Frank Zappa – The Man From Utopia (1983) 24-bit 96kHZ vinyl rip (and redbook)

The sleeve art features the work of RanXerox artist Tanino Liberatore. It portrays Zappa on stage trying to kill mosquitos. The back cover shows the audience as seen from the stage. Chaos prevails, and the cover is meant to show the events at a disastrous concert in Milan, Italy, July 7, 1982. At that concert, fans kept trying to rush the stage, and the local security force began firing tear-gas canisters into the crowd. Zappa and his band continued to perform, but were forced to flee when the gas became unbearable, and live ammunition (presumably from the audience) was fired. Backstage footage can be found on The Dub Room Special. The album was the second of two to credit Steve Vai with “impossible guitar parts” (the first being Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch).

The album’s opening track “Cocaine Decisions”, with its groove redolent of skiffle washboards, is an angry, disgusted attack on drug-influenced businessmen and features an ironically cheerful harmonica. “The Dangerous Kitchen” satirizes dirty, unkempt kitchens, specifically the one in the Zappa household at the time. “Stick Together” is a deeply passionate attack on all unions in general, especially those controlled by organized crime. “The Radio Is Broken” satirizes 1950′s sci-fi B-movies. “Sex” is a blunt, crude song which unabashedly celebrates the title topic; lyrics include “Maybe you could use a protein surprise” and “The bigger the cushion, the better the pushin’”. The “Mary Lou/Man From Utopia” medley finds Zappa returning to his beloved doo-wop roots in a completely sincere style; no satire included.

“Kitchen”, “Radio”, 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 Frank’s every word and syllable. Vai considers it to be one of his most difficult assignments as a musician; it required him to detune his guitar at times to match Frank’s varying pitches. This unique type of overdub was a one-time experiment that Zappa never repeated. Peter Eötvös composer said in an interview:

“Dangerous Kitchen”, off the album “The Man From Utopia”, grew to become a basic piece for me, especially in later years, after I began working on operas. The technique that he uses in this particular song is very interesting: it’s this half-sung, half-spoken performing method that’s not quite like Sprechgesang, but what makes it so interesting is that he accompanies it with an instrumental solo. I was very surprised to find out that the guitar part was recorded separately. As it seemed so synchronous, I was convinced that Zappa had sung and played at the same time. Nevertheless the technique itself, the idea of “the singing instrument” comes from “Dangerous Kitchen”.

“Jazz” became semi-infamous in Zappa circles for its extremely scatological subject matter: certain substances found in a woman’s discarded underwear, and what certain band members did with those substances while at a hotel pool late one night in Albuquerque, NM. The song was written to humorously explain to audiences the origin of why certain band members occasionally wore underwear on their heads onstage.

The original album had instrumentals ending each side: the complex yet catchy “Mōggio”, and the mellifluous “We Are Not Alone,” featuring Marty Krystall on overdubbed baritone saxophones. A third instrumental, “Tink Walks Amok”, gets its clever name from bass player Arthur Barrow’s nickname (Tink), and a term (walking amok) for what ‘out of control robots’ do in old sci-fi films, hence its thematic sequencing next to “Radio”. ‘Walk’ in the title has additional significance because it musically refers to a style of bass playing, and since Barrow plays multiple and highly unusual bass parts on the song, he is indeed “walking amok” at times. -wikipedia

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Analyzed folder: /fz_man_from_utopia/
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DR Peak RMS Filename
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DR13 -7.47 dB -22.37 dB A1 Cocaine Decisions.wav
DR12 -9.35 dB -24.00 dB A2 The Dangerous Kitchen.wav
DR14 -7.82 dB -22.67 dB A3 Tink Walks Amok.wav
DR13 -7.71 dB -23.44 dB A4 The Radio Is Broken.wav
DR12 -6.79 dB -21.67 dB A5 Moggio.wav
DR11 -8.08 dB -21.36 dB B1 The Man From Utopia Meets Mary Lou.wav
DR14 -5.88 dB -21.62 dB B2 Stick Together.wav
DR13 -7.12 dB -22.79 dB B3 Sex.wav
DR13 -6.87 dB -21.74 dB B4 The Jazz Discharge Party Hats.wav
DR12 -5.26 dB -19.43 dB B5 We Are Not Alone.wav
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Number of files: 10
Official DR value: DR13
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Side one
“Cocaine Decisions” – 2:56
“The Dangerous Kitchen” – 2:51
“Tink Walks Amok” – 3:40
“The Radio is Broken” – 5:52
“Mōggio” – 3:05

Side two
“The Man From Utopia Meets Mary Lou” (Donald and Doris Woods, Obie Jessie) – 3:19
“Stick Together” – 3:50
“Sex” – 3:00
“The Jazz Discharge Party Hats” – 4:30
“We Are Not Alone” – 3:31

Frank Zappa – guitar, vocals, drum machine, ARP 2600
Steve Vai – guitar, acoustic guitar
Ray White – guitar, vocals
Roy Estrada – vocals
Bob Harris – boy soprano
Ike Willis – vocals
Bobby Martin – keyboards, saxophone, vocals
Tommy Mars – keyboards
Arthur Barrow – keyboards, bass, micro bass, rhythm guitar
Ed Mann – percussion
Scott Thunes – bass
Chad Wackerman – drums
Vinnie Colaiuta – drums
Craig Twister Steward – harmonica
Dick Fegy – mandolin
Marty Krystall – saxophone

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