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Rating: In my pilgrimage through the pages of Debasio, I noticed a serious omission: one of the best works from my dearly beloved Les Claypool has yet to be reviewed, namely his personal tribute to a band he greatly appreciates. I'm referring to "Animals" by Pink Floyd, here presented from the first to the last note in October 2000 at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, California.
The nineties just passed were lived by Les in a frenetic manner, but full of undeniable satisfactions; with Primus, after a live debut, he recorded in studio six albums of rare beauty and effectiveness, plus two mini CDs where he and his band covered seminal bands: randomly mentioning XTC, Police, Residents. To conclude, other two studio albums published under the humorous names Sausage and Holy Mackerel (meaning sausage and holy mackerel). Therefore, from 1990 to 1999, every single year featured the musical release of a project by Les Claypool with his group of musicians. At the end of the "Antipop" tour, the last work of the nineties carrying the Primus name, Les decides to put the band on standby to unleash another project of his, namely La Frog Brigade...And since Animals by Pink Floyd tells of sheep, pigs, and dogs, what better association than calling the group Frog Brigade...genius at its peak.
The cover immediately presents itself as a small jewel: a drawing depicting a frog, possibly Les, in full sailor's uniform, complete with a pipe, steering an imaginary vessel towards distant seas...and here one can't help but notice the not-so-subtle connection to "Sailing the Seas of Cheese" and its navigation in seas of cheese; on the CD's back cover appears the famous image of Battersea Power Station, one of London's power plants, faithfully reproducing Animals' real cover, with one irreverent difference: instead of the pig flying above the plant depicted by Pink Floyd, Les replaces it with a frog...And what about the record label that produced the work, the Prawn Song Records owned by the bassist himself, which aims to be a parody even in the image of Swan Song Records from Zeppelin's legacy...one prankish and irreverent idea after another.
The booklet inside contains a heartfelt dedication from Mr. Claypool towards the album he performs live. And how his early youth was marked by listening to such an original work; he concludes his writing feeling lucky and gratified for having completed this kind of tribute: a genuine milestone, his exact words, in his long musical career. In this live, he is accompanied by some old friends who have often followed him in his successful career, I'm referring to guitarist Todd Huth and drummer Jay Lane; with the addition of three other musicians, the unspecified Eenor on guitar and Skerik on saxophone, and Jeff Chimenti on keyboards.
There are various video clips online showing this concert, where you can immediately notice the musicians' eccentric attire, with Les sporting a helmet halfway between a firefighter, clearly referencing "Jerry Was a Race Car Driver", and a miner; complete with a pig mask worn during the performance of the song "Pigs". A concert that perfectly reproduces the original Pink Floyd work, with some instrumental digressions especially on the guitar, which in any case do not affect the final result that in my opinion is undoubtedly excellent; after all, we are dealing with excellent musicians who, as can be seen from the available images, execute everything with that charge of irony and healthy fun that has always accompanied Les's exploits and all the "mates" who have joined him on his thirty-year musical journey.
Believe me, I feel unprecedented envy toward the spectators who could enjoy such a visual and auditory spectacle and will forever cherish the memory of a unique and possibly unrepeatable concert.
I have finished, I intentionally do not want to dwell on the individual songs and the Orwellian context from which they were born for two reasons: first, there are already seven reviews of the original Animals album on our site that fully explain and describe everything in detail; and secondly, if I had done it myself, I would have endlessly extended my writing...what a Solomonic verdict!!!
I leave you with a phrase from Les: "I hope you enjoy it"...Get the live album and let yourself be captivated by its wonderful and sublime progress.
Ad Maiora.
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