| Track: | Rating: | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Five-Five-Five | | | | | |
| 2. Hog Heaven | | | | | |
| 3. Shut Up'n'Play Yer Guitar | | | | | |
| 4. While You Were Out | | | | | |
| 5. Treacherous Cretins | | | | | |
| 6. Heavy Duty Judy | | | | | |
| 7. Soup'n Old Clothes | | | | | |
All tracks by Frank Zappa.
Shut Up'n'Play Yer Guitar is both the name of a three-part guitar virtuoso series which Frank Zappa released in 1981, and the title of the first album thereof. This review concerns itself with the latter.
The purpose of this album, as with all other albums in the series, is to showcase Zappa's electric guitar performances with band accompaniment; all of the other musicians are generally forced into supporting roles for the entire project. This would obviously not be appropriate as a permanent band arrangement, but it works extremely well for most of these recordings.
Shut Up'n'Play Yer Guitar is an amazing album, featuring guitar solos which are both technically impressive and compositionally intelligent. Although The Yellow Shark or Civilization Phaze III might be the top choices of those interested in Zappa's writing capabilities, Shut Up'n' Play Yer Guitar remains a vital choice for those interested in his performance skills, and who wish to avoid the stupidity that covers many other Zappa albums from this era (the between-track dialogues aside, of course). You can't actually buy the albums separately anymore, of course; fortunately, since the Shut Up'n'Play Yer Guitar series is of a similar format throughout, those who like one will presumably like all three.
The flagship piece of the series is "Five-Five-Five", and it is an incredible one. It isn't often that flash-laden rock solos partake of well-thought-out improvisational techniques, but this is an exception, providing a strong melodic development throughout the entire track. Trickier moments mingle with signal notes as the track reaches its middle section; the ending, moreover, features considerably more grandeur (and not false grandeur, either) than does the average Zappa track. The drumming and bass playing accompany the lead solo extremely well. An excellent introduction to the album (and series), on all levels.
This, unfortunately, leads to the slightly less interesting "Hog Heaven". The title seems to have been rather appropriate; the first part of the piece is of a rather slow tempo, and is driven by more prominent power chords + effects than were seen in the previous piece (coming a bit close to more conventional blues-rock habits on some occasions). The heavy metal trapping may have been intended as parody, but they still take the track down a few notches. About half-way through, the track develops into something entirely different: a more complex work that turns out to be an extremely good improvisation, losing all of the mock-metal aspects of the earlier section. As bizarre exploration in internal logic, it's a success; as per its music merit from beginning to end, it's a bit more inconsistent.
"Shut Up'n'Play Yer Guitar" returns the album to the higher zones of quality, featuring another in a series of absolutely incredible solos around the "Inca Roads" theme. Some mystics might argue that an influx of many notes ruins the basis from which music arises; this is not the case here, however. The harmonic vocal effects in the background were a nice touch as well. All things considered, this is probably the high point of the album.
"While You Were Out" begins as a good demonstration of hammer-on and pick-up skills, but soon develops into something a bit more elaborate. The lead guitar line in first part of the track is a rather simple riff that possesses little other than basic catchiness; it almost seems as though Zappa wanted a catharsis from the previous track here. The lead guitar melody, which emerges later, is obviously rather more complex, if a bit less so than the previous track. This number is notable for actually featuring another guitar line in a prominent position (though obviously not a double lead). The track develops a few quasi-"Eastern" aspects as it continues, and even adds a curious skiffle moment near the end. It falls a few steps short of absolute greatness ... but it does come fairly close.
"Treacherous Cretins" is a more eclectic number, beginning with WC's sitar accompanying a reggae-ish beat similar to that used in Elvis Costello's "Watching The Detectives" (which the audience clearly loves). Soaring guitar lines appear over this backdrop in a bizarre fix of minimalism and maximalism, and it works extremely well. This is a fairly long piece, and one which sustains the listener's interest fairly well throughout (the constant repetition of the sitar theme is a nice touch as well).
"Heavy Duty Judy" begins in on a fast-and-furious note, with FZ caught in the act of a blistering guitar solo. The first section of this piece has something of a funky element, via the interpolation of (faux)-brass elements; it works reasonably well. The song shifts halfway through without missing a beat, allowing Zappa to demonstrate once again the amazingly fast technique that he had developed by this point in his career. A triumph.
The album concludes with "Soup'n Old Clothes", another "flawed gem" track. Even if the lead guitarist is playing a five-star lead (as is the case here), the overall rating has to be dropped a bit when the rest of the band seems to be locked in a three-and-a-half-star groove. The bass and keyboards have memorable parts, but the entire band performance as a whole seem uncomfortably close to generic American rock on occasion (a bit of tedium eventually develops before the track ends). There's nothing to fault about Zappa's performance here, but one wonders if he good have perhaps engaged in some studio re-dubbing to make the backing track a bit better. Still, it's not too much to complain about.
This album -- as part of the Shut Up'n'Play Yer Guitar series -- is strongly recommended to progressive fans.
(review originally posted to alt.music.yes on 22 September 1997)