The Man from Utopia
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| The Man from Utopia | |||||
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| Studio album by Frank Zappa | |||||
| Released | March 28, 1983 | ||||
| Recorded | October 1980 - October 1982 | ||||
| Genre | Hard rock, progressive rock, art rock, comedy rock | ||||
| Length | 40:21 | ||||
| Label | Barking Pumpkin | ||||
| Producer | Frank Zappa | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
| Frank Zappa chronology | |||||
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The Man from Utopia is a 1983 album by Frank Zappa. It is a more song-driven, and less conceptual work than many others in Zappa's oeuvre. The album is named after a 1950s song, written by Donald and Doris Woods, which Zappa covers as part of "The Man from Utopia Meets Mary Lou".[1]
The sleeve art features the work of RanXerox artist Tanino Liberatore. It portrays Zappa (with a superhero body like RanXerox's) on stage trying to kill mosquitos. The back cover shows the audience as seen from the stage. Chaos prevails, and the cover is meant to show the events at a disastrous concert in Palermo, Italy, July 14, 1982. At that concert, fans kept trying to rush the stage, and the local security force began firing tear-gas canisters into the crowd. Zappa and his band continued to perform, but were forced to flee when the gas became unbearable, and live ammunition (presumably from the audience) was fired. Backstage footage can be found on The Dub Room Special. The album was the second of two to credit Steve Vai with "impossible guitar parts" (the first being Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch).
The album's opening track "Cocaine Decisions", with its groove redolent of skiffle washboards, is an angry, disgusted attack on drug-influenced businessmen and features an ironically cheerful harmonica. "The Dangerous Kitchen" satirizes dirty, unkempt kitchens, specifically the one in the Zappa household at the time. "Stick Together" is a deeply passionate attack on all unions in general, especially those controlled by organized crime. "The Radio Is Broken" hilariously satirizes 1950's sci-fi B-movies. Zappa grew up watching these ultra-cheesy movies and "Radio" is his most heartfelt and funny tribute to them on record. "SEX" is a blunt, crude song which unabashedly celebrates the title topic; lyrics include "Maybe you could use a protein surprise" and "The bigger the cushion, the better the pushin'"; the song also criticizes what society considers to be "sexy", ie. "Who wants to ride on an ironing board? That ain't no fun, I tried me one." The "Mary Lou/Man From Utopia" medley finds Zappa returning to his beloved doo-wop roots in a completely sincere style; no satire included.
"Kitchen", "Radio", and "The Jazz Discharge Party Hats" all feature Zappa's "meltdown" style of generally pre-written but sometimes improvised singing/speaking. For "Jazz" and "Kitchen", Zappa had guitarist Steve Vai overdub complex guitar parts for the entire length of the songs, which perfectly copied Frank's every word and syllable. Vai considers it to be one of his most difficult assignments as a musician; it required him to detune his guitar at times to match Frank's varying pitches. This unique type of overdub was a one-time experiment that Zappa never repeated.
"Jazz" became semi-infamous in Zappa circles for its extremely scatological subject matter: certain substances found in a woman's discarded underwear, and what certain band members did with those substances while at a hotel pool late one night in Albuquerque, NM. The song was written to humorously explain to audiences the origin of why certain band members occasionally wore underwear on their heads onstage.
The original album had instrumentals ending each side: the complex yet catchy "Mōggio", and the mellifluous "We Are Not Alone," featuring Marty Krystall on overdubbed baritone saxophones. A third instrumental, "Tink Walks Amok", gets its clever name from bass player Arthur Barrow's nickname (Tink), and an archaic term (walking amok) for what 'out of control robots' do in old sci-fi films (hence its thematic sequencing next to "Radio".) The 'walk' in the title has additional significance because it musically refers to a style of bass playing, and since Barrow plays multiple and highly unusual bass parts on the song, he is indeed "walking amok" at times.
Contents |
[edit] Track listing
All songs were written by Frank Zappa, except where noted.
[edit] Original release
The album was originally released on vinyl in 1983.
[edit] Side one
- "Cocaine Decisions" – 2:56
- "The Dangerous Kitchen" – 2:51
- "Tink Walks Amok" – 3:40
- "The Radio Is Broken" – 5:52
- "Mōggio" – 3:05
[edit] Side two
- "The Man from Utopia/Mary Lou" (Donald and Doris Woods, Obie Jessie) – 3:19
- "Stick Together" – 3:50
- "SEX" – 3:00
- "The Jazz Discharge Party Hats" – 4:30
- "We Are Not Alone" – 3:31
[edit] Re-release
The album was re-released on CD in 1995.
- "Cocaine Decisions" – 3:53
- "SEX" – 3:44
- "Tink Walks Amok" – 3:39
- "The Radio Is Broken" – 5:51
- "We Are Not Alone" – 3:18
- "The Dangerous Kitchen" – 2:51
- "The Man from Utopia Meets Mary Lou" – 3:22
- "Stick Together" – 3:14
- "The Jazz Discharge Party Hats" – 4:29
- "Luigi & The Wise Guys" (bonus track) – 3:25
- "Mōggio" – 2:35
[edit] Personnel
- Frank Zappa – guitar, vocals, drum machine, ARP 2600
- Steve Vai – guitar, acoustic guitar
- Ray White – guitar, vocals
- Roy Estrada – vocals
- Bob Harris – boy soprano
- Ike Willis – vocals
- Bobby Martin – keyboards, saxophone, vocals
- Tommy Mars – keyboards
- Arthur Barrow – keyboards, bass, micro bass, rhythm guitar
- Ed Mann – percussion
- Scott Thunes – bass
- Chad Wackerman – drums
- Vinnie Colaiuta – drums
- Craig Twister Steward – harmonica
- Dick Fegy – mandolin
- Marty Krystall – saxophone
