| Track: | Rating: | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Prologue | | | | | |
| 2. Progress? | | | | | |
| 3. Like It Or Not | | | | | |
| 4. The Jimmy Carl Black Philosophy Lesson | | | | | |
| 5. Holding The Group Back | | | | | |
| 6. Holiday In Berlin | | | | | |
| 7. The Rejected Mexican Pope Leaves The Stage | | | | | |
| 8. Undaunted The Band Plays On | | | | | |
| 9. Agency Man | | | | ||
| 10.Epilogue | | | | | |
| 11.King Kong | | | | | |
| 12.Help, I'm A Rock | | | | | |
| 13.Transylvania Boogie | | | | | |
| 14.A Pound For A Brown On The Bus | | | | | |
| 15.Sleeping In A Jar | | | | | |
| 16.Let's Make The Water Turn Black | | | | | |
| 17.Harry, You're A Beast | | | | | |
| 18.The Orange County Lumber Truck, Part One | | | | | |
| 19.Oh No | | | | | |
| 20.The Orange County Lumber Track, Part Two | | | | | |
Ahead Of Their Time was recorded at the Royal Festival Hall in London, England, on 28 October 1968. For context, this means that only Zappa's first four albums were available to the public at the time -- the vast majority of the concert would have been unfamiliar to the young British listeners of the day. Finally released some months before Zappa's death, it shows the early Mothers (Of Invention) moving in a more complex musical direction, setting the stage for the extended compositions of Uncle Meat.
This album is divided into two sections: the first ten tracks feature a stage play involving Zappa and his musicals underlings, the last ten are devoted to new compositions and new arrangements of old compositions. The first half is alternately clever, engaging, inventive and overdone; the second half is the real payoff, though, featuring the band on what must have been a pretty good night.
The show began, appropriately enough, with the "Prologue", featuring some of the music that would later be incorporated into "Bogus Pomp". In its full-blown version, the latter track tends to slide into the morass which it attempts to parody. Summarized to three minutes, however, this is actually a pretty cool introduction -- saxophones, keyboards and assorted percussion create an overture with roots in American orchestral scores (Gershwin especially comes to mind). The stage is set here, although an irritating feedback noise which begins about two minutes in can't help but damage the mood a bit.
"Progress?" features a shift in the music (to more Varese-ian background eclecticisms), and more importantly begins the stage play, involving numerous pop-culture references (the reference to macrobiotics which later emerged in "200 Motels" is here also) and Mothers in-jokes. Yoga references correspond to some rough musical endeavours as the "three talented musicians in the Mothers" (led by Underwood) strike out to form their own group. Motorhead shows up in time for "Like It Or Not", a truly bizarre left-field classical piece that rates as the best instrumental moment of the play; sadly, Mr. Sherwood's skills aren't necessarily at the level which Underwood would require.
"The Jimmy Carl Black Philosophy Lesson" ... well, come on, what did you think this would be? Black arrives on-stage to share his observations on sex and beer, and is cautioned by Zappa that his current appearance won't allow his desires to be fulfilled in an English setting. A stage-makeover occurs, and Black emits a hideous scream upon seeing his new countenance. This is all very droll, but can't help but be a cheap excuse for easy laughs. The music combines the aforementioned left-classical bits with more earthy rock'n'roll.
Roy Estrada's role in the Mothers is the target of the next few tracks. On "Holding The Group Back" he emerges on-stage in papal dress, prompting a number of Mexican and bass jokes. Despite Zappa's warning to Underwood that he hasn't been practising, the latter decides to allow an Mr. E an audition. This leads to "Holiday In Berlin", wherein Estrada explores the high range of his voice to Underwood's piano backing -- the first half is relatively straight, the second half is comedy (not bad comedy, but comedy nonetheless). Estrada's subsequent departure ("The Rejected Mexican Pope Leaves The Stage") leads to another Americanized classical-esque theme (Buck Gardner provides a wacky solo here, part of the skit leading to his rejection), which morphs into more left-classical weirdness on "Undaunted The Band Plays On". Zappa had a good thing going at this stage, and needed only to wrap it up there to have had a top-rate comedy bit.
Unfortunately, he decided to slip "Agency Man" into the mix at this stage. This track's presence in the play is symptomatic of a problem which would end up suffocating some of Zappa's 1980s works, most notably Thing-Fish -- basically, there are times when Zappa seems to want to parody everything, even if it doesn't fit the plot. "Agency Man" is about a slick promoter who grooms a no-substance political candidate for greatness. The song is just okay, it's presence in the play isn't.
Thankfully, the next track ("Epilogue") does what the previous track couldn't -- end the play on a strong note, as the three talented members march away on their on amid high-pitch squeals. More classical weirdness dominates the musical setting ... and then ...
The music segueways into "King Kong", beginning the second half of the show. This version of "KK" literally bursts forth out of the speakers at the beginning, and it keeps its momentum thereafter. The solos in the track are more indicative of a group effort than they would be on the Uncle Meat; an earlier form of jazz manifests itself in mid-track; the psychedelic ending is very cool. This may be the best thing on the album.
A brief take on "Help, I'm A Rock" (the first track which audience members could have hoped to recognize) follows, with Zappa monotoning the rock/ police references in perfect stoner style. This segues into another great version of "Transylvania Boogie" (the best track on Chunga's), its strong melody bursting forth in classic "King Kong" style.
Is there a live recording from this period without "A Pound For A Brown On The Bus". I doubt it, not that I'm complaining. This version of the track isn't quite a "scorcher" -- the band mellows out a bit in this approach, which makes for an interesting unfolding of the melody. This track also features one of the first guitar solos on the album, as FZ himself finally steps into the foreground.
This version of "Sleeping In A Jar" is a mixed blessing -- the main theme is well-done, and strange improvisations seldom hurt, but the slower, bluesier jams around the theme don't work quite as well. Still, it's good to have a version of this that lasts longer than a minute!
Next comes a piece which would become a staple of the mid-period Mothers live sets: the "Let's Make The Water Turn Black/Harry You're A Beast/The Orange County Lumber Truck, Part One" instrumental medley. The first two tracks, of course, deserve to be instrumentals -- all three of them are nicely done in this setting (with "Harry" being the relative weak point). We then have another segueway to "Oh No", one of the best jazz-rock songs that Zappa ever composed. This, in turn, leads to a high-energy version of "The Orange County Lumber Truck, Part Two", wherein Zappa's guitar leads emerge as the main attraction. It's difficult to say how long the show could have gone on for in different circumstances -- here, however, Zappa had to cut the show short so the audience could catch the last ride home (a nice gesture, I suppose). You could probably cut a few minutes of band jamming out of the last track, but why would you need to?
This isn't one of the "historically important" Frank Zappa albums, but the music is top-rate. I say get it.
(review originally posted to alt.music.yes on 2 Feb 2000)