Avtor: Peter Podbrežnik
Izvajalec: Zappa, Frank
Založba: Rykodisc Records
Izid: 1983
Trajanje: 40:21
Ocena: 5/5
The legendary Frank Zappa, the driving force behind boundless musical experimentation and the mixer of the most caustic satirical brews in the 20th-century music world, who gleefully tore into the sanctimonious, corporate and warmongering shackles of Reagan’s America, created yet another one-of-a-kind masterpiece in “The Man From Utopia”, one that will keep stirring the spirits of generations to come. In every respect Frank was a man from the so-called Utopia: in the music world he simply had no equal, and above all he never had any real competition, managing in an incredibly clever way to fuse wit, intelligence and outstanding compositional talent, and using that combination to expose the rot and sanctimony of modern (and not just American) society.
“The Man From Utopia” is stuffed with Zappa classics that are forever etched into the hearts of every true ‘Zappaholic’ and whose titles alone make it crystal clear what this record is about. As always when it comes to Frank, the album’s musical style can’t be pinned down, since he tossed elements of avant-garde, prog rock, jazz fusion, hard rock and even pop into his big experimental cauldron. You could say “The Man From Utopia” is a relatively accessible album even for a somewhat wider (though still discerning) audience, which holds true for most of his output from the early eighties. Unlike most of his creations from that period, it has no particular concept behind it. The album’s title does come from the song “The Man From Utopia Meets Mary Lou”, written in the fifties by Donald and Doris Woods. Zappa covers it as part of the title track.
The backing band that worked with Frank on this one may have been the strongest of all his eighties lineups, with names like guitar wizard Steve Vai, Roy Estrada (bassist, singer and original member of The Mothers of Invention), drumming grandmaster Vinnie Colaiuta, all-round keyboardist Tommy Mars, brilliant multi-instrumentalist Arthur Barrow, longtime guitarist and singer Ike Willis, and the guitar-and-vocal fresh blood of Ray White.
Once again the lyrics are bursting with slapstick zeal, toilet humor and bitter satire aimed at social conditions ruled by total decadence and rich-people indifference. The opener “Cocaine Decisions” exposes those rich-people vices brilliantly, with Frank and his crew using thrilling vocal lines and harmonica in the background like cosmetic touch-ups.
Frank probably never would have forgiven himself if he hadn’t named at least one song in his incredibly rich career “SEX” (in big, fat capital letters). The lyrics lay bare the hypocrisy and sanctimony of self-appointed guardians of public morality by using a “forbidden” word that gets whispered behind closed doors every day, yet none of them dares say out loud. Along the way Frank openly takes a swipe at the born-again Christians who dragged their phony morality to the very top of the core values of Reagan’s America — long since buried on the dustbin of history, but sadly still adored in the hearts of many Americans. The tight combo of a hard-rocking guitar phrase and Frank’s mocking vocal looks deceptively simple, but it’s wildly effective at building a rowdy atmosphere.
“Tink Walks Amok” is a proper bass guitar orgy, a series of sly improvised solos courtesy of the versatile Arthur Barrow, and every aspiring player of the instrument who wants to take their playing beyond a mere rhythmic foundation should listen to it. “The Radio Is Broken” is a chance for a mass slapstick dumping of manure on the media, with no shortage of mischievous mugging and toilet humor. The phenomenal instrumental “We Are Not Alone” is a jazz-rock classic and even one of Frank’s best compositions of the eighties. The excellent horn arrangements are spiced up with fiery drum fills and cheeky guitar phrases. Of all the tracks on the album, this one is perhaps the best testament to Frank’s boundless compositional genius.
“The Dangerous Kitchen” is another avant-garde-flavored piece, with plenty of improvisation over lyrics hiding a juicy satire of filthy kitchens. Frank himself actually worked in one such kitchen at the time. “The Man From Utopia Meets Mary Lou” is, as mentioned earlier, a witty cover, or rather a wonderfully successful take on a fifties standard, loaded with plenty of trademark Zappa seasoning. “Stick Together” is a rousing, wisecracking yet also deeply personal satire of assorted private associations, criminal ones in particular, featuring elements of reggae, gospel and funk, among other things.
“The Jazz Discharge Party Hats” is the peak of toilet humor and surely the most controversial piece on the album, a bizarre tale about sniffing women’s underwear by the pool. Supposedly the whole thing was inspired by a real incident, when Frank and the members of his band at the time stumbled upon discarded women’s underwear by a hotel pool, thongs among them, which contained certain intoxicating substances. This satire of decadent rich-people parties became one of the centerpieces of the entertainment at the concerts of the day, with Frank explaining to the audience in the middle of it why his band members wear underwear on their heads. “Luigi & the Wise Guys”, the CD bonus track, is a proper circus hodgepodge built on choir-style clowning around. The harmonies on this burlesque come off like ‘Queen with diarrhea’.
After hanging out with Luigi, Frank doesn’t invite Mario to the closing party. Instead, the shorter, stockier Italian plumber gets the name “Moggio” this time. The closing track of the same name is a wittily playful jazz-rock treat, opened and closed by the snoring of its title hero, who is just waking up from a nightmare. To create the playful atmosphere, Frank used cymbals, woodwinds and numerous guitar effects in an incredibly seasoned, distinctive and crafty way. With that Nintendo-style rowdy vibe, it’s not hard to picture a little mustachioed Italian imp who ends up in a wonderland in his dreams, hopping on winged turtles and walking potatoes and shooting piranha plants while rescuing kidnapped princesses from the claws of fire-breathing dragons. And for the grand finale you even hear a ‘plop’ as Moggio’s snot bubble bursts from the sudden waking after all that heavy snoring. A phenomenal album closer in the ‘proper’ style. The inspiration for this phenomenal treat came from a dream of Frank’s youngest daughter, Diva Zappa. Musically it’s somewhat similar to the classic “What’s New in Baltimore?”.
With this brilliant record the man from Utopia in a way paid tribute to his own creative and satirical genius, even though he poked fun at himself too throughout his whole career. In today’s tame musical and social reality we could badly use a man like this, with virtues you could almost call utopian. “The Man From Utopia”, like most of his eighties output, is a bit more accessible even to those who never understood Frank’s more avant-garde experiments but could always appreciate his unique humor, which wasn’t for every soul either. On top of all that, the album boasts a great cover, on which a beefed-up Frank with a broken guitar in one hand and a fly swatter in the other fends off a swarm of pesky mosquitoes, while among the enthusiastic concert crowd you can spot the late Pope John Paul II, one of Frank’s biggest fans and a big rocker in heart and soul (in Utopia, of course).
Zasedba
Frank Zappa – kitara, vokal, bobnarska mašina, ARP 2600
Steve Vai – kitara, akustična kitara
Ray White – kitara, vokal
Roy Estrada – vokal
Bob Harris – deški soprano
Ike Willis – vokal
Bobby Martin – klaviature, saksofon, spremljevalni vokal
Tommy Mars – klaviature
Arthur Barrow – klaviature, bas kitara, mikro bas, ritem kitara
Ed Mann – tolkala
Scott Thunes – bas kitara
Chad Wackerman – bobni
Vinnie Colaiuta – bobni
Craig Twister Steward – orglice
Dick Fegy – mandolina
Marty Krystall – saksofon
Produkcija
Frank Zappa
Seznam skladb
1. Cocaine Decisions
2. Sex
3. Tink Walks Amok
4. The Radio is Broken
5. We Are Not Alone
6. The Dangerous Kitchen
7. The Man from Utopia Meets Mary Lou
8. Stick Together
9. The Jazz Discharge Party Hats
10. Luigi & the Wise Guys (bonus track)
11. MŠggio
