Playground Psychotics

Playground Psychotics

If you're just starting your FZ collection this wouldn't be a great place to start, it might put you off. This is music and dialogue snippets from Frank Zappa's 1970-1971 band, which featured flo and eddie, aynsley dunbar, george duke(1970), don preston(1971) jim pons (71) jeff simmons(70) ian underwood, and sometimes bob harris(71). If you don't know much about Frank's various line-ups and their popularity with the fans, well then this particular group is the least popular, and is often joked about and had nasty things said about it by the fans on their web pages or whatever mainly for the presence of flo and eddie who sang with high pitched whiney vocals. Some of this abuse is way over the top especially when you listen to some of the music. The dialogue portions are mildly entertaining, it's better if you've seen 200 motels and are familiar with this band. There is a funny interview with a hotel proprietor concerning mudshark fishing from hotel bedrooms and possible 'acts' with the fish. A few candid tape recorded moments too.

There is quite a bit of music on the album, i reckon about 80 to 90 minutes worth and most of it is excellent. Don Preston shines on minimoog, for example the intro to 'scumbag' also on 'billy the mountain'. Lots of flo and eddie versions of old mothers tunes: 'cruising for burgers', sleeping in a jar, mom and dad, concentration moon, status back baby .A really top Sharleena. If you can come to terms with the singing, these are terrific! Divan is part of the sofa routine, zanti is a sound check , brixton still life is a good guitar solo . Then you have John and Yoko doing their thing, it's a mixed bag. 'well' and 'scumbag' are enjoyable. Then you have yoko ono screeching for about 15 minutes(ok about 3 or 4 minutes, but it seemed like 15). Avant-garde or just poo-poo? Take your pick. CD2 has a majestic billy the mountain. This is an acquired taste but grows on you. It shows how frank could combine comedy routine with great music, and also has don preston solo. Overall it's as good as the other flo and eddie live stuff like filmore 71 and just another band from LA, if not better. I suppose the extra money might be a minus factor, but it's got lots of good bits. I liked it the first time I heard it.