Cheevyjames’ Musical Roundhouse

Released: 1966
Tracks: Hungry Freaks, Daddy; I Ain’t Got No Heart; Who Are the Brain Police?; Go Cry On Somebody Else’s Shoulder; Motherly Love; How Could I Be Such a Fool; Wowie Zowie; You Didn’t Try to Call Me; Any Way the Wind Blows; I’m Not Satisfied; You’re Probably Wondering Why I’m Here; Trouble Every Day; Help, I’m a Rock; It Can’t Happen Here; The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet
Best track: very difficult…either Hungry Freaks, Help, I’m a Rock or Trouble Every Day
Track to skip: I think they’re all necessary

So, here I am thinking about this album, Frank Zappa’s debut. For the uninitiated this might just sound like a dated 60’s record with some psychedelic songs and some pop/love songs…but for those who are serious into their Zappa fandom this represents the blueprint of nearly everything that came after. Let’s see, we have anti-establishment songs, critiques of teenage culture, silly songs, jazz, electronic music, doo-wop, heavy doses of modern classical, sarcastic love songs, protest songs, blues, great guitar work…yeah, that’s pretty much everything. The only thing truly missing is the obvious insanely difficult music, but given the limitations of the band I’m not very concerned about that.

The musicians: Zappa on guitar and vocals, Ray Collins on vocals, Jimmy Carl Black on drums, Elliot Ingber on guitar & Roy Estrada on bass and high vocals + a ton of people known as the “Mothers Auxiliary”. The band themselves do great things here (as FZ mentions in the liner notes, “They are all MUSICIANS”), but so much of the grand scope of this album comes from the people in the “Auxiliary”. The extra players really fill out the sound and make this album much larger than it would be if it was only 5 people. I have to mention the liner notes. You get a better appreciation of them with the vinyl, but even on the CD they’re impressive. Some of the best liner notes I’ve ever seen on an album. Clues to the band & composer, notes (sometimes honest, sometimes sarcastic) about the songs themselves, a huge list of thank-you’s and the important Relevant Quotes (“The present-day composer refuses to die!”) – all of it gives the listener a great deal of knowledge about Zappa. It absolutely ties in perfectly with the music.

I think the main problem with this album for someone who isn’t already a huge Zappa fan is that it sounds *very* dated. I mean, it sounds like a psychedelic/pop/blues album from 1966. I don’t think this is a bad thing, but I say that really as a warning. Of course, a *lot* of the music from 1966 sounds dated. I think my only other minor complaint is that side 2 (How Could I Be Such a Fool – I’m Not Satisfied) features the most forgettable songs on the album. They’re not bad, but they’re not excellent. Specific positive mentions go out to the nice changes in How Could I Be Such a Fool & just the overall composition of Any Way the Wind Blows.

I love the way this album starts off and I think that Hungry Freaks, Daddy is a great first track and perfect introduction to the man. Killer song and it features Zappa playing a cool guitar solo. Next comes I Ain’t Got No Heart which spells out in no uncertain terms Zappa’s feeling about “love”. He’s pretty angry in that last verse of the song. Ray Collins delivers some great vocals on the silly Go Cry On Somebody Else’s Shoulder. Everyone plays and sings well on this album, but it wasn’t until listening to it last week that I really noticed Roy Estrada’s contribution on the bass. He’s a damn good bass player.

The easy answer to the eternal question (the grade) is that I like this album. It’s a fun album, but it’s also very directly serious in quite a few places and extremely weird in many others (sides 3 & 4). It really is a great blueprint of all that would come after. Besides that, it’s a good album. It isn’t Zappa’s best, but it’s certainly good enough for a purchase. Most of this album is pretty easy to grasp on the surface, but for those tracks that require *many* listens, it totally pays off when you get it. Listening to it over the past couple of weeks fairly continuously, I GET IT.

Rating: 91

Released: 1989
Tracks: Garden of Earthly Delights; Mayor of Simpleton; King for a Day; Here Comes President Kill Again; The Loving; Poor Skeleton Steps Out; One of the Millions; Scarecrow People; Merely a Man; Cynical Days; Across This Antheap; Hold Me Daddy; Pink Thing; Miniature Sun; Chalkhills and Children
Best track: Mayor of Simpleton
Tracks to skip: Here Comes President Kill Again & Pink Thing

Of course, after those great first three songs the band has to experiment and busts out with Here Comes President Kill Again, a track about warmongering by British and American leaders. I think the Brit references in there were probably added to seem not completely anti-American (or anti-President Bush 41 anyway). There are quite a few political songs on this album, way more than expected for something that came out in 1989. My problem with President Kill is that it’s a horrible song. I completely disagree with the political point of view they’re espousing, but I’d totally be willing to listen to it and wouldn’t have a problem with it if it was a good song…but it’s not. Guys, if you’re going to do something like that (you know, something that might piss off audience members in America) AT LEAST WRITE A GOOD SONG. Yeah, this song pisses me off because it completely disrupts the flow of the album after those first three songs. Why put a bad song there? I don’t get it.

For the remaining tracks on the album, for the most part they’re good songs (not too much of a fan of Pink Thing, though), my only problem is that there isn’t tremendous flow to it all. There are tracks that work perfectly going out of and into each other (Miniature Sun>Chalkhills & Children is a great example and a super cool way to end the album), but I don’t think that all of them work together. Something really happened with the inclusion of President Kill (last mention, I swear) that messed up the flow. Individually I like all of these remaining songs, esp. stuff like Poor Skeleton Steps Out, Scarecrow People, Merely a Man and the especially Miniature Sun & Chalkhills.

For quite a few years this album (minus the first three songs) was a serious disappointment coming after Skylarking. That album is perfect beginning to end, while Oranges & Lemons is a great collection of songs, but not a cohesive album. It’s taken a few years of listening to it for me to come around to really liking it. I mean, 2 skippers out of 15 is not that bad. For the most part, it’s a really good album and my second favorite of the ones I’ve heard by XTC.

Rating: 90

Released: 2004
Tracks: Le Tshephile Mang (Judith Sephuma); Bahia (Angélique Kidjo); Mi Nada Um Ca Tem (Maria de Barros); Mayihlome (Sibongile Khumalo); Retany (Tarika); To Ndje (Kaïssa); Mfan’ Omncane (Dorothy Masuka); Hima (Nawal); Abiani (Dobet Gnahoré); Raoui (Souad Massi); Sina Mali, Sina Deni (Free) (Khadja Nin); Vimba (Women of Mambazo)
Best track: either the Khadja Nin or Angélique Kidjo song
Track to skip: none

This is a compilation album put out by the Putumayo label. The put the label puts out is usually high quality stuff and this album is no exception. Great liner notes here with details about all the performers and the songs. I started getting interested in African music after hearing Afro-Pop in college and specifically it was hearing a bunch of Angélique Kidjo’s music that made me want to pick this up. There’s a great selection of music here and even though Africa is a huge continent, this CD provides good examples of music from various areas of the continent – from Algeria to South Africa, the Ivory Coast to Madagascar and places in between.

The songs that I like best from this are the Angélique Kidjo & Khadja Nin tracks. Kidjo’s got a great voice and she writes really good songs. I like everything I’ve heard from her so far. Khadja Nin covers a Stevie Wonder song, Free, and it’s a great version of his song. I have to admit it was a bit jarring to here the English words “I’m Free” sung in the chorus, as it’s the only English on the whole album. I like listening to music that isn’t in English because you get a truer sense of the *music* without having to deal with what the words are saying. Of course the words are important, I’m not saying they’re not. For me, it’s about the melody and how expressive the singer is in getting the message across. I think with the best singers, you don’t need to understand what they’re saying, as the sound of their voice and their emotion are the most important aspects. That is one thing I love about this collection, is that it’s a very vocal-centric CD. The music is also really good here, but it’s an album about female vocalists from Africa. The voice is very much the featured instrument here.

The Kidjo & Nin songs stand out (as does that awesome refrain that starts in the middle of Kaïssa’s tune), but really there are no missteps here. I like all of the songs and each one presents a different style of music and different influences. My only complaint about the album is that it’s too short – only 40 minutes. I really wanted it to keep going….also with the final track by Women of Mambazo (sort of a female version of Ladysmith Black Mambazo…the leaders of these groups are husband and wife). It’s only 1:40 long and it needed to be longer! Ah well, it gave a nice ending to the album. Good stuff.

Rating: 84