You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore - Vol. 1 [Original recording remastered] [Live]

From the Label
This is the first installment of FZ's mammoth live retrospective, proving he could do anything on stage and did. Each set contains over 2 hours of music on 2 CDs; all performances are previously unreleased. Zappa intentionally didn't organize the material chronologically, pointing out in the liner notes, "The performance of any band from any year can be (and often is) edited to the performance of any other band from any other year, sometimes in the middle of a song." Indeed, some of the after-the-fact musical segues (everything runs continuously) are no less ingenious than the playing.

Volume One includes material ranging from a 1969 performance of "Plastic People" (to the tune of "Louie, Louie," of course) dating from Little Feat founder Lowell George's brief stint with the Mothers; to a trio of YOU ARE WHAT YOU IS numbers performed for an early MTV telecast ("It's unlikely they'll ever let us get away with that again," notes Zappa in the liners). In between come a 20-minute performance of "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" with spontaneous audience interaction; and a lengthy "The Torture Never Stops" with suitably vicious guitar solo.

Along with the musical highlights come emblematic moments in the history of the Mothers. Flo & Eddie's "Groupie Routine," the infamous highlight of the FILLMORE EAST album, is included in an alternate live version; there's also an archival tape of that band getting hassled at the airport. One track ("Sofa #1") was recorded a week after the casino fire described in Deep Purple's "Smoke On the Water"; while "Zomby Woof" was recorded during an outdoor show in Milan, where the band was deluged by mosquitos during the entirety of their set.

You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore - Vol. 1,Frank Zappa,Rykodisc,Pop,Rock,Rock/Pop

You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore - Vol. 1 [Original recording remastered] [Live]

Average customer rating:

A Good Place To Start.
Zappa does the Grateful Dead thing, only better.
absolute greatness
Send in the diseased musicians
You'll like it

You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore - Vol. 1
Frank Zappa
Manufacturer: Zappa Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore - Vol. 2
You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore - Vol. 3
You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore - Vol. 4
You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore - Vol. 6
You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore - Vol. 5

ASIN: B0000009TN
Release Date: 1995-05-16

Tracks:

The Florida Airport Tape
Once Upon A Time
Sofa #1
The Mammy Anthem
You Didn't Try To Call Me
Diseases Of The Band
Tryin To Grow A Chin
Let's Make The Water Turn Black/Harry, You're A Beast/The Orange County Lumber Truck
The Groupie Routine
Ruthie-Ruthie
Babbette
I'm The Slime
Big Swifty
Don't Eat The Yellow Snow

Tracks:

Plastic People
The Torture Never Stops
Fine Girl
Zomby Woof
Sweet Leilani
Oh No
Be In My Video
The Deathless Horsie
The Dangerous Kitchen
Dumb All Over
Heavenly Bank Account
Suicide Chump
Tell Me You Love Me
Sofa #2

Customer Reviews:

A Good Place To Start........2006-02-02

In the late 1980's Frank Zappa went into his vault, and began work on a mammoth retrospective of every phase of his professional career, from the early recordings of the scandalous Mothers Of Invention, all the way through to what would be his final touring ensemble, the 11-piece backing band that, due to infighting, wound up disbanding before the tour was completed. There is a lot, and I mean A LOT of music in this series. Every line-up has something to offer, and this volume, the first in the series, gives the listener twenty-eight tracks, all live, recorded on different stages all over the world. The opening number, "The Florida Airport Tape," is a candid recording Zappa made on his portable tape recorder, of Mark Volman telling the other guys in the Mothers, circa 1970, that he had vomited on stage ("puked onstage," in his words), and wanted to know if anybody else had noticed this. Of course, poor-taste jokes follow, and this segues to a 1971 performance of the band, with most of the guys from the 1970 Florida tape, playing part of a forgotten suite,"Once Upon A Time," that leads into an early version of "Sofa (sung in German)." This leads right into a recording of the 1982 band playing an instrumental version of what would, with lyrics, appear on "Thing-Fish," two years later, as "The Mammy Anthem." And so forth, all through this disc, ending with a 1979 performance of "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow." FZ himself referred to this as a "totally stupid" song, but the version included here, is a first-class live performance, and worth buying the disc for. It depicts the band, in top form, recreating the music from the original as heard on "Apostrophe'," but with a lot added, most notably, the unreleased "Rollo."

Disc Two follows the same format, starting with the original Mothers Of Invention playing in a bar in the Bronx, New York, Spring tour, 1969, replete with stage announcements by Frank Zappa, telling the owner of a green Chevy, that his car needs to be moved, and the listener is transported through time and space, from the 1960's, through the 1970's, and into the 1980's, ending with the 1981 band's MTV special, before MTV turned into what it is now; it actually had MUSIC, played by MUSICIANS back then, and to give this volume a sense of beginning, main body, end, it closes with the MTV special's clip of the 1981 band playing an instrumental version of "Sofa," the track near the beginning of the first disc that had Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman singing in German.

Bottom line, this is a THOROUGHLY enjoyable cross-section of Frank Zappa's music, all live, and an excellent first volume of the series. In time, I aim to write reviews of all six volumes.

Zappa does the Grateful Dead thing, only better........2005-10-23

This is the first of six volumes of two disks per volume of live material done by various Zappa bands, including the original 'Mothers of Invention', the augmented band including former Turtles, Mark Volman and Howard Kaylen, and later groups simply performing under Zappa's name.

The material in the whole series covers twenty years of performing, and the notes say that great care was taken to select the best version of each piece.

I have so far only heard this first volume and as a long time Zappa fan, I believe this material is as good or better than what you will find in many of the earlier albums done by the original 'Mothers' group. The tracks include a rather large amount of Frank and other band members interacting with the audience and relatively few purely instrumental tracks. This is just fine with me. If you want instrumental, get 'Hot Rats' or 'Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar'.

There is a fair amount of overlap with some well-known albums such as the 'Filmore East, June, 1971' album but most of the material, unlike so many Grateful Dead live albums, is different enough to make the comparison interesting.

Great value for Zappa fans, except that it makes us miss Frank all the more!

absolute greatness.......2005-10-10

This compilation of live tracks from 1969-1984 represents almost every style zappa did. It has just so much good. It has the Flo&Eddie 1971 band play "Sofa #1", "Once Upon A Time" is a prelude to it, and "The Groupie Routine" which is almost the same thing as "Do You Like My New Car?" from "Fillmore East, June 1971". There's also a conversation where someone talks about puking on stage called "The Florida Airport Tape". The Roxy band here plays "Big Swifty", "I'm The Slime", "Babette", "Ruthie-Ruthie". The 1969 Mothers of Invention have a great medley "Let's Make the Water Turn Black/Harry You're A Beast/Orange County Lumber Truck". As well as an absolutely awesome version of "Oh No", and "Plastic People" played in the riff of "Louie, Louie". "Ruthie-Ruthie" is also played like that. The M.O.I also play "Sweet Leilani", a cover of some old folk tune and then break into avant-garde. The 1976 band plays "The Torture Never Stops" which is good, but it's too long (15 minutes). There's also the 1982 band playing "Fine Girl", and "Zomby Woof" where mosquitos kept on biting them. Also "The Mammy Anthem", "Tell Me You Love Me" and "Sofa #2". The 1981 band plays 3 songs, "Dumb All Over", "Heavenly Bank Account", and "Suicide chump" which are great. They're all from "You Are what You Is". The '84 band plays "Be In My Video" which is better than the studio version, and "The Dangerous Kitchen", and "The Deathless Horsie". The 1979 band plays "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow" which goes on for 20 minutes because they also play "Nanook Rubs It", "St. Alfonzo's Pancake Breakfast", and "Father O'Blivion" and there's another song which I don't know, and crowd participation. He also called the yellow snow lyrics stupid. The 1979 band also has "You Didn't Try to Call me", "Diseases of the Band" where FZ talks about how some band members are sick, and "Tryin' To Grow A Chin" which is very catchy, and it's sung by Denny Walley, because Terry Bozzio was no longer in the band. That's all the songs. The previously unreleased titles are "The Florida Airport Tape", "Once Upon A Time", "Diseases Of The Band", "The Groupie Routine", "Babette", "Ruthie-Rithie", and "Sweet Leilani". This without any doubts for me is the best of the series of YCDTOSA. Definetly highly recommended.

Send in the diseased musicians.......2002-11-05

I have still yet to hear Vol. 5. However, I risk saying that besides the special case of Vol. 2 (a single concert by the much beloved '74 Mothers), this one is probably the most successfull installment of the series. Read, something for everyone. No matter how you may dislike some Zappa line-up or other, it is unlikely that no part of this double CD at all won't give you immense listening pleasure (if you enjoy Zappa's music, of course). I am tremendously thrilled by the Roxy band (1973) version of "Big Swifty", one of the hottest pieces of jazz-rock music I have ever heard, anywhere... very different from the original studio version. Three words: GEORGE DUKE SMOKES! (And we all know that if Duke smokes, then so will the Zapper!) Spend the dough for this ditty alone, and listen to 'em go... It is that good! I am also fond of the lovely minuet groove of "Once Upon a Time" (a prelude to "Sofa"), with Jim "The Lord" Pons' nasal bass voice that is so funny... The London 1978, 20 minute version of "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" includes an otherwise unavailable "classical" composition called "Rollo", that features striking 12-tone style vocals by Tommy Mars, and an overall impressive performance by an eight-piece band, half of whom were affected with various road diseases and ailments... That is quite historical and has "MC" Zappa giving one rather snide shot at the English people's eating habits (though one cannot help but question here the American composer's own notorious Wiener-based diet...) and having punters come on stage to recite poetry. Which is... enlightening!... Lastly, I will second the "molten metal" metaphor by the other reviewer with regard to the instrumental "Mammy Anthem", performed as it is in Palermo ('82). That was recorded in the middle of an actual riot in the audience, complete with tear gas bombs (which can be overheard here), that says quite a lot about the band leader's guts and work ethics! One other beautiful tune!

You'll like it.......2002-02-16

You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore (Part 1) is the first of six double CD's that include 28 tracks of live performances. The quality of the sound engineering is quite impressive. I was particularly impressed with the bass on "One Upon a Time." In addition, I believe that Zappa fans will not be able to find the following tracks in any other location (at least Zappa didn't authorize such productions) "One Upon a Time," "Ruthie-Ruthie," "Babbette," and "Sweet Leilani." I listened to these four tracks with great fascination. If there are other copies, I doubt they could achieve the same level of quality found on this CD. Excluding these four, the other tracks can be found on various CDs and LPs. However, the renditions on this CD are live and offer a different interpretation of the music. I enjoyed listening to familiar music executed in a different manner. I think all Zappa fans will enjoy this CD and the others in the set.