Have I Offended Someone? The Lost Episodes. London Symphony Orchestra Vol. Strictly Commercial. Does Humor Belong In Music? Civilization Phase III. Ahead Of Their Time. Easy Rider Generation ' Kreega Bondola CD2. Kreega Bondola CD1. The Yellow Shark. II: Fire! Our Man In Nirvana Live. Playground Psychotics CD2. Playground Psychotics CD1. Francesco Zappa. Donna You Wanna ' Erdbeben In Munchen ' Beat The Boots Vol. Saarbrucken Anyway the wind blows Vinyl CD2. Anyway the wind blows Vinyl CD1.
The Eyes Of Osaka ' Electric Aunt Jemima ' Broadway The Hard Way Vinyl. The Perfect Stranger. The Man From Utopia. Baby Snakes Vinyl. Tinseltown Rebellion. You Are What You Is. Sheik Yerbouti Remastered Joe's Garage CD2. I find his later solo style to be much more rewarding than this early attempt.
Green Genes uses the theme from the Mr. Little Umbrelllas is a little jazzy tune which is allright but nothing special to me. It Must Be A Camel is a pretty good little song too, but again nothing excellent. Ian Underwood is by the way the only Mother present on Hot Rats which gives the album a very different sound and mood compared the Mothers of Invention albums.
The production is very good considering this is and once again Zappa proves that he is a unique producer as well as being a composer and musician. The pure mastery of this album is proved in the first four minutes. Peaches en Regalia, a clever little instrumental, displays such a scene of impossible melody and a myriad of styles that, to me, it literally defines what good prog really is. To guitarists, wondering what kind of skill the man might show here, the glories of the whole album don't even need to surveyed.
Proof lies here, with what is not only some spidery fast fretwork but what I think is the most beautiful and perfect clean tone a guitarist ever recorded. The song is streamable from this site, so listen to it and see if what I have to say holds true. The album continues with the only non-instrumental song, Willie the Pimp, a nice and traditional Zappa-lyricked bit of humor, with the vocals performed by noted Zappa collaborator Captain Beefheart.
The sung portion, however, is only the first few minutes, while the remainder is filled with a wonderful jam session. The main riff, doubled by a violin, returns to clinch the song at the end. Green Genes and Little Umbrellas continue the album, and though they are less remarkable as far as song goes, compared to most music ever made, they are stellar. The highlight of this album, especially for the average prog nerd, is the minute The Gumbo Variations.
Mostly an extended jam, The Gumbo Variations follows an upbeat bass and drums drive, while solos, ranging from melodic to vicious, play over the top. These solos include some wild saxophone as well. I believe this song alone would launch Frank Zappa to prog stardom, whether or not he had ever written anything else. The album then closes with It Must Be a Camel, a much milder song than its predecessor.
Hot Rats is a terrifyingly unique album, even among Frank Zappa's music. It stands as one of the greatest recordings the man ever made, if not his defining work. Hot Rats is, as I understand it, one of Zappa's sacred cows. I think I can understand why: the playing is flawless, the first couple of pieces are highly entertaining and its mixture of jazzy and avant garde isn't too heavy on either component.
My 'good' rating which will surely be seen as a travesty, but that's that The opener Peaches En Regalia, a sample here, opens straight into a cool, classy array of saxophone leaps and whimsical piano flourishes.
Zappa's light-hearted rather banjo-like guitar fits perfectly in, and cheery organ swirls meet some hollow percussion whirls. Behind the interlinked leads, the rhythm section wanders about cheerily. All in all, an active, bouncy and highly entertaining piece.
Willie The Pimp is the album's obvious highlight for me. A compulsive, edgy violin riff underlines the piece, accompanied by a mobile bassline and superb drumming from John Guerin.
Zappa's own skills particularly come to the fore in this piece, with an extensive, gritty guitar solo, sometimes picking up on the earlier violin part before launching into manic swirls. A few fun piano and percussion flourishes are thrown in. In addition to these worthy features, Beefheart provides a brief amusing vocal complete with general screeching and trite lyrics. Classy stuff. Son Of Mr. Green Genes is where the album begins to take a bit of a nose dive in connection.
While the previous pieces weren't really less jazzy and whimsical, they kept a constant connection and interest.
Here, we have many of the same trademarks, neat piano from Ian Underwood, an array of sax and organ effects reeling off from Zappa's range of guitar sounds and wails. At about 3. Occasionally, the piece does hit just right with a brief jot of darker guitar or a particularly neat effect, especially with the funktacular jumping around 7. I think it's that the whimsy gets a bit much at times, or that the guitar lead so key to holding it together is a little thinner than I like, but the reason's difficult to pin down.
Little Umbrellas is a slightly darker piece in feel, with an especial highlight in the piano and organ-work, which ranges from tense chords to light keys to Super Mario soundtrack material, but, to be fair, it works. A slightly ponderous set of clarinet effects fill the background. Not really light, not really menacing, and it's alright, but it never really moves beyond that.
The Gumbo Variations is comfortably the album's longest piece, with a fairly standard jazzy background held up by the rhythm section, and organ underlaying a great strangled saxophone. The saxophone is probably the biggest tie for a fair while, as a couple of neat guitar additions come in then disappear. A squeaky violin appears to replace the sax, and Zappa himself takes a bit more of a position. The rhythm section keeps a mobility throughout, and a couple of stylish effects interplays run nicely over the top.
The brief drum solo is probably the piece's high point for me. So, again, nice, but not a lot more. Absolutely top notch playing and interplay, but it simply doesn't really make an impression too often. It Must Be A Camel is another highlight. After a wandering piano opening with a couple of cool slowed percussion ideas, and an almost obligatory irritating sax blare, it wobbles around for about a minute before Zappa comes in with entertaining guitar sounds all around and adds in a bit of dynamic before the piece comes to its conclusion.
Nice, despite the moment of erk. All in all, then, this album really has nothing bad on it. There are a couple of really great and fun moments in there as well.
However, I feel it could have benefited a lot from a little more dynamic playing, and I really just won't listen to it for any other reason than wanting to hear the end of Willie The Pimp and feeling obliged to give the rest another go. I don't dislike it, but my mind just isn't connecting with the comic and musical genius that a lot of Zappa fans and even non-fans would ascribe to it.
Rating: Three Stars. Probably not essential, for me, but still a good buy. Peaches en Regalia- Absolute brilliance all jammed into the span of a short length. The track is perfect, Zappa's style ideally constructed in a very concise format with his quirkiness, amazing musicianship, and odd melodies and time signatures. If I wanted to show someone a glimpse of what my musical taste entails, this might be the first song I grab.
One of the greatest compositions ever written. Willie the Pimp- One of Frank's signature guitar pieces and it's easy to understand why.
His tone here is so unique and powerful, grading away a nearly 9 minute solo with amazing skill, precision, and Zappaish emotions. Beefheart's guest vocals at the beginning are quite fitting. Green Genes- Another masterpiece song showcasing Zappa's brilliant compositional style, his virtuosity, and the similar musicianship of those with which he always surrounded himself. Everything runs together perfectly here, the guitar, the drums, every single instrument is meticulously composed and sounds amazing.
Not only that, but it's extremely expressive and I could listen to it forever. I really like the feel to this one; it complements yet contrasts uniquely with the two songs that proceeded it.
Little Umbrellas- Very pleasant fusion piece. Short and sweet fits this song nicely, except it's still definitely a Zappa kind of sweet and an entirely unique composition.
The saxophone is wonderful here, as always, and all the instruments are amazing as well as always. Nonetheless, if I had to pick Since it's a really good song. The Gumbo Variations- Holy hell. If you think you've heard it all before, specifically with regards to jazz or fusion, listen to this one. The instrumentalists are on FIRE here, and the duel between the saxophone at the beginning, violin in the middle, and then guitar later on is amazing.
The drums are also extremely fitting and played with masterful precision. This is another stunning Zappa composition, managing to create a unique, perfectly crafted and played piece that pushes the boundaries of what music really is.
Just listen to that avant-garde sax! It Must be a Camel- Great song again pushing the envelopes of music as Zappa always did best particularly with perfection on this album and a few select others.
The instruments come together to make a wacky piece of fusion Zappaness that can only be described through hearing it. I love the sax on this one. If you haven't heard it, I highly recommend it, despite whatever preconceptions you have about jazz, fusion, Zappa, or anything. A true music collector can't really go without hearing this at least once. Yet, for me Hot Rats is definitely style over substance.
The jazzy rock positively grooves Depending on where one comes from, this makes either 47 minutes of joy or boredom; I am somewhere in the middle. I am not a fan of hippie or stoner rock, and appreciate the signature Zappa weirdness evident throughout, as well as the harder jams found on many of the songs. But, I tend to favor composition over improvisation, so the extended nature of solos and songs tend to get very repetative.
Still, a fine, flavorful addition to any guitar lovers music library, easy enough for most anyone to groove along to-- for a while. Willie The Pimp Riff that would make equal only a few years later, that crazy voice!
Violins more infatuate everywhere. And know what? Zappa has the roll up the guitar, my, how can the man playing guitar for so strange and cool? The guy was a virtuoso before it exists. More is not only virtuoso melodies, but the most crazy, and the band he had UAU. Extremely Jazz, but still not boring. Green Genes Man, where he took those sounds in ? This question will haunt me forever. The keyboards, the 'leak noise' all the sound beyond the experimentalism, is the barrier factor of the pure and simple song.
Zappa is King on guitar, his riffs are disconcerting. And the music is super interesting and dancing from the in a musical way. Little Umbrelllas Bass sound and everything, but the contrasts are interesting, with him a violin and synthesizer, a battery rock 'dead' and lost a keyboard on the bottom and clear xylophone.
And murmurs, should be clear that blows. The Gumbo Variations Take 2 announces Zappa, and that everyone should start with, say Zappa was authoritarian way in the studio, but a man who recorded over 50 discs in less than 30 year career probably knew what he was doing. Percussion in the band than the bottom and a beautiful line down, we have a saxophone solando everywhere.
Basis for insanity is not missing, recorded live, shows the face of Mother Zappa and improvisation to the Jazz. But in this case interesting, because I think Jazz saccal. Violin enter the scene and finish the sound of even more expensive, the amount of virtuosos gathered here is giant. A groove infernal. So far Already passed 11 minutes Zappa is just the master, the guitar is tentatively here first.
You then he finally gives the air of grace. After a brief solo for drums I think they are 2 the bottom is a nice monitor, and gave him violins. The end is unexpected, full of details and madness. But behind all this is music!
And how. The second part is the saxophones as the main vehicles of communication. Completely atonal, but not every man for himself because down and hold a base hit and still doing it several times. In some moments the poor guitar appears broken, but it is meager. Source: www. But what I can add to this is that this album has increased my respect for Frank Zappa a lot. But now it appears that it was mainly that album that made me feel that way because this magum opus by Zappa is a completely different story.
I like just about everything I hear on this album and I had never expected that. Cheap Thrills was a bit of a foolish album to me and I thought that was the one and only Zappa. Boy, am I glad I decided to go for this one as well.
And it was double luck because it was for sale. I like instrumental music, I like jamming, I like energetic music and I like melodic music. All four elements are prominently present on Hot Rats. It even could make me go for the highest score but I feel that would be a bit overdone. But four stars is the least I can do. A true classic! Peaches in Regalia is probably the most known FZ track in all his career. The song is one of those rare cases in which the popular and the sublime can coexist.
Being a little over the 3 minute mark , the composition is varied as hell and also very colourful and uplifting. Truly one of the greatest openers in ANY record. The second song is mostly a terrific FZ solo. Only with such a rhythm backup as that one you can make 6 minutes of guitar soloing sound fine and not overindulgent.
Son of Mr Green Genes is , as the name suggests a rework on the Uncle Meat track but this time without any vocals. Musically this tune is more interesting and varied than the previous track.
Apart from guitar soloing there are keyboards , clarinets and saxes. After two earthshaking instrumentals , the subtle Little Umbrellas feels like a breeze of fresh air. By far this is the most jazz oriented track on the album. Luckily , guitar soloing is replaced with violin soloing so we have a tad more of variety on the record. Finally the record closes with It Must be a Camel. This track includes some dissonant moments as well , but it's very relaxing in the end. I know several FZ albums have been remastered in the 90's and Hot Rats is no exeption , people that owns the old LP version says there are some different guitar tracks on it.
I can't make a comparaison since I never heard the release , but this Rykodisc version sounds clean as hell. Overall , this record is a masterpiece and one of the most iconic FZ releases.
However I would not reccomend it to people interested in discovering Zappa since his overall sound is not vell represented on the album.
I also wish there was a more consistent lineup here; only Zappa and Ian Underwood play on all tracks with a multitude of violinists, bassists and drummers. Still, both of the main performers really get their chance to shine Zappa on ''Willie the Pimp'', Underwood on ''Son of Mr.
Green Genes''. For those with less patience, ''Peaches en Regalia'', ''Little Umbrellas'' and ''It Must Be a Camel'' are all shorter, more focused fusion pieces with emphasis on tight interplay between band members. It's mostly instrumental save for Captain Beefheart on ''Willie the Pimp''. It's one of the better fusion records out there even if the jams get old before they end. Hot Rats is the highest rated Zappa album on PA, contains perhaps his most famous song "Peaches En Regalia," and is probably the most frequent entry point for fans into Zappa's vast catalog.
This was the case for me, and certainly this strange music is like being dunked fed some new exotic cuisine, where you're not quite certain what the funky spices are. Usually one either learns to love the flavor, or runs away in disgust. My reaction was instead a guarded interest. And luckily I wandered around the catalog a bit until I found the exact dish for my palate, along with some selections that did little for me.
However, the fact that I like one facet of Zappa's musicianship ultra-complex jazz composition and don't like the camp or stage-y stuff, is just a matter of taste. There are going to be some who gravitate to different albums, different smells, different kinds of funk. Hot Rats is going to appeal to the musician types more than the potty mouth lovers, but it's still a great place to start for anyone.
The musicianship is very good, though not as insanely complex as that found on "One Size Fits All" or "Roxy. The guitar tone during the long improvised end of "Willie the Pimp" is way ahead of its time and the licks are so great. At the same time, 90 seconds of song followed by 9 minutes of jamming doesn't exactly press my prog buttons that much.
There are many ways one could merge jazz and rock, and Frank has managed to create a style that is fairly distinct from the bands formally labeled jazz-rock fusion. Zappa integrates more rock into a jazz that is much more structured and at times composed than Mahavishnu or Return to Forever. This shouldn't surprise given his affinity for classical music and writing movie score music from early in his career. His famous opinion, that there should be no difference between pop and high art, results in an accessible but still quirky sound that really has never been duplicated.
Listening back over Hots Rats again for this review, there are moments where I think "This really should be 5 stars. But two things keep it at excellent rather than masterpiece level. First are the numerous extended jams over fairly basic progressions and time signatures. While interesting, it's hard to call an album relying so heavily on this element a masterpiece of prog. Second, I know Zappa does produce the kind of combined, precise complexity that reaches that summit later in his career.
I absolutely recommend this album, especially for newbies to Zappa. It's a great piece of work. But once you've gotten accustomed to the strange combo of spices he puts in the stew, there are even more tasty morsels awaiting. Main music is produced by Zappa's guitar and Ian Underwood keyboards. And for sure,Cpt. Beefheart singing on "Willie The Pimp" gives his exclusive atmosphere. Please note, that that album is dated as ! So, in fact, there are roots of modern jazz-rock and fusion!
All music is full of Zappa's guitar solos, but is unusualy structured at the same time. And however Zappa has plenty of strong albums in different styles, this one is one of best structurised and organised, strongly orchestrated and great "usual" music album! And if Zappa,by himself or with band, often demonstrates more experiments and avantgarde ideas, than concentrates on music, this one is different.
Very recommended for jazz-rock or fusion lovers as acceptable entrance to Zappa's world. In and after a friend bothered me for weeks, I bought "Hot Rats" expecting to find magical music, but to be honest, found nice music with little interest for me, I thought it may e the album so got "We're only in it for the Money", and my impression didn't changed at all, so after listening a couple more albums, decided to place my ZAPPA albums in a box and let them gather dirt for decades.
A few months ago I had to move, so while checking my old record boxes, decided to give "Hot Rats" a new chance, and even when I found the music easier to listen, my impression didn't changed very much. The album starts with "Peaches in Regalia", a nice instrumental with some lush keyboards by Ian Underwood, but not much ore, still can't find feet or head in the music, seems like the guy went for some blend of early Symphonic and fun, but failed somewhere in the road, making a hybrid without head or feet.
The guitar? Yes, Zappa is good but nothing special compared with the hundreds of great guitarists in the 60's. After a couple minutes, the guitar jamming by ZAPPA turns boring and absolutely predictable, just distorted sounds with nothing more than most Acid Psyche bands of the era Maybe a couple years too late. The winds are a good addition, but again ZAPPA'S guitar leads nowhere, just jamming with no structure or purpose, maybe the contrapuntal duel between ZAPPA and Underwood is interesting to prove skills, but musically leads nowhere in my opinion.
The jazzy "Little Umbrellas" opens side two, again pleasant but nothing really special to consider this a masterpiece, too light to be considered innovative, the song flows gently with no surprises or really interesting moments.
The incredibly long "The Gumbo Variations" should be called "The Gumbo improvisations", because again lacks of structure, it's true that Ponty, Zappa and Underwood have the chance to prove heir skills, but never sound coherent or structured, after a couple of minutes starts to bore, but when the drum solo starts, it's time to press the skip button before the cacophonic ending.
Some people should know that sometimes less is more. Well, I had to wait 42 minutes until "It must be a Camel", the only really good track, melodic interesting and well structured, even the solos are coherent with the atmosphere, this track saves the album from a lower rating, mainly for the delightful piano.
Before I rate "Hot Rats", must say that it's not a bad album, the musicians are talented, but the music is anodyne and lacks of interest At least for me , I fail to see the greatness people see, but maybe it's my problem.
Only recently have I procured a copy of this, Frank's first solo effort, and at long last have been able not only to appraise it with the discretion that age bestows but also in a historical backlight of the blur of progressive thinking that was running unfettered in those heady days of the waning 60s.
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Frank Zappa. Don't want to see ads? Upgrade Now. Scrobbling is when Last. Learn more. Javascript is required to view shouts on this page.
Go directly to shout page. View full artist profile. View all similar artists. View all trending tracks. Loading player…. Scrobble from Spotify? Connect to Spotify Dismiss. Search Search. Join others and track this song Scrobble, find and rediscover music with a Last. Sign Up to Last. Play album. Length Lyrics Add lyrics on Musixmatch. It was released on Zappa's album Hot Rats in and has been recorded many times since.
It was also released as a single in , with "Little Umbrellas" as the B-side. Zappa used the piece on many of his tours, often as either the opening or the encore of a show.
Having a song included in th… read more. It was released on Zappa's album Hot Rats in and … read more. I… read more. Related Tags progressive rock instrumental zappa experimental rock Add tags View all tags. Featured On Play album. Hot Rats Frank Zappa , listeners. Play track. Artist images more. He was one of the most prolific musicians of his time, releasing over fifty albums of original material spanning over a thirty-five year career.
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