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Civilization Phaze III

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Untitled

Civilization Phaze III is a double CD by Frank Zappa. It was the last album he completed before his death in 1993, and was released posthumously in December 1994 by The Zappa Family Trust on Barking Pumpkin Records.

Categorized by Zappa as an "opera-pantomime", the project began as a vocal recording experiment in 1967, which Zappa describes in the liner notes (written in 1993):

...I decided to stuff a pair of U-87s in the piano, cover it with a heavy drape, put a sand bag on the sustain pedal, and invite anybody in the vicinity to stick their head inside and ramble incoherently about the various topics I would suggest to them...

These ramblings (many of which were first excerpted on Zappa's 1968 album Lumpy Gravy) were transformed into a vague plot involving pigs, ponies and other characters who live inside a piano. In 1991, additional dialog by Moon Unit Zappa, actor Michael Rapaport and others was added. The musical portions are composed and recorded exclusively using the synclavier, used first by Zappa on parts of Boulez Conducts Zappa: The Perfect Stranger (1984) and later on most of the Grammy-award winning Jazz from Hell (1986).

Track listing

All songs by Frank Zappa.

Act One

  1. "This Is Phaze III" – 0:47
  2. "Put a Motor in Yourself" – 5:13
  3. "Oh-Umm" – 0:50
  4. "They Made Me Eat It" – 1:48
  5. "Reagan at Bitburg" – 5:39
  6. "A Very Nice Body" – 1:00
  7. "Navanax" – 1:40
  8. "How the Pigs' Music Works" – 1:49
  9. "Xmas Values" – 5:31
  10. "Dark Water!" – 0:23
  11. "Amnerika" – 3:03
  12. "Have You Heard Their Band?" – 0:38
  13. "Religious Superstition" – 0:43
  14. "Saliva Can Only Take So Much" – 0:27
  15. "Buffalo Voice" – 5:12
  16. "Someplace Else Right Now" – 0:32
  17. "Get a Life" – 2:20
  18. "A Kayak (On Snow)" – 0:28
  19. "N-Lite" – 18:00

Act Two

  1. "I Wish Motorhead Would Come Back" – 0:14
  2. "Secular Humanism" – 2:41
  3. "Attack! Attack! Attack!" – 1:24
  4. "I Was in a Drum" – 3:38
  5. "A Different Octave" – 0:57
  6. "This Ain't CNN" – 3:20
  7. "The Pigs' Music" – 1:17
  8. "A Pig With Wings" – 2:52
  9. "This Is All Wrong" – 1:42
  10. "Hot & Putrid" – 0:29
  11. "Flowing Inside-Out" – 0:46
  12. "I Had a Dream About That" – 0:27
  13. "Gross Man" – 2:54
  14. "A Tunnel into Muck" – 0:21
  15. "Why Not?" – 2:18
  16. "Put a Little Motor in 'Em" – 0:50
  17. "You're Just Insultin' Me, Aren't You!" – 2:13
  18. "Cold Light Generation" – 0:44
  19. "Dio Fa" – 8:18
  20. "That Would Be the End of That" – 0:35
  21. "Beat the Reaper" – 15:23
  22. "Waffenspiel" – 4:05

Personnel

  • Frank Zappa – producer, compiler, editor, composer, performer, conductor, liner notes
  • Ensemble Modern – orchestra
  • Dick Kunc – engineer (1967)
  • David Dondorf – engineer (1991)
  • Todd Yvega – engineer (1991)
  • Spencer Chrislu – engineer (1991)
  • Uri Balashov – cover design
  • Command A Studios – art direction

1967 voices

  • Spider Barbour
  • All-Night John
  • Frank Zappa
  • Euclid James "Motorhead" Sherwood
  • Roy Estrada
  • Louis "The Turkey" Cuneo
  • Monica
  • Gilly Townley
  • Unknown Girl #1
  • Unknown Girl #2

1991 voices

References

  1. ^ a b "Album review". All Music Guide. Retrieved 2007-11-02. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
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