Track Listing
1. This Is Phaze III
2. Put a Motor in Yourself
3. Oh-Umm
4. They Made Me Eat It
5. Reagan at Bitburg
6. Very Nice Body, A
7. Navanax
8. How the Pigs' Music Works
9. Xmas Values
10. Dark Water!
11. Amnerika
12. Have You Heard Their Band?
13. Religious Superstition
14. Saliva Can Only Take So Much
15. Buffalo Voice
16. Someplace Else Right Now
17. Get a Life
18. Kayak, A (On Snow)
19. N-Lite: Negative Light / Venice Submerged / The New World Order / The Lifestyle You Deserve / Creationism / He Is Risen
20. I Wish Motorhead Would Come Back
21. Secular Humanism
22. Attack! Attack! Attack!
23. I Was in a Drum
24. Different Octave, A
25. This Ain't CNN
26. Pigs' Music, The
27. Pig With Wings, A
28. This Is All Wrong
29. Hot & Putrid
30. Flowing Inside-Out
31. I Had a Dream About That
32. Gross Man
33. Tunnel Into Muck, A
34. Why Not?
35. Put a Little Motor in 'Em
36. You're Just Insultin' Me, Aren't You!
37. Cold Light Generation
38. Dio Fa
39. That Would Be the End of That
40. Beat the Reaper
41. Waffenspiel
| Details | | Playing Time: | 113 min. | | Contributing Artists: | Dweezil Zappa, Michael Rappaport | | Producer: | Frank Zappa | | Distributor: | Ryko Distribution | | Recording Type: | Studio | | Recording Mode: | Stereo | | SPAR Code: | n/a |
Album Notes
Personnel: Frank Zappa (spoken vocals, conductor, various instruments); Spider Barbour, All-Night John, Euclid James "Motorhead" Sherwood, Louis "The Turkey" Cuneo, Monica, Gilly Townley, Moon Unit Zappa, Michael Rappaport, Ali N. Askin, Walt Fowler, Todd Yvega, Dweezil Zappa (spoken vocals).
Ensemble Modern: Catherine Milliken (spoken vocals, oboe, English horn, baritone oboe, didjeridoo); William Formann, Michael Gross (spoken vocals, trumpet, flugelhorn); Franck Ollu, Stefan Dohr (spoken vocals, French horn); Michael Svoboda (spoken vocals, alp horn, bass trombone, didjeridoo, conch); Uwe Dierksen (spoken vocals, trombone, pygmy trombone); Daryl Smith (spoken vocals, tuba); Hermann Kretzschmarr (spoken vocals, piano, celeste); Jurgen Ruck (guitar, banjo); Detlef Tewes (mandolin); Peter Rundel, Mathias Tacke (violin); Hilary Sturt (viola); Friedemann Dahn (cello); Ueli Wiget (harp); Dietmar Weisner (piccolo, flute, alto flute, bass flute); Roland Diry (clarinet); Veit Scholz (bassoon, contrabassoon); Wolfgang Stryi (tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet); Andreas Bottger (marimba, percussion); Thomas Fichter (contrabass, electric bass); Rumi Ogawa-Helferich (cymbalom, percussion); Rainer Romer (musical saw, percussion).
Recorded at Apostolic Studio, New York, New York; UMRK, Hollywood, California and "Joe's Garage," North Hollywood, California between 1967 and 1992. Includes liner notes by Frank Zappa.
CIVILIZATION PHAZE III is packaged in a specially-designed digipack with a bound-in 32-page booklet and cover art by Uri Balashov.
CIVILIZATION PHAZE III won a 1996 Grammy Award for Best Recording Package - Boxed.
For those who only know Frank Zappa's satirical novelty songs or eclectic instrumentals, CIVILIZATION PHAZE III is sure to be a revealing discovery. After retiring from the road in 1988, Zappa spent the remaining years of his life composing on the Synclavier, a synthesizer/computer that allowed him to command an entire universe of sounds in any configuration he desired. The results are a masterpiece of timbres and textures ranging from inventive jazz-rock ("Put A Motor In Yourself") to free form orchestral avant garde ("Reagan At Bitburg") and experimental sound effects ("Secular Humanism").
Interwoven among the musical works is a continuing dialogue of disembodied voices inside a piano (first achieved on Zappa's LUMPY GRAVY album). This bizarre narration, directed by Zappa, is a nebulous play by many diverse characters that float in and out of limbo as their voices vibrate the instrument's strings. The grand finale of each disc--"N-Lite" on disc one, "Beat The Reaper" on disc two--are epic works that encompass such massive amounts of instrumental sounds, sound effects and dense textural concepts that it is difficult to fathom how one composer could have conceived of it all. This unusual masterpiece must be experienced to be believed.
Editorial Reviews
...could be the most challenging, moving work in Frank Zappa's monumental oeuvre....Its madness was created by newly exposed bits of nutty dialogue from 1967's LUMPY GRAVY...in service of a surreal scenario about social stupidity, religious charlatanism and political evil...
Musician (06/01/1995)
4 Stars - Excellent - ...This is Zappa's magnum epitaph....a work of surprising warmth and soul, qualities in Zappa's music that were rarely acknowledged during his lifetime...
Rolling Stone (08/24/1995)
| See an error? Submit a change request |
All rights reserved.
