The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 69, No. 11, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 22, 1981 Page: 10 of 20
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Concerts
Albums
Commerciality overtaking Zappa New albums not really new
Frank Zappa
Summit
October 17, 1981
Utterly unfulfilling is all I can
say about Saturday's performance.
The band was tight, but it didn't
piay very much. Unfortunately,
since last year Zappa has made a
lot of very disappointing stylistic
decisions.
When he came to Houston last
October, he brought a new sound,
revealing another in a series of
sonic metamorphoses he began in
the sixties. It was an exciting,
sythesizer-oriented construction
augmented by Zappa's own
brilliant guitar work. A different
and very appealing side of his
musicianship was born. I expected
something like this to happen
Saturday night.
A little Zappa history, I think, is
important before 1 pass final
judgement. Since the sixties,
Zappa has almot been proud of the
fact that his music is not
commercial. That is, he refused to
conform to what, the record
companies wanted, just because it
would sell records.
He had something to say both
musically and verbally that
perhaps many people didn't care to
hear. Being influenced by people
like Stravinsky and Varese,
Zappa was somewhat of an avant
garde musician. This is especially
apparent in the 1968 release Uncle
Meat, considered by some to be his
masterpiece. Similarly, his harsh
cynicism and uninhibited social
criticism didn't afford him much
"commercial potential."
Throughout the years, his musical
ideas changed and evolved
drastically. He would often rework
old material and repeat, in altered
forms, old themes and motifs.
With all this in mind, I went to the
Summit Saturday night.
Zappa opened with a nice guitar
solo. He followed with six cuts
from his most recent album, a few
songs from othei* recent releases,
and then more new material: no
unique original musical ideas or
fresh interpretations of old
classics. The new ideas he
presented were rock-based, using
loud, distorted guitar work — not
technical mastery or stylistic
finesse—to generate excitement.
The old songs he did play {Broken
Hearts, Flakes, and the encore
Bobby Brown) employed cheap
scatological vulgarity to stir up
crowd. Frank, what's wrong?
The entire concert amounted to
a promo for a not-so-hot new
album, broken up by crowd
pleasers. 1 can understand the
lyrics—he did say a few important
things and has never had a very
good voice; but the music. . .
Where are all the subtle
complexities he displayed over ten
years ago?
In all this desolation, however,
there was some hope. The guitar
solos were excellent, although not
as numerous or lengthy as last
year. In one of the new pieces, a
few sections hinted at the
harmonic complexity of Uncle
Meat. This wasn't apparent last
time and is a most welcome
recapitulation. The best piece was
City of Tiny Lights, where Ray
White's powerful vocals and
Zappa's fiery guitar finally
revealed their potential.
Zappa is a musical genius—not
only as a guitarist, but as a
composer. What he is doing now is
a tragic waste of talent. He had a
hard life during his early years with
The Mothers of Invention and is
certainly due praise and
recognition for his music. It's truly
disappointing to be in a society
that doesn't recognize and reward
talent like Zappa's in its purest
form.
—Loren A. Fefer
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Iron City Houserockers
Blood on the Bricks
MCA Records
Pittsburgh's Iron City
Houserockers, one of the most
critically acclaimed new
mainstream rock bands in recent
years, have come up with another
fine effort on their third album,
Blood on the Bricks. While lacking
the thematic unity that made last
year's Have a Good Time, But Get
Out Alive so powerful, this album
still contains much of the realism
that made both their earlier
albums so vital.
Lyrically, the Houserockers do
something that nobody seems to
do much of in rock and roll
anymore: portray real people in
real situations: The Vietnam vet
who can't cope in "Saints and
Sinners"; the unemployed
steelworjcer who doesn't
understandomic theories behind
the politician's glib reassurances,
but only the suffering of those
close to him in "Watch Out"—all
characters, whether the listener"
can sympathize with them or not,
whom can certainly be recognized
as genuine.
Musically, the Houserockers
underscore and enhance their true-
tOjlife stories with a tight R&B-
based "bar band" rock sound,
drawing somewhat from Graham
Parker and the J. Geils Band. It is
free of self-indulgent solos and
studio embellishments, resulting in
music that achieves a working-
class sensibility. As long as there
are people who adhere to the rock
and roll ideal, there will always be
a place for this type of music. The
Iron City Houserockers use rock
and roll as a tool to show a little bit
of life in order to make their
listeners stop and think about it.
— Bill Bonner
Grand Funk Railroad
Grand Funk Lives
Full Moon Records
In what may turn out to be a
shrewd commercial move, Grand
Funk Railroad, the original bad
heavy metal band, have reunited
You Mean Kinko's Reproduces
Faster Than Us?
XEROX
COPIES
(actually Dennis Bellinger has
replaced the original bassist, Mel
Schacher). From the sound of their
reunion album Grand Funk Lives,
it appears that little has changed
except, perhaps, the suitability of
their material to commercial
AOR-format radio.
All the traits that made Grand
Funk such a whipping boy for
early-70's rock critics are still to be
found on this album: tired old riffs,
hackneyed lyrics, flat, limited
vocals, a general lack of cohesion
and originality. They even throw in
a butchered version of an
acknowledged rock classic (The
Animals "We Gotta Get out of
This Place"), just like they used to
do. However, the production on
this album is much slicker than on
their infamous early albums,
creating a sound that is more
accessible, or at least saleable
in any lease.
Well, if their record company
and management do their jobs,
Grand Funk should be making
money again sometime soon.
Admittedly, this album was easier
to endure than recent releases from
AC/ DC and Foreigner.
— Bill Bonner
The Police
Ghost in the Machine
A & M Records
If you liked everything that the
Police have done in the past, you
will probably like Ghost in the
Machine also. All the musical
characteristics that gained
popularity for the Police are found
once again on this album: the
Jamaican-influenced rhythms
insistently ringing guitars, the
chanted vocals with the title of the
song repeated many times.
Although there are a few
keyboard-laden diversions
("Invisible Sun", "Spirits in the
Material World"), for the most
part, the Police keep to their tried-
and-true formula for making their
songs insinuate themselves into
your brain and feet.
However, the lyrical orignality
and wry humor that have made the
Police interesting as well as
popular are generally missing on
this album. While thesongwriting
shows more sophistication than
that found among the other bands
dominating commercial radio,
it still does not seem to have had
much thought put into it. There is
certainly nothing as clever on this
album as "I Can't Stand Losing
You" or "Don't Stand So Close to
Me".
Generally, the album leaves the
impression that a band with the
reputation of the Police could have
come up with a much more
innovative effort had they set
minds to it. Suffice it to say that the
people who would really enjoy the
album probably own it already.
—Bill Bonner
The Rice Thresher, October 22, 1981, page B4
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Davies, Bruce. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 69, No. 11, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 22, 1981, newspaper, October 22, 1981; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245483/m1/10/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.