YOU CAN'T DO THAT ON STAGE ANYMORE, VOL. 5

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You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 5 is the fifth album in the You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore series of double CD live albums by American experimental rock artist Frank Zappa.

Disc 1 contains unreleased live ( and a few studio parts) material by Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention. All tracks on Disc 1 are recorded between 1965 and 1969. Most from the latter part of the career of the original Mothers of Invention. There are some really great songs here like The Downtown Talent Scout, My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama and Run Home Slow: Main Title Theme but I must admit that most of the material on this Disc is a bit questionable to my ears. But it´s no different from most other live recordings of the early Mothers of Invention that I have heard ( there are exceptions of course). There are both r´n´b influenced tracks, avant garde rock songs, improvised compositions and spoken sketches on Disc 1 but that´s business as usual for Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention. The sound quality varies but it is generally acceptable. It´s not excellent though.

Disc 2 contains 13 tracks recorded live by the 1982 Frank Zappa band. About half of the material comes from a concert in Geneva, Switzerland. According to the liner notes that concert ended in a small riot after Frank Zappa stopped the concert because the audience kept throwing unpleasant items on stage. The end to that concert can be heard on the last track on Disc 2 Geneva Farewell. After asking repeatedly that the audience should not throw any more stuff on stage, a very angry sounding Frank Zappa says: "House Lights, The Concert is Over". Frank Zappa says in the liner notes that this was a reoccurring problem on the 1982 tour and ends by mentioning that the audience in Milan threw used hypodermic syringes on stage. Sounds kinda vile and unpleasant right? Well the music on Disc 2 is fortunately not affected by those unfortunate circumstances. The sound quality is perfect, the musicianship is outstanding and the song selection nearly perfect too. We get some of Frank Zappa´s most complex and technically challenging instrumental compositions like Moggio and The Black Page #2 as well as some of his humourous and more easily accessible songs like Dancin' Fool and Doreen. We get some great vocal performances by Bobby Martin and especially by the fantastic Ray White on songs like Shall We Take Ourselves Seriously?, Advance Romance, City Of Tiny Lites and Doreen, but the focus is predominantly on the instrumental side of Frank Zappa´s music on Disc 2. Lots of experimental guitar soloes by Frank Zappa but the composed instrumenal parts are maybe the most fantastic thing here. I never get tired of listening to the theme from The Black Page #2. RDNZL also appears here in one of the best released versions I have heard ( I was never that impressed with the original studio version from Studio Tan (1978)). In addition to the great music ( which should be enough to go purchase this album) on Disc 2 there are actually two unreleased tracks on the Disc too in Dead Girls Of London and Shall We Take Ourselves Seriously? and while those two tracks might not be the biggest attractions on the album, it´s always great to hear unreleased material when we´re talking about Frank Zappa

So what you get here on You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 5 is one Disc of Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention songs that I personally find good for the most part but not really special and in some cases unfortunately rather dispensable. The real attraction and the reason why I enjoy this album so much is the material on Disc 2. Had both Discs been of this high quality I would have given You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 5 a 5 star rating without hesitation. But as it is that would not be a justifiable decision and a 4 star rating will do. This is a highly recommendable album though despite the obvious flaws.

Frank Zappa could sometimes be a real bastard. For all of the work he'd done afterwards, he knew very well that his fanbase liked the original Mothers of Invention material more than anything else from him, and that the most desired material for the YCDTOSA series would come from that era. So naturally, when he finally released an entire disc of that material, he paired it with a disc of material from an era (the 80's) of which few people wanted to hear more stuff. Yes, the second disc is from the 1982 band, which hadn't gotten as much coverage as the 1981 or the 1984 band, but still, not many people were clamoring for that material.

The first disc is generally a hoot, though I certainly wouldn't go overboard and say that it's a crucial missing piece of the legacy of the Mothers. It's a good mix of "regular" live performances, on-stage skits and skits that seem like they were recorded in-studio (I'm not 100% sure), and they're every bit the mix of weird and interesting that the 60's albums were. It's nothing spectacular, but it's decent enough. A couple of things stand out about the "real" music bits: the first is that these performances remind me just how much, for all of the band's eccentricities, the Mothers were rooted in "regular" 60's blues rock. They threw in a heavy dose of modal jazz, modern classical and various avant-garde aspects, and they were certainly well ahead of their time, but they still had a basic common language with other bands of the day (and I'd say it was that commonality that made them all the more subversive). The second is that it's neat to get a reminder of Zappa's practice of taking bits performed live, transcribing them note for note and then having the band redo them in the studio. There's a track here that contains a section from "Little House I Used to Live in," largely note for note, and I'm pretty sure there are other similar bits on this album that ended up on studio albums. This is more interesting as a glance into Zappa's artistic style than as actual music, I suppose, but it's still worthwhile.

The skits are generally fun, too. The two best tracks are the one where the band does an impromptu ballet while a Mozart piano sonata is played (obviously this loses a lot without an accompanying visual element, but the written description of it makes it sound hilarious), and one near the end where the band is stopped by a German customs agent who gives them a hassle but becomes more friendly when he finds the "real German" style lyrics to "My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama," which immediately follows. There are some others, and they're somewhat hit and miss, but overall they give a nice sense of levity to the disc that wouldn't have been accomplished with just music.

The second disc, then, isn't something people would have been lusting after, but it's decent as far as 80's Zappa goes. There isn't much need for yet another endlessly noodly version of "Pound for a Brown" or "The Black Page," and I'm not thrilled to hear "RDNZL" again, but the rest is basically ok. I still don't like "Easy Meat" that much, but the synths are much less obnoxious here than in the Tinseltown Rebellion version, so that helps a lot. "What's New in Baltimore?" is interesting in that, unlike the Mothers of Prevention version, it's got a vocal part, and it lasts the whole second half. The new tracks ("Dead Girls of London," "Shall We Take Ourselves Seriously?") are fun and relatively short, and the remaining familiar tracks are all done in rousing and enjoyable ways (and I can't help but be happy to hear "Dancing Fool" and "Doreen" in new versions), so why shouldn't I enjoy this disc? Plus, it has a hilariously pissy ending, with Frank getting angry about all of the stuff getting thrown on stage and ending the concert early.

So overall, why I can easily get the idea of a Zappa fan going ga-ga for the first disc and giving a big fat "meh" to the second, I really feel the two discs aren't extremely far apart in quality, and that quality is "really solidly decently good." The first disc may have more value in the grand scheme of things, but it's hardly the only reason for a Zappa fan to buy this.

You would think that after eight full CDs of live material, Frank Zappa would start running out of good unique performances to continue on. And that almost seems to be the case here. Yet Zappa manages to come with another good, but inconsistent album of rare gems.

The first CD is culled from recording of the various incarnations of "The Original Mothers", the various lineups that existed from "Freak Out" to "Weasels Ripped My Flesh". Some feel that these are the better lineups of Zappa's bands. I love these groups, but I tend to prefer the lineups from 1972 on, when Zappa could pick and choose the musicians who were more capable of accomplishing what he intended in his music. That, paired with the better recording techniques and equipment of the later years leads to a more enjoyable sound.

There are quite a few tracks of just the band goofing around off stage. Like on "Playground Psychotics", these tracks are amusing, but don't really stand up to repeated listenings. The same can be said for the track Right There, where Frank "plays" Roy Estrada, by using hand signals to squeeze out bizarre sounds from the high pitched voice of the bassist.

The good stuff on this disk are the odd little tunes that never made it to any other releases, and the live tracks rarely played by the later bands. Special mention should be made for Charles Ives. this piece should be familiar to Captain Beefheart fans as the backing track to The Blimp from "Trout Mask Replica.

The second disk. while not as historic, is much more fun. This disk is comprised of tracks played by the 1982 band. While there are no songs that haven't appeared elsewhere, this group, that featured Steve Vai and Tommy Mars, two of Zappa's most talented sidemen, play some unbelievable tracks. Standouts are What's New In Baltimore?, Moggio,RDNZL, The Black Page #2, and A Pound For A Brown (On The Bus), which features an Ed Mann percussion solo, that shows that while Mann was good, he was no match for woman (Ruth Underwood).

3.5 stars, rounded down.