Hot Rats

Hot Rats is an album by Frank Zappa. It consists of six instrumental tracks, one with a short vocal by Captain Beefheart. It is the first album Frank Zappa released under his own name and label, rather than using the Mothers of Invention name. It is from the same time period as Uncle Meat and Burnt Weeny Sandwich. Unlike those albums, it was recorded completely in the studio and features none of the Mothers personnel except violinist "Sugarcane" Harris, and Ian Underwood as the primary collaborator thanks to what Zappa described as a "homemade sixteen track" recorder. It is thought by some to be the first sixteen-track recording ever commercially released. At the time, the 1969 era of analog recording was still dominated by four and then eight-track recording machines.

Multi-tracking

The ability to lay down one or two audio tracks at a time and then progressively layer them with discrete, uncompromised audio signal on each track is called multi-tracking. This was a new, but prominent feature of pop music and rock recordings, with The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper being the new standard for commercial studio recordings (four tracks plus overdubs) of the day. Overdubbing was a process of recording one sound on top of another sound on the same track, resulting in some audio quality degradation. However, for example, multi-tracking with sixteen tracks, sixteen different voices could be recorded and mixed without any overdubbing. In 1969 to have sixteen discrete tracks of audio compared to 3 or 4 tracks — common with most rock and pop recordings of the previous five years — was the difference between the Space Shuttle and a Model T.

Multi-tracking and overdubbing were referred to in that analog tape recording era as "sound with sound" and "sound ON sound", respectively.

Ian Underwood plays the parts of eight or ten musicians on four pieces; with complicated sections of piano and organ, as well as woodwind parts including multiple flutes, clarinets and saxophones. These tracks also feature upright bass (Max Bennett) and violin (Jean Luc Ponty) as well as drums (John Guerin). The other two tracks feature screaming tenor sax, electric violin and guitar in looser jams, one with a vocal by Captain Beefheart.

Zappa composed, arranged and produced the album and played electric guitar and "octave bass" (a bass guitar sped up to double speed – the resulting sound is similar to that of a guitar) according to the liner notes. The use of electronic organ as an orchestral voice within an ensemble of woodwinds and piano along with tape manipulation (half speed or double speed) as a technique for producing different timbres, envelopes and tonal colors can be heard on some tracks (including some percussion — years before electronic and synth drums appeared). There is on one track even the sound (almost forgotten today) of a hard plastic comb being stroked at one point almost like a jerky, audio slow-motion bell tree or wind chime.

Artwork

Although Zappa was a Californian who did not get high and who actually disdained psychedelics, drugs and the tie-dyed, jam-band mentality of the era, the colorful, psychedelic aura of the late sixties is apparent in the graphic design and photography of Hot Rats. The one-disc vinyl album was a foldout package emphasizing the photography and also the elaborate and colorful artwork of Cal Schenkel at a time foldouts were usually reserved for double-disc albums.

Track listing

all songs by Frank Zappa

1. "Peaches en Regalia" – 3:38
2. "Willie the Pimp" – 9:16
3. "Son of Mr. Green Genes" – 9:00
4. "Little Umbrellas" – 3:04
5. "The Gumbo Variations" – 16:56
6. "It Must Be a Camel" – 5:15

Personnel

• Frank Zappa – bass, guitar, percussion, keyboards, vocals, octave bass
• Max Bennett – bass
• Captain Beefheart – harmonica, keyboards, vocals
• Lowell George – guitar
• John Guerin – drums
• Don "Sugarcane" Harris – violin, vocals
• Paul Humphrey – violin, drums
• Shuggie Otis – bass, guitar
• Jean-Luc Ponty – violin, keyboards
• Ron Selico – drums
• Ian Underwood – organ, clarinet, flute, guitar, piano, saxophone

Production

• Producer: Frank Zappa
• Director of engineering: Dick Kunc
• Engineers: Cliff Goldstein, Jack Hunt, Brian Ingoldsby, Dick Kunc
• Arranger: Frank Zappa
• Cover design: Cal Schenkel
• Design: Cal Schenkel, John Williams

Charts

Album – Billboard (North America)