Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Zappa, Frank
Label: Rykodisc Records
Release: 1981
Running time: 67:19
Rating: 5/5
With the live album “Tinseltown Rebellion”, the legendary American composer, guitarist, satirist and director Frank Zappa strode into the eighties in his trademark brilliantly bratty fashion, shredding countless wrong turns of modern American society along the way. And he left just as big a mark on that decade with his musical masterpieces as he had on the sixties and seventies. His influence on American society and pop culture was even bigger than ever before, helped along most of all by the media frenzy whipped up by the ultra-conservative Reagan administration of the day. Frank would have probably had to invent it for his satirical escapades if it hadn’t already existed, and it ironically handed him a ton of grateful creative material. From this album on, it was only a short step to the famous porn wars, where he had to face off in court against a few conservative congressmen and their frigid wives, led by Tripper Gore.
“Tinseltown Rebellion” was Frank’s first release after the “dry” year of 1980, in which, to the general surprise of fans of the eternal workaholic and man of a thousand ideas, he put out no studio or live album at all (that only happened twice more during his lifetime, in 1977 and 1990). This near-double live album features plenty of new material (two tracks of it recorded in the studio) plus a few old favorites like “Love Of My Life”, “I Ain’t Got No Heart”, “Tell Me You Love Me” and “Brown Shoes Don’t Make It”. In the thrilling medley of performances you’ll also find an excellent, rearranged version of Frank’s best-loved classic “Peaches En Regalia”, under the working title “Peaches III” (the other version of the legendary instrumental can be found on the live album “Filmore East – June 1971” (1971)).
These classics, along with a whole lot of instrumental adventures and solo acrobatics from nearly every member of Frank’s technically unbelievably well-schooled band (he never settled for anything less than perfection), make up the album’s best moments. “Panty Rap” and “Dance Contest” are short satirical bits where Frank once again nails his role as the incorrigible stage entertainer, the kind who made not just all of conservative America blush but plenty of liberal intellectuals too, and there was no shortage of them in his audience. “Panty Rap” is especially provocative: he organizes a collection of underwear from the women in the crowd and gets a pretty hefty response. A hefty gallon of Frank’s juvenile-bathroom humor, which by his own account was just a mix of some fun silliness and sexual clichés typical of both sexes, is found in the lyrics of songs like “Fine Girl”, “Easy Meat” and “Pick Me, I’m Clan”. They still make plenty of church bigwigs go red in the face, the kind who polish off sour turnips and buckwheat mush every Sunday after prayer.
“Tinseltown Rebellion” also went down in the annals of modern music as the first official album featuring “the little Italian virtuoso” Steve Vai. Today he’s one of the most respected guitar virtuosos around, but back when this album was made he was just one of the more interesting members of Frank’s backing crew. A former student of the equally renowned guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani, he was invited into Frank’s band after winning him over with a successful transcription of “Black Page”, an extremely demanding instrumental written for drums, plus a few recordings of his own guitar playing. Frank was impressed enough with the youngster to offer him a job in 1979 transcribing some of his guitar solos. Through hard work he eventually earned enough of Frank’s trust to become an indispensable rhythm guitarist in his studio and live lineups, and later he got more and more room for solo spots and soaked up a good dose of the master’s guitar and compositional teachings. Of all Frank’s former students, the little Italian virtuoso has built by far the most successful career, with plenty of albums continuing some of the signature tricks he learned from his late teacher, whom he also honored years ago with a series of concerts titled Zappa Plays Zappa.
It’s also worth noting that “Tinseltown Rebellion” marks the debut of the excellent drummer David Logeman, who played on the album’s first two tracks. Both were recorded or reworked in the studio, even though they have a remarkably live production. Logeman held the drum seat for most of 1980 and played all the drums on the cult album “You Are What You Is” (1981). Other key members of Frank’s crew who shine on these recordings were the drumming megalomaniac Vinnie Colaiuta, the guitar terminator Warren Cuccurullo, the keyboard wizard Tommy Mars, the superb rhythm guitarist Ray White and the charismatic guitarist and singer Ike Willis. Willis is the one who, besides Frank, steps up to the mic most often, mainly when the satirical level of a given piece drops a notch or two lower than usual.
Most of the material comes from various live shows between 1979 and 1980. The opening bathroom-humor satire “Fine Girl”, marked by a mischievous funk melody and cheeky backing vocals, is a studio recording made during the sessions for “You Are What You Is”. The excellent “Easy Meat” also has a few studio rearrangements, while elsewhere you won’t come across any studio fixes. One of the finest creations from the second half of Frank’s career, it packs a phenomenally arranged and incredibly fun mix of pop-rock melodicism, funk rhythm patterns, synth textures, jazz-fusion shenanigans and progressive-rock extravagance. The shamelessly bratty chorus is crowned with pompous orchestral arrangements that instantly smell of the symphonic exploits of the legendary English symphonic prog crew Emerson, Lake & Palmer.
A few slightly less complex tracks, led by “For The Young Sophisticate” and “Bamboozled By Love”, show Frank’s knack for building compact, near-pop-rock pieces laid over melodic, mostly hard-rocking guitar phrases. Of course there’s also no shortage of stretched-out guitar solos, peaking in “Now You See It-Now You Don’t”, where the breathtaking virtuosity of Messrs. Zappa, Vai and Cuccurullo takes center stage. “The Blue Light” is another satirical bit where the instrumental backing serves only to hold together a spoken skit about yet another cross-section of idiotic American social habits. The title track is a half-successful satire of punk, a sardonic mix of styles running from hard rock and cabaret to jazz fusion and a biting, mocking take on punk. Frank simply never had the stomach for self-pitying rebels without a cause.
“Peaches IIII”, an excellent reworking of the instrumental classic “Peaches En Regalia”, provides a truly magnificent finale. Here too there’s no shortage of satire, peaking in the closing stretch when Vai starts switching between soloing styles and imitating other famous guitarists, like his buddy Warren Cuccurullo, as well as Al Di Meola and Alvin Lee. Frank was probably the only musician and composer who could get away with this kind of satire at the expense of his fellow guitar heroes, helped by the fact that he did it in a fun, inoffensive way, and he often knew how to joke at his own expense too.
“Tinseltown Rebellion” is one of Frank’s best live documents, vividly capturing the boundless energy, untamable wit and technical perfectionism his touring bands were known for between 1979 and 1980. Among other things, the album successfully introduced the world to a young, eager-to-prove-himself Steve Vai, and it ranks among the very best live releases of the early eighties. It deserves a place in the collection of even those for whom Frank isn’t the be-all and end-all of what happened in music in the second half of the 20th century. And as for this priceless live document still being an endless source of inspiration for countless young guitarists around the world, well, that hardly needs saying.
Line-up
Frank Zappa – lead guitar, vocals, arranger, producer
Arthur Barrow – bass guitar, backing vocals
Vinnie Colaiuta – drums
Warren Cuccurullo – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Bob Harris – keyboards, trumpet, backing vocals
David Logeman – drums on “Fine Girl” and the first half of “Easy Meat”
Ed Mann – percussion
Tommy Mars – keyboards, backing vocals
Thomas Nordegg – everything remote
Patrick O’Hearn – bass guitar on “Dance Contest”
Steve Vai – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Denny Walley – slide guitar, backing vocals
Ray White – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Ike Willis – rhythm guitar, vocals, backing vocals
Peter Wolf – keyboards
Production
Frank Zappa
Track list
1. Fine Girl
2. Easy Meat
3. For The Young Sophisticate
4. Love Of My Life
5. I Ain’t Got No Heart
6. Panty Rap
7. Tell Me You Love Me
8. Now You See It Now You Don’t
9. Dance Contest
10. Blue Light
11. Tinsel Town Rebellion
12. Pick Me I’m Clean
13. Bamboozled By Love
14. Brown Shoes Don’t Make It
15. Peaches III
