Overview:
This is far from Frank’s most interesting tour, but it has its fair share of highlights. FZ has seemingly realized that there isn’t a wide range of music that this specific rocking teenage combo can cover, but what they can play is some really fun, loose, pseudo-bar-band style tunes and jams. Frank continued to use the basic setlist from the last tour, but added a few new songs and subtracted a few others. The first shows of the year are extra long and feature the entire Fall ‘75 setlist plus some the new songs and some rarely performed tunes, but by Japan Frank had narrowed the setlist down, abandoning Carolina Hardcore Ecstasy, the We’re Only in it For The Money tunes, and the four songs introduced last December. [The average setlist from that point on can be found below.] The remaining tunes are all fun, but it’s a bummer that when you listen to these shows, you rarely feel that sense of spontaneity present in so much of Frank’s work. If a show has a significantly different setlist, it’s either from Australia, or The Mothers were short on time. The encores could vary, but they frequently played two or three, and they could be in any order. None of these are bad shows, they just feel somewhat mundane compared to the insanity Frank would present on stage in previous years/tours. What there is though is amazing guitar playing. Frank is on fire and raring to go at 95% of these shows, and he produces some amazing instant compositions throughout this world tour. The Mothers start off in the Pacific (the tapes we have are from Australia and Japan, but they also played gigs in Hawaii and New Zealand), and these shows are all very fun. The earliest shows feature a handful of rare (or now-rare) tunes, but like I said before they’re quickly dropped from rotation. The four Japanese shows are all wonderful, and contain some of the best guitar work of Frank’s career. They’re an easy highlight of the tour, and probably the best run this band had. After the Pacific, they embark on a month-long tour of Europe, where the results are much more hit or miss. Pretty much every show features wild guitar, but the impulse to listen to every show from this tour is not strong. Some nights are filled with hilarious secret words (Sausage and/or Ms. Pinky being the big two this winter), while others don’t have much to offer beyond a nice solo every 10 minutes. This iteration of the Mothers get shit on for their musicianship too much (in my opinion), they obviously don’t reach the heights of Frank’s previous groups, but Nappy’s solos in Black Napkins and Chunga’s Revenge are often really enjoyable (if a little repetitive), and Andre’s funky keyboard jams in Filthy Habits and Chunga’s almost always succeed for me. Roy’s the weakest member of this group, but the combination of his laid-back bass playing and Terry’s frantic energy create a neat solo environment that often propels Frank to new heights. FZ also finally utilizes Roy’s number one talent again, his ability to ramble incoherent nonsense a la Gas Mask, and gives him a regular spot to freak out (also in Chunga’s Revenge). This road excursion is the final time Frank would use the name “the Mothers” for one of his bands, making this specific group the final official “Mothers of Invention”. This is more of a symbolic change than anything, because we’ve been pretty disconnected from the original 1960s Mothers for a while now. Frank said “any resemblance between this group [the Fall ‘76 band] and the original Mothers Of Invention is purely conceptual. The kind of things we’re doing now are very different.”, which is true, but I’ve seen other’s claim Frank dropped the name to get around being blocked from performing by Herb Cohen (FZ’s agent, who he had a major falling out with in 1976). His next group will be named “Zappa”, but after a certain point the band just becomes “Frank Zappa’s band”. This tour, while far from the best out there, can still be a lot of fun, and re-listening to the shows for this page really showed that. This band isn’t quite as cookie cutter as its reputation suggests, and while quite a few shows don’t hit our high expectations as Zappa fans, there’s a good number of other shows that do reach those peaks, and I can see myself coming back to those tapes in the near future.
The Setlist:
Main Set [In Japan And Europe]:
Naval Aviation In Art (Over PA)
Inca Roads Vamp Intro
Stinkfoot (incl. The Poodle Lecture)
Dirty Love
Filthy Habits
How Could I Be Such A Fool?
I Ain’t Got No Heart
I’m Not Satisfied (these three songs make up the “Freak Out Medley”)
Black Napkins
Advance Romance
Honey Don’t You Want A Man Like Me?
The Illinois Enema Bandit (with regular introductory preamble)
Wind Up Workin’ In A Gas Station
Tryin’ To Grow A Chin (Frank drops these last two tunes in late February)
The Torture Never Stops
Chunga’s Revenge
Zoot Allures
Inca Roads Vamp Outro
Encore A: Camarillo Brillo/Muffin Man/Outro
Encore B: Dinah-Moe Humm/Outro
Encore C: I’m The Slime/San Ber’dino/Outro
The Band:
Frank Zappa – Lead Guitar, Vocals, Even More Guitar
Napoleon Murphy Brock – Lead Vocals, Tenor Sax, Sausages
Roy Estrada – Bass, “Vocals”, Ms. Pinky
Andre Lewis – Keyboards, Vocals, Frenchie
Terry “Ted” Bozzio – Drums, Vocals, Chins
Recordings Available:
1976 01 20 – Hordern Pavilion, Sydney, Australia (Official Release)
The Mothers final Pacific tour kicked off with a show in Honolulu, Hawaii and a night in New Zealand before this date (the first known recording of the tour). This show was officially released as FZ:OZ in the early 2000s, but unfortunately a lot of material was left out to make the show fit on two CDs (and I’ll mention what when appropriate). There also are a couple of tunes that had to be patched with the available audience recording, due to gaps in the official recording (These songs are How Could I Be Such A Fool – where they actually used a recording from Japan – Kaiser Rolls, and Zoot Allures). This is the one of the last of the “deluxe” shows from this tour, with a handful of rare songs and leftovers from the Fall ‘75 run, before the majority of these tunes get shelved indefinitely. The show starts off with Naval Aviation In Art over the PA, followed by the Inca Roads guitar solo vamp, the new show walk-on theme for this tour. Unfortunately though, the official release removes Frank’s performance of the post-solo theme on guitar, the best part of the intro. Frank gives some really amusing intros (including “the extremely susceptible to increases in tempo, tiny skinny foxy little cute little available tonight to each and everyone of the ladies in the audience, and maybe some of the other persons that might be interested in him, little skinny Terry “Ted” Bozzio on drums”), and up next is a fun, but regular Stink-Foot/Poodle Lecture/Dirty Love combo (with another short edit, removing a couple seconds of tuning and Frank talking to roadie Paul Hoff). Frank references divan in the vile lecture (“and with a deft, swift, dense ecumenical patina.. she clippeth upon the poodle”), and Dirty Love leads into the first known complete Filthy Habits! (this song is one of the clearest highlights of the whole tour, and only played regularly in early ‘76). Following this is a large slew of regular tunes, performed at the normal enthusiasm. The Freak Out medley, Black Napkins (with a briefly-regular Andre solo), Advance Romance (“Now, look what she did to André tonight, with that wig and everything”), Honey Don’t You Wanna (which was edited off the official release), The Illinois Enema Bandit, Wind Up Workin’ In A Gas Station (with amusing “show me yer thumb” audience participation), and Tryin’ To Grow A Chin (also removed from the official release, but later included on a downloadable birthday bundle) make up the next big chunk of music. The first of a new brand of The Torture Never Stops comes next, but instead of the usual guitar solo we get a surprise appearance from the “little Aussie bleeder”, Norman Gunston! (a satirical character played by Australian TV legend Garry McDonald). He plays an amusing harmonica jam, drops a couple of racist jokes, then says the “The fun hasn’t beginned yet, uh, later on apparently The Mothers are gonna hand out the bingo cards and everything, you know. (It really sucks.) Thank you very much, Mother Superior. You’d think he’d try electrolysis, wouldn’t you?” before leaving the stage (and actually about 30 seconds have been edited out of Norman’s solo at three different spots). After this we’re treated to a wonderful medley of new tunes and late ‘75 classics that are unfortunately soon to be dropped from rotation. Let’s Move To Cleveland, Kaiser Rolls, Find Her Finer, Carolina Hardcore Ecstasy and the We’re Only In It For The Money medley (consisting of Lonely Little Girl, Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance, and What’s The Ugliest Part Of Your Body?) are all wonderful, but Carolina and the Money medley get dropped after this show (and the other songs don’t make it off Australia). Chunga’s Revenge is fun but standard, and Zoot Allures is wonderful, and finally has the amazing Ship Ahoy coda! (another only-on-this tour highlight). This goes right into the funky proto-Keep It Greasy (also the final appearance), and Frank ends the main show. We get two encores: Dinah-Moe Humm, and Camarillo Brillo/Muffin Man and FZ ends the show for real. In terms of song choice, this is easily the best show of the year, because we pretty much only lose tunes as time goes on. This isn’t the best show for Frank’s guitar, but it is very very good. It’s a bummer so many bits had to be cut, but FZ:OZ is still well worth a listen.
1976 01 21 – Hordern Pavilion, Sydney, Australia (Audience B)
Without the couple of rare songs at the end of this tape, this tape would be totally forgettable, but even with them it’s still one of the lamest of the year. Nothing notable from the intro dog songs, through the sub-standard Freak Out medley, featuring some unfortunate dropouts and small cuts (but we do get the always wonderful Filthy Habits). After this we’re treated to 15 seconds of Black Napkins, before an unfortunate cut that loses the entire tune, along with all of the next two songs! Advance Romance and Honey Don’t You Wanna are completely missing from the recording. The tape resumes at the start of The Enema Bandit, with a bicentennial-related intro and a fine solo, before moving into another audience participation heavy Wind Up Workin’ In A Gas Station, fun Tryin’ To Grow A Chin and unfortunately short Torture Never Stops. After this we enter the special part of the program, with fun, rare takes of Let’s Move To Cleveland, Kaiser Rolls and Find Her Finer. A standard (but enjoyable) Chunga’s follows this up, and next we’re treated to Zoot Allures, Unfortunately the tape cuts out 6 minutes in, leaving the rest of this show a mystery. Zoot has a cool King Kong quote at the end, and the rare songs are always fun, but everything you could want from an early ‘76 show can be found on better recordings (if you’re interested in this one, just listen to FZ:OZ).
1976 01 22 – Festival Hall, Melbourne, Australia (Audience B+)
We are still in Australia and we get another fun, but not entirely standout show. Frank has basically solidified the setlist by now; the only rare song remaining is the penultimate proto-Let’s Move To Cleveland near the end of the program. Frank introduces himself as Todd Rundgren, and moves right into the foot song. Stink-Foot/Dirty Love is always a winning combo for me (let’s just try to forget about the Poodle Lecture), Filthy Habits features Andre’s first solo, and an average performance of the Freak Out medley follows. After this we get a lovely, unique, mildly different sounding Black Napkins experience (Andre and Frank seem to be trying out some new ideas, and they all work splendidly), but the show returns to normal with above-average, high energy takes of Advance Romance, Honey Don’t You Want A Man Like Me and the Illinois Enema Bandit. Gas Station has more fun “cheap low budget audience participation” (in “disco land”), Tryin’ To Grow A Chin is always a riot and The Torture Never Stops is fun but FZ’s solo is still a little shorter than I’d hope. Cleveland is delightful in any form, and it’s a crime that this band stopped playing it. Chunga’s Revenge is once again the monster for tonight, and Roy even gets a rare bass solo (not just the usual hollering). Zoot Allures is fantastic, features another jaw-dropping Ship Ahoy and surprisingly goes right into the first known Ms. Pinky! A handful of times throughout the tour (though most often in the Pacific), Frank would end his Ship Ahoy jams with an instrumental version of this Zoot Allures pseudo-classic. Terry would shout some nonsense over the riff, and eventually Frank plays a fiery hot solo over the vamp. He ends the show with “Ralph Humphrey on guitar” and we get three encores tonight, Dinah-Moe Humm, Camarillo Brillo/Muffin Man and finally the Slime/Ber’dino medley. They play the final Inca outro, but Frank returns to announce “you were a very wonderful audience” and say a final goodbye. Not a whole lot of surprises at this show, but FZ is definitely on tonight and demolishes his guitar at key moments throughout the program. Because of this (and the very nice audio quality) I’d say check this one out.
1976 01 23 – Festival Hall, Melbourne, Australia (Audience B)
Here we have a very average Winter ‘76 show, and on this tour that isn’t a great thing. Very regular setlist (again, except for Cleveland and the pseudo-common Ms. Pinky) with standard, high-energy playing from Frank, but nothing to really distinguish itself from the other 30+ shows on this tour. Stink-Foot, Dirty Love and Filthy Habits are all excellent, while the Poodle Lecture and the Freak Out medley can be skipped if desired (though FZ does mention Tazmanians in the dog speech). Black Napkins is its usual beautiful self, and Andre even drops a King Kong quote. The regularly scheduled programing follows with a standard Advance Romance and Honey, a shortened Enema Bandit, a fun, “simple-minded” audience participation heavy, Gas Station, a regular goofy Chin, and a long, tasty Torture Never Stops (probably the best one so far). Cleveland is lovely (but unfortunately disappears after this show for a long 5 years), Chunga’s in amusing but nothing special, and the Zoot Allures, Ship Ahoy, Ms. Pinky combination never fails to make a great time. FZ ends the main set, but leaves time for two fun encores: Dinah-Moe Humm and the Slime/Ber’dino medley. This is a very nice, solid show, but like I mentioned before the highlights don’t shine much brighter than the highlights from any other night, so while I’m not going to turn anyone away from this tape, it’s not getting a strong recommendation either.
1976 01 24 – Apollo Stadium, Adelaide, Australia (Audience B+)
We are still down under, and Frank and the mothers perform another fiery but cookie cutter show. Inca Intro, Stink-Foot, The Poodle Lecture, Dirty Love, Filthy Habits and the Freak Out medley fill all the slots you expect them too, for better or for worse. Black Napkins is lovely, Frank quotes part of Wipe Out in Advance Romance, Honey is nothing special and we’re treated to a really amusing Enema Bandit intro (“This is the true story of a great American. A pioneer in medical science, a pioneer in sociology, a pioneer in the field of rubber goods.”). It’s a solid version, and it’s followed by a number of solid versions of this band’s repertoire: Wind Up Workin’ In A Gas Station (with rapidly diminishing audience participation), Tryin’ To Grow A Chin, and The Torture Never Stops (with FZ’s interjection “Hey you over there in the corner that’s trying to ruin the show, go fuck yourself”, before the “carving style” verse). Chunga’s Revenge is solid and fun, but the real show-stopper is the always fantastic Zoot Allures/Ship Ahoy/Ms. Pinky combo, which brings the show to a riotous end. Unfortunately, the taper decided not to record the encores, so the night ends with Ms. Pinky. This is a very nice show, a great example of the Australian tour, and captured in very nice sound. It’s not the first one I’d pick, but I wouldn’t turn anyone away from it. The second Adelaide show on the 25th, and the one show in Brisbane on the 26th were sadly both not recorded (as far as we know), so the next tape is from Perth on the 28th, Frank’s final ever date in Australia.
1976 01 28 – W.A.C.A., Perth, Australia (Audience A-)
Frank’s final show down under really delivers. You can tell FZ is in a good mood, he’s chatty, making jokes, and ready to tear his guitar to pieces. We get some fun intros ( including “Davey ‘son of Managua’ on mixing console and opening announcements”), and great takes of the intro tunes with a surprisingly amusing Poodle Lecture (“safety first, it’s almost like being at an Alice Cooper concert”). Stink-Foot and Dirty love are timeless classics, and after the second dog tune Frank stops to talk to the audience about “the future of rock music in your city”, outdoor halls and “quasi-political stuff”. Nappy gets a rare solo in Filthy Habits (instead of Andre), and Frank pumps out something amazing like always. Something happens with Nappy’s mic in parts of the Freak Out medley, but Black Napkins is delightful. Advance Romance is fun, and Frank mentions “Doris” for the first time in the program, a groupie (I imagine) who would become a minor secret word for the night (especially towards the end). Honey Don’t You Wanna is the same Honey Don’t You Wanna as usual, and the Enema bandit has an amusing intro (“start your own trend tonight”), but unfortunately has a cut that takes out a good chunk of the head of the song. Wind Up Workin’ In A Gas Station contains “the lowest ebb of audience participation”, and it rounded off by another early Grow A Chin and short Torture Never Stops. Another average Chunga’s leads into another fantastic Zoot Allures (with a “sit down ya wanker!” from the crowd right at the start). Ms. Pinky wraps up the event with a fun jam, Frank outros “Terry Ted Bozio on Doris” (he was even yelling her name over Pinky), and tells the crowd “I hope the next time we play here we don’t have to play in this stupid place”. Dinah-Moe Humm is our one encore tonight, and it’s filled with asides and more references to the girl (“Take it away Doris” & “She wants to get out of here I bet”). This is an excellent show, a highlight of the Australian run. It’s captured on a fantastic recording and it’s an easy recommendation.
1976 02 01 – Asakusa Kokusai Gekijo, Tokyo, Japan (Audience B/B-)
Like Frank says, this is “the first Mothers Of Invention concert in Japan!” It’s a standard show setlist wise, but Frank is definitely in the mood to play. Stink-Foot’s always fun, and Frank talks to “Fido-san” which I find really amusing. The rest of the dog medley is the same as always, Nappy gets another solo in Filthy Habits, and Frank wraps up the affair with another fantastic evil guitar jam. The Freak Out Medley is fine, Black Napkins is excellent, and Advance Romance, Honey Don’t You Wanna and The Illinois Enema Bandit bring exactly what you want from those tunes (except there’s a cut taking out most of the head of the last song, and Nappy sings a bit over Frank’s solo). Wind Up Workin’ In A Gas Station has already lost its audience participation section, but it now forms a more concise, poppy, medley of two with Tryin’ To Grow A Chin. We get a nice long Torture Never Stops, another regular Chunga’s (without Frank’s solo there’s not a lot to look forward to in this song anymore), and another excellent Zoot Allures. Ms. Pinky once again closes the set, Dinah-Moe Humm once again is our only encore, and Frank keeps the chatting aside for his non-English speaking audience (as he’s been doing most of the show). Despite the lack of originality, this is a very fun and consistent show for Frank’s guitar (really you can say that about the whole Japanese leg). Check this show out and then listen to the next three shows too.
1976 02 03 – Kosei Nenkin Kaikan, Osaka, Japan (Audience A/A-)
Here’s a famous, fantastic, show, probably the best of the Japanese run and easily the best audio quality. This show is well known for some of the best guitar playing of Frank’s career. I’m not going to talk much about Frank playing, because each jam is terrific in its own way, and you really should hear them all. Stink-Foot and Dirty Love are excellent takes (if you ignore the Poodle Lecture), and Filthy Habits is stunning (Andre gets his solo spot back from Napoleon too). The Freak Out medley is exactly what you’d expect, but it’s followed by the take of Black Napkins later used on the album Zoot Allures! Here we are treated to the full unedited version including Nappy’s first ever solo in the tune (from this date on he always plays the first solo). Advance Romance, Honey Don’t You Want A Man Like Me?, The Illinois Enema Bandit, Wind Up Workin’ In A Gas Station, Tryin’ To Grow A Chin, The Torture Never Stops are all excellent takes with wonderful improvisations in the regular slots. Chunga’s Revenge is great too, and Frank released Terry’s solo as Hands With A Hammer on You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore Vol 3. Zoot Allures is wonderful, these early ‘76 takes are probably the best this song ever got, and this particular version includes THE Ship Ahoy off Shut Up ‘N Play Yer Guitar. FZ ends the show shortly after the album track cuts, and returns for a hot Slime Ber’dino encore. Franks’ not very talkative, but he makes up for it with his guitar. If you’re only going to listen to one show from this tour, this certainly isn’t a bad pick.
1976 02 04 – Daigaku Seibu Kodo, Kyoto, Japan (Audience B+)
Another night in Nippon and another fantastic show. It starts off amusing from the very beginning, because the tape for Naval Aviation In Art breaks about 40 seconds in so they harass mixer Davey Moire for a little while, and some brief keyboard improv leads us into the Inca Roads vamp. Amazingly, after Frank comes on stage and plays the Inca theme he just starts soloing! It’s a fantastic little jam, showing that FZ just can’t wait to lay into his guitar. He finishes his solo and we get a regular setlist for the tour, with fantastic guitar from Frank throughout. Stink-Foot/Dirty Love is wonderful, the Poodle Lecture easily ignorable, and Filthy Habits is an underrated classic. The Freak Out medley is fine but this band could be much better, and Black Napkins is a perfect example of that. We get a standard Advance/Honey/Enema with a nice and short Enema Bandit intro, Gas Station/Tryin’ To Grow A Chin is a great little pop-rock medley of two and The Torture Never Stops contains a fantastic Ship Ahoy-esque solo. Roy gets a bass solo in Chunga’s, Frank’s Zoot Allures jam is wonderful and contains an amazing Ship Ahoy, the longest of the tour so far and easily one of the best, and Frank ends the show with the last regular occurrence of Ms. Pinky. We get one of the best Slime Ber’dino encores before Frank says a final “Sayonara!” This isn’t the best show of the Japanese run, but it’s still one of the best nights of the tour (for the amazing intro solo, fantastic playing and exciting finale).
1976 02 05 – Nippon Seinen-Kan, Tokyo, Japan (Audience B)
The Mothers final Japanese show is this return trip to Tokyo. The audio quality is solid, nothing fantastic, but the performances more than make up for it. Pedro’s Dowry is played over the PA instead of Naval Aviation, possibly because the only tape broke at the last performance. Nappy still moans over the ending of this recording and Frank once again solos right off the bat, this time leading into the Inca Roads theme! The dog songs are always fun (“Oooh bite me Frenchie, bite me, bite me”) and Frank stops the Poodle Lecture to chide Terry (“Keep the beat boy… you’ll get your pussy later… much later if you keep playing drums like that”). Filthy Habits is evil and wonderful, the Freak Out medley is overplayed and forgettable (they’re all far from my favorite songs on the album too) and Black Napkins provides the excellent instrumental relief. This night’s version is dedicated to “some of our Japanese friends: Ghidorah, Gamera, Rodan, Putorah(?) and the immortal Mothra”. Advance/Honey/Enema is the standard medley, with above-standard solos, and the Gas Station/Chin duo is fun, though Bozzio totally forgets the ”horny and lonely” verse. Frank plays a little solo-ette pre-Torture and delivers a fantastic full jam right in the middle. The final 35 minutes contain a wonderful Chunga’s Revenge and Zoot Allures, easily one of the best of the tour. The main body of Zoot alone is over 10 minutes! (It was released on FZ Plays The Music Of FZ for a reason). Some idiot keeps yelling during the quiet parts of Ship Ahoy, trying to get Frank’s attention, and we eventually get a really abrupt goodbye and segue into the outro Inca theme (many of Frank’s best jams end this way). This is unfortunately the end of the show for us, as the taper decided not to record the encore(s). Tokyo #2 is another fantastic show, rivaling Osaka for the best night of the tour, and yet another reason to listen to the entire Japanese run. It’s the last night of the Pacific tour, and also one of the last high points of this band. The final Mothers take a nine day break, and return to the road for a month in Europe, but these shows end up being some of the most hit or miss of Frank’s career.
1976 02 13 – Kurhalle, Vienna, Austria (Two Shows – Audience B+/B)
click here to listen to the early show
click here to listen to the late show
The first shows from the European tour are not the best of the European tour. These recordings sound pretty nice but offer very little to distinguish them from the rest. Frank starts the early show off like normal but announces himself as “Engelbert Humperdinck on guitar”. Following this we get a regular setlist with regular highlights. Frank quotes The Rite Of Spring in Black Napkins, and there’s a small cut missing the end of the tune through the beginning of Advance Romance. The show continues, The Enema Bandit tells “the tragic true story of our monitor system” and Frank once again shows his knowledge of the German language with “klistierspritze” (something he’d do in many of the upcoming German shows). Unfortunately, after about 30 seconds of Wind Up Workin’ In A Gas Station the recording cuts out and doesn’t return until the end of Zoot Allures. There isn’t a Ship Ahoy in this performance (as far as I can tell), Frank ends the show fairly abruptly and outros the band including “Frenchie the poodle live in person in Vienna”. We get two encores: Dinah-Moe Humm and Camarillo Brillo/Muffin Man, and the early show comes to an end. The sound improves a little bit for “the second Mothers of Invention Viennese Extravaganza for 1976″, and we get a full, regular-setlist performance. Frank says “us regular folks like me and Roy” in Stink-Foot, shits on “the Viennese electric company” in The Poodle Lecture, and we get another fantastic Filthy Habits. FZ shouts “Now look what she did to Andre a second time!” in Advance Romance, and we get an excellent Gas Station and Grow Me A Chin. Torture is very very slightly German-mutated and an excellent Chungas-Zoot-Ship Ahoy ends the show. There were apparently two encores: Dinah-Moe Humm and I’m The Slime, but only the former was captured. This is a fine show, Frank was playing around with the Ship Ahoy modulators throughout the concert, making some of the most standard solos standout a little more, but overall these aren’t the best concerts of the tour. All the highlights are there, but nothing you can’t find with other nights from this era.
1976 02 14 – Deutsches Museum, Munich, Germany (Audience B+)
This show’s got nice sound, but it’s one of the lamest this band put on, mainly because Frank is having equipment problems throughout, leading to sub-par, low energy solos. He also states early on this is an audience “extremely concerned with how loud the music is and whether or not they can make out the words” which may have contributed to the quality of the final product. Frank comments that he “quality of [God’s] workmanship has gone down quite a bit, [and] the Japanese have taken over where he left off” in the Poodle Lecture, and we unfortunately don’t get a solo in Dirty Love (“the poodle is biting it, the poodle is chewing it, so is my equipment”). Filthy Habits is great (but doesn’t have as much guitar as you’d hope), the Freak Out tunes are forgettable and Frank talks a lot before Black Napkins. He mentions that Napoleon is having monitor issues, and addresses why he’s “standing here on this stage, blowing his nose like this”. He talks about their Pacific tour, but claims their troubles began when they had “a week off in Copenhagen”. Black Napkins itself is very nice, but a cut takes out the end of Frank’s solo. Advance-Honey-Enema-Gas Station-Chin brings exactly what you’d expect from this troublesome show, and the vocal songs conclude with another German-tinged Torture. FZ is generally acting pretty goofy throughout the tune; After the solo someone passes something on stage, and he announces “’I’m gonna enjoy that a lot, after a week in Copenhagen!”. This nearly derails the end of the tune, and Frank transitions to Chunga’s with “And now back to Copenhagen once again!” The main set ends with a very nice Zoot Allures that eventually kinda morphs into Andy! Terry starts playing the iconic drum riff near the end of Ship Ahoy. Frank outros the band, and Dinah-Moe Humm is our first encore. Frank stretches out the “poked and stroked” ending for the first time, leaves the stage, returns, announces “Alright here we go, one of those songs” and plays a fun Slime Ber’dino. This is far from a great show, I’d say check out Zoot Allures for the Andy quote, and the songs with Copenhagen references are pretty funny, but overall this is a skippable night.
1976 02 15 – Friedrich Ebert Halle, Ludwigshafen, Germany (Audience A-/B+)
Here we have an excellent show, easily one of the best of the tour in terms of performances and recording quality. Frank introduces “my old friend Davey Moire at the mixing console” with the rest of the band, possibly hinting at something later on in the program. After great takes of the dog suite, Frank says “Frenchie is going to retire for a little while” and we get a tremendous Filthy Habits (This really is the defining song of the tour, maybe even the band – or is it Zoot Allures?). The Freak Out medley is in its regular place, and Frank gives an amusing intro to Black Napkins about being in love, but ends it with “even if you don’t know what the fuck I’m saying too you right now it doesn’t make any difference because… this song is an instrumental”. Nappy plays a nice solo, and FZ starts to but stops and says “journey to the center of your pancake house….. one of the great new cuts from the new Nektar album complete with light show” He plays a very quick riff, claims “that’s the name of the pancake house in question, it’s a 128 syllable word”, and goes on to chat with the audience between licks for little while longer. After this is a long and jamming Advance Romance, and above average takes of Honey Don’t You Wanna, and the Enema Bandit (“He’s got the HOSE world in his hand”). After Gas Station and Tryin’ To Grow A Chin Frank yells “Suzi Quatro ladies and gentleman!” and we’re lead into a ridiculous Torture Never Stops. It’s a mutated take, with a bunch of references to Roy, the Mexican of the Group (He sings the “Wan’ an Enema?” song which cracks Frank up, so Frank sings “of every Mexican that’s ever been” and unsuccessfully attempts to shove “Mexican” into the “that’s what the deal we’re dealing in” line. Frank also quotes Wipe Out right at start of his solo, and lets Terry jam for a little bit before returning to Torture. FZ ends the tune with “and now direct from Mexico City”, leading us right into a fantastic Chunga’s Revenge, one of the best of the tour. The band is on fire, but after Roy’s “singing” Frank starts talking to Davey Moire behind the mixing console and tells him to play his harmonica! There’s some back and forth (“see what happens when you start covering the mixing console with lovely ladies, Davey?”) and Frank eventually says they’ll modulate to the key of A after Andre’s solo and Davey will get his chance there. It’s a really fun little jam, and after this is a fantastic Zoot Allures, ending with an instrumental proto-type version of Disco Boy! Frank plays the chords to most of the first half of the tune, and it’s just fun to hear this song in such an early state. This brings the main set to a close, but we get all three encores tonight. Dinah-Moe Humm is a standard take, but Camarillo Brillo has mutated to refer to Frank’s friend Tex Abel (“He stripped away his rancid poncho/and followed Tex back to the hotel/they did it til they were unconcho/and later on he wished him well”). Roy yells “I got the whole world in my hand” over the slow ending, Frank interjects between the verses in Muffin Man (“yes he was a muffin that’s right!”) and delivers some fantastic guitar fury. They return yet again, FZ declares “alright this is the last one, alright the last two in a row then” and whips out a great Slime Ber’dino (He ends the solo in the latter tune with the Sunshine Of Your Love riff). This is an excellent concert, one of the most experimental and fun of the year, and an easy recommendation. If you want to hear a show from Europe, this is probably the best one to start.
1976 02 17 – Sporthalle, Cologne, Germany (Audience B/B-/C+)
This is a very, very fun show captured on an unfortunately poor recording. It actually doesn’t sound too bad most of the time, but it occasionally gets pretty distorted, leading to a wide variety in sound quality. Anyway, Frank introduces himself as experimental German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, and takes us through another amusing Stink -Foot (“here it comes, Limbo across Poland!” – he actually says this phrase a couple times during this show and the next). We get an average Poodle Lecture, and the first hints of tonight’s secret word extravaganza come up in Dirty Love! (the first mutated line is “I don’t want your perspiration, I don’t want your carrots!”). Filthy Habits is terrific, the Freak Out medley is simply fine, and Frank asks the audience “How many people in the audience here tonight were in love within the last 24-36 hours?” before Black Napkins (amongst other love questions). Frank’s survey leads into a typically wonderful version of the tune, followed by another long and jamming Advance Romance. Honey takes its normal spot next, but after this things start going goofy. FZ announces the Enema Bandit as “this is our song about Roy in the sauna baths this afternoon”, but despite this it’s a pretty normal performance (though Frank does end the tune with “Mr. Strauss, eat your heart out!”). Gas Station is fun and Chin has a small lyrical mutation! (“I’m horny and lonely, I wish I was in that sauna bath!”). After this, Frank plays some hot licks leading into the first verse in Torture, something he’d continue doing for the next couple of show, and he also breaks up the first few of verses into couplets, really slowing down the intro of the tune. The song itself is one of the best Tortures from this band. The tune totally mutates, with carrots everywhere, and hints of sausages and John Smothers (some of my favorite lines include, “where the carrots go down the drain, “Something wrong been done he carrot first” and of course “the Smothers Never Stops”). This is also the first Torture to contain the lyrics “the Iron Sausage”; In fact in this performance, FZ says “Iron Carrot” while the other band members say “In the room with the iron sausage”, which just totally cracks Frank up. He replies “And now direct from the room of the Iron Sausage!” and then delivers a fantastic solo. The end of the tune is wildly corrupted too (“But a sausage like a sin, requires not but stuffing a carrot in”), Frank says “alright pull the carrot out one time now” and we get launched into a solid Chunga’s Revenge. The bummer is that here is where the distortion really starts to kick in and mildly hamper the enjoyment of the last chunk of the concert. Zoot Allures is beautiful and brilliant, and ends with another fun, instrumental proto-Disco Boy! This concludes the main show, but we thankfully have a trio of riotous encores, all mostly mutated by the acts of one Bald Headed John. First is Dinah-Moe Humm (“think I could interest you in a zircon-encrusted sausage?”), then an unmodified Camarillo Brillo/Muffin Man. Frank says “thank you very much for all the carrots and the sausages… and the stables” , leaves and returns a final time to finish off the night with another great Slime Ber’dino (featuring the line “Your carrot is totally controlled”). This is easily one of the most fun nights of the tour. The sausage and carrot mayhem never fails to crack me up, and if you can handle sub-par sound this is a no-brainer recommendation.
1976 02 18 – Niedersachsenhalle, Hannover, Germany (Audience B+)
This is a very nice sounding tape, but unfortunately there must have been some sort of time restraint because Frank ends the show without a Chunga’s or Zoot Allures. Frank prefaces the show with the announcement: “now in case you didn’t realize it, we’re working under a little bit of difficulty this evening. Our mixing console blew up, so we’re operating out of a very small little box out there hoping that everything will work great, but never fear the show will go on…” Frank talks about “A wunderbar type dog” in the Poodle Lecture, we get great solos in Stink-Foot and Filthy Habits, and the regular setlist continues through the Freak Out medley into Black Napkins. The epic bluesy tune has another long dedication, this time around “to the two people who are the main characters in that little book that Mr. Smothers bought at Dr. Wuter’s(?) sex boutique.” Nappy quotes King Kong in his solo, Frank lets out a tasty guitar event, and we’re led into Advance Romance (“Look what she did to Andre tonight, blew up his board and everything!”). We get a normal take of Honey Don’t You Wanna, but last night’s secret words start to seep back in during the Enema Bandit (“They drag in the carrot” & “Hot, soapy, sausage” being my two faves). Frank, Terry and Roy chat for a sec at the end of the dragnet-style intro (“What is it Terry? There aren’t any monitors, Terry”, Roy: “There’s sausage though”), and we get a solid, mutated performance of the tune. Frank announces “If you can’t get a bag use a carrot” and then proclaims “ladies and gentleman of sausage land here it comes!” before sliding into the always fun Wind Up Growin’ A Chin medley of two. The Torture Never Stops is the fun, mildly-whacked tune we’ve grown to expect. Frank plays some fun, now regular intro licks, mutates certain words into the German language, and loses it when the rest of the band sing “in the night of the Iron Sausage”. He plays a hot solo, then before returning to the composed section Frank starts to sing I Wish You Would (a blues standard originally recorded by Billy Boy Arnold in 1955) at the end of his solo, and the whole second half of the tune is corrupted by mentions of carrots and sausages. Unfortunately, like I said earlier, Frank ends the show here, likely due to time constraints, which leaves the night without a Chunga’s Revenge or Zoot Allures. Interestingly, Frank plays on the outro Inca Roads theme here, something he usually reserved for the opening performances. After this we get a fun, though short, I’m The Slime/San Ber’dino encore to finish out the night proper. This isn’t one of the best shows from the tour, but it has its moments. Because of the shortened nature, I’m not going to recommend listening to this one, but if you found yourself enjoying the madness of the last two recordings you’ll probably like this one too (especially the crazy torture).
1976 02 19 – Grugahalle, Essen, Germany (Audience B/B-)
Here we have an interesting tape. There aren’t many special highlights musically, but the carrot/sausage bonanza of the last couple days continues on. There are two tapes available for this show, and the worse sounding one starts us off. It’s pretty hissy, but the sound improves for good at the end of Black Napkins. The recording starts in the middle of Stink-Foot, and we get a nice solo. Frank describes a Poodle with a “disco look”, Dirty love is crude and funky, and Filthy Habits is deliciously evil. The overplayed Freak Out medley comes after the dog songs, and after that is “Schwarze Serviette” (German for Black Napkins). It’s another excellent take, followed by a regular Advance Romance, and a less regular Honey Don’t You Wanna. Here, of all places, are where the secret words start to droozle back in. At the end of the tune we get the mutations “He just got in the car, but his carrot was dead” and of course “Baby don’t you want a sausage sometime”. This leads into another goofy Enema Bandit, with lines like “Got a rubberized bag, and a sausage on his arm” and “let the sausage be!”. Both Gas and Chin are real fun, and they lead into another whacked Torture Never Stops. About 90 seconds in something really cracks Frank up, to which he replies “that looked like about a half a pound of young rats!” Then, the Iron sausage appears, destroys Frank, Terry says “the sausage never stops” and FZ says “now look here now look here I want you all to really understand this deep inner pulsating throbbing tender yet somehow absolutely perverted significance of this song, no there’s no way to get it across to you, just watch him.” (I imagine he’s pointing to Smothers). After this we head straight into another fun Chunga’s Revenge and awesome Zoot Allures (with a mind-boggling Ship Ahoy section). No matter what, this tune provides an excellent finale to the main set, and this show is no exception. We get two encores, thankfully with continued secret word abuse. The first one is Dinah-Moe Humm (including “she spied the condition her carrot was in” and “are you allergic to sausage?”) and the second consists of I’m The Slime and San Ber’dino (with the unforgettable line: “I’m destined to rule and vomit on(?) you”). This isn’t the best tape out there, and it’s definitely not the first I’d recommend to someone, but if you’ve been enjoying the secret word madness in Cologne and Hannover like I have, I’d check this one out.
1976 02 20 – Congress Centrum, Hamburg, Germany (Audience B+/B)
Here we have a pretty nice concert, with pretty nice sound, but an unfortunate number of cuts. We get a nice Stink-Foot to start us off (with Roy singing the imaginary diseases line for the first time, something he’d do for a couple days before Frank tells him to stop again), followed by a Poodle Lecture with an added line about how God “wanted it to be a schnauzer, but He fucked up”. Dirty Love is fun and funky, and afterwards Frank says: “And now ladies and gentlemen, we leave the world of the pup(?) and take you to the world of the carrot, the sausage and the sadly depleted monitor system… direct from Hamburg ladies and gentlemen it’s one night only a song entitled Filthy Habits!” The Freak Out medley comes next, and after this is another soulful Black Napkins with another amusing love intro (“this goes out to each and every member of the audience tonight who might have been in love recently, will be in love in the future or perhaps is even in love with someone or something right now here in this moment, here on the Huggy Boy Show”). Unfortunately though there’s a number of cuts in Frank solo, and there’s one in his Advance Romance jam too! Anyway, Frank and Andre kinda scat over the beginning of the solo section in the latter tune, and FZ ends Honey with with the more straightforward line “and she sucks on some dick” (Frank continues to say this for a while). We get a long, German heavy Enema Bandit intro (AKA the “Amerikanischer Klistierspritze Räuber”), and Napoleon and Roy actually mess with the tune more than Frank. FZ mentions that “We’re too poor to afford a real nozzle” in the intro, Nappy replaces “from farm to farm” with “from farm to Sausage farm” (something he’d continue to do for the next week or so), and Roy shouts “Let the sausage be” and “let the carrot free” in place of the normal outcries for the bandit. We get a fun Gas/Chin duo followed by a “very dramatic” Torture Never Stops, that is until the Iron Sausage line cracks Frank up again and the tune mutates to “The Sausage Never Stops”. Frank either got bored of the German lyrics or forgot to say them here and there are two unfortunate cuts missing a small chunk of FZ’s solo, and the entirety of the end of the tune (including the end of Frank’s jam). The tape returns near the beginning of Nappy’s Chunga’s solo, we get a standard early ‘76 take of the tune, and the tape cuts out again at the end of Terry’s drum solo. We return in the middle of Frank’s Zoot solo, and it’s a nice jam but not one of the best ones. This ends the show and we get the regular barrage of encores to send the crowd home happy (#1 Dinah-Moe Humm [cuts in], #2 Camarillo Brillo/Muffin Man and #3 I’m The Slime/San Ber’dino). Interestingly, Frank seems to do a conducted meltdown ending, something I’m pretty sure he hasn’t done in nearly a year. This is a solid show, but now that the sausage madness has died down somewhat, there isn’t much to make this night stand out from the pack, and the number of cuts really don’t help the listenability. Overall, not a bad show, but not one I’d recommend.
1976 02 21 – Vejlby-Risskov Hallen, Aarhus, Denmark (Audience B+)
This is a nice sounding recording of a solid concert from week two of the ‘76 European excursion. The show starts like normal with a fun Stink-Foot, but Frank stops his solo early, says “Turn that heater off, it makes the guitar go out of tune” and the band vamps for a while. We are then “treated” to a long, modified Danish Poodle Lecture (“Then she pruned it all around this region here near the medulla. This is for a special kind of erotic stroke known only to the inhabitants of Jutland”) We then get some extra horrible lines about the woman sliding on her ass and how it “made this aroma come out that was repelling Roy (“If the aroma that repelled Roy had not come out Roy would be over there with the dog unless Terry got there first”). Frank ends the story with “several Danish photographers started snapping away”, a reference to “dog book and pig book” hysteria of the Mothers trip to Europe in 1970. Next we get a fun Dirty Love, followed by a tasty Filthy Habits (with the ending theme partially missing). After the Freak Out medley, Frank dedicates the next tune to “people everywhere who are in love with someone or something”. He goes on to say: “These are desperate times, and if you can’t find anything else out there that’s worth being interested in you might as well love yourself. Don’t have to go so far as to beat off everyday but y’know just take good care of yourself. Name of this song is awww go fuck yourself…. name of this song is Black Napkins!” We get a great version of the classic tune, followed by a very nice Advance Romance (with a cut missing the end of Andre’s solo and the beginning of Frank’s). Honey is a little modified (FZ ends the tune on “ and she sucks on some dick” and Roy continues with “and that’s the end of the sausage!”), and Frank launches into a long Enema Bandit intro. He mentions that they lost the nozzle for their prop enema, that they have a “cheerleader from southern California” (I think It’s a sex doll, a full sized one though, so not Ms. Pinky), and ends the monologue with “As soon as you get home, get out the rubber goods and have a good time in the fatherland”. We get a solid take of that tune, followed by more nice takes of Gas Station and Chin (Terry very nearly fucks up the “horny and lonely” line). Next up is an excellent Torture Never Stops (with a cut taking out most of the first two verses) and this tune is of course corrupted with Smothers-isms. (“Do you think any of the people in that are who use sausages and carrots on each other would stand up for that son of a bitch? Not a one of them, no one durst, with their wurst”). The Iron Sausage line yet again kills Frank, so he says “talk amongst yourselves” while he laughs and starts his solo. He quotes “Getting to Know You” from the King and I and Stranger In Paradise from the musical Kismet (aka the “Gliding Dance of the Maidens” from Borodin’ Polovtsian Dances) in his solo and talks about “all kinds of meat byproducts” at end of tune. To close FZ yells “Meanwhile back in the jungle!” (A reference to the old Jayhawks’ tune Stranded in The Jungle, which Zappa would cover with his new band in the Fall) and leads us directly into Chunga’s Revenge. Something goes wrong during the theme, I think FZ’s guitar breaks, so we get a weird, barebones, kinda jazzy version of the head before a nice, fairly regular version of the tune. Someone (I suspect Roy, during his “solo”) quotes the old standards, I’m In The Mood For Love and For Sentimental Reasons. There’s a cut missing the end of Roy’s vocal madness, and FZ stops Terry’s solo to reprimand the audience (“listen I don’t wanna tell you how close you are to an American college audience or you’d be offended, but listen to his drum solo…”). After this we get a nice Zoot Allures with an unfortunate cut about 4 minutes in (the recording returns at the very beginning of Ship Ahoy) and a now-rare Ms. Pinky ends the show. We get the three expected encores: a normal Dinah-Moe Humm, an amusing and mildly corrupted Camarillo Brillo/Muffin Man (“you thought he was a man but he only was a sausage”) and a fun, final I’m The Slime/San Ber’dino (with a small cut at 5:30). After Muffin Man (but before their final return) Frank gives a long outro for Terry, Roy and their bus driver (“we’d like to dedicate this whole show to Hein, our bus driver who got us here in time to do it, this goes out to you Hein wherever you are.”) This is a nice, fun, above-average show from this tour. Frank’s glad the crowd seems to understand English, so he’s talkative and in a good mood throughout, and this show has maybe my favorite Torture Never Stops from this band. I’d say check this one out if you’ve heard the slightly more-standout tapes from this era and just want more of this specific rocking teenage combo, but otherwise there are better places to start.
1976 02 23 – Njaardhallen, Oslo, Norway (Audience B-)
This is a pretty meh show. There’s no great standout moments, and the sound is mediocre too. I think someone (possibly Terry) comes in too early with the Incan intro, so it overlaps the last couple seconds of Naval Aviation In Art. Frank is really hard to hear, but he announces “Davey Moire on mixing console” and apologizes to the crowd for having to wait while they fixed their equipment. We get a nice Stink-Foot, followed by one of the most vile Poodle Lectures performed. Dirty Love’s great and Filthy Habits is always a highlight. The Freak Out medley comes and goes, and a lovely Black Napkins follows. Frank introduces the tune as “for people who are in love with something or anything”, and the tune leads into a solid Advance Romance/Honey Don’t You Wanna, The Enema Bandit comes next, and in the intro Frank comments on the missing nozzle, makes some rape jokes, and uses the Norwegian term for beating one’s meat (“onanere”). At the end of his monologue, Frank tells a fan “stop interrupting. We will get on with your song. You’re gonna be punished for that, cause Terry’s got that coke bottle back there!” and proceeds with the tune (with an unusually upbeat-for-this-song jam). The rest of the show is pretty normal, Gas Station is dumb and fun, Frank plays a little extra guitar at the end of chin and we get a nice Torture Never Stops. For some reason this is the last show to regularly feature these three tunes. Wind Up Workin’ In A Gas Station and Tryin’ To Grow A Chin aren’t played again by this band, and Torture is only played at six of the next fourteen shows. I don’t know why Frank dropped these songs, they were some of my favorite tunes from this lineup, and it was a big mistake in my book. Anyway, there’s an unfortunate cut in Torture taking out the iron sausage line (so we don’t get to hear Frank’s reaction), but FZ’s solo is very nice. Something really cracks Frank up in the second half of the tune, and he has to catch his breath for a minute. He ends it with “okay now it’s your deal”, and launches into a long, fun Chunga’s Revenge. Zoot Allures is nice too, but it unfortunately cuts about a minute into Ship Ahoy, missing the end of the main set. We return right before Dinah Moe Humm, and get a regular take of the soon-overplayed tune. Slime Ber’dino is the final encore, but the recording misses Frank’s sick guitar intro. Not a bad show, but there’s better performances and better recording available elsewhere. This one’s for completionists only (that and residents of Oslo).
1976 02 24 – Konserthuset, Stockholm, Sweden (Audience B+)
A fine sounding but deeply flawed tape, because the taper seemingly only recorded the first half of the show. The recording starts during Stink-Foot, and we’re quickly introduced to the secret word/theme for tonight: Sweden’s 15 year old age of consent. Frank says “C’mon Fido, bring your birth certificate” in Stink-Foot, someone yells “no he didn’t!” after Frank says the line about God creating the poodle, so we get a little ongoing back and forth between the two (“Would I lie to you?”). FZ mentions the schnauzer and the bloodhound, mentions 15 year olds again, and names the man in the story Jim Jones (I don’t think he’s referencing the cult leader, because he didn’t make the news til ’78). He then says that she “cleaned him off right here near… Malmo, during the last show it was Copenhagen but I forgot to change it”. This leads me to believe that this recording is of the late show. Frank said Copenhagen in his Oslo Poodle lecture, so I think he’s implying that he said Copenhagen again by mistake in the Stockholm early show (in Aarhus he says “Dusseldorf”, so Oslo, isn’t the repeat show). Anyway, after over eight minutes of Poodle talk, we get the funky relief of Dirty Love. Filthy Habits is always amazing, the Freak Out medley is always fine, and Black Napkins is always delightfully soulful (“a 15-year-old age limit kind of a song”) . In his intro tonight Frank instructs the audience to “take a napkin, make sure it’s a black napkin and tie oh about 8 or 10 knots in it, find somebody that you’d really like to hang out with and shove that napkin up their butt! and then just about the time their getting off, pull it out! and here we go..” In Advance Romance FZ says “now she’s only 15 but she’s going to Andre for tonight.” and Andre replies by singing “15-years-old” over the start of his solo. Frank plays a nice jam, Honey’s an average take, and next up is an Illinois Enema Bandit that “goes out to all the Mexican couples in the audience”. Frank talks about “college educated weesas” and tells the audience that their prop enema bag finally broke last night in Norway (they use a “Mexican instrument” instead). Not long after this, the tape cuts out, leaving the rest of the show a mystery (except for some reason there’s a 40 second drum solo excerpt, I assume from Chunga’s, that finishes the tape off). This tape sounds nice, and contains some good solos, but the secret word grosses me out (especially with Roy on stage), so this is not a tape I’d recommend anytime soon.
1976 02 26 – UKK-halli, Helsinki, Finland (Audience B/B-)
Zappa always put on a good show in Helsinki, but don’t get too excited. The taper of this show has decided that he only wants to release select segments of his historic Finish recordings, and for this show he decided to release Dinah-Moe Humm. Just the one song, and the following Incan outro. I know. It’s a bummer. It’s a high-energy, but overall standard performance of the tune, captured in mediocre quality. I’d love to hear the whole show, too bad it’s locked away somewhere in northern Europe. For now though, this is a very non-essential listen.
1976 02 29 – Falkoner Teatret, Copenhagn, Denmark (Two Shows – Audience C+ and A-/B+)
click here to listen to the early show
click here to listen to the late show
The Mothers return to Copenhagen (they stayed there between Japan and the start of the European leg of the tour) and we get one terrible recording and one nice one. The early show is easily the worst tape of the era, very distant and distorted, with the vocals being especially hard to make out. There’s more references to the infamous Danish pornography mags in Stink-Foot and the Poodle Lecture (“Right around the corner over by the porn shop”; “Since she had lived in Denmark for quite some time, and had been down that street to see a few of those books”), and a fun Dirty Love ends the dog suite. “Coming up next on the Huggy Boy show: That fantastic new instrumental number that’s popular with poodles all over the world”: Filthy Habits! We get another hot take of the tune, followed by a standard Freak Out medley (the first half of I’m Not Satisfied is missing). Up next is Black Napkins, a song “for lovers only” (the rest of the intro is too hard to make out) with a long and tasty solo from Frank. Advance Romance and Honey deliver standard takes, and the Enema Bandit cuts out during Frank’s intro. We return during Nappy’s solo in Chunga’s Revenge, leading me to believe they probably dropped the Gas/Chin/Torture segment of the show already. Chunga’s is fun, Zoot is excellent, and during the Ship Ahoy section the audience starts clapping, to which Frank responds “That’s it, keep the beat going…. Hallelujah!”. After another minute of modulated heaven, FZ transitions directly into Camarillo Brillo, and ends the set with Muffin Man. San Ber’dino is our only encore this time around, and it brings the show to a quick conclusion. This show sounds awful and it’s clear the Mothers were short on time. The late show sounds infinitely better, but Frank and company run into more of the same time problems. Frank introduces himself as Californian radio DJ “Dick Hugg ‘Huggy boy’ on guitar”, and FZ plays a cool Sweet Leilani quote in his Stink-Foot solo. He also makes a strange reference to “that guy who said put the tape recorder on the telephone in case the Russians attack you”. We get a very standard Poodle Lecture, with the expected Danish porno reference (“have you seen the book too?”) and an unexpected 50s RnB reference (“So this is what she did, just-a swingin’ through the trees”, a line from Jungle Hop by Don & Dewey). The Freak Out medley is fine, and afterwards “it’s romance time here during the program ladies and gentleman”. We get a nice Black Napkins, where during Frank’s solo some crazed fan yells out “right on!” which totally amuses Frank (“Was that a soul brother out there? Actually saying right on to me?”). FZ continues to comment throughout his solo (“Why it seems as if it was only yesterday, I turned to Joni Mitchell and I said ‘you should have something done with your teeth.'”), until he ends the beautiful tune and we get a surprisingly placed Torture! Frank acts really goofy, and it infects the song with a dumb-but-fun energy. We get more “right on man”s, some mutated lines (“Are they Danish?”) and a great solo. The end of the tune cuts out, and we return at the beginning of Advance Romance to continue our regularly scheduled programming. It’s a nice and long take, and it’s followed by a Honey Don’t You Wanna infected with “right on”s, and even a few sausages! Next is a long, winding Enema Bandit intro, with comments on Chicago gangsters, the city of Bloomington, Terry and Smothers, and Finnish literature, amongst other things. Frank names the sex doll Rhonda tonight (with a weird bit of possibly accidental conceptual continuity with Artificial Rhonda/Ms. Pinky off Thing Fish), he says Michael speaks in a “very deep, clear voice”, just like Studebaker Hoch from Billy the Mountain, we get the first ever mention of the infamous Ms. Pinky, and Andre plays a little bit of Dragnet as they start the tune itself. We get a fine performance of said tune, and after this FZ cues a shortened version of Chunga’s, with solos from just Nappy and Terry. Frank goes into Camarillo next but outros the band over the start of the song. For an encore we get a short I’m the Slime and a nice San Ber’dino. There aren’t bad shows, but the first is captured on an unlistenable recording, and the later is cut unfortunately short. The “right on” madness is pretty funny, and there’s a fair amount of conceptual continuity in the Enema Bandit intro, so I’d recommend checking out those sections, but there are much better full shows from this era out there. Also, Frank seems to quote a few unknown tunes throughout the late show (I believe I heard something in Torture, at the start of his Enema Bandit solo, and possibly in Advance Romance). If you know what these are please reach out to me!
1976 03 02 – Olympen, Lund, Sweden (Two Shows – Audience B/B-)
click here to listen to the early show
click here to listen to the late show
The Mother’s take a short trip across the Øresund strait, leaving Denmark and just barely crossing over into Sweden. Unfortunately the early show is hampered by a time limit, and the late show is missing the first 20-30 minutes (also, both recordings sound pretty mediocre). The early show starts off with a standard Stink-Foot and Dirty Love (except that Fido “was stuck in customs”), and is followed by a regular, but still excellent Filthy Habits. We then get a fine Freak Out Medley, a nice Black Napkins (with no love intro) and a fun Advance Romance (FZ yells all night long between solos). Honey Don’t You Wanna has some fun lyrical variation (“And that’s the end of the sausage!”), but not a whole lot, and a regular Enema Bandit follows (“Is there a girl in the audience who can be demonstrated upon? We usually use this doll…”). After this is an abrupt transition into a shortened Chunga’s Revenge. We get a solo from Nappy, Roy sings for about a minute, Frank jams for 30 seconds, Terry solos, and then Frank returns with some more guitar to close out the show. The encores (if there were any), were not captured on this recording. The late show recording sounds very similar to the first, and starts right at the beginning of I’m Not Satisfied, likely missing the show intro, the dog songs, Filthy Habits and the first two tunes of the Freak Out medley. Black Napkins is the first moment of interest on this tape; Frank dedicates the song to Roy and describes it as “a kind of a hamburger of a song”, among other things. The tune itself is very nice (Frank even quotes Hall Of The Mountain King), and it’s followed by a jolly Advance Romance (“now look what she did to my amp tonight!”). Honey Don’t You Want A Man Like Me?, “The Illinois Enema Bandito” and The Torture Never Stops round out the vocal portion of the show. Chunga’s Revenge is fun and stretches out (Roy sings a bit of the Disco Boy lyrics), and Zoot Allures is sick as always (there’s even a bit of the Bowling On Charen vamp in there). The tune features a nice long, different kind of coda (not quite Ship Ahoy) and brings the main set to an end. For an encore we get a fun I’m The Slime with a long guitar intro, and a regular, but still rocking San Ber’dino. These aren’t a bad set of shows, but there’s really not enough happening here to make me recommend them. They’re not quite for completionists only, but it’s not a good sign that they’re on the fence for that category.
1976 03 03 – Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen, Denmark (Two Shows – Audience A-/B+ and B+/B)
click here to listen to the early show
click here to listen to the late show
The Mother’s return to Copenhagen for a final night at a different venue. The early show sounds very nice and begins with keyboard heavy Inca Roads theme (I think Frank’s guitar was on the fritz. Frank’s clearly in a good mood right off the bat, based on his amusing band intros (including, but not limited to “Andre Lewis on keyboards, the prize catch of our ensemble” and “Terry Ted, partially denectarized Bozzio on drums” ). Nappy plays the second half of March of the Toreadors from Carmen while Frank talks to Fido (thanks to my girlfriend for that song ID), FZ says “take me I’m yours” and then later quotes Santa Claus Is Coming To Town in his solo. He then name drops George Duke in the Poodle Lecture (he apparently used to say ”a woman is like a sculpture”), tells “Jim” to “get a job” and we get an amusing segue into Dirty Love (“she didn’t think it was personal at all to make this request of him”). Filthy Habits is great. It features a long solo over the ending vamp and has an amusing intro too (“Take the poodle away… and now ladies and gentleman, for the pseudo-intelligent part of our show, and we don’t really go to far with this, so don’t get your hopes up”). It leads into the eternally “okay” Freak Out medley. Followed by the clear highlight of the night, maybe even the month, an insane 25+ minute Black Napkins infested with references to the band’s newest obsession, Ms. Pinky. Frank released his spoken intro to the tune (though mildly edited) on YCDTOSA Vol #6 as Lonely Person Devices (to give you an indication of what they’re talking about). Frank says “the name of this song is something you could use to wipe Ms. Pinky off later”, yells “c’mon Pinky!” right before Nappy’s solo, and starts whispering Pinky into the mic during his solo. He tells us to “just pretend [he] was Barry White”, and sings some blues lyrics about Pinky (“Pinky my Darling” “little rubber mouth” “Never loved a girl such as you” “oh Pinky I’m such a fool for you”) and even sings some early Ms. Pinky lyrics (“I got a girl with a little squeeze-ly rubber head, rinse out her mouth every night before I go to bed, She’s my Pinky ohhhh, Pinky … yes number one in the soul charts”). Frank continues to alternate between the guitar and talking about Pinky for the rest of the song, my favorite line from the second half being: “Wild Man Fisher had several Pinkys, nah I don’t want to tell a story about Wild Man Fisher”. He makes a reference to Disco Boy, before the song fully exists (“Hide it when you go in the toilet to comb your hair”), claims they “ tried to buy one this afternoon…” and ends the tune with more quiet “Pinky”s. The rest of the show is similarly off the rails, Advance Romance is full of Pinkys (“it was a pinky too” “the way she suck ya boy!”, “Potato-Head Pinky”), and Nappy even yells “I think I found John’s sausage!”. Honey Don’t You Wanna is similarly corrupted, with the tune totally falling apart at points (My favorite line being “She was an Office girl/My name is Pinky/her favorite group was/Helen Rinky”). Enema Bandit is the same way, with the judge declaring “no Pinky jokes”, and Frank pleading ”don’t nobody use it after me”. Frank decides to play Dinah-Moe Humm here, mentions Pinky some more, and ends the show early (probably to make time for the second extravaganza). For an encore we get a fun Camarillo Brillo and a totally deranged Muffin Man (“Girl you thought he was a man but he had a Pinky he hung around every night until he got it stinky”). This brings the wild first show to an end (“Goodnight Copenhagen Denmark, where ever the fuck you are!”). The fourth and final Copenhagen extravaganza doesn’t sound quite as good as the first show, and isn’t quite as crazy, but still offers a very nice time. We get a very amusing and memorable “Pink-Foot” to begin the show. Nappy quotes Carmen again, Frank shouts out the members of the audience who “they don’t know what [Fido’s] talking about” (Re: Ms. Pinky), mentions “Danish rubber goods regulations” and once again tells me to “take me I’m yours”. FZ quotes Advance Romance in his solo (the “the way she do me boy” riff), and leads us into the Poodle Lecture. Frank tells us that shortly after God made the light, “God made Ms. Pinky and then after he had made Ms. Pinky, and moved to Finland, he constructed a dog” and references the late ‘74 band and their takes of RDNZL (“Because every Holiday Inn has a kennel in the back of ‘em”). Nappy also quotes Woody Woodpecker and the Streets Of Cairo while Frank talks. Dirty Love is fun and f\unky, but Filthy Habits is truly a monster tonight, with some insane playing from the maestro (he quotes Sweet Leilani, Streets Of Cairo, and the Hula Lick he occasionally used). The Freak Out medley is nothing special, but Black Napkins is very nice. It doesn’t have much of an intro, but during Frank’s wonderful solo he stops and says “don’t make noise during my sensitive guitar solo… Here’s one for you, you’ll like this” and drops a very quick Louie Louie quote to calm the crowd. Advance Romance is wonderfully loose, with a long Zoot-esque solo from Frank, and Roy tries to bring back some of the Pinky madness in Honey Don’t You Want A Man Like Me? (“Helen Pinky”,”but his Pinky was dead” and even another “that’s the end of the sausage!”). The Illinois Enema Bandit has a Magdalena quote somewhere (if you know where please let me know!), and when they start clapping during his solo, Frank comments on “the lowest ebb of audience participation in western Europe”. Chunga’s Revenge comes next (it’s always a bummer when a show lacks a Torture, and I still miss the Gas Station/Growin’ a Chin combo from earlier in the tour too), Roy “sings” the opening lines of Concentration Moon, Frank quietly plays the chords to Disco Boy, then Roy tells Davey to “shake it more than once” and ends his “solo” with “I’m a Stranger In Pinky-land”, a reference to the classic tune, Stranger In Paradise. Frank plays a wonderful Zoot Allures/Ship Ahoy (He quotes Sy Borg and Beauty Knows No Pain, two riffs FZ hadn’t played around with for a few months), and segues into a short Ms Pinky to end the main set. A regular Slime Ber’dino encore brings the night in Denmark to an end. These are a really fun set of shows. Though the second isn’t as consistently entertaining (AKA Pinky-filled) as the first, both are well worth your time, and in the end, these are two of the most eventful shows of the tour; Frank is on fire, the Ms. Pinky madness is hysterical, and what we end up with is an easy recommendation.
1976 03 04 – Deutschlandhalle, Berlin, Germany (Audience A-)
This is kind of a weird show, but I mean that in a pretty good way. The night is captured on a very nice recording; It starts with a 6 minute soundcheck, including parts of Disco Boy, a fun blues jam, Ms. Pinky, Camarillo Brillo, and Find Her Finer. Nothing super interesting, but fun to hear some of the in-progress tunes, and it’s the only soundcheck we have from this band. Someone mentions Unity, the Mothers’ lightman, which is interesting because I didn’t realize he was still around this late into the 70s. The show starts off like normal, we get a fun Stink-Foot, no one can find the stuffed Poodle Frank would hold, so FZ says “that dog is fired” instead of sick, and, because of that Frank decides to skip the Poodle Lecture!! Hooray!!! Dirty Love is fun but nothing new, and we get a long comment on Berlin leading into Filthy Habits (“I know one thing for sure the poodle bit it tonight… Here’s a song you can relax with while sitting in these warm, friendly, comfortable surroundings here in Berlin, in a place that was really designed for music. A place that we’ve come to love over the years every time we come to your fair city. It always just sends shivers of delight up and down our spine every time we come to the Deutschlandhalle. It’s just so thrilling. The name of this song is Filthy! Habits!”) The tune itself is fantastic (really every performance of Filthy Habits is), and we get another routine Freak Out medley after that (except that Nappy addresses Tex during I’m Not Satisfied). After this is a notable Black Napkins, and no not because of Frank’s intro (“this is a romantic song, but don’t let it go to your head, unless it’s Ms. Pinky”). Nappy delivers a very nice solo, and Frank delivers a soulful sensitive follow up. That is until people start whistling and clapping (in enjoyment), and Frank stops and says, “Now why are you making noise in the middle of my guitar solo… I was playing so very nice and I had just, Pinky was sitting right over there on the side…Okay we’re in Berlin here we go… This is what you want”. After this the tune gets really cool and noisy, and Frank frank only increases in intensity over the remaining six minutes. It’s easily one of the best Black Napkins of the tour, and should be heard by FZ guitar fans. Anyway, Advance Romance comes next, but a cut takes out most of the head of the tune. Making up for it though, Frank delivers an excellent solo, featuring some more amazing guitar work and yet again giving us another possible “ best take of the tour”. Roy does a “Helen Rinky” repeat in Honey Don’t You Wanna, and FZ begins the next tune with “some of you out there might want a man, and here’s a man for you”. The Illinois Enema Bandit, is a fun, but standard take (“Michael, wherever you are, here’s your song, big daddy, this goes out to you and Pinky, or Vita(?)”), and goes straight into Dinah-Moe Humm. Frank yells “Shitoree! It’s real angora”, and ends the main set once the tune ends. Strangely enough though, for an encore we get Chunga’s Revenge! It’s a pretty regular take, but Frank does create a really cool, unique guitar vamp for Andre’s solo, pushing the keyboard player to great heights. San Ber’dino emerges out of Terry’s solo, and it’s a really fun take (Frank even kinda solos over the end). This ends the night, and we get an extremely short Inca outro to close us out (12 seconds!). Despite the lack of Torture and Zoot Allures, this is easily one of the best nights of the tour. Black Napkins, Advance Romance and the sound quality alone make this tape worth a listen. Check this one out.
1976 03 06 – Jaap Edenhal, Amsterdam, Netherlands (Audience B+/B)
We’re in Holland tonight and the Mothers deliver a standard, no frills set, captured on a pretty solid tape. Stink-Foot delivers a fun solo, Frank says to the poodle, “Look here puppy, from Woolworths for 4 dollars and 99 cents” and Nappy quotes La Cucaracha during the Poodle Lecture (this isn’t the first time he’s done it, but it’s most apparent here). Dirty Love and Filthy Habits excel in their regular niches, and the Freak Out medley continues on. Black Napkins is once again dedicated to “each and everyone of you who’s been in love in the last 24 hrs”, and Nappy and Frank each deliver a wonderful solo. Advance Romance delivers, Frank says “she gives him some head” at the end of Honey for the first time in a while, and the Enema Bandit features a doll named Pinky (and a sick solo from Frank). Torture features a short but sweet jam, Chunga’s is really fun (Roy goes wild about Pinky in his spot), and Frank creates another beautiful Zoot Allures. A short Ship Ahoy coda with an amusing blues walkdown ending closes the show, and a quick Camarillo Brillo and Muffin Man end the night. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this show, but there’s many better picks from this tour, and only a few less interesting ones. Check this one out if you really, really love this band, but otherwise you can pass.
1976 03 07 – Vorst Nationaal, Brussels, Belgium (Audience B-)
The Mother’s take Belgium and we get a fairly standard show, captured on a really lame tape. Frank gives “many thanks to Paris Mango(?), for the help” and we get a fine opening dog suite (“Now some of you Catholics won’t believe this”). Filthy Habits comes next; Frank talks about its “erotic nature”, and we’re treated to a surprise monster take! After Andre’s solo Frank comes in for a little bit but then something with this guitar breaks. He says “talk amongst yourselves” and Napoleon gets his first solo since Japan! Terry solos after him, and Frank plays some sick guitar over the post-solo theme. The Freak Out medley’s next, and a solid but non-experimental Black Napkins follows that (with no intro whatsoever). Someone yells for Dinah Moe Humm during FZ’s solo and Frank talks to him a little (“Oh it’s too beautiful? Does it make you weep and everything? Is it too sensitive for you?). He then says something about England, jokes with the crowd a little more and even quotes the oriental riff later on in his solo. Advance Romance comes next, but a cut takes out the end of Andre’s solo, all of Frank’s solo and most of the end of the tune. FZ goes back to “sucks on his dick” in Honey Don’t You Wanna, and we get a regular Illinois Enema Bandit (“poop shoot is not a French word but you get the idea”). We unfortunately don’t get Tortured tonight, but Chunga’s Revenge does come next. Roy grumbles about Pinky again in his “solo” (it’s hard to tell much else, the sound quality gets worse as the show goes on so it’s pretty nasty by this point) and Frank ends the show with a long, fantastic Zoot Allures. We get the standard three encores; Camarillo Brillo/Muffin Man and Dinah-Moe Humm make up the first two. I’m The Slime comes next, but the tape cuts out after 90 seconds, leaving us without the majority of this tune and all of the following San Ber’dino. Overall, like the night before in Amsterdam this is a “good, not great” show. The monster Filthy Habits is cool but not a required listen, and the rest of the show is easily forgotten, especially considering the sub-par recording sound. Check out parts if you’re interested, but the majority of this tape is for completionists only.
1976 03 08 – Palais des Sports, Paris, France (Audience A- & FM A-)
click here to listen (audience recording patched with FM broadcast)
There are two recordings available for this fine night in Paris, and luckily both are very nice. But now the bad news, the FM recording is hampered with commentary and translations from some French radio DJ (he seemingly talks over about 80% of the first 20 minutes), and neither recording is complete. There’s actually more good news though because Frank is on fire tonight. Right off the bat he comes out ready to play and solos over the Inca theme again!!! It’s a fantastic spontaneous composition, and again makes me question why Frank didn’t start every show this way. Frank chides the lightman during his intros (“Let’s never miss that cue again please”) and we get a classic Stink-Foot/The Poodle Lecture (with another ”right on brothers and sisters!”). Frank hints at more Danish porn, mentions canard de jour, makes the radio dj laugh, and transitions into Dirty Love. They’re done with Frenchie for now, Frank says “we’re going to send him back to the kennel at the holiday inn”, and launches into another fantastic Filthy Habits, with a rare, really cool Octandre quote. We get a perfunctory Freak Out medley, followed by a nice Black Napkins. The FM broadcast omits Frank’s spoken intro to the tune, so you don’t get to hear him say “Merci beaucoup boys and girls” (“It’s a romantic number… everybody gets to Paris and falls in love and everything and takes pictures of that stupid tower over by the Hilton, and then that’s it”). Advance Romance fades out early on into Andre’s solo on the FM broadcast, but the audience tape luckily covers til Chunga’s. The rest of the tune provides a very nice jam, Honey Don’t you Wanna is back to “head” for good (It also has a small cut) and The Illinois Enema Bandit delivers everything you’d expect it would on this tour. The Torture Never Stops is next and we get a fantastic, 10+ minute take of the tune. Chunga’s is after that, and the audience recording ends a few seconds later, but fortunately the FM source resumes at the beginning of Nappy’s solo! After the regular sax jam, Frank goes a little nuts again and just starts to tear into his guitar, regardless of solo order. We return to normal after this; Roy’s got another Pinky spiel, Andre solos, and the rest of the tune (presumably just Terry’s solo) is missing. The recording returns for a fragment of Zoot Allures (mostly talked over, and not including Ms. Pinky, unlike often reported). Finally we resume 15 seconds into Dinah-Moe Humm, and this tune ends the FM broadcast. Camarillo Brillo and Muffin Man were reportedly played too, but aren’t available on any known recording. This is a very nice night, and, despite the flaws, we’re lucky to have these two recordings. I’d say check out either recording; this wouldn’t be the first show I’d recommend, mainly due to the lack of a full Zoot Allures, but it’s still pretty high up there (also it’s the only soundboard or FM available from Europe, which makes it special regardless of content).
1976 03 11 – Oberrheinhalle, Offenburg, Germany (Audience B+)
The Mother’s had the 9th off, then there was a show in Saarbrucken on the 10th that (as far as we know) wasn’t recorded and after that, on the 11th, we get this quality night in Offenburg (captured on a very nice recording). Frank creates another fantastic solo during the opening Inca theme (maybe the best one out there), and leads us into another series of amusing intros (including “partially diseased Terry Ted Bozzio on drums” and “Fillmore Slim on guitar”). Fido wins the “folk rock punishment of the week award” in Stink-Foot, and Frank starts off his solo with the hippie riff (Needles N Pins AKA Hey Joe). Dirty Love is once again fun and funky, Filthy Habits still provides fantastically evil solos from Andre and Frank and the Freak Out medley continues to follow these songs. We get another quality Black Napkins, dedicated to Richard Wagner (There are two small cuts in the second half of the tune, but they don’t hamper the experience much) and after this is a very, very nice Advance Romance, another contender for best of the tour. A very standard Honey Don’t You Wanna/Enema Bandit follows this, though in the intro for the later tune, Frank has to correct a fan, commenting “No he would never fuck em, I guess he was a good boy in that respect”. We get a long intro and a short solo, making this the easy low point of the show. It doesn’t last long though, because The Torture Never Stops is next, and there’s a cut that skips the entire head and goes right into Frank’s fantastic, ear-melting solo. The band keeps this momentum up and we get a wonderful Chunga’s Revenge afterwards. Nappy has a nice solo, Roy rambles about Pinky and other things (“This is not an advertisement, but…”), and Andre follows it up with his always enjoyable, funky little melodica solo (is he still playing it at this point?). After this FZ decides to mix things up and play a really interesting, totally chordal guitar solo (“I don’t mind being a rhythm guitar player shit…. I know at least six chords”). Frank ends the tune with an excellent Ship Ahoy, and he ends Ship Ahoy with a comical blues walkdown ending. For the encore we get a truly excellent Slime/Ber’dino, with a standard blues walkdown ending. There isn’t anything particularly insane about this show, but it sounds really nice, and Frank plays some fantastic guitar throughout. The high points are probably the very beginning and very end of the main set, but there’s a lot to enjoy in between too. This is another one to check out to round out you Winter ‘76 experience, but not necessarily the first show I’d choose
1976 03 12 – Kongresshaus, Zurich, Switzerland (Audience B+/B)
This is a solid recording of a nice, no frills show from the final days of the tour. The Inca Intro starts mid-Naval Aviation, and we get another lovely solo from Frank before the theme (not the best one out there, but very good nonetheless). Frank inflicts “Swiss folk rock hurt #28” on Fido in Stink-Foot, plays a nice guitar solo and delivers a pretty boilerplate Poodle Lecture. Dirty Love provides a nice Rock N Roll ending to the suite, and a 15+ minute epic of a Filthy Habits comes next, featuring lots of insane guitar from Frank. Another fine Freak Out medley follows this, and afterwards we get a quality Black Napkins, “dedicated to each and everyone of you in the fondue culture”. Frank continues to maim the Swiss (“Fondue is one of the worst smelling things I’ve ever had near my nose”), and plays a very nice solo, with a Dust My Broom quote at the very end (and a small tape cut around 11 minutes in). A nice and loose Advance Romance comes next, a fine Honey follows, and a fine Illinois Enema Bandit (“every once in a while a great folk hero rises up in America”) round out the vocal numbers for tonight’s program. After this we get a nice, but predictable Chunga’s (with a tape flip cut), and by a short, somewhat unsuccessful Zoot Allures, which is weird because Frank usually soars with this tune. He plays a corrupted Hula Lick partway through, and ends the tune (and the show) after six minutes, and without a Ship Ahoy. Our only encore tonight is Camarillo Brillo/Muffin Man. This isn’t a bad show, but it’s clear to me that Frank just isn’t too enthused tonight. Check out Filthy Habits and Black Napkins if you’re interested, but the rest can be skipped.
1976 03 13 – Palasport Mezzovico, Lugano, Switzerland (Audience B/B-)
This night in Switzerland is the last night of this tour, the last show played by this band, and the final show billed to the Mothers and/or the Mothers Of Invention. This is a fun show, but it’s captured on a pretty poor, often distorted and boomy recording. Frank introduces himself as “Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson on guitar”, announces it’s the last show of the tour, and heads right into Stink-Foot. He’s clearly having problems when he asks Fido “If I can’t get my slippers can I get some monitor?”, but it becomes even more apparent when Frank stops and struggles to tune his guitar mid-solo. Eventually he says “Before we go any further to try to play music for you in a stupid hall like this we’re gonna tune up”, yells “Stop the music! Tune the bass!”, and so the band does just that. This takes a while, but because of that we don’t get a Poodle Lecture so I think things worked out pretty well. Dirty Love is very nice, Filthy Habits is even nicer, and Frank tunes up a final time at the end of Freak Out medley. Black Napkins (“Well it’s just dedicated to all of you cause I think you need it”) is wonderful like always, and it’s followed by a crazy, free, Advance Romance (also fantastic). Honey Don’t You Wanna comes next, and after that we get a standard Enema Bandit (“We have a genuine fake girl over here right now”). Frank shows us “the way Dick Barber does it”, name drops Marty, and launches into Chunga’s Revenge. It’s a fun one; Nappy plays a very nice solo, his final with Frank (well, til 1984), and Roy does his “solo”, if you want to describe it like that. Partway through his now regular Pinky rant, Frank comes in on guitar playing a simple doo-wop progression. Roy continues to “sing” for a bit, but eventually Frank starts to sing a set of likely pre-written lyrics, performing a tune fans have dubbed “Song for Pinky”. It’s an amusing, perverted little doo-wop tune, and this is the sole known performance (read more about it in its song entry down below). Following a few minutes of Pinky madness, FZ declares we must “go on with the rest of the song, Andre’s solo!” and that’s what we get. Andre plays a nice, but short, solo and Terry ends the affair. After this we get a long, fantastic Zoot Allures with an amazing, biting Ship Ahoy coda. It’s a contender for the best of the tour for sure. This closes the main set, and we get another excellent, energetic Slime Ber’dino encore. Frank solos over the “rest of our lives” code to the final tune, and ends the night on a high note. This is a really great show once it gets going. The first songs, especially Stink-Foot, are kinda shaky, but Filthy Habits, Advance Romance, Chunga’s/Zoot and the Slime/Ber’dino medley show this band at their peak. This “Mothers Of Invention Swiss Extravaganza” certainly provides an excellent conclusion to this specific rocking teenage combo.
The Songs Played:
Advance Romance – This Bongo Fury tune makes its sophomore appearance on this tour. Andre plays a funky solo first, and Frank follows him up with a typically-fiery guitar event. On the previous outing, the line “they took George’s watch” permanently changed to “they took Andre’s watch” for this ensemble, and also, Frank yells something like “look what they did to Andre!” before the keyboard player’s solo. Nappy typically improvs some dialog during the head (in the “talkin’ ‘bout the anchovies” section on Bongo Fury), and Andre occasionally scats over his solo. Sometime in the second half of February, Frank begins to instruct the band to de-emphasize the strict solo vamp, and we get a series of looser, crazier Advance Romance solos. In general, we get a solid version of the tune, a little more fun than the previous tour, but ultimately not quite as great as the Bongo Fury jams. Still, you can always count on Frank and his guitar for something fun. Always played after Black Napkins and before Honey Don’t You Want A Man Like Me.
Black Napkins – This tune reappears on this tour, and is still perfect. The beautiful theme works very well with this sparse arrangement (in fact the released performance is an edited take from Osaka), and Frank delivers a fantastic, emotional solo in every performance. Andre plays the opening solo in Australia and the first two Japanese shows, while Nappy plays a tasty solo first at every show after that. FZ would often introduce the song as “a romantic number”, or say it’s dedicated to “all the lovers in the audience” (especially in Europe). He would also sometimes get mildly distracted and end up talking to the audience, the best/most extreme examples of this would probably be the Berlin show (where some impatient audience whistles irk Frank and push him into overdrive) and the third Copenhagen gig, where mentions of Ms. Pinky completely corrupts the usually tasteful tune. This is one of the best tours of this song, with every solo inspired and entertaining. An easy highlight of the band, and one of the biggest reasons to collect tapes from this era.
Camarillo Brillo – This Zappa classic gets the regular hard rock treatment from this band. Like on the last couple of tours, they play through the tune once normally, then slow it down by a few factors once they hit the second “door-way” verse. After the slow bit, this tune would always make a perfect, iconic segue into Muffin Man. By this tour, the repetition of the line “She stripped away her rancid poncho” has permanently changed to “I chewed my way through her rancid panocha”. My personal favorite versions of this song come from 1974, but these are solid versions too. The Camarillo Brillo/Muffin Man combo was almost exclusively played as a show closer, or as an encore, and would always end the night on a high note.
Carolina Hardcore Ecstasy – This Bongo Fury tune appears pretty much as it appears on the album, but it unfortunately gets dropped very early into the Australian tour (the first Sydney show is the tune’s last performance for 6 years). Frank delivers a hot solo in the regular spot, and manages to whip up something nice. Some remnants from the last tour: Nappy would typically shout “she likes it that way” before Frank’s solo and the lyrics mutated from “Don’t you worry what it is” to “Don’t Managua what it is”. This is a fun tune; it’s not the best song Frank wrote, but it always provides a good time, and it’s a shame it was dropped so early into this world tour (because it’s one of the more notable aspects of the Fall ‘75 run).
Chunga’s Revenge – This classic from near the beginning of Frank’s career is the big stretch-out-and-jam song for this tour, all over a cool, improvised vamp. A regular performance consists of solos from Nappy, Roy, Andre, and a final drum solo from Terry. Roy isn’t playing a bass solo, but he’s “singing” a la Gas Mask or the Lather interstitials, though he does play a regular bass solo in Melbourne #1 and Kyoto. He’d occasionally sing a mutated standard, like I’m In The Mood For Love, For Sentimental Reasons, or Stranger in Paradise, or sing a Zappa tune, like Disco Boy or Concentration Moon. Roy starts talking about Ms. Pinky in his “solo” after the madness in Copenhagen, and pretty much every performance afterwards features some Pinky comments. In Ludwigshafen, Frank decides to have their mixer Davey Moire play a solo on harmonica from behind the console. It’s really fun, and one of the best Chunga’s of the tour. Near the end of the tour, Frank started to mix things up slightly, either shortening the tune (like in Copenhagen #2), and/or playing a guitar solo once again (like in Lund #1, Paris and Offenburg). On the final night of the tour, during Roy’s Pinky rant, Frank decides to play a seemingly, recently-written song, one fans have titled “Song For Pinky” (read more below). These aren’t the best Chunga’s of Frank’s career, but they’re still always a fun time. Always played at the end of the show, usually between The Torture Never Stops and Zoot Allures.
Dinah-Moe Humm – This (in)famous Over-Nite Sensation tune makes its sophomore appearance on a Zappa tour (if you count the late 74 versions all together, which since it’s the same band and arrangement, I do). The song is looser and funkier live, and Andre, Roy and/or Nappy cover the Ike-ettes’ vocals from the record. Additionally, the “I can’t get into it unless I get out of it” section is played way, way slower, giving the part a totally different vibe. Roy sings the Dinah/Dora parts over the end of the tune, and does a weird, high pitched voice for the girls (he also frequently says “I don’t care”, which seems like an inside joke I’m not privy to). We get the first live version of the tune with the “zircon-encrusted tweezers” line (correct me if I’m wrong), and Frank typically jokes around over the end of the tune (especially with the poked and stroked line). These are amusing performances, Frank isn’t completely tired of playing the tune yet and so it makes for a much more enjoyable experience when this song does pop up. Always played as an encore (or very occasionally as a show closer).
Dirty Love – This Overnite Sensation classic made its live premier last October, and quickly found its place as a permanent follow up to Stink-Foot (and the Poodle Lecture). It’s a fun little bar band style arrangement of the perverse song, and includes a nice Rock n Roll solo from Frank in the middle. A fun tune, not the best version around (my personal favorites come from Fall 76), but usually worth a listen. Like I said before, always preceded by Stink-Foot/The Poodle Lecture (the story usually leads right into the song, ex “she looked at the dog and said…”) and followed by Filthy Habits.
Disco Boy – This goofy little Zoot Allures tune first appears on this tour, and isn’t yet the poppy little pseudo-disco tune we know and love. The song premiers as an instrumental in Ludwigshafen, emerging from Zoot Allures, and Frank repeats the trick at the next show in Cologne. It’s not much of a song yet, at this point it’s really just the chords to the first two sections of the tune, but it’s still really cool to hear it pop up at such an early stage in development. It’s clear that Frank was working on this tune throughout the tour too, because Roy a quotes some lyrics from the tune in his Chunga’s Revenge madness in Lund (show #2), Frank plays the riff some more in Copenhagen (show #4), and a final time during the soundcheck in Berlin (FZ also says something about heading to the bathroom to comb your hair in Copenhagen #3’s massive Black Napkins, and again in the Berlin soundcheck). It’s always cool to hear this tune, because it’s one of the few places where Frank is actively experimenting on this tour, and this makes the Ludwigshafen and Cologne shows two of the best of the year.
Filthy Habits – This wonderfully evil Sleep Dirt deep cut, returns on this tour fully fledged and ready to melt out minds. This is the only tour on which this particular tune is regularly performed. Andre plays a slimy keyboard jam, before Frank blows us away with some of the best guitar of his career. The opening theme of the song is the same as in the studio, and the vamp is largely the same too, but this live version has a unique ending. After Frank’s solo, he would cue the fast repeating riff from the end of the main theme (one minute in the studio take), then solo over that riff some more! Eventually, after more even guitar fury, there would be a short acapella guitar break, and a restatement of the theme. At the first two shows in Sydney, this was a solo guitar vehicle, and Nappy got the opening solo spot in Perth and Tokyo (the first show). The Brussels show features a monster version of the tune, with solos from Andre, Nappy, Terry and Frank. This is a fantastic tune, an underrated classic in Frank’s vast catalog of classics, and an easy highlight of this tour.
Find Her Finer – This amusing Zoot Allures tune shows up at the first couple shows in Australia, but Frank sadly drops it from setlists after Sydney. The song is basically all there, but it’s still pretty barebones. It’s faster than the studio take and Frank plays a nice little solo-ette at the end. Put those together and we get solid Find Her Finer experience. Not the best song, but enjoyable none-the-less.
Kaiser Rolls – This rare tune appears at each of the Sydney shows, before disappearing forever. Before its premiere on the previous tour, Frank says “this is actually an old song that I’ve tried to get together a number of times with a number of bands but it never really worked and it may not even work this time… it’s a delicate, tender, sensitive song about a man who encounters a shell shocked person in the park.” It’s a pretty mellow tune, with Nappy singing the lyrics at a casual pace. In terms of structure it’s a pretty standard rock song (for Frank at least) with mildly-nonsensical lyrics about a homeless dude. In the song he’s referred to as “the stumbler man”, the same character referenced in Village of The Sun (and in an unreleased verse from 200 Years Old). There’s a couple of pleasant instrumental interludes and the tune ends with an extended one. These takes are a little different from the previous ‘75 performance. In this version they make the classic “hratche-plche” noise where they said “mother fuckin’” in the earlier takes, and the pseudo Ship Ahoy ending has sadly been dropped. Both takes are preceded by Let’s Move To Cleveland and followed by Find Her Finer. This isn’t a mid blowing tune, but it’s very welcome when it pops up, both for its quality and rarity.
Keep It Greasy – This Joe’s Garage classic first appeared last December, and is only played once on this tour (in Sydney) before getting dropped from the regular setlist. It’s a really fun, slow, and funky arrangement of the soon iconic tune, without any of the quotes or stings from the studio version. It fits this band’s kinda sleazy bar band sound very well. Nappy sings the lyrics, and there’s an additional section in the middle of the tune where they all repeat “grease it down”. Nappy plays a short squeaky sax solo following the “screamin’ sound” line, there’s one more chorus, and then they end the tune by slowly repeating “I said I would drive you” a few times. A very fun early take of a classic FZ tune, too bad it doesn’t stick around for very long.
Honey Don’t You Want A Man Like Me? – This Zappa in New York piece about the perils of dumb love continues to appear on this tour. Nappy, Frank, and Roy sing the majority of the tune and Roy typically plays the role of Betty, but Norma takes over the voice starting in Knoxville (and sings some other background vocals too). Most of the piece is there, including sound effects, but Frank messes with the lyrics throughout the tour. He occasionally says “disgusted the weather”, and he changed the ending to “and she sucks on his dick” for a couple of weeks in Europe (see most shows between Hamburg and Brussels). Always preceded by Advance Romance and followed by The Illinois Enema Bandit . Overall this is one of Frank’s more successful R-rated comedy songs, and these are some of the more spirited performances. Not an amazing song, but this is a good tour for it (it’s another one that just seems to fit this band’s vibe).
How Could I Be Such A Fool? – Frank once again decided to revive this Freak Out tune on the previous tour, and continued to play it throughout this trek through Europe and the Pacific (and actually, they used the Ruben And The Jets arrangement). Nappy sings the vocals, and improvises some lyrics over the funky second half of the tune. Basically always played after Filthy Habits and as the first song of “the Freak Out medley”, followed by I Ain’t Got No Heart and I’m Not Satisfied. A lot of people really hate this medley, and they’re not the best performance of these tunes, but they still can be a lot of fun (especially if you focus on Frank’s rhythm guitar!).
I Ain’t Got No Heart – This Freak Out classic reappears yet again on this tour, still sung by Napoleon. It’s a little faster than on the studio album, and obviously has a more striped-back sound. FZ plays a short (but ever-lengthening) solo at the very end of the tune. This song was basically always played as the second tune of “the Freak Out medley”, between How Could I Be Such A Fool? and I’m Not Satisfied. A lot of people really hate this medley, and they’re not the best performances of these tunes, but they still can be a lot of fun (especially if you focus on Frank’s rhythm guitar!).
The Illinois Enema Bandit – This Zappa In New York classic returns on this tour, sung by Nappy. There’s an instrumental intro unique to this band’s arrangement, but other than that this song never seems to change much. Frank would always introduce the tune over the classic Dragnet-style intro, giving a detailed description of the Bandit’s crimes. Eventually these intros become elaborate demonstrations featuring sex dolls, Roy acting as the bandit, and an ever abused enema bag. FZ plays a tasty blues solo in the middle of the tune, Roy would mumble some lines as the Bandit before Frank’s solo, and Nappy would occasionally pronounce the “s” at the end of “Illinois” (a common mistake for non-residents). This tune features a lot of secret word play in the middle of Europe, leading Nappy to change the lyrics to “From farm to sausage farm” for a number of shows. Nappy sings “Why is everybody always pickin’ on me?” versus Ray’s “Why is everybody lookin’ at me?” (This band’s version of the line is a direct reference to the song Charlie Brown by the Coasters, originally released in 1959, while future performances are more of an allusion). The outro consists of the same “must be just what they all need” vocal riff, but usually a little faster, and without the overlapping vocal lines (“He just be pumpin’ every one of ’em…”) or the acapella coda (“ain’t talkin’ bout Fontana…”). Roy and Nappy would interject little phrases between the lines though. Usually just enema onamonapias, but occasionally you can hear someone make a P-Funk reference with “Loose Booty”. These aren’t the best performances out there (Ray White really made this tune his own), but these takes are still very enjoyable. The song was almost always preceded by Honey Don’t You Wanna and usually followed by Wind Up Workin’ In A Gas Station.
I’m Not Satisfied – Another classic Freak Out song making a reappearance on this tour, once again sung by Napoleon. It’s a little quicker than on the studio album, but pretty much the same as always. This tune was played as the first song of “the Freak Out medley”, preceded by How Could I Be Such A Fool and I Ain’t Got No Heart (and followed by Black Napkins). Once again, a lot of people really hate this medley, and they’re not the best performance of these tunes, but they still can be a lot of fun (this one is my personal fave of the three, I think it’s just a timeless little rock tune, especially if you focus on Frank’s rhythm guitar!).
I’m The Slime – This Zappa classic is a regular encore number on this tour. Frank starts with an improvised burst of guitar (like on the album, the 75-76 live arrangement is the only one to do so), before the last Mothers perform a competent, sleazy sounding version of the tune. Frank typically plays an excellent guitar solo at the end, though they could often come out unfortunately short. This song was basically always preceded by San Ber’dino, in a kind of Roxy-era throwback medley.
Incan Art Intro – This tour’s show opener (and closer) is the guitar solo vamp from Inca Roads. The Mothers (sans Frank) would walk on while Naval Aviation played over the PA. Then, when the piece ended, they would start the vamp and Nappy would blow some spacey horn lines until Frank came in with the beautiful Inca Roads post-solo theme. In Kyoto, Tokyo (#2), Paris, Offenburg and Zurich, Frank plays a fantastic, earth-shattering solo, but unfortunately these are the only shows with any improvisation. Why Frank decided to use a guitar solo vamp to open a concert but then almost never solo over it is beyond me. Frank would then cue the vamp as a closer at the end of the show, and they’d play it for a few seconds after the last song (and after every encore). Frank would almost never play the post-solo theme over the closing performances. This is a fun, unique aspect to this tour, but with the exception of the performances at those five shows I mentioned earlier, the Incan Art Vamp leaves me wanting more.
Let’s Move To Cleveland – This staple of Zappa’s 80s bands actually made its debut on the tail end of the tour, though there’s a good chance it was written as early as the late 60s. The Mothers play it a handful of times before abandoning it with the rest of the late-75 rare tunes. At this point in time the tune was known as Canard Du Jour, though this is unrelated to the later Shut Up N Play Yer Guitar piece. The song’s arranged wildly differently, with almost every composed line differing in rhythm and tempo from the finalized tune, but you can definitely still tell it’s Let’s Move To Cleveland. Frank plays a fun, angular, guitar solo, and they repeat the theme afterwards. A really cool tune, that unfortunately only lasts (in this form) for a few dates into the Pacific tour.
Lonely Little Girl – This abandoned tune from the We’re Only In It For The Money album returns for a final performance in Australia (after being a regular number on the previous excursion). Nappy wonderfully sings the fun little tune (without any of the musique concrete and Ugliest Part of Your Body chunk from the album). Frank includes the entire composition here, with an additional set of lyrics (This section of music dates back to the production of the original album and can be heard instrumentally on Lonely Little Girl (Original Composition / Take 24) off Lumpy/Money; Read a transcription of the lyrics here). After the new lyrics Frank plays the melody line on guitar, and produces a lovely end to the underrated tune. Played as song one of the We’re Only In It For The Money medley, followed by Take Your Close Off When You Dance and What’s The Ugliest Part of Your Body. A really great tune and an incredible bummer that it’s only played on one recording from this tour.
Ms. Pinky – This Zoot Allures song premiers on this tour, but at this point it’s an instrumental. Frank would play the goofy riff as an outro to his Zoot Allures jams on a handful of occasions. Terry would shout and scream the riff, usually including the nonsense phrases “little shrunken sucka” and “I got everything in the world that I need”. The tune was played at most of the Australian shows, half of the Japanese shows, and two European shows (and the performance in Copenhagen was shortened. It’s just the vamp and FZ’s band outro, no shouting). They play it a little more at the Berlin soundcheck, and at this point (a day after the Pinky madness of Copenhagen #3), Frank had started to add the Pinky lyrics to the piece. Roy also occasionally moans lyrics to the tune in his Chunga’s “solos” near the end of the tour. It’s a fun, dumb little number, cool to hear when it occasionally pops up, especially because it’s a rare example of this band trying out something new.
Muffin Man – This Bongo Fury tune frequently appears throughout the tour as an encore. Frank plays the vamp, brings the band down behind him and jams his heart out on guitar for a couple minutes. The tune is always played following Camarillo Brillo, emerging out of the slow second half of the song. These aren’t the best Muffin Man experiences out there (I think those come from 1977 for me, and I mean both bands too), but these ones are nothing to shake a stick at.
Naval Aviation In Art – At the beginning of every show (except Tokyo #2, where Pedro’s Dowry is played instead) The Mothers walk on while this creepy Orchestral Favorites piece plays over the PA. Nappy would moan over the end of the piece, there would usually be a second or two of silence, then they’d go into the Incan Art vamp and Frank would come on stage. It’s an interesting start to the show, to say the least.
San Ber’dino – This One Size Fits All tune is a frequent encore and one of this band’s most successful songs. The striped down sound of this group fits the tune very well. Frank plays a short but sweet solo near the end of the tune (in Ludwigshafen he quotes Sunshine Of Your Love) and Andre delivers the ending howls (I wish Frank had him sing more). This tune was almost always preceded by I’m The Slime in a fun Roxy-era throwback medley. A very nice arrangement and a highlight of the band.
Song For Pinky – On the last night of the tour, in the middle of Chunga’s Revenge, Frank whips out this unique tune. It’s a simple little doowop number, but with lyrics about Ms. Pinky, everyone’s favorite nordic sex toy (read a transcription here). Roy sings high falsetto (like always), Frank seems to barely remember the words, and most interestingly, he plays guitar and sings at the same time. Frank admitted to not being able to sing while playing well, so on stage instances of such are few and far between. After a few verses, Frank ends the tune and resumes Chunga’s Revenge where they left off. An amusing tune and a fun live moment, just not must-hear one.
Stink-Foot (incl. The Poodle Lecture) – This Apostrophe classic returns once again on this tour, largely the same as the last several tours, and still different from the album. Always played as the first full song of each show. Following the Incan Art Vamp, Frank would introduce the band, and move into this number. Frank recites the lyrics to the song over the classic live vamp (similar but not identical to the studio version), and then plays a blistering hot solo. There was usually some lyrical variation from night to night (“it’s right around the corner” would sometimes change to a local reference), and, in the previous fall, Frank added another couple segments to the tune. Before his solo he now has a spontaneous dialog with Fido, where he chides the dog for not bringing him his slippers. Fido then responds “Oh Frank, I was so stoned”, and Frank has no choice but to punish him “to the full extent of [insert local nationality] law” (“Sick!”). FZ also added a second segment to the tune, the infamous Poodle Lecture. After his solo, Frank would tell a long, nasty story about God’s creation of Man, Woo-Man and the Poodle. The basic story never changed much from show to show (in fact it only gets more drawn out as time goes on), and is one of the most vile moments from Frank’s live career. Frank usually name drops a city as an area that needs to get shaved (most often Dusseldorf), and near the end of the tour he starts to give names to the two human characters (Ex. Bob and Suzanne). He’d use the story as a bridge between the two opening Poodle songs, Stink-Foot and Dirty Love, and would recite the tale at every show in late 1975 and 1976. It doesn’t ruin the song, but I’d definitely prefer it if it wasn’t there. Despite the full blown Poodle Lecture, this is still a really fun tour for this tune, with the standard tasty solo from Frank, making it a regular highlight from most shows.
Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance – This We’re Only In It For The Money classic reappears with a fun little reggae-esque arrangement a single time at the start of the Australian tour (after being a regular number on the previous excursion). Nappy sings the tune, and in the middle of the tune we get an instrumental take of the theme on the keyboards, and then Andre plays a delightful 30-seconds long synth solo. Always played as song two of the We’re Only In It For The Money medley, between Lonely Little Girl and What’s The Ugliest Part of Your Body. Another really great tune, along with the entire Money medley, and it’s a major bummer that it didn’t make it past the first week of the tour.
The Torture Never Stops – This Zoot Allures tune reappears with a brand new arrangement on this tour. Gone is the sinister blues slide riff from the Bongo Fury days, what we now get is a stripped back, barebones version of the classic tune. Frank would deliver a fantastic solo in each performance (they only get better as the days go on), and conclude the tune like normal. The line “in the night of the Iron Sausage” first emerges on this tour. It was originally “in the room with the iron maiden”, but after a certain secret word infects the song in Cologne, well the rest is history. Frank would also change the lyrics slightly for the German shows. “A sinister midget” becomes “a sinister zwergin” and the steaming pig becomes “a steaming schwein”. The first Sydney performance is notable for featuring special guest Norman Gunston on Harmonica (and for lacking an FZ solo), in the Hannover take Frank starts to sing I Wish You Would by Billy Boy Arnold after his solo, and in Aarhus he quotes “Getting to Know You” from the King and I and Stranger In Paradise from the musical Kismet (aka the “Gliding Dance of the Maidens” from Borodin’ Polovtsian Dances) during his monster jam. This is a great tour for this tune, the sparse accompaniment usually gives Frank room to shine, and the creation of the Iron Sausage line is certainly something to behold.
Tryin’ To Grow A Chin – This riotous, Terry-led, dumb little rock number premiers on this tour. The tune has an additional unique, short intro, that’s only present on recordings from 1976, and has a really loose feel on this tour, probably because of how new it is. Terry fucks up lyrics on occasion, or sometimes tries singing where we’re not used to. The tune was always played after Wind Up Workin’ In A Gas Station and before The Torture Never Stops (that is until this tune, along with Gas Station, were sadly dropped from setlists in late February). The Gas Station/Chin medley of two is a really fun little poppy side note in the middle of most shows, and always provides a good time.
What’s The Ugliest Part Of Your Body? – This We’re Only In It For The Money makes a final appearance on this tour. It’s a reproduction of the first version, not the reprise. The doowop sections are sung by Frank, Nappy and Roy, but Frank handles the excellent “all your children” section on his own. Played as the final song in the We’re Only In It For The Money medley, following Lonely Little Girl and Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance. Another really great tune, along with the entire Money medley, that’s unfortunately dropped from setlists after the first Sydney show.
Wind Up Workin’ In A Gas Station – The Zoot Allures opener debuts as a full song on this tour. It’s all there (except for Frank’s tasty solo-ette from the studio version), but it’s got that sleazy, bar-band feel only this era of the Mothers can provide. Everyone except Terry provides vocals, and Nappy sometimes will throw in different body parts to mix things up (show me yer, tongue, rump, etc.). Originally the song included an audience participation section where Frank asked the audience to “show me yer thumb if yer really dumb”, but this was dropped after the Australian leg. This tune was always played after The Illinois Enema Bandit and before Tryin’ To Grow A Chin (that is until this tune, along with Chin, were sadly dropped from setlists in late February). The Gas Station/Chin medley of two is a really fun little poppy side note in the middle of most shows, and always provides a good time.
Zoot Allures (incl. Ship Ahoy) – The title track from Frank’s 1976 album returns on this tour. It sounds very similar to the studio take, with Frank performing the beautiful theme, and following it with a fantastic, emotional guitar solo. This is the ultimate tour for this song, with each solo bringing a fantastic instant composition. Also, on this tour, basically every Zoot Allures ends with a performance of Ship Ahoy (intact the released version comes from the Osaka show). It is an absolutely wonderful moment of modulated heaven, and a perfect coda for the tune. This tune was always preceded by Chunga’s Revenge, typically ended the show, and is an easy highlight of the tour.
Chunga’s Revenge Solo Table:
Life On The Road 