Frank Zappa - The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life [1991]

Frank Zappa
The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life


Label: Zappa Records
Released: 1991
Source: Original CD
Size Torrent: 924 MB
Format: FLAC




Composer, guitarist, singer, and bandleader Frank Zappa was a singular musical figure during a performing and recording career that lasted from the 1960s to the '90s. His disparate influences included doo wop music and avant-garde classical music; although he led groups that could be called rock & roll bands for much of his career, he used them to create a hybrid style that bordered on jazz and complicated, modern serious music, sometimes inducing orchestras to play along. As if his music were not challenging enough, he overlay it with highly satirical and sometimes abstractly humorous lyrics and song titles that marked him as coming out of a provocative literary tradition that included Beat poets like Allen Ginsberg and edgy comedians like Lenny Bruce. Nominally, he was a popular musician, but his recordings rarely earned significant airplay or sales, yet he was able to gain control of his recorded work and issue it successfully through his own labels while also touring internationally, in part because of the respect he earned from a dedicated cult of fans and many serious musicians, and also because he was an articulate spokesman who promoted himself into a media star through extensive interviews he considered to be a part of his creative effort just like his music. The Mothers of Invention, the '60s group he led, often seemed to offer a parody of popular music and the counterculture (although he affected long hair and jeans, Zappa was openly scornful of hippies and drug use). By the '80s, he was testifying before Congress in opposition to censorship (and editing his testimony into one of his albums). But these comic and serious sides were complementary, not contradictory. In statement and in practice, Zappa was an iconoclastic defender of the freest possible expression of ideas. And most of all, he was a composer far more ambitious than any other rock musician of his time and most classical musicians, as well.



THE BEST BAND YOU NEVER HEARD IN YOUR LIFE

One of three collections from the 1988 world tour, THE BEST BAND YOU NEVER HEARD IN YOUR LIFE is a portrait of one of Zappa's most accomplished bands. Unfortunately, this band self-destructed in mid-tour and never completed their scheduled appearances. Hence, the title stands for the fans that couldn't see this amazing group live. The vocals of Ike Willis and Mike Keneally, the rhythmic acrobatics of Chad Wackerman, Ed Mann and Scott Thunes, the powerful horn section including the Fowler brothers, keyboardist/vocalist Bobby Martin--it all adds up to one of the most musically agile bands Zappa ever commanded.

There are the usual Zappa favorites on disc one with "Cosmic Debris" and "Zomby Woof." The band also gets to flex its muscles on the instrumentals "Zoot Allures" and "Sofa #1." Disc two captures all the zany behavior that could be preserved on tape as bizarre covers of "Purple Haze" and "Sunshine Of Your Love" start things off. Snippets of "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling," "The Godfather Theme" and "Bonanza" escalate into a diatribe by right-wing character Brother A. West and several songs denouncing televangelist Jimmy Swaggart. The finale of "Stairway To Heaven" ties everything back together in grand Zappa style.

Recorded live in 1988.





BOLERO

When this CD came out, there was a LOT of trouble with Zappa's "Bolero" cover. Ravel's estate had tons of objections to it, and the result was that Zappa had to remove "Bolero" from the European version, where the estate's copyright was still effective. (Rumour has it that Zappa even had to publish a written apology somewhere, stating that it was never his "intent" to "pervert" the composition, or somesuch.) "Bolero" stayed on American versions. Japanese versions without "Bolero" have been reported.



Different Covers

When this CD came out in America and Europe, the cover was a picture of the band on stage. It turned out that Zappa had used this picture without the photographer's permission, so the cover had to be revoked. Zappa replaced it with a blank, black cover. The Japanese CD had a different cover, drawn by Cal Schenkel, which was used for the 1995 re-issue. (Perhaps the Japanese CD came out after the original cover had already been stopped.)





Personnel

Frank Zappa (lead guitar, synthesizer, vocals)
Ike Willis (rhythm guitar, synthesizer, vocals)
Mike Keneally (rhythm guitar, synthesizer, vocals)
Bobby Martin (keyboards, vocals)
Ed Mann (vibes, marimba, electronic percussion)
Walt Fowler (trumpet, flugel horn, synthesizer)
Bruce Fowler (trombone)
Paul Carman (alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, baritone saxophone)
Albert Wing (tenor saxophone)
Kurt McGettrick (baritone saxophone, bass saxophone, contrabass clarinet)
Scott Thunes (electric bass, mini-moog)
Chad Wackerman (drums, electronic percussion)



Track Listing


Disc One

"Heavy Duty Judy"