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Ahead of Their Time
Home > Complete List of "x-z" Artists > Frank Zappa > Item 98
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Ahead of Their Time
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by Frank Zappa
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$11.98
At Amazon
on 9-8-2008.
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You get two performances for the price of one: enforced recreation/drama and musical presentation. This is a FZ/Mothers of Invention London Royal Festival Hall concert from October 28th, 1968. The FZ faithful have heard a litle bit of this show before, specifically "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Sexually Aroused Gas Mask" and "The Orange County Lumber Truck" on the "Weasels Ripped My Flesh" LP. Other than these (edited) bits, this is newly released material. FZ calls the first half of the album a "cheesy little psycho drama," and if you're a fan of traditional Mothers of Invention stage antics, you're in hog heaven. By comparison, this is no involved epic a la "Live at the Fillmore East." The cheez factor is pretty high here, with some sight gags onstage, easy enough to figure out if you're really listening and have read the liner notes. It's standard FZ on-the-road musical theater, with shots at pop music and pop culture, with a mildly enthusiastic and strictly polite English audience laughing and applauding in all of the right places. This album doesn't warm up musically until track 11 and "King Kong," and it's only after track 15, "Sleeping in a Jar" that this musical portion of the show really picks up and starts to rock. The album then just steamrolls through the finale, a wonderful, extended, full, boss-band "Orange County Lumber Truck (Part II)." FZ himself, true to form, is a bit more critical, describing this musical portion of the album (tracks 11-20) as "a fair-not outstanding--1968 MOI rock concert performance." The liner notes are a true winner, produced like an old-timey theater handbill. On one side you've got a great full-color Cal Schenkel portrait-suitable for framing! On the flip side you've got the handbill itself, also illustrated by Cal Schenkel, with a list of the artists, background on the show and its recording, a plot of the psycho drama, and a semi-detailed track listing. Is this album for the FZ novice? Nope. This is not an entry-level FZ recording. It's a bit too esoteric, a little too deep into the FZ/MOI cosmology. But, for the true FZ/MOI fan-you betcha; it's a must. This is well worth the investment for the first ten tracks alone, and is a keeper for the great live FZ/MOI songs in the second half of the album.
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Ahead of Their Time
Available from Amazon
Price: $11.98
Updated on 9-8-2008.
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