*
Went to buy some cheap detergentSome emergent nation
Got my load
"Can't Afford No Shoes" (lyrics here, because it's hard to catch most of them without reading along) was not an evergreen crowd-pleaser in Frank Zappa's live performance repertoire, but I don't understand why. The Recession/Depression economics theme was surely of concern to Zappa's audience from the time this song was released in the mid-70s well
The instrumental arrangement is explosive, as you will hear if you jam in your waxy little earbuds and crank up the volume. The rhythm section is really punchy, and the guitar tones are aggressive. Based on the liner notes in both copies of this album that I possess, it looks like Zappa is playing the slightly unhinged slide/Dobro-sounding solo about halfway through. He usually delegated this sound to Denny Whalley, who was actually playing with him in 1975 (maybe an album-credit oversight?). If there's a harmonica down in the mix on this track, and I can't tell on this low-fi YouTube clip, it is being respirated by one Bloodshot Rollin' Red, known in the personal mythology of all Zappaphiles as Captain Beefheart, the charming avant-garde multimedia artist what I composed a humble eulogy for yesterday.
The vocals are, in my opinion, somewhat marred by the inexplicable self-mocking delivery that seemed to self-sabotage any number of Zappa cuts that had all other necessary elements for a big radio hit. Johnny "Guitar" Watson, one of FZ's musical idols, is credited with vocals on two other cuts of this album, but I'm pretty sure I hear him in a supporting role on this track as well.
I think this song is "low-hanging fruit" for some band to revisit today and hit big with.
Can't Afford No Shoes, Frank Zappa And The Mothers Of Invention (1975, from "One Size Fits All," reissued as RykoDisc RCD10095), via YouTube, embedded for noncommercial critical discussion and educational purposes.
Update: clarifying edits made to the first narrative paragraph in response to commenters. Thanks, commenters!!!
hey young feller. In 1975 St. Reagan was newly unemployed, Leslie King was in the White House whipping inflation now, and there was no morning in America.
ReplyDeleteEver.
crowd sourced fact checking in the modern era! 1975.....think it was just the year before, for the last time, that one's draft number was a serious matter. All the while Vietnam peace talks were kavetching over tables of all things...one option was TV tray table like things...and ever on people were dieing with assembly line modern efficiency on the evening news. The world was and is crazy.
ReplyDeleteFor anyone inclined "Death of the Liberal Class" (Chris Hedges) sounds like one take of interest. The radio interview spoke of so called reluctant liberal hawks that then change feather...all to beguile the public into war as war profiteers and empire prosper (hence tolerated and even needed). Just don't go for the jugular; else be crushed. "Liberal" a la FDR's New Deal era meant only the, gasp, regulation of finance...and then his "re-packed" supreme court got to work - thankfully.
Eugene B. Debits'n Credits
Oil Can: I actually do remember what happened in 1975 versus 1983, but my words got stuck when I was writing about it. The edits to the main post should clarify sufficiently, if not elegantly.
ReplyDeleteEugene: I think TV trays would have been most appropriate for the peace conference; they all could have watched Uncle Walter do the body count at 6 p.m. while peeling back the foil from their Swanson's fried chicken, mashed potatoes 'n' gravy, and apple cobbler. However, I believe (from memory) that the table-shape controversy occurred several years before that.