Customer Reviews

Playground Psychotics

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

 

 

If you are not a die-hard fan or only a casual FZ fan, then it is recommended that you wait and purchase this album at a later time.

The two teasures in this album are:

1. "Scumbag" - the infamous Jam between FZ, John Lennon & Yoko Ono from 1971. Lennon put this song on his "Sometime In New York" album but removed Flo & Eddie's backing vocals. This is the original version that the fans were meant to hear.

2. "Billy The Mountain" - This is the 30 minute version that includes the electric piano solo not included in the 24 minute version released on the "Just Another Band From L.A." album. There are also less out-dated references in this version, making this the "superior" version of this story song about a mountain named Billy, his tree-wife Ethel and the disasters and murder they cause. If you're reading this article, you probably already know the story.

The rest contains snippets of dialogue from the Flo & Eddie period of the "Mothers" Band (1970-71) that is somewhat intersting but nothing amazing or essential, save the "Mudshark Interview" with an Edgewater Inn employee that further explains the meaning of the "Mud Shark" dance/song found on the Fillmore East album.

If you hate the Flo & Eddie period of FZ's music, stay away from this one.

If you're just starting your FZ collection this wouldn't be a great place to start, it might put you off. This is music and dialogue snippets from Frank Zappa's 1970-1971 band, which featured flo and eddie, aynsley dunbar, george duke(1970), don preston(1971) jim pons (71) jeff simmons(70) ian underwood, and sometimes bob harris(71). If you don't know much about Frank's various line-ups and their popularity with the fans, well then this particular group is the least popular, and is often joked about and had nasty things said about it by the fans on their web pages or whatever mainly for the presence of flo and eddie who sang with high pitched whiney vocals. Some of this abuse is way over the top especially when you listen to some of the music. The dialogue portions are mildly entertaining, it's better if you've seen 200 motels and are familiar with this band. There is a funny interview with a hotel proprietor concerning mudshark fishing from hotel bedrooms and possible 'acts' with the fish. A few candid tape recorded moments too.

There is quite a bit of music on the album, i reckon about 80 to 90 minutes worth and most of it is excellent. Don Preston shines on minimoog, for example the intro to 'scumbag' also on 'billy the mountain'. Lots of flo and eddie versions of old mothers tunes: 'cruising for burgers', sleeping in a jar, mom and dad, concentration moon, status back baby .A really top Sharleena. If you can come to terms with the singing, these are terrific! Divan is part of the sofa routine, zanti is a sound check , brixton still life is a good guitar solo . Then you have John and Yoko doing their thing, it's a mixed bag. 'well' and 'scumbag' are enjoyable. Then you have yoko ono screeching for about 15 minutes(ok about 3 or 4 minutes, but it seemed like 15). Avant-garde or just poo-poo? Take your pick. CD2 has a majestic billy the mountain. This is an acquired taste but grows on you. It shows how frank could combine comedy routine with great music, and also has don preston solo. Overall it's as good as the other flo and eddie live stuff like filmore 71 and just another band from LA, if not better. I suppose the extra money might be a minus factor, but it's got lots of good bits.

Lukewarm side-project of '92. "Billy the Mountain" is an excellent epic with some on-target comedy for "Funny Zappa" fans but not enough creativity really for "Genius Zappa" fans. Both sections of "A Typical Day On the Road" are only for fans interested in hearing some of the Mothers' unpleasant conversations during their tours. Hardly good listening. "The True Story of 200 Motels" is better, but still...However, along with "Billy the Mountain" there are other standouts on this 2-disc set; "Concentration Moon" and "Mom & Dad" both have excellent live renditions here, and a few of his rare jam sessions will be a real treat for seasoned Zappa veterans. Also of note to Beatlemaniacs (like your's truly) Zappa's promised mix of the "Fillmore East" jam sessions with John Lennon and Yoko are also included. "Scumbag" sounds more complete (you find there are more than "two words" in the song) and all of the tracks sound much cleaner than those on "Sometime in New York City." Zappa's genius pops through occassionally on this album, but it is for the initiated only.

While this CD does contain a seemingly endless collection of intrusive and often oppressive tape recorded snippets from life with the Mothers on the road, this CD is still a MUST for Zappa fans. Why? Three words: Billy the Mountain. This epic half-hour-long tune will take you on a musical journey alonside Billy (an actual mountain) and his wife Ethel (a tree growing out his side) as they spread havoc across America, on their way to New York to collect royalties for all the postcards they's unknowingly posed for. Musically, it is vintage early-70s Zappa, with Flo and Eddie wailing over Frank's bizarre chord progressions and unpredictable rythms, making for a wild, but compelling, musical ride. Billy the Mountain in concert is an experience that is well worth sifting through the less-inspiring content on this CD.

It took me a long time to see the light, but Playground Psychotics finally set the record straight. I now see the '71 line-up of The Mothers as - yes - the quintessential Frank Zappa group, that is the combo that synthesizes best, IMO, the most main elements that go into Zappa's thing, in a single tourable outfit. Think about it. It combines formidable old Mothers (Underwood, Preston), formidable new Mothers (Ainsley Dunbar, Bob Harris #1, vocalists Flo & Eddie), a rare collective vocal strength (Flo & Eddie + bassist Jim Pons + Zappa), and last but not least, a delightfully much present FZ on lead/rhythm guitar (solos of all sizes and shapes - ah, the sadly lost art of the wah-wah pedal! - but also plenty of imaginative and fun comping and fillings, and performing of written lines along with the group). The ability of the band to get away convincingly with nearly anything thrown at it: stately classical material, atonal improvisations, circus incidental stuff, traditional blues, hymns and marches, R&B, serial music, electronics, "Turtle pop", then some red hot modal jazz... is simply awe-inspiring... There was humor aplenty... of many dimensions ... (if you consider all of their recordings and not just "Fillmore East, June 1971"), which is something that's been often overlooked: from politics to rock 'n' roll impersonations, regionalisms/folklore to pure surrealism, vaudevillian skits to news media and publicity lampoons... Although I missed them when they were around, I think I can now see that these Mothers were THE "global Zappa experience".

As previous reviewers indicated, "Playground" features a LOT of "anthropological road tapes". As many, I don't see much relevance into that, besides maybe 1st time interest. But if you bear with it, these 2 CDs also offer tons of excellent live music: different versions of known pieces from this same band, new versions of older pieces, an interesting and revealing fresh mix of the Lennon/Ono/Zappa gig (featured up to then only on Lennon's "Sometime in New-York City"), and new pieces, mostly strange and captivating instrumental improvs. Mini (!)-opera "Billy the Mountain" has Ian Underwood playing on a lovely clarinet what was the synth part of the then-known version, and its "Studebacker Hoch" section features one exciting jam with Bob Harris on electric piano. It is fascinating to behold, with this recording, how such an involving, long piece was presented to the audience so well rehearsed, but also that the band had so much flexibility as to add-lib in it, here and there, adapt bits of dialogues to the geographical context of the tour, in other words, to actually make the thing (and what a "thing": a bass-voice, mobile mountain married to a tree growing off of his shoulder and roaming through America with unspeakable intents!) live and breathe every night... Special mention should go here to the incredible Ainsley Dunbar, with his sense of humor built in an always exciting, passionate drumming style.

One might be less enthusiastic about some tempo variations tried here by Zappa on certain Mothers of Invention classics of the past. This is sometimes unfortunate because the versions would otherwise be very lively and exciting, in part because Kaylan, Volman (Flo & Eddie) and Pons are great at recreating/revamping the doo-wop vocal style that was a specialty of the 60s line-up of this group.

But those reserves aside, the whole thing is pure Wagnerian Vaudeville Supreme... What other band of then or now could claim coming even close to that with those chops and humor? So go ahead and make your day with Billy the Mountain and his friends!

After listening to this once, in the future you will skip most of the spoken parts. The music is great however. Billy is actually better, especially the Studebaker part and the recurring Las Vegas theme. They must have performed it a lot in those days but they were still having fun performing it. No need to buy this with your first 20 Zappa cd's however.

Howard Kaylan has to be the WILDEST sounding vocalist I've ever heard. It's hard to believe that's the same set of pipes that originally sang "Happy Together." The partnership between him and Mark Volman began with The Turtles, and continues to this day, two of the funniest guys in the world. And such strange sounding harmonies.

I think some people don't like this because they are expecting pure music, for music's sake. But I see this as a document to life on the road in the early '70's, as the sleeve notes say. This recording is a guided tour of the behind-the-scenes goings-on by this particular line-up of the Mothers, as well as what they put on the stage for their audiences, a "warts-and-all" depiction of the positive and negative sides of life on the road as these guys experienced it.
Someone here said it tries to do what "200 Motels" did, only not as good, or something to that effect. I have to disagree; "200 Motels" was a combination of fantasy, comedy, and documentary, staged by the cast, crew, band, dancers, and extras, while "Playground Psychotics" is the real thing. And it includes script-reading for "200 Motels" as well. To listen to it from the beginning, you meet the guys in the band at an airport, at their destination, at a photo-shoot, in the hotel bar, their arrival at the venue of their performance for the night, and various on-stage and back-stage activities, part one climaxing at the Fillmore in New York, right through the encore section of the show that gave us "Live At Fillmore East, June 1971."

The second half is a little darker, you can hear it in the band members' attitudes toward each other, and their resentment of Zappa's absolute control of the band. He and Mark Volman made many candid recordings of the band's conversations while touring, and I think Zappa was a really good sport, because these conversations were what fueled most of the dialogue for "200 Motels." And his "spying" on the band has been fodder for Frank's material all along anyway.

I probably should have given this a five-star rating, because the performances are killer every time, but some of the material seems to have worked better with other line-ups. The TERRIBLE vocals in the second part of "Concentration Moon" is a good example; because I "get" the point when a good band plays badly on purpose, sometimes something just doesn't cut it when it's technically correct. Some of the humor in the banter between the guys, is decidedly juvenile, locker-room humor, and it can pull things down a peg or two, and on the whole, I really like this whole recording, but something I can't really explain just keeps me from putting a full five stars on it; maybe four and a half (three quarters?).

But, as long you know what you're buying, it is time and money well-spent.

Argue about Zappa's pros and cons all you want. I just want to draw attention to one thing. On Disc 2 the band performs "Mom & Dad", which was originally on We're Only In It for the Money. Listening to it on the original album, it gives you a weird feeling of foreboding of the Kent State Massacre. On the live version, recorded after the shooting, the band turns the song into a powerfully moving tribute. Forget the hippie sentimentality of "Ohio", this recording is powerful!

Zappa's live albums were more than performances. When CDs arrived, Zappa realized he had a format where he had more time to document his live shows. He expaneded a technique he had always used: inserting soundbites between numbers to show what it was like to be on the road during a given period. It was almost like having a back stage pass.

He played this hand broadly on Playgroud Psychtics, a document of the 1970-71 Flo and Eddie Mother's Of Invention roster. This was one of the best Zappa bands for such a format. The start of the 70s was when rock moved out of clubs into arenas, and groupies, drugs and superindulgance became a part of the rock myth. Hearing this we get to hear it unfold.

Between numbers, we get to listen to the Flo/Eddie/Zappa banter, about picking up girls, moving through airports, being asked about music and politics, and what it is like to be king when rock stars ruled the world. The music is great, if fragmented between the banter: listening to Flo and Eddie now, you realize how well they implimented Zappa's operetic stage epics.

Not enough: well, you also get the Mother's jamming with John and Yoko, with much improved sound over Some Time In New York City, with edited portions restored. There is even a soundcheck, early on disc one, where Frank punches off an amazign guitar solo, showing you how he could do something masterful each time he picked up his instrument. This guy could play a kotex.

Playground is essential to understanding the Zappa myth, and is a great collection of live rock.

Ah yes, these were the Flo & Eddie years. This is comedy Zappa, not musical Zappa. Let's face it, when we first heard about Zappa, we were drawn to this stuff, it's later we found out what a great musician he was. With that in mind, this Double CD is worth the price. We get to follow the band as they fly on planes, check into hotels, eat in cheap restaurants, and perform on stage. John Lennon and Yoko Ono also show up for the famed Fillmore tapes, finally released in their entirety. There's an alternate version of Billy the Mountain here, rehearsal's of Penis Demension from 200 Motels, and plenty of back stage bickering, including the departure of bassist Jeff Simmons and Flo & Eddie quibbling with Zappa about the word "The" being left out of text that they were supposed to recite. This is a document of a band that surpasses some moments on the more familiar albums. For a true taste of what it was like to tour with Zappa and his "Playground Psychotics", this is the only way to go.