Steve Vai - Appreciation and Album thread *

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by mark winstanley, Feb 4, 2020.

  1. Anthrax

    Anthrax Forum Resident

    Location:
    Europe
    It's marvellous work for sure.

    I love Beauty Knows No Pain and precisely that disjointedness you mentioned. It's one of my favourites here, and Frank's suave TV presenter tone cracks me up. He's on the money too.
     
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  2. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

  3. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Charlies Enormous Mouth
    This track is so cool. We again have these amazing layers that produce this piece of work, that is a piece of intelligent music, it is kind of dance-able, it is an interesting lyrical commentary, there is some musical brilliance ... I mean, there is so much going on here, and so much to be heard.... Perhaps the individual parts of the track aren't amazing, but when the whole picture is dissected and focused on, and then we step back to take in the whole again, it is quite remarkable ... I don't know, maybe this album impresses me more than it should ....
    The guitar in this track is great, perhaps it isn't technically amazing, but it is effective, and executed perfectly, and one of the highlights of the song for me

     
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  4. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Any Downers
    This is fantastic.
    We punch in with a great guitar riff, and the way it punches along with the drums is excellent.
    I am guessing BobHarris is doing the high vocal, and really well.
    It is interesting how frequently during these albums with Vai, that you will hear the guitar doubling the melody of the vocal, and other parts of the song. I sometimes think Frank just asked Steve to copy certain bits to see if he could, and then just liked the way it sounded.


     
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  5. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Conehead
    Well this was me for many many years ... except for the girl part lol.
    So although this was Zappa kind of gently poking fun at weed smokers, from where I stood, it was still cool.
    Again we get this excellent arrangement, we get the bonus of a great Zappa lead. I believe Vai is doing the unusual punctuation guitar bits, that may seem simple, but take a lot more control than one may give them credit.

     
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  6. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    You Are What You Is
    I never thought I would ever hear Zappa on the radio ... but I did hear this on the radio.
    It is actually a very observant lyric, and again the arrangement is quite brilliant. One of the slightly lesser songs on here though.

     
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  7. Anthrax

    Anthrax Forum Resident

    Location:
    Europe
    Fantastic video to go along with a fantastic song. 100% Zappa.



    Special mention to Ray 'god' White. Just amazing.
     
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  8. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Mudd Club
    Again the layers are just brilliant. We start with lots of crowd noise that kind of fades in and out, somewhat like accent points in the track.
    On this side of the album, Frank enjoys putting some effects on the vocals to add a bit of texture.
    We have some nice rhythm section work, but most of this side of the album seems to rest on Frank getting some stuff off his chest.


     
  9. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing
    The next tracks are pretty much Frank just being pissed at TV evangelists ... Hey I am a Christian and TV evangelists are a joke, and I have serious reservations as to whether any of them are doing the work of Jesus.... but anyway, lets slide past that one.
    No mater how you want to interpret the message Frank is putting forward here, this is yet again a wonderful piece of music.... and the consistency of the writing here, on this album, is among Frank's best.
    For the focus of our thread, side two is where Vai gets the most obvious workload with colouring the songs.

     
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  10. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Dumb All Over
    Here we have a dirty groove, and again the music takes a back seat to Frank wanting to put forward his particular message.
    It must be remembered that the early eighties were some fairly unstable times, and we had an awful lot of music that was focused on the seemingly impending nuclear war, that we were constantly told the US and the USSR were going to have.
    Some of the facts in here, are pretty tenuous, but one thing you have to say is that this is probably one of the most emotional tracks Frank ever put down.
    The presentation is very effective, and the lead break outro is excellent.



     
  11. Anthrax

    Anthrax Forum Resident

    Location:
    Europe
    Like Mark mentioned above, the feeling of impending nuclear war or a WWIII was something floating in the air at the time and I remember it well. The lyrics in Dumb All Over are of its time, yet one could find many points that still make them relevant today. I'm afraid the same could be said about televangelists, though that has never been a thing in my country.

    All of side 3 is fantastic, it flows and hangs together so well, tying in with the first track on side 4 perfectly. In fact, the whole stretch from You Are What You Is to Suicide Chump is what I'd probably call my favourite part of the album. I could say the same about the stretch from Society Pages to Charlie's Enormous Mouth. They work as suites to me and I really enjoy those groups of songs together in the sequence as presented on the album.
     
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  12. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    It is probably one of Zappa's most coherent thematic releases. From the start of side two through to the end it flows thematically really well.
     
  13. Fonz

    Fonz Forum Resident

    I love ‘Dumb All Over’.
    I hate ‘Mudd Club’, and HBA and TMSIN. Those 3 blight the album for me.
    It’s one of my fave FZ albums despite that fact-the rest of it is very strong.
     
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  14. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Dumb all over was just so serious and sort of ominous for Zappa. I think that is why it is so effective.
     
  15. gd0

    gd0 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies

    Location:
    Golden Gate
    I think Dumb All Over is more of a predictor for conflicts in the Middle East than about US/USSR nuke possibilities. Largely because of the overarching theme of religious conflict.

    And nobody, but nobody, skewers religion more impactfully than Frank Zappa.

    (Maybe George Carlin :))

    Such institutionalized mythology begs scrutiny and critique. Doubly so when there is so much revenue attached to it, all untaxed. Frank had been all too aware of this over the years, and thank gawd he visibly piped up about it. It is so much the core topic of DAO that the climax is a perfectly-stated Logical Conclusion.

    Before you ask, I know: this hasn't got squat to do with Steve Vai.
     
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  16. Raylinds

    Raylinds Resident Lake Surfer

    Hearing that melody played by just the woodwinds was heavenly (see what I did there?). That song is one of my all-time favorite pieces of music.

    I have been a fan since seeing him as Jack Butler in Crossroads. His classical blues fusion playing in the head cutting contest blew my mind. I've been collecting his LPs, CDs and video discs ever since.

    He is an extraordinary musician.

    Interesting side note- my sister and her best friend were friends with the women who would become his wife, Pia. My sister's friend has kept in touch with her over the years and says they are both very down-to-earth humble people.
     
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  17. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    That's a beautiful thing to hear. Cheers
     
  18. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Good point about the middle east, it has always been a volatile place.
    Zappa skewers most things with more verve than most songwriters, it was a specialty.
    There are stupid, greedy atheists and stupid greedy "religious' folks, I don't really discriminate.
    If we start getting into what is mythology, we'll just get shut down though
     
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  19. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Heavenly Bank Account
    I'm not sure which came first, but in the early eighties, lots of televangelists were doing some incredibly stupid stuff, and shaming themselves in a way so over the top that it was like picking off fish in a barrel, and Zappa quite logically just went, "this is too easy"
    Musically this has a really cool swing to it. Somewhat a swinging country gospel, with some really interesting musical interludes.
    We are actually led into this track be a Dumb All Over reprise (on the old vinyl at least) and then we move into a Faux-gospel intro.
    Again some of the standout things here are the arrangement. Vocals and music.
    At 1:55 we get an excellent change up, with some quicktime stuff thrown into the mix, and some very cool little musical embellishments.
    All in all a good Zappa track, that is essentially being used as continuity to the story we have unfolding here.

     
  20. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Suicide Chump
    Here we get Zappa revisiting a blues boogie. We get some really cool layers of guitar, harmonica, and a rhythm section that is tighter than a drum skin.
    Again it is the arrangement that really stand out for me. The layers all have something to say, and the clarity is very good.
    I assume we have Denny Walley taking a lead on the slide, and it is pretty cool.
    I know this track is somewhat tongue in cheek, but I'm not overly sure how much mileage should be made out of poking fun at suicide.

     
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  21. Anthrax

    Anthrax Forum Resident

    Location:
    Europe
    Heavenly Bank Account is such a favourite of mine. Even away from the States you totally get the point and get on Frank's side. Plus, the lyrics are clever, catchy and fun to boot. Wonderful song, acerbic lyric, on-the-nose message: pure Zappa.

    A rather impressive a capella version was sung at the Zappa's Universe show, about ten years later. Worth hunting down (it's probably on youtube somewhere), as is The Persuasions' take on The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing from the same concert.
     
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  22. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Jumbo Go Away
    Again, the arrangement here is just marvelous, and the song does have a certain amount of humour.
    This track is an interesting mixed bad. We start off with a light pop kind of style with some interesting little sidelines, that always really worked well through Zappa's catalog. Then we get a really cool change. It is a kind of ascending power pop thing, that moves into one of Zappa's more typical instrumental sections.
    The whole song is worth it for this marvelous musical interlude, that somewhat recalls some earlier, less commercial Zappa stuff.
    Then we move back into the verse.
    We have a beautifully bizarre outro that will amuse many and offend many lol .... Zappa always knew how to push people's buttons :)

     
  23. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    If Only She Woulda
    So our somewhat cobbled story, that is remarkably effective comes to this point, and we get a sort of faux Beach Boys? .... Doors? feel/sound .... with a bit of a Walking On The Sun sound in the verses ... comes rolling along. The focus in our story has had a terrible time of it and everything has fallen apart, and now he/she has been drafted.
    Really this is one of Frank's songs that exists as a platform for one of Frank's tear 'em up lead breaks.
    For the most part it is extremely rare that a Zappa lead break isn't worth hearing. His approach to guitar was quite unique, and I feel pretty sure that Steve Vai was paying attention, because he seems to be the sort of guy that is interested in what people are doing.

     
  24. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Drafted Again
    This track is a goofy little epilogue to our story really. Again the layers are quite brilliant.
    We have lots of funny voices cast as characters and they add a lot of personality to the track. We have the patented Zappa snorks. I have always really liked the guitar led interlude melody. The outro chorus, is exactly that and takes us out of the album with a bit of typically insane Zappa stuff..... I get the impression they were having a lot of fun here.

     
  25. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    So on Vai's second outing with Zappa, he plays a much bigger role in the proceedings. Side two of the album has probably the most Vai colouring and I think it was a benefit to the album, and to Steve to be here.
    You Are What You Is is among Zappa's most easily digestible albums, and I don't think it is coincidental that MTV and establishments like that actually gave him some exposure based on it. They may have thought he had finally come around to their way of thinking.... of course if they did think that, they were terribly wrong lol
     
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