Frank Zappa and Don Van Vliet
met in the late 1950s, when Vliet was a teenage sculptor and Zappa the drummer
for a California band called The Blackouts. They quickly formed a lasting (yet
volatile) friendship and musical partnership. Their band The Soots in the early
‘60s performed some of Zappa’s first rock compositions, and Van Vliet took his
stage name, Captain Beefheart, from a film script Zappa had written called Captain Beefheart vs. the Grunt People.
In 1969, the Zappa/Beefheart
collaboration reached its arguable zenith, when Zappa produced Beefheart’s
surreal double album Trout Mask Replica,
and in turn invited him to sing on “Willie the Pimp” on Zappa’s own Hot Rats. Beefheart’s raspy voice and
free-verse poetry seemed to unleash Zappa somewhat – their collaborative
material has a ferocity not often found in the composer’s work.
The Mothers of Invention and
Beefheart’s Magic Band would frequently tour together, but it wasn’t until
1975’s Bongo Fury that Zappa and his
longtime friend made their first and only collaborative album. Bongo Fury is credited to Zappa,
Beefheart and the Mothers, and is largely made up of live recordings from two
shows at Armadillo World Headquarters in May of 1975, one of the few times
Beefheart performed on stage with Zappa’s band.
As a historical document, it
certainly captures a musical anomaly well. Bongo
Fury is loud and bluesy, the Mothers matching Beefheart's raspy, shouty vibe.
Much of it stands in contrast to the relatively slick material Zappa had been
producing for the previous three years – there’s an unrestrained messiness to
the opener, “Debra Kadabra,” that had not been heard on a Mothers album since Weasels Ripped My Flesh.
But with that ferocity comes
a certain simplicity, and beyond the jump-cut arrangement of “Debra Kadabra”
and the odd, loping “Cucamonga” (one of two studio tracks here), this album
traffics in traditional blues and rock. Both “Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy” and
“Advance Romance” pound their singular riffs into submission, though “Carolina”
does so with a breezy feel and some lush harmonies. “200 Years Old” is a
straight-up blues, while closer “Muffin Man” begins with a lengthy spoken
section (yes, about a guy who makes muffins) and ends with three minutes of the same guitar riff on repeat.
That’s unfortunate, since Bongo Fury offers the final chance to
hear the Roxy band in action. George Duke, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Bruce and Tom
Fowler and Chester Thompson return here, joined by slide guitarist Denny
Walley. The most notable debut here belongs to drummer Terry Bozzio, a mainstay
of Zappa’s late ‘70s band. There’s scarcely a trace here of the insanely
complex work Bozzio would deliver in just a couple short years, however.
The star of this album,
musically speaking, is Zappa himself. While the early ‘70s Mothers were an
ensemble, with most members able to turn in a solo, virtually all of that lead
space is taken by Zappa here, ripping things up on the guitar. He’s especially
incendiary on the 11-minute “Advance Romance,” trading licks with Beefheart on
the harmonica. His playing on this album catches fire, snarling and spitting
and stamping its hooves. The solos on this album set the stage for the more
guitar-centric work Zappa would deliver through the rest of the ‘70s and into
the ‘80s.
Beefheart contributes two of
his trademark acid-fueled vignettes, with typically Beefheart titles: “Sam with
the Showing-Scalp Flat-Top” and “Man with the Woman Head.” They serve to break
up what is an otherwise fairly monotonous recording. Zappa also has some fun
with the impending bicentennial celebration (and its attendant
commercialization of patriotism) in the cautionary tale “Poofter’s Froth
Wyoming Plans Ahead.” “T-shirt racks, rubber snacks, poster rolls with matching
tacks, yes a special beer for sports and paper cups that hold two quarts… this
buy-cent-any-all salute, two hundred years have gone ka-poot…”
Despite this, and the
undisputed catchiness of “Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy,” Bongo Fury is a severe step down from the rest of Zappa’s 1970s
output. It feels like a side project, and brings to an end a four-album streak
of excellence. Zappa would collaborate with Beefheart once more, on the
Captain’s aborted (and now resurrected) Bat
Chain Puller album, and Van Vliet would make scattered appearances on Zappa albums
(including the next one, Zoot Allures).
Though their one full record together is at times a delight for fans of dirty
blues, his absence from here on is probably for the best.
It is with this album that we
bid farewell to the Mothers of Invention as well. Zappa would never again use
the band name on a new album, and nearly all of the Roxy band would dissipate
before the sessions for Zoot Allures.
By the time of the next tour, Ruth Underwood would be the only holdover. The
eons, as Zappa once said, truly were closing.
Rating:
Skippable.
Which version to buy: The 2012 Zappa/Universal remaster uses the original
1975 analog mix as its source, and sounds tremendous.
Next week:
Well, I’ll be in New York. (And it’s still two entries too early to make a
Zappa in New York joke.) But the Buyer’s Guide will return on June 24 with Zoot
Allures.
No comments:
Post a Comment