Aug 9, 2025
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Zappa QuAUDIOPHILIAc 2004 DTS ————————————————— Tracks: 1. Naval Aviation in Art? 2. Lumpy Gravy 3. Rollo 4. Drooling Midrange Accountants on Easter Hay 5. Wild Love 6. Ship Ahoy 7. Chunga Basement 8. Venusian Time Bandits 09. Waka/Jawaka 10. Basement Music #2 —————————————————
Adrian Belew
Max Bennett
Terry Bozzio
Napoleon Murphy Brock
Billy Byers
George Duke
Aynsley Dunbar
Roy Estrada
Tom Fowler
Patrick O’Hearn
Andre Lewis
Ed Mann
Tommy Mars
Don Preston
Chester Thompson
Ian Underwood
Frank Zappa
* Long Live Rock Archive
Ed Mann’s life was a testament to the power of worker solidarity. His was a steel will set on struggle and defiance against overwhelming odds. Ed’s story is one of enduring the darkness of industrial collapse without losing hope.
Growing up in Toledo, Ed worked various intensive physical jobs. He was no stranger to tough, dangerous work. Ed remembered his mother inviting homeless folks for family meals. Despite having little, she showed deep solidarity with those around them. She also ensured Ed received a Reform Jewish education at a local temple. He never much identified with the religious side of his upbringing. Still, Ed valued his education for his whole life.
In 1952, Ed settled in Northeast Ohio. He started working full-time in the local steel industry at the Brier Hill mill.
Even with his Reform Jewish upbringing, racism was not a consistent issue in Ed’s personal life. Ed and American racism first clashed in 1947. One fateful day would define his future views on race and his organizing work. It started when he took out a YMCA membership.
Ed planned to exercise with his friend Bell, a Black man. Ed never considered that there were separate facilities for whites and Blacks. When Ed and Bell showed up together to work out, Ed asked for a guest pass. “Don’t cause any trouble,” the manager replied. “He’s got his YMCA and this is yours.”
“I think it’s things like that that politicize people,” he later reflected. “I was at an age where I was like a sponge, wanting to participate in society. Then I found out what society was like where I was living at that point in time.”
This shaped how he viewed the treatment of Black steelworkers in Ohio mills. The union locals had long stood by while bosses discriminated in pay and promotions. A key part of Ed’s early union years involved fights for equal treatment for his fellow workers. He later picketed with Black residents and unionists outside Akron against the KKK.
Frank Zappa - Five-Five-Five
Artist
Frank Zappa
Composer
Frank Zappa
Produced
Frank Zappa
Credit
Frank Zappa - lead guitar Warren Cuccurullo - rhythm guitar Denny Walley - rhythm guitar Ike Willis - rhythm guitar Tommy Mars - keyboards Peter Wolf - keyboards Ed Mann - percussion Arthur Barrow - bass Vinnie Colaiuta - drums
Released
May 11 1981
Streaming
Frank Zappa · Song · 1981
Frank Zappa: The Man from Utopia (1983)
The best thing about The Man from Utopia is undoubtedly its cover art, which was painted to order by Italian artist Tanino Liberatore, creator of the graphic novel staple RanXerox, here adapted to look like a fearsome, fly-swatting cybernetic FranXerox!
Zappa’s umpteenth album turns 35 today (yay, hooray!), but I’m afraid all of these years have done little to smooth away its bipolar highs and lows, the latter of which hardly even qualify as songs … strictly speaking.
I’m talking about the “The Dangerous Kitchen,” “The Radio is Broken,” and “The Jazz Discharge Party Hats,” all of which consist of stream-of-conscience sing/speak babble over seemingly improvised music.
This has been described by Zappa as his “meltdown” technique and, by others, with the more technical, German terminology of sprechstimme, but, in any case, these triplets basically sound like the work of – and please forgive the word – retards!
Much, much better are a trio of instrumentals: the electro-funk of “Tink Walks Amok,” the frantic intricacies of “Mōggio” (featuring impossible guitar parts by Steve Vai), and the Twilight Zone R&B of “We are Not Alone,” where Marty Krystall’s sax tangles with Ed Mann’s marimbas.
And this leaves four more vocal cuts: the laid-back ska of “Stick Together,” ‘50s doo wop of “The Man from Utopia Meets Mary Lou,” gratuitous heavy metal of “SEX,” and typically abrasive opening salvo, “Cocaine Decisions.”
The last was lyrically aimed at Frank’s former label, Warner Bros., but the riot that broke out during its performance at a 1982 concert in Palermo, Italy, was what ultimately inspired The Man from Utopia’s cover concept.
Altogether, this album is a familiar example of Zappa’s ‘80s approach of splicing together all kinds of musical styles from his vast arsenal in haphazard fashion, only on a less successful scale than other efforts like You are What You Is and Them or Us.
Update: I just watched a curious documentary from 2017 called Summer ‘82: When Zappa Came to Sicily (currently available on Amazon Prime Video) that both documents the Zappa family’s return to the Sicilian town of their ancestors, and the chaotic story behind Frank’s visit that informed so much of The Man from Utopia.
More Frank Zappa: Freak Out!, Absolutely Free, Lumpy Gravy, We’re Only in it for the Money, Cruising with Ruben and the Jets, Uncle Meat, Hot Rats, Burnt Weenie Sandwich, Weasels Ripped My Flesh, Chunga’s Revenge, Fillmore East -- June 1971, 200 Motels, Just Another Band from L.A., Waka/Jawaka, The Grand Wazoo, Over-nite Sensation, Apostrophe (’), Roxy & Elsewhere, One Size Fits All, Bongo Fury, Zoot Allures, Studio Tan, Sleep Dirt, Sheik Yerbouti, Orchestral Favorites, Joe’s Garage Act I, Joe’s Garage Act II & III, “I Don’t Wanna Get Drafted,” Tinseltown Rebellion, You Are What You Is, Ship Arriving too Late to Save a Drowning Witch, London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. I, Them or Us, Meets the Mothers of Prevention, Jazz from Hell, You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore (Sampler), Broadway the Hard Way.
“My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama” by The Z3 (Frank Zappa cover)
Later I tried to call you Your mama told me you weren't there She told me don't bother to call again Unless I cut off all my hair
So, my friend, Tim Palmieri, has this Zappa tribute trio thing with guitar, organ, and drums, and they have an album of a live show from Germany.
I’m going to see them this Thursday at some local club and, get this, Ed Mann, Zappa’s percussionist for years, joined the band a couple years ago, making this trio, and their name, a bit obsolete, or at least a misnomer. But I think Frank would enjoy that bit of chaos.
Frank Zappa Friday
FRANK ZAPPA - BABY SNAKES
Frank Zappa - Yo Mama
