Overview:
This tour is a very interesting, and under-appreciated moment in Frank’s career. The band is hot off the fantastic New York extravaganza of December ‘76, and carry that energy with them for this fairly short 4-week tour of Europe. I like to think of this as the “Mini-ZINY” band, because it’s the same core band as the Zappa In New York shows, and they play a number of songs from that run, especially at the start of the tour (Peaches, Torture, Manx, Titties, I’m The Slime, etc). The rest of this peculiar tour is filled with leftovers from their fall trek across North America (Purple Lagoon, City Of Tiny Lights, Black Napkins, etc) and some new songs that would be made famous by later bands, but appear here in wild, sometimes unrecognizable early versions (Jones Crusher, My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama, Broken Hearts Are For Assholes and Dong Work For Yuda are the big ones). This is Frank’s last 5-piece band (though Spring 1980 is basically a 5-piece with vocals and guitar solos from Frank), but despite the smaller band the tunes never really feel sparse or lacking. Even Peaches, which is somewhat known for its dense instrumentation, works wonderfully with this band. Patrick and Terry are always fantastic, and I hold my opinion that they are Frank’s greatest rhythm section. Ray and Eddie are amazing too (Eddie’s Black Napkins solo is an easy highlight of every show), but they don’t fit together with the group perfectly like Frank does with this particular rhythm section. I love their sounds, but they just don’t mesh together like the following band with Adrian Belew, Tommy Mars and Peter Wolf. This is yet another tour with an unfortunately strict setlist. It’s a very nice chunk of tunes, with fun transitions and great contrast and release (I love the placement of Big Leg Emma after Torture, and Manx Needs Women between Dong Work and Titties N Beer, who else but Frank?), but it ultimately is somewhat disappointing when listening to this tour on repeat, because you’re never going to find something wildly different from whatever show you’ve just heard. There are a lot of little variations from show to show as the new tunes develop, but they’re nothing crazy, a different ending here or a different vocal spotlight there. The changes are almost always beneficial, but this means the earlier performances of some songs aren’t ideal, which can kind of put a damper on the first two weeks of the tour. This band also lacks a true crazed, instrumental monster song. This is a fantastic tour for Pounds and Black Napkins, but the soloists in each tune are (for the most part) the same for the entire tour. Though instrumentally not the strongest out there, this band makes up for that by being one of Zappa’s best bands for vocal improvisations. Terry and Frank almost always create an amusing spontaneous dialog in Titties N Beer, Patrick’s asides in Broken Hearts are always gut-busting and Terry’s Dong Work impressions are always equally hysterical. So overall these shows are shorter, there’s less improv, and there’s not a lot of audience interaction (which is kinda par for the course with Europe), but they’re still a Zappa show, and even on a less than stellar tour I still had hours of fun listening to all these tapes. Another reason I think this tour doesn’t get much love is because of the sound quality of the tapes available. There are no soundboards, no official releases and no truly great sounding audience recording (though Wiesbaden is pretty excellent). The shows in England from the final week of the tour are all absolutely fantastic and demonstrate what a great ensemble this band is, but the tapes range from pretty listenable to awful garbage. Overall, despite this band’s handful of shortcomings, I really enjoy this unique, weird little tour. I love the new songs, we get some fantastic versions of some of the more senior tunes (This may be the best tour for Titties N Beer, Muffin Man, and Black Napkins), and I love the weird-ass setlist (I just wish it wasn’t the only setlist). Here we have a really fun, overlooked era in Frank’s career, and I think some kind of official box set could be an eye opener for a lot of people (Hammersmith ‘77? – Are you listening Joe?).
The Setlist:
Main Set:
Band Walk-On Over Prepared Tape
The Purple Lagoon
Peaches En Regalia
The Torture Never Stops
Big Leg Emma
City Of Tiny Lights (Replaces I’m The Slime by February)
A Pound For A Brown
Jones Crusher
My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama
Tryin’ To Grow A Chin
Broken Hearts Are For Assholes
Dong Work For Yuda
Manx Needs Women
Titties ‘n Beer
Black Napkins
Encores/Ending Numbers:
Dinah-Moe Humm
Camarillo Brillo/Muffin Man
Montana (rare, only first week)
Cruising For Burgers (rare, mainly in January)
Willie The Pimp (rare)
The Band:
Frank Zappa – Guitar, Vocals, Ringleader, Pink Napkins
Ray White – Lead Vocals, Guitar, Cowbell, Crushed Bones
Eddie Jobson – Violin, Keyboards, English-ness
Patrick O’Hearn – Bass, Leather
Terry Bozzio – Drums, Smothers
Recordings Available:
1977 01 13 – Falkoner Teatret, Copenhagen, Denmark (Audience B/B-)
The first night of the tour is a pretty good show captured on a real crummy recording. There were two shows on this date, but it’s not clear if this is the early or late show. Frank introduces “our new rocking teenage combo to you” over the Purple Lagoon (now returned to its walk-on tune status), and lets us know that they brought Frenchie The Poodle with them, even though he’s not gonna be in the show tonight. What we have here is a very average performance from early in the tour, so I’m not gonna spend too much time diving into each song. Peaches En Regalia is excellent, The Torture Never Stops has a nice solo with a really cool, unique guitar tone (a staple of this tour), and Big Leg Emma finishes off our intro trio of songs. After this we get a rare pause in the music (these January shows are some of the last times in Frank’s career where he actually stops to tune-up/talk to the crowd), and FZ mentions they have a “songlist” and tells the crowd the next number is I’m The Slime. It’s a nice take, and it leads into a great Pound For A Brown with a very nice guitar solo and a fun but short drum solo. Now it’s time for the vocal portion of the show, filled with a bunch of rare, only on this tour arrangements. We get the debut of the early, weirdo version of Jones Crusher, followed by a lovely My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama with a nice solo (unfortunately the sick guitar transition between the two songs doesn’t take hold until February). The tune ends abruptly, and we get a cool count off from Terry leading directly into Tryin’ To Grow A Chin. It’s a nice take, always getting angrier and closer to the fury heard on Sheik Yerbouti. There’s a cut at the end missing the one more time for the world ending, but it creates a kinda cool, artificial transition into a new song: Broken Hearts Are For Assholes. It’s slower and more raw then we’re used to, but it actually provides a fun, different energy. Patrick is always the star of Broken Hearts, with his mid-tune asides never failing to get me to crack up. This take is no different, though he can be pretty hard to hear on this tape. Frank has some trouble with the fast spots, and it unfortunately cuts off part way through. We return right at the beginning of the great, fully acapella Dong Work For Yuda, but after half a minute Frank realizes he’s off key and requests to hear the changes from Eddie again. Terry’s Smothers-isms are the best part of this tune, and frequently change from night to night (though like Pat’s Broken Hearts asides, he has a bank of phrases he can pull from). Tonight’s got some unique sayings from Terry, mostly about tape recording or something, but the sound quality on top of the impression makes them pretty hard to decipher. They take us right into a quality Manx Needs Women, which is followed by a fun Titties ‘n Beer (this is THE tour for this tune, with amusing improv basically every night). Frank tells the Devil that he wants to “sign up for your program”, and later on we get some fun Smotherisms (“lemme open up your poop chute”) and references to the Danish crowd. Terry changes the ending for some reason (“Hold on a second boy, cause that’s a can of beer!”), Frank plugs Zoot Allures and we head into a lovely Black Napkins. Tonight we get excellent solos from Ray, Eddie and Frank, and we get more sick and experimental guitar effects during FZ’s closing solo. The Purple Lagoon finishes the program, which is rare for this tour (it only happens tonight and in Hamburg). This ends the program, and they return for a fantastic encore performance of Montana (one of two known for this band). We get a monster solo, and the tape fades out while they sing the coda (and Frank makes some more Smothers refs). They return a final time for a standard Dinah-Moe Humm, which brings this show to a close. Overall this is a fine representation of this tour, but far from the best. The songs aren’t as tight as they’d become, but FZ whips out some nice solos in the meantime. I’d say check out the rare encore Montana and maybe Titties/Black Napkins, but the rest is for the hardcore Europe ‘77 fans.
1977 01 15 – Konserthuset, Stockholm, Sweden (Audience B-)
The second night of the tour has a lot of the same problems as the first, but here we don’t even get a full show. Once again, there were two shows tonight and it’s uncertain if this recording is of the early or late show, but it is certain that the sound on this tape is muffled and overall very meh. So this tape misses the first chunk of the show (Purple-Peaches-Torture-Emma-Slime-Pound), and we start halfway though Jones Crusher. It quickly leads into My Guitar, with a nice bluesy solo from Frank, followed by a standard, rocking Grow Me A Chin. Then we head right into Broken Hearts Are For Assholes with a surprise little guitar solo over the intro! Patrick’s comments are fun but once again hard to hear (and not as polished as they’ll become). We get the first available full take of the tune, and we’re treated to the comically long “poop-chute” ending, which always makes me chuckle (it goes on for like over a minute every time!), and as the tune ends Frank asks the crowd “Do you understand the words to this song? Do you have any idea what we’re talking about?”. He polls the crowd, and tells them “If you thought that one was hard to understand, wait until you hear this one”, before heading into a slow, very loungy Dong Work For Yuda. Terry’s great as well, and drops a new Smotherism I can’t make out about ”rubbing” or something. Manx Needs Women slaps like always, and we get another fun Titties ‘n Beer with a bunch of lyrical mutations relating to turkeys for some reason. Frank brings up more Smothersisms (“The Falcum”), and gives a big monologue about how everyone loves the titular duo (people in the socialist countries, the communist countries, the capitalist countries, on venus, on mars, etc). We get another tasty Black Napkins following this, the last regular take with Ray, and after our three hot solos, Frank brings the main set to a very quick ending. For our two encores we get Dinah-Moe Humm and the iconic Camarillo Brillo/Muffin Man, which bring tonight to a close. This is a seriously underwhelming recording. Shitty quality, and it only captures the last half of the show. There’s some nice moments here and there, but they’re for hardcore fans only. There was a show in Oslo on the 16th, but there isn’t any recording available, so our next stop is nearly a week later in Sweden.
1977 01 21 – Scandinavium, Gothenborg, Sweden (Audience B)
Finally, a tape with okay sound! It’s not the best, but it’s much better than the last two shows. FZ comes on over the Purple Lagoon, says “Welcome to our world famous Scandinavium concert!”, introduces the band “and each and everyone of you on the ice itself”, and starts the night off right with Peaches En Regalia. Torture follows, and though Frank mixes up the lyrics a little (he says the “knives ‘n spikes” bit before “slime ‘n rot”) we still get a very nice vocal performance from the maestro. He whips out another great solo, with more cool guitar effects, and leads us into a fun-but-dumb Big Leg Emma. Another surprising tuning break, a fan yells for Carolina Hardcore Ecstacy (which would have been a cool song for this band) and Frank kicks into I’m The Slime. We get a fine but disappointingly short solo in Slime, but we’re led into an excellent Pound For A Brown, redeeming any hard feelings from the last tune. Jones Crusher comes next but has an unfortunate cut losing most of the middle of tune, and My Guitar is fun and bluesy. Surprise! We get an abrupt segue right into Cruising For Burgers! Frank starts an awesome solo, but unfortunately there’s a cut after about a minute that loses the entire middle of the tune (end my life). Well after the ending theme we resume our regularly scheduled program with a great Broken Hearts Are For Assholes. Patrick’s very audible which is fantastic (“Leather drives me wild… a salute to Puerto Rico!”), and we get the first Little Poop Chute outro! (though it isn’t fully fleshed out yet, and Frank shelves the idea for a few days before truly implementing the Beach Boys parody). “And now we have a song about Mr. Smothers, the bald-headed gentleman that you saw right here on the side of the stage…”: Dong Work For Yuda. Terry misses the first Poop Chute cue, and the tune unfortunately cuts off before the barrage of Smothersisms. We return at the start of Manx Needs Women, and get a quality version of the short atonal piece. Titties ‘n Beer provides the perfect contrast, with funky beats and some fun lyrical improv. This time Frank acts surprised when Terry asks him “What’s the scene?”. FZ declares that “the devil’s not supposed to say ‘what’s the scene’”, asks if he’s from Frisco, then labels him a “jazz devil” (something that will become a recurring theme throughout Europe). He could even be the “Polka devil” for all Frank cares. Eventually “the jazz devil puked”, the tune ends, and we get a sick Black Napkins. Tonight’s take is a little different from previous Napkins, we only get two solos, from Frank and Eddie respectively. This becomes the regular order for the next week. Both players are fantastic, and it’s clear when Eddie is in the second spot he’s trying to one-up FZ’s lovely opening solo (and he’s often successful too!). This segues directly into Camarillo Brillo, which of course leads right into Muffin Man (“yes that’s you!”). We get a very cool, chiller than usual, almost reggae Muffin Man solo, and a lovely conducted meltdown to end the main set. Our encore for tonight is Montana, the last one of the tour. Frank solo is solid, but not fantastic; What’s notable though is this is the last time he’d play over the normal vamp in this tune, as he drops the solo section from future tours (with the notable exception of December 1984, but we’ll get into that later). This brings tonight’s concert to an end. There’s some great highlights in this show (mainly the first “little poop chute”, the amusing Titties N Beer, and the crazed Muffin Man), but the unfortunate cuts in Cruising For Burgers and Dong Work seriously bum me out. There’s other great moments too, but they’re not unique to this performance. This isn’t a bad show, but it’s pretty far from the first one I’d recommend. Anyway, Frank finished off his tour of the Nordic countries with two shows in Helsinki on the 23rd, but there aren’t any available recordings, so our next tape is from Hamburg.
1977 01 24 – Congress Centrum, Hamburg, Germany (Audience B+)
This tape of the Hamburg show sounds nice, but is unfortunately pretty fragmented. We start tonight near the end of Frank’s Pound For A Brown solo. We hear just enough to tell it was probably a good solo, but not enough to really enjoy it (ugh). Terry gets a way longer solo today, and he keeps with this length for the rest of the tour. Jones Crusher, My Guitar and Grow A Chin all deliver exactly what you want, and Pat drops some great comments in Broken Hearts Are For Assholes (including “whip it out big boy!”, “scabies!” and something about the Traditional Red Berries of Hamburg – stay tuned for more on that last one). Frank then starts to intro Dong Work (“We have something even more delightful than a poop chute for you”), but there’s an abrupt cut taking out all of Yuda, Manx needs Women, and Titties N Beer. The tape resumes as FZ introduces a song for lovers only, Black Napkins (“yes we do have a new LP being released!”), and we get another fiery version of the tune. Frank solos first, and Eddie after him; They’re both great, seemingly always fighting for the most emotional performance in the moody tune. FZ outros the band and, surprisingly, we get a repeat of The Purple Lagoon to close out the show (the last time Frank ever uses a “walk-off” theme). Our first encore is an amazing Cruising For Burgers (though the tape unfortunately cuts in during the head). Frank is on fire, and whips out an amazing Burgers solo. They leave the stage, they return, “and now the song you’ve all been waiting for”: Dinah-Moe Humm. Frank fucks up “gotta get into it” section and has the crowd sing along with the second half. As the tune is ending, Frank announces “Ladies and gentlemen this is Siggi Loch, he is the head of Warner Bros here in Germany, and we’re gonna give him a quiz right now, we’re gonna see if he knows the words to any of our songs!” He tells him just to sing Dinah-Moe, and the tune eventually concludes. They return a final time (“one more and that’s it!”) for another fun Camarillo Brillo/Muffin Man. At the end Frank yells “Alright that’s it, you’ve been a good audience, probably the best audience we’ve seen on this tour. Very, very good. Sorry Siggi, next time don’t sit there. Goodnight!” This is seemingly a pretty solid show, but the fragmented tape makes it kinda hard to enjoy. I’d say check out the encores, but otherwise this one can be skipped. It’s possible there was a show in Neunkirchen am Brand the next day, but all we know for sure is that the next recording we have comes from Munich.
1977 01 26 – Olympiahalle, Munich, Germany (Audience B+)
Our next German show is a doozy, and is luckily captured on another quality tape. It starts off like normal with the Purple Lagoon, but surprise, Frank plays some nasty guitar over the theme! It’s not much of a solo, but it starts the trend of getting cool little experimental solo-ettes over the weirdo walk-on tune. Anyway, FZ introduces “our Munich concert for 1977” and tells the crowd “I think you know this song”, before they burst into Peaches. The Torture Never Stops of course comes next, and we get a fantastic take. Frank and Patrick are both on fire and amping each other up, creating a fantastic, torturous experience. FZ and Pat even quote Mo’s Vacation right at the end of the event. Eventually we come back to the world of the living and we continue into Big Leg Emma (with a small cut right at start). The small break between songs three and four is still present, though ever shortening. This time Frank announces “Alright! Moving right along with our parade of hits this evening we have a song… What? No not Billy The Mountain, no, the name of this song is I Am The Slime!” We get a hot but somewhat measly solo that leads into another fantastic Pound For A Brown (easily the longest take of the tour so far, at 11.5 minutes). Frank’s on fire, Terry bangs his drums, and we’re once again in the song-oriented section of the program. Jones Crusher is fun and bluesy, as is the following My Guitar. Frank plays a little bit of guitar between the two songs, but nothing like the true acapella solos he’ll start in a few days, though he does produce a nice solo in the later tune (these performances are by far the most guitar-heavy My Guitars around). Tryin’ To Grow A Chin comes next, and it cuts off right as Terry finishes screaming “one more time for the world”, which makes it as cool a tape cut transition as possible (but unfortunately the sound gets a little worse after this). We get another fantastic early Broken Hearts Are For Assholes, with more hysterical asides from Patrick. He mentions roadie Tex Able a lot tonight for some reason (“ooh it’s Tex doing a Coco!” And “It smells like Tex’s cock(?)”), and the crazy long “ram it up your poop chute” ending always gets me, as does the transition into Dong Work For Yuda (though there’s no LIttle Deuce Coupe parody yet sadly). “With the best intentions in the world ladies and gentleman, John Smothers can’t speak a fucking word of English even though he comes from America, but we don’t hold it against him, we think he’s okay, there’s nothing wrong with a foreign language even in your own country. And so we’ve devoted this song to him”. We get another great Dong Work, with more lovely Smothersisms from Skinny LIttle Terry Ted Bozzio. Manx Needs Women brings us back into the abstruse (with a small cut in the middle), and then Titties ‘N Beer returns us to pervert land. We get an exciting take with lots of fun dialog. The Devil wants to screen Frank before he goes to hell, and mentions that he writes strange music, specifically about Ms. Pinky, and that he has funny things growing in his hair. For some reason this prompts FZ to say “you must be a jazz sort of a devil like Rudy Martini”, which leads Terry to say “I can swing Rudy, Frank don’t let me swing, but believe me the devil can swing!” while playing a cheesy sorta swing-beat. Frank shouts out the Munich crowd, does the first known German Titties and Beer (“Titten und Bier!”), and drops tonight’s first reference to the “traditional red berries of Hamburg”, which will take over the entire show in a little bit. There’s also a vocal jam over the end, with Terry scatting, Ray singing and Frank yelling “Titten und Bier!” (Terry’s scatting sticks around and becomes a regular item for this tour’s Titties). “Alright, during this part of our show I have to do something that I, I usually find this extremely distasteful, y’know? This is one of those things that once you enter the world of rock that sometimes you have to do it because it’s your only recourse. Now, as you know that everybody in the rock industry is there for only one reason, and that’s to help out their record company. Y’know? Because the record companies always need so much help, so we’re gonna do what we can to help out… We’re gonna dedicate this song to Siggi, Stephen and Rudy, all the guys, even a little bit of it goes out to Connie. It’s a hot little number we used to dedicate it to Mo, but Mo’s not here, he’s off making money on somebody else tonight. The name of this song is Black Napkins!” We got a crazy good version tonight. Our two soloists once again battle for the ultimate emotional experience. Frank’s still going first, and Eddie comes after him. Eddie’s solo is so good you can tell Frank thinks about taking a second solo to one up his violinist, but he ends up just ending the tune. After the final arpeggio, Patrick plays a bouncy bass riff and then ends up going into a mini-jam for a minute while Frank outros the band (“and the Traditional Red Berries of Hamburg!!!”). He conducts the band into a big crunch, “condenses” the setlist into a ball “approximately the size of one of the Traditional Red Berries of Hamburg” and says goodnight. Frank returns and tells the crowd “we’ll play another song if you’ll do something for me… Whenever you hear the words ‘The Traditional Red Berries of Hamburg’, you must reflect upon it like this… No, you’re not doing it, okay no more songs goodnight… I’ll give you one more chance, get your fingers on your nose when I say ‘The Traditional Red Berries of Hamburg’, Do it!…Oh well what the fuck, the name of this song is Dinah-Moe Humm!” Frank plays a lively version of the infamous tune, with a number of spontaneous “The Traditional Red Berries of Hamburg”s thrown in for good measure. During the middle “Fauna do you wanna?” section, Frank briefly stops the music a couple of times to tell Munich “If you want more you know what to do… The Traditional Red Berries of Hamburg!!” and has them touch their noses. For our second encore, we get a rare and excellent Cruising For Burgers, with a very cool, sinister solo from Mr. Zappa. Camarillo Brillo and Muffin Man make up our third and final encore, and Frank makes sure to end the show right. He says dwarf in german in Camarillo (though I think he says “Zwergel” instead of “Zwergin”), and an absolute beast of a Muffin Man comes next. Frank plays a nice solo, conducts some cool hard-stops between repetitions of the riff, sings “Girl you thought he was a man but he was The Traditional Red Berries of Hamburg”, talks to the crowd a little more, then directs the lads into some crazy tweaky nonsense (“oh yeah, oh yeah”), and finally ends the show for good. This is an absolute monster of a show. This band doesn’t have a ton of humor or spontaneity, so this concert really takes the cake for me. Great solos, good sound, no terrible cuts and some fantastic and rare on stage moments make this show a no-brainer. Check this one out!
1977 01 27 – Philipshalle, Dusseldorf, Germany (Audience B+)
Another night in Germany, another quality concert (both performances and sound!). Our show starts with another fun Purple Lagoon, with a perfectly fitting, angular and weird, sick little solo-ette from Frank. We get a nice Peaches (“you already know the name of this song”), and tonight’s Torture is entertaining but Frank’s solo is kinda meandering. Big Leg Emma is a perfect comic relief tune, there’s a cut immediately after, and then.. the return of City Of Tiny Lights! It’s largely the same arrangement from the Fall North American tour, but with one major difference. Ray was made to sing this tune and always does it very well. His solo is hot tonight, but after this they get quiet for a sec and surprise! We get a bass solo! One of the weirdest hallmarks of this tour is the regular Tiny Lights bass solo, and Patrick does a great job tonight (despite always sounding a little out of place in this tune). After the post-solo guitar theme, Frank yells “Alright y’all wanna get funky now?, I know you wanna get funky, You gotta do something here in Dusseldorf!”, and Ray finishes the lyrics. He ends with “and it’s over there” on this tour (usually), like what would later be featured on Sheik Yerbouti (versions on the fall ‘76 tour ended with “that the peoples eat”). Tonight’s take finishes with some excellent solo guitar from Frank, and a “thank you!!” to the audience. After this there’s a brief pause, and we return to our regularly scheduled Pound For A Brown, skipping I’m The Slime (City will quickly replace Slime over the next couple of days). Frank’s whips out yet another awesome Pound solo, with more cool, experimental effects. Jones Crusher is always fun, My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama is nice but has an unfortunate cut in the middle and Tryin’ To Grow A Chin is mostly normal but has a weird, slow one more time for the world guitar break. Broken Hearts provides more dumb fun, and Pat’s line “A salute to the barking spider” really cracks FZ up. There’s no “Little Poop Chute” yet, but a comically long pseudo doo-wop outro, where Patrick just whispers “Asssshooole” while Frank makes some of the dumbest noises imaginable. “This is a song for John [Smothers], because John, in his own way, has done more to destroy the English language than any Berlin correspondents school in the world.” Another ridiculous Dong Work For Yuda, leads into a sloppy Manx Needs Women (honestly this song is hard as fuck, who can blame them). Titties ‘n Beer has some small lyrical mutations, like Frank calls Terry The Teufel (which is German for Devil), and says the title in German too, but this is otherwise a substandard take. There’s another long funky, vocal heavy outro, with shouts from Terry and Frank. FZ even quotes Guava Jelly by Bob Marley over the ending tamp (“Rub it on my belly…”). Black Napkins, The tune “for lovers only” comes next and we get another two tremendous solos from our lead guitarist and our violinist. This ends the show, but they of course return a number of times. Dinah-Moe Humm’s our first encore; Patrick plays a cool bass line during the Dora section and Frank gets the audience to sing along at the same time (“It’s good for you, it helps bring up sinus congestion!”). Terry does some “Hauh?”s from Dong Work, they chant Dinah-Moe a few more times, and we get a Manx-esque ending crash. Encore number two is Cruising For Burgers. It’s a pretty fast version of the theme, and it leads Frank into some amazing, amazing guitar improv. We get an awesome rock n roll solo, over a constantly changing vamp; part-way through Terry even starts to yell “All Night Long” over Frank’s rocking guitar. After 10+ minutes the event finally comes to an end, resulting in one of the best Burgers out there. The crowd chants for Zoot Allures, they return a final time for another great Camarillo/Muffin (with more German “dwarf”s), and the show comes to a close. This is an excellent show, you’ve got a ton of standout moments amidst the somewhat rote setlist, and at the end we have one of the greatest Cruising For Burgers around. After listening to Munich, check this one out too!!
1977 01 28 – Vorst Nationaal, Brussels, Belgium (Audience B+)
“Good Evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to our world famous Brussels 1977 concert!” We get another fun, but not incredibly standout show from late January. There’s no Lagoon solo today, Frank just introduces the band along with “each and everyone of you in the middle of this ugly fucking building”. Our first tune is the ever-lovely “Peaches unt Regalia!” followed by a solid Torture and Big Leg Emma. The tuning break still exists, and Frank asks the crowd “How come you guys are so awake and they’re asleep in Germany?” and also “Have you heard of the traditional red berries of Hamburg?” (I don’t think they have…). We launch into I’m The Slime (“Everybody dance!”), and get another great solo in the tune. Eddie is clearly confused after, because we get a false start to Pound For A Brown before Ray’s guitar kicks in with the intro to City. Ray and Patrick play some nice solos, but Ray totally mangles the post solo theme, and the transition into Pound is pretty shaky too. Despite this, we get another excellent solo from Frank, with the cool spacey effects we’ve grown to love, and a solid solo from Terry (There’s a bunch of fuckers yelling for Muffin Man while he’s trying to play, but the same people freak out at the end of his solo, so who knows what they want). Jones Crusher is solid, My Guitar has a mini-cut at the start, Frank plays with the lyrics a little (“And you and you and you”) and ends with a short but sweet solo. Chin’s fun, Terry does one to many “please kill me”(s), and there’s more guitar in this take than usual and we get a classic Broken Hearts after this, with some great asides from Patrick (including “You oughta see the pickle on that son of a bitch”). Tonight’s transition into Dong Work is unique; It slows down more than usual, and Terry sings “ram it up your poop chute” a couple times before Frank announces Mr. Smothers and “the work he has done to destroy the English language”. Today’s take, like every one, is a lot of fun; Terry says (as Bald-Headed John), something about Johnny Madison and his song Misty, which cracks Frank up a little (because Smothers was thinking of Johnny Mathis). Manx is nice and crazed, and Titties provides excellent contrast. There’s a little bit of improv (“What the fuck do you think this is? A vacation?…. The devil can kiss my ass!”), but it ultimately doesn’t go too far away from the plot (“I’m into the same thing all these people are into…”). Black Napkins is once again excellent tonight. Frank solos, Eddie solos, and not to be one-upped, Frank plays a second, shorter solo to wrap up the affair. Our first encore is a standard Dinah-Moe Humm, but our second is Willie The Pimp! Unfortunately though, it’s not the Hot Rats guitar epic, but the rearranged, poppier version made famous by the ‘84 band. Ray does a great job with the vocals, and Frank does rip out an awesome solo, but man is this arrangement just worse in every way. Camarillo Brillo/Muffin Man finish off the night. Frank fucks up the intro to the first tune, plays a nice solo in Muffin Man, and provides a wondrous, vocal-heavy crash to end the show. This isn’t a bad show, but it definitely isn’t one of the tour’s best night’s either. Check this one out when you’ve heard some of the bigger ones, but don’t make this your first early ‘77 experience.
1977 01 30 – Rhein-Main-Halle, Wiesbaden, Germany (Audience A/A-)
This is the best sounding recording of this tour, but it’s unfortunately not the most exciting one. There were two shows on this night, and we know from Frank’s comments that this is the early one. FZ delivers a nice Purple Lagoon solo-ette, says hello to the US Servicemen in the crowd, and introduces Peaches (“This goes out to everybody, this song is not just for the GIs”). The Hot Rats tune is always lovely, and it’s followed by a great Torture with an especially angry solo. A fan yells “I love you Frank Zappa!”, Frank says “midget” in German, and Big Leg Emma comes next. “And now a song not on any record”: City Of Tiny Lights. It’s a fun take, with another fiery solo from Ray, a weird solo from Patrick, and some nice guitar from Frank over the end. “We bid a fond farewell to the City of Tiny Lights and make a gradual segue into a song from the Uncle Meat album entitled A Pound For A Brown On The Bus”. We get two fantastic solos from Frank and Terry, followed by another lovely Jones Crusher/My Guitar duo (with great guitar throughout). Tryin’ To Grow A Chin is wonderful too, and a great predecessor to Broken Hearts Are For Assholes. Pat makes his comments, which never fail to crack me up (“The cutest little lime green popsicle I’ve ever seen”), and our outro once again devolves into dumb doo-wop. Next up is our regular “acapella event” dedicated to Mr. Smothers: Dong Work For Yuda. I’m always happy to hear perverted barbershop, and Terry’s Smothersisms always work for me. Manx is Manx (90 seconds of abstract weirdness), and Titties always follows. Frank and The Devil argue for a bit, chat about Terry’s mask, mention that it’s nice to have people who speak English, and finally FZ chants “Titten und Bier!” Black Napkins follows this, and we get the first “reversed” performance where Eddie starts us off and Frank closes us out (I think Eddie may have still beaten Frank despite this). Either way, they each play an excellent solo, and this finishes off our program. Dinah-Moe Humm comes first, and we get a regular take until the end where someone asks Frank “what about the zircon encrusted tweezers?”, Frank shows them something, and then instructs the multi-lingual crowd to sing along. They return a final time for an excellent I’m The Slime, the final one of the tour, and the last Slime of the 70s. Frank says “yes it’s the Armed Forces network on the air!”, cranks out an excellent solo, and brings the show to a close. This isn’t the most experimental show setlist wise, but Frank is on fire tonight, and the whole show is captured in excellent sound. Wouldn’t be the first show I’d recommend, but I think it should be heard for sure. I think if a recording of the late show ever appears, then we’ll be in for a real fun time.
1977 01 31 – Sporthalle, Boeblingen, Germany (Audience B-)
This is a pretty solid show, unfortunately it doesn’t sound too great. It sometimes sounds better than a B-, sometimes worse, but overall it’s pretty mid. Frank plays a couple hot licks over the Purple Lagoon, introduces the band and jumps right into Peaches. There’s a fan singing along with part of the tune, which always makes me smile. Frank yells “It’s just like Wayne Newton” as Torture starts, and whips out a quality solo in the usual spot. Big Leg Emma comes next, and we finally get a smooth, wordless transition into the next tune: City Of Tiny Lights. We get the regular but exciting weirdo-version from this tour, with fun solos from Ray and Patrick. Frank talks to the crowd a little during his vocal spotlight (“The great escape for you over there”), and Pat plays a little bit of Tequila in his solo. Frank ends the tune with something like “You’re probably wondering where the City Of Tiny Lights is, and the answer is wherever the concert is”, and brings us into a lovely Pound For A Brown, where he whips out an awesome 7 minute solo, totally blowing my mind. FZ finishes and Terry solos, but as Terry plays Frank slowly creeps back in, and Patrick follows, leading to a fun little jam. Eventually they stop and Terry gets to finish the tune off. Solid takes of Jones Crusher, My Guitar, and Chin follow this. Broken Hearts is nice but Patrick is too quiet to hear. What’s exciting though is this is the first performance to end with a true “Little Poop Chute”! (a ridiculous parody of the Beach Boys’ Little Deuce Coupe). Frank talks to the GIs in the crowd after this, but it’s pretty hard to make out over the crowd noise. “This is a special song for those of you in the audience who speak the American language”: Dong Work For Yuda. Terry’s always funny, but there’s no unique phrases today (at least none I can make out). Manx is a haven for the abstruse in the vocal second half of the program, and is once again followed by Titties ‘N Beer. Frank and the Devil argue (“Don’t growl at me”), and the Devil says he likes to tie up people with piano wire and beat them up with some old drumsticks, before a bit of drum fury (Frank says everyone in Germany is into this). FZ says that Terry likes to get pissed on, tells him about “Titten und Bier!”, and then says that he’s a “jazz devil from the Sun Ra school”. An excellent Black Napkins follows this, with a surprise solo from Ray in the middle of our two usual contestants (The guitar player switch happens around 12:30). Our first (and possibly only) encore tonight is of course Dinah-Moe Humm. Frank talks to the crowd about a dance contest, but it’s pretty much impossible to make out due to the poor tape quality. I think Frank brings out Frenchie the poodle too, but I can’t say for sure, and the tape ends before they finish the tune. Overall this is a pretty nice show, but not nice enough for me to recommend despite the tape quality. We have an excellent Pound, an amusing Titties and a wonderful Black Napkins, so I’m gonna say check those out, but most of the rest is for completionists only.
1977 02 03 – Pavillon De Paris, Paris, France (Audience A-/B+)
Frank played two shows in Paris in 1977. There’s no recording of the first night, but the second is captured on a very nice audience tape, and is the longest show of the tour. The first show featured a guest appearance by blues harmonica player Sugar Blue, but this is unfortunately lost to time. FZShows says that there is a short soundboard recording of Titties N Beer and Black Napkins from the second show, but I’ve never been able to find any source for that. FZ plays another weirdo solo over the Purple Lagoon; He’s got a very cool tone here but the solo is ultimately not super successful. Frank welcomes us to “our second Paris concert”, gives some amusing intros in a carnival barker sort of tone (he references Eddie as “direct from Roxy Music”, something he hadn’t done for a while) and we’re straight into Peaches En Regalia (at a nice, slow tempo). The Torture Never Stops has a cool, spacey solo, and Frank shouts out “that poor girl in the corner” mid lyric (he mentions “our dancing contestant from last night” too). Big Leg Emma is the perfect comic relief, and City Of Tiny Lights has some great solos (“It’s just like a rock n roll show isn’t it?”). The ending goes nuts too, as Ray sings the final “it’s over there” (for the first time since Dusseldorf), Frank starts a lovely, crazed guitar solo to end the tune. FZ keeps the energy up through Pound For A Brown, delivering another great solo in the classic number. Terry does his thing, and Jones Crusher is its weird funky self. After this we get a surprise performance of Honey Don’t You Want A Man Like Me! It’s super shaky, and ultimately a pretty bad performance (that’s basically the same as the late ‘76 takes), but it’s still cool to hear in the middle of this very routine setlist. The surprises continue because The Illinois Enema Bandit comes next! (“Just the sorta song you think we’d perform when we came to Paris”). This is a much better performance than Honey; Ray knocks the vocals out of the park yet again, and we get some lovely solos from Ray, Eddie (on keys) and Frank. We get a familiar “bum budda bum bum” ending from Frank (like on ZINY), with a nice segue into My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama. Tryin’ To Grow A Chin showcases Terry’s crazed energy, and Broken Hearts Are For Assholes showcases the comedy styling of Patrick O’Hearn (my fave aside tonight is “bring the kids in here I want them to see this”). “Little Poop Chute” leads into another fun Dong Work For Yuda (“You should be so lucky that he doesn’t speak French, because if he did you guys would really be in trouble”). Manx Needs Women is a little sloppy but still a riot, and Titties ‘n Beer goes off the rails. Frank comments that he’s “into ecology” (“Save the whales….Don’t fuck too hot of gals or it might set ‘em on fire”) and that he wants “titties and wine”. Terry plays a drum fill that amuses Frank, so he goes into another “jazz devil’ phase. Bozzio ends up singing Straight No Chaser by Monk, and Frank sings “Titties N Beer” along with the medley. Eventually “Tittes and a Chateau Latour 1918” comes to a close, and we’re brought into “a song from our new almost French-type album called Zoot Allures”. Black Napkins (aka “Le Serviette Noir”) features two more excellent spontaneous compositions from Eddie and Frank. FZ plays a very Pink Napkins-esque solo, and brings the main set to a close. Our first encore is Willie The Pimp, which starts at the original slow temp before quickly speeding way up to the new, poppy-version. Frank plays a solid solo, but then Ray comes back in to sing more “Hot Zits”, then Frank just keeps going! We get a fantastic, fast-tempo blues jam from FZ, and a fantastic pimp-themed vocal breakdown from Ray. The whole event lasts over 10 minutes, and is easily the best Willie the Pimp post-1975. Frank suddenly ends the jam with “Oh that’s enough of that, thank you for coming to the concert, goodnight!” and leaves the stage once again. Dinah-Moe Humm is up next with a fun audience participation ending (“Do it loud enough so they can hear it at the Chicago concert!”) and it fades away into a sick ending crash. Camarillo Brillo/Muffin Man is our last event for the night, and Frank plays some excellent, cool, experimental guitar in the final tune (He sings the tune twice too!). Overall this is an excellent show, one of the best of the tour, and well worth a listen. Frank and the band are on fire, and we even get a handful of rare tunes thrown in. Check this one out!
1977 02 05 – Netherlands Jaap Edenhal, Amsterdam, Netherlands (Audience B+)
Frank returns to Holland for “our spectacular Amsterdam 1977 concert!” and it’s captured on a very listenable audience tape. Frank doesn’t really solo over the Purple Lagoon tonight, but he does give some amusing intros including “Patrick O’Hearn on bass and new purple boots” and “Terry Ted yes you saw him last year Bozzio on drums” Frank shouts “Awww Pinky he’s all yours after the show if you know what I mean” and starts the show off with another great rendition of Peaches En Regalia. Torture has a solid solo, Big Leg Emma brings exactly what you’d expect, and City Of Tiny Lights brings two nice solos from Ray and Pat. Frank plays a nice but not mind blowing solo in A Pound For A Brown, and Terry follows it up with a classic Bozzio solo. Jones Crusher is it’s usual weird self, but afterwards we get some fantastic solo guitar improv from Frank! He whips out a tasteful, spacey solo that leads right into My Guitar. This spot is sick as fuck, and luckily (after Cologne) FZ decides to make this a regular part of the show. People argue if this section is a coda to Jones Crusher or an intro to My Guitar, and I am strongly in the latter camp (I feel like Jones ends on a hard stop, and the acapella guitar always perfectly flows into My Guitar). Anyway, we get a solid version of My Guitar, followed by a quality Tryin’ To Grow A Chin. Broken Hearts Are For Assholes always makes me chuckle and tonight’s is no different. Patrick says shit like “Fortunately he had herpes”, “It’s a blue world baby” and “Angel’s dust”, all of which make me laugh for some reason. Terry screams, they ram it up our poop chute for a while, and when they finally get to the “Little Poop Chute” section Ray can barely hold it together while singing. “Alright we have a song now, forget the poop chute for a minute, let’s go on to something really intelligent, John Smothers vocabulary!” Dong Work is always fun; Terry succedes in his Smothers impression (They’ve got “bad acous-mix” today), and somebody blows a bunch of fart noises during the “I’ll make you fart” coda. Manx Needs Women is tweaky perfection, and Titties ‘n Beer of course follows. There’s some fun improv tonight, but it doesn’t get too crazy. Frank sorta breaks down the story, and comments that he doesn’t care who the devil is as long as he gets his T and B (“You could be swedish!”). Frank says Titties N Beer a bunch, calls it “a lovers prayer” and tells the Devil: “you give me your soul and I’ll help you get some titties n beer”. Black Napkins comes next (like always) and we get a very nice version, one of the best so far. Both solos tonight are beautiful and tasteful, and a quick outro and ending bring the main set to a close. Frank returns and announces “because you’ve been such a wonderful audience we’re going to play you one of the most beautiful melodies ever written”, and of course plays Dinah-Moe Humm (“See isn’t this a lovely tune?”). There’s some nice, simple audience participation in the song, and for our second and final encore we get another nice Cruising For Burgers with a solid, but not mind-blowing solo. This leads directly into the amphetamine-fueled Willie The Pimp. Tonight’s version quickly turns into a little boogie, and Ray ends with some lovely vocals (“Hot love for sale!”). It’s fun, but overall not super remarkable in the grand scheme of things. This ends the show, and Frank once again leaves the Netherlands for another year. This is a solid concert, but aside from maybe Black Napkins, there are better versions of all of these tunes available. Nothing’s wrong with this show, it’s still a fun time, but there are better shows from this band available.
1977 02 06 – Sporthalle, Cologne, Germany (Audience B+)
Frank returns to Cologne, and we get a pretty standard mid-tour show (captured on a nice and listenable recording). FZ plays a nice solo-ette in The Purple Lagoon, kinda mimicking the theme as he plays, introduces the band and begins the now regular setlist. Peaches is fun, Torture has a solid, fiery solo, and Big Leg Emma provides the perfect comic relief. After this is one of the best City Of Tiny Lights of the tour. Nothing is incredibly different, but Ray and Patrick really hit it out of the park tonight. Another fantastic Pound For A Brown, followed by another excellently weird Jones Crusher. There’s unfortunately no guitar transition into My Guitar (today’s the final show without one), but we get a nice take of the tune anyway. Tryin’ To Grow A Chin is always fun, and has a cool harmonic-y kinda guitar ending. Broken Hearts is great once again, you can hear Patrick very well, and he’s got some classic asides. Frank can tell the audience doesn’t know English (“Can’t understand the words, huh?”) and slows the ending of the tune way down. Frank and Patrick start interjecting phrases between the “ram it”s, like “knockwurst”, “leather” and “shaschige”. Not only does this influence later performances of this tune, but Frank actually used part of the ending of this performance on Läther. They make a hard transition into “Little Poop Chute”, as made popular by the Beach Boys, and then Frank introduces “a song for John, because he’s done more for the English language than anyone I know”. Dong Work is great, and features the first “what’s that stuff that comes out of your mouth, Salima?” Manx Needs Women brings the usual weirdness (but Eddie kinda chumps the ending), and we once again get a fun Titties ‘n Beer. Frank instructs the audience to “listen closely to these words” when they start the tune, calls Terry “the teufel” once again, and kinda explains the plot of the tune, in an attempt to catch the crowd up. He drops some more German, tells Terry to “speak English”, and concludes the song. Black Napkins is great as always. Eddie plays a lovely solo, and Frank follows it up with some cool, experimental guitar, providing another fantastic version of this seminal composition. Unfortunately, as Frank is ending the tune, someone throws a bottle on stage, which obviously pisses him off (“whoever threw this bottle go fuck yourself”). There’s a big musical crash and FZ ends the show by demanding “Oh and one other thing, anybody sitting next to the person who threw that bottle, punch ‘em in the head for me”. This is a pretty nice show, nothing too insane happens, but there’s a lot of fun, unique moments throughout. I’d say check this one out once you’ve heard some of the bigger shows, but it’s not an immediate required listen.
1977 02 07 – Deutschlandhalle, Berlin, Germany (Audience B)
The band’s in Berlin, the sound is solid, and we’re in for a good concert. Nothing too wildly different tonight, just more great Zappa music. The regular Purple-Peaches-Torture combo works well tonight, and we get a nice solo in the middle tune. Frank tells the crowd to “sing right along” during Big Leg Emma, and we get another fun City Of Tiny Lights with nice solos from Ray and Patrick. A Pound For A Brown is always lovely, and this weird arrangement of Jones Crusher is always fun to hear. Frank brings back the sick, spacey, acapella guitar intro to My Guitar, and it’s fantastic once again. The song it leads into is great too, a perfect pair with the previous tune. Tryin’ To Grow A Chin hits all the right spots, and Broken Hearts Are For Assholes is a lot of fun too. Patrick says “leather” for nearly every break in the song, and FZ yells “easy there don’t bite!” near the end. The “little poop chute” transition always cracks me up, and it leads into another fun Dong Work (“If you think these people have trouble [with English], just look at this guy”). Terry drops some classic Smothersisms, including a rare “What you need is some ‘Allumium’ for your drum case” (also the room has “bad acous-mix” once again today). Manx Needs Women is fun and tweaky, and Titties ‘n Beer once again goes off the rails tonight. Terry asks Frank about his hobbies, and they end up talking about “the problems facing the human race today”, like where you’ll get some “Titten und Bier!”. Frank comments on Terry’s whiney devil voice, calling him cheap and a “folk rock devil”. He keeps insulting him (“How do you think you’re gonna get any pussy tonight with that fucking mask on?”) until they run out of shit to talk about. Terry says “take it away Frank”, and FZ does for some reason, reciting the “no don’t sign it” part that Terry normally sings. This takes us into Black Napkins, which provides us with another two excellent solos, but I think Eddie’s definitely tops Frank’s this time around. This of course ends the show, and Dinah-Moe Humm is our first encore. Frank tries to get the crowd to sing along with the end (“Just think of me as an older, more sinister Paul McCartney”), but is ultimately only sorta successful. After this FZ conducts a long ending crash (about 90 seconds), before returning once again for a final Camarillo Brillo/Muffin Mun event. He rocks out, thanks the crowd for coming, outros Patrick on “bass and cute dancing”, Terry on “drums and stinking rubber mask”, and Eddie on “overwhelmingly wide cheekbones, violin and keyboards”. He tells us to “drive safely on your way home”, plays some more hot licks and finally brings the night to a close. This isn’t the most unique show out there (hell nothing from this tour truly is), but it’s a great example of what to expect on this tour. There are more exciting shows out there, but if you like this band, check this one out, you won’t be disappointed.
1977 02 09 – Hammersmith Odeon, London, UK (Audience C+/C)
This is a great show, but unfortunately the recording sounds like ass. We of course start off with the Purple Lagoon. Frank takes a very short solo over the vamp and announces: “welcome to our return to England concert for 1977!”. The crowd cheers, he Intros the band, and finishes with “the pride of Great Britain itself, Eddie Jobson!” This show starts like the rest: Peaches>Torture>Emma>City. Torture has a nice solo but it’s definitely hard to hear. City of Tiny Lights (“C’mon get funky now!”) has a nice set of solos, and Pats is especially good tonight. It’s got a sorta stilted ending (they’re still figuring out the “over there” finale) , but it’s followed up by another sick Pound For A Brown and another weird Jones Crusher. Frank’s intro to My Guitar is great, and he even quotes Eric Clapton’s Layla. FZ does his classic dumb voice over the end of the tune, and we get another fun Grow Me A Chin and Broken Hearts. It’s pretty hard to make out, but it’s clear that Pat’s having a lot of fun (well, you can hear him say “leather” a ton). Dong Work For Yuda is fun but unintelligible and the ending cuts out, so we’re thrown partway into Manx Needs Women. After this is what seems to be a really fun Titties ‘n Beer with lots of improv from Frank and Terry, but you unfortunately can barely make anything out. Frank recites the Packard Goose speech, mentions the Traditional Red Berries of Hamburg (pause included), and someone plays Pomp and Circumstance at some point. After this long, somewhat unlistenable event, we are led into another fantastic, jaw-dropping Black Napkins. We’re blessed with two great solos. Eddie’s is wonderful as always, and Frank’s is very long and ends with a whacked Isn’t It Romantic quote. This ends the show, but Frank of course returns to unleash Dinah-Moe Humm on London. It’s a really good version, with some fun audience participation and a TON of dialog from Frank. Ninety percent of it is impossible to make out on this cruddy tape, but there are fun moments where Frank comments that “an english person is actually singing”, and says something about when he lived in London in 1971 and something else about Captain Beefheart (I think?). They leave, they return and Frank finishes off the night with a solid Camarillo Brillo/Muffin Man. This is a great show, I think it’s likely one of the best from this band, but it’s easily the worst sounding show of the tour. The instrumental sections don’t sound too terrible, but vocals are pretty incomprehensible. It’s unfortunate, but until there’s an official release of this show (Frank multi-tracked the whole London run!) it’s gonna be hard for me to recommend this tape.
1977 02 10 – Hammersmith Odeon, London, UK (Audience B+/B)
Night two in London brings us another great show, and thankfully it’s on a much, much better sounding tape. FZShows says there’s a more complete, worse sounding B- tape available for patches, but Zappateers says it has unfortunately never surfaced. Anyway, we start with a solo-less Purple Lagoon, but Frank makes up for it with some amusing intros featuring Patrick “together in leather” with Terry and “England’s finest, the little fella with the high cheek bones: Eddie Jobson”. They open the show with “a song from one of the albums that did well here”: Peaches En Regalia. Like many others from this tour, there’s nothing incredibly standout about the first chunk of tonight’s show. Peaches in always great, Torture has a nice solo, there’s a small cut right before Big Leg Emma and City Of Tiny Lights is as funky as ever. Frank is really great in A Pound For A Brown tonight, but unfortunately all of Terry’s solo is missing. Jones Crusher and My Guitar are both fun, and the solo guitar connecting them is absolutely excellent. I can never hear Tryin To Grow Me A Chin too many times, and we get a great Broken Hearts Are For Assholes (Frank must have thought so too, as parts of this Broken Hearts were released on Lather). Pat says the iconic “Buddy Love the Baron of Beef”, Dong Work brings the Barbershop (“a delicate number in the english language”) and Manx Needs Women makes me thrash. After this is a very fun Titties ‘n Beer. It seems like it’s going to end early, but some comments about English people lead to more dialog; eventually Frank once again comments on Terry’s fills (after another “Exorcist” quote – see December ‘76), and tells him “you can’t get across to an English audience playing jazz beats…You wanna prove that you’re the devil then sound like Black Sabbath for a minute!” They play a quick little parody of the song Black Sabbath, with Terry yelling the main riff along with someone’s guitar (FZ: “Sorry Ozzy, sorry Tony, sorry Geezer”). The tune wraps up pretty quickly after this, and they make a clean segue into a wild Black Napkins, but not for the reasons you’d expect. Frank makes it about a minute into the theme before conjuring up more Black Sabbath quotes. Eddie takes a classic, fantastic violin solo, and Frank follows it up with demented solo seemingly consisting of about 30 quotes of the lick from, you guessed it, Black Sabbath. There’s more to it obviously, it has a lot of beautiful moments, but I will definitely remember it as “The Black Sabbath Napkins” (Frank also throws in the Alvin Lee riff somewhere in there too). This brings the main set to a very satisfying conclusion and our first encore Dinah-Moe Humm, but it’s completely missing from the recording (Oh no….). A surprise Willie The Pimp is our second encore and we get a solid take, maybe the second best of the tour. Frank plays a nice solo, and he lets Ray stretch out with another really fun improvised kind of rap at the end of the song. FZ spends about 30 seconds tuning his guitar at the end, only to play for another half a minute or so before ending the night for good. This is a really fun show, maybe not the best of the tour, but all the performances are top notch. The Black Sabbath encrusted Titties N Beer/Black Napkins from tonight is fantastic live Zappa and a standout moment from the tour. And on top of all this, the tape’s got nice sound. Check this one out! Frank and the gang played a show in Stafford on the 12th, which we unfortunately have no recording of, so we will return on the 13th in Scotland.
1977 02 13 – Apollo Theatre, Glasgow, UK (Audience B/B-)
This is another fun, high energy show from the end of the tour, captured on a listenable but staunchly mediocre tape. Frank talks to the crowd about having “an English person in the band” during The Purple Lagoon, and we get a quick, hard cut into Peaches En Regalia. The Torture Never Stops has another monster solo, Big Leg Emma and City of Tiny Lights deliver in all the ways you would want from this band and tonight’s Pound For A Brown has a chill, quiet, and surprisingly funky solo from Frank. Terry’s regular bombastic solo follows this up, and Jones Crusher is still weird and tweaky for another few dates. My Guitar has more fantastic intro improvisations (Frank quotes the intro to Layla again), but the ending is unfortunately missing. The tune itself is nice as always, as is the following Tryin’ To Grow A Chin. Broken Hearts is great tonight, though Pat’s vocals are a little quiet. He talks about Spain (I think), Frank yells “even in Scotland we have to!” before the “ram it ram it ram it…” section, and we get an amusing extended Little Poop Chute (“she got a sausage in there….”). The song dedicated to Mr. Smothers comes next, and we get a handful of new lines from “earlier this afternoon” in Dong Work For Yuda (We get a comment on their London hotel, Bald-Headed John tried a new kind of tea and it turns out he weighs “about 3 stone myself”). Someone whistles over the end of the tune, and we get the classic whacked transition into Manx Needs Women. Tonight’s Titties ‘n Beer continues in the british tradition and gives us an amusing dialog. Frank asks “even her kilts?”, Terry brings up the “shit on stage” rumor, and Frank responds that it was actually Paul McCartney (“No wait it wasn’t Paul it was Linda!”). He tells the Devil that he’s only interested in Titties, Beer and Haggis, and he messes with Terry so much that they fuck up the ending to the tune (“Here’s my big line…….. No don’t sign it…”). After this is “a little number that goes out for all the lovers in the audience tonight” (“we hope there are a lot of ‘em and I hope they can find the hotel we’re staying at too”). We get another great version of Black Napkins from this lovely ensemble, with two more fantastic solos from our violinist and lead guitar player, and this ultimately brings the main set to a close. They return for the predictable Dinah-Moe Humm encore, with some fun Frank riffing in the aura section (“that means pain ladies and gentleman, pain and more pain”, and of course “leather”). Frank conducts some weird breaks over the final “Dinah-Moe”s, and we get a long, quiet, and spacey ending to the tune. They return a final time for a solid Camarillo Brillo/Muffin Mam (“Here’s something for you”), which ends our night in Glasgow. This is a really great show; This rocking teenage combo is so tight after playing together for a few months, so these last UK shows are all fantastic regardless of sound quality. Check this one out once you’ve heard some of the crazier early ‘77 shows.
1977 02 14 – Playhouse Theatre, Edinburgh, UK (Audience B)
“Welcome to our first Edinburgh concert!”. The tour’s second and final Scottish show brings the same fire as the other UK dates, and is captured on a pretty solid audience tape. We of course begin with The Purple Lagoon, and tonight’s take carries a really nice little guitar solo. Frank speeds through the band intros, and we’re thrown into the always lovely Peaches En Regalia. Torture provides an excellent solo once again, and Patrick is really fantastic too, elevating the whole performance above the usual greatness. Big Leg Emma is the perfect goofy comic relief, and it heads right into the delightfully funky City Of Tiny Lights. Patrick once again steals the show (he’s on fire tonight!), and we’re taken into another great Pound (with the solo section apparently in 4/4 today). Frank’s solo is very nice (though goes on a little longer than it needed to be), and Terry’s is solid as always. Jones Crusher and My Guitar bring exactly what you want, and we get another excellent “Leather Goods” solo between the two tunes. Chin’s always a hit for me, and it’s followed up by another fun Broken Hearts. Pat is hard to hear, but it’s clear he says “leather” for at least three of his mid-song interjections. The tape cuts out during the start of the Little Poop Chute parody, and resumes right before Terry’s “solo” in Dong Work. We get another rare London hotel smotherism, and Terry drops a “The Traditional Red Berries Of Hamburg” in his normal voice (it breaks the immersion, but I love any Red Berries reference, so I’ll gladly take it). Manx Needs Women provides our avante-garde explosion for the evening, and it leads directly into a totally whacked Titties ‘N Beer. First off, Terry totally mutated the rhythm of the “I can’t complain” line, and Frank chided him mid-tune (“Don’t you ever sing it like that again now devil do you here”). Terry once again asks him about the “shit on stage” legend, but FZ tells him that it was actually Elton John who did the deed (“I’m uglier than he is if that’s possible”). They talk about being on the road, ”Titties N Scotch, and later on Terry yells “Chester Thompson” during a relaxed drum fill. Terry thinks of a story he’s reluctant to tell, but Frank tells him if it’s funny he needs to say it on stage. He then admits that “Ruth told me you have the ugliest pickle she has ever seen!” to which Frank responds “Well lemme tell you something about Ruth’s taste, she used to be married to Ian, and not only that she used to go out with Brian Krokus, and not only that she is Chester’s gorilla!” (poor Ruth!!!). Eventually the Titties extravaganza comes to an end, and we’re thrown into the regularly-scheduled monster Black Napkins to wrap the main set up. Eddie’s once again fantastic, and Frank whips out another tasty, very Pink Napkins-esque solo. FZ mentions someone named Hazel in his outros, leaves the stage, returns and announces “and now for your listening and dancing pleasure a little song entitled Dinah-Moe Humm!” The “kiss my aura” section is a little slower than normal and really chill tonight; Frank tries to get the crowd to sing, but they’re really not having any of it (“you’re never gonna make her cum singing like that”). He talks a little bit to the English fan “John Locke” (“the boy I discovered in Edinburgh”) and rants about the music-reviewer Chris Welch for a little while. He comments that “It’s just like playing a high school assembly”, mentions Hazel again, and ends the tune with a big spacey crash. They play Camarillo Brillo/Muffin Man, mention Hazel a couple more times, and finally bring the night to a close. This is a very fun show, like all the rest of the UK shows, and well worth a listen. Tonight’s Titties N Beer is totally off the rails, and the entire band is on throughout the show. Once again, not the first show I’d check out, but well worth a listen.
1977 02 16 – Hammersmith Odeon, London, UK (Audience B/B-)
We’re back in London with another excellent show from the end of the tour, in sorta-okay sound quality. Frank starts the show by shouting out superfans Georgina and Spencer in the intro. He talks for a little bit and gives some unique intros to the band but it’s pretty impossible to make out. We get a standard first half of the show with the regular highlights. Peaches is always lovely, Torture has a solid solo, Emma is dumb but fun, and City feels fresh and funky (Patrick once again hits it out of the park, he’s really found his place in this tune by now). We get an experimental, jazzy outro that leads into another sick Pound For A Brown (Terry plays his part in Pound during the final seconds of City). Frank rips out a sick solo, which even includes the Hula lick around three minutes in. He concludes this jam, then lets his drummer go loose for a few. Terry plays a Bowling On Cheron type riff and the crowd starts to clap along. After a little while Frank says “Alright you wanna rock n roll huh?” and proceeds to rip off an insane second solo. It’s only about 40 seconds, but it’s hot fire. Terry finishes his solo, Frank yells something as they start Jones Crusher (Canned Heat? Thank you?) and we get an excellent take of said tune. Another lovely, tasteful, acapella guitar solo takes us into a fast, rocking My Guitar. Tryin To Grow Me A Chin is its typical self, and Broken Hearts is fun, but the sound unfortunately gets worse right as they hit the Dagmar section and Patrick gets difficult to hear. Dong Work is funny as always, Frank almost included his spoken intro as part of an edit of this track on Läther. Terry references the rare Smothersism of “Saspan Tea”(?) and blanks on the last quote, just grunting/moaning in its place. The wild, abstract Manx Needs Women is great tonight, and clearly confuses the London audience (people barely clap when it ends!). We get another crazy Titties N Beer after this. Frank and Terry do some dumb voices in the intro, but it really goes crazy in the “solo” section. Someone comes on stage in a parrot costume, Frank talks about Chris Welch again, and he debates Terry about what is and isn’t jazz (FZ: “Yeah it is [jazz] to me, see how messed up I am?”). More rock icon’s are accused of eating shit on stage, Frank shits on Glasgow, Terry asks “Is everyone out there asleep yet?” And they start to wrap up “Titties and Crumpets”. After this is another excellent Black Napkins, which seemingly grows in energy every single night. There’s some bad tape bleed-over from something else during the start of Eddie’s solo, but it fortunately ends pretty quickly. Pat quotes Miles Davis’ Honky Tonk (again – see December ‘76) and we get two fantastic solos from two amazing soloists. This of course ends the show, and, you guessed it, Dinah-Moe Humm is our first encore. There’s a ton of audience interactions, Frank comments that Dinah-Moe needs leather, safety pins and Vaseline and has the audience pretend they’re at a rock n roll concert (“Willing suspension of disbelief”) and sing along. Once the tune starts to wrap up, Frank announces that Todd Rundgren has come on stage! and after him music critic Nick Kent! The two have a dance off (I’m starting to think he didn’t actually get these guys…..), the crowd votes for a winner, and they continue to sing “Dinah-Moe”. Frank decides to cut the bullshit, not leave the stage, and just play through till the end. He mentions a certain music reviewer once again (“I think Chris is out having his tweed suit pressed right now”) and they start the Camarillo Brillo/Muffin Man finale. It’s a fantastic take, Frank performs a fantastic solo, announces the band a final time (“and here in spirit Chris Welch”), while the background singers sing what I can only hear as “Scandinavia” over the bass line as he talks. FZ yells “Oh let’s play loud one more time!”, Terry screams, and Frank just rips it until the very end. This is a great show, one of the best of the tour, and another fantastic reason to check out the London ’77 run.
1977 02 17 – Hammersmith Odeon, London, UK (Audience B+/B)
“Welcome to our last London concert and it’s so great… it’s so great to be finished with this series of four more shows here at the Odeon Hammersmith”. London ‘77 #4 is the final concert of the tour, and of this particular band. I’m not sure why Frank is so ready to leave the Hammersmith, because these London shows are some of the best the band put on. No Purple Lagoon solo tonight, just some standard fun intros, and a shout out to the recording truck before diving into the regular opener of Peaches En Regalia. Frank whiffs a line early on, but it’s still a great, energetic performance. Torture has another long, excellent solo, Big Leg Emma is Big Leg Emma and City Of Tiny Lights goes all out tonight. Ray provides a great solo, and Pat quotes the bass line to Miles Davis’ Jack Johnson and later plays Dazed And Confused by Led Zeppelin in his jam (though it kinda sounds like a cross between Dazed and Kashmir). The tune ends with another chill “over there” conclusion, and leads into another sick Pound For A Brown. It’s not the best one out there, but it is unfortunately the last of its kind, as when this tune returns in the fall it’s primarily a bass/keyboard event. There’s a cut that takes out the end of Terry’s drum solo and brings us a few seconds into Jones Crusher. It’s a standard take, but it leads into the best My Guitar opener of the tour (Frank planned to release part of it on Läther as Duck Duck Goose, and most of the event was included as a bonus on the CD as Leather Goods). Frank starts off with the normal beautiful acoustic-ness we’re used to for a long while, but he eventually quotes Dazed and Confused (certainly inspired by Pat earlier In the show), which leads to Pat and Terry’s entrance, turning this into a true jam. Eventually they drop out again, but return after about a minute when Pat starts to play Zep’s A Whole Lotta Love! This of course morphs into a second amazing jam, which ultimately ends the excellent 6+ minute affair. Frank plays a crazed blues walkdown, which connects this extravaganza to a solid version of My Guitar and an equally fun take of Grow Me A Chin (where FZ stops to tune his guitar during the “one more time for the world” break). Broken Hearts is as fun as ever. The speed has consistently increased across the tour, and tonight’s take is now almost as fast as on Sheik. The band chumps the transition into the Dagmar section, so FZ stops to chide them (“C’mon sing it right you guys were making a recording”), and ends up talking to the crowd for a little while (“Did you say that I suck? That’s the nicest thing anybodys said to me all day, go fuck yourselves!”….“Speak to me, I’m only here to entertain you”). Pat’s unfortunately a little hard to make out, but you can still hear his louder asides (“Leather drives me wild…..”), and we get a really fun ad libbed ending, the same portion released on Läther (“Scabies!”, “Knockwurst!”, etc.). It leads into an equally amusing Dong Work (“This is a song that isn’t quite as disgusting as that song but you can’t … oh shut up and have a good time you little nitwit!.. Todd Rundgren Ladies And Gentleman!”). Frank tries to get Mr. Smothers to introduce the tune, but we only hear him laugh and say “No!” in response. It’s a great take (we get another rare “Dowphin Hotel” Smothersism), and it’s followed by Manx Needs Women’s final ever performance. The abstruse number leads into another long, crazed Titties N Beer, with more references to the shit on stage rumor, the quality of the city of Glasgow, Todd Rundgren, religion, cowboy pictures and even pickles (“I’ll do anything to make my band happy”). After this we get a fantastic, legendary Black Napkins, as this performance Is the source of Pink Napkins from Shut Up N Play Yer Guitar! Eddie’s solo is completely unreleased and just as awe-inspiring as the rest of his playing from this tour. Frank’s jam is of course excellent, and it’s really interesting to get to hear the parts of his solo that were left off of the album. Unfortunately though, a large chunk of what was released is missing from the tape, so we can’t tell if there were sections in the middle of the piece edited out (please release these shows Joe!!!). This of course closes out the main set, but Frank returns for a great encore, starting with (what else…) Dinah-Moe Humm. The tune itself is standard except for the aura section where FZ asks “Why would you like to have some more-a on the floor-a? Tell me. Why? What is it? Why would you want this? Why???”. After this Frank chats with the audience for five minutes, during which he tries to get the crowd to sing (“Just forget that you’re English“), propels two different fans named Mike into show business by bringing them on stage (and calling them Todd Rundgren), and mentions Black Sabbath yet again (with Pat providing the quote). Frank mentions that the audience is surprisingly lively despite being in England (“As soon as the show is over you’ll get a cup of tea and go to sleep”), and because they’re so hyped Frank decides to keep playing without a break, and rips into Willie The Pimp. Unfortunately this is a really lame Willie; It’s really fast (even for ‘77), has a pretty measly solo and is easily one of the least interesting of the tour. Luckily though Frank makes up for it by segueing right into a fantastic Camarillo Brillo/Muffin Man. Camarillo is the same as ever (maybe with a little more enthusiasm tonight), but Frank goes absolutely insane during Muffin Man and we get what’s probably the longest take of this tune available. After seven insane, heavy minutes Frank suddenly stops and cheerfully says “Oh that’s enough of that, goodnight!” There’s a quick crash and this monstrous show comes to an immediate end. This is easily one of the best shows of the tour, and I think one of the best shows from the second half of the 70s. It’s a lovely two hours of music, and it’s captured on a pretty nice audience tape. Do yourself a service and listen to this show now! (And Joe, if you’re reading this, please give us the complete London ‘77 shows!).
The Songs Played:
Big Leg Emma – Frank brought this dumb little 60s song back in December ‘76, primarily for nostalgic New York reasons, but he kept it around for another two tours after. It’s a wonderful version, and I especially love Terry’s yelling throughout. The arrangement is just like Zappa In New York, except without the horns, percussion and overdubbed guitar. A fun, dumb tune, always coming after the Torture Never Stops, and before I’m The Slime or City Of Tiny Lights, depending on the phase of the tour. For the first couple weeks of the tour, the band would actually break for a bit to tune after this song and FZ would chat with the audience, something that’s almost unheard of in Frank’s late 70s and 80s shows.
Black Napkins – This Zappa classic is in top form on this tour. The theme is wonderfully orchestrated and performed, and each soloist provides a beautiful and unique layer to the tune. The earliest two recordings we have have the same solo structure as the Black Napkin’s from the end of their previous North American tour: Ray>Eddie (on violin)>FZ, but soon after the tour begins Frank drops Ray from the tune (though Ray does solo in Black Napkins one more time in Boeblingen, for no easily discernible reason). For the rest of the tour we get two fantastic solos from Frank and Eddie in each performance, but the order varies depending on the phase of the tour. Frank goes first from January 21st through the 28th, but it’s clear that Eddie’s second solo was verging on trumping Frank’s own (it definitely bugs Frank on the 28th in Brussels, because he plays a second shorter solo after Eddies to wrap up the tune. Wiesbaden is the first show with the Eddie-then-Frank order, and this becomes the norm in February. Additionally, Frank would really play around with the composed head of this piece, and would pretty much always play a shorter pseudo-solo as the theme ends, but before the improv section truly begins. No matter the solo order, Eddie and Frank play their hearts out in every performance, and create two fantastic musical moments. It really feels like we have two fantastic musicians battling for who can create the most terrific, emotional event, and it’s almost always arguable who wins. Eddie’s violin is simply beautiful, and Frank’s guitar is equally ferocious. This is arguably the best tour for Black Napkins, and the song is an easy highlight of every show. It’s a fantastic display of what this band should do, and any fan of FZ’s instrumental music should check one of these out.
Broken Hearts Are For Assholes – This Sheik Yerbouti classic debuts on this tour, and the arrangement is largely the same as on the released version, but much, much slower (at first) and with a few other key differences. Terry screams over the intro, but he doesn’t always ask the immortal “Do you know what you are?”. Also, Frank tries out a cool, slightly longer guitar heavy version of the intro in Stockholm, but never uses it again. The body of the tune is the same, though Patrick mixes up his hysterical asides during the middle “Dagmar” section from night to night. There were a few frequent terms he’d use (like “Leather…”, “Three-piece tortoise shell cockring” and “a salute to Puerto Rico…”), but most of his phrases seem off the cuff (“Formerly Buddy Love the Baron Of Beef”, “I don’t know how he does it…”, “This is something we started last week at the Grape…”). After this we head into the “ram it” section, which features some standard comments from Patrick (like “asshole…”, and “leather…. “, but we occasionally get something like “scabies!”). It leads into the “Don’t fool yourselves” section, which on this tour is ridiculously long. It’s definitely a case where it starts funny, then you’re like “how the fuck are they still going” and then a few seconds later you’re laughing again at how they’re just still doing it. For the first half of the tour this would devolve into an amusing, dumb, ever-changing “poop chute” doo-wop parody to end the tune (see individual show reviews for more detail), but starting in Boeblingen FZ adds this simple yet hilarious parody of the Beach Boys’ “Little Deuce Coup” entitled “Little Poop Chute” (“About the size of a dollar, you don’t know what she’s got”). Frank actually has the idea for the parody in Gothenburg, but doesn’t fully implement it into the tune for a week and a half. They always go acapella for the ending and it makes the perfect, perverted transition into Dong Work For Yuda. It’s possible it’s simply a coincidence but Patrick always quotes the Hendrix tune Third Stone From The Sun right after the “just to give it a try” line. Despite being somewhat in-progress and a little rough around the edges, this is a great tour for this tune. The tempo speeds up over time, and by the end of the tour it’s only a little slower than the Sheik Yerbouti take. Patrick’s mid-song interjections are a highlight of every show (well, only if the tape quality is good enough where you can make them out), and the same can be said for February’s takes with The Beach Boys parody ending. This tune is a riotous (and mildly sexist) event that’s easily a tour defining moment.
Camarillo Brillo – This Zappa classic gets the now regular hard rock treatment from this band. Like on the last few tours, they play through the tune once normally, then slow it down by a few factors when 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” is usually changed to “I chewed my way through her rancid panocha”. In some of the performances throughout Germany, Frank would say the word “dwarf” in his best German (“Zwergin!”). My personal favorite versions of this song come from 1974, but these are solid renditions too. The Camarillo Brillo/Muffin Man combo was almost exclusively played as an encore, and would always end the night on a high note.
City Of Tiny Lights – This Zappa classic returns on this tour, and we get a delightfully funky version. Though not initially part of this band’s repertoire, City reappeared on January 27th and quickly took the place of I’m The Slime in the setlist by the beginning of February. The backing is completely different from the take made famous on Sheik Yerbouti, punctuated by a tasty guitar riff throughout. Ray handles the vocal duties, and simply blows it out of the park. I love how Adrian handled the song when he was in the band, but nothing beats Ray. We get two solos on this tour, a scat/guitar solo from Ray and strangely enough a bass solo from Patrick. The first half of Ray’s solo consists of him scat singing along with his guitar, and the second half is a more “normal” guitar solo. Patrick then plays an always weird but always amusing solo that leads into the post-solo theme. FZ plays around with the ending throughout the tour; at the first performance of the tour in Dusseldorf, the tune concludes with the more familiar “And it’s over there” ending, but there are cool solo guitar improvisations from Frank to end the jam. He drops the “Over There” section for the three shows after Dusseldorf, but brings it back in Paris, with a sick Zappa guitar solo on top of the “Over There” riff to end the tune. From this point on we’d either get a really quick “Over There”, or a 30-60 second slower, jazzier one (except in Glasgow, where we get the old ending for some reason). Overall, while very solid, this isn’t the most interesting tour for this song. I really enjoy Ray’s playing, but I still prefer it when Frank solos in this tune (my favorite versions come from 1980, where we get the return of the delightful Ray-lead City, with a crazy Carlos Santana Secret Chord Progression solo from Frank). Patrick’s solos are always fun too, but they rarely fit the tone of the tune and usually feel somewhat out of place. Still it’s always a treat when this early, funky, with-a-bass-solo arrangement appears, and it’s another defining moment of the tour.
Cruising For Burgers – Frank completely rewrote this Uncle Meat tune for his December ‘76 New York extravaganza, and thankfully brought it back a handful of times on this tour. This song was not a regular part of the setlist, but it popped up a few times at the end of January/early February. It’s the same basic arrangement heard on the Zappa In New York CD, but obviously lacking the expanded band (also FZ cut out a 35 second segment of the theme from the released version, but kept the chunk in for future live performances). We get a fantastic version of the tune, all instrumental, with a more epic feel and a momentous guitar solo from Frank. Before his amazing guitar solo Frank would always play something called the “Hawaiian War Chant”, which is a Hawaiian traditional song from the mid 1800s. Most of the performances are about 7 minutes long, but the Dusseldorf performance goes crazy. We get nearly 11 minutes of fantastic music; Frank’s guitar eventually breaks away from the constraints of the vamp, and he brings the whole band along with him. It stays rocking though, and Terry starts to chant “All Night Long!” while Frank is going nuts. Truly one of the best takes of this tune out there. The song was usually played as an encore, but was placed between My Guitar and Broken Hearts for its first reappearance at the Gothenburg show. Again, this is a terrific version of this tune; The theme is one of Frank’s best melodies, and his guitar work just always blows me away. Try these Burgers as soon as you can.
Dinah-Moe Humm – This (in)famous Over-Nite Sensation tune returns to please another crowd. Performed as an encore or show closer, we get a pretty direct representation of the studio recording, with Ray and/or Eddie covering the Ike-ettes’ vocals from the record. Frank asks “And how ’bout you, Fauna?, Y’wanna?”, skips the classic “zircon-encrusted tweezers” line, and then repeats the first half of the tune, but it’s slowed way down and interspersed with amusing yodels from Ray (you heard me right, yodels). Most takes feature some fun audience participation in the middle “aura” section, usually just a sing-along with “Dinah-Moe”, but occasionally Frank will talk to the crowd, or even have fans come up on stage (they tend to get more interesting as the tour goes on). These are amusing performances, but I can tell Frank is starting to get tired of playing the tune. In the meantime though, Patrick plays the hell out of his part, the yodel section is a lot of fun, and the audience participation is usually neat, so this tour does carry a pretty high quality Dinah-Moe event.
Dong Work For Yuda – “This is a song that’s dedicated to Mr. Smothers, this charming, bald-headed gentleman over here. Everytime Mr. Smothers says something that doesn’t come out exactly right, the way it oughta be, it goes into this song”. This Joe’s Garage tune about Frank’s unintelligible bodyguard Mr. John Smothers debuts on this tour. Almost all of the component pieces are there but it’s played acapella! The tune is way quicker (usually clocking in under 3 minutes) and has a total Barbershop-pop feel. This song always segued out of the vocal-only ending of Broken Hearts Are For Assholes, and Frank would introduce the tune by pointing out his bodyguard and telling the crowd how he perverts and demolishes the English language. Eddie plays some jaunty keys to start us off (and to set the tonal reference) while Frank talks about Smothers, but once the tune starts it’s all singing (with a hi-hat keeping tempo and a bit of clapping over Terry’s Bald-Headed John quotes). The lyrics and melody are the same as the studio take, but the Smothers quotes Terry highlights change from night to night. Mr Bozzio does a great Smothers impression, and he picks ten Smothersisms per night to deliver. Some are frequently used (like “I need a dozen towwls so the boys can take a showr”s, “What’s that thing that comes outta yer mouth? Salima?” and “I heard the equipment was being shipped out of Chorus Crispy TX”) and some only appear once or a handful of times (like “What you need is some ‘Allumium’ for your drum case” or the couple exclusive to the UK dates). The biggest compositional difference (besides the acapella-ness) is the ending. After the final quote, there’s a call and response chunk where Frank and the boys sing “Try it again” and Terry replies “Huah?” In response. Eventually Frank alone starts to sing “I’ll make you fart” (but not “I’ll break yer heart”) a few times, until a hard stop where Terry says “I just love the way them Copenhagens talks”. To end the event they sing a final, slowed down “Sorry John sorry better try it again”, where Eddie holds out the last note in his surprising falsetto and we get an insane, sudden transition into Manx Needs Women. Frank seemingly considered including this arrangement on Läther, because a nice take combining the best of the London shows can be heard on the “Läther Outtakes” bootleg. This is a wonderful version of a some-what slept-on tune. This arrangement is unique to this tour and one of the biggest reasons to seek out a show from this era.
Honey, Don’t You Want A Man Like Me? – This Zappa in New York piece about the perils of dumb love reappears a single time in Paris. This is basically the same arrangement as heard on ZINY, but without the horn section of course. It’s not an amazing tune, but it’s short, pretty catchy, and overall one of Frank’s more successful R-rated comedy songs. It’s fun to hear the tune pop-up, but it’s really shaky and obviously under-rehearsed, so while the Paris show is fun, I wouldn’t return to this specific performance.
The Illinois Enema Bandit – The Enema Bandit returns once again, for a single performance in Paris. We get basically what’s on ZINY, but with a stripped down band and a couple more solos. Frank (for the most part) skips the intro monologue, and Ray belts out the classic tune. We get a “deluxe” version with multiple solos, just like at the New York shows last December. Ray takes the first solo, followed by Eddie on keys, and finally Frank wraps up the affair with another quality guitar jam, and a fun, guitar/vocal laden coda ends the tune right. Not the best version of this song out there, but a strong one none-the-less, and a good reason to check out the longest show of the tour in Paris.
I’m The Slime – This sick Over-Nite Sensation tune returns following its deluxe treatment in New York. On this tour we get the same arrangement heard on the Zappa In New York CD, but with no horns or Don Pardo (so Frank actually gets to say “TV Set”). Frank plays a nice solo, and brings us into the next tune. This was the regular fourth song in the show (between Big Leg Emma and Pound For A Brown), for the first 10 or so days of the tour, but soon after it gets phased out in favor of City of Tiny Lights. The first three performances end with a repetition of the intro riff that takes us into A Pound For A Brown, the fourth has the intro riff, but it leads into City Of Tiny Lights (Though Eddie forgets this and plays Pound), and the fifth and final time it appears is as an encore and doesn’t feature the ending transitionary riff. These Slimes usually aren’t as great as the Zappa In New York takes, but they’re a lot of fun when they do show up and it’s a bummer this tune didn’t last longer into the tour.
Jones Crusher – This Sheik Yerbouti song debuts on this tour, but it is barely recognizable. It begins with a sleazy blues guitar vamp, before Ray comes in to croak out “My baby’s got bone crusher love”. When they hit the “fit like a glove” line, they segue into something pretty similar to the familiar Belew led version, but return to the blues vamp for the “Grind up my jones” section, and then back briefly to the rock backing for “She don’t never wanna leave it alone”. After one utterance of the “just a nub” line, they move into a really weird, tweaky bit with robotic, ominous keyboards where Frank and Ray sing “She’s got bionic, bone crusher love” a few times. The next verse is recognizable (“Here she comes/With her red dress on”), but after “the wind can’t blow ’cause the sky is gone”, we head into a wild instrumental section with chugging keyboard riffs intersped with some guitar chords. After this they sing the “deadly jaws, better get the gauze” finale (pretty much the same as the final version), but to end the tune Ray sings “Better take a pause” and huffs a few times. There’s a final repetition of the earlier chugging keyboard riff, and we get a smooth transition into My Guitar. This is such a weird version of this song, a classic example of Frank wildly experimenting with a tune as it’s developing, and there’s no other tune from FZ where Ray sings in this weird, croaking kind of a voice. This is a totally whacked, but very fun version of Jones Crusher, and it’s a big reason why I think every FZ fan should check out at least one of these shows.
Manx Needs Women – This uber-weirdo number from Zappa In New York makes its final appearances on this tour. The song is played pretty much as on ZINY, but with an obvious lack of horns. It’s generally better performed than on the Fall ‘76 tour, so Frank doesn’t suddenly drop it from setlists this time around. It’s the tweaky highlight of the tour, and it’s always fun to hear crammed between Dong Work and Titties ‘N’ Beer (a perfect example of Frank’s masterful understanding of contrast when constructing setlists).
Montana – This Over-Nite Sensation classic returned for the December ‘76 New York shows and Frank plays it a few more times at the start of this tour, before dropping it for another couple of years. It’s an album-faithful arrangement, always played as an encore; The “tiny horse” segment is once again performed as an instrumental, and Frank plays a solid, funky solo in both recordings we have (Copenhagen and Gothenborg). These performances are most notable for featuring the last regular FZ solos in Montana, because when he brings the song back in 1979 he sadly leaves out any improv (and the rare, late ‘84 performances have a wildly different vamp). Not amazing versions, but nothing to scoff at either.
Muffin Man – This Bongo Fury tune regularly 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 nearly always played following Camarillo Brillo, emerging out of the slow second half of the song. Occasionally after his first solo Frank would decide to sing the tune again and crank out some more hot licks (basically playing the song twice). 1977 is the year for Muffin Mans. Frank doesn’t just rip out a few heavy notes for 30 seconds and call it night, but he crafts a crazed, unique story over the famous vamp in each performance. These (and the next tour’s) are primo Muffin Mans, and are well worth a listen.
My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama – This Weasels Ripped My Flesh classic returns to the stage totally rearranged. We open with a tasty blues guitar riff, before getting a slow, sultry take of the tune sung by Frank and Ray at the same time. They sing it over a sparse, chugging beat that eventually evolves into a short-but-killer guitar solo from Frank. After the solo, they sing the second set of lyrics again, and make a speedy transition into the next tune (Tryin To Grow Me A Chin). The new My Guitar actually premiered on Halloween night 1976, but it wasn’t played again until this European tour. This version is a lot like the 1984/88 arrangement, but sounding significantly less poppy and well, 80s. For the majority of this tour, there was a hard transition from Jones Crusher into this tune, but starting in Amsterdam FZ decided to add a long, fantastic, improvised solo guitar intro to the tune. An example of such was released as a bonus on Läther as Leather Goods (from the final show in London, this particular take goes nuts, with full band improv and a couple Led Zeppelin quotes). I kind of think of the intro guitar as the Leather Goods section of My Guitar, like Ship Ahoy and Zoot Allures in Winter ‘76. Though the later, guitar heavy takes are the best of the tour, this is always a fun tune, and one of the biggest reasons to check out an early ‘77 show.
Peaches En Regalia – This timeless Hot Rats classic returns once again to fantastic results. Frank brought the tune back for his December ‘76 New York extravaganza, and he must have been happy with it because he continues to regularly play it in concert though early 1978. It’s more rock-oriented than the studio take, but it’s a perfect fit for this band. Eddie, Ray and Frank carry the melody, FZ delivers a tasteful mini-solo in the middle, and Terry goes crazy at the end. Always played as the first number after the opening Purple Lagoon, and leading right into The Torture Never Stops. This is a lovely, stripped back, smaller-ensemble version of Peaches, and a great way to start these interesting shows.
A Pound For A Brown – This Uncle Meat piece reappears once again, and is fantastic like always. We get a cool, spacey arrangement of the theme, very similar to what’s heard on the CD release of Zappa In New York, but without the horns and extra percussion. Each performance features a delightful, crazed five-plus minute solo from Frank, and an adventurous drum solo from Terry. Bozzio’s drum jams started off short, but became fully fledged solos by Hamburg. If we’re lucky Frank will take a second solo during Terry’s drum solo, but this only happened twice, in Boeblingen and London #3. FZ would typically try out interesting new tones during his solo, and they’re basically always successful. This band’s Pounds hold some of Frank’s best, most experimental guitar of the year (maybe even of the 70s), and are a regular instrumental highlight of each night. It’s a hidden gem, and a great reason to listen to some early ‘77 shows.
The Purple Lagoon – This tune returns on this tour, but it’s not the monster heard on Zappa In New York. Instead we get a very slow performance of the theme (without any Approximate quotes or other embellishments) at the start of the show as Frank walks on. The melody itself is only about 30 seconds long, but infinitely repeatable. This tour’s versions are especially fun, because Frank would frequently solo over the weird tune as he came on stage! It wasn’t every night (The first recorded example comes from Munich), and they aren’t always very long (frequently they’re just a few licks), but FZ’s tone is always scorching and the results are almost always enjoyable. FZ introduces the band over the song, and leads them into Peaches En Regalia to kick the show off. Frank would frequently go into carnival barker mode during these introductions, joyously shouting off things like “Welcome to our [city] concert for 1977!”. On the previous North American tour, the tune was also played as a closer, after the final song of the main set and after each encore, but Frank basically dropped that idea on this tour, and instead he would conduct the boys into a kind of crashing musical meltdown before leaving the stage. There are exceptions of course, as the band does play the Lagoon as a closer in Copenhagen and Hamburg. Before starting the Lagoon, a piece of unreleased musique concrète would play while the band walks on stage and quietly tunes up (at least I’m like 90% sure that’s what was happening – the longest two recordings of this tape we have are from Brussels and London #3). Anyway, I love this weird little melody, and am always glad to hear it come up (which is fortunate because Frank will continue to use it as an opener off and on until fall ‘78).
Titties ‘N Beer – This dumb, funky, goofy tune loosely based on Stravinsky’s “L’Histoire Du Soldat” reappears on this tour, and we get, with a couple exceptions, the Zappa In New York arrangement (obviously with no horns or added percussion). At the time of recording this tune was titled Chrissy Puked Twice, which is based on a verse that was ultimately edited out of the final released version. The missing verse goes: “It was 11 o’clock upon a Friday night/You know the girl and me was feeling outta’ sight/We had twenty reds and a big ol’ pile of weed/You know we drank some wine and then we LSD’d”. These lyrics would come right after the “ride up the Mountain of Mystery” line, but didn’t add a whole lot to the tune and really aren’t missed (at least not by me). On this tour (and most others), Frank would occasionally recite his “1000 years old” speech (as heard on Baby Snakes), but he decided to leave it out of the Zappa In New York December ‘76 performances for whatever reason. Terry/The Devil and Frank’s debate is mostly scripted, but if FZ is in a good mood it can venture into some amusing improv (which is fortunately very common on this outing). Terry would almost always (at least from Munich onward) start the improv by telling the motorcycle man “I usually screen people before I let them into hell” and asking Frank “what are you into? What are your interests?” (usually in place of the “you want to make a deal with me?” line), which would lead the two into any kind of humorous conversation. These are possibly the best Titties ‘N Beer out there, with nearly every performance containing a riotous dialog about jazz devils, Smothers, Black Sabbath, “gross-out contest” rumors, European interests, or whatever else may come up. When performing in Germany, FZ would occasionally call the Devil “Teufel” (German for devil), or demand that he get some “Titten und Bier!” Finally, starting in Munich, Terry would kind of scat/sing over the “I do declare, how did she get back there” coda of the tune, delivering the same line but in his own crazed style. Titties ‘N Beer gets a lot of hate for being one of Frank’s stupider sex songs, but that is 100% what it’s setting out to be. It’s a dumb little tune with a ridiculously funky beat that almost always makes me chuckle. What more can you ask for?
The Torture Never Stops – This Zoot Allures classic returns in fantastic form. This band’s take is the same arrangement as the studio version, sex noises over the solo and all. Frank does a fantastic job with the low, eerie vocals, and Patrick and Terry push him to great heights during his solo. Like in Camarillo, Frank occasionally says “dwarf” in German when performing in Germany. Each version of this tune contains a long, tasty, interesting solo, and they only get better as the tour goes on. In the end, this is a band that understands The Torture, and they know exactly how to make this slow-burner shine. Played as the regular second number, between Peaches and Big Leg Emma.
Tryin’ To Grow A Chin – This riotous, Terry-led, dumb little rock number returns on this tour. Terry often yells something like “kill me with some love” during the ending, but otherwise the song is the same arrangement as on Sheik Yerbouti. Always played between My Guitar and Broken Hearts, with an excellent count-off intro replacing the short vamp heard in ‘76 performances. This song is one of Frank’s greatest rock numbers, and it’s well represented on this tour.
Willie The Pimp – This Hot Rats tune reappears, but sadly there’s a catch. This is not the Hot Rats version of the tune, and it’s not the shorter, instrumental, but still wildly intense version from ‘71, this is the rewritten poppy version later made infamous by the ‘84 band. We have five performances of Willie from this band (in Brussels, Paris, Amsterdam, London #2 and London #4), and each of them are a little different. The basic structure though goes like this: Frank starts by playing a very fast version of the iconic riff, before Ray comes in to sing the lyrics. They’re the same as on Hot Rats, but FZ has added refrains after the first two verses (The “she’s so sweet” and “third party check” chunks later heard on YCDTOSA#4). These poppy sections totally slow down the tune, and really hurt the buildup into Frank’s solo (additionally, The Paris and London #2 shows start with Frank playing the riff at the original tempo and quickly speeding up the ‘77 tempo before Ray comes in, which hurts my soul every time). Ray improvises his own “Hot Meats, Hot Rats, etc” after the head, and Frank comes in with a fun rock ‘n roll solo after this. In every show except London #2, we would then get a repetition of the head, with more “Hot Roots” scat (I believe these are the only Willies where this happens), and in Brussels and London #4, the tune ends here. In the other three takes we have, the song continues and Ray really stretches out with his lyrical improvisations and provides an awesome Johnny “Guitar” Watson style breakdown (he usually yells “Hot Love For Sale” in these, which may be a reference to something, I’m not sure). In London #2 Frank plays a little more guitar after Ray sings, but in Paris Frank mangles his guitar for minutes after the repetition of the head, leading to a 10+ minute long Willie that easily the best take of the tune after 1975. Taken on its own the 1977 Willie The Pimp isn’t a bad song, it’s fun and poppy, but that’s just not what you want from Willie The Pimp. Most of the time Frank’s solos are pretty short and mid-tier, but the Paris version is really fantastic and definitely worth a listen. I also have to shout out Ray White who does a fantastic job with the vocals; I wish Frank kept the improvised singing section when he brought this tune back in the 80s, it’s easily the best part of this arrangement. Overall, this version isn’t nearly as upsetting as the 80s takes (and the 80s ones aren’t too bad either, it’s just basically a totally different song from what appeared in 1969), but I would absolutely have preferred a standard take of this tune with Ray singing (imagine how great that would’ve been!).
Black Napkins Solo Table:
Life On The Road 