Overview:
Ray Collins abruptly exited The Mothers in August 1968, leaving the group without a lead singer. This marks a drastic shift in the musical content of the band. Gone are the lovely ballads from their earlier albums (like You Didn’t Try To Call Me and America Drinks), and the goofy doo-wop covers that Ray and Frank perfected over the last few years. Ray left the group about 6 weeks before their second European tour, and that’s where the large majority of our recordings from this era come from (we have one show from Vancouver in August, and all the rest are from Europe). The sudden personnel change pushed the band even further into the realm of instrumental, improvisational insanity. Basically every show from this era begins with free and/or conducted improv. This could mean the tweaky, abstract improv the original MOI are (in)famous for, it could be a wild jazz-rock jam, or possibly some whacked combination of the two. Frank introduced vocal hand signals earlier in the year, but the frequency of their use increased drastically after Ray left. Frank could (and would) cue snorks, high pitched “yee!”s, vomit noises, creepy laughter, and even a couple sung phrases like “everything’s gonna be alright!” whenever wanted. These are also the first shows to really feature Roy as a vocalist (if you can call him that), so we get a lot of Gas Mask-type improvisations, with tons of cackling, moaning and screaming from the group’s bassist. The composed sections of the program are mainly long instrumentals, and most of these tend to veer off into the aforementioned crazed improvisations. King Kong, The Orange County Lumber Truck Medley, The String Quartet (consisting of A Pound For A Brown and Sleeping In A Jar), and Help, I’m A Rock/Transylvania Boogie are the big jam numbers of the era. The handful of vocal songs still being played are Trouble Every Day, Plastic People, Hungry Freaks Daddy (all sung by Frank) and the unforgettable Oh, In The Sky (“Sung” by Roy). The original Mothers Of Invention only lasts for another 12 months after Ray quits, but in the meantime they perform a number of timeless compositions, fantastic jams, and frightening improvisations, all with a great sense of humor. Put together, this makes for excellent shows and an excellent era, despite Ray’s sudden, surprising departure.
[Side-Note: Lowell George and Buzz Gardner joined The Mothers in late November 1968, but we basically have no recordings from their first two months in the band. It’s simpler and cleaner to categorize this incarnation of The Mothers as the end of ‘68, and the Lowell/Buzz as starting in ‘69, which is why I’m doing it that way. So, just keep in mind that drawing the line between the ‘68 and ‘69 MOI like this isn’t entirely accurate.]
The Band:
Frank Zappa – Guitar, Low Grade Vocals
Jimmy Carl Black – Drums, Droll Humor, Poverty
Roy Estrada – Bass, Demented Cackling
Don Preston – Keyboards, Dental Problems
Bunk Gardner – Woodwinds, Sweetpants
Ian Underwood – Keyboards, Woodwinds, Special Assistance
Motorhead Sherwood – Baritone Sax, Tambourine, Harmonica, Choreography
Art Tripp – Drums, Percussion, Specific Enquiries
Recordings Available:
1968 08 25 – Kerrisdale Arena, Vancouver, British Columbia (Official Release)
Ray quit The Mothers for good around August 14th, 1968, and the Mothers played this show in Vancouver less than two weeks later. This concert was very poorly recorded by the someone working at the venue, but Vaultmeister Joe Travers and the Zappa team corrected the tapes and managed to create a very listenable and enjoyable experience (released in 2012 as Road Tapes, Venue #1). Frank comes out to announce the program “here at the local electric ice box”, and an early tape cut misses the Mothers tuning up. We’re thrown directly into some classic MOI improv, with wild drums, screeching saxes, and high pitched mouth noises (Gail Zappa named this piece “The Importance Of An Earnest Attempt (By Hand)”, based on something Frank said during his intro). After about a minute, Frank starts to conduct the audience with his vocal hand signals (“I know you guys really like hootenannies because it’s primitive”), and goes back and forth between his band and the crowd. Eventually he insults their reaction time (“What are you guys smoking?”), cues the ⅝ riff, conducts a little more insanity, and then brings the band into an excellent Help I’m A Rock/Transylvania Boogie. Roy makes some crazed noises as the tune starts, and Frank chants the title phrase, before switching to “help I’m a cop”. After this he comments that he thinks he’d ”rather be the mayor, and offer the hippies ten dollars to cut their hair”. He gives a short speech about having long hair (“It means that you’re a potential danger to every old person in your country.”), before switching to “help I’m a hair”, and then quickly transitioning to part two of the event: Transylvania Boogie. It’s an excellent jam, with a lovely take of the theme and two great solos from Don and Ian. After this sick performance (possibly the best version of this medley), Frank stops the beat, Ian continues to solo and the group delves back into conducted improvisations (this one’s Gail-title is Flopsmash Musics). Some demented sax playing starts us off, followed by chaotic drums and frightening electronic noises. After about three minutes Frank starts to slowly quote the Gardner Varieties near the end of the piece, and continues to play some mellow, eerie guitar until he decides to switch to the goofy swing vamp cue (but only for a second). They briefly return to haunting improv, before a sudden jump into another fun-but-standard take of Hungry Freaks Daddy. Once finished, they take their first rest of the night and Frank announces The Orange County Lumber Truck Medley “which in reality is nothing more than a cheesy bandstand medley of instrumental themes from some of our recent smash flop recordings.” He introduces the themes the audiences may know and describes the rest as “stuff you won’t recognize” (“and then we’ll stop, and you’ll clap, and I’ll talk, and we’ll play, and it’ll go on over again for about another hour and a half or something like that.”). They then proceed to play a riotous OCLT medley, hitting all the right spots. Frank plays a mean solo in Oh No, and as he starts to wrap up our horn players return to play variations on the “in your dreams” section (Bunk plays the Gardner Varieties riff here too). The full band comes in again for the end of Oh No and the OCLT proper, and after this Frank, Bunk, and Don each get a chance to stretch out. The jam ends with a strange transition into a variety of snorks, shrieks and moans (primarily from Motorhead, but I can hear Roy too). This segues perfectly into a long section of spoken improvisations, which Gail titled “The Rewards Of A Career In Music”. Bunk talks about his old music teacher Elmira Snodgrass, and quotes the future improvised-musical/play Progress? (“ Take that jazz and stick it under a rock!”). After a little bit Don plays Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (a song you might play in an eighth grade music class) while Bunk talks. Roy then starts to talk about Hamburger buns over Bunk’s rantings, and then Motorhead comes in to talk about fixing cars (he’s the least audible of the three). After a few minutes of this Frank cues Trouble Every Day and we’re wooshed into the next tune. It’s a fun take, but unfortunately a good chunk of the head wasn’t recorded (there’s a cut from the first chorus right to the final verse). Frank references the preceding improv (“Been checkin’ out the buns”), and we get a nice mouth harp solo from Motorhead and a sick guitar jam from Frank. This leads to their second pause of the night, and Frank uses it to tune up and introduce “a piece of music that will be on an album in November, called No Commercial Potential”: Holiday In Berlin (then known as “Shortly”). We get a lovely take of the tune, the best live performance we have from the 60s, and it features great solos from Frank, Bunk/Ian (concurrently), and Don. Once Don wraps up, Frank counts the band into the first known live take of The String Quartet (which is a medley consisting of Pound For A Brown and Sleeping In A Jar). Pound sounds great and features a lovely solo form Frank, but doesn’t yet contain the mid-song woodwind improv. Sleeping In A Jar is unfortunately just the theme, and doesn’t feature the long jam that would come to define this little tune on stage in the 60s. Instead, we get a quick transition into the delightfully stupid Oh, In The Sky. When Roy finishes screaming, FZ brings the main set to an end, but the Mothers quickly return to the stage. Frank announces the encore (“This is the number we always play when people ask us to play more, because we know that after we play this they couldn’t possibly ever want to hear us again.”), and tells a lengthy story about Varese, and a shitty concert a Canadian orchestra performed of his music. He then goes on to say that “We’re going to play a piece of music that was written by Edgard Varèse, and we’re going to ruin it for you”. They then tear into a fantastic, riotous performance of Varese’s Octandre, one of the best takes of it from The Mothers. They play three repetitions of the intro to the piece, with assorted creepy improvisations between the composed sections. After this Frank asks “Can we play another one? Will that make a mess?” and tells the crowd “I must say this is a rather unprecedented response for the bullshit that we do”. He goes on to give a very amusing intro to “The Legend Of King Kong” (the “story about a large, electric gorilla”). They start the piece with “the gong, symbolic of all that is jungle-y and smells of gorilla”, and we get a nice, shortened take of the tune. Motorhead starts us off with his now regular, crazed, opening solo and Bunk joins him near the end (and of course throws in some final Gardner Varieties licks). Once he wraps up Don takes a nice keyboard solo, but they run out of time not too long after, and Frank cues a repetition of the theme to end the show. As they leave the stage someone imitates Roy’s screams and Roy does one final shout for the crowd. It’s amazing that they were able to put on such a great show so soon after having a core member leave. This is an excellent concert, one of the best from the post-Ray era, and an outstanding vault release. Check this one out!
1968 09 27/28 – Olympia-Kino/Grugahalle, Essen, Germany (TV A)
The Mothers head to Essen as the first stop on their month-long, second European tour, and they perform two shows while there, on the 27th and the 28th, each at a different venue. The gig on the 27th was part of a German music festival entitled “The Internationale Essener Songtage 1968”, and the show on the 28th was a standalone Mothers Of Invention concert. We only have a couple of songs from the two performances, and they all originate from professionally recorded videos. The largest chunk we have comes from the 28th, and it consists of a fun King Kong (That found its way onto the Beat The Boots series as a track on Electric Aunt Jemima). It’s a fairly standard performance, but still very enjoyable. The Mothers are introduced, and they head directly into the main theme of the tune. Motorhead plays a solo first, but he’s unfortunately not mic’d so his sax is barely audible. They then play the second theme of King Kong (the first known performance of the second theme in conjunction with the first), and follow it with hot solos from Frank, Ian, and Don. FZ hands a gas mask to Motorhead during Don’s solo, and he proceeds to snork and scream into it while Frank conducts the other Mothers. This then moves into some tweaky, electronic improv and then a Gas Mask-type event (meaning Frank conducts moans out of Roy, and other grotesque noises from the rest of the band). Motorhead attempts to play a thumb piano in the background during this, and the jam ends with a return to the main theme of the piece. Frank lets the crowd know that they’ll “play twice again tonight”, and says goodbye. The video available is beautifully filmed in black and white, and is some of the best available Frank footage from the 60s (though I could’ve used more wide angles, most shots are tight close ups). We also have a little bit of video and audio from the 27th, the most complete document consisting of a standard performance of Oh, In The Sky. Also available are some very brief videos of a soundcheck from the 27th, containing fragments of Brown Shoes Don’t Make It and of Motherly Love (I believe). Overall, these are fun performances, and the video is really neat, but we only have about 20 minutes extracted from what’s likely a few hours of music. I’d say check the King Kong video out, but these aren’t performances I return to incredibly often. Though I’d absolutely love it if these full shows were unearthed from the vault someday!
1968 10 03 – Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen, Denmark (Stage A-/B+ & Audience B/B-)
A week into their European tour, the Mothers play an exciting show in Copenhagen. There are two available recordings of this gig: a mediocre audience tape that covers about 80 minutes of the show and a nice stage recording that covers about an hour of the 105 minute gig. This concert is most famous for the guest appearance of legendary jazz trumpeter Don Cherry, who was living in Tagarp, Sweden at the time. The Mothers met Don at a jazz club in Copenhagen, where they struck up a conversation and found out that he had heard about them through Archie Shepp. Frank ended up inviting him to sit in with them at their upcoming concert, and he apparently agreed (but more on that later). The stage recording begins with what I assume are the intro improvisations. They’re really tweaky and scary, with lots of discordant keyboards, frantic drumming and chaotic moaning. Someone speaks some German, and a little later on we get some very Monster Magnet-esque freak screams. Frank moans something I can’t quite make out, and after about five minutes the horns come in and change the tone a bit. About seven minutes in, the band comes to a huge crash and we get some very cool, creepy piano improvisations which Frank intended for release on an early version of Weasels Ripped My Flesh (AKA The Artesian Acetate) under the title “Copenhagen Night Music”. After about three minutes they settle back down from the frenzy and we get a fantastic segue into Help I’m A Rock. It’s a relatively short take of the tune, without much improvisation. Frank does riff on the lyrics a little, but it’s very difficult to hear (he says something about “demonstrations”, which is about all I can make out). After this they move right into Transylvania Boogie, which contains an excellent jam featuring Don, Frank, and Bunk. They then move into 90 seconds of weird drum and bass improv, before quickly sliding back into another jam, this time featuring Ian. Unfortunately though, just as Ian really gets going, the stage recording cuts out. The show resumes on the audience recording some unknown amount of time later, in the middle of more creepy, perturbed improv characterized by low droning horns, weird drums, and something that sounds like an engine. It ends with multiple conducted crashing noises and a cold segue into a solid Hungry Freaks Daddy. After this, The Mothers take their first break of the night, and someone throws some toilet paper onto the stage (which was apparently a thing European audiences did when they liked someone). Frank suggests they “salute the toilet paper”, but then backtracks the statement (“It’s not necessary to salute the toilet paper, or the government for which it stands”). He then introduces “Bongo Madness… A free-formed, abstract, piece of bullshit.” Frank says that audiences in Denmark are known to be “so far and advanced from the average listening public in other parts of the world”, and that “it’s a pleasure for us to have the opportunity to play for an audience that stands the chance of understanding a piece of music more elaborate than Louie Louie”. The piece in question consists of about 5 minutes of unamplified improvisations featuring bongos, dumb harmonica, mouth noises, Roy’s moans and onstage nonsense that the crowd finds really funny (but we can’t see). Eventually, the full band comes back in for a very brief, comedic performance of God Bless America, that leads right into the cymbal-y intro to King Kong. It’s a monster take with solos from all our lead players. Motorhead takes the first spot (between the first and second themes), followed by Frank, Ian and Don. They play the second theme again, Bunk blows a hot solo, and a reprise of the main theme ends the jam and with it the first set. The stage tape resumes at the tail end of Frank’s solo, misses about 45 seconds of Ian’s solo, and then continues until partway through Bunk’s solo (the stage tape is unfortunately spotty from this point on).
After a short intermission, The Mothers return with some tweaky, sax heavy, conducted improvisations. There’s about a minute of this, before a smooth transition into Trouble Every Day. These two performances are mostly from the audience tape, but the very end of the improv and the very beginning of Trouble are on the stage recording. Frank sings all five verses, and plays his guitar throughout. He solos between the 4th and 5th verses, tells Motorhead to blow his harmonica, and then solos again (while Motorhead does what he’s told). This isn’t my favorite performance of this tune, FZ’s guitar is a little mellower than I think it should be for this song, but it’s still a nice jam. Frank fades out the tune, and Don comes in with some calm keyboard improvisations. Then, out of nowhere, Frank starts Absolutely Free! He plays a really slow, instrumental take of the chorus of the tune, and the rest of the band joins in for the ending chugging instrumental section and the final repetition of the chorus. This then leads into a long section of free improvisation, starting with some pretty sax/flute improv. They then suddenly stop and somebody (Motorhead?) starts poorly playing like a thumb piano, or maybe some small stringed instrument (FZ: “So sensitive I can’t even stand it….. Work baby, work…With your teeth”). After this Frank cues the swing ditty, and Bunk sorta plays part of the old standard There’s A Small Hotel amidst the nonsense. Don then plays Rockabye Baby, someone burps, they all scream, and we’re thrown into the chaos of the ⅝ riff. Frank starts the Absolutely Free chorus again (over the ⅝ sax improv), which is followed by a crash and more flute music. It somehow turns into dumb-swing again, and Frank croaks out “later that night…”. He then attempts to get the band to play Teddy Bears’ Picnic (you can hear him yell the title and sing the tune), and they sorta play it? It kinda ends up sounding like a royalty free version of Teddy Bears’ Picnic, but definitely not the actual song (you can actually hear Roy laugh and say “what?” in response to the pseudo-performance). Anyway, this doesn’t last long before the ⅝ riff returns, and we’re thrown into more random drum improvisations (FZ: “put your pants back on…”). This somehow segues directly into the iconic Oh, In The Sky, one of FZ’s dumbest songs ever (which is why I kinda enjoy it). The stage recording captures the first quarter of the tune, we then switch to the audience recording for the bulk of the song, and the stage tape returns a few seconds after it ends. After this rancid little doo-wop song, Frank introduces “a long instrumental piece called The String Quartet”. He goes on to say that “it’s got nothing whatsoever to do with a string quartet, but i’ll tell you in advance, it does however have a lot to do with rhythm changes and conflicting time patterns.” He warns the audience that they probably won’t want to dance to it (“We make no claims whatsoever for the soulful content of our music”) and they play a very cool Pound For A Brown, with an interesting mid-tune improv section that includes weird deconstructed quotes of Oh No and Transylvania Boogie. Frank ends Pound with a solid, rockin’ guitar solo, and leads us into Sleeping In A Jar. It’s a standard take of the theme, with the regular screaming Roy improv in the middle, but once they finish the composed parts of the String Quartet, Don briefly plays some peaceful keyboards, before Frank calmly announces “ladies and gentleman, Mr. Don Cherry”! Don comes out and plays some very haunting music on an African flute (or flutes?), and after a couple minutes Don P. comes in with a cool syncopated vamp, and Ian begins to solo over the new riff. Following this, Don C. comes in on trumpet, and plays his signature style of free jazz for a couple minutes (though it’s unfortunately kinda distant on this recording). Eventually Frank takes over and solos for a little bit, before transitioning into a regular, dissonant Octandre to conclude tonight’s whacked program (the stage recording cuts off two minutes before Sleeping In A Jar ends, and the rest of the show is from the audience recording). Frank quickly brings the music to a stop, says goodnight, and leaves. The stage recording is pretty nice, but it can be kinda jarring to hear it switch back to the mediocre audience tape so many times. Despite that, this is a really great concert. Frank said that they were going to put on a more experimental program on this night in Copenhagen, and it shows. It’s not exactly the most easily accessible Mothers Of Invention show, but that’s exactly what they were going for. I don’t listen to this show a whole lot, but when I’m in the mood for weirdness (or Don Cherry!) it hits the spot. So if you happen to be in the mood for weirdness too, go ahead and check this one out!
1968 10 06 – The Beat Club, Bremen, Germany (Soundboard B/A+)
This recording comes from a 1970 German TV program, called “Liederliches”, and the entire 80 minute performance is available on video. Don’t get too excited though it’s far from perfect. The first 50 minutes are from a pre-broadcast version of the recording, which has moments with significantly worse sound (the mix is garbage, and the music will just drop out completely at points). Both the pre and standard broadcast recordings are in black and white, but for the actual broadcast version they gave the film a yellow tint. The video is… okay. There are some cool shots here and there, but they do this dumb, “trippy” editing where they overlay two shots on top of each other, and it usually only succeeds in making it impossible to tell what’s happening. The show starts with a long soundcheck/tuning, where some of the band tunes up, while the other member filter in and out to fuck around and/or eat from the food tray the production team brought out. There’s a lot of noodling here, with bits of Dog Breath and Oh No played. After about 11 minutes of this, they go into some pleasant improvisations, not quite a jam, but pretty far from the standard conducted nonsense. Frank plays a very chill guitar solo, while the twin drummers provide a steady beat. After a little while FZ cues the ⅝ riff for a bit, and then directs the start of a drum duet, This then morphs into some classic MOI improv, with conducted percussion, droning horns, “yee”s, and vomit noises. Don says something that, because of the off-mix, we can’t hear, someone plays the radio, and Motorhead drinks water into the mic. Frank then abruptly starts a boogie shuffle, with nice guitar, but again with numerous dropouts and an awful mix. The people in the studio love it, because when The Mothers start the boogie a ton of people appear on screen to dance. After a little while it turns into a sax jam over the ⅝ riff, that’s ultimately pretty unlistenable due to the recording. In the last minute or so it turns into creepy solo keyboards, which transitions into one of The Mothers spoken word events. Frank introduces “Donald Ward Preston, our piano player”. and lets us know that “he has a bit of a dental problem and he’s here to discuss it with you.” Don rambles about complete nonsense (“And not only that but, often times, sometimes when you don’t know exactly what’s happening it often goes some other way that you can’t exactly explain and not only that but it keeps turning around all the time and it’s going around and around and you just don’t know to say anymore…”), then Motorhead comes in to talk about something in his nose (“Maybe I could reach it if I use my other finger…”) and Roy cries, moans and swears in Spanish (“chingate…mierda…. caca….”). FZ cues the ⅝ riff yet again, and segues into more goofy improv for a little while. Eventually, Don sucks on a lemon, gets slapped with a piece of meat by Motorhead and the music swells and swells before we get a fire transition into King Kong! Motorhead takes the first solo (like normal), but his sax is once again basically inaudible, and the recording gets unlistenable again too. They play the second theme, and Frank rips into his guitar right as the theme ends (though Don’s keys are the most prominent thing for a good chunk of FZ’s solo). Ian plays a solo after the head Mother (and drops the Gardner Varieties lick), and Bunk blows his horn after him. While all this is happening, Motorhead is fucking around with dolls and other toys in the front of the stage, and after 12 minutes Frank cues more weirdo improv, with Ian dragging a coin and a wig across piano strings, all while Motorhead gets “made up as a girl”. It turns into another mellow guitar jam, with some very nice flute playing from Bunk too, that is until Frank cues the ⅝ riff again. This eventually becomes a weirdo-sax ballad (with a very perverted Blue Moon quote), before Frank cues a reprise of the secondary theme of King Kong to end the monster performance (the broadcast tape starts with the second theme repeat, and the sound quality improves with it). After this, they briefly play some creepy keyboard/percussion improv, before segueing into a fairly standard performance of The String Quartet. There’s some woodwind improv in the middle of Pound, and Frank plays a short guitar solo after the theme, which quickly heads into Sleeping In A Jar. Roy and the band moan in the second tune (like always), and Frank plays another sadly short (but hot) solo in this song too. This leads into some cool, jazzy keyboard improv from Don, which then morphs into another chill, reflexive and pretty jam, with more tasty guitar and sax throughout. They cool back down to just keys again (this time Franks playing!), and we have a lovely transition into Uncle Meat. Don corrects Frank on a time signature (which is mildly surprising to see) right before they transition to Uncle Meat. Don’s performance is fairly sloppy, but this is the first known live performance we have so who can blame him. The saxes do well with the theme, and Motorhead puts on this weird mask while they play. This eventually morphs into a Gas Mask-type improv, with moans, screams, vomit noises, snorks, and Frank repeatedly groaning “colita” (which is Spanish slang for ass). The drummers then begin a march-like beat, and Frank begins to slowly play the famous prelude to Act III of Wagner’s Lohengrin. They then switch to a dumb-but-fun, conducted, one-note-at-a-time performance, and following this Frank starts Let’s Make The Water Turn Black (a rare stand-alone performance, extracted from The Orange County Lumber Truck Medley). He ends this performance with a blues walkdown, and a segue into Octandre. This chaotic performance of the Varese piece ends the show, which overall is somewhat of a mixed bag. There’s some really great moments throughout the show, but it’s not exactly the best single sitting listening experience. The second half is better than the first half, but it’s mainly because of the terrible mixing/quality of the pre-broadcast recording. It’s a little bit of an indulgent show too, I think the smaller audience of a live-in-the-studio performance lead them to try out more improvisations here, but it’s just a little too unstructured for my taste (they first composed piece is King Kong, a full 28 minutes into the recording). In the end, this is a very solid show, with a lot of highlights, but the subpar sound and unfocused nature (not to mention the poorly edited video) stop me from coming back to this show frequently. Still think it’s worth a listen for the 60s fan, just don’t have the highest hopes.
1968 10 10? – TV Studio, Paris, France (TV A)
At some point in October (most likely on the 10th), The Mothers performed for the French TV show Forum Musiques. This performance (like the Essen King Kong) is captured on very nice black and white film, and is very tastefully shot. We have about eight and a half minutes of music, starting with some weirdo improv from the middle of Pound For A Brown. It starts with Roy going ‘deedledeedeldeedleley” (no better way to describe this), and after a second Bunk starts to play Teddy Bears’ Picnic. They pop back into Pound not long after this, and Frank plays a hot but short guitar solo (Maybe Frank was a little camera shy on guitar in the 60s?). After this they move into Sleeping in a Jar, and we get a solid performance of the theme. Frank cues The Mothers to blow raspberries in the middle of the tune (which cracks the band up), but there’s unfortunately no post-theme improv in this performance. After Sleeping In A Jar, they go right into a great take of Octandre that ends the set (I always love the MOI’s take on this piece). It’s unknown how much more of this performance there is. Frank claimed that they played for 15 minutes (which would be about the right time if they hypothetically did some opening improvisations and the first part of Pound For A Brown), but a later TV report said the video was extracted from a 45-minute performance, meaning they played closer to a full set. Despite being a fragment, this is a very nice performance, and it’s captured on a very enjoyable video. Not something I return to all tube time, but It’s well worth a view and a listen for any original MOI fans.
1968 10 16 – Sportpalast, Berlin, Germany (No Available Recording)
There is no available recording of this show, but it’s such a historic night I felt it deserved mention. Frank was approached by some “student rebels” who wanted him to endorse their plan to burn down the NATO Command Headquarters around the corner. Frank told them he had no intention of doing such a thing, and told the student he “had bad mental health”. The Mothers proceeded with the show, but the crowd immediately revolted. Multiple people rushed on stage, while many others threw things at the band, including rocks, eggs, paint, and even the fences enclosing the area). There were altercations throughout the show, but the Mothers did play for the full two hours. This event is also what led to the title of the piece Holiday In Berlin, as well as the lyrics to the tune (heard on 200 Motels and 1970 live recordings). Frank gave the band Christmas presents in 1968; each Mother got a bronze medal with the engraving “Berlin Survival Award 1968”. You can read Frank’s (and other’s) recollection of the events in Berlin here. I’m not sure what they played that night, and I don’t know if Frank recorded this show, but I would absolutely love to hear it if he did.
1968 10 20 – Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands (Soundboard A-/B+ & Audience B-)
The Mothers return to Amsterdam for one of the best shows of the tour, and it’s (largely) captured on a very nice soundboard. There’s also a mediocre audience tape that fills in what’s left off the better recording (mainly the pre-set announcements and the final 15ish minutes of the show). The night starts with some intro announcements from the Dutch emcee, followed by Frank announcing “the beginning of our teenage program for this evening”. They tune up, and FZ starts the program with a massive crash, followed by some classic, zany MOI bullshit. Roy giggles, we hear horn honks, Roy cackles and screams, and after a couple minutes Frank joins in on the moans. He then cues a goofy swing vamp, and introduces our keyboardist “ Dom DeWilde! Here to sing his new hit single… I can’t give anything but bullshit in Amsterdam”. Don/Dom gets up to ramble about “the simple noises that can be made with the oral edifice of the face”, which means he screams, makes some popping noises, and blows some raspberries. They continue with the swing vamp, with more weird mouth noises and snorks overlaid by the whole band (while one of the saxes, probably Bunk, quotes the old show tune The Smoke Gets In Your Eyes). These are some ridiculously fun-but-dumb improvisations, and one of the best examples of what The Mothers could do (in my opinion). After about six minutes, Frank cues the ⅝ riff, and with it brings the return of the classic tweaky keys/drum improv, which acts as the perfect segue into Help I’m A Rock. We get a great, moody take of the Freak Out tune tonight, and it ends with some great jamming from Frank and the saxes. This, like always, segues perfectly into Transylvania Boogie, which features a long, lovely solo from FZ following the theme. After this piece of mellow guitar heaven, we’re led into a fun, but overlong, drum duet (I assume with Jimmy and Art, but Frank is maybe in there too, or possibly instead of Jimmy). Then, without stopping, we’re led into an awesome improvised jam, with great boogie-type solos from Ian and Frank, and when they wrap up, we get a fantastic, crazy-satisfying transition into Dog Breath! It’s an excellent, lovely, instrumental take of the tune, and one of my favorite moments from 1968 (this is unfortunately the only live performance of this song from the original MOI). They finish the tune with an abrupt stop, and Frank announces a short intermission.
When they return, Frank talks to the crowd about something at the start of their second set, but it’s only on the audience tape and I can’t really make out anything of substance (something about “assisting the emotionally disturbed”?). The soundboard tape returns for Frank’s intro to the String Quartet, which he describes as a tune with “harmonic combinations that are biting and stringent, [along with] rank dissonances [and] terrible sounds to show how we feel about people who boo and become disturbed when we enter the playing arena.” They play a great version of the piece, with another lively solo from Frank at the beginning of A Pound For A Brown. It immediately leads into part two of the String Quartet: Sleeping In A Jar. It’s an incredible performance, and truly one of the best Jar jams out there. This take has less vocal nonsense in the middle then usual, but there’s a little bit of conducted vocal craziness as the theme ends to make up for it (I guess). They start the dumb swing ditty for a couple seconds, before returning to the ending chord of Sleeping In A Jar, and Frank kicks off his fiery solo. He plays for a long time, and then hands it off to Ian, who hands it off to Bunk, who then passes the torch to Don to close off the fantastic jam. As things wind down, Frank starts playing the Sleeping In A Jar theme, and the whole band joins in on a slow reprise. As Frank conducts the final notes, they nearly slow to a complete stop. Someone screams, Motorhead drops his tambourine, and they finish off the tune with a big crash. It leads into more improvised vocal craziness, which is usually listed as Gas Mask (it’s always hard to draw the line on what is a “Gas Mask” and what are improvisations that heavily feature Roy). Roy moans a lot, Frank moans a little, and the whole band seems to participate too (just more in the background). FZ stops to comment that “Ever since we went to Germany he’s been that way” and goads the audience with a “I bet you’re wondering what’s going to happen now!”. Roy moans “Chinga tu madre”, which is “Fuck your Mother” in Spanish, and Frank cues to full band to yell “Everything’s gonna be alright!”, right as they head directly into another great Orange County Lumber Truck Medley. Ian plays a short but fiery solo in Oh No, while FZ plays variations on the “in your dreams” section of the tune underneath him (the opposite of the usual arrangement). In the full blown Orange County, Frank starts us off with a sick jam, but the soundboard unfortunately ends near the beginning of his solo (and the audience tape is unfortunately missing a few seconds right after this transition too). Don plays a cool solo after him, and when he finishes Frank announces that “conveniently, we happen to be in the key of F#. It also is the opening key of a song called Brown Shoes Don’t Make It. We’re going to uh, attempt to transition into this piece of music now, but we’re warning ya, we haven’t bothered to practice this song in a couple weeks. It’s quite possible that it’ll sound like a piece of shit live in person, but we’ll take that risk…”. They play the first known live performance of this insane song, and even though it’s not very different from the album version, and the recording quality leaves a lot to be desired, it’s still a treat to hear. Ian plays a short-but-nice sax solo at the tail end of the tune, and this brings the show to a close. Frank returns one more time to say a final goodnight, and based on this, it seems to me there was probably no encore at this show. I love this recording, it’s easily one of my favorites from the original Mothers, due to song choice, sound quality and above all, the performances. Especially Frank, who was just totally on fire tonight. Others must agree too, because two songs from the soundboard (Dog Breath and Pound For A Brown), were featured on the bootleg and Beat The Boots disc Electric Aunt Jemima. Once again, this is one of my favorite MOI shows, and anyone reading my rambling Zappa thoughts should absolutely check this one out.
1968 10 23 – BBC Studios, London, UK (TV A+)
The Mothers arrive In London and play a set live-in-the-BBC-studio for the TV show “Colour Me Pop” (though the video was likely shelved, and later first aired as part of “Late Night Line Up”). It’s a tight, half an hour set, captured on color film. The quality is nice, but they almost never focus on what you want them to (i.e. they film Motorhead playing tambourine during most of Frank’s solo). The gig starts off with some tuning, soundchecking, and a practice version of Frank’s spoken introduction. FZ does a little more adjusting, says another intro and cues a huge crash to start us off. They quickly go into tweaky drum improvisations, and Frank announces that The Mothers are “going to do some of the things that they’ve always wanted to do on TV, and some of the things that they do in their everyday lives on the road, here in Europe.” They then switch to insane screeching sax, followed by a brief section of the ⅝ riff, and then the goofy swing theme. Frank then announces that they “heard about how people in this land like traditional jazz… and this is sorta a nifty little number with a lilt, a little lift, a little swing to it”, before making a sick transition into the main event: King Kong. Motorhead starts us off with his usual crazed baritone sax, and Frank plays a solo following the second theme. FZ’s solo is fantastic, easily his best from the videos available on this tour, and the horns play the Gardner Varieties for a section of it. Don and Bunk each play nice solos next, then there’s a repeat of the second theme, and Ian takes a solo over the slower King Kong vamp (in its first known appearance). He plays for a while, before Frank returns for a brief fiery solo, during which Don Preston drinks some vile foamy liquid and begins his transformation. The band devolves back into tweaky improv, and Frank announces: “ladies and gentleman, Dom DeWilde”. Dom/Don comes up to the mic and proceeds to snork for a few minutes, and after this Motorhead takes over while Don goes to lie down in a bed that was brought on stage. Roy cackles while the keyboard player lies down and proceeds to scream into a mic held over him. They then quickly return to the slow vamp, and Ian returns to solo as if nothing happened. Meanwhile, Motorhead picks up Don and carries him back to his instrument. Ian solos for another minute or two before Frank says goodnight and stops the band (Motorhead: “Is that it?” FZ: “That’s it”). I’m not sure exactly how it connects with the King Kong performance, but the Mothers also played Oh, In The Sky at the BBC Studios. “Roy dedicates the song To “Tencha(?), Nacho, and Decha(?)”, and his insane crooning ends the video and the gig as far as I can tell. We actually have a little more audio than video. The most complete video (which is also the most commonly circulating) starts right after Frank says the thing around the band doing what they want to on TV, and puts Frank’s second spoken into after King Kong, but before Roy’s intro to Oh, In The Sky. The video leaves a little to be desired in terms of who the camera focuses on, but overall it’s an enjoyable watch. That coupled with the excellent sound quality and the fun, lively performance, make this a half hour worth checking out!
1968 10 25 – Royal Festival Hall, London, UK (Two Shows – Audience B+/B & Soundboard A-; Partial Official Releases From Both Shows)
click here to listen to the officially released recordings
click here to listen to the unofficial tapes
The Mothers performed two very unique shows in London at the tail end of their time in Europe. Both the early and the late show begin with a long orchestral suite/pseudo-improvised play which has been sorta unofficially titled “Progress?” (after Don’s initial utterance). The Mothers are augmented by 13 members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra for this performance; 12 musicians and a conductor. After this 30ish minute opening event, The Mothers took an intermission and returned for a more standard rock-band set (for a more detailed analysis of Progress? and the orchestral elements of these concerts, see my first page on Frank’s live classical projects here). We have a few different available recordings and permutations of this material. Unofficially, there is an audience recording of the entire early show and we also have a short soundboard recording of a late show. Frank had these shows professionally recorded and filmed, and he released a few different edits of the material (mainly covering Progress?). The largest amount of official material comes from Ahead Of Their Time (AOTT), which contains an edit of the two shows into one hybrid concert. Frank also worked on another totally different edit of the material in the 80s, which was released on Mystery Disc (MD), and on this album we get a slightly shorter presentation of Progress?, with a number of different editorial choices. Frank also released video of the program on his VHS movie Uncle Meat, and to a lesser extent, The True Story of 200 Motels. A breakdown of Frank’s different edits of these shows can be found on Information Is Not Knowledge here. An edit was also intended for the unreleased History And Collected Improvisations Of The Mothers Of Invention, but this album unfortunately never materialized.
There are two audience recordings for the early show, one that covers the entire first concert, and another that covers the second half (without the orchestra). The longer tape is a little more distorted, the shorter one is clearer but more distant, so pick your poison. Either way the early show starts with a performance of Progress?. Frank did not use the Prologue or the title track from the early show on any release, but he did use the majority of the early show’s performance. The second half of Like It Or Not and the beginning of The Jimmy Carl Black Philosophy Lesson on Mystery Disc come from the early show. The first half of Holding The Group Back is from the late show (on both versions), but then the rest of Progress on Ahead Of Their Time is from the early show (So Holiday In Berlin, The Rejected Mexican Pope, Undaunted The Band Plays On, Agency Man and the Epilogue). The released Epilogue is fairly edited, Frank cut out a whole repetition of the piece, almost halving the length. Frank thanks the members of the BBC orchestra, and the tape cuts out. It’s nice to have a complete performance of Progress to compare with the official releases, but the mediocre sound quality makes it very hard to make out most of the dialog, and therefore I almost never listen to the opening segment of the early show recording.
The orchestra members leave the stage, and The Mothers tune up their instruments for a more “regular” show. The taper is messing with his equipment for a good chunk of the intro, making the banter on stage very hard to make out (Frank says something about an enema), but we do get to hear FZ’s direct into to the second set: “This is for the folks at the American embassy, and for the folks who are occupying the university, and for the people in Berlin, who gave us such a warm reception at our concert there, last but not least, it’s for you!”. He cues a huge crash and throws us into two minutes of classic, wild MOI improvisations. Frank released part of this improv as the end of the Epilogue on Ahead Of Their Time, and he released another chunk on Mystery Disc incorrectly titled “Original Mothers At Fillmore East” (Frank shouts mid-improv “Please, won’t somebody go to bed with Jimmy Carl Black. A desperate Indian if ever I’ve seen one!”). The piece starts crazy, stays crazy, and transitions into a monster King Kong, which is partially available on AOTT. Motorhead goes first, and Frank, Ian and Don fill out the main body of the tune (though FZ edited out these three solo’s from the official release). There’s a repetition of the secondary theme, and then Bunk plays a solo over the slow vamp. Bunk’s jam segues directly into some famous improvisations: Roy’s insane meltdown later released on Weasels Ripped My Flesh as The Prelude To The Afternoon Of A Sexually Aroused Gas Mask! Don plays a bit of Tchaikovsky’s 6th amidst the ending snork madness (as heard on the release), and seconds after it cuts to a different performance on Weasels, Frank rips into a great take of Hungry Freaks Daddy. It’s a standard but fiery take, that leads right into an excellent Mr. Green Genes. Bunk, Don, Ian, and Frank each play a hot solo, and following the piece they move right into more free improv. The final chord of Green Genes and the following minute of drum improvisations are edited onto the end of Transylvania Boogie on Ahead Of Their Time. Without stopping, they begin a lovely take of the String Quartet. Tonight’s Pound For A Brown is fantastic, Frank plays a great solo, and the entire performance (surprisingly unedited), ends up on AOTT. They (as always) segue into Sleeping In A Jar, which is unsurprisingly edited on AOTT. For the album Frank removed all improv from the piece, taking out two minutes from the middle of the tune (including parts of the theme and all the group vocal improvisations), and FZ’s three minute jam off the end. Anyway, Frank plays a red hot solo, which is what eventually brings the first show to an end. A very fun concert, but unfortunately the audience tape is not ideal (but still listenable), and the officially released songs on Ahead Of Their Time cut out some of the best parts!
We don’t have a full recording of the late show, but we do have a nice sounding partial soundboard available, and Frank released a handful of sections across the many available edits. The unofficial soundboard cuts in on some loud, crashing keyboard improvisations that quickly turn into random drum noises, before Frank directs the band to play Uncle Meat “one note at a time”. My guess is they played Uncle Meat at its regular tempo, then improvised for a bit, and that’s where the recording starts. Anyway, they very slowly play through all of Uncle Meat, and when they finish we get some solo horn improvisations from Bunk, with some goading from Frank (“Remember there’s our places(?) after the show ladies and gentleman… Don’t let that gray hair fool you, he’s really very young… And he gives good head!”). Following this there’s a huge crash, the goofy swing cue, and some Gas Mask-type improv (“sing a song boy!”). Frank joins in with Roy’s moaning after a little while, and this of course segues into a standard, dumb-but-funny performance of Oh, In The Sky. Once they wrap that shlock up, they head directly into an excellent Orange County Lumber Truck Medley! In fact, it’s the performance that the Weasels Ripped My Flesh Orange County guitar solo comes from! The full medley was also released on Ahead Of Their Time with a much better mix/master. Frank did cut out a small segment from the end of the Oh No jam on the official release, but the bootleg isn’t entirely complete either, a short section of Lets Make The Water Turn Black is edited out for some reason). Frank plays hot solos in Oh No and the titular song, Bunk follows him in Orange County (quoting King Kong in his solo) and Don finishes it off. The tune ends somewhat abruptly when Frank tells the crowd: “I’ve been informed that when the guy comes out that beats the gong we have to stop playing, because the subways around here shut down early…. Nighty night”. We have a few other officially released segments from the late show. Frank released a short clip of what’s most likely the opening lecture for the second show on Mystery Disc (“Mothers Of Invention have spent many long hours in rehearsal trying to perfect their musical technique which they hope that you will enjoy, but if you don’t enjoy it, go fuck yourself”). The full Progress? suite was played again at the late show and Frank released some parts of it too (most notably with the Prologue, the title track, the first half of Like It Or Not, all of the Jimmy Carl Black Philosophy Lesson and the first half of Holding The Group Back [based off the AOTT edit]). Also, Help I’m A Rock/Transylvania Boogie was played at the late show, as Frank released the themes on AOTT, but they’re very likely edited because every other performance ends in a long jam (Transylvania Boogie cuts directly into improv from the early show, also a longer edit of Help I’m A Rock is available on the bootlegged “Artesian Acetate”). And finally, the last 45 seconds of King Kong from AOTT come from the late show too (there’s an edit on the album right after the segment used in Gas Mask). Overall these are very historic, excellent shows, but there’s currently no perfect way to listen to them in their original form. Ahead Of Their Time offers a great edit of the two shows into the length of a single show, but loses a lot of the improvisations that made these performances shine. The audience tape of the early show is a fun listen, but so much of it is available in better quality on the official release that I don’t listen to it often, even though I prefer the complete performances. Hopefully someday we’ll see an official release of both complete shows from this night, maybe with some of the Mothers other 60s UK gigs! [Additionally, check out Information Is Not Knowledge for more precise comparisons of the available recordings for these two shows, and check out my first page on Zappa’s classical works here for a deeper analysis on the orchestral elements from these shows.]
1968 10 26 – Olympia, Paris, France (Soundboard A+)
The Mothers hit Paris for the final date of their European tour, and it’s captured on an absolutely fantastic soundboard recording. We unfortunately only have the first set, but I’m just happy we have anything from this great show. The recording cuts in on a fun jam, right in the middle of an Underwood sax solo. After about 90 seconds Frank comes in with a sick solo, and plays for a little while, before delving the band into chaotic conducted improv (with lots of drums, tweaky keys, and the ⅝ riff). This only lasts for about two minutes, before Frank returns on guitar to continue the jam. Said jam concludes for good with some more modulated sax whaling from Ian (I think?) and a very quick transition into King Kong. Motorhead of course takes the opening solo, which is concluded by the second theme and in the main body of the tune we get hot solos from Frank, Bunk, Don, and Ian. Bunk plays a bit of the Gardner Varieties, Ian quotes Octandre, and the monster tune wraps up with a repetition of the secondary theme. They immediately move into some Gas Mask-type improvisations, with wild vocal screams from the entire band (minus FZ), but it’s quickly ended with a crazy smooth segue into the one and only Plastic People. Frank sings the tune, we get a few “you gotta go”s, and Frank brings the band down behind him to talk to the crowd about their English comprehension (“I’m told that most people in the audience don’t speak English. How fortunate you are.”). FZ says that they’re going to “stop this bullshit right now and tune up so we can play some music for you”, but someone starts screaming while they tune, which confuses Frank (“Freaks?… What’d that guy say?… Oink? Eat? Clean? Now you just relax and cool it.”). He then goes on to announce that it’s their last concert of the tour, and that they’re going to “rid [them]selves of five weeks of European frustrations” live on stage. He laments about Parisian toilets and German toilet paper, ending with the unforgettable quip “may the Lord have mercy on your hole.” Frank then introduces and performs a great take of “a song about mothers and fathers in America”, Hungry Freaks Daddy. It’s a solid, standard take, and afterwards Frank stops again to announce the next tune, “a song now, with which it will be impossible for you to identify”. FZ wrongly assumes the French crowd has never heard of Captain Kangaroo, gets excited when they do know of the kid’s TV show, and proceeds to give a long talk about Lumpy Brannum, the actor who played Mr. Green Genes (“He goes around after Captain Kangaroo and helps him do experiments for the children. And every time he attempts to do something, it always fucks up, and he’s just an idiot on this program!”). We get an excellent take of the Uncle Meat/Hot Rats tune, with lovely solos from Bunk, Don, Ian and finally Frank. According to FZShows someone drops a quote from the Rite of Spring, but I can’t hear where. After this Frank announces that it’s the end of their first set, and our recording comes to a close. The horns have some problems tonight (someone audibly squeaks during the themes in King Kong and Plastic People), but that’s the only complaint I can think of. This is a lovely, lovely show, and easily one of the best of the tour (both performance and sound quality wise). Check this one out for sure!
The Songs Played:
Absolutely Free – An instrumental version of the We’re Only In It For Money tune arises out of keyboard improvisations in Copenhagen. Frank starts the tune by playing a very, very slow, embellished version of the title line of the tune (“You’ll be absolutely free/Only if you want to be”). The full band comes in when he repeats the phrase, and after this Don improvises for a bit. Frank then slowly heads into the instrumental/scat section right before the end of the tune, and they finish with a final repetition of the title melody. This is followed by more strange improvisations for a few minutes, with quotes from Richard Roger’s There’s A Small Hotel and the nursery rhyme Rock-a-bye Baby. Eventually they hit a point where there’s whaling sax over the ⅝ riff, and Frank decides to play the melody the the title line of Absolutely Free on top of it. Once they finish, they quickly delve back into more improv, including a somewhat failed attempt at the popular song Teddy Bears’ Picnic. This whole performance is usually listed as the “Absolutely Free Medley”, but what it really is a series of different free and conducted improvisations connected by bits of that Absolutely Free theme. This is, unfortunately, the final time the song is known to have been performed (and we only know of two other times).
Brown Shoes Don’t Make It – This disturbed epic is played pretty much as heard on Absolutely Free, with a couple of minor variations. Roy sings some extra “Baby, Baby”s over the instrumental section of that chunk of the song (4 times live vs 2 times on the album), There’s an extra little vamp right before the “do it again and do it some more” verse, and there’s a sick Ian Underwood sax solo over the post-“city hall” instrumental section. In place of the orchestral chaos to finish the tune, we get a new, composed instrumental ending (much later heard on Tinseltown Rebellion). In the one performance we have from Amsterdam, Frank claims they haven’t practiced it in a while (there is video of them soundchecking to tune in Essen), and we get a slower take of the tune, which makes the whole thing feel a little more dramatic. We only have one other live performance of this song from the original Mothers, so it’s well worth checking this one out (even though the sound quality of this particular recording is lacking).
Dog Breath – An instrumental performance of this timeless Uncle Meat tune appears out of a fiery jam in Amsterdam. The best comparison would be with the single version (now available on Meat Light), but without the laughs and lyric-less singing. This tune, the preceding jam, and the segue between them are all delightful. A fantastic little ditty, and one of the best moments from this era.
Help I’m A Rock/Transylvania Boogie – This Freak Out classic is, surprisingly, a regular number in the latter half of 1968, connected with the Chunga’s Revenge track Transylvania Boogie. Frank “sings” the tune, over the simple, creepy beat while the other Mothers offer perturbed freak vocalizations. He’d typically play around with the lyrics for a bit (“help I’m a cop”, “help I’m the mayor”, etc.), and after a little while he’d begin to play Transylvania Boogie over the Help I’m A Rock backing beat. The horn section quickly joins in with FZ and we get a lovely rendition of the theme, and when they finish the head they launch into a long, fantastic, middle-eastern style jam. These jams seemingly had a random combination of soloists in each performance. Don and Ian solo in Vancouver, and Don, Frank and Bunk jam in Copenhagen. Frank plays the only solo in Amsterdam, and the take is also notable for containing a little sax/guitar jam between the two tunes. Part of the London performance was released on Ahead Of Their Time, but these takes are almost certainly edited, as they contain no improvisations. To end the medley they would always segue into some free improv (usually drum heavy). This is an awesome medley, really only performed by this era of the band, and another excellent reason to check out recordings from this period.
Holiday in Berlin – This beautiful melody from Burnt Weeny Sandwich returns on this tour, and was originally known by the title Shortly. We have one performance from this era (the last from the original MOI) from Vancouver. All the parts from the album version are there, but the intro (Theme A1) is a little less embellished and there’s some weird percussion riffs over it too (click here for a table breaking down the segments). Also, the repeat of Theme B is played straight, not in an exaggerated RnB style like on the studio album, and in both performances from this era, the final written line is performed much, much quicker (AKA the last line of Theme D, which is actually played twice in its entirety). After the theme, Frank plays a tasty solo over a proto-version of the Inca Roads vamp, and once he finishes, we get a saxophone duet from Bunk and Ian and a keyboard solo from Don to round out the piece. These are very enjoyable performances of a too infrequently played tune. I think Frank perfected this song with the studio version, but if you’re a fan of that performance, you’ll enjoy these live takes. [Oh and also, Theme D of this tune is “sung” by Roy in London as a part of the mini-opera Progress.]
Hungry Freaks Daddy – “This is a song about mothers and fathers in America, and their attitude towards their children when their children have long hair and funny clothes, let’s hear it for them!” This classic Mothers tune continues to delight in ‘68, and was essentially performed as on Freak Out. The big exception being that the “great midwestern headwear store” verse is played like a swinging lounge tune and the second part of the guitar solo is replaced by an instrumental take of the lounge version verse. I believe Don is singing along with Frank, but that’s just my best guess. Frank replicates the lick in the middle of his solo from the studio take (heard about 1:35 into the song) in every performance. Finally, the live ending is a little more fanfare-y then the album, with three dramatic repetitions of the ending phrase instead of one standard one. A very cool version of one of my favorite of FZ’s more straightforward rock tunes.
Improvisations/Jam – “Improvisations” refers to the weird, creepy and perturbed improv The Mothers could burst into at any moment. “Jam”, typically refers to more structured, but still improvised, jazz-rock jams (for lack of a better word), that aren’t connected to any larger song or composition. The 60s were fantastic years for structured and unstructured improv, with regular calamity occurring in nearly every show, possibly connecting any two songs. There’s often screeching sax noises, tweaky keyboards, snorks, and wild drum rhythms that could change at any moment with hand signals. FZ could also cue a number of different musical ideas with these hand signals at any time, like the ⅝ riff later heard on Didja Get Any Onya off of Weasels Ripped My Flesh, or that goofy swing ditty frequently heard on these tapes. The Mothers would also frequently reference or quote other tunes in these larger jams/improvisations, like how one of the sax’s plays a bit of the old show tune The Smoke Gets In Your Eyes in the opening madness at the Amsterdam show. These improvisations were almost always instrumental, though Frank could cue a large number of different vocal noises out of the band with hand signals. High pitched peeps, vomit sounds, snorks, moans, laughs, raspberries, you name it. These vocal hand signals were introduced early in the year, but they really take off once Ray leaves the band. Roy also emerges as a vocalist on this tour, frequently screaming, moaning, and cackling on command during group improvisations. A great example of this was released on Weasels Ripped My Flesh as the Prelude to the Afternoon of a Sexually Aroused Gas Mask. Because of this, any screeching, chaotic improv featuring the voice of Roy Estrada is frequently listed as “Gas Mask” (The released take on Weasels comes from the London early show, and features a bit of Tchaikovsky’s 6th). Frank could also cue members of the band to all talk and tell different stories on top of each other, as heard on the Vancouver show (as The Rewards of a Career in Music) and the Bremen show (as Don Preston’s Dental Problems). I’ll break down some of the most interesting free improv moments here. The Vancouver show has specific names for its improv, given by Gail Zappa. The Rewards of a Career in Music, was already mentioned, but The Importance Of An Earnest Attempt (By Hand) refers to the opening conducted improv from the show (and Frank’s attempt at conducting the audience), and Flopsmash Musics refers to some classic, tweaky MOI improv. The Copenhagen show has some excellent free improv. There’s a long stretch of free improvisations characterized by bits of Absolutely Free and other songs (see its song entry for more info), and there’s also a long chaotic, improvised piece that Frank titled “Bongo Madness”. It’s a long, bongo heavy, piece of unamplified craziness that ends in a totally goofy take of the first verse God Bless America, played very loud and with the proper disgust. Overall, this is a tremendous tour for improvisations, so much so that it’s easily one of the defining features of this band and era of Frank’s work.
King Kong – “The Legend Of King Kong. A story about a large, electric gorilla“. This Uncle Meat classic returns once again on this tour, and makes a fantastic vehicle for extended jams. The Mothers play the perfectly composed intro and follow it with a long jazz-rock jam where really anything can happen. Various band members solo depending on the performance, with the rhythm section providing a very steady beat and FZ conducting the band along the way [See the solo chart below for a breakdown on the individual takes]. Each performance starts with some fantastic jungle-y percussion (cymbals, big drums, a gong, etc.) before crashing into the iconic main theme. This always creates a fantastic segue from the previous tune and sets the perfect tone for the long jam. Starting in September, Frank adds a secondary theme to the piece. This chunk of music was originally played on its own in 1967, but it worked its way into King Kong right before the European tour. It’s a cool, swinging piece of music that fits the tune perfectly. Motorhead would always take the first solo after the main theme, and after his crazed baritone sax solo, they would play the secondary theme. FZ would occasionally cue the secondary theme again between two solos, and if he does he’ll do it after the fourth solo following the main theme. To end the tune Frank would sometimes cue a repetition of the first theme, sometimes the second theme, or just stop playing and end the set. They frequently segue into improv after an ending repetition of a theme, and in London they segue right from Bunk’s solo into some Gas Mask type madness. I’ve decided to count these as standalone improv rather than parts of King Kong (mainly for the sake of categorization), but there is a solid argument to be made that these improvisations are a continuation of the larger jam. The frantic sax riff from the “Gardner Varieties” can also be heard on a couple performances from this era, typically (but not exclusively) played by Bunk. Additionally, Frank introduced a slowed down version of the classic King Kong vamp near the end of the tour. It’s used for the final solos for both of the London performances, and will occasionally pop up in the monster tune over the next year and a half. Overall, each performance is uniquely terrific, and this is just one of the many reasons to collect as many tapes as possible from the 60s.
Lohengrin – The Mothers play the recognizable prelude to Act III of Wagner’s 1850 opera to end some chaotic improvisations at the Bremen show. Frank conducts a weird, strict, march-esque riff from the drummers, then starts to slowly play the tune, and saxes quickly join in after him. They play through the piece once (very slowly), before Frank stops the band and deconstructs the tune even further, instructing The Mothers to play it note by note, meaning he would point to a musician, they would play one note, and then point to another for the next, changing the tempo and instrumentation on the spot (he does the same thing with Uncle Meat in London). They finish the performance by quickly segueing into the next tune. A great example of the band mutating and twisting an existing song into something new and interesting.
Mr. Green Genes – Frank announces this tune by its name on Uncle Meat, but in reality these are actually performances of Son of Mr. Green Genes from Hot Rats, as there are no vocals and these takes always contain a long improvised jam in the middle. In London and Paris, The Mothers play a lively version of the theme, solo for a while, and then return to the theme to close us off. Ian, Don and Bunk (in some order) would solo first, and Frank would finish off the jam with a mean guitar solo. These are always very spirited performances and they just might be my favorite live version of this song. Seek these out if you consider yourself a fan of Hot Rats.
Octandre – The mutilated fuzz tone version of the Edgard Varese classic. Frank and the boys play the first 16 bars or so of this piece that heavily inspired Frank. The tune was always played as a final number of the main set, providing an excellent, chaotic ending. After playing the theme the band would usually play variations on the theme at various tempos and/or kinda fall apart, otherwise they would just end the piece. Octandre was frequently quoted in improv and jams by Frank and to a lesser extent the rest of the band (Though there isn’t a whole lot of this in this era, the only example I found comes during Ian’s King Kong solo in the Paris). A defining tune from the original Mothers, and one of my favorites.
Oh, In The Sky – Here we have yet another doo-wop parody, but this one is an FZ original, featuring Roy Estrada on lead vocals. The only words to this little ditty are “oh, in the sky” in the first half and “Nite Owl” in the second half (a reference to the 1955 Tony Allen song). Roy screams the lines out over a simplistic doo-wop progression for a couple minutes to the horror of the audience (but to my demented delight). A surreal but hysterical moment whenever it shows up.
The Orange County Lumber Truck Medley – The classic instrumental medley returns in late ‘68, popping up at least three times, in Vancouver, Amsterdam and London. The songs featured in the medley, in order, are Let’s Make The Water Turn Black, Harry, You’re A Beast, The Orange County Lumber Truck, Oh No and The Orange County Lumber Truck again. The horns carry the melody for all four pieces, and without Ray Oh No is lyric-less once again. Between repetitions of the ending “dreams” section of Oh No, Frank would typically play a tasty guitar solo, and as he begins to wrap up, Bunk and Ian would asynchronously play the “in your dreams” theme under Frank (In Amsterdam we kinda get the reverse, Ian solos in Oh No, while Frank plays the “dreams” theme while the straight member of the group jams). After this they head into a reprise of the Orange County Lumber Truck, and following the reprise the band goes into a long jam with a number of other solos until Frank decides the tune is over [check out the solo table below for a breakdown on what happens in each performance]. There’s no set ending to the jam; when Frank decides they’re done with the tune, he simply signals the band to stop and/or go into the next piece. At the Bremen show, we get a very rare, standalone performance of Let’s Make The Water Turn Black, but the arrangement is exactly the same here as when it’s a part of the medley. Also, Frank released Harry You’re A Beast on its own on Mystery Disc, but is just an edited clip from the larger medley. No matter the performance, this is an excellent arrangement of some of Zappa’s most celebrated compositions, and a treat for years to come.
Plastic People (Louie Louie) – FZ and The Mothers could (and would) burst into Louie Louie at any moment. Frank (from what I can infer), had a career-long, love-hate relationship with Richard Berry’s famous tune, and every permutation is sorta halfway between a tribute and a parody (The song was a regular request from drunk patrons in the MOI’s early bar-band days, along with Caravan with a drum solo). In Paris, at the end of some Gas Mask-type improvisations, Frank starts the iconic chords to Louie Louie, and then sings the lyrics to Plastic People! Now it’s important to note that the Absolutely Free version of Plastic People is a completely different beast, and has very little connection to how the tune was normally performed. The live version of Plastic People is a direct parody of Louie Louie; the only thing distinguishing the two songs are Frank’s lyrics. He sings through the entire tune, throws in a couple extra final “you gotta go”s and announces that “we’re gonna stop this bullshit right now and tune up so we can play some music for you.” At least one other Mother sings along with Frank during the choruses (certainly Roy, possibly Don and/or Motorhead). Louie Louie (and by proxy, Plastic People) is an absolute staple of Frank Zappa’s work as a whole, and these 60s shows have some of the best available examples.
A Pound for a Brown On The Bus – This timeless Uncle Meat instrumental first appears to the world at large in this era. The Mothers play a beautiful version of the tune that actually kinda sounds closer to the first half of the take titled “Legend Of The Golden Arches” from Uncle Meat than the track with the piece’s actual title. This song was always played preceding Sleeping In A Jar, in a medley titled The String Quartet (the two songs were actually written as one piece with this title). The tune starts with the crazed woodwind intro heard on the studio album, and Frank plays a mellow, subdued version of the opening line on guitar. The horns then take over the theme, and after one entire repetition of the piece they segue into a tweaky, yet pretty woodwind duet from Bunk and Ian. We get one more quick reprise of the main segment of the theme (at least I think of it as that), before Frank launches into a tasty guitar solo. Some of his best playing of the 60s comes from performances of A Pound For A Brown, and he always concluded these guitar jams by cueing the start of Sleeping In A Jar. At the earliest known live performance of this piece in Vancouver, Frank had not yet added the woodwind dual section to the arrangement. A great tune, and along with Sleeping In A Jar, one of the defining pieces of the era.
Progress? – This is an improvised play performed by the Mothers in London, with musical assistance by members of the BBC Symphonic Orchestra. The music known at the time as “Music For The Queen’s Circus”, mostly consists of pieces that would later be worked into the score for 200 Motels (like What’s The Name Of Your Group? and much of the music even later incorporated into Bogus Pomp), but the event also includes other Zappa compositions like Holiday In Berlin and Agency Man of all things. The music is interspersed with amusing, improvised sketches from The Mothers, but they’re a little more interesting to watch then they are to listen to. The play was performed twice at the two shows in London, and Frank released at least four different combined edits of the two performances: two audio versions on Ahead Of Our Time, and Mystery Disc, and two video edits on the Uncle Meat movie and The True Story Of 200 Motels. For a more detailed analysis of the music, see my page of Frank’s live classical performances in the 60s and 70s here, and please see the fantastic Information Is Not Knowledge for more information on this than I can possibly summarize.
Sleeping in a Jar – This era marks the first live appearance of this Uncle Meat tune, and surprisingly, it’s one of the Mother’s biggest and best vehicles for jams and improvisations. We get a majestic (though at times mildly comedic) instrumental take of the piece, which was always preceded by A Pound for A Brown in a medley known as The String Quartet (the two songs were actually written as one piece with this title). It’s a pretty wildly different performance compared to the album version, and one I strongly prefer. There’s a new, crazed 20 second intro, and it’s followed by three partially lovely, partially whacked takes of the theme. They slow to a crawl for the “mom and dad are sleeping” section and play in a loose, lounge-y style and Frank would then conduct the ending “sleeping in a jar” line note by note. Between the second and third takes of the theme, there’s a new frantic woodwind bridge that’s unique to the live performances. For each successive repeat of the titular line, Frank would further deconstruct the tune, conducting more and more vocal and instrumental madness out of the band. Additionally, over the course of the era the mid-song abstract improvisations tend to get longer (There’s barely any at all in the first known performance from Vancouver). At the end of the first two repetitions, Frank would play a little bit of guitar, but after they play the theme a final time, he solos for real, and frequently leads us into an awe inspiring jam, or some mesmerizing improvisations. The piece typically segues into something else, but it ends cold in London, and there’s a slightly impromptu reprise of the theme post-jam in Amsterdam. In the earliest performance from Vancouver, the piece had not yet acquired its ending jam. There’s no long improv on the Paris TV special either, but that’s more likely due to time (though I suppose the Vancouver take could be like that too). The Copenhagen and Bremen take’s feature more abstract jams, while the Amsterdam and London performances are more melodic. Frank takes the only solo in London (and we get a shorter overall performance), and jazz trumpet legend Don Cherry sits in with the Mothers during their performance in Copenhagen! There’s no boring performance of this tune from this era, and it’s another great reason to listen to recordings from this band (and the ‘69 band too!).
The String Quartet – This title refers to the medley of A Pound For A Brown and Sleeping In A Jar, which were written as one piece. The two songs were always played together in the 60s, but they have very distinct feels. Frank always introduced these songs as The String Quartet in 1968, never by the Uncle Meat names, but since that’s how they’re better known, I’ve given them each separate song entries.
Trouble Every Day – This Freak Out classic shows up a few times on this tour, basically in the same arrangement as on the album, but with significantly more soloing. Frank sings whatever lyrics he wants, rarely performing the whole thing. In Vancouver, there’s a cut after the first verse and chorus that takes us right to the fifth verse, so it’s not known how much was sung, but in Copenhagen he sings the entire tune (except for the rarely performed “I’m not Black” line). There’s tasty bursts of guitar and/or harmonica after every chorus, and each performance from this era ends with a guitar solo from Frank and a harmonica solo from Motorhead. If FZ ends the lyrics with “Blow your harmonica, son!”, the solo order goes Motorhead then Frank, but Frank goes first if he leaves off the exclamation (though he happens to yell the phrase on both performances we have from this era). The Copenhagen take is a little different from the norm, Frank plays a shorter solo between the 4th and 5th verses, and in the true solo section, he solos concurrently with Motorhead (and continues to play after Motorhead finishes). No matter the performance, this song has exceptional lyrics (some of Frank’s best and most poignant), and always produces a worthwhile blues jam.
Uncle Meat – This classic Zappa title tune first appears on this tour, possibly debuting in Bremen. The theme is played three times, once on alto sax, once on keyboards and again on both, before delving into improv and chaos. The tune also pops up out of improvisations at the London late show, where FZ instructs The Mothers to play the tune “one note at a time”, meaning he would point to a musician, they would play one note, and Frank would point to another for the next, changing the tempo and instrumentation on the spot (he does the same thing with Lohengrin in Bremen). I think it’s likely they played the tune normally before this, but the recording we have cuts in on the improvisations. This is a lovely tune, one of Frank’s most memorable melodies.
Solo Table:
Life On The Road 