Customer Reviews

You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore - Vol. 5

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was a little wary of buying this one at first---I wanted disc two (featuring the 1982 band) but not disc one (featuring the 1960s Mothers). I like the Original Mothers, but after Weasels and Uncle Meat and the Ark and the Mystery Disc, etc, I was a little Mothered-out.

But disc one exceeded my expectations: it's much funnier than I thought it would be, and there are some really exciting musical tracks. My one complaint is that the dialogue-to-music ratio is a bit high.

Disc two is extraordinary. Some of the songs were played better on other recordings, I think, especially Easy Meat and Dead Girls of London (on Tinseltown Rebellion and the bootleg Any Way the Wind Blows), but What's New in Baltimore and Moggio are superb, and I was surprised at how well A Pound for a Brown came out. RDNZL is a personal favorite as well. Disc two contains almost no dialogue, which is a nice contrast to the first disc. (I also think Scott Thunes plays better on this disc than any other.)

Keep in mind that FZ's not-so-secret agenda in the YCDTOSA series (-especially- this volume) was to demonstrate how bad the Original Mothers were compared to later bands, such as 1974 and 1982. Well...it worked...although the Original Mothers were a lot more talented than FZ makes them out to be.

This is definitely a fine CD for the Zappaphile to own. I'm not a huge fan of the guitar/synth Zappa line-ups of the late '70s and early '80s, but they possessed a lot of skill and are worth checking out.

One thing I see all the time, is when people review volume 5 of "You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore," (or any, for that matter), and think that Zappa's comment in the sleeve notes in the series about the original Mothers' talent, compared to later bands, is supposed to show a lack of ability and talent on the part of the original band. This is glaringly wrong. To parse this quote: 'Great care has been taken throughout to ensure the best audio quality, however early selections of historical interest performed by the original Mothers Of Invention, though not exactly "hi-fi," have been included for the amusement of those fetishists who still believe the only "good" material was performed by that particular group.' This is his gift to fans of the original band. He was aware of a segment of his fan base that still prefers the early material.
"Hopefully, comparisons to recordings by the later ensembles will put an end to that particular misconception." This only means that one of his favorite ensembles, the 1982 touring band, is a good contrast to the old material. If he didn't like any of it, there would be as little of it included here as possible. Disc one is a cross section of the early players, not just the performances, but the attitude of that particular band. Jim Black singing on the tour bus like some drunk ready to be thrown out of a bar, is an anthropological recording, a statement of how the guys carried on in those days. Not a spotlight of "talent," but more, what they were about. And FZ's disparaging comments about the original Mothers notwithstanding, they were one of the best bands to perform, in a studio, or on stage.

Disc Two, is a cross section of performances by the 1982 band, which, he has said numerous times, played "beautifully." Hearing this disc, is almost like attending a single live performance by this particular band. Pretty representative of a typical early 80's show. Some commercial material ("Dancin' Fool"), extended jams ("A Pound For A Brown"), displays of the bands individual chops ("RDNZL"), and my particular favorite part of the disc, "Geneva Farewell." Some idiot threw something onto the stage, and if you follow Frank Zappa's live performances, even casually, you'll notice he always stressed, "Don't throw stuff onto the stage," this was a common announcement he made from the stage at his shows. So, at this point, he says, "Okay, if you throw anything else onto the stage, the concert's over." You then hear a translator plead to the audience what Zappa said. Then the moron in the audience doesn't take him seriously, and throws something at him anyway. The response? "Houselights! The concert's over." And I hope the people in the audience taught this guy a lesson.

I'll review the other volumes of this series as time and circumstance will allow, but I chose this one first, mostly because of what I saw in reviews about the Mothers on Disc 5, and misconceptions about the comments about misconceptions concerning the early band. If this makes any sense. :-)

Also: A reference to FZ's solos on "Underground Freak Out...". The guitar solos in question, are Lowell George's. Zappa conducted the band here, like an orchestra.

For those of us who are diehard Zappa fans, this volume of YCDTOSA is very interesting. It its FZ's way to prove to us that, whatever we say, the 82 band was musically light years ahead of our beloved original Mothers.

Disc 1 is devoted to the (nearly) original band from 69. If you know your Zappa, you'll be pleased to hear yet another version (under a different name) of the Gas Mask, or some wonderful Garret Theater type sessions, or even a King Kong without the theme. I would say this is only for the initiated who will appreciate the coarse subtelties (if you allow the contradictory statement) of the time. Roy Estrada at his yelling best.

Disc 2 is fully devoted to the wondeful musicianship of the 82 band. Absolutely impeccable even when having syringes thrown at them. Just listen to the Black Page.

Not a begginers' record.

In case you don't read my sprawling,self indulgent review below, you should get this album for one reason:CD2. THE 82 BAND. Highlights include an awesome pound for a brown, a monstrous black page, an earth-shattering what's new in baltimore, an incredible easy meat, a sensational rdnzl, a fabulous moggio, a super advance romance, a ... city of tiny lights, a just plain marvellous shall we take ourselves seriously. It's as good as it gets. CD1 has some nice things in it too, notably 'here lies love', 'underground freak out music', 'charles ives', 'my guitar' and 'baked bean boogie'. Plenty of treats on this disc too, let's not forget that this contains music from the original mothers of invention, the original, and the best (except for the 82,73,74,88,77,78,75,79,81,76,84 bands) thank you.

On Disc 1, the `excerpts and edits' approach doesn't quite work. Items like `Proto-Minimalism' and `Meow' don't really communicate anything when taken out of context; the Mozart Ballet clearly needs to be seen as well as heard; `Baked Bean Boogie' and `Underground Freak-Out' (a King Kong excerpt) only emphasize the fact that Zappa was the worst soloist in his own group at the time; a different edit of `Black Beauty' (aka `No Waiting...') is used to pad out the disc - this, an incomplete `Trouble' with near-inaudible vocals, and a mere snippet of `Little House'/'Hunchback Duke' were not necessary inclusions...and `Where's Our Equipment' (merely three minutes, from the same show as `Ian Underwood Whips It Out') only leaves you gagging for more.

On the credit side, Zappa-the-editor manages to make something interesting out of yet another Gas Mask + sex noises routine (`Right There', a variant of `Skweezit'), there are some important obscurities (the terrific `Downtown Talent Scout', `Charles Ives', Lowell's vocal `Here Lies Love' and `Chocolate Halvah'), and even if some of the extracted dialogue/bad-singing-by-JCB is worthless, `German Lunch' is actually funny the first few times you hear it.

Having said all that, the deleted `official bootlegs' - `Our Man In Nirvana' and `Electric Aunt Jemima' - are a better way to experience the original Mothers in far out mode.

Disc 2 is where the action is - other reviewers have said it all, I'll simply add that this is the only place you can get `Shall We Take Ourselves Seriously'. A disc with the `Easy Meat' (the finished version), `Moggio/What's New In Baltimore', `RDNZL', `Pound...' and `Black Page' recommends itself.

This is very different to Disc2. A lot of this is very freaky and hippie. Some of it is just recorded silliness. Several good songs though. Some fantastic grooves.

You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore (Part 5) is the fifth in a series of six double CD's that include 38 tracks of live performances. YCDTOSA 5 includes the largest number of tracks in the series. In addition, unlike the other CDs in the YCDTOSA series, part 5 has the largest number of obscure tracks. Although, I never saw the "Mozart Ballet" (track 5, CD 1) performed live, I found the music a hoot. The sound engineering on most of the performances on all of the 6 volumes are quite good. The exception on volume 5 is track 13 "Trouble Every Day." The sound engineering is terrible! Nothing I could do with my equalizer could offer any improvement. This is sad because this presentation has some great potential.

As you will know from the blurb the album focusses on two eras . The 69 mothers (mostly) is on disc 1, disc 2 is devoted to the great 82 band. Disc1 is more hit and miss, because the mothers of invention were a really experimental group. Disc1 has some straightforward songs like downtown talent scout, here lies love, my guitar,trouble every day. These are terrific. There are some instrumental items like charles ives and run home slow theme, these are very good too. Also some guitar solos like baked bean boogie and underground freakout music. There are good solos from both Frank Zappa and Lowell George. We also have a drum solo with fz/art tripp/jimmy carl black, it's good enough. Then there's some funny dialog, jimmy carl black and kansas on the bus, german lunch...there's also a bizarre track called chocolate halvah with roy estrada, and another mad one with ian underwood playing mozart on piano and the mothers making chicken noises and the like. It's an uneven cd, i just wish they had stuck on a few more songs, or maybe a big instrumental passage (you know, like the one on BWS). So cd1 is not for the ages, but it is good. Onto cd2, which is all 1982 stuff. It's terrific. We start off with 'easy meat'. The form of Easy meat is like this: verse1-verse2-classical section-whopping guitar solo-classical section again-verse3-that's it. This is a great track with a great zappa solo. (However if you want to hear an astonishing Easy Meat, check out the album tinseltown rebellion). 'Dead girls of London' is a good little tune and no more. This leads onto 'Shall we take ourselves seriously?' which is a fab tune. Its only short, and segues into a marvellous version of 'what's new in baltimore? (i don't know) zappa does a great solo and the song has lyrics unlike the mothers of prevention version. Moggio is played with a lot of skill, Scott Thunes outstanding on bass. a beautiful tune. Dancin fool is played quite fast, a great song. Then a great version of RDNZL. The intro is played beautifully by ed mann. there's great guitar and mini moog too. Advance romance is a cracker as is city of tiny lights. Both are great songs, advance romance making its nth appearance! Two great solos too. Pound for a brown is definitely one of the highlights of the album, and the entire stage series. It's played at breakneck speed, then Ray white does a remarkable kind of scat/guitar solo which is fantastic. Ed Mann gets a little vibe solo and Frank solos majestically at the end and we go into a snappy Doreen sung By Ray White ...who else. Then a monumental Black Page. This is one of the great Zappa instrumentals which also makes its nth appearance. Frank has a monumental guitar solo here, some of which appears on the 'guitar' album. It's amazing. When the song ends Frank warns the Swiss crowd..'if you throw anything else on the stage, the concert is over.' We hear a guy talk French and plead to the crowd. Suddenly Frank says 'house lights, the concert's over'. Damn Shame! Thank you

Worth owning for the disco vamp in Doreen alone. All YCDTOSA volumes are essential for any serious music / Zappa fan. However, I tend to agree that this may be the least perfect of them all. Disc one is a prelude to th Flo and Eddie era that is documented so wel on Playground Psychotics and is a little ythin on musical surprises. Disc 2, however, is a great introduction to the '82 band, which is my favorite after Roxy and 1988. Incredible playing for a live band.

This CD seems like FZ wanting to never ever be reminded again on the early Mothers - although they were ahead of their time. But just listen to the perfectness and tightness of the 82-Band on Disk 2 making pieces like 'Moggio' sound like if it was child's play. Stunning!!!