ZAPPA IN NEW YORK

Zappa In New York was the live segment of Lather, although subsequent reissues added on additional material which made it less significantly less redundant of a release. Zappa and his reminted backing band treat the New York audience to a mixture of ribald new songs, a few complex instrumentals, and a clutch of old favourites - some dating back as far as We're Only In It For the Money. I personally don't rate this particular backing band as highly as the mid-1970s version of the Mothers, although possibly that's down to the musical direction Zappa takes the group in - what's offered here is a hard rock-influenced reimagining of Zappa's material, with Zappa's guitar heroics emphasised and Zappa's taste for vulgar comedy indulged to the max. At the same time, Zappa was beginning to make his live sound richer at this point time following on from the slimmed-down lineups he'd toured with in late 1975 and much of 1976, which is certainly helpful.

At points, the lyrical content of the album can get distasteful. I don't mind most of Zappa's material, but I find that I just can't see the comedy in The Illinois Enema Bandit - a song about a real criminal, who actually did force enemas on some of his victims for some sort of weird sexual thrill. Whilst I can see why Zappa would be tickled by the story, the song steers directly into the territory of creating comedy out of real, genuine sexual assaults which happened to actual flesh and blood people, and I personally can't stand for that. Whilst I will admit that the song doesn't condone Kenyon's crimes and it is an interesting update of the old tradition of blues songs chronicling actual news stories, the fact remains that presenting a horrible violation forced on terrified young women as a topic for comedy just doesn't sit right in my stomach.

All this risks turning into Zappa for frat bros - full of songs with moronic subject matter that lurches into offensiveness on occasion. So is this corny novelty rock that's past its sell-by date? It's certainly pretending to be that, but I think with the passage of time I've come to better grasp where Zappa was going with this approach, smuggling his complex guitar solos and other instrumental workouts in under a cover of novelty rock. In other words, it's like a version of the 1970-1971 incarnation of the Mothers which is perhaps a bit more varied in its lyrical themes (though not much more). Musically it's a high four stars. Lyrically, well, I have to be in the right mood for it and some songs won't ever entirely sit well with me.