Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Zappa, Frank
Label: Rykodisc Records
Release: 1978
Duration: 39:18
Rating: 5/5
In the late ’70s, Frank was locked in a fierce battle with Warner Bros, who were trying to screw him over at the expense of his artistic freedom. For this genius, untamable composer, who poked fun at bureaucracy and every social absurdity whenever he got the chance, that freedom always sat right at the top of his values. So there was no way he was going to bend to their demands.
Even though he broke his contract with Warner Bros pretty quickly, right after the release of the excellent “Zoot Allures”” (1976), he was still obliged to deliver four more albums to them. In the end, Frank decided to give them even more than they expected. Besides the double live recording “Zappa In New York” (1977), he offered them, and played for them, the recordings that later came out on the albums “Studio Tan”, “Sleep Dirt” (1979) and “Orchestral Favourites” (1979).
After the scheming suits at the label heard his tapes, they turned up their noses, claiming the recordings didn’t match what they wanted. So they refused to pay him back for the production costs. Frank’s reaction was to take the material, originally meant for three separate albums, and plan to release it as a four-LP (originally even five-LP) set called “Läther”, on his own independent label. Warner Bros blew a gasket and blocked the release of “Läther”, right after he’d already played the whole thing (the whole thing!) on a radio station. In the end, the people in charge at Warner Bros had to make peace with Frank’s original ideas and release the recordings as three separate albums. But they took their revenge by putting all three out in a “cheapo” style: no credits for the individual musicians, and with Gary Panter covers that Frank hadn’t approved (although he liked them anyway). “Läther” only came out in its original form, as a three-CD set, in 1996 (posthumously).
“Studio Tan” is the first of the “Läther” spin-offs and, as it turned out, the best of them. Not only because almost all the pieces on it come from the original “Läther” recordings, but also because of the sheer quality of the material chosen. It offers a rich collage of different styles, with the emphasis on jazz rock fusion in the vein of legendary albums like “Hot Rats” (1969), “Waka/Jawaka” (1972) and “The Grand Wazoo”” (1973), but there’s also plenty of room for avant-garde experimental rock, progressive rock and hard rock. Each of the four pieces on the album shows one of the many unpredictable faces of this artist’s music.
The crew of musicians he worked with on this album is huge even by his standards, reaching the size of a proper orchestra. Let me mention only the most prestigious names: the legendary British multi-instrumentalist Eddie Jobson (ex-Curved Air, Roxy Music, UK, Jethro Tull) on keyboards, for whom this was the first and last studio collaboration with Frank, Bruce Fowler on trombone, Chester Thompson (ex-Weather Report, touring Genesis) on drums, Don Brewer (Grand Funk Railroad) on percussion, Malcolm McNab on trumpet, and longtime collaborator George Duke on keyboards.
The centerpiece of the album is the opening epic: a more than 22-minute social-satire burlesque, “The Adventures Of Greggery Peccary”. At its core it’s a parody of rock operas and an extended format of an acted-out story, in a similar style to what Frank first presented on “Billy The Mountain” (“Just Another Band From L.A.”, 1972). For this burlesque epic, Frank used a gigantic pool of musicians, who, following his instructions, delivered mostly avant-garde classical arrangements.
These form the individual motifs that pop up throughout the narrated story. You could call the whole thing a kind of radio play, or it could just as well be the basis for some satirical cartoon starring a pig. The story is delivered by Frank as the narrator and main protagonist (through a special effect that distorts his voice beyond recognition and turns it into a squeal). Zappa’s unique absurd humor and political satire are front and center the whole time. The gist of the story goes something like this:
Greggery Peccary is a little peccary (his name is a more than obvious parody of the actor Gregory Peck, and also of Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the Gregorian calendar is named). Greggery is one of a large population of peccaries living in the area between Texas and Paraguay. Peccaries are recognizable by the white patch of fur around their necks. Greggery, however, comes from a brand-new, artificially bred species. So he wears a necktie around his neck, under his coat, which makes him extra special among his peers. Greggery is the proud owner of a red Volkswagen. He works in a part of town that falls under the rule of a powerful corporation called Big Swifty and Associtates, Trend Mongers (“Big Swifty” was one of the tracks on “Waka/Jawaka”). As their name already suggests, the company works hard to push the latest trends all over the world, trends embodied by their products.
Greggery is much respected among his coworkers. He becomes especially popular at the company after inventing a new calendar. It’s supposed to become the mandatory new trend for all residents. When introduced, the calendar causes extraordinary chaos, because it lets people (or rather, peccaries) count time, figure out how old they are and make plans for the future. Their lives become a lot more mechanical.
A gang of young vandals (depicted in Gary Panter’s grotesque artistic visions as a kind of evil mice) take revenge on Greggery by attacking him as he’s heading home from the office. The vandals are angry at him because they now realize they’re getting older. After a chase, Greggery narrowly escapes in his car and hides in a cave under a nearby mountain. Eventually the vandals get tired of hunting him and would rather devote themselves to a group orgy and feast.
But the cave Greggery has taken refuge in is no ordinary cave under a mountain: it’s the mouth of Billy The Mountain (an old acquaintance from the live album “Just Another Band From L.A.”). Billy’s laughter sets off rockslides and dust that creates brown clouds. These brown clouds pique Greggery’s curiosity. So he calls a philosopher friend on his mobile phone to explain the brown-cloud phenomenon. Not getting a proper explanation, he goes to see a man named Quentin Robert DeNameland, the greatest living philosopher of Greggery’s time. But even DeNameland’s explanations are too abstract for little Greggery to grasp. So the story ends with him, unsatisfied, still marveling at the phenomenon of the brown clouds.
Absurd as it is, “Greggery Peccary” is one of Frank’s best and most lovable social satires, aimed at social ossification and corporate turbo-capitalism. The main character, whose voice sounds a lot like Porky Pig, is easy to picture, and so are all the comic situations that unfold through the story. Frank could easily have used the piece in one of his avant-garde cartoons, and I have no doubt it would have been a huge hit in the audio-visual underground. The classical-avant-garde arrangements of Frank’s “orchestra” are superb too, landing in the right places at the right moments.
Even though they didn’t get Frank’s blessing, Panter’s illustrations of the evil mouse and Greggery’s everyday life (on the back and inside of the album) fit the story perfectly. This wickedly funny social-satire epic alone is worth a flat-out ten, but the album stays excellent from here on, too.
A big stylistic leap comes right away with the phenomenal instrumental “Revised Music For Guitar And Low-Budget Orchestra”. After easygoing opening notes that are closest in style to some kind of smooth jazz, there’s a sudden jump into a fiery, experimental jazz rock fusion section, ruled by Frank’s phenomenal guitar soloing. The sudden jumps between avant-garde-spiced symphonic arrangements and the combinations in the rhythm section (Chester Thompson on drums once again playing the miracle worker) are finger-lickin’ good. The brass and strings accompaniment fits beautifully between the fairytale-like passages on Frank’s guitar. The individual motifs are written in a very fun and humorous way and would easily belong in some psychedelic cartoon.
“Let Me Take You To The Beach” is pure surf rock meets funk and jazz rock fusion tomfoolery, but excellent tomfoolery, one that parodies Californian teenage culture. This burlesque, with its seriously groovy rhythms, will be a charmer for everyone who doesn’t share the fantasies about the supremacy of American “culture”. The deliberately out-of-tune harmonies, where you can even catch Jobson’s yodeling, hide a sharp satirical sting. There’s also the accompaniment that’s pretty common for Frank, almost a protective shield: assorted percussion built around the vibraphone (a very good performance from Don Brewer on bongos).
The closing jazz rock fusion instrumental fairytale “RDNZL”, which once again features a veritable orchestra in miniature, is without a doubt the best piece on the album, both technically and as a composition. Here Frank proves yet again that he’s a breathtaking guitarist, whose seemingly nonchalant, totally unique style of conjuring up all kinds of variations and wildly witty solos carries the whole composition, in an amazing way, through a whole sea of different motifs and musical styles. Elements of progressive rock, jazz rock fusion and hard rock walk hand in hand here. Without the astonishing rhythmic variety that rules the entire composition, there’d certainly be no other Zappa classic. Meanwhile, you have to hear Duke’s bravura on piano and the virtuosity of longtime collaborator Ruth Underwood on an early type of synthesizer to even believe what these two musical masters were (and still are) capable of. Frank simply always hired only the best of the best.
“Studio Tan” is one of those Frank masterpieces that was somewhat overlooked when it came out, but that still never stop amazing today with its originality, virtuosity, death-defying acrobatics, heart and a kind of humor that has no equal in the music world (and never will). The best proof of how good this album is? It’s a real treat for anyone who loves “Hot Rats” and the other jazz rock fusion masterpieces cut from the same cloth. With almost revolutionary creations like “The Adventures Of Greggery Peccery”, Frank proved he was always an unsurpassed master of socio-political satire and the absurd, who, with his piercing intellect, hit exactly where the dark spots of human character lie. Definitely the best part of what should have come out (and later did, mostly in different versions of the pieces) as the ambitious “Läther” project.
Lineup
Frank Zappa – vocals, guitar, percussion
George Duke – keyboards
John Berkman – piano
Michael Zearott – conductor
Pamela Goldsmith – viola
Murray Adler – violin
Sheldon Sanov – violin
Jerry Kessler – cello
Edward Meares – bass guitar
Bruce Fowler – trombone
Don Waldrop – trombone
Jock Ellis – trombone
Dana Hughes – bass trombone
Earle Dumler – oboe
JoAnn Caldwell – McNab bassoon
Mike Altschul – flute
Graham Young – trumpet
Jay Daversa – trumpet
Malcolm McNab – trumpet
Ray Reed – flute
Victor Morosco – saxophone
John Rotella – woodwinds
Alan Estes – percussion
Emil Richards – percussion
Tom Fowler – bass guitar
Chester Thompson – drums
Davey Moire – vocals
Eddie Jobson – keyboards, yodeling
Max Bennett – bass guitar
Paul Humphrey – drums
Don Brewer – bongos
James “Bird Legs” Youmans – bass guitar
Ruth Underwood – percussion, synthesizer
Production
Frank Zappa
Tracklist
1.) The Adventures of Greggery Peccary
2.) Revised Music for Guitar and Low-Budget Orchestra
3.) Lemme Take You to the Beach
4.) RDNZL
