Overview:
People claim the Italian tour in 1982 is the best two week period in FZ’s career, but I think these Australian dates might have them beat. In June 1973, the Mothers leave the US for a 10 show tour of Hawaii and Australia. The singular date in Honolulu has no unofficial recording (and unfortunately, newspaper reviews make it seem like a really hot show), but all nine of the Australian shows are available and a riot from start to finish. The band is incredibly tight from months of touring the US and is clearly in a great mood down under. The setlists consist of some of Frank’s finest instrumentals (Dog/Meat, Dupree’s Paradise, Farther O’Blivion, Big Swifty etc.), his most memorable rock songs (Cosmik Debris, Montana, The Yellow Snow Suite and Inca Roads) and some fantastic rare cuts (Eat That Question, Zomby Woof, Fifty/Fifty etc.) and they’re played by what’s arguably his most talented set of musicians. It’s hard to say if the band as a whole is more talented as soloists or as performers of Zappa’s compositions. Frank is equally split between band leader and band member here, my favorite division of his two roles. Two shows even feature guest appearances from Australian singer Barry Leif performing a hot rendition of Road Ladies. The Mothers played a night in Brisbane, three shows in Sydney, three more in in Melbourne, one in Adelaide and another, final date in Sydney. FZ, I believe, recorded all of these shows and I’m hoping we get a massive box set release of them in the near future. Though, what we have available now still provides a solid capture of these fantastic performances. These shows are, unfortunately, the final time that Sal Marquez would work with Zappa; It’s been said Frank fired him for asking for a per diem after the Pacific tour. If this is truly the case, I think this is one of the worst decisions Frank made. Rashly firing your collaborator of over a year after a single conversation is ridiculous, and while I love the European shows, Sal’s presence is definitely missed. Besides that future misstep, the Mothers time on the Australian continent is a highlight of the decade and Frank’s career.
The Band:
Frank Zappa – Guitar, Vocals, Blues
Jean-Luc Ponty – Violin, Jazz Aura
George Duke – Keyboards, Soul
Ian Underwood – Woodwinds, Keys, Speed
Bruce Fowler – Trombone, Chest Cold
Ruth Underwood – Percussion, Jerkin
Ralph Humphry – Drums, Subtlety
Tom Fowler – Bass, Excellence
Sal Marquez – Trumpet, Lounge Music, Lust
Recordings Available:
1973 06 21 – Festival Hall, Brisbane, Australia (Audience B/B+)
The first show of the Australian tour is this solid show from Brisbane, which Frank dubs “Bris-Bun”. FZ’s in a good mood throughout, regularly talking to the audience and the band. He tells Sal to “leave those girls alone” and tune up and then alerts the audience that there will be no strangled rubber chickens, no whipped cream and no brown ale out the orifice of the chicken tonight, but that there will be “something else”. The soundcheck/intros for these shows are typically long, but I always listen to them because of Frank’s humorous chats with the band and audience. The show opens with the Dog/Meat medley and the band continues for two hours of beautiful, jazzy music. Nothing crazy on the set list, just this band’s regular hits (Montana, Cosmik Debris, Duprees, Yellow Snow etc), but excellent takes all around. Frank delivers a funny, Australian themed Mar-Juh-Rene and Farther O’Blivion really stretches out, featuring a great tango with quotes from Montana and St. Alphonzo’s/Rollo. The show proper wraps up with a hot RDNZL and we get a typically wonderful Green Gene’s Medley for an encore. The tape sounds pretty good, a little quiet and/or distorted in parts, but overall still very enjoyable. This is a solid, lively show and a great sign of the days to come.
1973 06 24 – Hordern Pavilion, Sydney, Australia (Soundboard A-/Audience C+)
This excellent show is captured on two recordings: an exceptional soundboard and a comically bad audience tape. After a combined 16 minutes of crowd noise, tuning and amusing introductions, the show begins with an absolutely wild Dupree’s, and George’s introduction to the tune steals the show. Frank brings more players in while Duke jams and they all just freak out. Really great stuff. The tune itself is a standard performance for the era, with nice solos from Jean-Luc, Bruce and Frank. The expected level of excellence continues for the next hour of music. Dog/Meat, Fifty/Fifty, Cosmik Debris and the cocktail version of Inca Roads all follow in fantastic quality. After this is the Sydney premier of the Yellow Snow Suite. It’s the fantastic version featured on the official release Crux of the Biscuit. Farther O’Blivion follows this, but after a few minutes the SBD tape cuts and we’re left with the incredibly cruddy audience tape. There’s a few gaps patched with it in the soundboard portion, but they’re thankfully all short. Farther O’Blivion is a nice performance, with now regular psychedelic variations on the theme of the tango from the majority of the Mothers after Bruce’s solo. Following this Frank and company return to the stage and Frank teaches the audience some hand signals to be used in the following blues jam/free improv. Frank also decides that they’ll play the Be-Bop Tango on top of these blues changes too. The result is a really fun jam, but one that’s hard to enjoy due to the rancid sound quality. The show ends with a standard Green Genes Medley, that of course sounds muffled, hissy and atrocious. Despite the disappointing last 50 minutes, this is still a great bootleg and should be checked out.
1973 06 25 – Hordern Pavilion, Sydney, Australia (Soundboard A+/A)
This show is very similar to the last, which is a very good thing. Frank lets us know that they are working in “World War I conditions” because the PA System is being run on a generator and they have no spotlight so they’re playing in the dark, but despite all this they play another fantastic show. Like the last show we have an insane amount of recorded crowd noise, tuning and introductions (18 minutes! Why record so much crowd noise?), before starting the show with a very nice Australian Dupree’s Paradise and great takes of Dog/Meat and Fifty/Fifty. There’s a brief intermission blues caught on the audience tape (because they had to turn off the generator), before the main show resumes with Cosmik Debris. Inca Roads is next but the tape unfortunately cuts and about 80% of it is missing from the soundboard recording. And like the last show, there’s a terrible audience tape to patch it with. The rest of the show is the regular excellence we’ve come to expect with great takes of Montana, the Yellow Snow Suite (“How fast do you wanna do it?” “So fast now that you don’t even want to know about it”) and another far out Father O’Blivion. They leave the stage, they come back on stage and they perform a fantastic Green Genes Medley. It’s the best recorded take pre-October, and features an exceptionally fantastic Chunga’s solo. This is an awesome tape, one of the best of this era, and has almost everything you could want from this band.
1973 06 26 – Hordern Pavilion, Sydney, Australia (Audience B/B+)
This is a very solid show. The recording is pretty muffled but still listenable. Frank and crew were having monitor problems throughout the show, but it didn’t affect the performances. The concert opens with another wonderfully jazzy Dupree’s Paradise, followed by a high energy Cosmik Debris and a melodious Dog/Meat-Fifty/Fifty medley. After this we get a rare and delightful Big Swifty followed by another charming Inca Roads. Montana comes next with a classic FZ solo, before a weird synthy segue into the Yellow Snow suite. The suite proper has two false starts (“we’re recording this folks”) before it truly begins. We proceed like normal until someone blows off a firework during Father O’Blivion. Frank stops the song to tell the police to kick him out, and then proceeds to dedicate every letter in Mar-Juh-Rene to this one stupid fan. We get the regular segue into Farther O’Blivion, and the tape cuts at the start of Ponty’s solo. Another bummer is that this show is confirmed to have featured Barry Leef, so he must have come out after the tape cut. Far from the first date I’d recommend from this tour, but it has its highlights.
1973 06 28 – Festival Hall, Melbourne, Australia (Audience B+)
Another great show from the Mothers down under. FZ makes it clear that it is absolutely freezing in the venue and humorously complains throughout. The concert opens with a short soundcheck and another solid Dupree’s Paradise. Cosmik Debris is next, and it’s the first of the tour to have a rotation of solos. Dog/Meat and Fifty/Fifty follow, with a fun quote from In The Mood at the end of Sal’s solo. Montana starts insanely fast and “Ruth is tired tonight”, so she makes a mistake. They end up playing the tune comically slow so Frank can here “every fucking 16th note”. A really fun take, probably the slowest montana ever performed. After this Frank feels he needs to have them play at least part of the tune normally, and has the band repeat the post-solo section at normal tempo. He then makes each member play that section at different speeds, kinda like a perverted in the round. An enjoyable Inca Roads in next, followed by a lovely Yellow Snow. This is the final performance of the suite in this form. The Alphonzo repeat starts with some very amusing banter (“ready to go for the world record? faster than you don’t even want to know about…”) before proceeding at breakneck speed. A very funny Mar-Juh-Rene follows, with references to knirps (for moisture), and the US government. Farther O’Blivion features its now standard, tweaky tango variations and this show’s is even better because it includes quotes from Holiday in Berlin and an in progress Echidna’s Arf! The Green Genes medley closes the night, in splendid fashion. Another great show that should already be in your collection.
1973 06 29 – Festival Hall, Melbourne, Australia (Audience A-/B+)
This is a great, great show. Probably the best sounding audience tape from the tour and one of the most unique nights of the year. Dupree’s Paradise opens the show and George’s intro is so soulful, it inspires Frank to lecture about how blues was discovered by early Australian settlers. The start of this show has a very unusual set list order (Dupree’s, Dog Meat, Montana, Fifty/Fifty), which is just fun to hear after multitudes of Dupree’s following Montana and Dog/Meats ending with Fifty/Fifty. A tremendous Big Swifty follows with Sal, George, Frank going nuts for 15 minutes. At the end of Frank’s solo he starts the Eat That Question riff and proceeds to whip out an awesome take of that tune too! After they finish Eat That Question, Frank cues the ending of Big Swifty, encapsulating one song within the other. Cosmik Debris is next, with more regular solos from Jean-Luc, George and Frank. I’d prefer longer solos, but it’s nice to have some variation. Ponty, I find, always does great in Cosmik Debris. Frank then declares: “It might not be practical, but I want to play more blues tonight”. We get a fantastic meters-esque blues jam starting with a hot sax solo from Ian, before surprise guest Barry Leef, who Frank saw playing in a local band, comes and improvises some nonsensical love lyrics and Frank returns to play a wildly hot blues solo. George comes in next, Ian honks a hot modulated sax and Jean-Luc of all people plays a vibraphone solo. Frank plays a bit more and then Barry returns to sing Road Ladies! and it’s much more enjoyable than his earlier vocals. Frank plays a short solo and the chords to the song between some verses and Leef finishes the tune. A very cool, bluesy performance. After this, some rabid fan screams for the Mudshark, and Frank decides to poll the crowd. It’s about 50/50 so he decides to segue from the Mudshark into Farther O’Blivion, well the tango cause the tempos will match better. We get an exceptionally jazzy Mudshark with an extended story about the legitimacy of the song’s claims and some really funky keyboard riffs from George, miming the “we go out”s the Turtles used to sing. At the end Frank gives the Mudshark dancing lesson (with examples) before a bizarre segue into Farther O’Blivion Part II AKA the Be-Bop Tango. A standard, great performance of this tune brings the night to a close. Highly, highly recommend this show. Probably the best of the tour. “Come see us again on Sunday!”
1973 07 01 – Festival Hall, Melbourne, Australia (Audience B-)
“Tonight ladies and gentlemen, it’s freezing again”. It’s the Mothers’ final night, and despite fixing the problem two days earlier, the stage is cold once more. They’re gonna play for us though and we get a regular soundcheck intro. Ruth plays a little bit of the Idiot Bastard Son during this, which is fun, but before I go on I should mention that this is easily the worst sounding tape of the tour, and it unfortunately does occasionally impact it’s enjoyability. The show will start with Dupree’s Paradise, and Frank tells George to do a funky one, like the other day. He even promises not to talk through it. A typically great Dupree’s follows, and after that we get a nice Cosmik Debris with hot solos from Ian, George and Frank. Unfortunately, the tape cuts out during Frank’s solo, but it resumes during the beginning of a somewhat rare Big Swifty. Fantastic as always, and we even get a bass solo in this take. The ending theme cuts out a little early too. Next is a very fast Montana, probably to counteract the extra slow one two shows earlier. Nice solo as always. It segues into another excellent Inca Roads, but Sal’s vocals are very hard to make out. Dog/Meat is next and the ending of course cuts into the start of the next song: Farther O’Blivion (unfortunately, this is the only Pacific show where Dog/Meat isn’t followed by Fifty/Fifty). After this we get a short bit of crowd noise before a cut to what I believe is the encore: the Green Gene’s medley. Nice solos as always, and the show closes on an especially hot Chunga’s Revenge. Overall a fun show, but hard to recommend because of sound quality. The cuts also bum me out because they remove all the banter between songs. Completionists only (but it’s worth it to be a completionist for 1973).
1973 07 04 – Apollo Stadium, Adelaide, Australia (Audience B+; with many B- Patches)
This show opens with Frank announcing that he’s drinking some Coca Cola “The American Wine” in honor of the Fourth of July before the regular soundcheck intro. The intro is really amusing, and Frank mentions that they have to keep the show tight so no local politicians come and turn off the electricity to the venue if it gets too late. The show starts with RDNZL, Frank announces it as the “old-fashioned version”, but I’m not sure what he means by that because the 74 version definitely wasn’t written yet. This is followed by the standard Dog/Meat with the very last Fifty/Fifty performed. Next up are some great takes of tour regulars, Cosmik Debris, Montana, Dupree’s (with a “luxurious and succulent introduction by Mr. George Duke”) and Inca Roads. All fantastic, no complaints, just great music. The show ends with a hot Big Swifty, with Ian wonderfully starting off the solos. For the encore Zomby Woof returns to the fray after a many month absence and it’s as fun as ever. Overall this show sounds very nice, there are many hissy patches throughout but they’re rarely distracting. There’s very little stage chat between songs, probably because of the aforementioned elected officials, but the fantastic performances more than make up for it. A solid contender for best show of the tour. Listen to this one.
1973 07 08 – Hordern Pavilion, Sydney, Australia (Audience B)
“Our grand finale concert in Australia”. Yet another excellent show, captured on a solid recording. This show begins with a doozy, the premier of the reworked Don’t You Ever Wash That Thing, still very much in progress. A very fun on stage event, even with the shaky-ness. (See song entry for more detail). Next we get another rare song: a nice take of Zomby Woof (also the final performance of the tune for 9 years). Following this is a long and exciting Duprees (nearly 30 minutes) with a sick bluesy intro. Frank then brings back guest singer Barry Leef for another fun take of Road Ladies. He quickly teaches the band how to play the tune (I assume the other take(s) were completely spontaneous) and Barry belts it out. Frank plays a fiery hot solo and this ends the experimental portion of the show. The night closes with great performances of Inca Roads (the last take with Sal), Cosmik Debris, Farther O’Blivion and finally the Green Genes Medley. A great show and a fun end to this leg of the tour. “It’s a treat to play in a hall that’s hot”. It’s also Sal’s final show with the Mothers and a great one to end it on. Check this night out.
The Songs Played:
Big Swifty – Played at four of nine shows, this Waka/Jawaka opener always led to magnificent results. The composed sections of the piece are largely unaltered, except for differences in instrumentation. On this tour the piece is shorter than the studio take, but still filled with fantastic jazz-riddled improv from Frank’s A-class musicians. Each performance features a wonderful, different, slew of solos and includes some conducted improv from FZ. The “typical” version would feature solos from Sal, George and Frank, but Tom gets a solo in the two Melbourne performances and Ian (on sax) replaces Sal in Adelaide. In the June 29th performance Frank segues into a majestic Eat That Question in the middle of this tune, and even finishes Big Swifty afterwards. Also, on Waka/Jawaka there are more solos following the closing themes, but here the tune ends immediately following the second composed section. An excellent monster song.
Cosmik Debris – This tune appears pretty much as it would on Apostrophe(‘), complete with an excellent guitar solo. Frank must have been getting a little bored with this tune because he changes the solo order mid tour. Starting after the first Sydney run, Jean-Luc and George each play a solo before Frank’s. At the final Melbourne show Ian solos (on sax) instead of Jean-Luc. I typically feel when Frank is the sole soloist in this tune there’s more energy to his guitar work and it elevates the song overall, but the performances on this tour are so fun I’ll give them a pass. Also, not sure exactly why, but I feel Jean-Luc always really delivered in this tune.
Dog/Meat (incl. Exercise 4, Dog Breath, The Dog Breath Variations and Uncle Meat) – An amazing medley and one of the best pieces from this ensemble. It starts with Exercise 4, (which is some moody chamber music from the beginning of the Uncle Meat Variations on Uncle Meat) and then goes into a jamming instrumental version of Dog Breath. This second tune features two short fantastic solo spots for Jean-Luc to show off. He pretty much always plays the same thing in these spots, like in a number of his solo spots on this tour, but it’s a really excellent addition to the song and almost always gives me chills. This then goes into the Dog Breath Variations and then Uncle Meat, like what was played on the Grand Wazoo tour and what will be played on the 74 tours. This medley almost always segued directly into Fifty/Fifty. The one exception is the final Melbourne show. There’s very little improv in this tune, but it’s just so perfectly composed and performed that I listen to it pretty much every time it comes up.
The Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow Suite (incl. Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow, Nanook Rubs It, St. Alphonzo’s Pancake Breakfast, Father O’Blivion and Mar-Juh-Rene) – What’s probably Frank’s most famous song takes Australia on this tour. Most of the component songs debut similar to what’s heard on Apostrophe, but there are some extra parts to the extravaganza. The title tune is the most different. It starts with a frantic intro involving Midnight Sun played ridiculously fast, and the tune itself has a more upbeat bouncy feel, with backing vocalists singing “no, no don’t eat it”. A really fun rendition, but the studio version captures the feeling of “trudging across the tundra” much better. Nanook, Alphonzo and Father O’Blivion follow virtually unchanged on the album, but immediately following O’Blivion we get a sped up repeat of St. Alphonzo’s, and when they hit “where I stole the margarine” they slow to a near stop and George begins playing some soulful background music, while Frank admonishes the margarine, and proceeds to spell out “Mar-Juh-Rene”, giving significance to each letter, including hyphens (Ex. M is for Marsupial). Once Frank finishes spelling, the fur trapper’s sight comes back and we get a brief jam where Frank sings “I stole the mar-juh-rene, I admit it I did it”. Frank then repeats the lyrics to Father O’Blivion over the same beat. After this, Frank ends the story stating that, in a daze, the disgraced father turns to the horrified crowd and tells them to “join the march and eat my starch”. This is immediately followed by 30 seconds of insane music later used in Greggery Peccary, immediately before the steno-pool section, and then Farther O’Blivion. These are wild fun performances, but Frank probably made the right choice honing it down to the four tracks on Apostrophe. Frank sings lead on nearly every tune, but Sal takes Father O’Blivion. Frank would riff at the end of Nanook and the second Father O’Blivion adding details to the story where he pleases. These performances are the last, and greatest, takes of the original Yellow Suite and really, a joy to be heard. If you want to hear just one, the version on Crux Of The Biscuit is pretty perfect, though I think there are more entertaining Mar-Juh-Renes out there.
Don’t You Ever Wash That Thing? – “We used to play it one way, but then we changed it”. This tune reappears on the last night of the tour, in a state somewhere between the Petite Wazoo and the Roxy and Elsewhere versions. The tune starts like the 72 and early 73 arrangements (the first 90 seconds of the Roxy take minus the silence/drum breaks between phrases) followed by a hot Underwood sax solo over the Roxy solo vamp. After this we get a repeat of the theme with the drum breaks. Jean-Luc forgets the first bar of silence and messes the band up, leading Frank to restart the section (“that’s the point I was worried about”). The tune is still missing the first bridge and in place of the Penguin in Bondage bridge, we get a short unique marimba cue. After the second composed section we get a nice solo from George and a hot solo from Ralph. Ralph’s actually on fire through the whole song. The tune then ends with two performances of the coda heard on the Roxy version, with a variation on the phrase between the two repetitions. A very strange but very interesting version of one of FZ’s best compositions.
Dupree’s Paradise – Another classic of the 1973 and 1974 bands. This tune would become a true monster improv song by the end of next year, and it grows in strength over every tour. In a regular performance we get a jazzy, funky and/or soulful piano introduction from Mr. George Duke, often with conducted improv from Frank and a short solo from another Mother, before George takes us into the beauty that is the theme of Dupree’s Paradise. Following this we get inspired solos from Jean-Luc, Bruce and then Frank over a spacey, jazzy vamp. Bruce doesn’t solo in Brisbane and Melbourne (on the 28th) and Sal takes his spot on the final Sydney date. Frank gives a short lecture over George’s intro at the second Melbourne show. Not quite the beast from following tours, in my opinion the more solos in this tune the better, but it’s still a great time. Often played as an opener or following Montana.
Eat That Question – This Grand Wazoo classic appears once on this tour, in the middle of the second Melbourne show’s Big Swifty. Frank starts playing the tune during his solo in said song and the rest of the band joins in with the main theme and, strangely, the coda of the song. Frank continues with an incredibly hot solo, the band repeats the composed section, and follows it with the ending of Big Swifty! A really fun take and great example of Anything, Anywhere, Anytime For No Reason At All.
Farther O’Blivion – This classic tune reappears in April of this year. This song is actually the original form of three different pieces of music from Frank’s career: The Steno-pool section from Greggery Peccary, The Be-Bop Tango and Cucamonga. The tune starts with an instrumental Steno-pool and is followed by a beautiful violin solo from Ponty. Additionally, Frank would often play his guitar between the composed lines of the Steno-pool segment, creating a very pretty and calming soundscape. Following the violin solo, there’s then some unique transitional music between the first solo section and the astonishing Be-Bop Tango. Then, after the most insane tango known to man, we get an equally mind boggling Bruce Fowler trombone solo. This is followed by what I call the Be-Bop Tango variations, where each member of the band plays the theme of the tango at different tempos and with different inflections, creating a neat, psychedelic atmosphere. Finally, after all this, Ralph plays an always interesting drum solo and the tune ends with an instrumental take of Cucamonga. This piece would always follow the Yellow Snow Suite at the shows that feature both songs. When this is the case, the two songs were connected with a short section of wild instrumental music called Join the March and Eat My Starch (later heard in Greggery Peccary). At the second Melbourne show, the tango emerges out of the end of the Mudshark and continues as normal. These performances are always out there and wonderful, even if Ponty’s solo rarely changes from night to night.
Fifty/Fifty – Performed as an instrumental, this Overnite Sensation song is one of my personal tour favorites. This tune was only ever played immediately following the Dog/Meat medley, though the Uncle Meat songs were played on their own at the final Melbourne show. Performed as an instrumental and with a funky improvised keyboard intro. The theme is one of Frank’s best and Ralph’s excellent March-esque drumming never fails to delight me. By this point Frank had the soloists locked down; each performance featured, in order, Sal, Ian and George. Ian would typically play a flute solo, the exception being Melbourne show #2, where he plays sax. A great tune that unfortunately disappears from setlists forever after this tour.
Inca Roads – This One Size Fits All masterpiece still has a way to go until the version we know and love. This tour’s take opens with a cocktail lounge introduction played by George and crooned by Sal. The swanky beginning adds the familiar lyrics to the piece and totally changes the feel of the song to a goofier, sleazy vibe. After this there’s a quick segue to what is basically heard on the Lost Episodes, an instrumental rundown of just the main theme (“did a vehicle”) followed by essentially the post-guitar solo section of the One Size Fits All version. In what would become the second solo spot we get two great solos from Sal and a second Mother (Usually Jean-Luc, sometimes Ian or Bruce). Sal would often humorously ad lib at the beginning of the tune, singing a lounge standard (incl. Fly Me To The Moon, I Left My Heart In San Francisco and I Wanna Be Around) and/or introducing George and Frank. These performances are always fun to hear and a highlight of this band.
Improvisations/Jams – “We’re just going to make something up”, and boy are they good at it. At two shows on this tour the Mothers crank out some great free jams. During the first Sydney show, Frank harkens back to the 60s and conducts the audience during the ensuing tweaky jazz improv/blues jam. The second Melbourne show also features another great blues jam, with solos from Ian, Frank, George, and Jean-Luc (on vibraphone!) that all go wild. Barry Leef makes a guest appearance too, improvising vocals and later singing Road Ladies. Many times on this tour, most often in Dupree’s Paradise, Frank would regularly cue the group with hand signals and various band members would play these quick descending scales, creating a very unique and interesting soundscape. Additionally, the spacey George Duke intros to Dupree’s Paradise are often listed as just “Improvisations” or “Duke Improvisations”, but I think they’re more of an introduction to Dupree’s. Overall, this is a great tour for improv, both structured and unstructured.
Medley: Son of Mr. Green Genes/King Kong/Chunga’s Revenge – This fantastic medley showed up early in the year and would continue to be played until December. It jams together three of the best instrumentals of the first chunk of Frank’s career with a different band member contributing a great solo in between each piece. Ian gets the solo in Green Genes, I assume harkening back to his role in Hot Rats. Jean-Luc and George get solos in King Kong (the first and third themes) and Frank wraps up the affair with a usually tremendous solo in Chunga’s before bringing us back to the end of Mr. Green Genes. To close the tune, the band would segue into a quote from Also Sprach Zarathustra followed by some fast percussion fills, then a blues walk down and a frantic Midnight Sun quote give an insane end to the medley. I love the performances of these tunes from 1973, yet another reason to return to tapes from this year.
Montana – This classic about a dental floss farmer is in top form on this tour. It’s played pretty much as on Overnite Sensation, but without the non-Frank sung lyrics. Frank’s solos are always hot and delectable on this tour, definitely worth a listen. Often followed by Dupree’s Paradise.
The Mudshark – “we’ve only played this once before”. By popular demand, the crowd in Melbourne wanted to hear the Mudshark, so Frank gave ’em the Mudshark. Probably the jazziest rendition of this tune there is. Frank tells the classic tale over a simple but fun blue/jazz vamp, and even includes some extra details about the validity of the story and how even normal people can enjoy a Mudshark. George’s instrumental “out, we go out”s are fantastic and FZ teaches the traditional dance to the Australian audience. Frank’s now ready to make an absurd transition into the Be-Bop Tango of Farther O’Blivion fame and while Frank brings the rest of the Mothers back on stage for the tango, Jean-Luc plays a funky little solo over the Mudshark vamp. An excellent end to a fun tune. The opening quote either refers to the Seattle 1972 take (no known recording) or an unknown 73 performance.
Road Ladies – This 200 Motels era tune shows up two (possibly three) times on this tour, each time sung by guest performer Barry Leef. His first performance, at the third Sydney show, is sadly missing from the available audience recording. The next take arises during the fantastic blues jam at the second Melbourne gig. Barry soulfully delivers the lyrics and Frank plays a brief but hot solo in the middle of the tune, followed by the chords of the theme. The Australian singer plays with the Mothers for a third and final time at the last Sydney show and performs a standalone version of the tune. Frank quickly teaches the band the song and Barry performs another great take. Frank and George each play a great solo. Barry continues, Frank jams some more and the song comes to a close. Two great takes of a rarely played tune.
RDNZL – This tune appears a couple times during the tour, but in a pretty different state compared to what appears on Studio Tan. Ruth’s beautiful composed solo hadn’t been written yet, and we get four shorter improvised solos interspersed throughout the song, from Jean-Luc, Frank, Bruce and George. It’s also missing the “We can share a love” swinging section and the Dupree’s Paradise lick ending heard on the studio take and 74 performances. On future tours, this short version of RDNZL would come at the end of the Dog/Breath Medley, but on this tour it’s played standalone. I think that these later takes are generally better because their placement at the end of the medley would usually pump more energy into this little song. Though I prefer the finished RDNZL, I have a soft spot for the 73 version. These performances are always energetic and fun, and rarely skipped when listening to a show, even if there are better takes out there.
Zomby Woof – This Overnite Sensation classic reappears on the last two nights of the tour. FZ sings the tune and delivers a hot guitar solo in the middle. A delectable treat at the shows it appears in. Top moments of the tour right here. I bet if Sal stayed in the group longer this tune might have become a regular number, sad but true.
Solo Table:
Life On The Road 