From Straight to Bizarre: Zappa, Beefheart, Alice Cooper and LA's Lunatic Fringe
Publicity blurb
Desperate to remove himself from his original deal with Verve Records, in 1968 [Zappa] set up the Bizarre and Straight labels in league with manger Herb Cohen, and so began a string of releases which remain extraordinary in the extreme.
Records by Frank himself and with his Mothers of Invention would rub shoulders in the label’s racks with releases by notorious paranoid schizophrenic and part time songwriter, Wild Man Fischer, ex-groupies the all female GTOs, acapella gospel collective The Persuasions, the first clutch of Alice Cooper records, Tim Buckley’s enigmatic Starsailor, live recordings by Lenny Bruce and Lord Buckley, and a range of other musical oddities generally of a quite startling quality despite their oft-eccentric content.
But it would be a 1969 release by the Mother Superior’s old teenage buddy Don Van Vliet – by then long re-christened Captain Beefheart - that would provide the art-statement for which the Bizarre/Straight enterprise is remembered best, and which remains to this day the pinnacle of achievement, not just at the House of Zappa & Cohen, but, for many, also within the normal confines of the genre loosely termed ‘Rock & Roll’. To suggest that Trout Mask Replica - for it is this sonic marvel of which we speak - moved-the-goalposts is akin to claiming Jack the Ripper had ‘an eye for the ladies’!
This film revisits and reviews the astonishing music that came out on Bizarre and Straight, and reveals the background, operations and, crucially, the lives of the musicians, performers and management who made these labels the legendary reality they became.
Also includes rare footage, archive interviews, location shoots, extras - and of course the music that made it all worthwhile.
Radar Station overview
In 2006 Chrome Dreams released the curate's egg of a documentary Captain Beefheart: Under Review. It's good to say that they seem to have taken on board some of the criticisms we made about that particular venture.
For Beefheart fans there is quite a bit of interest in here. The two albums Trout Mask Replica and Lick My Dcals Off Baby were both on the Straight label and are given a reasonable amount of screen time. Particularly worthwhile are the new interviews with John French and Bill Harkleroad who relate their experiences in the Trout House, the tortuous composing regime imposed on them by Don and then the almost perfunctory time in the studio.
Further input comes from the writers Mark Paytress, Ben Watson, Billy James, Riichie Unterberger and Barry Miles who all have something of interest to say ... and there is none of the soapbox puffery that was evident on the Under Review dvd.
The archive film used - Cannes Beach, Cal Schenkel's home movies at the Trout House, the Trout cover shoot, Amougies Festival and the Beat Club appearance - is all of good quality and hasn't been tampered with. There is no new footage but that's hardly surprising as there isn't anything else out there as far as we're aware.
The cover states "this program is not sanctioned by any of the performers or companies on which it focuses" so it will not be a surprise that the Zappa Family Trust doesn't make an apperance. Nor is there much about the late Herb Cohen. Zappa is represented by some interview footage from the early 70s.
Apart from the Beefheart albums the documentary concentrates on the first two Alice Cooper albums, as well as the one-off releases from Wild Man Fischer, The GTOs, Jeff Simmons and The Persuasions. Each, apart from Larry Fischer's, is represented by new interviews with members of the band - Dennis Dunaway and Neal Smith (Alice Cooper), Miss Pamela and Miss Mercy (The GTOs), Jerry Lawson (The Persuasions) and Jeff Simmons himself.
All the other Straight/Bizarre releases are touched upon all but too briefly - Lord Buckley, Lenny Bruce, Tim Buckley (some good footage of all of these), Jerry Yester and Judy Henske, and Tim Dawe.
Other insights and background information come from Kim Fowley and one time Zappa girlfriend and Mothers keyboard player Sandy Hurvitz (aka Essra Mohawk).
There are two 'extra' pieces of footage which are basically interview snippets left out of the main sequence. One is Jerry Lawson of the The Persuasions and the second is Drumbo and Zoot Horn Rollo recalling the hunger and subsequent arrest for shoplifting suffered by the band while holed up in the Trout House.
Overall an interesting and diverting way to spend just over two and a half hours ... although I got annoyed with the narrator pronouncing Vliet as "Vlee-ette".
Releases:
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2011 UK Chrome Dreams
