album together to make it work beautifully. This album has a little something for everyone and is highly recommended from this long time Zappa fanatic!

This was the biggest surprise i got when buying the cds of lps i already have. Of course everybody knows about some mixing differences in almost all of the catalogue, or the adding of modern bass and drums to the old tracks in Ruben & The Jets, or the added vocals on Sleep Dirt...all of which irritated many people. This was the last cd i bought as my spanish printed lp sounded good. For sure i was not expecting the changes in chorus and lead vocals of 'cocaine decisions', the extra organ which changed everything harmonically in 'The Dangerous Kitchen', the totally different mix in 'the radio is broken' or the extra song (Luiggi and the wise guys) which is not in my vinyl version.
Is it better? no, it is just another version of the same album. That Zappa...surprising till the very end!