Saturday, February 15, 2014

Frank Zappa - Hot Rats

I keep bouncing around with the Zappa albums I buy. Some times I buy a later years album. Other days I snag something from the early days. I've had hits and misses with both. I have always been captivated by the album Hot Rats, just based on the name alone. Ever since I first started contemplating Zappa, in my early teens. I mean there are so many images that come to mind when I think of that.

Then I spent a couple of weeks listening to Jay, a guitarist I've been known to jam with, go on and on about Captain Beefheart, and I had just got him into Zappa, so this album seemed right at the time. I finally picked it up, and I'm glad I did. The last couple of albums I had picked up left me with a slightly put off feeling, this one brought me right back into line. It really is amazing to listen to. It captures, that Funk vibe I like, the sweet Soul that's delightful on a Sunday Afternoon, and a whole lot of seventies R&B, the good stuff not that modern crap they use to describe Whitney Huston or Boyz To Men, or whatever Pop crap they want to try and give "cred" to.

Peaches En Regalia opens up the album and what an intro it is. Musically it sounds like something I *know I've heard before. It makes me how many movies have stolen this piece for thier soundtracks in one way or another. This song just dances around with this great Rhythm and Blues vibe that you might expect from a seventies blacksploitation movie, maybe even one as main stream as Shaft (the original), but this song was originally released in 1969. Once again showing how advanced Zappa really was.

Then it's on to Willie The Pimp. This is 9:23 of Frank Zappa goodness with Captain Beefheart laying down some bad ass vocals. Once again this is one of those songs that you might find in something like Car Wash, which I know best for having the amazing George Carlin in it, but many people probably know it better for the theme song that we still get to hear today. I mean this song is bad, and funky, and totally righteous my brother. I mean can you dig what I'm saying. This is the Zappa you need to know. Screw all the other reviews I've written, and really rip into this one. This is also the only song on the album to contain lyrics. "I'm a little pimp with my hair gassed back / Pair a khaki pants with my shoe shined black / Got a little lady . . . walk the street / Tellin' all the boys that she cain't be beat / Twenny dollah bill (I can set you straight) / Meet me onna corner boy 'n don't be late / Man in a suit with a bow-tie neck / Wanna buy a grunt with a third party check / Standin' onna porch of the Lido Hotel / Floozies in the lobby love the way I sell: / HOT MEAT / HOT RATS / HOT CATS / HOT RITZ / HOT ROOTS / HOT SOOTS / HOT MEAT / HOT RATS / HOT CATS / HOT ZITZ / HOT ROOTS / HOT SOOTS".

That is followed by Son Of Mr. Green Genes, which is a refernce to one of the characters from the legendary original Captain Kangaroo. The track is completely instrumental, and sounds like it once again could be from a movie score, but a movie released almost a decade after this album. Also much like a piece out of a movie score, this one runs a bit on the longer side, if you suffer from commercial attention span syndrome. This work of musical enjoyment runs 8:57, but if you just let the music take you away, you'll never notice.

Next up is Little Umbrellas, which I know Zappa lifted from elsewhere. This is one of those songs that the riff sounds just like what you'd expect to hear if you saw a couple drinking coffee in front of the Eifle Tower in good old Paris, or maybe while traveling down the canals of Venice, or even in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. But then it also has instrumentation and sounds that could be easily mistaken for coming from the Middle East, or Northern Africa.

The Gumbo Variations is a Sax driven track that sounds like it came from the Acid Jazz Section of an Upbeat New Orleans. I mean this is one of those pieces that common populace would use to explain why they don't like Jazz, but I fucking love it. This is some crazy, deep dish, musical exploration. I don't even notice the 12:54 that it takes for this one to complete. I mean this song is just totally out of sight and rockin' and bitchin' in all the best ways to use those words. I guess I should also mention the violin solo courtesy of Sugar Cane Harris. Metal guitarists should take note.

The album ends with It Must Be A Camel. This is some serious lounge Jazz like stuff going on here. I once worked at an executive lounge for gentlemen. Okay, it was a strip joint, but the type that classed it up with nice looking furniture and delicate, but not sleepytime Jazz playing as background music in between dancer's sets. This track reminds me of that music, but a lot more experimantal. I'm not sure if the DJ would have been able to get away with blending this into that mix, but it would have been cool. This is the only song on the album I would describe as being weak in any way, which for me makes it a so-so closer, but hey what are you going to do? Not everyone wants to close with a long track.

When it comes down to it, the only thing that holds this album back, in my eyes, is the production in the age in which it was recorded. If this had been recorded between six and ten years later, as you might expect from such soudning music, it would most likely have a fuller and more rich sound. However, when you consider this was released the same year as The Beatles Abbey Road, the Fab Four ain't got shit on this album. Seriously, this album should have schooled them without even trying.

9/10 - content

7/10 - production

9/10 - personal bias

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