After all of the time that Frank Zappa spent honing his skills
\nas a serious composer, it seems kind of ironic that his return to
\nform,
\nBroadway The Hard Way<\/i>, was an album of pop tunes with more
\nthan a smidgen of disgust toward modern society, politics and
\nreligion.<\/p>\n
The first disc to capture the brief tenure of Zappa’s 1988
\ntouring band (which imploded following internal strife), Zappa –
\nfor the first time in a long while – sounds like he’s having fun
\nwith the material and performing, and his new-found energy rubs off
\non his backing band. This is the kind of performance that fans had
\nbeen waiting for a long time. Pity the group only lasted four
\nmonths.<\/p>\n
No one is safe from Zappa’s barbs, from Jesse Jackson (the
\nexcellent “Rhymin’ Man”) to then-president Ronald Reagan (“Dickie’s
\nSuch An Asshole”) to the Republican Party (“When The Lie’s So
\nBig”), even to Pat Robertson (“Jesus Thinks You’re A Jerk”), Zappa
\nand crew fire point-blank at the targets of their barbs, and they
\nalmost constantly hit the bullseye.<\/p>\n
Try, as hard as you can, to not get sucked into the chorus of
\n“Planet Of The Baritone Women”, with its gutteral laugh punctuating
\nthe refrain. Try not to smirk at the slams against Jackson on
\n“Rhymin’ Man,” delivered in an almost Western style. Try not to
\ncheer the declarations of guest vocalist Sting (!) as he sits in
\nwith the band on the old Police track “Murder By Numbers”. The fact
\nis, you can’t. The listener knows that Zappa and crew are fired up
\nand out for blood, and it’s impossible not to get caught up in the
\nexcitement and societal indignation – especially when Zappa
\nimplores the audience members at intermission to get up and
\nregister to vote.<\/p>\n
This isn’t to say there are no rough spots on
\nBroadway The Hard Way<\/i> – but compared to some of Zappa’s
\nreleases, these are mere speed bumps on the road. Tracks like “Why
\nDon’t You Like Me?”, “What Kind Of Girl” and “Jezebel Boy” don’t
\nquite have the same snap to their punches, and end up being a bit
\nof a lull in the show, but these are not insurmountable obstacles.
\nTruth is, Zappa hadn’t put out an album as consistent as this one
\nin a while, not counting any of the compilations he was working on
\nat the time.<\/p>\n
Sadly,
\nBroadway The Hard Way<\/i> has become almost a forgotten disc in
\nthe Zappa discography, despite its strengths. There are many Zappa
\nCDs that I’ve found needing a major case of rediscovery by both
\nfans and newcomers alike.
\nBroadway The Hard Way<\/i> should be one of those near the top of
\nthe list.<\/p>\n
2005 Christopher Thelen and “The Daily Vault.” All rights
\nreserved. Review or any portion may not be reproduced without
\nwritten permission. Cover art is the intellectual property of the
\nZappa Family Trust \/ record label, and is used for informational
\npurposes only.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26421,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5625],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-38551","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-frank-zappa","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38551"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38551"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}