Heiße Ratten

Not sure how or why but many drunken student years ago my mate and I spent an evening in the pub translating LP titles into German. His German was pretty poor and mine was several notches below that*; at the time mostly culled from Commando comics and, umm, several films of a carefree adult nature. It was hilarious at the time, although I suspect the Tetleys may have had something to do with that.

I’ve no idea why German worked so well for this game, possibly because to Anglo ears it all sounds so stern but amongst the myriad Das Marquee Moonuns and Lass Es Bluten!s Frank Zappa’s Heiße Ratten stuck and it is still very much how I think of it today

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I was about 12 or 13 when I first knowingly encountered Franz Zappa, going through my parents’ singles with my mum. I then gingerly explored a few of their LP’s, liking a couple of the more accessible tracks** but fleeing in terror from the likes of ‘Who Are The Brain Police?’. The LP cover of Hot Rats was the one that grabbed me^ and I remember my dad had clipped a review of the album from somewhere which he had kept in the sleeve (a habit I was later to steal). I played it one day in the school holidays and it didn’t frighten me. That was a good start.

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The track I zeroed in on straight away and the one I have just played 3 times in a row, was ‘Willie The Pimp’. Probably because it has the only vocal on Hot Rats and has the most familiar rock structure, plus even as a young adolescent who still harboured serious dreams of marrying Princess Leia and/or being a Level 9 elf, I could tell it was sodding brilliant.

Captain Beefheart’s vocals are just incredible here, earthy and menacing he sounds like a beast. I had absolutely no idea what a pimp was, of course, life in rural west Wales not being replete with street hustlers, hustlers, or actual streets for that matter. No matter.

The violin from Don ‘Sugarcane’ Harris^* is equally amazing, I had wrongly assumed it was Jean-Luc Ponty (who plays elsewhere here), it is rhythymic, insistent and expansive; a real thing of beauty. Oh and then there’s the guitarist.

Nobody ever played guitar like Frank Zappa*^, at his most focused I would say he was one of the very few who could walk in Hendrix’ shadow, eclipse him occasionally, even. The guitar soloing on ‘Willie The Pimp’ being the primo case in point, it’s just jaw-droppingly good from about a minute and a half in when it just fireworks all over the track.

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But Hot Rats is not a single song album. I really enjoy ‘Peaches En Regalia’ the opening jazz-tinged number, to my ears now it sounds slightly like Jim Hall playing fusion elevator music – in a good way. It is a great upbeat thing even if some of the more toytown-esque instrumentation grates a tad.

‘Son Of Mr Green Genes’ is a really interesting one too, as well as laying us all to waste with more energetic guitaring this is the closest Zappa allowed his music to touch, fleetingly, on prog rock in terms of style, melody and construction. Hell, this was 1969 so he was pretty much there first; as always. Needless to say, it’s an excellent easy listen.

Opening the second side of Hot Rats is ‘Little Umbrellas’ which functions very much as a showcase for Ian Underwood’s extraordinary contributions to this LP***. Short though ‘Little Umbrellas’ is it really shows off his keyboard and woodwind chops and it would make a really great theme tune for my late night cultural chat show.

I really love the way ‘The Gumbo Variations’ steams straight in and smacks you upside your head with Ian Underwood’s sax playing very much to the fore. It’s an unexpectedly sweaty treat, unusual for Zappa I think – a man who spent a long time chronicling and mocking our bestial urges, but made music I find far more cerebral than loinal. ‘The Gumbo Variations’ really doesn’t let up throughout its almost 13-minutes, with Don Harris playing some ear shredding violin towards the end.

Jean-Luc Ponty takes over the violin duties on LP closer ‘It Must Be A Camel’ which has a more recognizably jazz tone and sounds like a very successful attempt to reconcile several warring musical factions in one cut.

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Hot Rats is a hell of an album. On it you can hear Zappa wrestling with the whole concept of what actually constitutes a rock, or pop, or jazz LP; I appreciate of course that this conversation was already happening in jazz at the time. Hot Rats looks deceptive, the tracks have way out names, the cover art is all rock/pop, as are the various photos within. But as soon as you put the needle on the record, everything morphs into the type of 5D soundscape that only an alien super intellect like Zappa’s could conceive of.

These ratten are indeed very heiße.

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As my parents very selfishly show no signs of letting me inherit an original copy of Hot Rats my copy is a 50th anniversary copy on neon pink vinyl. I would recommend it as a very good pressing at a reasonable price. Ha, take that parents!

1152 Down.

PS: It pains me to say it but seek out ‘Willie The Pimp – Complete Unedited Master Take’ on the Hot Rats Sessions multi CD extravaganza, there’s no Captain at the wheel but it is just out of this world. Incredible music for driving to.

*and remains, embarrassingly at that level. Although happily to redress the balance and 1537 family honour my clever clogs son is a fluent German speaker.

**I have fond memories of harmonising on ‘It Can’t Happen Here’ with my parents on a long car journey. We also did ‘I Am The Slime’ and ‘Big Leg Emma’ quite well too.

^although Burnt Weeny Sandwich and Overnite Sensation came close.

^*co-writer of ‘Farmer John’ by the Premiers and Neil Young & Crazy Horse fame.

*^his solo on ‘Why Don’t You Do Me Right?’ is occasionally my favourite guitar solo ever.

***Alice Cooper producer and player on the Knight Rider theme tune, amongst a vast catalogue of musical adventures.