should have been an ep
so, frank zappa died in late 1993 and a debate opened up about who his most relevant protégé would be. steve vai no doubt had his proponents, but he's really little more than a wanky guitarist with essentially zero songwriting ability or conceptual vision. i don't think vai would challenge that, actually. twenty years late, it is clear that dweezil zappa has taken over on a commercial level, but the truth is that he was more influenced by vai than he was by his father and shares the same flaws as he does. that isn't preventing him from making a living playing his father's songs, and i'm not going to criticize the idea of getting the music out to a younger audience, but there isn't much carrying on happening on a creative level (and i don't think anybody is surprised by this). warren cuccurullo ended up making arty disco which, whatever it's value, doesn't resonate well as carrying on zappa's legacy. likewise, adrian belew had moved on by becoming an important new wave session guitarist. the one protégé that seemed mildly interested in carrying on frank's vision was mike keneally, his last (and arguably most musical) stunt guitarist. keneally, however, quickly aligned himself with the cultural values of alternative rock, which in many ways are in strong conflict with zappa's brand of shock rock, and in the process alienated a large percentage of the zappa fan base. however, out of the gate he was the closest on a musical level and that led to some articles being written and to some rather optimistic promotion. personally, i think keneally is absolutely zappa's most substantial protégé, but i don't think that view is widely held at this point.
ever the opportunist, belew seems to have attempted to take advantage of the situation by creating a parallel evolution out of zappa's late work that seems to want to try and compete with keneally for the post-zappa zappa market. the fact that he quickly moved on demonstrates that this wasn't as successful an endeavour as he hoped, but his fan base has largely applauded him for it. unfortunately, their excitement about this disc is pretty misplaced, unless you were a fan of his 80s bowie knock-offs to begin with.
first off, the idea that belew could compete with keneally is just more of his characteristic pretension and arrogance. belew is basically a really interesting hack that has a solid, intuitive grasp on the instrument. he's in a tradition of untrained blues guitarists that play by ear; where he stands out is that he's taken that approach into the technological era, whereas so many other blues guitarists completely reject doing so. keneally, on the other hand, actually knows what he's doing. this comes out pretty heavy-handedly when you compare belew's serious recordings to keneally's. zappa has a really geeky musical following and they fully realize, a priori, how comical the idea of belew taking keneally on really is.
if that isn't bad enough, the next hit on this disk is that it's a watered down retelling of joe's garage. it's almost like a censored version of joe's garage, designed for more of a family audience. this is a concept record about falling in love with your guitar, but it lacks any of the shocking escapades of it's source material. as with belew's first record, lone rhino, the shock has been replaced with dry wit. consider the following...
i love your back, i love your head
but i love it best
when i run
my fingers down your neck
but, it's about his guitar, not a person. see, it's funny because it's cheesy. but the joke's a little old, given that it goes back to zappa's most recognizable concept album, and that belew had even already ripped joe's garage off repeatedly in his work with king crimson, probably most notably in the bizarrely schizophrenic classic indiscipline.
so, the horse is fucking dead. which would be an ironic release from belew: flogging a dead horse. with naying sounds....
i'd be willing to overlook all of this (as i have in previous reviews) if the disc was creative enough. it's really not. it starts off fairly strong with a few interesting beatlesesque pop songs interspersed between different kinds of experiments but it unfortunately really falls flat on the second half of the disc, which begins by badly ripping on bob dylan for a few tracks and ends with a mild facelift on his bowie wannabe phase that is ultimately no more interesting or satisfying. the concept is also fairly muddy in the middle of the disc. there's consequently really nothing to be lost by cutting the disc off after the 8th track, which leaves about twenty minutes of music that is both coherent and interesting, if you like the weirder fringes of beatlesesque pop.
stream:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVPGzOHIIgz_Suw8ISx0o8J_9kH-LTH8F
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/music/artists/AdrianBelew/1996-OpZopTooWah/index.html
