Obviously we can never agree on 50 plus records but I freaking love this record and this has to be underrated. I did just listen to it VERY loud after a night out with friends so BAM! I felt it! Tell me you love me!!!!!!!!!!!
I believe Logeman plays the fantastic drums on Easy Meat. It is the drumming that really makes the song for me. And also, I love The Blue Light for its groove in the first and last part and for the weirdness in between.
Logeman plays drums on Fine Girl and the first half of Easy Meat, before the 1975 orchestral burst. Vinnie plays drums on the remainder of the live tracks, including the Easy Meat solo and outro. Another example of Frank liberally mixing and matching bands.....
If I was stranded on an island and could only bring a handful of FZ records, this would definitely be one of them. To each his own. I appreciate your ranking videos.
Thanks. This is exactly what I love about music- two people can listen to the same album and have completely different experiences. Gotta love it. Otherwise, there would be no point in ranking them or even discussing them.
FZ had several hodge podge albums, like Chunga's Revenge, Apoostrophe' and this one. Sometime it works, sometimes it dossn't. This album doesn't flow all that well.. Fine Girl was indeed recorded in the YAWYI sessions. It was apparehtle Bob Harris' audition.
Never sought it out but came across a $5 copy at a music sale last weekend. Yes, a weird one. As mentioned, it's got a few great cuts, some interesting bits, some cringeworthy satire, nostalgia, and amps. The cover is truth in advertising. The band mostly sounds like a machine: not a lot of distinctive textures or personality but tight and potent. Frank does most of the vocalizing, sounding especially sarcastic and mean. For my ears, his soloing early on is okay, fast but not always inventive... like placeholders. The older RUBEN/GREASY songs work well at contrasting the bile before and after. (Out of interest, I looked up the quilting artist Emily James: a panty quilt was actually completed several years later, with Frank as the Queen of Spades. The artist [who now goes by Alana] put the project into some context. Well worth a read.) I didn't think "Dance Contest" dragged as much as feared and momentum really picks up from there. "Pick Me, I'm Clean" (also referenced by Alana) ups both the energy and soloing prowess. The repellant lyrics and (Creamy) blooze riffing of "Bamboozled By Love" is pure satire, relieved somewhat by excellent solos. The "world of secret hungers" section of "Brown Shoes" fits the overall thematic slant of the album; it's well-played and a reminder of how many great musical ideas Zappa could cram into his early material. And speaking of reminders, "Peaches III" is a whirlwind streak through one of his best jazz-based pieces. Although thematically it shouldn't fit, it does sound like a 'Tinseltown' band cover version with the added bonus of learning about all the great Italians, especially Alvin Lee. Not an album I'll go back to frequently but it does have some oddball interest.
Strangely, I think I prefer this album to You Are What You Is. That album has the better songs of the two but is in dire need of more solos/ instrumentals/"breather" songs. Tinseltown has a few lame tracks but is still a more enjoyable listen. Also much prefer this version of Brown Shoes. ZFT, give us some live '79 please!
The highlight of this album for me is the Dance Contest going into The Blue Light (along with the super-charged Peaches and Brown Shoes). I love the sprechgesang parts and the whole vibe. It's one of Zappa's greatest weird moments. Love the references to Todd Rungren, etc and the Dance Contest gives a great feel for the audience participation stuff Frank did. Id probably rate this about 26th. Not awesome but with some great moments (inc the awesome Peaches III).
Having said all that, I did just relisten to the whole Tinseltown Rebellion album for the first time in about 10 years and I was a bit shocked. I forgot how sexist the lyrics are in quite a few of the songs: fine girl, easy meat, etc. And the most shocking of all: Bamboozled by love; Frank is essentially laughing at domestic abuse (including murder) against women. I now remember why I strongly disliked this song. Saying it's just a joke is no excuse and punching down is NEVER funny.
You're mistaking the version of "Tinseltown Rebellion" with the one done by the '84 band. There is no quote of a Doors song, or the other things you say you don't like about it. Two triplets played after the lyric, "be more punk", and five notes from the "Sunshine of Your Love" riff when he sings the lyric "cream", that's about it. The filmed show from The Pier in NYC July, 1984 has many quotations {Bowie, Devo, Culture Club} so I'm pretty sure you're conflating that when you're speaking of the album version.
I know this is quite old video, but "now you see me- now you don't" is not a king kong guitar solo (the fall 80 band never played king kong actually!) I think it's one of those frank opening solos where the band just starts playing and frank starts soloing
Thank you and yes, while we have no evidence that King Kong was played, we do not have a set list for the 11/15th show this came from and KK is a song that made random pop ups on various tours so.....maybe?!?!? But agreed....probably an Opening Solo with a KK quote and vibe.
@@theopinionatedhippie470 That is true, considering king kong did only pop up once in 1979, it could have popped up again in fall 80. My one problem with the fall 80 band is the lack of monsters, they really only had Torture and the slow arrangement of pick me I'm clean, and neither of those was *truly* monstrous until December. It would have been nice to have a king kong from that band. We can only hope...
Obviously we can never agree on 50 plus records but I freaking love this record and this has to be underrated. I did just listen to it VERY loud after a night out with friends so BAM! I felt it! Tell me you love me!!!!!!!!!!!
I believe Logeman plays the fantastic drums on Easy Meat. It is the drumming that really makes the song for me. And also, I love The Blue Light for its groove in the first and last part and for the weirdness in between.
Logeman plays drums on Fine Girl and the first half of Easy Meat, before the 1975 orchestral burst. Vinnie plays drums on the remainder of the live tracks, including the Easy Meat solo and outro. Another example of Frank liberally mixing and matching bands.....
If I was stranded on an island and could only bring a handful of FZ records, this would definitely be one of them. To each his own. I appreciate your ranking videos.
Thanks. This is exactly what I love about music- two people can listen to the same album and have completely different experiences. Gotta love it. Otherwise, there would be no point in ranking them or even discussing them.
what makes dance contest mildly interesting for me is that J Dilla (hip-hop producer) sampled it in his song Mash
FZ had several hodge podge albums, like Chunga's Revenge, Apoostrophe' and this one.
Sometime it works, sometimes it dossn't.
This album doesn't flow all that well..
Fine Girl was indeed recorded in the YAWYI sessions.
It was apparehtle Bob Harris' audition.
Never sought it out but came across a $5 copy at a music sale last weekend. Yes, a weird one.
As mentioned, it's got a few great cuts, some interesting bits, some cringeworthy satire, nostalgia, and amps. The cover is truth in advertising.
The band mostly sounds like a machine: not a lot of distinctive textures or personality but tight and potent. Frank does most of the vocalizing, sounding especially sarcastic and mean. For my ears, his soloing early on is okay, fast but not always inventive... like placeholders. The older RUBEN/GREASY songs work well at contrasting the bile before and after. (Out of interest, I looked up the quilting artist Emily James: a panty quilt was actually completed several years later, with Frank as the Queen of Spades. The artist [who now goes by Alana] put the project into some context. Well worth a read.)
I didn't think "Dance Contest" dragged as much as feared and momentum really picks up from there. "Pick Me, I'm Clean" (also referenced by Alana) ups both the energy and soloing prowess. The repellant lyrics and (Creamy) blooze riffing of "Bamboozled By Love" is pure satire, relieved somewhat by excellent solos. The "world of secret hungers" section of "Brown Shoes" fits the overall thematic slant of the album; it's well-played and a reminder of how many great musical ideas Zappa could cram into his early material. And speaking of reminders, "Peaches III" is a whirlwind streak through one of his best jazz-based pieces. Although thematically it shouldn't fit, it does sound like a 'Tinseltown' band cover version with the added bonus of learning about all the great Italians, especially Alvin Lee.
Not an album I'll go back to frequently but it does have some oddball interest.
I had it on vinyl back when it came out.
It's underwhelming but I do like Brown Shoes don't make It
Overall it lacks complexity as you pointed out.
Strangely, I think I prefer this album to You Are What You Is. That album has the better songs of the two but is in dire need of more solos/ instrumentals/"breather" songs. Tinseltown has a few lame tracks but is still a more enjoyable listen. Also much prefer this version of Brown Shoes. ZFT, give us some live '79 please!
The highlight of this album for me is the Dance Contest going into The Blue Light (along with the super-charged Peaches and Brown Shoes). I love the sprechgesang parts and the whole vibe. It's one of Zappa's greatest weird moments. Love the references to Todd Rungren, etc and the Dance Contest gives a great feel for the audience participation stuff Frank did. Id probably rate this about 26th. Not awesome but with some great moments (inc the awesome Peaches III).
Having said all that, I did just relisten to the whole Tinseltown Rebellion album for the first time in about 10 years and I was a bit shocked. I forgot how sexist the lyrics are in quite a few of the songs: fine girl, easy meat, etc. And the most shocking of all: Bamboozled by love; Frank is essentially laughing at domestic abuse (including murder) against women. I now remember why I strongly disliked this song. Saying it's just a joke is no excuse and punching down is NEVER funny.
You're mistaking the version of "Tinseltown Rebellion" with the one done by the '84 band. There is no quote of a Doors song, or the other things you say you don't like about it. Two triplets played after the lyric, "be more punk", and five notes from the "Sunshine of Your Love" riff when he sings the lyric "cream", that's about it. The filmed show from The Pier in NYC July, 1984 has many quotations {Bowie, Devo, Culture Club} so I'm pretty sure you're conflating that when you're speaking of the album version.
Thanks.
I know this is quite old video, but "now you see me- now you don't" is not a king kong guitar solo (the fall 80 band never played king kong actually!) I think it's one of those frank opening solos where the band just starts playing and frank starts soloing
Thank you and yes, while we have no evidence that King Kong was played, we do not have a set list for the 11/15th show this came from and KK is a song that made random pop ups on various tours so.....maybe?!?!? But agreed....probably an Opening Solo with a KK quote and vibe.
@@theopinionatedhippie470 That is true, considering king kong did only pop up once in 1979, it could have popped up again in fall 80. My one problem with the fall 80 band is the lack of monsters, they really only had Torture and the slow arrangement of pick me I'm clean, and neither of those was *truly* monstrous until December. It would have been nice to have a king kong from that band. We can only hope...
This is a pretty nasty record. Fine Girl is reggae.