Broadway the Hard Way Review

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(More customer reviews)Overall, a great recording from a fantastic FZ band, clearly the most direct and biting of all of the 80s activist Zappa recordings. No one is spared with conservatives, Republicans, evangelists, Michael Jackson, former Surgeon General Koop, Ronald Reagan (and his entire administration), and Jesse Jackson all becoming targets.
With five horns in support, all of them Mothers veterans, all of the songs are great. That big, fat sound really comes through on the jazz standard "Stolen Moments" and its excellent Walt Fowler trumpet solo. This track segues to a guest appearance by Sting, who takes a direct shot at Jimmy Swaggart, and then performs "Murder By Numbers" with the band providing a smooth jazz backing.
Other great tracks are "Any Kind of Pain," with a fantastic FZ solo; "Elvis Has Just Left the Building" for its great lyrics; "The Untouchables" theme for the anti-Reagan administration rant; "Outside Now" for the extended FZ solo, and; the delightful throwback to the "Fillmore East: June 1971" album with "What Kind of Girl?"
Overall, this is a wonderfully representative live Zappa CD. It captures most of the feel, and definitely the wit and anger of Frank's mid-80s interactions with and responses to his sanctimonious detractors. A must for your Zappa collection, and a great addition to any music lover's collection.

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No Description Available.Genre: Popular MusicMedia Format: Compact DiskRating: Release Date: 2-MAY-1995

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The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life Review

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(More customer reviews)This is the first FZ album I ever heard. My electric bass teacher lent it to me after I keenly asked him "Whose song is this?" at a concert where a band played "Let's Move To Cleveland." I loved the song immediately, and upon listening to it on disc I didn't only love it for its [to me, at the time] eccentric melody, but also for the guitar solo, which I was to find a typical example of Zappa's personal way of soloing.
At close to 130 minutes of music this may be the perfect (and a "light") Zappa introduction to no-know-persons. Although most of the material is taken from FZ's late 60's through mid 70's repertoire, or what some might call his hey day rock material, big variations (thanks to re-arrangements) are being made, and styles vary. There's also a bunch of classic rock covers, such as "Purple Haze," "Sunshine of Your Love," "Stairway to Heaven" among others - even the "Bonanza" theme is included. All cover songs are worth listening to - they're extremely extreme! After listening to any of them for the first time there is NO WAY the words "Just what I expected" will escape from your sincere mouth.
What differs the old FZ studio songs from these 15-to-20-years-later-live-versions are the arrangements and the lyrics. A lot of the lyrics are humorously replaced on the spot (the band seems to have a really good time) and close to all songs on this album feature a horn section armed with five men who handle 10 different horns.
From what I understand, the '88 tour band (the last of Zappa's rock bands) knew 196 songs - songs that Zappa could call off at concerts at any time, and it truly shows that this band have practiced A LOT! The musicianship is, as on many of Zappa's albums, EXTRAORDINARY.
As a musician I can deeply recommend it for inspiration to anyone involved in musical activities.
As an "innocent bystander" I recommend it to anyone with a sense of humor who wants to enjoy well performed quality music, but if you're looking for an album to cry to while enjoying a bowl-size glass of white wine and looking out the window at the pouring rain, questioning the meaning of life and death, then this is ABSOLUTELY NOT it.
To Zappa-fanatics who don't own this album I must ask "Fanatic, are you kidding?"

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Does Humor Belong in Music? Frank Zappa Live Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm happy that Zappa stuff is finally starting to get to DVD but disappointed by this one. Not only do they decide to put less than an hour of music from a "very long" show but then they cut into some of the songs and only have "snippets" of some of them. The cuts are done by going to two very short Zappa interview segments that would have been fabulous if presented in their entirety as bonus materials.
Don't the video masters of this show exist? Zappa was pretty good at saving things. Why not put the whole show on DVD or at least more than this sampling? My guess is that this video was meant, at the time, to be a "teaser" to get newer fans interested in Zappa's more accessible stuff and to promote the, very great, skills of his later live bands. Perhaps this is why that this is one of the first releases to DVD. If so, I was wrong to spend the money on it as I am a long LONG time fan of Zappa's who finds most of this material unchallenging and of limited interest.
It *is* great to see the band making the music and seeing Zappa being "into it" that night. I only got to attend one Zappa concert. It was the Zappa/Beefheart tour when it stopped in Cincinnati around 1976 (or about). He was just "phoning it in" that night and only played for 50 minutes.
The recording and video is well done for the time and the material is picked from songs that are MUCH better to see/hear performed live than to only listen to on CD. There is some good Zappa music on this however a main point that Zappa seems to want to get across is "musical chops are good" and he proves his point by having a number of tunes that have no real value other than the impressive skill that his band shows in performing them.

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Track Listing:Zoot Allures, Tinsel Town Rebellion, Trouble Every Day, Hot Plate Heaven At TheGreen Hotel, The Dangerous Kitchen, He’s So Gay, Bobby Brown, Keep It Greasy,Honey, Don’t You Want A Man Like Me?, Dinah-Moe Humm, Cosmik Debris, Be InMy Video, Dancin’ Fool, Whippin’ Post

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