The first live album compiled from various performances on
Frank Zappa's 1988 world tour (his final outing),
Broadway the Hard Way is composed mostly of new, vocal-oriented material. The tone throughout is highly political, with
Zappa taking potshots at such targets as
Elvis Presley,
Michael Jackson, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Pat Robertson and other televangelists, Jesse Jackson, C. Everett Koop, and so on. Despite
Zappa's well-deserved reputation as an acute satirist, his sarcasm is often surprisingly humorless here, leaning toward didacticism; his choice to name names and address his subjects explicitly, rather than through metaphor, also renders the album instantly dated, almost like a late-'80s standup comedy routine. Despite these flaws, many of
Zappa's political observations hit the mark, as do some of the jokes, easily making
Broadway the Hard Way one of his best and most intellectually stimulating post-'60s political efforts. The CD features a memorable guest appearance from
Sting, singing his Jimmy Swaggart-condemned
Police tune "Murder by Numbers." ~ Steve Huey