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

"You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 5" is the 5th album in the "You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore" series of double live albums by US experimental rock artist Frank Zappa. The album was released through Rykodisc in July 1992.

Disc 1 contains unreleased live material (and a couple of studio parts and tracks) by Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention. All tracks on Disc 1 are recorded between 1965 and 1969. Most are from the last part of the career of the original Mothers of Invention. There are some pretty great tracks featured here like "The Downtown Talent Scout", "My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama" and "Run Home Slow: Main Title Theme" but ultimately too much of the material on Disc 1 are of a bit questionable quality to my ears. But that´s actually no different from most other live recordings of the early Mothers of Invention that I have heard (there are of course exceptions). There are both r´n´b influenced tracks, avant garde rock songs, improvised compositions and spoken sketches on Disc 1 which is more or less business as usual for Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention. The sound quality varies but it is generally acceptable. We´re not dealing with a high quality audio product though.

Disc 2 contains 13 tracks recorded live by the 1982 Frank Zappa band. About half of the material come 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 titled "Geneva Farewell". After repeatedly asking that the audience should not throw any more stuff on stage, a very angry sounding Frank Zappa ends the concert by saying: "House Lights, The Concert is Over". Frank Zappa explains 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 pretty foul to my ears. Well the music on Disc 2 is fortunately not affected by those unfortunate circumstances. The sound quality is perfect, the musicianship are outstanding and the track selection nearly perfect too. We are presented to 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 material like "Dancin' Fool" and "Doreen".

The listener is treated to some very impressive vocal performances by Bobby Martin and especially by the fantastic Ray White on tracks 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 this disc. Lots of experimental atonal guitar soloes by Frank Zappa but the composed instrumenal parts are maybe the most stunning here. I never get tired of listening to the crazy theme from "The Black Page #2" or the insane ditto of "Moggio". "RDNZL" also appears here in one of the best released versions I have heard (the original studio version from "Studio Tan (1978)" always lacked something IMO). In addition to the great tracklist and strong musical performances on disc 2 there are also two (at the time) unreleased tracks on the disc in "Dead Girls Of London" and "Shall We Take Ourselves Seriously?" and while those two tracks might not be the major attractions on the album, it´s always great to hear unreleased material (of good quality) when dealing with Frank Zappa.

So what you get on "You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 5" is one disc of Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention tracks that I personally find decent for the most part but not really special and in some cases unfortunately rather dispensable, and one disc featuring absolutely brilliant live material by the 1982 Frank Zappa band. So rating this release is a bit hard. I guess a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating isn´t all wrong.

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.

Volume 5 (out of the 6 volume series of collected concert highlights of Frank Zappa's career) is once again a 2 disc set of over 2 hours long of music and hijinx of the band. This volume has a lot of music and field recordings that previous to the release of this collection, were not available except for a few of the tracks which were on bootlegs, not even on studio recordings. The two discs really don't have much to do with each other as far as band line-ups and music stylings. But the discs individually are focused on specific eras of the band, which was not the case in the haphazard 4th volume.

The first disc centers around performances from 1966 - 1971, most of which are in 1969. Typically, I am not a fan of the Flo and Eddie years, but fortunately, their obnoxious antics are reigned in for the most part and some of the field recordings are funnier than the concert skits. The disc has 25 tracks, so don't expect any long improvisational solos here. But you can expect all previously unavailable tracks and a lot of the material is completely original to this collection. The sound isn't too bad either considering the years that this material was recorded.

The disc starts out with an original song performed at the Fillmore in San Francisco in June of 1966. It is a good track that would have fit well on the "Freak Out!" album. It sounds similar to "Trouble Every Day" but it is not a copy. Next is sort of a avant garde instrumental track that has some audience participation called "Charles Ives". This was previously available from "Weasels Ripped My Flesh" but as a different version. Then you get a really good r&b song that was recorded at NYC in 1969. This song is called "Here Lies Love" and it was originally a b-side for "WPLJ" and when Lowell joined the band, it became a concert staple, but before this recording was not available on a studio album. This is probably one of their best normal songs from that decade. After that you get a short guitar and electric piano duet from The Ark in Boston from 7/8/1969. Then you get Ian Underwood soloing on piano playing "Mozart Ballet" and doing an awesome job, but while he was playing, the band was doing some silly ballet act on stage that apparently was quite funny from the audience reaction. All I know is that a rubber chicken was involved. This takes place in London on 6/6/1969. After this you get more on stage hijinx while the band plays a jewish/middle eastern sounding song while Lowell and George sing like a couple of operatic swamis. As you can see, the quality of the songs have suddenly begun to suffer because of the silliness. These things would probably be more meaningful if we could see what was going on on stage.

Frank Zappa loved recording almost every show and even secretly recorded conversations that the band would have with one another and then he would surprise them by putting these conversations on an actual recording. Needless to say, some band members would get pissed off about this. The next track is recorded while the band was travelling on the tour bus and features Jimmy Carl Black and Kanzus singing an old song called "Lovesick Blues" by Hank Williams. The rest of this disc continues in this same manner with some short fusion or avant garde type instrumentals, some stage hijinx, and some field recordings and skits. There are some great highlights but also some very strange additions. However Zappa fans tend to want to collect everything, so this disc does have a lot going for it in this respect. For Zappa beginners though, it would probably be very confusing and off-putting, so this is not one for the masses. Beginners would enjoy the version of "Trouble Every Day" and "My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama" which are both often heard on other concert recordings. The Zappa-philes however would appreciate the original songs at the beginning of the disc and also the hilarious skit "German Lunch" which features the band acting out going through customs in Germany. Very funny. There is a great drum duet featuring Frank Zappa and Jimmy Carl Black soloing together (sounds like an oxymoron....soloing together). There are plenty of great instrumentals and vocals and crazy field recordings spread throughout these 25 tracks that run for 70 minutes. I enjoyed it very much which is saying a lot for someone that typically doesn't like the concerts from this era.

The 2nd disc in my opinion is the better one as far as musicality is concerned. It, like volume 3, focuses mainly on the 1980s ,but specifically the line-up from 1982 for the most part. This particular lineup was not featured very often before the release of this collection, so, once again, this disc also has a lot of value for the Zappa fan. All the tracks on this disc are pretty good and proves that this lineup did a great job on their better days.

It starts out with a great version of "Easy Meat" that features a great heavy guitar solo from Frank and the track has been edited between three venues through it's 7 minute run time. A great song that was not available before this collection called "Dead Girls from London" comes next. Since the release of this collection, it became available also on the album "Buffalo". Next is another unreleased almost lounge sounding song done by Ray White called "Shall We Take Ourselves Seriously?" bemoaning the choice of eating asparagus.

About half of this disc is recorded in Geneva, Switzerland on 8/1/1982, which turned out to be an ill fated concert (we'll discuss that later). The first verse of "What's New in Baltimore?" is the first of many of these tracks recorded at this concert. There is a nice instrumental in the middle and then the venue changes for the 2nd verse. If you listen closely, you can usually tell when Zappa would edit another venue into a track to make it more interesting. This usually worked well for Zappa's concert recordings in that Zappa always wanted the best representations of his concerts and would also explain why he was always recording everything. We stay in Geneva for the instrumental track "Moggio" and for a straightforward version of "Dancin' Fool" and then for the first part of the amazing rendition of "RNDZL" This version includes a rousing guitar solo from FZ recorded from Palermo, Italy on 7/14/82 and then a great keyboard solo (electric piano and synth) from Rome on 7/9/82. You can hear the edits, but they still flow as well as they can considering the change in venues. Ray White does "Advance Romance" justice and you don't even miss Captain Beefheart singing it this time around. The guitar solo is also stellar in this version.

Next comes "City of Tiny Lights" which is a personal favorite. This performance is culled from 4 venues throughout it's 10 minute run time and it works really well. This was always a great song to improvise off of and the band does great here. During the 2nd vocal part, you can witness (at least with your ears) how the band would follow FZ when he would conduct them with hand signals. This is apparent when you hear how the notes are held out for long durations by the vocalist and how the band always knew when to follow. You can picture Frank conducting this and all members of the band watching him closely. And they are all right on cue. This performance is amazing and the song alone is a essential FZ recording just for the fact of how the band followed him. The disc continues with a great jazz fusion version of "Pound for a Brown", a short unnecessary verion of "Doreen", a stellar version of "The Black Page" recorded from several venues and it finally ends up back in Geneva.

"Geneva Farewell" documents when FZ had to cut a great performance short because the audience kept throwing items on the stage and this was endangering other audience members and the band. FZ had previously warned the audience to stop doing this, but they continued. Finally, Frank stops everything and tells them that if they don't stop doing this, they were going to end the concert. The French interpreter relayed this message to the audience, however, he instead said that they needed to find the person that was throwing cigarette butts at the stage. He didn't say anything about the warning to stop the concert, and when more stuff ended up on the stage, FZ commanded to bring up the house lights and that the concert was over. This created a small riot which is what you hear the beginning of before the sound fades away. This is an important recording for Zappa collectors and raises the rating of the collection for that fact alone.

So overall, this is a pretty decent volume in the series. It is not the best and some of the tracks on disc 1 are not really great while others are. The 2nd disc however is pretty good all the way through even considering it was done in the 80s, it was with a great lineup that wasn't documented very often. There is a lot of value to the Zappa collector here, but I wouldn't recommend the 1st disc to those starting to listen to Zappa. Instead, from this series, I would recommend volumes 1 or 2 over this one. However, since this does have a lot of interest to Zappa fans and has some great recordings among the not so great ones, it still manages to get an excellent review. I quite enjoy this volume. 4 stars.