Ahead of Their Time

Artist: The Mothers of Invention
Label: Zappa Records
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Live
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 014431055928
EAN: 0014431055928
ASIN: B0000009TM

Release Date: 1995-05-30

Ahead of Their Time

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Tracks:

Prologue
Progress?
Like It Or Not
The Jimmy Carl Black Philosophy Lesson
Holding The Group Back
Holiday In Berlin
The Rejected Mexican Pope Leaves The Stage
Undaunted, The Band Plays On
Agency Man
Epilogue
King Kong
Help, I'm A Rock
Transylvania Boogie
Pound For A Brown
Sleeping In A Jar
Let's Make The Water Turn Black
Harry, You're A Beast
The Orange County Lumber Truck (Part 1)
Oh No
The Orange County Lumber Truck (Part 2)

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Customer Reviews:

Sound Quality Isn't Everything.......2005-06-24

The Mothers,and the original band in particular, seemed to have a character that the later bands seemed to lack. All his ensembles were phenomenal, but when an audience went to see The Mothers, they went to see The Mothers, the band that FZ was a part of. This included Roy Estrada's weird, high wailing, Jim Black's brashness,Ian Underwood's classical training, basically the whole band's legendary raspberry at all the conventions that are imposed on all up-and-coming talent.
This is a top-notch band, with impressive material, and even though Zappa has later said that it was lack of ability, among other things that broke this group up, the talent is on par with anyone out there.
Don't let the less-than-ideal sound quality put you off, this is par excellence.

Historical Archive-Prelude to 200 Motels.......2005-03-26

I would put the value of this CD in the same class as an interview CD. It gives you some perspective on what Frank Zappa with the Mothers of Invention were doing at the time. As an entertainment CD or music CD, you might not want to play this more than once, especially when there are better Zappa CD's out there.

There are a number of things wrong with this CD. If you really want this, you should search out the video. Maybe you can find it on Zappa's website.

The sound is poor. There is a buzzing noise and the dynamic range is flat. It has that echo, bootleg king of sound. There are other CD's from this time period that sound much better. All of the Beat the Boots CD's have better sound quality. Beat the Boots is where Zappa took bootleg albums and remastered them so they have decent sound. I don't know why the effort was not taken with this CD.

The first 25 minutes of this CD is a play, similar to what they did on 200 Motels, about band friction issues. The problem is that much of the humor is visual. You had to be there to appreciate it. There are blank spots and you hear people laughing, but you don't know why (maybe if photos of the concert were included in the liner notes, it would help).

There is about 40 minutes of wonderful music. But, these are all the same instrumentals that the Mothers of Invention were playing during that time period. If you have the Beat the Boot series of CD's, you have all this same stuff.

But, I do have to admit that the Mothers of Invention were a jam band, and they never played everything quite the same twice. But, is it different enough?

The one difference on this CD is that there is an orchestra. But, the orchestra only has impact during the first 25 minutes when the group is clowning around. It is hard to pick out the orchestra playing in the last half of the CD. Are they even there?

If you like Zappa's clowning around on stage and don't care about sound quality, than this might be the CD for you. Another to think about getting would be Playground Psychotics.

Truly ahead of their time.......2003-11-22

I picked this up because I'm a fan of live FZ/MOI. Some performances are legendary-this one is not. It is superb, however, because it documents a musical phenom in his early phase. I continually am fascinated by Zappa's abilities as composer.

The orchestral pieces echo Lumpy Gravy/In It for the Money, and you can hear material that would find its way onto Weasels Ripped my Flesh. The early MOI are a great band, but Zappa constantly tweaked them to get the maximum juice into his music. The melodic phrasing/interplay between Preston, Zappa, and Sherwood is really laid back and comfortable. You could tell they're playing hard.

Getting to hear Roy Estrada talk is also a treat. The Rejected Mexican Pope bit is funny, and he really does have a funny voice (The Radio is Broken/Nowhere)! Mothers fans should have this CD. The original lineup is often overlooked in favor of the other bands. They should be appreciated, too. This album gives you a fair idea of what an early MOI performance was. Worth the money. I give it four and a half stars because sound improves later in the show.

First half comedy, second half serious get out of the way.......2003-06-07

The first half of this cd is amusing FZ mothers bantor, which in itself is not a bad reason to buy this cd. Funny and imaginative.... but, track 13-20 starting with 'Transylvania Boogie' on through 'Orange County Lumber Truck prt 2' is serious mother smashing down some grooves. Way wonderful. Worth the price of admission.. and if you don't have any early mother material, this is a great one to start out with. very enjoyable.

The Mothers Of Invention, The Band Most Ahead Of Their Time.......2003-02-02

Frank Zappa was one of the truly remarkable creative spirits of our time, which makes him, incontrovertibly, one of a handful of rock's most influential figures. The others - Justin Hayward, who helped marry rock to the Classics, has been serving us perpetual pap, from his Moody Blues--save for some decent, but sporadic, album cuts--since they got back together in the late 70s; Brian Wilson, who also helped bring rock to an art form, had his moments, too, yet is rarely seen with his Beach Boys, who are content to reside in the oldies circuit; Michael Brown, keyboardist, composer and producer, who, through the Left Banke, engineered Baroque-rock, and was later involved with Montage, Stories, Beckies and Yvonne Vitale, now lives in seclusion; and then there's Roger McGuinn, 12-string Rickenbacker guitar sultan and Moog synthesizer wizard, who helped devise folk-rock, psychedelic, country-rock, etc., through the Byrds--some cognoscenti say the greatest band ever--regales in his earlier flight with them in interviews, web site archives and rereleased CD liner notes, but, paradoxically, would never be seen with David Crosby (who would overshadow him? and now owns the "Byrds" name) and coterie because he is now resurrecting old folk songs nobody knew, monthly, on his web site and collaborating with old folkies whose time is, well, past. Ah, but there's Francesco Zappa--a man never content to slumber on his laurels--creating and recording some sixty-four albums, till cancer stole him from our midst in 1993.

The music of Frank Zappa and The Mothers Of Invention (1964-1969) was often acerbic, theatrical satire, whose cultural purpose was to obliterate all that we found commercially sacrosanct, thereby reevaluating the way our pretentious customs and status figures were viewed. However, the Mothers were not just comedy-rockers with props, like the Bonzo Dog (Doo Dah) Band or the Firesign Theatre, who were both charming, but not flagrantly profane, kinky, or subversive (though the Fugs-- entertaining beat poets--were even more outrageous, making the ribald an end in itself). This was also because the Mothers delivered their satire through doo-wap, blues, electronic pyrotechnics, jazz improv and avant-garde Classical modes. The last mentioned, Frank felt the most affinity for. His gods were Anton Webern, Bela Bartok, Igor Stravinsky and, particularly, Edgar Varese. These composers were, at one time or another, engrossed in writing atonally, i.e., bereft of a key or pitch central to the musical score. It is not veracious to say the Mothers' music was totally absorbed in this genre. Sure, they employed protean and zigzagging rhythms, and their unique melodies were chary (not exactly Gene Clark) sans uniformity; their harmonies parodied 50s vocal groups, to add to the farrago, but they usually returned to a central key.

Frank, himself, was a virtuoso guitarist possessing a vast hand span, and, with advanced hardware, evoked tight, liquid, unbroken and colourful vibes. I still think he made the guitar sound like a horn or keyboard. He was a maestro of the synclavier, too. Zappa played or recorded with the finest: conductors Zubin Mehta, Pierre Boulez and Kent Nagano; jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty; Captain Beefheart of the Magic Band; Lowell George, later founder of Little Feat (which was also started by former Mother, Roy Estrada, who joined Beefheart after); Steve Vai, "Superstrat" guitarist; John Guerin, drummer for the Byrds (after Gene Parsons' departure from that group); and even Grace Slick (on the Jefferson Airplane's "Would You Like A Snack" romp). In short, any ensemble he assembled was professional.

I have chosen to review The Mothers Of Invention's "Ahead Of Their Time" album, to which Zappa penned all of the music for. It was performed in conjunction with fourteen members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, at the Royal Festival Hall, London, England in 1968. The CD of this performance was released in 1993. If you are curious as to what The Mothers Of Invention were all about, this album is a starter. Of note are the caricatures of the group members on the front cover. Such ubiquitous, graffiti-like cartoons somehow pictured what you would hear inside of any Mothers or Zappa album. The setting is actually a quasi-dada (anti-traditional, discomposed buffoonery) play, with Frank as the master of ceremonies for the shenanigans. It begins with the cacophonous "Prologue (Bogus Pomp)," where it is arduous to locate a melodic line. Next, on "Progress?" Frank, alluding to the aforementioned, ululates, "Silence, you fools! Don't you believe in progress?" Another band member, unsympathetically, retorts, "Take that progress and stick it under a rock!" After, a member adds, "We must overthrow the diatonic system!" (Diatonic, referring to music made up of notes in the key that prevails; compare to "atonally," above.) The banter leads to somebody saying, later, on "The Jimmy Carl Black Philosophy Lesson," "Heh, I thought we were going to play a rock'n'roll concert." Then there is the demand for "discipline" and "old melodies" in this concert. They employ anecdotes to mock the positions of one another. Immediately you witness the dichotomy: The Mothers Of Invention challenge traditional pop music, with its pompous themes, by being progressive, extemporaneous and jocular, with a plethora of instruments and necessary sound effects, utilizing uncommon musical structures mentioned earlier.

My favourite piece on "Ahead Of Their Time" is "King Kong"; an exercise in bloated, but entertaining, jazz jamming. I also enjoyed "The Rejected Mexican Pope Leaves The Stage," which is an attack on the Pope's recently proclaimed birth control ban, as bassist and vocalist Ray Estrada arrives on stage, donning armour and religious headgear. Cuts like those are the gist of this recording, which offends, titillates, humours, and musically educates, with a new bag and layout of thespians. Oneness of content and form is culminated in this musical play, because if you grasp the intent, all of the fatuousness achieves some purpose.

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