You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Volume 3 Atlanta GA

You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Volume 3

Frank Zappa

Rykodisc Records, 1989

REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 06/26/1998

Today, we hit the halfway point of our year-long examination ofFrank Zappa's monumental collection You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, the ultimate live set /best-of / box set that encompasses almost every aspect of Zappa'scareer.

You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Volume 3 (futurereferences: YCDTOSA3) spends a good portion of time examining the 1984edition of Zappa's band, and it also is one of the loosest of thecollections, featuring moments that could never have been scriptedinto live shows. From the outbreaks of spontaneous laughter to theshock of hearing tear gas grenades being fired into audiences, thisparticular volume covers almost the whole range of things that canhappen onstage.

Disc one of YCDTOSA3 exclusively features the 1984 band, including thefirst time Zappa appeared onstage with his son Dweezil("Sharleena"). The song selection of this disc includes manynumbers that even occasional fans will recognize, such as "BobbyBrown Goes Down," "Keep It Greasey" and "Joe's Garage".

It is during "Bobby Brown Goes Down" that the uncontrollablelaughter starts. Apparently triggered by Ray White's goading ofZappa with "Heigh-O Silver," I don't think there was a single bandmember left by the end of "Keep It Greasey" that hadn't been ableto keep singing because they were laughing so hard. And let's faceit, only Zappa would put such a scene on disc, showing that eventhe musicians were human, and weren't immune from the "giggles".It's a wonderful selection.