Published on Sep 27, 2005
When Frank Zappa was working on what would become his final
album (at least that he had control of), one would have thought
that the music contained within would have been angry and
energetic, almost as if Zappa were giving the finger one final time
to the cancer that would claim his life in December 1993.
Instead,
Civilization Phaze III, a disc meant to be a continuation of
the story of the piano-dwellers first breached on
Lumpy Gravy, sounds tired and resigned to the fate that
sadly awaited Zappa.
It’s long been said that
Civilization Phaze III was the sequel to
Lumpy Gravy. Okay, let’s follow that line for a minute and
compare the two.
Lumpy Gravy, admittedly, wasn’t the easiest disc to follow
at times, but contained snippets of music that one could actually
get into as well as some pieces of conversation that kept some
level of the listener’s interest.
Civilization, in contrast, takes the leftovers from the 1967
sessions and tries to work in on the second half new conversations
recorded in 1991 that were supposed to keep the story moving
ahead.
The problem with this is twofold – and, remember, we’re just
focusing on the “piano people” right now. First, one gets the
feeling that Zappa used the best portions of his recordings on
Lumpy Gravy, and the more I listened to the “piano people”
on the first half of
Civilization, the more I’m convinced that these snippets
should have stayed in storage. As for adding in new conversations –
well, I’m sorry, but it just doesn’t work for me. The participants
– including members of Ensemble Modern, who Zappa was working with
at the time to produce
The Yellow Shark – almost sound embarrassed to be doing
this, as if they’re treading on sacred ground against their
will.
Musically, Zappa finds himself almost completely alone again
with the Synclavier – and I don’t care how far technology moved
ahead from 1984 to 1993, or how far it has evolved or will evolve,
music coming out of a machine sounds
just like it’s coming out of a machine. The humanity and
soul of the music is completely shot to hell, making it a dead
giveaway that this wasn’t coming out of live musicians. It would
have been fascinating to have heard how Zappa could have made a
rock band (had he still been following that career path) and
orchestra to use on tracks like “Reagan At Bitburg,” “Amnerika” and
“N-Lite”.
The one track that should have been the most lively,
regrettably, turns out to be almost akin to the funeral march for
Zappa. “Beat The Reaper” should have, at least to me, been a full
celebration of life and a final thumbing of Zappa’s nose at his
impending death. Instead, this track is slow, plodding, and not
terribly interesting to listen to. That, kids, is a damn shame.
Granted, it took me over a decade to finally comprehend what
Lumpy Gravy was about and get to the point where I could
listen to it and enjoy it. But we’re talking about 40 minutes’
worth of music in that case, all being performed by actual
musicians. Somehow, I highly doubt I’ll ever get to that point when
talking about
Civilization Phaze III, even in another 20 years. For
Zappa’s last official disc, this is a big letdown.
2005 Christopher Thelen and “The Daily Vault.” All rights
reserved. Review or any portion may not be reproduced without
written permission. Cover art is the intellectual property of the
Zappa Family Trust / record label, and is used for informational
purposes only.