''The Man from Utopia'' is the 36th album by American musician

Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American guitarist, composer, and bandleader. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestra ...

, released in March 1983 by

Barking Pumpkin Records Barking Pumpkin Records is an American record label founded by Frank Zappa in 1981. Zappa named the label after his wife's smoker's cough when she tried to quit the habit. Barking Pumpkin was initially distributed by CBS Records. History Zappa ...

. The album is named after a 1950s song, written by Donald and Doris Woods, which Zappa covers as part of "The Man from Utopia Meets Mary Lou".

Production

"The Dangerous Kitchen", "Mōggio" and "The Jazz Discharge Party Hats" were all prepared for Zappa's unreleased album ''Chalk Pie''. The album was the second of two to credit

Steve Vai Steven Siro Vai ( ; born June 6, 1960) is an American guitarist, songwriter, and producer. A three-time Grammy Award winner and fifteen-time nominee, Vai started his music career in 1978 at the age of eighteen as a Transcription (music), transc ...

with "impossible guitar parts", the first album being the preceding '' Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch'' (1982).

Cover art

The sleeve art features the work of Tanino Liberatore. It portrays Zappa on stage trying to kill mosquitoes. That is a reference to a concert held in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

in 1982, the year before the release of the album, on 7 July at Parco Redecesio (which is also referred in a street sign on the album cover) in Segrate, near

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

. While Zappa was playing, a huge number of mosquitoes began flying on stage and gave the band a hard time. The back cover shows the audience as seen from the stage during the 1982 concert in

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

, which ended in a

riot A riot or mob violence is a form of civil disorder commonly characterized by a group lashing out in a violent public disturbance against authority, property, or people. Riots typically involve destruction of property, public or private. The p ...

. The sleeve art is also a reference to Liberatore's comic character RanXerox.

Music and lyrics

The album's opening track " Cocaine Decisions", with its groove redolent of skiffle washboards, is an attack on drug-influenced businessmen and features a harmonica. "The Dangerous Kitchen" satirizes dirty, unkempt kitchens. "The Dangerous Kitchen", "The Radio Is Broken", and "The Jazz Discharge Party Hats" all feature Zappa's "meltdown" style of generally pre-written but sometimes improvised singing/speaking. For "Jazz" and "Kitchen", Zappa had guitarist Steve Vai overdub complex guitar parts for the entire length of the songs, which perfectly copied both the rhythm and pitch of Zappa's every word and syllable. This unique type of overdub was a one-time experiment that Zappa never repeated. Hungarian composer Péter Eötvös said in an interview:We share the same background
- Peter Eötvös remembers Frank Zappa (zappa.hu)

Release history

The album was originally released on vinyl in 1983. An unauthorized CD of this edition (with the exception of a remixed "Mōggio") coupled with '' Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch'' was issued by EMI in the UK in 1988. The album was issued (in remixed and resequenced form with one additional track) on CD in 1993 by Barking Pumpkin. The later 1995

Rykodisc Rykodisc is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, operating as a unit of WMG's Independent Label Group and distributed through Alternative Distribution Alliance. History Claiming to be the first CD-only independent record label ...

and 2012

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, ...

reissues are identical to the Barking Pumpkin CD.

Track listing

All songs written, composed and arranged by Frank Zappa, except where noted.

Personnel

–

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

drum machine A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument that creates percussion sounds, drum beats, and patterns. Drum machines may imitate drum kits or other percussion instruments, or produce unique sounds, such as synthesized electronic tones. A d ...

ARP 2600 The ARP 2600 is a subtractive synthesizer first produced by ARP Instruments in 1971. History Developed by a design team headed by ARP namesake Alan R. Pearlman and engineer Dennis Colin, the ARP 2600 was introduced in 1971 as the successor to ...

, Prophet 5 Synthesizer *

– guitar, acoustic guitar, impossible guitar parts * Ray White – guitar, vocals *

Roy Estrada Roy Estrada (also known as "Roy Ralph Moleman Guacamole Guadalupe Hidalgo Estrada" and "Orejón"; born April 17, 1943) is an American former musician. He is best known for being the original bassist of both the Mothers of Invention and Little Fea ...

– vocals * Bob Harris –

boy soprano A boy soprano (British and especially North American English) or boy treble (only British English) is a young male singer with a voice in the soprano range, a range that is often still called the treble voice range (in North America too) no m ...

* Ike Willis – vocals * Bobby Martin – keyboards,

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

, vocals *

Tommy Mars Tommy Mars (born Thomas Mariano on October 26, 1951) is an American keyboard player known for his work with Frank Zappa. Mars began piano lessons at age eight, and later his instrument range expanded to various keyboards and synthesizers. Mars ...

– keyboards * Arthur Barrow – keyboards,

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

, micro bass, rhythm guitar * Ed Mann –

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

* Scott Thunes – bass * Jay Anderson – string bass *

Chad Wackerman Chad Wackerman (born March 25, 1960) is an American jazz, jazz fusion and rock drummer, who has played with Frank Zappa and Allan Holdsworth. He has worked as a band member, session musician, sideman, and bandleader. He is the older brother o ...

–

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...

s *

Vinnie Colaiuta Vincent Peter Colaiuta (born February 5, 1956) is an American drummer known for his technical mastery who has worked as a session musician in many genres. He was inducted into the ''Modern Drummer'' Hall of Fame in 1996 and the ''Classic Drumme ...

– drums * Craig Twister Steward –

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica incl ...

* Dick Fegy –

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

* Marty Krystall – saxophone

Charts

Album - ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' (United States)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Man from Utopia, The 1983 albums Albums produced by Frank Zappa Barking Pumpkin Records albums Frank Zappa albums