Overview:
Man, this is a fucking wild tour. There is just so much weirdness going on at all times. I think this is the tour of Frank’s with the most conflicting styles (with the possible exception of the 60s). This is a very transitional band. George, Nappy and Tom return from the legendary late 74 band, Bruce Fowler returns after nearly a year to find a wildly different ensemble and Frank has brought his old friend Don Van Vliet (AKA Captain Beefheart) along on this tour to bring his special brand of insanity (also because Don signed so many conflicting contracts that he couldn’t tour under his own name). Rounding out the group we have newcomers Terry Bozzio and Denny Walley. Terry brings a wild, angry, energetic sound with his drum kit (way different that the relaxed, funky style of Chester Thompson) and Denny Walley brings his delightful, bluesy slide guitar to the mix (he’s also an old acquaintance of both Don and Frank, they went to high school in Lancaster together). Because of these conflicting talents, there’s rarely a chance where every musician is playing in harmony, but they do each get their spots to shine. In terms of the setlists there are leftover tunes from the last few tours (like Stink-Foot and Montana), weird abstract poetry (lots of Sam With The Showing Scalp Flat Top), wild jazz rock jams (Pound For A Brown), crazy blues jams (Advance Romance), songs that showcase the Captain (Debra Kadabra, whatever you call that), fun straight ahead rock songs (Camarillo Brillo-Muffin Man, Carolina Hard Core Ecstasy), rare tunes never released (Portuguese Lunar Landing, George’s Boogie, Velvet Sunrise) and even more never played by other bands or played with unique only-on-this-tour arrangements. If you couldn’t tell, It’s definitely not the most balanced tour out there. There are shows where the Captain sings one tune in the whole main set, and other shows where Bruce or George get maybe a short solo each. That’s really my only downside, and since we’re not actually going to see these shows it’s not a major one. This band could really improvise, and most tunes give us a healthy dose of madness. Beefheart yells over solos (“chicken was never like this” from Bacon Fat is a big one), Frank plays hot licks intermittently throughout, everyone is consistently on fire. The blues energy this band wields is beyond words, and this is the last tour where Frank would regularly play long, really loose jams or complete “make something up” free improv. This tour also marks an end of a large period in Frank’s career. It’s the last tour with George Duke and (until 1988 for Bruce) the Fowler Brothers; three musicians who helped define the sound of the last few years of the Mothers. This is the first tour Terry and Denny play with Frank, and they would each come to leave major impacts on Frank’s music in the coming years. On the next tour in September, Frank would eventually fall into a regular setlist for each show, something he would stick with til the end of the decade. Finally, though Frank would tour under the Mothers moniker for another year, Bongo Fury is his last album of new material to be credited under the name. This is a seriously wild and entertaining tour, and it’s one of the last for a while where you truly don’t know what you’re gonna get until you listen.
The Band:
Frank Zappa – Lead Guitar, Vocals, Genre-Melding
Captain Beefheart – Lead Vocals, Soprano Sax, Harmonica, Madness, Shopping Bags
Denny Walley – Slide Guitar, Vocals, Whoopie-Ty-Yos
Napoleon Murphy Brock – Tenor Sax, Lead Vocals, The Cookie
George Duke – Keyboards, Vocals, Boogie
Bruce Fowler – Trombone, Fantastic Dancing
Tom Fowler – Bass, Also Dancing
Terry Bozzio – Drums, Moisture
Recordings Available:
1975 04 11 – Bridges Auditorium, Pomona College, Claremont, CA (Two Shows – Audience B-/C+)
click here to listen to the early show
click here to listen to the late show
“This is the brand new M.O.I, 1975 version, playing for you its premier concert of the 1975 season”. Frank’s clearly in a good mood tonight, he talks a lot and he’s ready to present this new band and their new material. The sound on these shows are very muffled, but they’re not the most heinous sounding recordings. They start with a fun Token Of My Extreme, which leads into a hot Stink-Foot. Up next is the first Carolina Hardcore Ecstasy, the text of which is for people “interested in sensual activities above and beyond the missionary position”. It’s a nice, slow take (though George misses a line and Frank has to quickly sing it) , and they go right into another new song, the Velvet Sunrise, which is really just a laid-back vamp that Nappy gets to improvise a story/song over. In this performance he talks about the lyrics to the last song for a bit, until he gets on the topic of nature euphemisms (”when you get to the end of that canyon there’s a forest… and there’s only one opening”). After this we get the triumphant return of A Pound For A Brown and Sleeping In A Jar! (AKA the String Quartet), with fine solos from Bruce, George and Frank. This goes into yet another new song: Poofter’s Froth Wyoming Plans Ahead, which is followed by the reworked Echidna’s Arf. George plays some excellent, tweaky, spacey keyboard riffs (with a couple quotes from Don’t Be Shy and Under Milk Wood and a reference to Ruth Underwood). This moves into a crazy excellent Don’t You Ever Wash That Thing?. The theme is pretty shaky, but the improv is excellent, especially the Captain’s insane soprano sax solo over the second half of the tune (“Don has been thinking… I wonder what will happen… when I play my soprano saxophone”). After this we’re treated to three more new tunes: Advance Romance, the unreleased Portuguese Lunar Landing (the entire band nearly forgets one of the last verses, but George saves them) and a mostly correct Debra Kadabra. All great takes, and a hot Florentine Pogen closes the main set. Up next is a crazy excellent set of encores. They return to play the Beefheart tune Orange Claw Hammer and follow it with a one-time performance of the nearly unknown tune George’s Boogie. Two really cool, rarely played songs They leave the stage again, but return for a second awesome encore of I’m Not Satisfied and Willie The Pimp. Now onto the second show, which is unfortunately captured in even worse sound quality. The setlist for both shows are the same except for the encores. There isn’t much variation in the beginning, just nice takes of Token, Stink-Foot, and Carolina. Nappy talks about “the famous canyon routine” once again in Velvet Sunrise and, after Frank brings Bruce back on stage, we get a great jam in the String Quartet, better than the last show. FZ talks about how they had the radio leaking through their amplifiers while they were rehearsing, and that they’d occasionally get an old song of theirs, like A Pound For A Brown, through the radio while they were playing a different tune. Hellish. Sleeping In A Jar leads into Poofter’s Froth which leads into Echidna’s Arf which leads into more spacey Duke improv. Don’t You Ever Wash That Thing? follows, contains more madness (“Don AKA Captain Beefheart has been thinking is this really where I come in on the sax?”) and even includes a bass solo in the middle of Terry’s jam. Frank conducts the band for a minute, then brings them into an Advance Romance extravaganza with great solos, a bunch of Sam With The Showing Scalp Flat Top and a little bit of 200 Years Old. This goes into another mostly inaudible Portuguese Lunar Landing with a mid-song plot recap from Frank and a cut missing the last couple seconds of the tune. Debra Kadabra (with a crazy “shoes are too tight and pointed” section) and Florentine Pogen close out the main set, and the “world premiere” of the The Torture Never Stops (introduced as “Why Doesn’t Somebody Get Him A Pepsi?”). Don (after his mid-song solo) starts to yell “Get up!” for a while and quotes Sam With The Showing Scalp Flat Top (“The music was… thud like”). Frank jams a bit while Don shouts, eventually stops him and talks to the crowd about higher education. He’s surprisingly positive and ends the show without the post-solo lyrics. These are frustrating tapes, because they’re really fun concerts, but the recordings are hot garbage. The instrumentals sound sorta okay, but the vocals are truly terrible, which is really a bummer for Portuguese Lunar Landing because it’s like a mini-opera. I’ll say that these are great shows, and a great start to the tour, but for collectors only. Because of the sound, I only ever return to this for the rare tunes (and the late Advance Romance jam).
1975 04 18 – Veterans Memorial Coliseum, New Haven, CT (Audience B-)
After a week in London arguing (and unfairly losing) his case in the Royal Albert Hall obscenity trial, Frank and the Mothers start their tour for real in Connecticut. This show’s got bad sound, but I think it’s the venue’s fault. You can hear someone say something like “it sounds bad” in the audience early on. It’s a fun show though, and I think it sounds a little better than the last two. Token and Stink-Foot make a nice intro combo. I’m Not Satisfied and Carolina Hardcore Ecstacy go together well too, but the Velvet Sunrise on this recording sadly cuts after a couple notes. We return to the very beginning of a long and fantastic Pound For A Brown. Poofter’s follows The String Quartet, which in turn is followed by Echidna’s Arf and some spacey Duke jamming. After about a minute though George starts to slowly sing Uncle Remus! It’s a really nice take,with a tasty, restrained, soulful solo from Frank. He has George sing the whole tune a second time, there’s a fade out and we return in Advance Romance. It’s a solid take, Beefheart yells over solos and it’s followed by, arguably, the best sounding version of Portuguese Lunar Landing. Well performed as far as I can tell, and the last known performance of the tune. Debra Kadabra is wonderfully deranged, and leads into a really weird Florentine Pogen. It’s a great take of the tune, and it fades out a couple minutes into Frank’s solo. When the tape returns they’re playing Don’t You Ever Wash That Thing?, but after a minute of that they play the very end of Florentine Pogen! It’s really strange, I assume Frank segued into it during his solo. This ends the main set an they return for an awesome encore of The Torture Never Stops (with a nice post-song jam), Let’s Make The Water Turn Black and Willie The Pimp (sadly without a solo, due to time). This is a solid show, but because of the lame sound, I’d really only recommend you listen to Echidna’s/Uncle Remus, Portuguese Lunar Landing and the encores.
1975 04 19 – Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ (Two Shows – Audience B+/B)
click here to listen to the early show
click here to listen to the late show
Like always, Passaic brings a great crowd and a great show out of Frank. We get a long intro improvisations with some really amusing (and because they’re over the music, mildly annoying) asides from the tapers (my favorites being “You’re not allowed to talk, I’m taping this” and “He’s uglier than Al Pacino”).These improvisations are always great and these are the first of what would become a tour regular (played kinda like a pseudo-soundcheck here). Another cool Token and Stink-Foot start the show followed by a really cool outburst of tweaky guitar right before I’m not Satisfied. The Freak Out tune goes into another fun, though trudging, Carolina Hardcore Ecstasy. The Velvet Sunrise of course follows this with another mildly amusing “canyon routine” from Nappy, and Frank eventually comes in to talk about the muscles of the human body (“the muscles that will eventually take the place of television”), and then shows us an exercise Aynsley Dunbar showed him. He says he’s “not Jack Lalanne”, possibly for the first time, then hands it off to the Captain, who demonstrates the exercise too. They then segue into “a very popular request item around 1968”, A Pound For A Brown. It’s an awesome take, with more than 15 minutes of crazed jamming. Frank starts to play and pretty quickly cries “whenever I try to play a really nice guitar solo this thing always goes out of tune and it really pisses me off, headless i’ll go on.” and proceeds to deliver an amazing solo. He quotes Mr. Green Genes at the very end of this jam, and then moves right into a hot Chunga’s Revenge! (kinda like the medley they played in 1973). Nappy, Frank and Tom each play a tasty solo. Then the Captain comes in and sings the lyrics to his tunes Who’ll Be The Next One and Crazy Little Thing! but I don’t think there’s any attempt to recreate the melody. He blows his harmonica for a bit and the main set comes to an end with a nice, more put together take of the theme. They return for an encore, someone asks where Ruth is and Frank replies “Ruth is in New York right now with her mother” (There’s also someone who keeps yelling “freak me out Frank!”, a reference to the last time the Mothers played Passaic). Frank lets the crowd pick between old and new tunes, and we end up getting an awesome Let’s Make The Water Turn Black, with a nice little jam from Frank (I wish they played this one more often). After this they end the early show with a shortened Willie The Pimp, featuring a quick but exciting solo from FZ. The late show begins with more wild intro improvisations and an interesting transition into Debra Kadabra, skipping the first chunk of lyrics and starting at the post-”Ankles sorta puffin’ out” riff. Don messes up the ending slightly (again) and Frank yells “No!” at him. It leads into another awesome Florentine Pogen, which eventually calms down and Frank gives a spoken intro to Poofter’s Froth for the first time. He describes the extended story of the deranged cowboy tune, and it leads into another fun Echidna’s Arf with an excellent Duke jam and sick ending guitar solo. Next is another fun Don’t You Ever Wash That Thing? where Frank announces “some guy over there has been saying let Don play, ladies and gentlemen, Don is going to play but not yet”. He sadly doesn’t let Don go insane over the written portion here, but we still get a fun, whacked solo out of him in the normal spot. There’s a little bit of Louie Louie at the very end of Terry’s solo and it takes us into a fun Advance Romance. After this Frank says “okay, now we are going to do one of Captain Beefheart’s songs” and they rip into a fantastic version of Orange Claw Hammer with a long, beautiful guitar jam. FZ says they’re going to “make something up” and that “we’ll play Willie The Pimp later. Stop asking for it”. They play some really cool free improvisations that Frank starts off with just light accompaniment from George. They play this neat tweaky duo for a while, eventually George plays a little bit of Uncle Meat and Frank plays around with the intro San Ber’dino lick right after. Bruce comes in and the three of them jam to conclude the mellow affair. Frank then starts the Token Of My Extreme; they play a nice version (with an extra instrumental take before the lyrics) that leads into The Torture Never Stops. Frank outros the band right after the lyrics conclude and we get a very short post vocals jam to end the main set. They return for an awesome 10 minute Willie The Pimp to wrap up the show (and redeem the lame Torture). These are a fantastic set of shows, some of the best of the tour, and should be heard by fans interested in this era.
1975 04 25 – Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, NY (Audience B+/B)
Here we have a very solid concert, one with no major highlights but a good time nonetheless. Long Island shows are always fun and this night is no exception. We get a very nice performance of a now standard intro set for the first couple weeks of the tour (Intro Improvisations – A Token Of My Extreme – Stink-Foot – I’m Not Satisfied – Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy); All really nice takes, well representative of the era. Velvet Sunrise comes next and Nappy sings about Carolina a bit (like usual). Frank then talks about lonely people, almost slips into his Tiny Sick Tears speach but quotes Greggery Peccary instead (“The whole earth catalog, [and] imported very hip water pipe”). The story devolves into eating furniture, FZ says “everybody kiss” and they move into another excellent A Pound For A Brown/Sleeping In A Jar. Poofter’s Froth Wyoming Plans Ahead (once again without an intro) comes next, and is followed by Echidna’s Arf with some nice, funky Duke improvisations. They, fairly quickly move into The Torture Never Stops, and it a really great take, probably the best of the tour so far. Don yells “chicken was never like this” during Frank’s solo, and FZ ends the main set. They return for their regularly scheduled encore, an absolutely fantastic Willie The Pimp, with a long, cool, free solo from the maestro. This is far from the most interesting show of the tour, but there’s some really nice music on this tape. Not the first show I’d go to, but it’s still worth a listen.
1975 04 26 – Providence College, Providence, RI (Audience A)
This is an awesome show captured in absolutely stunning sound. A perfect audience recording. It starts with some great introductory improvisations, which end when Frank launches into a fun Camarillo Brillo. Then, once they finish the rearranged tune, Frank transitions into an instrumental Muffin Man! Frank says “Welcome to the Mothers Of Invention POP” and leads us into another tasty Stink-Foot. It’s really mutated (“over by the rectory”; “but us regular Catholics” “a week went by, my scapular got dry”) and leads into another I’m Not Satisfied/Carolina Hardcore Ecstasy/Velvet Sunrise event. Nappy sings about groupies and the lack of nookie on college campuses in Velvet and Frank talks about how “love generates loneliness” before segueing into a fun A Pound For A Brown. Frank unfortunately doesn’t solo in the tune, but instead cues The Torture Never Stops and rips out an awesome solo in the middle of the song. The first Montana of the tour comes next, with a crazy, long, intense solo from FZ and right after is the Hook! George hits a finger cymbal, just like on the last tour, and sings some really nice, passionate vocals. He jams for a while, he quotes the popular tune Chariot and eventually says “You know I gotta go out like the last tour”, starts to talks about Ruth and goes into a fun, goofy half-baked Moon Trek (“Good god this is terrible I have to revert to old material”). He talks about Ruth some more, and then the Captain (AKA Report Card or Pot’card for some reason at this show). They play around with the term “thud like”, Frank says “new from French’s instant mashed potatoes”, and then polls the audience on what they think about “Rah Rah Boola Boola”. He then asks Don to get his poem out and they begin the “Mothers Of Invention Poetry and Jazz Hour starring Captain Report Card”. Beefheart recites his beatnik poem Sam With The Showing Scalp Flat Top with scant accompaniment, until Bruce starts to play Straight No Chaser at the end. Penguin In Bondage is next and it’s a really awesome mutated take (“shake up the small conglomeration table”); FZ also decides to make it a sort of Monster performance with solos from Denny, Don (on harmonica) and finally Frank. It’s a great version, and it leads into Poofter’s Froth Wyoming Plans Ahead (with another amusing intro from Frank). Echidna’s Arf comes next, and instead of spacey George improvisations we get an energetic drum solo. It leads right into a great 15 minute, show ending Advance Romance. They return for an encore and we get a fantastic, compact, Willie The Pimp to end the night. Like I said this is a great show and arguably the best sounding document of the tour. Check this one out.
1975 04 27 – Music Hall, Boston, MA (Two Shows – Audience A-/B+)
click here to listen to the early show
click here to listen to the late show
Here we have two very nice shows, captured on an above average recording. The tape starts off part way through some fantastically rocking intro improvisations, before Frank takes us into another great Token> Stink-Foot>I’m Not Satisfied introduction. Carolina comes next, and FZ has to stop to tune in the middle of his solo, so we end up getting two separate, sick jams. The Velvet Sunrise emerges, Nappy sings about Carolina, and then Frank talks about hotel bedrooms (and what may happen therein). It leads into another Pound with a long tasty guitar solo and a fun Sleeping In A Jar coda. Poofter’s is the disturbed cowboy tune it was meant to be, and we get some more fun, funky, jazzy, tweaky George Duke improv in Echidna’s Arf. Near the end, Nappy starts to blow his horn and The Captain recites parts of Sam With The Showing Scalp Flat Top (“The music was… thud like”). The final known performance of Don’t You Ever Wash Thing thing follows this up, and it’s pretty weird. After Bruce’s mutated trombone solo, the song stops completely and Frank says real quietly “Ladies and gentleman, watch Don, I mean watch him very closely. Don’s gonna play the soprano saxophone” the Captain goes absolutely insane, and after a little while the rest of the band return and the tune finishes like normal. It leads right into another hot and jamming Advance Romance, with Frank taking the sole solo spot and ending the main set after. They return for another fantastic encore Willie The Pimp, with a really weird swing moment at the end of Frank’s solo. The second show begins and we unfortunately only get to hear the very tail end of the latter intro improvisations. Frank’s fiery guitar leads into another nice Camarillo and another exhilarating Muffin Man. They then go into a “song about people who save snot” and we get another electric Let’s Make The Water Turn Black (unfortunately the last available performance). From there the band goes right into another Penguin in Bondage, but with a little surprise. We’re treated to a monster version of the tune, with nice blues solos from Denny, Nappy, Georgy and Franky (I wish FZ did this more often, I think this tune worked better for solo rotations than Cosmik Debris). After Penguin FZ launches into some whacked, insane tweaky free improv. Bruce comes in and we get a wonderful avant-garde guitar and trombone jam for two or so minutes before another deranged Debra Kadabra (played really quickly). After this song, I think Frank realized he never actually introduced the band. He intros the Mothers, the Captain and their next song: Poofter’s Froth Wyoming. Echidna’s comes next and interestingly, Frank cues the finger cymbal routine, usually reserved for post-Montana improv. George scats, plays a funky solo and Frank mentions Room Service. It’s a pretty compact take and it goes right into the Torture Never Stops. We get a seriously rockin version, and it leads right into this tour’s only take of the rare tune: Marty’s Dance Song. It’s a nice performance, with some hollering from Nappy and another hot solo from Frank. It goes right into a fun Montana (unfortunately with no Duke improv) and a show ending Florentine Pogen. Nappy changes the lyrics to “Later she speaks on how Beefheart might court her” and FZ outros the band in place of a longer solo. He jams for about a minute until the main set ends, then returns for the now regular encore: a mind-melting Willie The Pimp. These are a great set of shows, some of the best sounding and most fun concerts of the tour, with great performances of rare songs and classics alike. Listen to these ones for sure.
1975 05 03 – Civic Center, Baltimore, MD (Audience B/B-)
Here we have another example of the classic tape trader’s dilemma, an excellent concert on a rancid recording. This tape is crazy distant and full of little cuts and speed warbles. It sounds like someone was taping the show from the lobby and people kept stepping on the recorder (I don’t think that’s what happened, but still). The performances on the other hand are a completely different story. This may be the best show of the tour for long instrumental jams. The recording cuts in half way through Camarillo Brillo, so we’re pretty quickly deposited into another incredible Muffin Man (There’s an insane recording error at the end of Frank’s solo that’s a good 30 seconds of tape problems, it’s kinda trippy). Advance Romance is next, somewhat surprisingly, and has a pretty terrible tape cut about two minutes in that misses probably about two-thirds of the jamming. It leads into another charming I’m Not Satisfied > Carolina >Velvet Sunrise, with fairly minimal Nappy input in the last tune, but a long speech from Frank about science, loneliness, drugs, true love and being a jerk. It leads into an incredible 20 minute Pound For A Brown with wonderful playing from all participants. Eventually they reach a natural conclusion and Frank announces a 15-ish minute intermission (pretty rare for this point in his career). They return a launch into long, epic Stink-Foot followed by a tune “that features the illustrious Captain Beefheart… the name of this song is Why Doesn’t Somebody Get Him A Pepsi?”. We’re treated to another sick Torture Never Stops, followed by another rocking Florentine Pogen (Frank says “how’s about a quartet for some cigarettes”, a reference to his deep cut tune Kaiser Rolls). He whips out a hot solo, then takes us to Montana. Afterwards we hear the Hook and this leads into an awesome 30 minute long free jam. There’s some tape bleed from another recording audible over the first chunk of the improv (it’s Maxwell’s Silver Hammer by the Beatles), but it goes away fairly soon. George jams for a long while, then Bruce, Tom, Frank and Nappy all play some wonderful solos. The recording unfortunately cuts off mid-sax solo, and that brings the night to a close. Improvisational heaven right here. This is an awesome, awesome show, and despite the sound quality I still think it worth a listen for hardened Bongo Fury fans.
1975 05 11 – Mother’s Day – International Amphitheater, Chicago, IL (Audience B+/B)
It’s Mother’s Day 1975 and we have a little bit of an extravaganza in Chicago. About five minutes of tweaky intro improvisations start us off before Frank rips into a fantastic Apostrophe, the first of the tour). After this is another lovely Stink-Foot/I’m Not Satisfied/Carolina Hardcore Ecstasy combo with two nice solos from Frank. This of course leads into the Velvet Sunrise, where Nappy sings about nothing in particular for a couple minutes before Frank takes over and tells us “our lecture for tonight concerns the subject of physical acoustics.” He talks about the sound at their current venue and explains why they aren’t at the Auditorium Theater (“the crux of the biscuit is this… last year when we had our tenth anniversary extravaganza…[it has to do with] the event with Don Preston and the inflatable girl”). The International Auditorium has notoriously poor sound, so Frank isnt exactly happy about being ousted from the Auditorium Theatre (they luckily let him return in November). Bruce yells a bit, for effect, during Frank’s speech, and this lecture leads into a fantastic 20+ minute String Quartet with a wonderful, electric closing solo from Frank. Poofter’s Froth takes it’s place after Sleeping In A Jar, and George takes it away after Echidna’s Arf. Mr. Duke immediately starts talking about strange occurrences. He starts to sing “I got everything I need in this world”, and you can hear the Captain repeat it. George jams for a bit, He says “I love the blues, she heard me cry” (the name of one of his future solo albums), talks some more (about boogies), then Frank starts to play some variations on the San Ber’dino riff, which lead into a fiery solo. Eventually the Captain comes in to improvise some lyrics and recite part of 200 Years Old! After nearly 15 minutes of wild free blues jamming, Frank takes us into another whacked Debra Kadabra, followed by a pleasant Camarillo Brillo. It segues into the last known Muffin Man before Austin, and strangely enough Frank doesn’t solo but instead has Nappy and George sing “useless” (from the end of Camarillo) over the heavy vamp. He outros the band, but the return for a sick Willie The Pimp. They leave again, but return one final time for a condensed Advance Romance, because a cut to the ending takes out all the solos after Denny. The encores are from another, worse sounding recording of this show; Willie sounds okay, but the final encore is unlistenable. This is a solid show, not the best of the era, but because it’s a Mother’s Day show from such a weird tour I’ll say it’s worth a listen (at least for the Pound and Echidna jams alone). “Happy Mother’s Day Chicago!”
1975 05 13 – Kiel Auditorium, St. Louis, MO (Audience B+/B/B-)
Here we go with an interesting tape. The sound fluctuates pretty wildly, but it never gets too bad. We start with more tweaky intro improvisations, and right near the end you can hear the taper say “enter Frank Zappa”. He immediately rips into another awesome Apostrophe, and it’s followed by a piping hot Stink-Foot, I’m Not Satisfied and Carolina Hardcore Ecstasy combo. There’s a bit of cool, tweaky improv right before Frank’s Stink-Foot solo and Nappy changes a lyric in Carolina to “there was doo-doo on the lawn”. Velvet Sunrise comes next with some stories of “loneliness in St. Louis”, sexual activities with edible objects (with a quote from Call Any Vegetable) and of course “BOOGIES”. At the very end Frank says “Where’s that girl and the dog?” and George sings “Marty and that dog”, a reference to the events of the Mothers’ escapades last time in St. Louis. It goes into an awesome 20+ minute String Quartet extravaganza, with wonderful solos from all involved. Since it’s a complete take (with Sleeping In A Jar), they go right into Poofter’s Froth, followed by another fun Echidna’s Arf. George immediately begins telling a road story about Bozzio, boogies, and ladies of the road. It’s an amusing story (“taken from the book of love”) with brief quotes of On The Road Again and Louie Louie from Frank after George says “boogie”. Eventually the jam comes to an end, and Frank starts to talk about “all kinds of love in the world today.” He says “There’s cheap little tacky love, there’s expoobident love, and then of course there is… Advance Romance!” We get another excellent blues jam in said tune, followed by Florentine Pogen (sadly with no solo or ending), which brings the main show to a close. They return for another classic encore Willie The Pimp, blowing the roof off Kiel Auditorium before they leave for the next town. This is a very solid concert, not the most intense or experimental of the tour but with enough great improv to make it well worth a listen.
1975 05 20-21 – Armadillo World Headquarters, Austin, TX (Official Releases)
Very little has been officially released from this tour, and 99% of what we have comes from Bongo Fury (The Alex Winter Zappa Kickstarter released a performance of Sleeping In A Jar from Trenton New Jersey). Debra Kadabra, Carolina Hardcore Ecstasy, Sam With The Showing Scalp Flat Top, Poofter’s Froth Wyoming Plans Ahead, Advance Romance, Man With The Woman Head and the main body of Muffin Man come from these shows, but they’re full of edits and overdubs (Ex. Debra Kadabra has added high pitched voices, Carolina has a bunch of lyrical repetitions edited out and Muffin Man was probably played as an instrumental, among others). Frank also released a take of The Torture Never Stops from these shows on You Can’t Do That on Stage Anymore #4, with nearly all of his guitar work (likely) edited out. All great takes (I’m a pretty big fan of the Bongo Fury album), but I can’t wait for the eventual full release of these shows (My guess is 2025 for the 50th anniversary).
1975 05 23 – County Coliseum, El Paso, TX (Soundboard A)
The last known recording of the tour (and the first show after the Armadillo) is captured on this fantastic soundboard recording. We start with a delightfully tweaky set of intro improvisations, followed by another awesome Apostrophe. FZ introduces the band and ends with “and later, Jimmy Carl Black, the Indian of the group!” There’s a final quality Stink-Foot>I’m Not Satisfied>Carolina Hardcore Ecstasy medley, of course followed by a thankfully short Velvet Sunrise (Frank talks about the problems people have when trying to “have a good time”, and gives a bunch of “clues”). This in turn goes into a fiery Pound For A Brown, with more great, jazz-oriented solos (Frank plays a riff from the Austin take of Sam With The Showing Scalp Flat Top during Denny’s solo). Once this concludes Frank announces “now the important part of the program!” and brings Jimmy on stage to sing two fun little rhythm and blues numbers: You’re So Fine and Lonely Lonely Nights. They’re really amusing performances, and Jim sings the hell outta them. He screams “You do this for me and I’ll do that for you” (sounding a bit like Lonesome Cowboy Burt), then Frank starts Debra Kadabra. The Captain sings his one song for this show, then Frank brings us into another cool Montana. Afterwards we hear the Hook and get some finger cymbals and scatting from George. It goes into a fun tweaky jam where George asks Nappy “what’s the crux of the cookie?” Tom quotes in the Hall Of The Mountain King, and then they go into an awesome boogie. It’s deliciously funky, George sings “I got everything I need in this world” some more, eventually he says “the dream ended” and then brings us back into tweaky territory. He continues to sing about “the cookie” and then Nappy comes in to sing about “the nookie” in a loud, deep voice. It’s a great set of improvisations, one of the best of George’s time in the Mothers. After this they go into another jamming Advance Romance, followed by a fun Florentine Pogen (with a new heavy vamp for the guitar solo!) The recording unfortunately ends a few minutes into Frank’s jam, missing the last few songs (possibly just the end of Pogen and Willie The Pimp). This is an awesome show, full of fun music, with a handful of one-time-only events. One of the best nights of the tour, check this one out for sure.
Related Events:
1975 04 23 – Lecture at Gifford Auditorium, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
The day after a show at the Onondaga County War Memorial Auditorium in Syracuse, Frank, George and Don hosted a discussion at the nearby university. Frank talks for a little then opens the floor for questions and we get some really interesting conversations. FZk does most of the talking, George answers a few questions and the Captain almost solely speaks nonsense and just recties Sam With The Showing Scalp Flat Top in response to a question about Trout Mask Replica. A really interesting and amusing panel from three musical geniuses, worth a listen.
An Evening With Frank Zappa & Captain Beefheart AKA The Zappa/Beefheart Radio Hour
This is a radio program Frank and Don prepared around the time of this tour. I’m not gonna spend much time on this (because, while very interesting, this is a site about live material), but it’s got a lot of pre-Mothers and 60s material originally slated for The History And Collected Improvisations Of The Mothers Of Invention, some Beefheart songs and some tunes from Bongo Fury (including an extended studio 200 Years Old not originally on the brodcast but frequently tacked on). But the reason I bring any of this up is because there’s a sick live-in-the-studio Orange Claw Hammer, with Frank jamming on an acoustic guitar. It’s an awesome take, worth checking out.
The Songs Played:
Advance Romance – This Bongo Fury tune makes its debut on this tour and the composed sections always sound just as they do on the album. George and Nappy always improv a little conversation in the “I shoulda knew” section and Frank would usually ad lib a line before Denny’s solo, until landing on “look what she did to Denny” in St. Louis and sticking with that. In a regular performance we get three tasty blues solos from Denny, Don (on Harmonica) and Frank, but on a few occasions they deviate from that plan, probably due to time and Don and/or Denny gets left out. The performance at the late show in Claremont is really wild, after the three solos, Don Starts to recite parts of Sam WIth The Showing Scalp Flat Top and Frank repeats them. Frank then quotes a bit of 200 Years old and Don does the same. A fantastic tour for this tune, probably the best there is. This is just the perfect set of musicians for this mildly demented blues tune.
Apostrophe – This fantastic instrumental appears a few times at the end of the tour always to my delight. It emerges out of the intro improvisations in each performance. Nappy plays along on sax with some of the more prominent guitar parts of the tune, sometimes repeating them while Frank solos. Tom plays a cool bass solo and Frank follows it with pure fire. I love this tune, it’s a highlight of the titular album and I wish Frank played it more than he did. These takes may be the best out there, Terry’s aggression really amps it up a notch.
Camarillo Brillo – This Over-Nite Sensation classic appears frequently on this tour, either as an opener or the penultimate tune. Frank slightly rearranged the song in the middle of last year, adding more instrumental bits between verses, including a partial quote of the Dragnet theme after the first “like a shadow from the tomb” line and a partial quote from The Hook after “laid out naked by the door”. For this tour, the tune has more of a straight ahead rock feel, and after the second “snake for a pet” verse they slow down to a trudge. The last verse starts ”I chewed my way through her rancid poncho”, and George and Nappy sing “yes it was useless anymore” until they make a smooth transition to Muffin Man. A very nice, rocking arrangement of one of FZ’s most pleasant tunes.
Carolina Hardcore Ecstasy – This Bongo Fury song about getting stomped on was played largely like it was on the album, but with a couple of differences. The biggest being that they’d sing the last two lines of each verse twice (the title lines and “Plastic leather, 14 triple D”), significantly lengthening the song, meaning the version on Bongo Fury is most likely edited. The tune was typically played at a slower pace on this tour, making this a real swinging ballad. I think I prefer the poppier, more uptempo takes, but the slow ones have a charm too. Frank would play a sick solo at the end of the piece, and with the slow takes you really feel like they’re ramping up to the solo, which I think gives Frank a little extra oomph. Overall, a very nice, balanced tune. Almost always played after I’m Not Satisfied and always played before The Velvet Sunrise.
Chunga’s Revenge – In Passaic, at the end of a hot Pound For A Brown, Frank quotes Mr. Green Genes then (like in 1973) decides to tear into this sick instrumental. He starts with the quiet opening chords (skipping the guitar intro) and the band members that know the tune quickly join in. Nappy, Frank and Tom each play a tasty solo and then Don comes in, screaming a la Willie The Pimp, and sings the lyrics to his tunes Who’ll Be The Next One and Crazy Little Thing! (but I don’t think there’s any attempt to recreate the melodies). He blows his harmonica for a bit, then Frank brings us into a more put together ending theme. This is a hot take, the only known one of the tour, and a good reason to listen to the Passaic shows.
Debra Kadabra – This insane fever dream of a song premiered on this tour and was only ever played during these two months. The tune is performed pretty much as on the album, with a couple of exceptions. Don could never get the lyrics to this tune exactly correct, and every take is a little different. I don’t think it was on purpose either, I think he just had trouble remembering the words. He’d frequently switch up “Brainiac” and “Brnokka” in their respective lines. Occasionally he’d say body instead of bodice or he’d pronounce cologne correctly. I think the ending chunk was supposed to start with “Oh Debra Magnesium-Fauntleroy Kadabra” (the most common ending), but he just barely gets it out in reverse order in Austin. There was also an additional line after the “Pachuco Hop” section that went “make me remove tiny lines and wrinkles with green jelly”, but he yells about the Pachuco Hop more instead at the Armadillo. Frank delivered this line in Claremont, possibly because Don forgot it. In April, to end the tune, they play a repetition of the post “Ankles sorta puffin’ out/Cause me to shout” riff, but this gets dropped by May. For some reason, in Passaic Frank decides to start the tune at this spot, making the riff begin and end the song. FZ freaks out on guitar during this closing riff in Boston and ends up conducting the band a little. Additionally, the laughs and some of the high pitched vocals in the “dancing spell” section heard on the Bongo Fury version are overdubbed. This tune is absolutely whacked, an easy highlight of the tour for me. I wish Frank played it with another band but I don’t think anyone but Beefheart could pull it off.
Don’t You Ever Wash That Thing? – This Roxy classic returns for a final time on this tour and boy is it weird. The tune starts like normal, Bruce gets his solo spot back and plays a lovely mutated trombone solo in the first section. When the theme returns Frank announces “ladies and Gentleman, watch Don”, tells us what he’s been thinking, then unleashes the Captain onto us all. The placement of Don’s solo would vary from performance to performance. At the Claremont shows he plays over the composed section, starting immediately after Frank finishes talking. At the first show he stops playing after a certain point and Frank fills the rest of the solo spot, but he plays the whole way through at the second show. In Passaic he starts after the middle composed bit, and in Boston that section is eliminated entirely! Frank starts to whisper “watch Don” after Bruce’s solo and we get a slower but still insane sax jam from Beefheart. Eventually the rest of the band slowly comes back in while Don is playing, and the tune ends like normal. Terry would wrap up the affair with an energetic drum solo, and Frank would either conduct the band a little (leading to Louie Louie in Passaic), or just hard transition to the next song. Tom also gets a chance to play a solo after Terry in the second Claremont performance. Additionally, the solo sections seem to have sparser accompaniment than on the previous tours, but that could be just me. The ending guitar solo on Roxy and Elsewhere was, unfortunately, a one-time only performance. The composed outro was dropped a couple tours ago, and here the song segues into another tune after the drum solo/conducted improv. On the Fall ’73 tour, Frank would make the band members do some kind of timed act during the breaks of silence in the repeat of the theme, like spinning in a circle or pretending to comb their hair and it’s possible he still had them do that here. Part of this tune appears within the New Haven performance of Florentine Pogen (it’s hard to tell why because it appears right after a tape cut). Always proceed by Echidna’s Arf and George’s improvisations. This is one of my all time favorite FZ compositions, and I’m glad this tour got to infect it with some of its weirdness (it’s also cool to hear how Terry plays on this tune).
Echidna’s Arf – Remember when I said this tune never changes much? Well here’s where it changes. After every performance of Poofter’s Froth Wyoming Plans Ahead, George launches into the ending section of the the tune, playing the last 30-40 seconds before launching into some cool spacey, keyboard heavy improv. These performances sound closer to the version of this tune on George’s solo album The Aura Will Prevail than what’s heard on Roxy and Elsewhere. It is similar, but not identical to his Dupree’s intros from the last two years. In each performance, George creates a lovely unique musical experience, you’ll want to hear them all. He’ll play, he’ll scat, he’ll sing and we’ll have a good time. Occasionally someone else, usually Nappy or Frank will, come in and solo too. The Captain will sometimes sing, scream or recite a poem during the improv (“the music was thud like”) and Frank even quotes a Dylan Thomas work (the same as on YCDTOSA#1, Under Milk Wood) in Claremont. A couple exceptions to the norm: In Providence George’s improv is replaced with a drum solo and at the second show in Boston Frank decides to have George do the finger cymbal routine, usually reserved for post-Montana. Overall, though this tune is in a radically different form, it still brings about a good time.
Florentine Pogen – “a special sort of a love song”. This One Size Fits All is played fairly frequently on this tour and sounds largely as it does on the studio release. The album version is shortened though; every live performance features a fantastic guitar jam right after the official take fades out. It ends with a cool unique riff (a slightly different one compared to the 74 and 88 arrangements), more jamming and finally someone blows the “Chester’s Gorilla” phrase on the kazoo (duck call?). Frank dropped the short drum intro from the tune between Passaic and Boston. In Boston, FZ outros the band over the end of the tune, plays a short solo then concludes the tune without playing the ending. He does a similar move in St. Louis, but doesn’t play any guitar and the last take of the tune in El Paso features a totally different vamp for the guitar solo (it’s angrier and more metal-y)! The New Haven performance is really weird. The recording cuts out during Frank’s solo and returns to the theme of Don’t You Ever Wash That Thing! They play about a minute of the tune, up to the Penguin in Bondage quote then they play the very end on Florentine Pogen! It’s a really weird performance and I wish I could say more about what happened. No matter the variation, this is always a fun tune and the long tasty guitar solo really adds to the event.
George’s Boogie – This uber-rare tune was performed a single time ever, as an encore for the first night of the tour in Pomona. It doesn’t refer to Mr. Duke’s regular improv spots, but instead is a unique FZ-composed tune. It’s a short, frantic number, with lots of repeating, fast, complicated riffs played on the trombone and keyboards. George plays a cool, spacy little solo, there’s a repetition of the theme, and the event is over in less than two minutes. It’s a nice little piece, but there’s not a whole lot to it. I wonder why FZ abandoned it, or if he tried to incorporate it into anything else?
The Hook – This is a very short section of music culled from the Be-Bop Tango (just 12 notes) and frequently cued by Frank. On the last tour, it was a regular part of the transition between Montana and Dupree’s Paradise, and it is played in a similar fashion here, as a segue from Montana to George’s improv. It’s such a dumb, ugly melody and I absolutely love it. It’s arguable that after a certain point Frank considered George’s improv as a part of The Hook itself and not free improvisations or part of another song, but I’m going to continue including it as such for simplicity’s sake.
I’m Not Satisfied – This fun song about depression and loneliness is funkier than ever on this tour. Played pretty much as on Freak Out. Nappy really belts out the tune, and occasionally addresses FZ mid-tune (ex. “Frank, I just wish that someone cared”). It’s a solid take of a classic tune, almost always played between Stink-Foot and Carolina Hardcore Ecstasy.
Improvisations/Jams/Blues – There isn’t much complete “make something up” free improv from this tour, but when there is it’s fantastic. Frank and Bruce do play some interesting, spontaneous improv for a few minutes between Penguin In Bondage and Debra Kadabra in Boston, and in Passaic, George, Frank and Bruce all create a really cool, tweaky mellow jam near the end of the night (with quotes from Uncle Meat and the San Ber’dino intro). There are also fantastic loose jams in a few of the regular tunes. In Echidna’s Arf and after Montana, George would usually get a chance to stretch out and do whatever he wanted, with the jams sometimes referred to as “Improvisations”, “Duke Improvisations”, or “The Booger Man” if there are enough booger references. On the past tours I would designate the post-Montana Jams as part one of Dupree’s Paradise, but since they never play that on this tour I’m going to count those George Duke jams as improvisations (the post-Echidna’s ones I’m counting as part of Echidna’s). The band would play the Hook, Frank would intro Mr. Duke, George would hit his finger cymbal, and then delve into wonderful improv. He’d sing, he’d scat, he’d play his keys, Nappy would join in and fun would be had (We get a half-baked Moon Trek in Providence, the Baltimore take leads to 30+ minutes of amazing playing from the whole band, and the “ nookie/cookie” El Paso performance is one of my favorite Duke jams ever). There’s an argument to be made that these jams are part of The Hook, but fuck it, I’m talking about them here. The band would also frequently open up shows with mildly structured improvisations, but I again have those in their own category (see the next entry). Overall this is an awesome tour for improvisation, especially in tunes like Pound For A Brown, Advance Romance and Echidna’s Arf, in addition to the handful of moments of sick, true improv.
Intro Improvisations – Beginning in Passaic, each show starts with some pseudo-soundcheck improvisations, not unlike Zanti Serenade from the Europe 1971 tour. The earliest performances in Passaic are longer and feature each member of the band coming in individually (to a degree) and creating a sick avant-garde free jam in the process. Frank would come in last and play for a little (not at the early show) before starting the first song. In Uniondale, Providence and Boston, the jam starts with George on tweaky, random sounding keyboard noises while Nappy or Bruce play some weird tones. Over the next few minutes the rest of the band comes in (with Don playing sax) and they build to a frenzy. Finally Frank comes on stage and (except in Uniondale) rips out a tasty little solo-ette to start the night off right. Beginning sometime in early May, these intros became a little shorter, and consisted of just George, Nappy, and Don (and sometimes Bruce) improvising for the majority of the tune, with the rest of the Mothers coming in at the very end, as FZ walks on stage. Frank would then tear into a fiery take of Apostrophe, in place of a solo over the improvisations. Since the jams are so loose, I had a hard time determining the solo chart on this one and decided to just not include that column (every Mother improvises at some point in every take). And kind of because of that, these are excellent jams, they really stretch far out, and they’re a crazy fun start to every show. Sets the weird-ass tone well.
Let’s Make The Water Turn Black – “This is a song about people who save snot”. This We’re Only In It For The Money classic appears a couple of times across the tour, but in a radically rearranged, crazy, jamming state. It starts with a new tasty, funky little vamp that Nappy loosely sings the lyrics over. Really the only thing from the original arrangement are the lyrics and melody that Nappy sings them to. Once he finishes the words, he and George sing “Ronnie, Kenny, Marty, Herbie” , a reference to the two booger saves and two of Frank’s managers at the time. After this FZ whips out a wonderful 2-3 minute solo over the funky vamp. Then there’s another new, ending horn riff and they transition to the next tune. This is a fantastically fun rearrangement, and it’s a bummer it’s never seen an official release.
Man With The Woman Head – This Bongo Fury poem was supposedly performed one time in Austin (as heard on the album), but I’m pretty sure it was partially constructed in the studio. Beefheart is reciting his poem and wailing on his soprano sax in the background (it’s not Nappy, I’ve never heard him play anything like that), which means one of the two are overdubbed, probably the vocals. It’s a really cool moody piece, and I’m excited for the eventual reveal of the origin of this “song”.
Marty’s Dance Song – This unreleased tune is really more of a slow trudging blues vamp that Nappy sings “whooo” over occasionally. Its title comes from the Passaic 1974 show when Frank says “[Marty] says that he can only do the dance if we play this one special number”. The song is played one final time on this tour, at the end of a performance of The Torture Never Stops. Frank launches into the vamp (just like the last time they played Boston), and plays a sick solo over the song. Still not an amazing composition, but this is probably the best take out there.
Montana – This classic about a dental floss farmer is in excellent form on this tour. It’s played pretty much as on Overnite Sensation, with Napoleon and George in place of the Ikettes (and Denny sings the ending yodels). Frank’s solos are always hot and delectable. Three of the four known performances are followed by The Hook and solo improvisations from George (which are talked about under improvisations/jams).
Muffin Man – This Bongo Fury tune debuts on this tour, but as an instrumental! After performances of Camarillo Brillo, the band would launch into this iconic heavy riff and Frank would just tear his guitar apart live on stage. In all likelihood, Beefheart’s vocals on the official release were overdubbed at a later date. In Chicago, instead of only playing his guitar, FZ has George and Nappy sing “useless” (like the ending of Camarillo) over and over again. Interesting, but I prefer the other takes. These are some fantastic, fantastic jams, and an easy highlight of the tour.
Orange Claw Hammer – “Okay now we’re going to do one of Captain Beefheart’s songs”. This Trout Mask Replica track was originally released acapella, but it gets the deluxe full band treatment on this tour (well drums, bass, keys, guitar and vocals). They play a guitar heavy traditional sorta sea shanty-esque accompaniment that fits the vibe very well. Don plays a little bit of harmonica and Frank wraps it up with a beautiful solo and a quiet fade away ending. On the Zappa/Beefheart Radio Hour, Frank and Don do a duo, live-in-the-studio take of the tune. This version feels more improvised and lacks the prominent guitar lick heard on the two live (before a crowd) takes. This is a very cool tune, I wish they played it after the first couple shows.
Penguin In Bondage – This Roxy classic shows up twice on this tour, and we get what appears on the album, but with a small exception. The Roxy and Elsewhere version is edited and is missing the minute long instrumental takes of the “little penguin, dirty little bird” section heard before the solo on the releases of this song from the 84 and 88 tours. This section was played with the tune on every known live performance, and I assume it was removed from the Roxy and Elsewhere version to make the transition between two sources sound better. I think it adds to the song, and I’m glad Frank kept it for future performances. Frank experimented with the solo section on this tour as both performances of this tune have multiple solos. In Providence, Demny jams first (with his auto-wah on), then Beefheart blows his harmonica, and Frank finishes with a hot solo and in Boston, Denny, Nappy, George and Frank each play a wonderful blues solo. These are really wonderful takes, in my opinion they’re the best this song ever got. I wish FZ did this last year, I think this tune worked better for multiple solos than Cosmik Debris.
Poofter’s Froth Wyoming Plans Ahead – “a special cowboy song”. Another rare only-on-this-tour composition. This goofy tune for the American bicentennial was pretty much always played like on Bongo Fury, with Don reciting the words and blowing his harmonica in the middle of the tune. Frank gives a spoken intro to the tune in Passaic, Providence, Boston and Austin (as heard on Bongo Fury).
Portuguese Lunar Landing – This unreleased tune was played at each of the first three shows from this band, and then never again. It’s a long space epic about Portuguese astronauts and their encounters with aliens, sung by pretty much everyone in the band with classic Zappa accompaniment, meaning multiple changing styles, sound effects and whatnot. Unfortunately the tune is only available on the worst three tapes of the tour so there’s not really a great version available. They’re listenable enough, and I’d definitely recommend them because it’s a fun song with a very light tone and some truly catchy lines (I like the ending “Give head if y’wanna, or blood if yer gonna” riff; read the rest of the lyrics here). This song deserves an official release and I’m sure it’ll get one someday.
A Pound For A Brown – This wonderful Uncle Meat tune makes its triumphant return to the stage after three years of dormancy, and it is back with a vengeance. We get a sped-up, wonderfully orchestrated version of the head (mainly played on the guitar, trombone and keys), before delving into improvisational greatness. A normal performance starts with a wonderful demented trombone event from Bruce, George follows with a great jazz-rock synth solo and Frank would conclude the affair here with a long fantastic, ear-melting jam. Starting in May, Frank began to extend the tune even further, giving Denny, Tom, Don (on harmonica) and/or Terry a chance to play. This tune always followed the Velvet sunrise (with a count off), and most takes end with a performance of Sleeping in a Jar, just like on the 68-71 tours (and like how Frank originally conceived the music). This is an awesome, fantastic arrangement of one of Frank’s most timeless compositions, and they produce some of the Mothers best jams of the 70s. Classic jazz rock at its finest.
Sam With The Showing Scalp Flat Top – This Van Vliet beatnik poem is quoted all the time, and we get a full performance in Passaic, Providence and Austin. “The music was thud like” is a running joke within the band, and someone says it during improvisations in a handful of shows. In Passaic and Providence these quotes lead to a full take of the piece (“do you have that poem in your box?”), with minimal accompaniment. The Austin performance is special because it features full band improvisations along with Don’s lyrics. This is a totally insane set of words, and something about it always amuses me, especially when Frank, George and/or Nappy joins in on “Thud like”.
Sleeping in a Jar – The Uncle Meat tune makes its majestic (and final) reappearance on this funky little tour. They play the tune instrumentally a few times through, each repetition of the theme is performed a little differently, and Frank provides guitar throughout. The final phrase is played very slowly and majestically, and there is some keyboard and drum music based on the Pound for a Brown bassline that acts as a coda (the same as the 1970 performances). A wonderful little tune, always preceded by Pound For a Brown and followed by Poofter’s Froth Wyoming Plans Ahead.
Stink-Foot – Frank reworked this Apostrophe classic for the stage in August of 1974 and used it as an opening song for the next two or so years. The live arrangement consists of the studio portion of the tune up to the guitar solo, over the new riff Frank thought up on the spot last July in San Carlos. Like I said, this arrangement is chiefly used as a show opener and Frank would introduce the band and/or the next song over the end of this tune, and leave out all the post-solo lyrics. Frank would really stretch out on his guitar in this song, providing some truly awesome solos. FZ would also often change the location following “right around the corner” from show to show (Ex. “right around the corner over by where that B Flat chord just went out the window”). Performances of this song are always fantastic, (though not as regularly mind-blowing as in ‘74), and a fine addition to setlists. Sick!
The String Quartet – FZ doesn’t use this name anymore, but in the 60s this title referred to the combo of A Pound For A Brown and Sleeping In A Jar. The two tunes were originally written together, but at some point in the late 60s Frank decided to split them up. This is the last tour for this combo, Pound continues on but Sleeping is never played again.
A Token Of My Extreme – This Joe’s Garage tune reappears as a full-fledged song with most of the lyrics in place. The song was usually used as an opener, Frank would intro the band over the bass riff then Nappy would launch into the vocals (singing “don’t you be terrified” through “what you find out when you go”). After this there was a short bass break and then they would play the melody instrumentally. Bruce plays some trombone licks over the last couple seconds of the tune, then Frank would move the show on. At the Passaic late show, it appears at the very end of the concert and they play the instrumental verse at the beginning and the end. They only perform this tune in April, Frank must have gotten bored of it by May. It’s a bummer cause this is a really fun song, not as polished as the album take, but still very enjoyable.
The Torture Never Stops – This Zoot Allures classic premiered on this tour in an insanely different state. Frank would introduce the tune as “Why Doesn’t Somebody Get Him A Pepsi?” and describe it as the untold story of Captain Beefheart’s life. The only thing consistent with the future performances are the lyrics, which are largely the same (with some variations of course). The music on this version consists of a cool, dark, repetitive, bluesy slide guitar riff, with the Captain passionately belting out the words. There’s a fun horn riff that comes between the verses, but that’s about it for the composed sections. Don plays a moody harmonica solo after the “best of course of all the worst” line and if we’re lucky Frank will play a tasty, mean solo too. Don would finish the words and Frank would either conclude the tune by cueing the horn riff (and maybe throwing some licks on top of it), or begin a sick post-tune jam over the slide riff, usually with Denny getting a chance to solo too. With this song, the more guitar the better, so the Boston performance is probably my favorite of the bunch. The world premiere in Claremont is interesting too, Don starts yelling “Get up!” for a while and eventually quotes Sam With The Showing Scalp Flat Top. Frank jams a bit while Don shouts, and stops him to talk to the crowd about education, later ending the tune without the post-solo lyrics. No matter the variation, It’s nice to hear this tune when it pops up. I love the dirty blues feel of these takes and the fantastic jams most performances contained (especially post-Passaic). A really great version of a classic Zappa song.
Uncle Remus – This soulful Apostrophe tune appears one time, in New Haven, emerging out of the post-Echidna’s Arf improv. The performance of the theme is closer to the version on Duke’s album The Aura Will Prevail than Apostrophe. George sings through the tune once, plays some soulful acapella synth and Frank comes in with a delightfully hot and passionate solo. Frank makes George sing the whole song again after his solo, and then they move into the next tune. A wonderful take of a very unique song in FZ’s repertoire.
The Velvet Sunrise – This unreleased song is more of a slow blues vamp that Nappy and George sing the title over. Nappy then sings some improvised lyrics about love and/or loneliness and then Frank would give a lecture on the same topic or something else. Starting in Uniondale George sings something about “anchovies” between the closing “velvet sunrises”s. I’m not sure why but these are never super entertaining. I usually enjoy Nappy’s improv and Frank’s monologues, but for the most part these performances never really hold my attention. Not a bad tune, but there’s not a whole lot to it and they tend to push 10 minutes(in a bad way). Always played between Carolina Hardcore Ecstasy and Pound For A Brown.
Willie The Pimp – This is the tune that this tour was made for. It’s played as an encore at nearly every show, and the crowd rightfully goes nuts. Don belts out the iconic Hot Rats lyrics, and then Frank comes in with some jaw-dropping guitar. Seriously amazing playing. The New Haven and Passaic early versions are unfortunately very short due to time constraints (the Connecticut take is basically just the lyrics). At the Passaic late show Denny gets a nice solo before Frank, and Don blows his harmonica some at the second show in Boston (and occasionally over the outro). The horns will usually play a fun variant on the riff over the closing portion of the tune. These are fantastic performances and a regular highlight of most shows.
You’re So Fine & Lonely Lonely Nights – “Now the important part of our program, I’d like to bring out El Paso’s own Jimmy Carl Black, the Indian of the group! Jim has a couple of songs he’d like to sing for you”. Like Frank said, Jimmy makes a guest appearance at the El Paso show and croons out these two little rhythm and blues tunes, the first originally released by The Falcons in 1955 and the latter originally released by Earl King in 1955 and covered later in the year by Johnny “Guitar” Watson. They’re really fun, surprisingly well-put together numbers, and it’s just nice to hear from the Indian of the group again.
Solo Table:
Life On The Road 