870 The Mothers of Invention - Burnt Weeny Sandwich of Invention (1970)

Hybrid Studio/Live album - Mixed Genres

About the Act:

It’s hard to know what to say about Frank Zappa. There has been a lot written about him and it would be easy to parrot a lot of that. If you want to dig into his history, there’s plenty to go at.

He was prolific. Between 1966 and his death in 1993 he released 62 albums. Since then, 50 more albums have been released. Oh, he was American, I guess that’s relevant. He had a band in the early days, The Mothers of Invention. Soma albums are credited to "The Mothers of Invention" some to "Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention" and after the band was disbanded, they were just credited to him.

He is musically hard to describe, some of his output could be classified as Prog, some as Jazz-Rock, some as Avant-Garde Classical, and often it owes more to German Cabaret than anything. It can be complex, and he was an amazing guitarist, who surrounded himself with amazing musicians. He apparently got frustrated with orchestras for hire because they couldn’t play what he wanted them to. Later in life he was starting to embrace cutting-edge synths and sequencing.

So sometimes, the music is front and centre, but often it is the backdrop to his songs. Subject matter: social satire, often disguised as songs about banal things, but then he seems to take just as seriously songs that truly are about banal things. It would not be safe to put one of his albums on at work, or in front of the kids, if you didn’t already know the content, as it is often very adult. And that includes the spoken stuff on live albums. Be prepared for explicit sexual content, political commentary and anti-religious sentiment, all of which is mixed up with a peculiar absurdist humour.

He has a cult following. Presumably some people have bought all 100+ albums. I have listened to a good number of them and am still undecided about him. 

About the Album:

This album was the sixth by The Mothers of Invention and the Ninth by Frank Zappa, and was released after the band had been disbanded.

My History with this Album:

A while back I acquired a large collection of Frank Zappa stuff, and this was amongst it. I must have listened to it a few times. At least once, for sure.

Review:

Once again Frank Zappa goes down his own path. Let's try to do some description first before tackling the difficult question of if I like it.

The first and last tracks are "Do-Wop" - a throwback to vocal bands of the 50s. This is a style that Frank Zappa kind of grew up in and so it features quite often. Of the two, the first (WPLJ) is the one I like better. There are fairly complex mixed harmonies and an almost Beach Boys kind of sound to them.

The rest of the tracks are instrumentals, and they vary in style between various types of rock and contemporary classical, and mixing the two together quite a bit.  "Igor's Boogie Phase One" (apparently after Igor Stravinsky) sounds like it was played by a band from a score, with little regard to "feel". It is in complex time signatures, and is reminiscent of contemporary classical music - in that its musicality is challenging (it doesn't sound right). 

The next track "Overture to a Holiday in Berlin" features out-of-tune (deliberately) instruments, and sounds a bit like a dance-band playing a waltz. Badly.

"Theme from Burnt Weenie Sandwich" Is a kind of psychedelic space rock meandering thing, with added random percussive sound effects.  "Igor's Boogie Phase 2 is like the first one, played on ducks. Oh wait, they are probably saxophones. "holiday in Berlin, Full Blown" is a more in-tune version of the first version, with a kind of meandering sax. "Aybe Sea" is a kind of piano/harpsichord thing that sounds a bit renaissance, but mostly Prog Rock. 

"The Little House I Used To Live In" is a long multipart track with big constants. It starts with modern-classical piano and turns into long, complex proggy stuff, which sounds like various versions of the same thing edited together. It ends with audience applause and some banter between Frank and the Audience.

It's too diverse really to have one opinion of. I don't really love any bits, I don't really hate any bits (not even the out-of-tune bits but it's close) and so I have a range from "it's OK" to "that's quite nice". I can kind of respect the generally eclectic nature of it, and I certainly appreciate not being offended (unlike some Zappa). I think that at the time people would not really know what to make of it, and actually I think that feeling has been timeless - I think people still don't really know what to make of it. I am, in general, mildly fascinated by Frank Zappa, but I fall short of thinking I am a fan.

7/10

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/5sTtFC2SNK38bxG0XSfPLo

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mziBg-9T0eeBa6GIPbChR4mRcMTMbJoNw

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnt_Weeny_Sandwich