Matt Wilson wrote:
Waka/Jawaka 1972
One of the 'wheelchair' albums
An absolute masterpiece from start to finish.
The pedal steel guitar solo on One Shot Deal is to die for.
Stunning stuff and full of music throughout
.
Matt Wilson wrote:
Waka/Jawaka 1972
mudshark wrote:Where is he anyway, that very soft lad?
C wrote:Matt Wilson wrote:
Waka/Jawaka 1972
One of the 'wheelchair' albums
An absolute masterpiece from start to finish.
The pedal steel guitar solo on One Shot Deal is to die for.
Stunning stuff and full of music throughout
.
mudshark wrote:The mix of the Greggery composition is mixed way different on the vinyl compared to the CD and Let Me Take You to The Beach is song #1 on side 2 of the LP but the third song on the CD. Don't think the songs (other than GP) were re-mixed. Not sure which GP-mix is on Lather. Should check it out one day.
Matt Wilson wrote:
The Grand Wazoo 1972
mudshark wrote:Where is he anyway, that very soft lad?
Neige wrote:Thanks C, I really enjoyed that
EDIT: She's got loads of Zappa tunes on her Youtube site, there's one of Cletus for double bass and vibraphone too!
Meanwhile I stumbled over this little nugget and found out there's half an album of Zappa track by that trio:
https://www.discogs.com/release/8524091-ReineckeTrio-Music-From-The-Last-Century-Zappa-Uhl-Fran%C3%A7aix-Jacob
mudshark wrote:Where is he anyway, that very soft lad?
Charlie O. wrote:I think Coan and Googa are right.
mudshark wrote:Where is he anyway, that very soft lad?
Matt Wilson wrote:
Cruising with Ruben & the Jets 1968
The Mothers were given free rein to indulge their love of '50s rock 'n' roll/doo wop on this album of "greasy love songs and cretin simplicity." FZ: I conceived that album along the same lines as the compositions in Stravinsky's neoclassical period. If he could take the forms and cliches of the classical era and pervert them, why not do the same with the rules and regulations that applied to doo-wop in the fifties?
The band really loved that stuff though, it's not just parody. Zappa again: some of the most adventurous diatonic music that has ever been written... I don't know how you feel about suspensions and irresolutions, but the quintet vocal harmony of the fifties is frightening, it's frightening what's going on there. You get a bunch of guys that would really sing that stuff and forget that they're singing about their girlfriend. If you saw it on paper it would be amazing.
Anyway, he goes on and on about his love for the genre, claiming that the whole '50s teenage social system is implied in doo-wop, how it's all about sex, not love, and how the music is very sophisticated and not simplistic at all (despite what I quoted in the first paragraph). The rest of the guys in the Mothers loved this stuff as well. Ray Collins even rejoined the band to sing these songs and it's doubtful they could have faithfully reproduced these recordings in a live setting. Art Tripp rerecorded all of Billy Mundi's drum parts for reasons only Frank knew, and the entire endeavor was Zappa's notion that current rock fans should be aware of music other than what was currently happening. That what was obsolete and archaic in the late '60s would be how modern rock would be viewed ten years later, and that people should have a more broad taste in regards to what they listened to. Stick to the original LP version and not the eighties remix/rerecording. You can find it on 2010's Greasy Love Songs set.
David Hidalgo (Los Lobos): When CWR&TJ came out, it was like "Wow, someone's actually talking to us!" You know? He was speaking to our community... It meant a lot to us.
Ray Collins – lead vocals
Frank Zappa – low grumbles, oo-wah and lead guitar (also drums, piano, bass)
Roy Estrada – high weazlings, dwaedy-doop and electric bass
Jimmy Carl Black and/or Arthur Dyer Tripp III – lewd pulsating rhythm
Ian Underwood or Don Preston – redundant piano triplets
Motorhead Sherwood – baritone sax and tambourine
Bunk Gardner and Ian Underwood – tenor and alto saxes
Art Tripp - drums
All tracks are written by Frank Zappa except as noted.
1. "Cheap Thrills" 2:23
Probably my fave track on the LP. I don't know how '50s-sounding it is though, but one can certainly tell he's trying for that vibe. I say "he" because FZ does everything here - guitar, piano, bass, drums, etc. Sings all the parts too. Zappa: It was fucking murder to make that record. There's only two songs on the record that were easy to do --- 'No. No. No' ad 'Cheap Thrills.' I wrote them, recorded all the instruments and vocals, and mixed both of those songs on a Sunday afternoon. It took about seven hours and I did both songs from top to bottom.
"Hear my plea" was a common line in tons of '50s songs, and "story untold" was also a popular phrase at the time. There was even a song called that by the Nutmegs.
2. "Love of My Life" 3:10
With Ray singing lead, this is more indicative of the rest of the LP. At the end of the cut they quote two songs, "Earth Angel," by the Penguins, and "We Go Together," by the Moonglows. Frank regarding the Moonglows: I think the best harmonizing group from the old days was The Moonglows. They really had it down. That wouldn't be one of my favorite groups because they were...so precise that it was almost like they were unreal. I went for groups that really sang out of tune and really cried. Like 'Valarie' by Jackie & The Starlites was a real good one.
Doo wop aficionados know that Jesse Belvin had a song with the same title, and that the phrase "love of my life" was also used in many other songs of that era. Zappa's song of that name was originally done in 1963 by Ron Roman - I've never heard it.
3. "How Could I Be Such a Fool" 3:35
Remake of the Freak Out! tune, but this time in 4/4 (it's in 3/4 on the FO album). I definitely prefer the earlier versions of the four cuts reworked for this record.
Wiki - "As with the band's previous three albums, it is a concept album, influenced by 1950s doo wop and rock and roll. The album's concept deals with a fictitious Chicano doo wop band called Ruben & the Jets, represented by the cover illustration by Cal Schenkel, which depicts the Mothers of Invention as anthropomorphic dogs. It was conceived as part of a project called No Commercial Potential, which produced three other albums: Lumpy Gravy, We're Only in It for the Money and Uncle Meat.
The album and its singles received some radio success, due to its doo wop sound. The band Ruben and the Jets were named after this album."
4. "Deseri" (Ray Collins, Paul Buff) 2:07
One of the better numbers to be found on this endeavor, and it wasn't written by Zappa! Ray does all the vocals, Frank on acoustic guitar. It continues the pattern of using '50s lyrical cliches used in many songs from that decade. This time it's "my heart skipped a beat." "Deseri" was a 45 with a different mix than the LP version, and was another tune originally recorded in '63. Ray liked the first version better.
5. "I'm Not Satisfied" 4:03
Another Freak Out! number redone for this project. Are any BCB Zappaphiles going to pimp for these versions over the earlier ones? I'd like to hear a spirited defense of these remakes. This one is in 6/8 rather than the original 4/4, other than that, not sure what the point is.
6. "Jelly Roll Gum Drop" 2:20
Yeah, I like this one though. The B-side of "Deseri" (in another different mix if memory serves - too lazy to look it up) which contains the usual references to past '50s songs. Let's see... Richard Berry & The Dreamers did "Jelly Roll," and Otis Williams & The Charms did "Gum Drop." "Pachucko Hop" was an instrumental by Chuck Higgins, and 'the LA Slop' could refer to "The Slop" by The Olympics. The Mothers actually performed this in concert.
7. "Anything" (Ray Collins) 3:04
Ray wrote and sang all the parts and it's from a pre-Mothers era.
Wikipedia: "During a previous recording session, engineer Richard Kunc and the Mothers of Invention discussed their high school days and love for doo wop songs. Ray Collins and some of the other members of the band started singing and performing the songs, and Zappa suggested that they record an album of doo wop music. Zappa described the album as an homage to the 1950s vocal music that he was "crazy" about. Collins later left the Mothers of Invention, and Zappa began working on a project entitled No Commercial Potential, which included sessions that produced Cruising with Ruben & the Jets, as well as We're Only in It for the Money, a revised version of Lumpy Gravy, and Uncle Meat. After the Mothers of Invention's contract with MGM and Verve Records expired, Zappa and Herb Cohen negotiated to form Bizarre Productions, with Verve releasing three Bizarre releases with distribution by MGM: a new Mothers of Invention album, Cruising with Ruben & the Jets, the compilation Mothermania, and an album by Sandy Hurvitz, Sandy's Album is Here at Last.
Zappa stated, regarding the releases Lumpy Gravy, We're Only in It for the Money, Cruising with Ruben & the Jets and Uncle Meat, "It's all one album. All the material in the albums is organically related and if I had all the master tapes and I could take a razor blade and cut them apart and put it together again in a different order it still would make one piece of music you can listen to. Then I could take that razor blade and cut it apart and reassemble it a different way, and it still would make sense. I could do this twenty ways. The material is definitely related."
8. "Later That Night" 3:06
Another Ray lead (as I mentioned before, he's my fave Zappa singer). This one is funny. I find it hard to believe anyone was fooled into believing that these recordings were made by an actual '50s group when the production is so obviously late '60s. I laugh the moment this cut starts.
Jackie & The Starlites did "I Cried My Heart Out" as late as 1964. The line "I hold in my hand three letters from the stages of your fine, fine, super-fine career..." was from "Glory of Love" by the Velvetones, but it was used in songs before that.
9. "You Didn't Try to Call Me" 3:57
The third number from Freak Out! to be reworked for this album. Here, it starts in 3/4, where the original is in 4/4. They changed some of the lyrics as well.
"Ray Collins rejoined the Mothers of Invention for the recording of the album, as his high falsetto was suited for the recordings. According to Collins, "I brought the style of being raised in Pomona, California, being raised on the Four Aces, the Four Freshmen, Frankie Laine, Frank Sinatra and Jesse Baldwin. The early influences of R&B came into the Southern California area when I was probably in the tenth grade in high school. And I remember Peter Potter's show, and I think I recall the first R&B tune on there was 'Oop-Shoop'. Frank actually had more influences from the 'real blues', you know, like Muddy Waters, those kind of people. But I wasn't into that in my early life. I was more of the pop culture, pop radio things, and it's always been more of a favorite of mine than the early blues stuff - even though I love John Lee Hooker and all those people."
According to Bunk Gardner, "Cruising with Ruben & the Jets was an easy album to record. We were recording it at the same time as Uncle Meat because the songs were easy and very simple and didn't require a lot of time for arrangements and technical overdubbing. It was the beginning of the end for Ray Collins because all the new material Frank was writing was a little too far out and away from Ray's roots - which was Ruben-era material. Motorhead too was in his glory during the recording of this album. He loved Ruben and that was really his kind of music to get nostalgic over - on stage and doing the dance steps and playing that music [...] I really enjoyed playing a solo on Ray's tune 'Anything'. I remember Frank, Ray and Roy standing in the control booth while I recorded my solo. Frank was telling me after the first take to keep it simple. So I nailed it on the second take and everyone was happy!" - Wiki
10. "Fountain of Love" (Frank Zappa, Ray Collins) 3:01
To these ears, fairly pedestrian '50s homage co-written by Ray. Frank can't help but throw some Stravinski in, and his bass vocal is from "Sincerely" by The Moonglows." This is what he had to say about the lyrics: Give me a fucking break! Is this song about a douche bag, or what? Some people take that kind of lyric seriously.
Can't say I've ever paid attention to the words to be honest.
11. "No No No" 2:29
FZ sings all the vocal parts and plays the instruments too. Kinda monotonous though... I think at this point in the project, they're starting to run out of ideas.
Wiki: "Within the concept of the album, Ruben Sano was the leader of the fictitious Chicano band "the Jets". The back cover depicted Ruben with an early high school photograph of Zappa. According to artist Cal Schenkel, "I started working on the story of Ruben and the Jets that is connected with the Uncle Meat story, which is this old guy turns this teenage band into these dog snout people [...] We started that before it actually became Ruben and the Jets. That came out of my love for comics and that style, the anthropomorphic animals, but also it was part of a running story line."
Zappa stated regarding the album's lyrics, "I detest 'love lyrics'." He intentionally wrote lyrics he described as "sub-Mongoloid" to satirize the genre. The music of Cruising with Ruben & the Jets was the most straightforward genre work the Mothers of Invention had performed yet, attempting to faithfully reproduce the sound of 1950s doo wop and rock and roll. However, the arrangements included quotes from Igor Stravinsky pieces and unusual chord changes and tempos."
12. "Anyway the Wind Blows" 2:58
One of my favorite numbers on Freak Out! is given the Ruben makeover here, and it's out of tune to boot. They thought enough of this recording to consider releasing it as a single until cooler heads prevailed and "Deseri" got the nod. Apparently, promo 45s of this song exist though.
13. "Stuff Up the Cracks" 4:35
The last and the longest track utilizes Johnny "Guitar" Watson's guitar arpeggio in "Those Lonely, Lonely Nights," while Frank's bass vocal tips the hat to "This Paradise" by the Bel Airs. I like this one the most of the side two songs.
Wiki - "The album was popular with radio stations, as they believed it to be an unearthed doo wop album by an unknown band called Ruben & the Jets. A single was issued ("Deseri" b/w a remixed and overdubbed version of "Jelly Roll Gum Drop") credited to "Ruben and the Jets", with no mention of the Mothers of Invention; according to Zappa, later pressings, which credited the Mothers of Invention, did not receive as much airplay as the original Ruben pressings. The album's cover has a word balloon stating "Is this the Mothers of Invention recording under a different name in a last ditch attempt to get their cruddy music on the radio?" Zappa later dismissed claims that he had "fooled people" with this album as "nonsense".
Subsequently, Zappa stated that the Mothers of Invention would record a second Ruben & the Jets album. No sequel to Cruising with Ruben & the Jets was produced. However, a band called Ruben and the Jets, named in honor of the album, released their debut album, For Real! in 1973 on Mercury Records, produced by Zappa."
Charlie O. wrote:I think Coan and Googa are right.