Published on Aug 26, 1998
Frank Zappa wanted his monumental six-volume, 12-CD set
You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore to capture all facets of
the life of a touring musical band, positive and negative. Today,
we continue our year-long retrospective of this set with our look
at
You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore Volume 4 (hereafter
referred to as
YCDTOSA4), the first volume that tests the patience of the
listener.
For the bulk of the first half of the series, Zappa seemed to
focus on solid musical performances, with a little bit of goofiness
intermixed in. On
YCDTOSA4, Zappa moves into a more improvisational study of
life on the road with his band and the Mothers Of Invention – and
the picture it paints isn’t always that pretty.
As with all the volumes we’ve looked at so far, this two-disc
set includes some interesting performances of both well-known and
loved songs as well as some that casual fans of Zappa’s might not
be familiar with. Early on in this set, Zappa wows with
performances of “Stick Together,” “My Guitar Wants To Kill Your
Mama” and “Willie The Pimp” (though this one will never sound right
without Captain Beefheart on vocals).
Surprisingly, some songs which are considered classics in the
Zappa catalog aren’t done any justice on
YCDTOSA4. The constant noodling on “Stevie’s Spanking” gets
damned annoying really quick, while an early version of “The
Torture Never Stops” (featuring the previously mentioned Beefheart)
is an interesting look into the history of the song, but offers
little more than that.
Still others fall under the “diehard Zappa” heading, such as the
inclusion of “The Evil Prince” from
Thing-Fish, an album I never liked. (Yes, I still have to
review it here… patience. I still owe someone a review of
Lather after this retro series is done.) Likewise, the two
selections of solos – one from a 1984 performance of “Let’s Move To
Cleveland”, one from a 1978 rendition of “Pound For A Brown” – are
far too self-indulgent, as is the ambient noise of “You Call That
Music?”. Zappa himself would probably have loved that the latter
piece is not understood; it would most likely have reminded him of
Edgard Varese, whom he idolized.
There’s enough on
YCDTOS4 to satisfy the curious and provide them with a
window to the world of Zappa’s influences. A six-song suite (taken
from two shows) of older numbers, such as “Little Girl Of Mine,”
“Johnny Darling” and “Mary Lou”, show the importance of r&b on
Zappa’s music – even if sometimes it seemed like the polar opposite
of what these six songs sound like. (Another waste is the band’s
rendition of “Take Me Out To The Ball Game”.)
There’s also plenty of humor (albeit on the bizarre or
scatalogical) on this set. Tracks like “Little Rubber Girl,” “Tiny
Sick Tears” and “Smell My Beard” should provide a few laughs, even
for the uninitiated. Those who are easily offended are advised to
approach these tracks, and others like “Church Chat,” with extreme
caution.
Still, there’s a sense that this set was lacking something.
Maybe it was the fact that there are no liner notes detailing
stories behind the tracks as there are on the remainder of the
series. Maybe it’s that this particular set tries to accomplish too
much in a two-hour-plus span of time. I could venture guesses as to
why this is, but since I don’t know any details of Zappa’s
situation at the time, it wouldn’t be responsible of me to
speculate.
YCDTOSA4 is probably best reserved for the diehard masses
who followed Zappa until he stopped touring in 1988; it certainly
is not the disc I’d choose to start a new potential fan of Zappa’s
with. And while the album has grown on me more over the years, it
still isn’t up to snuff with the preceding three volumes.
Would the set improve? We’ll have to wait until October to find
out…