metalluk's Full Review: Bongo Fury [PA] by Frank Zappa
Weirdness must have been contagious in the Cucamonga area of California in the early sixties. A young man named Don Van Vliet, who had grown up in the Mohave Desert, moved there and soon teamed up with another young would-be musician named Frank Zappa. Zappa was composing a pop opera entitled "I Was a Teenage Maltshop" and enlisted Van Vliet as narrator. Van Vliet had a distinctive gravelly voice and had also learned to play the saxophone and the harmonica. Van Vliet and Zappa became fast friends, playing in some local bands and sharing the inevitable hard times of aspiring young musicians. The two dreamed of producing a movie about sixties "freaks," but all that came of it was Van Vliet acquiring a nickname based on his unrealized character in the intended film: "Captain Beefheart." Soon, however, this pair of musicians went their separate ways, each finding work with non-commercial West Coast bands – Van Vliet with the Magic Band, formed in 1964, and Zappa with the Mothers. The groups had little in common, other than a total disdain for commercial success or the standards then current in popular music. As a residue of this time period, Zappa would many years later release a recording called The Lost Episodes, which included the first ever recordings of Captain Beefheart, one dating from 1959.
Here's what one internet biography has to say about Captain Beefheart:
"Possibly the greatest rock musician of all times, and certainly one of the most original and influential geniuses of the 20th century, Don Van Vliet, also known as Captain Beefheart, completely erased all musical dogmas and simply reinvented music on his own terms. Formally, his style blends Delta blues, free-jazz, cacophonous avantgarde and rock and roll, but what is unique about Van Vliet's music is the oblique, skewed, manic, unpredictable and demented structure of his compositions. . . Along the way, Van Vliet also created one of the most original styles of singing ever, one that, again, revolutionized centuries of vocal music. The gruff, abrasive, werewolf-grade, warbling of Van Vliet beat the bluesmen at their own game: it did more than express a state of mind, it redefined what a state of mind is." [www.scaruffi.com/vol1/beefhear.html ]
Even allowing some for hyperbole, that's one helluva endorsement. For years, Zappa and Beefheart followed one another's careers, usually from a safe distance, but occasionally linked up, in one manner or another. Beefheart made a cameo appearance on Hot Rats in 1969, providing the vocals for the excellent track, "Willie the Pimp." For his part, Zappa gave Beefheart the benefit of his superior business talent, producing, in 1969, an album of Beefheart's music entitled Trout Mask Replica, now considered a classic. On it, Beefheart plays the bass clarinet pretty much as though it were a harmonica. The songs, written by Beefheart, are dense, dark abstractions, nearly incoherent on one level yet deeply profound on another. Zappa's mastery of detail was important to the success of the album.
Unfortunately, the cooperation between these two musical geniuses was not to last. In 1971, the pair had a violent argument that culminated in a protracted estrangement. The present album, Bongo Fury, was the product of their guarded reconciliation in 1975 and the only major work to feature the two performing together. Zappa and Beefheart toured together during 1975 and most of the tracks on Bongo Fury were recorded live at Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin, Texas on May 20th and 21st, 1975. Two of the tracks, "200 Years Old" and "Cucamonga," were studio productions, recorded at The Record Plant in Los Angeles in 1974. The tape of the album was remastered for the 1995 CD release.
Track Listing:
1. Debra Kadabra 3:54
2. Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy 6:02
3. Sam With The Showing Scalp Flat Top 2:50
4. Poofter's Froth Wyoming Plans Ahead 3:06
5. 200 Years Old 4:34
6. Cucamonga 2:24
7. Advanced Romance 11:20
8. Man With The Woman Head 1:29
9. Muffin Man 5:37
Track Analysis:
Debra Kadabra nicely illustrates what happens when weird and weird are spliced together. Beefheart's growling vocals dominate the opening of the piece but Zappa provides inspired instrumentation. Four stars.
Carolina Hardcore Ecstasy was based on the burgeoning S&M movement of the seventies, which interested Zappa simply because it was another example of the eternal and unlimited weirdness of human behavior. The track begins and ends with vocal segments, provided mainly by Beefheart, but there's a highly effective instrumental interlude with a strong guitar solo by Zappa. Another version of this piece appears on the album You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 4. Four stars for the vocals segments and five for the instrumental interlude, for an average of 4.5 stars.
Next up is a poem written by Beefheart, Sam With The Showing Scalp Flat Top, spoken against instrumental accents. The last lines include the words "Bongo Fury"; hence the album's title. Three stars.
The album really begins to hit stride with Poofter's Froth Wyoming Plans Ahead. This track and the next are premised on the theme of consumerism and commercial exploitation of the bicentennial celebration that was fast approaching. Beefheart provides the lead vocals. This is an excellent tract, musically, with a bit of a Western motif. Five stars.
200 Years Old is the first of the two studio-recorded tracks for this album. Beefheart and Zappa share the vocals, here. Beefheart also provides some riffs on the harmonica and Zappa chips in with a guitar solo. Four stars.
Cucamonga is the other track recorded at the Record Plant in Los Angeles. This relatively short and uninteresting track features vocals by Beefheart. Three stars.
Advance Romance is the album's longest track, at 11:20, and also one of the best. The bluesy instrumentation is outstanding and features Beefheart on the harmonica, Zappa on the guitar, and Denny Whalley on the slide guitar. Another version of this piece was recorded on You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 5. Five stars.
Man With The Woman Head is the second of Beefheart's two compositions for the album. Again, it is abstract poetry performed against instrumental accents. This is the better of the two poetry readings from my vantage point. Five stars.
Muffin Man is the album's premiere track, in my opinion. It became an encore favorite at Zappa concerts and was recorded again on the album You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 5. This piece includes a blistering long guitar solo by Zappa. Five stars.
Although this album is mainly Zappa's program, with Beefheart sitting in as a guest performer, in effect, Zappa skillfully tuned the style of his band to match Beefheart's musical proclivities. The result is a true collaboration, benefiting both from Zappa's instrumental facility and Beefheart's deeply resonant emotionality. They brought out the best in one another. Beefheart, who couldn't even read music, added a vital grittiness to the legendary Zappa polish and sophistication. The general weirdness of the endeavor, however, was fully cumulative.
The two erstwhile friends were backed for this album by a team of extraordinary musicians, consisting of the remnants of Zappa's third set of Mothers. This album would be important even without the presence of Beefheart, as the last hurrah for this particular band, which here includes Denny Walley (slide guitar and vocals), Napoleon Murphy Brock (saxophone and vocals), Bruce Fowler (trombone), George Duke (keyboards and vocals), Terry Bozzio (drums), and Chester Thompson (drums). This was Bozzio's first work with Zappa, but he would go on to considerable fame, beginning with Zappa's next album.
I'd like to give this album 4.5 stars, were that an option. At the grave risk of offending Beefheart fans, I'll have to settle for four. Still, I highly recommend it to fans of either Beefheart or Zappa.
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