1. (Fallout) / World In Sound Jeff Simmons : Naked Angels (US,1969)**°
Jeff Simons had started his career in 1967 as a guitarist and singer for psych group Indian Puddin' & Pipe with deliberately loose structure and contracts. A part of the band recorded a one-sided album under the name of Easy Chair on the Vanco label in 1968. The group changed name once more to Ethiopia. Opening for Mothers of Invention convinced Zappa to give them a contract to work something out with producers Jerry Yester and Val Zanofsky. When this didn’t work out well, he kept Simons to work with, and offered him a contract for two albums on his Straight label (dedicated to artists he liked), of which this is the first one and “Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up” (1970) is the next. After this album he continued to work with Zappa more directly, as a bassist during 1970-1971, with sporadic appearances later on (he appeared on “Chunga's Revenge “, the 200 Motels film project, and later on “Waka/Jawaka” and “Roxy & Elsewhere”,..).
The album is mostly a mix of short jam-like ideas that are arranged well and tightly, slightly speeded up in tension, built from attractively fast rhythmic funky organ with a funky and groovy feeling, reminicent of some Italian crime movies, mixed with a feeling of bars visited by a fast and somewhat destructive life intention. With a reference to the biker road movie tension, it is as if the compositions recall the play character that visits and experiences these bars that are expressed by dirty acid bluesy riffs, with counter rhythms and many theme turns and switches, always groovy to some degree, but also very occasional, as if living from one thing to the next, while the music still manages to hang together as with a variety of similar tensions. Last few tracks are more conclusive ideas with more bar piano fundaments. “Bar Dream” sounds like a hangover, with piano bar sounds and tape speed effects and also some melodic drunkness, while the next track recalls some order with bluesy guitar while the piano still lingers on, and also other keyboard approaches are built around this, before a song with organ, guitars, concludes the scenery with a slight psychedelic song effect. The music is very much like a movie on its own.
2. World In Sound Jeff Simmons : Messed My Mind Up / Naked Angels (US,1969)**'
We like to remember many associations of Frank Zappa and his taste for good musicians, -also notice some great choices on his label-. Also I remember especially greats like early Franco Battiato, Lord Buckley, his cooperations with Captain Beefheart, to name a few original masters. People like to remember the energy of the Mothers of Invention, who collected some great backing musicians. One musician who made it to the crew but also made two solo albums on Zappa’s label was Jeff Simmons.
The soundtrack “Naked Angel” didn’t amaze me that much, despite his descriptive character, and the fact it fits well with a certain aspect of its time. It is especially with the other album “Lucille..” added to it, now released together as a double cd that I began to understand how it must have come into existence.
With a certain freedom to perform, this is clearly done without many restrictions, but on the other hand also without too much ambition. The production control of Zappa and additional sax by Ian Underwood on sax (from The Mothers of Invention, later also on Zappa’s legendary ‘Hot Rats’ album) their influences and structural composition control is noticeable (Frank Zappa only turned up under the disguise of LaMar Bruister). Also included were drummer Ron woods (in those days with Buddy Miles, Pacific Gas and Electric), John Kehlior and Craig Tarwater (both musicians came from Daily Flash, last one from LA garage band Sons Of Adam ; Craig later was going to join Arthur Lee in Band Aid).
Although people wish to remember it as always original, but Frank Zappa’s Mothers Of Invention wasn’t all about invention. They could have equally long flips on blues, and R&B streets, and were also Zappa’s own form of entertainment, sometimes endlessly stretched with political painstaking wordiness. Also “Lucille..” is a kind of rock album, not too focused or with clear minded lyrics and songs, driven by the bluesy accompanying band, a few times with a few nice to hear bluesy somewhat psychedelic electric guitar riffs besides the recognisable Zappa-with Mothers-esque piano with sax additional to it arrangements, close to make it an entertaining affair for the wish-to-be-an-intellectual feeling, at moments without real ideas. Especially the two live tracks (of which one of them is a bonus), the bonehead blues isn’t showing any ambition to take the group out of the live occasion context.
I guess Jeff Simmons on two albums very much lived up the fun of playing together with good musicians, and the albums are very much a result of that, an attitude which in an exaggerated form could easily fit with the “Naked Angels” movie context in the end..
Winters : Black Clouds In Twin Galaxies (UK,2007)***'
