Overview:
Wow, we’re in for a good time now! Frank spent the middle of 1977 embroiled in lawsuits with Warner Brothers stemming from his fallout with former manager Herb Cohen (he even mentions this in the press info for the tour), but amidst all this he still managed to put together one of the best bands of his career. Frank keeps his fantastic rhythm section (the unmatched bassist Patrick O’Hearn and little skinny Terry “Ted” Bozzio on drums), but he loses guitarist/vocalist Ray White and keyboard/violinist Eddie Jobson. Ray leaves for religious/ideological reasons, though he’ll be back in a few years, and Eddie Jobson’s exit is less well documented, but it may have had something to do with the formation of prog rock supergroup U.K. (Frank: “there were a lot of problems having the band with Eddie, because his priorities were in peculiar locations, but I don’t want to say anything bad about him”). FZ began to build a new group in the spring, and the band rehearsed for three months before the beginning of the tour in September. There are four new members (or the “puppies” as John Smothers would say) in this band. Ruth Underwood introduced percussionist Ed Mann to Frank during the Zappa in New York overdub sessions, and Ed then recommended him keyboardist Tommy Mars. Andre Lewis brought keyboardist Peter Wolf to Frank’s attention (the two met while working on an album for R&B singer Lalomie Washburn) and Frank discovered guitarist/singer Adrian Belew working in a bar band in Memphis (FZ: “They were all dressed like the Godfather. They had, you know, fake mob-type suits on and stuff and he was doing Roy Orbison imitations”).
This makes the complete band heard on Sheik Yerbouti and seen in Baby Snakes. A fantastic set of musicians with an incredibly unique sound. There’s simply no other band that sounds anywhere close to this rocking teenage combo. This group is incredibly versatile, regularly nailing obtuse pieces like Envelopes and The Black Page, but also jamming like Frank’s all time great bands (with songs like Wild Love, Läther and Pound For A Brown that never fail to entertain). This is the tightest group Frank has had since the six piece lineup at the end of 1974, no doubt about it. Though this band has a bit of a proto-new wave sound (which Adrian is at least partly responsible for), this tour finds FZ fully in his “arena rock” era. Gone are the days of playing colleges and smaller clubs, now Frank’s got a large band that plays loud rock tunes to massive crowds. This means no breaks in the setlist, and unfortunately, thanks to the presence of the incredible Adiran Belew, very little rhythm guitar from Frank. He’s been moving in this direction since 1975, but now that we’re in the big “rock star”/”guitar god” phase of his career, Zappa’s live shows are going to stay at this size and intensity for the rest of his rock career.
Frank’s guitarwork is at a career high with this ensemble, creating some of his best solos of the 70s. Songs like The Torture Never Stops, City of Tiny Lights, Wild Love, Black Napkins, and the early version of Conehead all come with terrific, electrifying FZ solos. This tour, along with the following Euro tour, mark a shift in Frank’s soloing. He’s right in the middle between the furious hard rock style he’s been perfecting since ‘75, and his upcoming spacier, more experimental soloing made famous on Joe’s Garage and Shut Up N Play Yer Guitar. By the end of the tour, you can really feel the tide about to change, especially in the Coneheads and King Kongs from November. This is in part due to the wonderful O’Hearn-Bozzio rhythm section, who masterfully support Frank and constantly push him to new heights. These two make up my favorite FZ rhythm section, and this tour (and the following) is the reason why. They’re very busy players, but they never clutter the sound, instead perfectly filling the space and working together to create these freaky, exhilarating jams. The entire band is just wonderful too. Ed Mann is a worthy successor to Ruth, constantly nailing all these intricate percussion parts. Tommy Mars’ horn synth and Peter Wolf’s jazzy influence define the sound of this band, and they’re fantastic soloists to boot. And on top of everything we have Adrian Belew, who’s a god damn national treasure. Every song he’s heavily featured in, whether it’s vocally or instrumentally is a delight and a standout moment of the tour.
Like many of Frank’s tours, these shows only get better as the weeks go on. As a general rule, every night usually feels better than the last, which is nice when you listen in order, but not as great for jumping around. This is a “same setlist every night” FZ tour, which is one of its few downsides. That being said, this is an excellent setlist, with fantastic pacing and great song choices, so it’s a bit hard to complain [see the average setlist below]. There’s a solid argument to be made that this is Frank’s best setlist of the late 70s strict setlist years. Opening with the new, rockin’ arrangement of Peaches En Regalia tells you all you need to know about the sound of the band and the sound of Frank Zappa in 1977, and closing the main set with Punky’s Whips is just perfection. Frank’s excellent use of tension and relief in song choice is readily apparent on this tour. I love the vocal Titties ‘N’ Beer coming after the long instrumental section of Wild Love, or the goofy ass Big Leg Emma leading into the abstruse Envelopes. With the possible exception of the crowd pleasing encores, I never feel like I’m hearing too much of the same thing in a row. Frank of course tweaks the setlist over the concert season, which provides neat variation, and helps break up the monotony when listening to a lot of these shows. There’s a lot of small changes, but they all add up over time and we end up with a pretty big difference when you compare the average September gig to a November show. City Of Tiny Lights has a bass solo for the first half of the tour, the soloists in Pound For A Brown are regularly changing, Conehead first pops up in mid-September, Wild Love is constantly growing, and Envelopes gets lyrics around the same time Bobby Brown first appears in mid-October!
This is a funny band too, and similar to the previous tour, we have a good amount of tunes with vocal improvisations (Titties N Beer, Better Hearts are For Assholes, and Punky’s Whips being the big three). Hysterical leather, rubber, and Gilded Grape jokes get carried over from the previous two tours (thanks largely to Patrick O’Hearn), and there’s even a couple of unexpected secret word-esque shows early on in the tour. But the most known comedic/lyrical characteristic of this tour has to be FZ’s Warner Brothers hate. Frank’s battle with the label reached its apex when they prevented him from releasing the four LP set Läther on another label. The infamous album was supposed to come out on Halloween, but WB halted its distribution just days before its planned release, which clearly infuriated Frank. This leads to numerous disgruntled comments/rants towards Warner Brothers and its management throughout the tour, especially at the Halloween shows.
Sadly there’s almost no tapes from this tour in the vault. Frank did not bring his recording truck, instead deciding to professionally film and record the Halloween run in New York (as heard and seen in Baby Snakes). All six of these shows have been officially released in the massive Halloween ‘77 boxset. They sound absolutely amazing and are some of the best shows of Zappa’s career. Since each show in this tour has largely the same setlist, and since the Halloween shows are simply fantastic and easily available on most streaming services, I’m kind of talking about this tour thinking “should you listen to this show compared to Halloween ‘77”. It’s where I started with this band, and where I’d recommend any newcomer to start, but if you’ve devoured that set and find yourself wanting more, there’s many fantastic bootlegs available, with just enough variation from night to night to find another handful of “favorite shows”.
Overall though, this is a wonderful band, with a spirit that revitalizes Frank, and starts a new highpoint in his career. This ensemble ends up on Sheik Yerbouti, which (like Apostrophe before it) breaks through and becomes a massive, surprise commercial success. Frank’s having a great time, the band’s having a great time, and it all comes through in the music. I thought I’d finish off the intro with an amusing excerpt from FZ’s press kit for the 1977-78 concert season, as I think it sums up the mood well:
“Concurrent with the release of “Läther” (pronounced “Leather”), perhaps the most incredible album ever to be made available for universal consumption, the 1977-78 CONCERT SEASON brings to the bored & miserable people of this curious little planet a live-in-person musical experience of unexcelled quality, combined with the usual dreadful & generally tasteless stage antics of myself & various other people (too evolved to cram the ol’ safety pin through the cheek, but rude enough to do those things that make for colorful concert reviews when you need a little something to get the readers’ minds off the music… what the hey…), and so, without further ado, some statistics with which to fill those other nasty little vacancies in your impending story:”
The Setlist:
Main Set:
Revenge Of The Knick-Knack People (Over PA)
Intro/Flakes “Dylan” (starting mid September)
Peaches En Regalia
The Torture Never Stops
Tryin’ To Grow A Chin
City Of Tiny Lights
A Pound For A Brown
Bobby Brown (introduced mid October)
Conehead (introduced in late September)
Flakes
Big Leg Emma
Envelopes (w/ Drum Solo)
Disco Boy
Läther (formerly titled: I Promise Not To Come In Your Mouth)
Wild Love
Titties ‘n Beer
The Black Page (incl. Audience Participation starting in mid-October)
Jones Crusher
Broken Hearts Are For Assholes
Punky’s Whips
Encores:
Dinah-Moe Humm
Camarillo Brillo
Muffin Man
San Ber’dino (occasionally)
Black Napkins (occasionally)
Rare Songs:
King Kong (5 performances)
I Have Been In You (3 Performances)
Stinkfoot (3 Performances)
Dirty Love (2 Performances)
The Illinois Enema Bandit (2 Performances)
Gas Mask (3 Performances within Pound For A Brown and King Kong)
Daddy Daddy Daddy (2 Performances incl. Toronto with Flo and Eddie)
Road Ladies (Toronto with Flo and Eddie)
Would You Go All The Way For The USA? (Toronto with Flo & Eddie)
Instrumental In Memory Of Jimi Hendrix (Atlanta)
Dancin’ Fool (2 Performances on Halloween Eve and New Years Eve)
Jewish Princess (Halloween Eve)
The Purple Lagoon (New Year’s Eve)
Baby Snakes (New Year’s Eve)
Find Her Finer (New Year’s Eve)
Dong Work For Yuda (New Year’s Eve)
The Band:
Frank Zappa – Guitar, Vocals, Anti-Warner Brothers Advocate
Adrian Belew – Guitar, Vocals, Harmonica, Faux-Dylan
Patrick O’Hearn – Bass, Vocals, The Grape, Crisco
Little Skinny Terry ‘Ted’ Bozzio – Drums, Vocals, Hands, Hammers
Tommy Mars – Keyboards, Vocals, Scatting, Blasters
Peter Wolf – Keyboards, Butter, Austrian
Ed “Our One And Only Percussoid” Mann – Percussion, Vapors
Recordings Available: [Youtube playlist available here]
1977 09 09 – Open Air Amphitheater, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA (Audience B+/B)
The earliest recording of this phenomenal band is of their second ever live performance, and you can tell right off the bat that they are destined for greatness. This is a perfectly serviceable recording, nothing amazing but very listenable and enjoyable (at least in my biased opinion as a bootleg reviewer), and it captured this group ready to rock the fucking house. They’re not as good as they’ll get later on in the tour, but it’s wild they’re so tight and together from their first moments on the road. Not perfect, but really great for their second show ever. This gig is also interesting historically because it shows the origins of this band’s setlist. It’s not wildly different from where they’ll end up, but there’s a number of little spots (both intentional and unintentional) that make listening to this show interesting for the Zappa super-fan. I’ll go into some of the tunes a little more than usual in this review, simply because it’s the first show we have.
The night begins with Revenge Of The Knick People played over the PA while the band tunes up, and you can hear some fans comment on the new band (“He’s got a drummer and a percussionist…”). Knick Knack People is a strange but interesting sound collage made up primarily of recordings of the original Mothers Of Invention, that Frank sped up and edited earlier in 1977. Suddenly, without any introduction, Peaches En Regalia! It’s a fantastic hard rock arrangement, but this is a pretty sloppy take all things considered. Still an enjoyable experience though. The transition into Torture is even sloppier, but the body of the tune is well performed, and Frank plays a very nice, chill, echo-y solo in the regular spot. It also proves right away how fantastic Terry and Patrick are. They elevate every song, every improvisation, and in my opinion are the best rhythm section of any of Frank’s bands (though this is a very close race). But anyway, they head right into Tryin’ To Grow A Chin next and we get a standard, fun take of this classic tune. Outside of basic arrangement differences based on the band, Chin never changes too much, but I think it’s one of Frank’s most perfect rock songs, so I never really tire of it. There’s some recording flaws over the end of the song, followed by a short pause while the band recalibrates to begin the next tune: City Of Tiny Lights!
This is the first known take of the Sheik Yerbouti arrangement, and Adrian already soars with the vocals. He hasn’t perfectly found his flow with the tune, but he’s very close to where he’ll end up. He plays a really sick lick as we enter the weird ass Tiny Lights bass solo, one of the strangest hallmarks of the first half of this tour (and a carryover from the Europe ‘77 gigs earlier in the year). I love Patrick and his weird, cool, always interesting solos, but they really don’t fit this song in my opinion. So I like these bass solo-Cities, but I strongly prefer when Frank solos. Anyway, Pat and Terry go nuts like they usually do, Adrian finishes us off like he’s been singing this tune for years, and we get a fantastic transition into the one and only Pound For A Brown. It’s a great new arrangement, similar to the 76-77 bands, but fully amped up to the high-octane level of this new group, and thus layered with keyboards and Tommy’s scat singing. Tommy plays a nice solo, singing something about “a planet”, and when he finishes Frank starts to play! It’s a really chill, cool solo, very different from the European pounds earlier in the year. Frank only plays a few solos in this tune on this tour, all before the introduction of Conehead in a few weeks, but more on that later. Once he wraps up this affair, we get a quick transition into Flakes, which is about halfway complete for this tour. Frank doesn’t offer Bob/Belew any drugs yet, and the tune ends with a reprise of the opening lick immediately following the Dylan section. After this they head right into the eternal classic, Big Leg Emma, which is on amphetamines when played by this band. A standard performance of the tune, which is always cranked up to 11. The band then starts the next number, but there’s a tapecut right as they start, and in the meantime Frank signals the band to stop so he can actually give his opening announcements:
“Okay, thank you very much. I’d like to introduce the members of the Rockin’ Teenage Combo here tonight. Patrick O’Hearn on Bass, Adrian Belew on guitar and Bob Dylan, Tommy Mars on keyboards, little skinny Terry ‘Ted’ Bozzio on drums, Peter Wolf, keyboards, and Ed Mann on percussion. We’re now going to feature our deluxe rhythm section in a piece that’s a little bit weird, but I’m sure you’ll be able to identify with it. Our little song is: Envelopes.”
We get a great instrumental performance of the ugly, moody, weird little tune, followed by a classic Terry Bozzio drum solo, which I’ve started to think of as a “Bozziolo”. We’re now at what I sorta consider the midpoint of the main set, when Terry finishes his solo and begins the classic drum beat to start Disco Boy. This has never been an incredibly notable song for me, but it’s a fun little jaunt. It’s one of Frank’s better pop tunes, and this band has probably the best performances out there (though the ‘82 and ‘88 arrangements are great too). After this amusing little disco parody, we go into one of my favorite FZ deep cuts, the timeless Läther (previously titled I Promise Not To Come In Your Mouth). The keyboards whiff the intro pretty hard, but the piece comes back together before long and we get three beautiful solos from Frank, Tommy and Peter. We’re then greeted with some cool, unique, transitional music that acts as a bridge to the next tune: Wild Love, and this tune is a totally different beast on the road.
The head of the tune is practically the same (it lacks the instrumental intro), but immediately following the composed theme, we’re delivered to this sick samba-kind-of-beat, over which we get a nice solo from our resident Austrian Peter Wolf. When he wraps up, this cool disco vamp quickly appears, and Adrian plays a very Belew-type, screeching, animalistic solo! Overall this is a real nice jam, but it’s arguably the tamest Wild Love of the tour. This isn’t a bad thing though, because the jams only get longer, higher energy and tighter as the tour goes on, and by Halloween Wild Love has double the soloists here, and is usually about three times as long. When Adrian finishes he makes a smooth transition back into the theme of the piece, the same played right before the solos, and this is followed by a repeat of the transitional music heard between Läther and Wild Love and a tight segue into our first Titties N Beer. 1977 is THE year for this song, and this performance is no exception. It starts off pretty standard (though FZ does sing “bet your booty I’ll sign” for some reason), and Frank seems to want to keep it short despite Terry’s attempt at improv. That is until Terry-as-the-Devil says that he’s got “a tire salesman down here that’s got a room in leather.” Frank understands Terry’s reference, and is amused by it so he proceeds to tell the audience “a little folklore”.
“Bozzio here goes shopping at this place in Hollywood called the Pleasure Chest, which specializes in leather goods and torture devices……. They have this device down there they call the Tower of Power, which is this knob that goes up your butt with these things that hold your legs and all these weird devices, you know, it’s all for sale. So while he was shopping down there, he became very good friends with the salesman at the Pleasure Chest, who revealed to him that some tire salesman named Sam had just purchased $80,000 worth of dungeon equipment and had it installed behind a sliding door in his office. Take it or leave it, folks. Anyway, the rest of the song…”
A great little story, upping this Titties N Beer from middling to surprisingly entertaining. Following Frank’s story, Terry goes nuts on his drums, Frank comments: “Sun Ra ladies and gentleman”, and we get a speedy end to the dumb little funky pseudo-spoken word tune. After this: an immediate, shockingly sudden transition into The Black Page #2! The boys do a really good job with this ridiculously hard piece, only whiffing one line near the end. Next they head into the reworked Jones Crusher, now in its classic Sheik Yerbouti arrangement (though the transition is a little off). Adrian is still making this song his own. He doesn’t have it down quite as well as he has City, and he messes up the second verse. There’s also some sick lead guitar from Frank over the “the wind can’t blow” section, which can only be found on recordings from September. Not perfect yet, but still a lot of fun. Broken Hearts Are For Assholes follows this up. Patrick is in top form today, and he spouts off a number of amusing Pleasure Chest/Guilded Grape phrases (“work the pole… There’s a five dollar tip!”). At the “poop chute” end of the tune, Patrick shouts “A tight rubber shirt!”, which cracks Frank up, and in response he ekes out “Sam”, in reference to the aforementioned tire salesman. Finally: the always delightful and seriously underrated Punky’s Whips! The boys start the opening vamp at too quick a tempo, and Frank chides them for it (“Not too fast now you’ll never be able to get through the rest of the song at this speed, slow it down a little bit, a little slower, slower, slower!”). We get a very nice, tight performance of the lovely tune. Patrick says something about Terry “Pouting about the 18 holes…” and later makes a little Smothers reference by referring to “da buddha”. Terry delivers some great closing screams as Frank rips into a tasty closing solo. It’s a little shorter than I’d like (a frequent occurrence in this tune), but them’s the breaks. Punky’s brings the main set to an end, and it is one of FZ’s all time best closers in my opinion.
They of course return for an encore, but Frank notes their equipment is “fried” and tells the audience to “talk amongst yourselves” (The tapers take this seriously and they ask each other “how are you doing” after shouting “We aren’t satisfied!”, which I just love). After a short delay, we’re thrown into the (in)famous Dinah-Moe Humm. Frank comments mid-song that he’d like to dance around for the crowd but has to “hunch right here in the no feedback zone” instead (“We’ll make a little stab at the willing suspension of disbelief here, ladies and gentlemen.”) The layout of the amphitheater also prevents him from sticking the microphone in front of the crazed fans by the stage and letting them yell Dinah-Moe or other “amusing things” unlike “your normal hockey rink type concert”. It’s a standard version of the tune, but Frank’s comments make it worth a listen. FZ ends our first encore with some hysterical outros (“Charlelle on bass, Baby Buns on guitar, the infamous Coco on keyboards, Jimmy on drums, Angel on keyboards, and Manx, our percussionist”). The fans go wild, our taper says Frank’s gotta play some guitar before he leaves, and FZ returns to “a stupid song, but it’s one of those kinds of songs that’s okay to play at the end of the show:” Camarillo Brillo! We get a great, hard rock version of the Overnite Sensation classic, with the now regular fast first half and second slow half. This is a really fun version though, because of some special lyrical mutations. In the middle of the fast part Frank says “it’s Sam”, I think in response to “but I couldn’t come in”, but I’m not certain. He then goes into full secret word territory in the back half with a couple of hysterical lines: “Right past her fuming tower of power/to where she hung her castanets” and the tune ending “She stripped away her rancid tight rubber shirt/and laid out nekid by the rack/We did it till we were unconcho/And all her bruises we’re turning black”. A little hamfisted but very funny. This heads right into an excellent Muffin Man, with two takes of the tune (meaning they sing it twice and we get two FZ solos). The two solos are great but relatively short, there’s a big conducted crash, and Frank ends the second encore with another round of applause for “Charlelle, Coco, Angel, Jimmy, Baby Buns, and Wanda!” They return AGAIN and Frank comments:
“You people are crazy. We got all the way up to the dressing room, they’d opened up their beers, sitting around relaxing, thinking about fun they’re gonna have after the show. But, you see, If YOU want it, WE got it”. He then says they “now here’s the deal, we’re gonna play two more songs alright the first one is called Daddy Daddy Daddy”!
A rare return of this classic Flo and Eddie tune! This is the only standard performance of this lovely little tune from this band (the other being WITH Flo and Eddie a couple weeks later in Toronto). It’s a little shaky and under rehearsed but it’s real fun, filled with nice percussion/keyboards riffs and includes the “do you like my new car” ending! Then suddenly (“Watch out now”) it’s the fastest King Kong you’ve ever heard! This 60s classic is a rare tune on this tour but it’s always fantastic, and tonight is no exception. We start off with a marimba solo from Ed, and Frank pretty quickly begins to mess around and conduct the band behind him. This morphs into all kinds of things, strange bass riffs, strange keyboard segments, atonal crashes and eventually a return to Ed Mann. Tommy then comes in scat singing the head, and we get a number of different instrumental variations on the classic theme. After this Tommy solos normally, there’s an odd little swing thing for a sec, then a short drum solo (with what I think might be Louie Louie quotes………) and finally a return to the theme, in just under 6 minutes. Far from the best King Kong there is, but a really joyous, fun time, and a wonderful surprise.
Speaking of surprises, right as the theme ends, Frank tears into Black Napkins! It’s a shortened version of the song, just about 5 minutes long, but we still get a very nice solo from the maestro. Finally, Frank ends the night by introducing the band with their real names. This is a really great tape, and much better than I expected from the second show this group ever put on! I think Pat and Terry really help this band start strong, because they are firing on all cylinders tonight (like they usually are). The sound is solid, Adrian’s voice is often upfront which is nice, and it’s a historically and musically interesting show. Like, listen to the Halloween and November shows first (you’ll be reading this alot), but when you’re ready for even more ‘77, check this one out!
[Sidenote: There’s no recording of the Las Vegas show on September 11th, but it’s a historically important night. This was Frank’s Las Vegas debut, and a terrible tragedy occurred after the show. Zappa’s road manager Ron Nihota had a bad coke addiction, and ended up losing $10,000 gambling. He committed suicide in his hotel room that night, which forced Frank’s manager Bennett Glotzer to hire an emergency replacement: Phil Kaufman. This is where Terry’s quote from Baby Snakes/Hands With A Hammer comes from (“I’ve had a hard tour, I mean, Jesus, we had the, the, the fucking roadmanager committed suicide”) Maybe you’re asking, What about the second part of the quote? “Then my girlfriend fell out the fuckin’ window.” Well Terry’s then girlfriend Dale Bozzio did actually fall 40 feet out of a window in LA. Terry implies in this quote that it happened right after Ron’s suicide, but Dale in a more recent interview (from 2022) said that it was while Terry was in Japan, which would mean she fell in February 1976. She was recalling a 45 year old traumatic incident, so it’s possible she’s wrong with the date? And she’s in the audience for the XMAS ‘76 shows… Whatever the case, this new band was going through a lot in early September.
But in more fun news: Although we don’t have a tape of the September 13th show at the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin Texas, there’s a 3 minute home movie from the night! It’s a silent film and it’s pretty fragmented, but it’s still really neat. Check it out here.]
1977 09 17 – Assembly Center, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA (Audience A/A-)
We jump forward a week to another exciting show, and the band has really improved in these last eight days. This is my favorite show from the first leg of the tour, as it features a lot of lovely early performances of these classic tunes, and some hysterical secret-word-esque moments in the second half. Frank is in a great mood throughout, and his energy is simply infectious. This gig is captured on an excellent recording too, one of the best audience tapes of the era! The night begins with a minute of the Knick Knack People tape followed by the first known Flakes walk-on intro! For the rest of the tour, the band would play the chords to the Bob Dylan section of Flakes to open the show while Frank walks on and introduces the new rocking teenage combo. Tonight FZ welcomes us to “the concert that nobody thought anybody would come to.” and proceeds with some amusing band intros:
“Patrick O’Hearn on Bass, Adrian Belew on guitar, harmonica, and famous Bob Dylan impersonations, Tommy Mars on keyboards and underpants, little skinny Terry ‘Ted’ Bozzio on Drums in concert[?], Peter Wolf on butter, keyboards and Vienna sausages, and Ed Mann on percussion and nervous tension, and each and every one of you out there in those fairly uncomfortable seats.”
The show kicks off with a great Peaches En Regalia, much more confident and energetic than in San Diego, and it’s followed by a lovely Torture Never Stops, where Frank shouts out a fan (“yes you with your hands up”) and delivers a nice, sorta Punky’s Whips-esque solo. It leads into another Tryin To Grow A Chin, the classic weirdo rock tune, and then another excellently performed City Of Tiny Lights. Belew is still flawlessly rocking this right out the gate, and Patrick delivers another fun, strange bass solo in the middle of the tune. Ade finishes off the pseudo-dope-fiend-tune and delivers us into a fun Pound For A Brown. Tommy’s solo is classic Tommy, but the tune gets real interesting during Frank’s solo. It’s a little meandering in parts, but overall a really sick event. The most interesting aspect is that right at the beginning he quotes Mudd Club, two and a half years before its full song debut! He plays an instrumental take of the verse from the future You Are What You Is tune (“Hey, they’re really dancin’ – They’re on auto-destruct…”), before launching into the rest of his solo. It’s far from Frank’s best, but it has its moments and it’s worth a listen for the quote alone. When he’s done, we get a nice guitar transition directly into Flakes, and this take is a little more interesting than usual. Frank drops a number of amusing little asides to Belew-as-Bob, and Adrian ad libs responses to a number of them (Though they aren’t exactly easy to make out on this tape). This is the first show with the iconic “Wanna buy some acid Bob?” (!), and Frank’s casual delivery does make it seem like it could be the first time he says it. (“I’ve always liked your songs Bob…”). Unfortunately though, the tape cuts off before Adrian can finish the Dylan monologue (just a second after Frank asks “Did you ever get into Joan’s pants?”, referring to Ms. Baez). This cut makes the ending of this iteration of the tune feel even more abrupt than normal (the “I’m a moron” section really helps finish the tune, whether instrumental or with lyrics), but Big Leg Emma is fun as always, and Envelopes is weird as always (my thoughts when relistening: “What comes after Big Leg Emma? Oh right one of Frank’s weirdest, most purposely ugly tunes ever”). Terry bangs out a solid drum solo, and it’s followed by a very fun Disco Boy. Frank yells something over the end of the tune that I can’t quite make out (“ride like the sun”??), and we get a solid transition into Läther, with a shaky, slightly-bungled introduction (Frank I believe comments on this mid-song but I again can’t make it out). They pretty quickly pull things together though, and we’re treated to another lovely version of the tune.
Wild Love comes next and we get a fun but sloppy, early take on the tune. There’s a short tape cut about 20 seconds in, and Frank comes in a little too early on the ending of the head (he was never great at finding the one). The solo section has a very plodding beat, and over it we get a funky solo from Peter. When he finishes we switch to the disco vamp and get another rocking solo from Belew. They somewhat chump the ending to the tune, but they make up for it with an excellent Titties N Beer. Terry immediately heads into some fun leather talk, and Frank goes along with him, quickly mentioning the “dynamic new four record box entitled Läther.” (“Yes, available in three weeks, ladies and gentlemen.” – we know how that turned out.). They then move into breast talk (“I don’t want any of those little conehead type titties. I want me a pair of genuine terrifying torpedoes.”), and Frank makes another Dylan reference (“Me and Bob got together and did a little acid.”). Then something catches Frank’s eye and he says “That’s Jim Gordon”, I assume referencing his former drummer?. This leads him to have an off-mic, somewhat nonsensical conversation with a fan, calmly talking to Frank about Jesus (I think he calls Jesus gay???). Frank then makes a few mildly amusing quips (“A person like myself wouldn’t know about something like that.”), and the dialog comes to a quick end after that (but not before one more “You want to get some acid, Bob?”). There’s a sick transition directly into the Black Page; It’s a really nice performance, much tighter than San Diego, but the ending is still not quite perfect to my ears. It leads right into a solid Jones Crusher, showing Adrain getting closer to his final delivery. The ending “deadly jones” section sounds particularly strange. Not in a bad way, just a different delivery than we’re used to. Broken Hearts comes next, and we have another amusing performance. Pat’s comments are always entertaining and tonight he’s in great form (There’s unfortunately a short cut during this section, but it’s not the worst imaginable). Pat’s “nice bag Felix” cracks up Frank, as does “nice bag Charlelle” a little bit later on. Frank comments “rubber shirt” as they transition into Punky’s Whips, and the entire intro to the next tune is tinged with Leather and Gilded Grape references.
“In today’s rapidly changing world, pop groups appear at almost every moment with some new promotional device, as we have just witnessed. Some of these devices have been known to leave irreparable scars on the bag of Felix young consumers. [Laughing] One such case is seated before you. [Terry: Charlelle can testify] Terry Bozzio that cute little drummer. Terry had [Terry: …had a tower of power installed on his drum stool] Terry recently had a tower of power installed on his drum stool. In the, In the power which was posed with a beautiful shiny hairdo, this tower of power was seen in a semi-profile, which emphasized the pooched out succulence of Terry’s insolent pouting rictus. The sight of which caused his rubber shirt to quiver wildly with desire. [Terry: *sigh* okay] Go ahead go ahead”
Frank and Terry crack each other up, and then precede with a great take of the tune (though I believe the whistling along with Isn’t It Romantic is a little messed up). Patrick tells Terry to “get on that stainless spindle and let Buddy Love have a turn” near the start and our lead guitar player whips out another violent solo to close the tune and end the main set.
Someone in the audience blows a duck call, and when Frank comes back he comments that he “thought that maybe you people would start getting down on my case because of my religious beliefs [referencing the Jesus talk in Titties N Beer], however just because I may not see some things the way you people see, don’t mean that I’m cross eyed.” They tear into Dinah-Moe Humm directly following this, and we get a surprisingly great version of the overplayed tune. Frank ad libs “I told her all she really needed was the Tower of Power”, and it leads to more amusing Rubber Shirt and Charlelle references. As they wind the tune down Frank comments that they are “entirely too well supervised out there”, and tries to get them to clap along “just like it was a rock n roll concert”. (“It’s theoretically possible to have a concert that’s so well supervised that it’s absolutely no fun at all. I remember one time in Yugoslavia….”). After more attempts to liven the crowd without killing people, they head right into an off-the-rails Camarillo Brillo, slathered in Rubber Shirts (“workout Bob!”). Frank sings the start of the slowed down section in a pseudo-Dylan impersonation, and Pat drops a Tequila quote (his favorite) as the tune ends. Frank shouts “Alright Rubber Shirt one more time!”, and we head right into a quality Muffin Man to close the show. It’s a great rock n roll performance, and Frank ends the show with a set of amusing Gilded Grape outros. (“Charlelle on Rubber Shirt, Coco on Tower of Power, Baby Buns on Seven Wings Of Hell….”). He addresses the Louisiana crowd one last time (“See, it is possible to have some kind of amusement even in a supervised situation.”), and bids them goodnight. This is a super fun show, easily one of the best, if not the best show of September. Great sound quality, great secret word fun, great solos. Musically and comically excellent. If you want one full concert to show the early evolution of this band, I’d recommend this one.
1977 09 18 – Fox Theatre, Atlanta, GA (Audience A-/B+)
The micro-tour of the American south continues and we see Frank and the band continue to solidify their repertoire, while still throwing in some surprises. This is a solid, fun early September show, with the usual early September highlights. I would say it’s nothing too special if not for the huge unique moment that pops up early on (but more on that a little later). This Atlantan concert is captured in very nice sound quality. The majority of the recording comes from the audience master tape, but some chunks are from a worse-but-still-enjoyable 1st generation copy. Our program tonight starts with a short, non-often-captured, guitar soundcheck from the maestro (mainly just him trying out licks), and it’s followed by some dialog from Frank, telling the audience to check him out on the radio tomorrow (“playing some stuff from the new album” -> assuming he means the not yet doomed Läther). He then announces that “Davey’s gonna play you a tape: these songs were chosen for their amusement value”, and the recording cuts to Revenge Of The Knick Knack People. After 2 minutes Terry counts the band off into the now standard Flakes intro. Frank walks on, the crowd goes wild, and Frank gives some standard intros, until he says
“I wanna thank Frank Russo for taking the chance and bringing us back down here again, but that man right over there who was asking a little while ago, before we came out here. He wanted to hear Peaches En Regalia. Here it is!”
Terry launches into the tune, and we get a fast, fun Peaches followed by an interesting Torture Never Stops. It’s not a fantastic solo, but Frank has a really crazy, unique spacy tone in the first half that makes it worth a listen. Terry screams about his Chin and City is really interesting tonight. Amidst his solo, Patrick immediately quotes Jimi Hendrix’s Third Stone From The Sun and a little later on plays Manic Depression (also by Hendrix). This is one of Pat’s best Tiny Lights jams, and a sign of good things to come. Pound For A Brown of course follows, and we get another Mars/Zappa affair. Tommy has a solid solo with some scatting (He yells “Charlelle!” at one point), and Frank plays another tasty solo with a weird ass tone. A standard Flakes follows this up. It’s got some fun asides, but nothing too unique (“I mean the flakes”, “y’know it’s a shame the way those suckers treat ya” and a Smothers “huah?” being the major standouts). Frank asks the now regular “wanna buy some acid bob?”, and Bob retorts, “how about some belladonna and a lot of spiders?” Big Leg Emma comes next and Frank says “And then of course I said” at the end for some reason, but afterwards they all stop and Frank announces…
“Thank you… thank you very much… Aha! Alright, check this out. We’re going to do something different now. This isn’t normally part of our program, but I was down at the station today, and this guy mentioned to me that tonight is the 7th anniversary of Jimi Hendrix’s demise. And, sorry Jimi, sorry you’re gone, but I thought we would have Adrian, who is our feedback expert here tonight, perform live in person a tribute to Jimi Hendrix. And you can just imagine that he has a feather boa on and his hair all frizzed up. We’re just gonna make this up as we go along, so we’ll see what happens. Okay? In G…..”
And we get what fans have titled “Instrumental In Memory Of Jimi Hendrix”! It’s a fantastic improvisation that begins with some deliciously fuzzed Hendrix-esque riffs from Belew that lead into The Star Spangled Banner. Pat and Terry come in after a couple minutes as Belew wails away. Eventually, Frank comes in and the two guitarists duel it out! After a few minutes of great jamming, the piece ends with Terry mistakenly(?) starting a strange vamp for a second, before Frank stops him, and cues Envelopes (still in its instrumental state). This is a ridiculously cool improvisational moment, and something I wish this band delved into more often! Just so sick! It’s also kinda sweet of Frank to set aside six minutes in the setlist as a tribute to his dead friend. Maybe I’m looking too deep into it, but it’s surprisingly kinda heartfelt. Anyway, Terry gives a solid drum solo following the theme of Envelopes, and they head right into Disco Boy. It’s a solid take; Frank says “hey work out Bob” in the middle and Adrian does actually throw out a fun little riff. It heads right into Läther, and we get the best take yet this tour. Wild Love is great too, and is starting to grow in power. The improv section begins with a real fun Peter solo (where he plays the main riff right at the start), and according to Tommy, something unique happened:
“When Peter had that solo on Wild Love, I can remember that I always wanted to have that burning Latin solo. Frank for some reason, didn’t like us to burn sometimes… There was one time that I wanted to solo so fucking bad on Wild Love that during Peter’s solo in Atlanta, I took my pants off and I was down to my bikini briefs and I went on front of stage and danced. And Frank was digging the fuck out of it. I was just weaving and bobbing to all the chicks that were up there. It was sort of like my solo, this was the best I could get. I don’t know if Peter enjoyed it, but Frank said after the show ‘I’m never going to ask you to do that, Tommy. But whenever you feel like it, PLEASE do it!’”
So after Peter plays and Tommy dances in his undies, we get into another riotous solo from Mr. Belew. He actually starts a little early, and the vamp changes to its regular disco groove a little after Ade starts. When he finishes, surprise! some guitar from Mr. Zappa! It’s a short solo over the disco vamp, only about a minute long, but it’s a nice addition and a good sign of things to come. They head into Titties ‘n Beer with a botched transition, and we get a moderately above average rendition. A tape cut takes out part of the head, and Terry sings “I can’t complain when Chris comes through” (does anyone know who this refers to? Chrissy?). Terry gives a great little speech at the start of the improv section (“I’ve heard you’re a real weird type of cat… riding up a dirty mountain with your dirty bike, dirty girlfriend, and I see you got dirty hair….”), but Frank sadly doesn’t engage with him too much. Terry tries to get him to talk about leather, but FZ claims that he should talk to Tommy instead (“Did you see that sucker dancing out there? Tommy Mars is tower of power material”) or even “Buddy Love, The Baron Of Beef”. After this they make a smooth transition into the legendary Black Page #2, followed by another great Jones Crusher (both tunes get tighter every day!) and a great but somewhat standard Broken Hearts Are For Assholes. Tommy quotes The Sailor’s Hornpipe (possibly for the first time), and we get some fun, classic ending remarks (“Crisco… a tight wet rubber shirt” and “oh I knew you’d be surprised Byrne(?)”). The show ends with a baller version of Punky’s Whips with some great energy from the whole band, and a lovely rock ‘n’ roll solo from FZ. There’s a short encore break before a solid Dinah-Moe Humm, with the regular pulling-teeth-audience-participation (“You people just clap your hands to this god damn song… Don’t go ‘woo woo woo’ say Dinah-Moe!… Isn’t this primitive”).
“I know it’s sunday you’re tired, you gotta go to work tomorrow so you don’t wanna tax your imagination too very much and so we’re gonna dwindle off into a subdued, nice, easy going kind of a sears poncho kind of a song called Camarillo Brillo!”
We get a great, high energy version of the Overnite Sensation tune filled with fun little asides from Frank, including one of the first instances of his preacher voice (“Jes-us Christ Jes-us Christ”) and some other fun ending phrases (“It was sad but true”… “However we went into another song”). The show truly ends with a great Muffin Man with two sick solos and an amusing outro from Frank (“Drive safely, don’t get arrested, and have a good time!”). Frank finishes up his second solo, almost quotes Wipe Out, and conducts a huge chaotic crash to bring our Sunday night concert to a great end. Now this isn’t a show I’d call “required listening” as a whole, but it’s got great moments throughout that I think any fan of this era would love to hear. It’s not the first show I’d recommend, but if you decide to put on this one on, you’ll have a good time for sure. At the very least, anyone reading this should check out the Hendrix inspired instrumental, you won’t be disappointed!
1977 09 23 – Assembly Hall, University Of Illinois, Champaign, IL (Audience A-/B+)
The rocking teenage combo finds itself in central Illinois and delivers a solid show with a couple of unique moments to make it stand out amongst the other September gigs. It’s not the most interesting show that exists, but it’s still a fun one, and it’s captured on a very nice, listenable audience tape. Frank stops and gives a number of amusing song intros throughout the show, but the most interesting part of the night comes when a rare-for-the-tour midwestern-folklore sort-of-a-tune makes an encore appearance, but more on that later. The show starts when FZ comes out to announce our entertainment for tonight, and rattles off some amusing titles for our trusty band (“Patrick O’Hearn on bass, Adrian ‘Bob’ Belew on guitar, Tommy Mars on keyboards and nasal congestion, Little, Skinny, Terry ‘Ted’ Bozzio on Leather, direct from Vienna, Austria, ladies and gentlemen, Peter Wolfe on keyboards and butter, and over here, recovering from a serious illness, Ed Mann on percussion.”) Frank gives a final comment on the sound in the hall (“I’m glad you guys showed up tonight, because this place would be horrible if it was empty.”) and jumps right into a rocking Peaches.
Peaches always rocks and Torture has a cool solo that starts off very spacey, echoey and effects-laden, but ends up rockin’ pretty quickly. Not an all time great solo, but still fun (the mix on this tape has the moaning on Torture really loud, so do with that info what you will). A cut misses the intro to Grow Me A Chin (The Chintro?), and we get a solid Tiny Lights with another weirdo bass solo from Patrick (The ending theme is notably slow on this one too). Pound For A Brown comes next with one of Frank’s all time best song transitions (not this show specifically but in general), and I think the transition to the solo section is a little jammier than usual. Tommy and Frank each deliver a nice solo (with just a hint of scat from Tommy), and there’s a short tape error in the middle of Zappa’s solo. We also get a particularly funky backing to Frank’s solo, which is honestly probably better than the solo itself. After his jam, FZ brings the band down behind him, and gives an introduction to Flakes!
“All right, I’ll tell you a little bit about the next song we’re going to do. You know what really pisses me off? Let me tell you what really pisses me off. It’s people that don’t do what they say they’re going to do. You know what I mean? That pisses me off, especially when I have to pay for it. Now, in California, they have these people in every profession, from plumbers on up, no matter what you do, you take something to them, they’re supposed to fix it, they’ll never fix it, and they charge you a lot of money, it never gets fixed. We call these people flakes. And this song goes out to them.”
We get a fun version of Flakes with some amusing back and forth dialog from Frank and Adrian ‘Bob’ Belew, including an amusing quip about Joan Baez that goes a little awry (FZ:“Hey, did you ever get in Joan’s pants Bob?” Dylan:“Not lately Franky but I have been doin alotta acid lately so I don’t know”). Frank then inquires if Bob wants acid and he replies: “Got any belladonna? I’m into spiders and stuff.” Pretty fun for a Flakes performance! The last millisecond of the tune cuts out, and we lose the first part of Big Leg Emma, but we all know how that was going to sound. After the doo-wop tune they make the ridiculous transition into Envelopes, and while the band plays the opening vamp, Frank choses to introduce the tune:
“Alright lemme tell you a little bit about this song we’re going to do here. The name of this song is Envelopes and it was written, uh, in 1969 or 70. It’s an old one but it’s really cute. There’s no words to it, but it features our stupendous rhythm section, including the remarkable exploits of Little Skinny Terry ‘Ted’ Bozzio who will regale you with a drum solo a little later on.”
We get a solid version of the weirdo song, and while there are still no lyrics, Tommy vocalizes over the tune for the first time. Terry delivers a fairly long, energetic drum solo, and it leads into a fun Disco Boy. After this is an excellent version of Läther, potentially the first “great” one of the tour. It features fantastic, moody solos from all three participants, and the piece is followed by another early Wild Love with some more excellent playing! Peter cranks out a nice solo (making heavy use of the french horn synth at the start), and he passes the buck to the lovely Adrian for another joyous solo over the disco vamp. I think Adrian is playing a signature lick from his future time in King Crimson at the start of his solo, but I can’t quite place where it’s from (it’s around 8:20 in). When Adrian’s done, surprise! We get a full length solo from Frank! It’s over the same disco vamp as Adrian, and while it’s nowhere near a bad solo, I’m still waiting for the Bowling on Charen vamp to rear its head. Still a fun time, but it is his first known full solo in the tune after all.
The iconic Titties N Beer comes next, and we can really hear Adrian’s vocals in the head of the song on this recording, which is a neat rarity. We get a solid version of the tune with some fun dialog about being “mean”, “rotten” and “perverted” enough to get into hell. My favorite lines from this take include: [TB: “There’s some Stipulations” FZ: “Simulation?” TB: “Stipulations, with a ‘P’ y’know?, like in the golden shower”], [FZ: “I take the Devil and sit him right on the Tower of Power and spin that son of a bitch”] and [“TB: “You gotta prove to me that you sleep on leather sheets with rubber pillowcases!” FZ: “Well I do when I stay at the Playboy hotel in Chicago”]. The discussion wraps up pretty quick after Frank announces that “as soon as I’m president Imma have that sucker [Titties N Beer] tacked onto the flag salute”. When he’s finished he introduces the following tune over the ending vamp of Titties:
“Alright, now listen. We got another instrumental number coming up. This is a… This is a very difficult tune to play. I mean, Envelopes… Envelopes had its moments, you know, had a couple of fast notes in it, but there are a lot of technical difficulties in this song. That’s why it was entitled The Black Page. There’s two versions of The Black Page. There’s The Black Page No. 1 for those with wrist array, and then there’s The Black Page No. 2 for those who like to tap their foot a little bit. This is The Black Page No. 2. It’s hard notes with an easy beat. Ready? Aim. And 1, 2, 3, 4.”
We’re treated to an excellent version of this near-impossible tune, and it’s followed by an equally fun Jones Crusher, which Adrian now has completely nailed down. Broken Hearts Are For Assholes rears its ugly head next and we get a hilarious version filled with great sexual asides from Pat (“Reverend Buddy Love”, “Dazzled by the exciting new rubber shirt of coco” and of course: “4000 pounds of Samoan dynamite”). Bozzio makes a funny “blub” noise as song ends, and Punky’s come next, but in a classic moment of bootleg disappointment, the song cuts about 20 seconds into Frank’s spoken intro (which isn’t really any different from the released version). At the very least this doesn’t end the tape, and our recording resumes in the middle of a standard performance of Dinah-Moe Humm. The tune ends like normal, but then Frank introduces the final song of the night, which puts this concert on the map:
“Now listen, we got this song, see, and we have never played this song in concert. I mean, this band here has never played this song in concert before, but now, now check this out, folks. It would be a sacrilege not to play this song here because this is where it all began, you see. The song I’m talking about – now this song is on our new album, which will be out in about three weeks, so you can fetish it for eternity, but this song, and I’m not the one who sings it on the record. The guy on the record who’s singing it is Ray White. He’s not in the band anymore, so I’m going to have to sing it for you. I’m not going to do a very good job on it, but we just have to do it here because it’s possible that there’s somebody in this audience tonight that really knows the intimate details about the Illinois Enema Bandit. So, we’re going to try it right now. Just see what happens. What the hey. Okay, one, two, three.”
Yes it’s one of only two performances of The Illinois Enema Bandit from this band! Frank skips the written Pardo-intro, and sings the bulk of the tune himself. He can’t really sing the song, which he definitely knows, but it’s still really amusing to hear his personal take on the tune, like an old blues man (“bring the band down behind me boys”). When they hit the solo sections Frank yells “Go on, pump it Adrian!” and we get a totally unique Belew blues solo! (where else are you gonna hear that? ProzaKC Blues??) He does as much as he can (it’s a fun solo but it’s a little out of his comfort zone), and after a minute or so Frank takes over and rips out a fantastic, fiery solo. I’m pretty sure both solos are over a unique-to-this-arrangement vamp (kind of a non-descript blues backing), and once the guitarists finish Frank continues the tune (“Alright here’s the good part… the police would say….”). Frank and Adrian handle the rest of the lead vocals, Ade taking the part of the victims and the ending “pumping every one of em”s. We get a lovely vocal jam to end the tune capped off with some lovely rock n roll guitar from FZ over the end (Though the ending acapella shouts are omitted from this version). Not the best version of the tune out there, but a really neat addendum to this show (“Thank you and good night!”).
This isn’t the best show of the tour, and I wouldn’t describe it as “must hear” but it’s another fun show that shows the group strengthening their chops and perfecting one of Frank’s best setlists. The nice sound, FZ’s numerous intros and the inclusion of the rare Enema Bandit make this one a solid listen, but there’s a good number I’d recommend you check out first.
1977 09 25 – Metropolitan Sports Center, Bloomington, MN (Audience B+/B/B-)
We’re in a town south of Minneapolis, 15 years before its famous Mall of America opens, and we get a pretty good show, captured in pretty good sound. This isn’t the most remarkable show, and unlike the previous four recordings the sound isn’t particularly good enough to really overcome that. This night has a bit of a slow, perfunctory start, but somewhere in the second half the infectious energy of the Minnesotan crowd hypes the band up, and we get a pretty great ending. There’s also a handful of other highlights that make this show notable, chiefly the first ever Conehead! I love seeing the band continue to evolve with the addition of a new song to the setlist and this is one of the best additions, forever changing this tour for the better! So while this show is a bit of a mixed bag, there’s still some great bits worth a listen.
The tape cuts in mid-Flakes Intro, and Frank gives some quick introductions to the band before jumping right in Peaches (“I sure hope you’re ready.”). It’s a fun performance, Frank plays a kinda weird solo (not his best), and Torture of course comes next. Frank says a couple of strange non-sequiturs in the moan-break in the middle of the head of the tune (“Caligula. Naugahyde.”), and we get a very cool solo in the middle of the tune. FZ’s approaching his standard guitar tone for the tune, but he’s not quite there yet. Frank plays around with some neat high pitched effects in the middle of his jam, and really works up to a frenzy by the end to wrap everything up nicely. Terry screams in Chin (he even yells “eat shit for all I care!” at the start of the “I wanna be dead” coda) and City’s got another cool bass solo from Patrick (potentially with a quote or two I can’t identify around four minutes in). They then make the perfect transition into the timeless Pound For A Brown. Tonight’s take begins with a really cool spacy guitar transition into the solo section (maybe the best so far), which features the regular, fun Tommy Mars solo (though some tape dropouts sadly affect the overall enjoyability). When Tommy wraps his jam up, Terry starts this plodding beat, and the band starts playing this janky vamp: the first appearance of the early version of Conehead!!! It’s very shaky, but Frank whips out a fantastic rocking solo with a wild guitar tone, well worth a listen for late ‘77 fans. Frank seems a little unsure how to end the jam, so he conducts a bit of improvised percussion/piano eerie-ness before announcing “This is a song about people who don’t do what they’re supposed to”: Flakes! We get a standard take of the anti-lame-handyman song, with the improvised aspect to the Dylan section nearly completely phased out at this point (the most unique quip at this point is Frank’s: “Isn’t it a shame bob?”). Someone in the crowd blows off a firework at the end, and Big Leg Emma is next but a tape cut takes out the middle of the song. More fireworks go off, and Frank stops to introduce the next tune:
“Alright, the name of this song is Envelopes, and it’s a uh, it’s weird kind of a song. Last night we had a very exceptional response to this song. I can’t remember the name of it, oh, Iowa City. Yeah we were in Iowa City and I told the audience that this could be one of our really hot dance numbers, you know, if things were just a little bit stranger than they already are. That’s why I suggested that somewhere in the middle of this song you feel like dancing, just go ahead and express yourself……[ FZ says something hard to make out over audience roar] I mean, it’s not exactly what you expect, you know, it’s not Led Zeppelin or anything like that. It’s a little weird. This is the kind of dance music for people who probably have some Venusian roots somewhere.”
We get a solid performance of the strange tune, followed by a neat Bozzio solo filled with electronic effects (possibly the first show where he tries out these effects, something that would come to characterize his solos for the rest of time with FZ). Disco Boy comes next but it’s got a number of dropouts, and the ending is cut out. We resume about 20 seconds into Läther, which is a bummer, but at least the always beautiful solos from Frank, Tommy and Peter are intact and very enjoyable. Tonight’s Wild Love is very interesting, but not exactly great musically. Belew forgets the lyrics to the “our frantic pace” section, and FZ tells him to “spit it out boy, spit it out” (Adrian yells “Charlele!” in response). Also, I believe Patrick makes a rare mistake in the “Sinister Footwear” section, but it could be just a strange choice. Peter and Adrian deliver their standard fun and funky solos over their respective vamps, and when Frank’s turn to join in comes, he plays a lick (or it could be Adrian, hard to tell) and says “alright now wait a minute, you have to pay attention to Ed. This is gonna be Ed’s solo now. Now watch Ed.” So we get an Ed Mann marimba solo to wrap up the tune! It’s not the best solo (I imagine Ed must’ve been nervous getting called out like this), but it’s got its moments and I absolutely love the spontaneity of it all. [I can’t verify this but I imagine Ed did or said something to mildly piss off Frank, so Frank decided to spring a solo section on him right in front of a crowd of thousands, but that’s just my guess.]
Okay so on with the program: Titties N Beer. We get a standard, somewhat default version of the tune, with just a minute or two of the regular devil/rock star/”what are you into” conversation, though Frank and Terry do drop some clever, amusing lines that do make it worth a listen. Terry asks “What are your interests? Murder? Rape? Killing? Maiming? Destroying” and FZ responds:
“Well after I get all tore up and wasted and everything, I finish the concert and go out and party, you know? Well, I guess we have 20 or 30 girls up to the room, you know? The usual. You know, I’m a regular guy. A regular guy who rocks. You know, the usual, uh, maiming, mutilation, molestation, you know? But actually, you know, the only thing I really like, the only thing that I can relate to, you know, is.. Titties N Beer!”
What a quote! The crowd chants “Titties N Beer!” as the tune comes to a close, and FZ stops to give a wonderful introduction to the next piece:
“And now ladies and gentlemen it’s time for another one of those instrumentals and oh god I hope they don’t mess it up tonight like they did last night. I gave ‘em such a fantastic buildup but they let me down. Aww they were just so anxious to please, but unfortunately in the middle of the song they were dancing on their dick, but we’re gonna try it again tonight. The name of this song is The Black Page #2. It’s the same as The Black Page #1 only it has the rock and roll modified beat to it. So that you can tap your foot sort of. Help you get into the spirit of the rock and roll aura of it all. Ladies and gentlemen I present to you our dynamic rhythm section including the puppies which are Eddie, Peter, Tommy, and Adrian performing for you the dynamic, the luxuriant, the beautiful Black Page No. 2.”
The energy of tonight’s show has been slowly building, and it’s really showing now! After this intense introduction, they of course play the song to a tee (imagine Frank’s reaction if they chump it this time!), and you can hear the tapers ask “Is there enough tape left on that thing?” The tune is of course followed by a fun Jones Crusher, and tonight it features some amusing background asides from Terry of all people (you can hear him say “good god!” and a Smothers “huah” after some of his background vocal lines). Broken Hearts is great tonight too, with an onslaught of Buddy Love comments categorizing the performance. (“Buddy love is not a homo, Buddy Love is a very sensitive nude wrestler. He likes the tower of power. Reverend Buddy Love has a fetish for rubber. A passion for leather and crisco…..) There’s sadly a cut right in the middle that takes out a section of Pat’s comments, but the ending almost makes up for our loss with some shouts from Terry (“on the bottom of you!”) and more funny comments from Pat “Romeo and Julliet…. Fifi Dupree… All stars…”). Our epic closer Punky’s Whips is especially fun tonight, with many ad libs throughout. Frank changes up the intro speech about “that sweaty little homo Terry Bozzio”, and it goes fairly off the rails by the end, with more references to the Punky’s Lips, Tower Of Power, Rubber Shirts, and even Smother’s broth. (“he went out and bought himself 200 yards of chiffon, boiled it and made broth”). Patrick immediately drops a funny comment about Conan the Barbarian once the song begins (TB: “Wait a minute Punky I didn’t know you knew Conan?”) and Terry yells something about Punky’s hairspray use over the Isn’t It Romantic section. Bozzio’s singing is especially unhinged and atonal during the Jeff Beck section, and Frank drops an absolutely sick solo to close the song and the main set out.
The tape cuts in and out during the encore break, and only a second of Frank’s talk with the audience is captured (something about getting spanked?). The first encore consists of a standard Dinah-Moe Humm performance, but the rocking teenage combo soon returns, (“I thought you guys were tired?”), and plays an above average Camarillo Brillo. There’s some mildly amusing ad libs/audience interaction around a minute in, and FZ performs the slow second half in his faux-Dylan voice, then in Muffin Man we’re treated to two fiery FZ guitar solos. Frank’s first is a classic Muffin Man rockin’ event, but FZ then sings the tune again, mutters “Alright, tell ya, what I’m gonna do”, then begins a really slowed down take of the melody and plays a heavy drudging solo to melt the crowd’s Minnesotan minds. It eventually ends with that occasional weirdo “Scandinavia” ending (see the song entry), then a little bit of conceptual continuity (Pat: “Crisco!” Adrian: Conehead!”) all before a quick transition into Black Napkins! A really good one too! Frank whips out a final delicious, tasteful Napkins solo to end the night and send us home happy (It’s actually a little bit Pink Napkins-esque, though way more arena-rock-tinged).
This show doesn’t start off too special, but by the end of the night Frank and the band have realized how incredibly pumped this upper midwestern crowd is, and pulls this show away from mediocrity. This still isn’t the best show we have, but it has a lot of high points and historically interesting moments. So while I wouldn’t recommend it to the casual ‘77 fans, it’s well worth a listen for the diehards, especially the first Conehead and the last third of the show or so!
1977 09 29 – Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Canada (Audience B+/B)
Our adventures with this Teenage Arena-Rockin’ Combo continue in Canada, with this very interesting and fun show! Tonight we’ve got a unique setlist because of the mandatory Canadian intermission, and we get a very special encore guest appearance from a pair of former Mothers/Turtles! Yes you heard right, Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan AKA Flo and Eddie! but more on this later. The sound on this tape is a solid “good not great”, and our recording begins during the Flakes walk on, just a few moments before Frank’s intro.
“Welcome to the best attended concert we’ve ever had in Toronto. Aside from saying thanks a lot for coming down here and filling this barn up and help me [doing??] the acoustics better.” [Normal Band Intros] “And I hope he’s out there, my old Italian buddy Vito from Records On Wheels. Hope he’s resting quietly out there someplace tonight, we dedicate our show to him. It’s nice to see an Italian get ahead. The name of this song is Peaches En Regalia.”
We start the show off right with a fast, banging Peaches, which leads into another quality Torture Never Stops. Frank utilizes some more sick spacy tones/effects on the first half of his solo, and transitions to a more “predictable” tone for the second half. This is a really nice solo, with great pacing. This (to me at least) is what draws the line between the very good torture solos of 76/early 77 and the amazing ones of late 77/early 78. It is a little shorter than I’d like, but it feels like it tells a complete story, which is what I always want when tortured. Frank ends his solo a little abruptly, and Tommy absolutely whiffs the transition out of solo a bit because of this. The Chin-City Combo is nice as always, and we’re still knee deep in the Tiny Lights bass solo era.
God these are weird; Patrick starts off by quoting Lemme Take You To The Beach off of Studio Tan, solo’s for a little while then plays Hendrix’s Third Rock From The Sun and more of Lemme Take You To The Beach! (This was the closest this tune ever got to getting a live performance). That’s basically it, and the tune is closed out by another slow, exaggerated ending from Belew and the boys. Pound delivers with a solid solo from Tommy, and the tape cuts out right as it sounds like he’s nearing the ending. We resume during the opening chords of the still-very-new Conehead! Frank plays a fantastic solo, though the backing vamp is very loose tonight and at points only sorta-resembles the actual part (Terry and Patrick are just the best). After only a couple minutes of righteous guitar. Frank stops to introduce Flakes, but the crowd goes insane, so he plays for another 30 seconds! So fucking cool!!!!
“The next song we’re going to do… Thank you. [More Guitar!] The next song we’re going to do is about a subject that is very close to my heart. This subject is incompetence. Incompetence, as you all know, is part of the American way of life. And if you’re looking for the hotbed of incompetence in the USA, come to Los Angeles, folks, because there isn’t one person in that town who will do what he is supposed to do on time. This includes all phases of endeavors, like plumbers never fix the leak, and the people who work in the garage never fix your car, and the carpenter never will really do your house right. Everything’s fucked up down there. And the name of this song… “
We get a fun version of Flakes with a little bit of lyrical/harmonica improv (FZ: “wanna buy some acid bob?” AB: “Got any THC, CBS, Warner Brothers acid?” FZ: “Anything for you Bob. Get down Bob.”). Big Leg Emma follows, and as they play the final chord of the blues walkdown, Frank stops for a mandatory hall intermission:
“Alright, ladies and gentlemen, the people who run this place feel it is their duty to sell you popcorn and other types of swill out there in the lobby, wherever you get it. And we have to take an intermission right now, so we’ll be back in about 15 minutes. You go do what you have to do. See you in a little while” [INTERMISSION] “Ordinarily, at this point in the program, you see, if we wouldn’t have taken a break, we would have gone directly from Big Leg Emma into this song called Envelopes, which is fairly erudite, actually. But it’s a little weird to start the second half of the show off with Envelopes because of the nature of the tune, you see, and also because it contains a drum solo, you don’t want to start the second half of the show off with a drum solo. So we’ve got to figure out something else to play that’s not normally part of our show to get you guys back in the mood, you see. So, let’s see. I know what. I’m going to do a song from the new album, which is coming out October 3rd. The name of this album is Leather. And this is a song that I don’t sing on the album. Ray White, the guy who was another guitarist in the band last year, he’s the guy who sings it on the album. But it’s a nice, easygoing blues kind of a song. You’ll probably get a laugh out of it. The name of the song is The Ballad of the Illinois Enema Bandit.” [Intro Vamp Starts] “Now you’ve got to remember, I’m not the one that’s really supposed to sing this. This is a song for somebody with a high dramatic kind of voice. So you’re going to have to let your imagination run wild.”
Envelopes is too weird to start the second half of the show with, so Frank decides to whip out “The Ballad of the Illinois Enema Bandit” to start the second set! After the song starts, Frank stops to remind us yet again that “I’m not the one that’s really supposed to sing this”, but despite this they still manage to deliver an enjoyable-enema-experience. There’s some nice percussion over the beginning vamp of the tune, and when Frank shouts “take it away bob”, Adrian whips out a solid little solo (it’s a tad clunky but overall better than the Champagne performance). Surprisingly, Peter solos after him! playing a neat, spacey, sorta Sy Borg-esque solo. It doesn’t fit the song incredibly well, but it’s an interesting little anomaly. Frank comes in once Peter finishes and plays a cool partly-rocking-partly-spacey solo to wrap up the affair. The first two solos are over a fairly generic blues vamp, but Frank’s solo uses the Zappa In New York Vamp., and after Frank’s the song concludes like normal. FZ speaks-sings the courtroom-drama section, and we get an excellent vocal/guitar “he just be pumping everyone of ‘em” ending that closes out the tune. Frank’s guitar is lovely and Adrian’s ending vocals are fantastic, but he forgets the last couple of lines and Frank has to dryly speak them into mic to bring the song to a close. Not the most fantastic Enema Bandit, but a fun tune to distinguish this show from the barrage of standard setlist gigs. Frank cues a very quick, abrupt transition into Envelopes, where Tommy vocalizes over part of the melody (still without lyrics though). I think Tommy also uses some different synth sounds for part of this performance, but I’m not entirely sure on that. The tune ends with a long drum solo, one that’s very frenzied and entertaining. The crowd knows it too, because there’s a longer break than usual, and Terry stops to thank the applauding crowd. Plus, I believe he says “and for your dining and dancing pleasure” before starting Disco Boy. This is really hard to make out over the applause so I’m not certain he’s saying this, but if he was there’s some conceptual continuity there as Frank said this all the time in 1973.
There’s a short cut in the middle of the Zoot Allures tune, and it’s followed by a very nice Läther with a great acapella guitar coda directly prior to Wild Love. We get a pretty standard September edition of Wild Love, with competent solos from Peter, Adrian and Frank. Adrian’s solo is really great (as always), Patrick nearly solos after Ade, and Frank delivers a fun-but-not-amazing solo to end us off (I’m still waiting for the Bowling on Charen vamp). The timeless Titties N Beer, everyone’s favorite song about the Motorcycles and Satan, comes next. It’s an amusing version where Terry disses Frank’s clothes, but Frank then turns it around on Warner Brothers
Terry: “Aren’t you worried about punk rock? Aren’t you worried about sticking a safety pin in your cheek? Aren’t you into leather? How about rubber? Chain, man. Pins. Crime. Razor blades. You know, get funky, man. You look like a middle-class suburbanite.”
Frank: “I come up here wearing just some Levi’s and a yellow shirt…. But see, since I’ve been recording for Warner Brothers for eight years, this is the best I can do, you know what I mean?”
Terry then mentions WB prez Mo Ostin, says he’s on the Devil’s side, and references the ZINY shows from last year. They finish the tune off and Frank introduces the dreaded Black Page over the funky closing vamp.
Frank: “Hey, how’d you fix his ass? Did you put him in the Tower of Power or what?”
Terry: “Yeah, that too. In New York, we hung a big sign up, man. You know, and the devil said, Warner Brothers sucks!”
[. . .]
Frank: “Alright, the next song we’re gonna do is another instrumental. This is a hard song to play. This is the rock n roll version of a song that appears on the new album. The name of this song is The Black Page #2 and it features our new members of the rocking teenage combo. We still call them the puppies, they aren’t quite broken in yet, they haven’t played Cleveland yet. It’s Ed Mann on percussion, Peter Wolfe on keyboards, Tommy Mars on keyboards, Adrian Belew, the puppies. And the veterans, Patrick O’Hearn and little skinny Terry ‘Ted’ Bozzio: The Black Page #2. Anytime you’re ready Terry. 2, 3, 4”
The very first second is missing due to a tape cut, but we get a solid performance of the ridiculously hard song. The following Jones crusher is really nice too (the extra FZ guitar in September is always appreciated). An amusing Broken Hearts Are For Assholes comes next, and we get a couple fun comments from Patrick before the tape sadly cuts. They’re a little hard to make out but they seem to be fairly standard fare (Dagmar, Felix, Buddy Love and “672 lbs of Samoan dynamite!!”). We return at the very end of the tune and transition into Punky’s Whips (about the “the helpless young homo” Terry Bozzio). This is another great performance, with more hysterical asides from Patrick. Right at the start our bass player says something about “Paul Sheppard” (anybody know who this is?), and gets our drummer to crack up a bit (Terry: “Oh Punky I didn’t know you were that kinky” Pat: “Nice”). Bozzio “sings” along to parts of Isn’t It Romantic, Pat asks the question “is Reverend Buddy Love really a homo?” and Frank concludes tonight’s main set with an excellent, rockin’ homosexually-tinged guitar solo.
The main set ends, but they of course return for an encore performance. Frank amps up the crowd, and delivers to us a standard Dinah-Moe Humm. They leave again, the crowd cheers again, and then they return again, but this time with something special!
“Hey, do you know these people? It’s the Flo & Eddie moment!! Alright! We got something special for you now. For those of you who like old songs, here’s a few of them!”
FZ wrangles Tommy to play an “A augmented 7 please” and begins to sing Road Ladies!! Flo and Eddie instantly join in and it’s 1970 all over again! This performance is pretty accurate to the studio version. Frank sings the first half and the Turtles shine on the chorus. Adrian plays a good-but-not-great solo in the middle, and Howie closes out the tune with a high-spirited delivery of the ending spiel (FZ: “Woodstock nation!!”). Adrian doesn’t do a bad job, but he’s just not a great blues player. After the repeat of the Road Ladies chorus, we dive headfirst into Would You Go All The Way?, the final known performance of this Chunga’s Revenge tune (forgot to mention it but that was the final known Road Ladies as well!). We get a pretty fun take of the USO tune; Frank even starts off by singing “Remember Eddie and Flo?”. There’s some really neat percussion lines throughout, and Peter and/or Tommy are playing these little Star Spangled Banner-sounding, woodwind-esque-synth riffs too, suggesting this was potentially rehearsed as a normal part of the setlist but ultimately not included. Mark and Howie are fantastic of course, and when they finish the tune segues directly into the always welcome Daddy Daddy Daddy!!! The former Turtles hit the high notes on this one and seem to have a ton of fun doing it. They sing “Flo and Eddie” along with “It’s A Rambler!” during the rare “Do You Like My New Car” outro, and this brings our guest spot to an end. While these aren’t the best performances of these three tunes, this is still such a fun event, and I’m so glad we have a pretty good recording of it. Who would’ve guessed we’d get three Flo and Eddie tunes in 1977?
Frank announces that this’ll wrap things up for tonight, but the riotous crowd convinces him to do a couple more tunes. He caves and plays a lively Camarillo Brillo (“Hi there!”), and comments “I’ll give this to Ringo” at the end of the tune (someone must have handed him something). As the expected Muffin Man starts, FZ sings “Useless” over the vamp, just like on the primordial versions from the Bongo Fury tour. We get a really short version of the hard rock tune (though a tape cut taking out at a decent chunk of Zappa’s solo is mostly to blame for this), and Frank plays some crazy heavy licks to end tonight’s show off on a high note. They vamp for long enough to start singing “Scandinavia” over the outro, Frank shouts out Flo and Eddie one more time, outros the regular band, and brings this eventful show to a close. It’s not a consistently A+ show, but one can’t resist the charms of the altered setlist and guest appearances. I don’t necessarily think this whole show is worth your time, but this is definitely a show I would check out the highlights: The rockin’ first 30-40 minutes with weird Lemme Take You To The Beach-tinged Tiny Lights and primordial Conehead, the interesting intermission anomalies, and of course the big Flo and Eddie encore!
1977 09 30 – Cobo Hall, Detroit, MI (Audience A-/B/C)
“Welcome to our Motor City Hop, ladies and gentlemen!” This is an interesting show, but largely because of the recordings. Roughly speaking, the first hour or so and the last 20 minutes are captured on an excellent audience recording, but the last 40 minutes of the main set, from Läther to Punky’s Whips, are only available on a much, much shittier recording. To make things worse, the quality of the bad tape degrades as the night goes on, and sounds pretty abysmal by the end of the show. But enough about the listenability, let’s get into it. The night begins with the regular Knick Knack People tape and band warm-up (captured on the worse recording), before the rocking teenage combo start the Flakes walk on and Frank comes on to announce our show. He introduces the band, including “the leopard encrusted, direct from Vienna, Peter Wolfe on keyboards, and our one and only percussoid [sic], ladies and gentlemen, Ed Mann.” He then introduces himself as Detroit-born Ted Nugent, and asks the crowd “have you ever seen one of these things?” before playing the toy police car from Baby Snakes! (The one that’s like “give yourself up – you are completely surrounded by policemen”). This riles the crowd up somehow, and they dive head first into Peaches En Regalia.
Peaches-Torture-Chin is one of Frank’s best openings of all time, and tonight’s trio doesn’t fail. Torture’s fun but not incredibly notable, just some good guitar that starts off echoey and reflective but never really gets as fiery and inspired as it needs to. City Of Tiny Lights still has a bass solo, and Pat brings a really good one tonight. One of his best in my opinion, very weird and moody. It’s still not the perfect fit for the song, but I can get down to it in an abstruse way. Pound brings a fun solo from Tommy, and it leads into a particularly wild Conehead. This tune is still new and the feel of the backing isn’t set in stone just yet. Because of this, tonight’s vamp feels particularly deranged. Frank whips out a fantastic guitar solo, and Pat and Terry of course propel help him to even greater heights. The band feel like they could fall apart at any moment, but they never do, and it leads to an excellent, edge-of-your seat Conehead experience. Frank eventually winds down and introduces the next tune.
“The next song we’re gonna play is about the subject of incompetence. This is specifically about the incompetence of people in California, because as you know if you’ve ever been there and try to get anything done on time there’s nobody in California that works for a living. They’re all on welfare, and if they aren’t on welfare they wish they were on welfare and that’s why you can’t get them to do anything. That’s why we have this song called Flakes.”
It’s a standard version of Flakes with a couple unique quips from Frankie (“Yeah it’s the shits ain’t it Bob” & “That’s it Bob protest!”), and it’s followed by a standard Big Leg Emma. Bad news though, because this is where the good tape begins to run out. Near the end of Big Leg Emma we switch to a replacement tape and the listening experience takes a serious dive. Not only is it worse but this section of the tape is very glitchy and there’s a very small cut. After this Frank stops to introduce Envelopes, and thankfully his introduction is still decipherable:
“Thank you! Alright this song is a little bit different. This is a specialty number, folks, it features our rhythm section. It’s a little bit weird in the front part, but later on, you know, it moves faster. So, I guess for about the first 32 bars, you can fill it out a little bit. And then, when it goes faster, you can tap your feet and maybe dance, you know what I mean? The name of this song is Envelopes”
Luckily the good tape ain’t totally gone yet, and it resumes for a solid performance of Envelopes with a long, fun drum solo from Terry. About two minutes into the tune Frank yells out “I always did like a band with horns!” (referring to the first appearance of the squeak toy maybe?). Disco Boy starts and we’re back to the bad tape. We’re in serious C+ territory here folks. There’s a small cut in the “doody” instrumental section (“work out Bob!)” and as the tune ends and Lather starts Frank has to stop to chide the rowdy Detroit crowd:
“Look I definitely appreciate the rock n roll frenzy. However, if you just move back a little bit and make it easier for those people there to see, just, we got a long time left for the concert, so relax.”
The band continues the melody behind him while he talks, and FZ plays an excellent solo shortly after he ends his PSA. Peter and Tommy’s solos are nice too, but all three are hurt by the bad sound. Wild Love comes next, and Frank plays some cool rockin’ guitar as the transitionary music ends (right before Wild Love popper starts). Plus, someone, probably Frank, plays the toy police car over the Sinister Footwear section! Unfortunately, there’s a small cut right as Peter starts his opening solo. This is a standard, early, high energy, somewhat short Wild Love, with fun solos from Peter, Adrian, and Frank. Zappa’s solo is nice, but yet again, I’m still waiting for Bowling on Charen. FZ comes in too early on the ending theme, and before we know it we’re in Titties N Beer.
“Terry: “How come you don’t wear skin-tight stretch pants and a headband and risk [sic] things like Ted Nugent, the Motor City Madman? I mean, he’s my style, he’s the kind of guy I’d sign a contract with… You know what I mean?”
Frank: “Hey, well, listen, if Nugent’s your style, let’s take him to the Tower of Power “
[. . .]
Frank: “Ohh some more flowers! Oh my goodness!”
Terry: “What is this, San Francisco, 1966?”
Frank: “Peace, love, eternal cosmic wisdom!”
[. . .]
Frank: “Look, just because I come to Detroit once a year don’t mean I’m weird. If you wanna see something weird, look at those suckers out there, they live here!”
We get a short but amusing version of the tune, with references to rubber, leather, and Ted Nugent. Someone hands Frank flowers in the middle of the devil-dialog, and we get some really funny commentary from our players, and he wraps up the discussion by shouting out the citizens of Detroit. As the song wraps up, Frank brings the band down behind him to introduce the next tune.
“All right. Ladies and gents, it’s instrumental time at the ranch once again. The reason why we dare to play this particular instrumental in this particular town is because Detroit has always had a history of what you might say is progressive radio. I’ve been here before, and I’ve listened to some of the things that you people get to hear on the radio, and believe me, you’re ready for this. You’re ready for this one. The name of this song is The Black Page No. 2. It’s a little bit erudite, but don’t let that bother you. It features Ed Mann on percussion, Peter Wolfe on keyboards, Tommy Mars on keyboards, Adrian Belew on guitar, Patrick O’Hearn on bass, and, of course, the devil himself, a little skinny Terry ‘Ted’ Bozzio on drums. So watch closely now.”
The Black Page #2 and Jones Crusher are an eternally great combo of tunes, and tonight’s are no different (with the exception of the poor sound). Following this they lead into a stellar Broken Hearts Are For Assholes. Patrick delivers some hysterical comments in the “Dagmar” section, and this time they’re mostly in two parts (“Leather…. is not on sale today”; “THE MOTOR CITY MADMAN…… is a homo”; “CHARLELLE…. is a homo”) He eventually claims “Our own reverend buddy love, the baron of beef is a homo” which causes Frank to crack up, and Pat continues to break our lead guitar player with this insane line: “The eiffel tower of power… 50 watts of continuous power running through the spindle, rotating at 35 RPM”. The ending of the tune goes a tiny bit off the rails with asides and humor, but once again our experience is unfortunately hampered by the bad sound. Our gay finale about Terry Bozzio (“the helpless young homo”) comes next in the form of Punky’s Whips, and we get a solid version of the tune. Pat’s mid-song comments are a little hard to hear with the poor sound quality, but some can still be made out (Pat: “You realize the motor city madman is a homo?? Terry [laughing]: “Oh no Punky not him too!”) and Terry once again delivers some truly wretched singing over the Isn’t It Romantic section. The good recording returns right before the ending “I am fond of Chiffon” breakdown and Jesus HW Christ the sound quality improving is such a huge relief. Frank rips out a short but entertaining solo to conclude the concert, and thanks the Michiganders for coming to the show for the night. They return for the encores, and Frank once again whips out the toy police car. Patrick plays a bit of “Stranger in Paradise” (a popular standard from the musical Kismet, based on a much older Russian opera) during the break. Frank and the band launch into a regular Dinah-Moe Humm, where at the end Frank has to plead with the crowd for about 2 minutes in order to get them to move back and sit down. (“I’ll make you a deal, we’ll play another song if you guys would back up…. Get Down Detroit!, I mean get down Detroit!!”) A girl asks Frank to say hi to her mom (“Hi Bianca…… oh hi Briana! That’s her name”), and after another minute of struggling with the rowdy audience, they launch into Camarillo Brillo. The slow section of the tune gets pretty amusing and FZ has a lot of fun with it. He asks “Is that a real poncho or is that a sears poncho”, which he almost never included in live performance, and when the crowd continues to revolt Frank declares that “we ain’t done yet but we’ll be done a lot faster if you don’t move back, I mean do I really look like Mick Jagger or what? Get off the stage!” (Pat: “Back Simba!”). Then, in a surprising turn of events, there’s no Muffin Man tonight, and we instead get a shaky but fun and sudden transition into Black Napkins!!! It’s a great take, and an always excellent way to end the show (…my name’s Frank and Good Night!”).
Now this is a pretty amusing show, but definitely not one of the best of the tour. If the whole thing was in A+ sound, I’d probably say my standard “not the first I’d listen to but overall a fun time”, but since a large chunk of this night is captured on one of the worst Zappa recordings of 1977, I’d say avoid this particular gig. If you’re really interested, check out Tiny Lights through Conehead and maybe Titties through Broken Hearts, but the rest can be found in more enjoyable sound quality elsewhere.
1977 10 02 – Quadrangle, Washington University, St Louis, MO (Audience B+)
It’s month #2 of the North American tour and we join Frank and his rocking teenage combo in the “Show Me State” with another excellent concert, on a very enjoyable, listenable audience tape. This night is historically important, because in the green room before the show, the one and only Ike Willis has his somewhat-impromptu audition for Zappa’s band! Ike was part of the student crew working at the hall, and shyly played a couple songs for Frank, having no idea he’d be called to join the band less than a year after. Anyway, the recording starts with a fairly long chunk of the Knick Knack walk-on tape, allowing us to hear Patrick’s tuning (and let me tell you he even sounds cool just noodling around). Terry counts us into the Flakes intro and Frank comes out to address the roaring crowd:
“You lucky people out there with your sleeping bags, you have any idea how cold it is up here on this block? Do you have any idea the horrors that we go through to bring this music to you people? Why it’s just unspeakable, and if it weren’t for the fact that every promoter in St. Louis didn’t believe that anybody would pay to come and see one of my shows, you wouldn’t be sitting out there in the cold. But even promoters with no confidence can’t stop us, because tonight you’re going to be entertained by Patrick O’Hearn on bass…..”
Frank asks “are you ready?”, and the show begins with a pretty standard (meaning excellent) opening set of tunes. Peaches has really hit its stride by now, and it’s followed by a very nice Torture, with another great, inspired solo from FZ. Chin and Tiny Lights are standard rockin’ numbers, with the latter still featuring our fretless bass player. The intro to Pound is a little choppy (something with Terry’s drums), but it quickly evens out into a solid performance. This show is in the weird era where Frank stops soloing in Pound in favor of Conehead, but before Patick starts playing in Pound. Because of this we get a relatively quick take, with a single fun solo from Tommy Mars. There’s a lot of scatting, but he does sing “I’m taking you away… to the outer reaches of the galaxy” in the middle which made me chuckle. The ending gets real spacy and funky, and it ends with the delightful transition into a monster, 10 minute Conehead! It’s probably obvious but man is this an excellent performance. The start is more put together than ever, and it finally feels like the band has mastered this tune and can really lock into the groove. Frank just goes wild with his guitar, creating a long, creative, always-evolving rockin’ experience. He starts off slick and somewhat middle eastern sounding, and ends up in crazy heavy guitar heaven. I know I always say this but it’s probably the best so far (even with the tape patch and short cut about six to seven and a half minutes in).
“The next song we’re gonna do is about the subject of incompetence. This is a song about people who don’t do what they’re supposed to do. California has the most of these people. These wretched people are called Flakes. And that’s the name of this song.”
A standard Flakes follows the monster Conehead, with a single line of fun improv. Frank asks the timeless “wanna buy some acid Bob?” to which Adrian responds “How many hits you got?” After the vaguely anti-union tune we get Big Leg Emma and the regular mid-show weirdness from Envelopes.
“Alright sports fans, here’s a little bit of campus erudition for you. This is a song called Envelopes. It’s a little weird in the first part but later on it picks up. Just try to keep warm in the first part of this song”
We get a solid instrumental take of the tune, capped off by a fun three minute drum solo. Disco Boy is Disco Boy, and Läther is eternally lovely, with three nice solos and some weird additional, echoey keyboard noises at the front. Frank gives us a nice improvised guitar outro, and this leads us into some Wild Love. It’s got the standard late September/early October Peter>Adrian>Frank set of solos, and all three soloists hit it out of the park tonight. Frank plays a really great solo, one of his best over Adrian’s disco-type vamp. He really gets fiery, stretches out and even solos with scant drum accompaniment for a long while after the end theme! Sick as fuck. Patrick is particularly fantastic on this one too, and honestly he’s been kicking ass this whole show. Titties follows this up with a short but very sweet, goofy little convo about bondage:
“Terry: Are you into leather, you know, the tall one?
Frank: Uh-uh.
Terry: Rubber?
Frank: Uh-uh.
Terry: Crisco?
Frank: You’re into rubber.
Terry: How about gaffer’s tape?
Frank: Gaffer’s tape, yes. I’m into gaffer’s tape and…
Terry: How about a nice hot toddy? You can get a warm room.
FZ: You ain’t kidding. I’ll tell you what I’m into. I’m into a fireplace. Polar bear rug. Somewhere in Norway, perhaps.
Terry: Anywhere but Norway.
Frank: The hot toddy, yes, the traditional hot toddy. Perhaps some of the traditional red berries of Hamburg [all pause] and titties and beer, titties and beer……”
Frank mentions “the traditional red berries of Hamburg”, which was a bit of a secret word at a handful of shows on the previous European tour earlier in the year! In Munich, Frank instructed the band to quickly pause every time he utters the phrase (and they still do it in St. Louis!). As the tune ends Frank talks to the audience about the cold they’re enduring at this outside venue (and the promoters responsible), and then segues (during a tape cut) to introducing The Black Page #2.
“All right. Boy, I sure wish I was out there with you guys, cause there’s so many of you, and you’re all close together, you know. Some of you have blankets and sleeping bags. You’re really cozy, you know. Highly educated, and there’s just so many of you. It’s so wonderful to know that those promoters who didn’t want to stick us in a real building here in this town can just kiss my ass. [cheers] So in commemoration of that, ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to dedicate this song to all the promoters in St. Louis who wouldn’t give you people the benefit” [cut] “…so many dots on the paper that the paper appears to change color. This is a hard song to play, and it’s been known to get fucked up right in the middle, and you know, one of these times, we’re gonna get it right. We’re gonna try. We hope that even in spite of the intense cold and the hostile environment, that our band will play this song correctly tonight. What do you think? You think this will be tonight? It better be.”
We get a solid version of the tune, and I’m not sure if it was a conscious change in arrangement or a fuck up, but there are no keyboards on the quick, repeating, 4-note phrases about a minute and 15 seconds in (so the melody is only on marimba). Whatever the case, next is a fun Jones Crusher, the first without Frank’s lead guitar during the “wind can’t blow cause the sky’s gone” section. Not a big change at all, but I do slightly prefer the arrangement with the little solo (though the contrast in sections is much starker without the guitar). Broken Hearts is great tonight, with tons of unique asides that consistently make Frank crack up, including but not limited to: “Sweet mother of Pepe”, “Number six with a cup of soup”, “Bag job on six”, “A stainless steel spindle has been installed on the tower of power” and another reference to the Motor City Madman “rapidly approaching 78 RPM” (see the Detroit show). The last few lines really get Frank and the band nearly falls apart from laughing (“He’s spinning for you!”). Terry screams “You’re a homoooo!”, instead of asshole, and Pat yells “Ozark” for some Missourian reason.
Punky’s Whips comes next and FZ’s intro is clearly influenced by the madness from a few minutes earlier. He starts with “in today’s rapidly changing college educated world..”, and mentions “the chrome spindle” as a new promotional device, but he has to start the speech over when he accidentally skips a line early on (“let’s get dramatic here”). Pat’s got more funny comments that are fairly hard to make out, except for the hilarious “Steven Tyler is the atomic homo”, and Bozzio once again belts out some wildly unhinged vocalizations over Isn’t It Romantic. Terry cracks himself up at the “I wonder if Punky” line (I think he hears others laughing too), and Frank totally chumps the tune shortly after. He skips the “I love his hair while eatin’ dunk-y chips” section and the band almost falls apart, but Terry continues with the correct vocals (well mostly: “I love his hair more than Buddy Love’s hips!”) and gets them back on track Frank admits “I fucked that one up” and delivers a solid solo to end things off, but it’s unfortunately kind of buried in the mix. This is far from an amazing performance, but it’s pretty neat to hear Frank fuck up (in two locations!).
FZ outros the band (including Punky Meadows), but they return for the encore, and Frank declares “Here it comes. Yes this is it, the big one” as the intro to Dinah-Moe Humm begins. Something happens during the “bovine perspiration” segment around 1:40, which causes Frank to pause, but there’s no real variation from the norm here as far as I can tell. When they end the tune Frank asks “You guys warmed up pretty good now? Okay. Here’s another song from that same album”: before bursting into Camarillo Brillo (such a cool transition). For some reason FZ alters the lyrics to “where the little slut had hung her castanet” for the ending slow half, and goes a little bit mock-Dylan-voice too. He ends the tune with an amusing “yes it was, it was, it was time to go into another song”, before heading into Muffin Man, our regular rocking encore number. Frank sings the head again after his first solo, announces the end of the show and claims “really that’s it”, but the crowd erupts, and the band continues into the weird Muffin Man Scandinavia bit. Frank says “alright, listen, one more and that’s it” and transitions into Black Napkins!! It’s a long, excellent, soulful version of the guitar tune, and a wonderful show closer as always (“Like I said before, goodnight!”).
This concert is not talked about much but it’s really excellent! Everyone out in the cold is in a great mood, there’s amusing vocal quips throughout, Frank is just blaring on guitar the whole time, and a good time is had. Obviously not quite as good as the shows from later in the tour, but a great document of early October. This gets a pretty solid recommendation, and it’s a great sign of what’s to come in October. Check this one out!
1977 10 17 – Civic Center, Hartford, CT (Audience B+/B)
Alright after a two week gap in tapes (missing shows in Columbus, Buffalo, Allentown and Cleveland), we return to an interesting and exciting show from New England. We actually only really missed a week of gigs, as the band took a break between the 9th and tonight’s show. The sound on this tape is clear but very quiet and the audience chat is pretty loud, but I do find the taper’s comments tonight pretty amusing. It’s interesting to hear these fan’s reactions in real time preserved from 50 years ago. I wish the show was louder, but I’m sure those with more audio-tweaking experience than me could make it sound nicer. Additionally, some cool fragmented 8mm footage of this gig was recently discovered, you can check it out here!
Anyway our tape starts with about a minute of audience chat over Revenge Of The Knick Knack People (“O’Hearn’s on bass? I thought they had a new bass player??”), before a pretty standard intro to tonight’s “Hartford extravaganza”. Frank announces “Hartford’s own Tommy Mars on keyboards”, and comments “[I] wish I could see you; it’s just like a black hole out there (I bet you’re really cute though).” Finally he amps up the crowd, and bursts into Peaches En Regalia. The band is recharged from their week break, and delivers a solid opener (taper: “Bozzios’s heavy!”). Torture of course follows, but a cut takes out the first verse and chorus, and when we return the taper announces he’ll switch seats (I think the sound gets a tiny bit better here but I might just be getting used to it). Frank whips out an excellent, experimental solo, with at least three or four fairly radical changes in guitar tone. He starts very echo-y, and ends loud. His playing is inspired throughout, and near the end of the tune the vamp gets real heavy and I’m just in bliss (though the common complaint stands: everything, mainly Frank’s guitar, is too quiet). There’s what I believe is a very quick Dog Breath quote at about eight and a half minutes in (“primer mi carucha….”), before another sick tone shift to bring us home. This is a fantastic Torture, and you could probabily argue this is the start of this band’s legendary run. The previous month of tapes are all great, but they do have a bit of a “warm-up” vibe when compared to mid-October and beyond.
Anyway, Tryin’ To Grow Me A Chin comes next and to my great surprise it’s got some variation. Terry abruptly stops singing around a minute in for some reason (either he forgot the lyrics or something distracted him), and they play a chunk of the middle as an instrumental (which is kinda neat to hear). He returns with the ”now I’m older” line, and the rest of the song is fairly normal. Overall this is a pretty bad Chin, which is interesting in its own right because this song almost never changes (though this is the first ever performance where Terry yells “get the picture”, so there’s that). City Of Tiny Lights gets us back on the right track; Adrian is fantastic, and Patrick still owns the solo spot for some reason, delivering a really cool, out-there bass solo (though not for much longer, Frank takes the solo spot over tomorrow). They shift into the next tune, and the tapers announce it for us (“Awright! A Pound For A Brown!”). They grunt in amusement and comment “Why won’t they stop?” (well don’t expect anymore pauses for the rest of Frank’s career). We get a standard, wild Tommy Mars solo, and it leads into a fucking sick Conehead (fans: “sounds like the Mahavishnu Orchestra”). The vamp is fully settled and much more confident than ever before. Frank’s solo is really moody, with a little more neato tone experimentation too. We even get a fragment of the I Come From Nowhere riff around four minutes in! Well all good things must come to an end, and after 5 minutes of guitar ecstasy, Frank pauses to introduce the next number:
“The next song we’re going to do is about one of my favorite subjects, ladies and gentlemen. The great American tradition of incompetence. Now some of you may not be familiar with the syndrome of incompetence, the cult of incompetence, as perpetrated in the state of California. Some of you may not know the depth to which incompetence has risen within the Golden State. What I’m trying to say is, nobody in California works for a living, no matter what they tell you. Nobody does the job that they’re hired to do. They’re all there just to collect unemployment and welfare. And the people that you hire to perform vital services for you, like a mechanic or a TV repairman or a plumber or anybody else, they can never do it right the first time. As a matter of fact, they probably never get it right the fourth or fifth time. We call these people flakes. That’s what this song is about.”
The middle section of the show ensues, starting with Flakes. Ade asks “You got any real good weed Frankie? I’m not into acid today…..”, and Big Leg Emma bounces in right after. There’s a tape patch covering the very end of Emma and the introduction to tonight’s Envelopes. [Both sources are about B+ quality. The patch source is a little louder, but there’s a little more distortion and less separation of instruments so it’s really up to personal preference for which source you should listen to. – Though the one I’m reviewing is the only one available on Zappateers, and on my YouTube channel]
“All right, thank you. All right. You’re having a good time so far? All right. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a special song. This song is a little bit weird, but we figured that you’re ready for it. This song is not Big Leg Emma. The name of this song is Envelopes, and it features our dynamic rhythm section, including Hartford’s own Tommy Mars, who has changed his name because all Italians like to change their name. You have to watch Tommy now. Tommy’s going to sing this, and a little bit later on, the rhythm section is going to get flambé.”
This is the world premiere of Envelopes with lyrics! Now I actually prefer the instrumental version, but I’m glad the with-words version exists because the extremely vile lyrics are kinda funny. Tommy does a solid job but you can tell he’s still getting used to actually singing lead, and the tune ends with a nice, lengthy solo from Terry (that the tapers really seem to enjoy). A standard Disco Boy follows this, and it leads into a solid Läther. Frank’s solo is kinda meandering and overall off, so this isn’t exactly the best version of this tune out there (though even the worst performance of Läther is still Läther). Wild Love is up next and we’re in for a doozy tonight. Right off the bat we’re hit with an excellent throbbing bass attack and a solid solo from Peter (It’s potentially a new, bouncier vamp, but I think really it’s just more POWERFUL). Adrian delivers a fantastic, monster solo, with a very Mattei Kudusai-esque lick right around 9 minutes in. Frank’s solo ends the jam off with a few minutes of passionate rockin’ guitar. He even rips off a proto version of Bowling on Charen lick around 14:45!!! I’m pretty sure this is the first appearance too! I think FZ was having some guitar issues during this part of the program, because Adrian’s solo is a little longer than normal, and Frank’s guitar is a little quieter than I’d expect. This is obviously not ideal, but it doesn’t really affect the jam too much. Both guitarists were still in top form tonight, and we got a little more than average from Adrian. [At first I thought maybe Adrian and Frank were trading off solos, but now I’m pretty certain Adrian is just playing for longer than usual]
Titties N Beer starts off rather understated and sloppy but quickly pulls itself together when Terry joins in weirdly late. The improvised dialog isn’t very long, but it’s pretty amusing. FZ makes a bunch of references to “python and vineal [sic]” (whatever that is) before telling Terry: “Well, listen, I’ll get you a date with Captain Beefheart, if… [laughing]…. I’ll get you a date. And the second prize is two dates with Captain Beefehart!” I have no idea why Frank brings up his high school buddy here, but Terry’s groan of discomfort after made me chuckle. Frank tells Terry what he’s interested in, then introduces The Black Page:
“All right, now ladies and gentlemen we have another one of those instrumental extravaganzas for you. This is a song, hey, all right. Now, this is a song that is included in our new album, which is entitled Läther. Might as well get a plug in for it as long as we’re here. This is the rock and roll version of the song that appears on side four. The name of this song is The Black Page No. 2. Now, The Black Page No. 1 is the tune that’s in the album. It’s not such a rock and roll beat, but the notes are the same. The same hard notes, only with a beat that you can tap your foot to underneath of it. Let’s hope that after five days on vacation that you can still play this turkey. I’ll be listening to you. Are you ready?”
They live up to the pressure from Frank and play a tight version of the tune, and they follow it up with a high energy, bass/guitar heavy take of Jones Crusher. The fans/tapers must have been to other shows on this tour, because they know when The Black Page and the upcoming Broken Hearts and Punky’s Whips are in the setlist before Frank announces them. Tommy scats the ending of The Black Page a little, and there’s a patch covering the very end and the first third of Jones Crusher. Broken Hearts is pretty amusing tonight, but I have to strain to make out most of Patrick’s comments. It’s a shame too because they seem really funny (“No longer in existence is Dagmar… It’s of great sorrow that I bring you this news…”). A quality Punky’s Whips comes next where “pop groups appear almost every moment” and Pat asks “Terry, is it true that Bryan Ferry is a homo?” (Terry: “I honestly don’t know”). Terry yells “oh Punky isn’t it romantic in a heavy metal sorta way?” during the appropriate section, and the rest of the song is full of little differences in Terry’s shouting/singing. Frank whips out a fun, long, rocking solo to end the main set.
When they return for the encore Frank whips out the toy police car noise maker thing last heard in Detroit (and later seen in Baby Snakes), and one of the keyboards, probably Tommy, plays a TV cop theme (Dragnet?). They play a standard, uninteresting, Dinah-Moe Humm, and Frank announces the end of the night, but when the crowd roads back he yells “You want some mo’? Alright, you want it, we got it!” and tears into Camarillo Brillo. They rip through the tune, Frank gets Bob Dylan-y in the slow half, and makes a few amusing asides between the lyrics. (“You know what panocha means?….. I didn’t know they had Panocha up here”). Frank sings/speaks “yes it was useless anymore, that’s why we went into another song.” and rips into Muffin Man. Adrian plays a sick opening solo and Frank follows it up with some pure rock n roll fury. This is one of Adrian’s first noticeably great solos in this tune, largely because FZ stopped playing the main riff while Belew solos, and we can actually hear Adrian’s guitar clearly for the first time. The band vamps for a bit and starts singing the weird Scandinavia ending (one of the clearest examples of such) and Frank begins to speak:
“Hey listen, aren’t [sic] you guys like to hear a brand new song? Lemme tell ya, let me tell you how new this song is. This song is so new that we have never played it before. But, this song is so simple that it won’t make any difference, and this song is also so simple that you may find it amusing. And you may find it amusing to know that this is the world premiere of a song called Bobby Brown Goes Down. Now, I know at the end of the show you’re supposed to come out, you’re supposed to play loud, you’re supposed to play all your hits. We’re not that kind of a group, you see. We’ll take chances. You see, we trust you. We know that you know that if we fuck up, it doesn’t make any difference. That’s why we’re going to try this. Alright, do it in the key of C, okay? One, two, three, four. [”alright just get laid back just like California y’know, really laid back”]
Yes you heard right! The world premier of Bobby Brown! Whether you love it or hate it, you can’t deny this is a historic Zappa event. The song is ridiculously early in development, but it’s pretty simple so it’s mostly there. FZ kinda fucks up the first “Freddy” line (that or it’s not finalized yet), and yells “drum fill!” at Terry twice in the designated spots. Tommy and Frank don’t perfectly nail the ending vocals, but overall the song is surprisingly put together for this spontaneous debut. When they conclude Frank laughs out:
“Alright listen, since you put up with that, we’ll play one other one that you know and that’s it for tonight okay? Alright the name of this song, this is for lovers only ladies and gentleman, the name of this song is Black Napkins!”
We get a short but delightful, energetic version of the iconic guitar tune, and nothing could wrap up the night better. This is a really nice concert, that’s not always A-tier, but definitely worth a listen after hearing some of the more famous shows, especially for the amusing fan comments, the instrumental highlights, and the historically important premier of Bobby Brown. The sound’s not amazing but it’s very listenable. You could actually probably make a nice blend of the two recordings for better sound, but I don’t know how any of that works really. There’s a couple sub-par takes of tunes, but for the most part this tape features the boys firing on all cylinders and producing some amazing music.
1977 10 18 – Mid Hudson Civic Center, Poughskeepsie, NY (Audience B+/B/B-/C+)
We’re 90 minutes north of Manhattan with another show from the Sheik Yerbouti band. This is a pretty good one too, but the recording we have is patched together from three different sources, which vary wildly in quality. The majority of the show is captured on a pretty solid B+/B tape, but it’s full of holes. The main set is patched with an okay, B/B- tape (I actually patched this source in for the YouTube upload, to toot my own horn), and the encore is patched with a nasty C+ recording. Anyway, tonight’s show starts with the Knick Knack People tape, and a fairly understated intro from Frank about our “Poughskeepsie extravaganza”. He’s clearly annoyed with the lighting at this venue (“Why what a spotlight here… oh boy.”) and doesn’t mess around before jumping into tonight’s Peaches. And to sell my point from earlier, Frank’s spoken intro and the start of Peaches was only captured on the B- source, the first of many patches tonight.
Peaches is nice (the better source returns about 20 seconds in), and Torture follows it up. Some crazed fan screams “FRANKIE!!” around 4:45 into the tune, which is fun, and Frank plays a pretty good solo. It’s a little pedestrian compared to others from this tour and it comes to a very abrupt end. A solid Grown Me A Chin comes next, followed by a historically important City Of Tiny Lights. Adrian delivers some fantastic vocals once again, and surprise: Frank whips out his guitar for the first ever FZ Tiny Lights guitar solo!!! (I think there’s actually an early ‘77 with some sort of FZ solo, but this is the first permanent one!) He starts with some chugging chords before moving into a more conventional, high octane rock solo. It’s sick, Frank’s got a great tone for the song, and a good time is had. It’s a little clunky at times, but it’s just a much better fit than Pat’s bass solo. The transition into Pound is lovely as always, and Tommy really screams on the vocal part of the head tonight. Frank goes all out on the chords after the head, and Tommy plays a pretty standard solo, showcasing his different synths and his scatting prowess. Once he reaches his explosive conclusion, Patrick joins the fray! He trades licks with Mars for a minute before backing off and letting Tommy finish his solo like normal. This is the first of a new format for Pound For A Brown, one that will continue for a couple weeks until Patrick gets his own solo in the tune in New York. The transition into Conehead is deliciously smooth, and Frank’s solo is deliciously heavy. Nonstop dark guitar over a fantastic, pounding rhythm section. A bit on the shorter side, but this is a truly great Conehead. The good tape cuts out and misses the last 30 seconds of Frank’s guitar (though luckily this isn’t the best part of the performance). Frank stops to introduce Flakes, but it’s a bit hard to make out.
“Alright…..That’s enough [Unintelligible] Nonsense[?]….Now we have a song for you. It’s about a subject that I’m very fond of. It’s one of my three most favorite subjects to write songs about. But because, well this is a special kind of song, it’s a California kind of a song, and it’s one of my favorites[?]. Because this song is about incompetence. It’s about all the assholes that you hire to do something, but never do it right. Your plumber, your TV repairman.. your [Unintelligible].. your doctor, your congressman, anybody that you hire or pay money to to do something for you and[?] fuck up, this song is for them. Now, because California is the launder[?] capital of the universe, there are more of these people in that state than anybody else in the world. So this is dedicated to them. We call those people the Flakes.”
The good tape returns a few seconds into Flakes, and a standard performance ensures. The crowd freaks out for “wanna buy some acid, Bob?” and the one and only Big Leg Emma follows it up.
“Thank you! Alright, this is a special song. It’s a little bit weird. I think you can handle it. And if you can’t handle it, you might as well handle something else, because we’re going to play it anyway. The name of this song is Envelopes, and it features the lilting voice of Tommy Mars.”
Tommy’s vocals are already sounding better, and Terry plays a standard Bozzio-solo to cap us off (there’s a 20 second patch in the drum solo, just FYI). A standard Disco Boy follows, and leads in the lovely Läther. Our three soloists do well tonight, and make a nice segue into Wild Love. There’s an 80 second chunk of the head patched in about a minute in, but luckily the solo section is untouched. This one’s interesting because it’s the first known spot with a regular Ed solo! Peter concocts a hot jam, then Ed comes in with a solid little marimba solo, nicely accompanied by Pat and Terry. Ade follows this up with a really cool EBow solo and Frank joins him on the disco vamp when he’s finished. He starts off with something that really sounds like a quote, but I’m not sure what (I think it’s maybe a mutated Arrivederci Roma?). It’s a nice solo, but it’s a little short and peters out by the end. The post-song-acapella-guitar-section is longer than usual, and Frank quotes the same mystery tune again. Titties N Beer appears next and features a three minute patch right in the middle that covers most of the mid-song dialog. Frank calls the Devil a “little weasel”, and Terry goes in depth on the mythical figure of Charlelle (see below). The dialog is listenable but not exactly easy to hear, and of course the good tape returns just a few seconds before the improv ends.
Terry: “Charlelle, for those of you in the audience who don’t know, is a 72-year-old transvestite. Charlelle is a man who’s 72 years old who looks fabulous. Looks like a young chick. One of her secrets is giving herself a homemade facelift with scotch tape. This is done by carefully pulling up the skin, taping it securely, and then putting on a platinum blonde wig. Therefore, looking years younger.”
[. . .]
Frank “Alright, it’s the world of rock once again ladies and gentlemen. This may be one of the weirdest rock and roll tunes you’ve ever heard in your life. All you gotta do is keep that beat going. Pump the boys out on this one. Everybody, goddammit!”
This is the first known Black Page audience participation! A simple clap along isn’t so simple with this tune, so the crowd does the best they can and us listeners are delighted with another Black Page/Jones Crusher combo. Broken Hearts comes next, but Patrick’s asides are pretty muddled in the mix (he says something about “Don Pepe himself” and laughs, which is the only one I can make out worth mentioning). Terry comments something but it’s unintelligible, and we’re on to Punky’s whips, with a heavily mutated intro from Frank:
“Terry recently fell in love with a publicity photograph of Punky Charlelle Gonzales, lead guitar player from a group called [TB: “Taco”] On Hell. In this Polaroid snapshot taken by Paul Hoff with Davey and Maria… the phoenix files are gone, ladies and gentlemen. In the photograph, Punky was seen with a beautiful, shiny hairdo in a semi-profile which emphasized the pooched-out succulence of his insolent, pouting rictus, the sight of which drove the entire crew, including Terry Bozzio, mad with Polaroid desire.”
I can’t say I know exactly what this means, but it inspires a great performance, with lots of dumb singing from Terry. Extra one liners too like: “Charlelle wants me to sniff your buns” and the lyrical mutation “squirm with extra-cheese”. There’s a patch from a very, very bad source for a couple seconds two minutes in, and unfortunately this short-patch-situation plagues the rest of the show. I could be wrong but I believe Patrick sings a bit of “Parents” by the Shaggs during the “you’re too much” section (“Parents[?] are the ones who really care”), and Tommy sings “the voice of HIS thoughts, in his lonely bedroom” instead of Terry. Frank whips out a very nice solo tonight, but the sound quality turns to shit for about 30 seconds right before the end. It switches back to the good tape for the actual conclusion of the main set, but this really hurts the listenability sadly). Still a really neat version though!
The sound quality on the encores is a real mixed bag. We start with the bad tape and Frank says something I can’t make out, but then we’re back to the good tape. FZ claims that “this is the moment, this is the big one”, but then just cues Dinah Moe-Hum (it’s funny but it hurts). The main tapers hear this and immediately turn off the recorder, which is based af, and we get a standard take of the sex song on the worse recording. Frank says some funny asides about Tommy during the “I gotta get outta it” section but they’re very hard to hear (“aw yeah sin. The good tape returns for a standard take of Camarillo Brillo, and continues for a complete Muffin Man. It’s a classic version, with a cool opening solo from Belew, and an excellent, sick, heavy solo from the maestro. Frank announces “Alright, that’s it! but trails off before suddenly launching into the first known 1977 San Berdino! Belew shines on these performances, always delivering a nice solo and rocking the outro vocals. His solo is sadly buried in the mix tonight, but overall it’s still a lovely, well rehearsed take, and it ends the show on a great note. The final seconds are only on the garbage recording, but hey, at least they exist.
Now this is a very fun show, like everything from this band, but the patchy sound quality really hurts the overall listenability and makes me declare that this one is for uber-freaks only. It’s historically important for the first regular FZ City Of Tiny Lights solo, the first Black Page audience participation, and the first San Ber’dino. The Conehead is really great too, and Punky’s is pretty crazy, but this would be one of the last tapes from this tour I’d recommend (still though, it’s not exactly a BAD time).
1977 10 20 – Music Hall, Boston, MA (Two Shows – Audience A/A-)
click here to listen to the early show
click here to listen to the late show
We’ve got two shows tonight in Beantown and they’re two of the best shows of the tour. The boys deliver four plus hours of amazing, mind-throttling music and both shows are captured on a truly fantastic audience recording, arguably the best of Fall ‘77 (Though Baton Rouge and Pawtucket are similarly wonderful). There’s a few B+ patches here and there, but the majority of these recordings are in the A/A- range. Just when you think this band can’t get any better, they show up in Boston Mass and drop these two wild shows. My theory is that Frank considered these gigs kind of like warm up shows for the upcoming filmed New York run. Frank is very talkative and theatrical, the band is absolutely cookin’ and we even get a few rare tunes and performances throughout the night. But anyway, the night begins on the B+ tape with an amusing, spirited intro from Mr. Zappa:
“Good evening ladies and gentleman, hurry up and get in here would ya! I mean run, don’t walk. There ain’t no opening act on this show you understand? I’d like to welcome you to our first Boston warm-up concert, featuring [Band Intros]. Now what do you think, are you ready? Everybody out of the lobby yet? Come on, get in here! Well we can’t wait any longer, we’re just ready to burst into song, the name of this one is Peaches and Regalia.”
With a chunk of the audience still getting popcorn, the rocking teenage combo launches into a kick ass Peaches. It flies right by, and deposits us into The Torture. The crowd freaks out as Frank picks up his guitar and he delivers a cool, spacy, surprisingly mellow solo (“Aw get tortured now!”). It’s a nice solo; FZ never truly gets super hype but it’s still fun nonetheless (this is the “warm-up” show afterall). The sound quality goes from B+ to A/A- about seven and a half minutes into the tune, right in the middle of Frank’s solo, and it’s a little bit of a transcendent moment (especially for me, since I’ve listened to like 6 B+/B shows in a row). Next up is a rocking Chin, where the band really starts to find their momentum for the night. City Of Tiny Lights kicks fucking ass; Adrian’s vocals are on point as always, and Frank finally has his guitar solo. It’s a little short tonight but I’m just happy that we finally lost the strange Tiny Lights bass solo. Once this wraps up we’re in for a very unique version of Pound for A Brown. Nothing strange with the theme, but when the solo section starts Patrick begins to deliver a sermon! About what you ask? Well all of his favorite Gilded Grape terms and other sexual proclivities:
“The good book, first edition, first prayer. The good book. If I may take a moment of your time dear friends, I’d like to cavort the good book on behalf of the late great Buddy Love, a friend of ours. I read here now friends from the third book of love chapter six verse nine, and Reverend Buddy H. Love said go thee my young homo and sit atop the tower of power, perhaps enjoy a hot, wet, golden shower, and thou shalt feel fabulous! [mumbling] This I take from Genesis, chapter 12, verse 3. Thou shalt not judge a homo by his keys, scarves, or haircut. Now doesn’t that make sense, brothers and sisters? [TB?: Testify!”] Last but not least, from the Good Book of Love, Psalm, chapter 9, verses 6 and 8. Listen to this one, friends. Let he who is without rings, wristwatch, or long fingernails cast the first Crisco-encrusted fist. Oh, Buddy Love you all really too much. Yeah, those are really words of wisdom. Aw. I tell you, brothers and sisters, Buddy Love is one heck of a fella. Yet with all his goodness, who would have thought, dear friends, that the good reverend would be full of such ill fortune? Yeah. And what I’m talking about, brethren, is the vandalous room of Buddy’s own little Baghdad-by-the-Sea, otherwise known as the Gilded Grape, 48th and 8th, New York City. Not less than two months ago, a band of faceless, malcontent delinquents entered the Holy Temple, causing violence and terror, sending our good friends, the congregation, screaming into the street. Oh, God. And, Terry, if that wasn’t enough, the pagans then set fire to the chapel and burned the whole fucking place down. Aw, but let us not sadden ourselves with such mournful fact. Let us rejoice in the glorious news that Buddy Love has bounced back bigger and better than before. That’s right, the Rev’s all new, all-nude First Church of Leather is now accepting applications for scholarships in the following fields. Pay close attention to this because, uh, if you’re interested, there’s a scholarship open for Cock Rings, Shackles, Rubber Shirts, and Leather Harness Smith. There’s another one open here, Tower of Power Construction and Maintenance. There’s Hotel Motel Management and Leather Bar. And the most popular course at the moment is the Homo Youth and Guidance Counseling. Now, any of these classes are interesting to you. The number to call is area code 415, telephone number R-E-V-L-O-V-E. All right, care of the Reverend, 4152 Flock Jock, Love Lock Lane in the land of Zion.”
The whole time Tommy (I assume) is playing these church songs (I heard “Bringing In The Sheaves”, there are probably others). Pat’s speech is a little drawn out, but it always catches me so off guard that I don’t really find it long, and it totally amplifies Tommy’s energy in the solo section too. Once Pat wraps up his preaching we get a spirited solo from Tommy, and the jam finishes with some nice interplay between Tommy and our faux-evangelical bass player.
The energy of this fantastic performance directly carries into the following Conehead, which features another ear-melting FZ solo, with a quick Jesus Loves Me, This I Know quote at 3:30 (though this could very well be a musical coincidence). Pat’s bass riff is a little more staccato than usual, and Frank’s solo is a little shorter than my absolute ideal Conehead, but it’s still a fantastic performance. Once his six stringed fury runs out, we get a slightly longer (and better) than average Flakes Intro:
“The next song we’re going to do is about the delicate subject of incompetence. This is a special kind of incompetence that abounds in the state of California. I refer specifically to the phenomenon that in the state of California, since everybody moved there just to collect unemployment, there isn’t a single person in the state who wishes to actually perform the job that he claims as his career category, let’s say. These people, the plumbers don’t plumb, the carpenters don’t carp, the repairmen of all descriptions do not repair the articles that are sent to them. In other words, they live to fuck up. These people are called flakes. You may have some here, but believe me, most of the flakes in the world are located in California. And this song goes out to them.”
This leads into a somewhat relaxed, slower tempo Flakes, followed by a similar-feeling Big Leg Emma. Earlier in the night Frank called this a warm up show, and it does kinda feel like that, casual but really fun performances. You can tell Frank enjoys playing in Boston.
“Thank you. Thank you very much. Alright, now this is a special song. This goes out to all the guys from Berkeley and the gals from Berkeley. Y’know what I mean. This is one of our erudite numbers. It features the lilting voice of Tommy Mars on keyboards, and then, a little bit later on in the song, it features the flambé ensemble situation with the puppies. And then, there’s the drum solo. Are you ready?”
Envelopes comes next, and Tommy is continuously getting better with the somewhat rancid lyrics. Terry hammers out a long drum solo (with a 10 second patch in the middle), and leads us into a nice chill Disco Boy. Pat starts playing this really frantic, cool bass part in the post “never go doody” instrumental section, which causes Frank to comment “Oh that was sounding really good!” This song never changes much so that automatically puts this in contention for the best Disco Boy of the year. Läther slides in next with three delightful solos from Frank, Tommy and Peter and after this lovely appetizer we’re treated to the first 20 minute Wild Love! It starts with a great, energetic Peter solo, and after a little while Frank comes in and duels with Peter! They trade some fantastic licks for a while, and Frank gets really close to the Bowling on Charen/Squirm riff! Really just a wonderful little jam. Ed follows it with a solid marimba solo, and Ade plays another great, Mattai Kudusai-esque disco EBow guitar solo. Frank ends the long excursion with a great solo over a beat that’s halfway between Adrian’s disco vamp and the final Bowling on Charen vamp (we’re so close to the final version I can smell it). FZ plays a creative, wonderful solo, featuring another instance of the Squirm lick. Frank plays around with the Inca Roads/Holiday In Berlin solo vamp lick at 17:15 and ultimately we get one of Frank’s best Wild Love solos yet. Terry’s vocal performance in the following Titties N Beer starts off pretty out there, but he quickly calms down, and conducts his “little satanic interview”. Frank and Terry each namecheck an FZ composition, while Frank namedrops two rockers. It’s a short, scant devil-dialog section, but what’s there is memorable, and it leads into some Black Page Audience Participation:
“Terry: Y’know, like, I wanna know your interests first before I sign a contract with you, you know?
Frank: Uh-huh. You don’t trust me, right?
Terry: What are your filthy habits? What are you into, man? What are your interests? What are your hobbies? You have to know what you’re like before I enter into some kind of a written agreement with you.
Frank: Uh-huh. Yeah, well, that’s…
Terry: What’s it all about, Alfie?
Frank: Well, look, it’s like this. You see, I’m a regular guy. I don’t want to disillusion, man. I’m a regular guy. Me and Peter Franklin are just like that, understand? As I was saying to Nils Lofgren just the other day… while he was trying to grow a chin. Look, I’m a regular kind of a person. Do I look weird to you? Come on now.
Terry: Man, you look really weird to me.”
[…]
“All right. Tell you what to do. This is the easiest part of the show. This is the part that anyone can perform. This includes you. This is the moment. This is the time for audience participation. All right. Now, here’s the deal. Anybody can ask an audience to clap their hands. I mean, anybody can do that. Not only are we going to ask you to clap your hands on a beat that- play with it, you know. [Clapping starts] Get it going. All right. We’re going to ask you to keep that going steady while they play some of the weirdest stuff you’ve ever heard in your life. You know what I mean? So just keep the beat going. The name of the song is The Black Page #2.”
We’re treated to another great Black Page and Jones Crusher combo. Both tunes hit, but Adrian sings one too many “just a nub”s in the later tune. The band then heads into an amusing Broken Hearts Are For Assholes. There’s an unfortunate cut in the middle section with Pat’s asides, but it’s captured on a patch so we hear great quips like “Charlelle, where are you Charlelle?”, “Buddy Love’s perpetual love log”, “Nice banana hammock sailor” and my favorite: “If you’re looking for leather it’s Handlebar Johnny’s: 1944 East Lovelock….”. Next is an excellent Punky’s Whips. FZ gets a little interrupted when introducing the song about “the helpless young homo” and tells the crowd directly to “shut up” (“You gotta listen to this part of the story otherwise you won’t understand the song.”). The intro Pat quip is really amusing tonight, and Terry has a great response (Pat: Terry, have you got Buddy Love’s new copy of Fist Fuck: right or wrong?” Terry: “No but I heard Charlelle was stripping at the fan club if any of you care”). Our drummer does some dumb scat singing periodically throughout the tune (especially with Isn’t It Romantic), and we get an A+ Punky solo from FZ over a neat, changing O’Hearn bass line to conclude the main set.
Frank and the rocking teenage combo returns for the encore, and happily comments “pretty good audience for an early show I would say!” He riles up the crowd (“Alright are you ready? Here we come!”) but it’s just Dinah-Moe Humm. Frank is in a real good mood, but it’s still only a slightly above average performance. It leads right into a fun, lively Camarillo Brillo, which of course heads into Muffin Man, but because of the early-show time constriction we just get the vamp. While the boys begin to do the “Scandinavia” Muffin Man thing, Frank thanks the audience, tells them “you wanna see some more come to Pawtucket on Sunday”, then announces the band along with “Johnny and Frank Russo!”. This great show ends with a big conducted crash, and that’s “Goodnight Boston #1!”
An excellent show, captured in excellent quality.The whole band is Cookin’, but Frank and Patrick especially knock it out of the park. Really nothing to complain about, that is until you compare it with the upcoming late show!
Late Show:
The late show is a lot like the early, but with even more focus and energy, and a few surprises. This absolutely wonderful tape starts with a long, clear recording of the Revenge Of The Knick Knack People walk on music, and the brief opening band introduction:
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to show number two, de la Boston, 1977, featuring Patrick O’Hearn on bass, Adrian Belew on guitar, Tommy Mars on keyboards, Little Skinny Terry “Ted Fido Spindle Boy” Bozzio on drums, Peter ‘de la Vienna’ Wolf on keyboards, and Ed, soon to graduate from the puppies, Mann on percussion. Are you ready? Aw shit, I thought you were ready. We’re ready”
They smash into lively Peaches En Regalia with ENERGY, filled by a Torture with ENERGY. Frank has a great vocal performance, erring on silliness, and it’s followed by a jaw dropping solo. It’s very show off-y, but Frank is scorching, and Pat and Terry are just killing it. A brilliant trio performance from three masters. The opening set of tunes ends with a lively Grow Me A Chin, and is followed by another great City Of Tiny Lights. Adrian really delivers with the tune, and Pat does this weird, frenetic bass line through the whole intro which is cool to hear. Frank delivers an excellent, heavy rocking solo, and by god, i’ll say it once again: I’m so glad there’s no bass solo anymore. It ends a bit abruptly, but it’s not short! Anyway, Pound comes in next with a standard Tommy Mars explosive affair (he yells something at the end of his scat section, not sure what though), followed by the now-regular, lovely bass/keyboard trade off second half. This show is a great example of why Pat is my favorite FZ bassist, his playing is just constantly moving, groovy, and wonderful. As they wrap up, instead of transitioning to Conehead, we get a speech from FZ, and as he talks the Bobby Brown backing slowly begins to take shape:
“You guys want to hear a new song? God, I hope so, because we’re gonna take a chance and play it for you. We’re going to do Bobby first. Alright. Let me tell you what this song is about. I don’t know how those people do it with sunglasses in the dark. They must be crazy. Alright, this song… Keep the beat going, boys. You know how they are. This song… is about a phenomenon that took place right at the beginning of the women’s liberation movement. Now I know all you ladies out there in the audience are really concerned about how liberated you are. I know all you men out there in the audience are very concerned about how liberated those ladies is gonna get. And what it’s going to cost you once they get turned loose completely. Because, let’s face it, in this country you never get nothing for free. With every little piece of change that comes along, somebody’s got to pay. Now listen, this is really serious now, listen. As you remember… Well, first of all, let me give you a little history of my theory of women’s liberation. And since those girls were always on my case anyway, here’s the way I see it. A woman don’t need to be liberated. She already knows what’s going on. And a lady… Let’s see, a girl is somebody that has to choose between staying an older girl or becoming a lady. A lady is somebody who goes to the hairdressers and wears white gloves when she eats fried chicken. And a girl, you all know how the girls are. Those are the ones that wear the black fingernail polish and the silver eyeshadow. So, as far as women’s liberation goes, you women… if there are any women in this audience here tonight, you know who you are. And you don’t need to be turned loose any more than you already are. But let’s let our minds drift back to the beginning of the women’s liberation hoopla, ladies and gentlemen. The first thing that happens is you get a bunch of guys that start to get worried about what’s going on. Y’know, there’s always one silly son of a bitch in the community that figures, Hey, wait a minute. If I don’t go along with this, I’m going to get my main line cut off. I’m not going to get any pussy here, see? So this is the first silly little motherfucker to go around saying, Miz. He figures that if he says Miz to everybody, then he’s going to get a little bit extra, you see. He’s going to get on the good side of ‘em. So he would come up and say things like, Miz, do you want to suck me off? It never would get him any extra miles. But this poor guy, he thought he was going along with it. He was helping out, you know. Really, there are people who do this, seriously. As a matter of fact, the reason I wrote this song is because I had an interview one time with three of these assholes that came up to me and they were talking to me like they were women and they were part of this women’s liberation movement and they were asking me these questions. And I looked at them and I said, Hey, you boys are a song of the future, and this is their song”
Frank’s talk is surprisingly less overtly sexist than you’d expect, and it’s one he will refine and repeat in the upcoming weeks. Unfortunately, there’s a short, sad tape cut right when Frank stops talking, missing the actual intro to the song, but the large majority of the performance is captured. This Bobby Brown is shakey, loose, and played surprisingly fast. The band doesn’t sound incredibly confident, and Frank fucks up the lyrics in a real funny way (“And my name is Charlie Brown-No, Bobby Brown!”), but it’s overall way stronger than the world premier a few days earlier in Hartford. Additionally, Adrian’s got this neat guitar part that’s only in these early performances, so there’s a plus. Pat continues with a bouncy bass line as FZ gives a long introduction to a song even newer than the last.
“Alright, now we’ve got another song. This is… [Crowd Roars] Thank you! Alright! Let’s hear it for Bobby Brown! Okay! Now check this out! This song is so new, I wrote this son of a bitch last night. And the reason I wrote this song is because I was over at WPCN yesterday and I was… I had the cover of the new album sitting around in there and I was showing it to some of the people at the station and they looked at it and they said boy, what if that was a Peter Frampton album cover? And I started thinking to myself. [Crowd Boos] Now wait a minute now, don’t become overwrought, not yet anyway. I started thinking to myself: The world of rock certainly has gotten preposterous Okay? Why don’t you guys start the chords for this song? It starts in A and then it goes to B minor. Okay, let’s see, it’s about… One, two, two, two, two one Okay Alright, don’t let it get any faster than that. That’s pushing too hard. Back it up a little bit. Alright, now. This is fantasy time. This is another song for the ladies. Now there are some artists in the world of rock who do what they do specifically for girls and ladies. Do you understand what I’m talking about? There are some people who make music for people with black fingernails and so forth, and I think that it’s good that people make music for people with black fingernails because that means I don’t have to do it. Now we’re strictly for the people with green fingernails, light blue fingernails, and multicolored fingernails. And of course the ones who have bitten their fingernails off completely because of the tension of everyday life. Now here’s a setup on this song. This is a fantasy now. Let’s pretend that you’re a teenage girl and your dream has always been to capture the rock star of your very own choice and take that rock star home to your little teenage room with the red bulb and the radiator and the Phoebe Snow album that you listen to about 12.30 at night. Sit there and cry and beat yourself off with a cheap vibrator. All right, this, but this is your moment, ladies and gentlemen. Let’s pretend that you have managed to- we don’t want to mention any names here but, you managed to take a guy with blonde hair and tits back to your house. You lay down there on your teenage bed. You take off your teenage pants. You put your teenage legs up in the air. You lay back on your teenage pillow. Just dreaming of all the thrills yet to come. Your teenage pop star jumps on top of you, wiggles around a little bit and then he says ‘I’m in youuuuuuuuu!’. Now… and so you’re laying there saying to yourself ‘Funny, I didn’t notice anything’ and he’s going ‘I’m in youuuuuu!, I’m in youuuuu!’ and your teenage dreams come shattering down y’know. Okay, well, that’s the background for this song. I figured that if I was going to do that kind of music I would have to write a song called I Have Been In You. All right. Now I want, I want you all to fall in love now. Get really laid back. Just think of me as an older, more sinister Lou Reed! Keep the tracks up…..”
It’s the world premier of I Have Been In You!! The tune is very barebones, really just a sick bass line over a steady beat, with scant keyboard accompaniment. Frank sings lead, and gets more confident as the performance goes on, and he even yells to the band “this is the bridge!” as a reminder halfway through. It’s not a particularly great performance, the ending “I’m going in you again” part hasn’t been written yet (which kinda makes the song in my opinion), but it’s neat in a historical fashion.
“…I’m going in you again, and so forth. Alright! And now that you’ve put up with this trial run on this song We’re going to- Hey, a world premiere right here in Boston, ladies and gentlemen! Thanks! Alright! Okay, now we’re going to go on with a regular show, okay, watch this… The name of this next thing we’re going to play is called Conehead”
Our regularly scheduled programming returns with the first-named Conehead, which is an absolute fiery beast. Pat is going out there in the intro and killing it, and Frank is incredibly inspired and delivers a fan-fucking-tastic solo. More evidence of the excellence emanating out of the Bozzio/O’Hearn/Zappa power triad. Frank goes beyond standard rock fury and elevates the whole experience with dense, almost avant-garde guitar, and underneath it all Patrick is playing these heavy, heavy bass notes. When it comes to an end, as all good things must, Frank introduces Flakes:
“The next song we’re going to do is about the subject of incompetence. This is a song about people in California who don’t do what you pay them to do. Like you want to get your car fixed, the guy who’s supposed to fix it can’t fix it. There’s no reason why he should have a job as a mechanic. You want to get your TV fixed, the guy can’t fix it. There is no reason why that man should have a job as a TV repairman. You want to get anything done, there is no way you will get it done because there isn’t a single person in California who will desire to perform an honest day’s work because everybody goes there to collect unemployment as you all know. These people are known to the world as flakes and it is to them that we respectfully dedicate this tune.”
A solid version of the Sheik Yerbouti tune follows, with an amusing lyrical mutation (“wanna buy some quaaludes Bob?”). The one and only Big Leg Emma follows this, and creates a wonderful sense of contrast when leading into the abstruse Envelopes It’s “our erudite song for the evening” featuring “the lilting voice of Tommy Mars, the rhythm section, and later on the Big Drum Sola!” By now Tommy nails the vocals, and we get a good version of the tune with a classic Terry sola. Disco boy is next and FZ slightly fucks up “you’ll never go doody” sections, repeating the phrase one too many times. But he makes up for it by ad libbing “get a little pee pee tomorrow” and by chatting with the crowd over the end a bit (“Thats actually a pretty good looking jacket!”). Läther’s always excellent, and we get a real nice take tonight, with a nice guitar coda too!
Wild Love comes next and is wonderful as always. There’s a small tape cut in the Sinister Footwear section; No big deal though, because the solos are intact. The rhythm section immediately kicks it up to 11 when the jam starts, which leads to a great opening solo from Peter. Frank tries to replicate the guitar/keyboard duel from the early show, but he only plays for a few seconds before aborting the idea. Ed delivers a nice little solo tonight, but Adrian’s solo is top tier (he truly is the Twang Bar King) and when he wraps up Pat quickly quotes a bit of Hendrix’s Third Stone From The Sun before Frank takes the spotlight. FZ begins his solo with a really weird, cool, clear tone, but then suddenly the Squirm appears! Pat and Terry create this neat, bounty vamp which propels Frank into interesting, boogie-type areas. He even kinda almost sorta quotes Khaki Sack at 18 min in (to my ears at least) before ending the performance with more straight ahead killer rock guitar (well straight ahead for Frank). It’s not the best solo in the world, but it’s unique, creative and overall a ton of fun. Every member of this rocking teenage combo is firing on all cylinders tonight, and a cool, extended guitar coda ends the monster performance. God these Wild Love jams are getting so good, and they only continue to get bigger and better! Titties N Beer comes next with a long, amusing devil-dialog featuring heaps of conceptual continuity! Frank says “You ate my Peter Chrissy?” (whatever that means), and he does the “I’m a mean little sucker” part of the tune for the first time in a long while:
“Frank: Wait a minute, I don’t mean to interrupt your satanic interview, but I forgot part of the song. No. Koi told me about this. Listen, here’s my part of the deal. That’s alright, you can have my soul. It’s a mean little sucker about a thousand years old. But once you get it, you can’t give it back. You gotta keep it forever, and that’s a natural fact. Do you know what I’m talking about?
Terry: And that’s particularly why I want to have a little interview. I don’t know if I want your kind around, you know what I mean?
Frank: Yeah, I can dig it. Don’t like Italians, huh?
Terry: Check out all the various facets of your personality here before I let you into hell, man.
Frank: Yeah, well just keep on talking, boy.
Terry: Okay, well listen man, I just want to know what your interests are, you know? Like, what are you into? What do you do with your spare time, man? I mean, I would think a cat like you, you know, who’s real weird with funny shit growing out of your hair, and you know, such a weird reputation for writing weird music and everything, I would think that you might be into, you know, Läther, or rubber, or possibly hanging out with a chick like Charlelle.
Frank: Well, you see, actually I’m into Wooooooooool.
Terry: You’re into what?
Frank: Woooooool.
Terry: Did you say Wooooooool?
Frank: I said Wooooooool.
Terry: Listen man, why don’t you talk English, you know, so I can understand you.
Frank: Hey man, I like wool, you know what I mean? Wool. Got any wool down there? How about a wool room?
Terry: We might be able to fix you up with some wool after you have a sunburn, you know, put you in a nice wool bed, you know?
Frank: No, no, if I get a sunburn, then you put me in a Harris tweed room.
Terry: Well, that could be arranged too, you know, now you’re talking my kind of shit.
Frank: Right, listen, and in the Harris tweed room, I want a Shetland pony. Yeah. I always wanted a pony.
Terry: Yeah, you and Catherine the Great.
Frank: No, with Catherine the Great, I think it was a bull, a bull, a bull, a buuuuuull. How many people know about the demise of Catherine the Great? [Chears] How many people don’t know about the demise of Catherine the Great? [Chears] 50-50. Catherine the Great, the Tsarina of Russia, liked to get it on with a buuuuull. And one day they had this silly son of a bitch strung up in a chain over the bed, they were letting him down, Catherine had him up, and the chain broke, and that was the end of Catherine the Great.
Terry: So anyway, man.
Frank: I want one of those down there in that room, you know what I mean?
Terry: Okay, yeah, just tell me, man, what are your interests? What are you really into?
Frank: Hey, listen, the way I figure it, you just want to talk to me, you’re wasting my time. I’ll tell you anything as long as I can get my titties and beer, titties and beer….. and woooool….. Hey listen, got any Sky Saxon records?”
Frank and Terry are constantly talking about Wøööøł, which is an early name for a piece later incorporated into Mo and Herb’s vacation! Frank also talks about The Demise of Catherine The Great, a tall tale that he recited in more detail at a May 1973 show in Chicago. And I think Frank just finds Sky Saxon funny (this isn’t the first time he’s mentioned him). This is a really amusing Titties that breaks away from the regular sex-talk formula a little, and one of my favorites of the tour.
“Alright, some of you who were here for the last show know that this is the moment of audience participation. This is the point at which you clap your hands. You clap your hands on a nice steady beat while they play a bunch of peculiar notes. We have some members of the group Boston lurking over here. We’re gonna dedicate this song to them. The name of the song is The Black Page, #2!”
Yes you heard right, some of Boston were in the audience! No idea who, but fun to hear. But anyway, this is another excellent performance, once again showcasing Pat’s crazed playing tonight. The following Jones Crusher is just fantastic too (what a great little pairing) and Broken Hearts showcases Pat’s comical side, with quips like “tomorrow night: the perpetual love log”, and other classic lines (“Buddy Love himself, the baron of beef”, “Please come home, Charlelle”). He really kills during the poop chute outro too, saying something crazed about a “fist club sandwich” (“a $1.99 on Wednesday nights”). Punky’s Whips is our closer, and tonight “rock groups appear almost every 12.5 minutes” (this really cracks Pat up for some reason). This could possibly refer to how much time they have left to play, because Frank speeds through the intro (which features a small tape cut). Pat’s intro line today is “let’s go down to the atomic homo and get some nitro nine after this is over” (Terry: “what?”), and Terry once again scats a bit during Isn’t It Romantic. We get a very nice performance from the boys, but Frank sadly plays a like 30 second solo at the end. It’s fairly disappointing, but it’s almost certainly due to time constraints. We get a quick conducted crash ending, and Frank’s back for the encore shortly after.
“[tape cuts in] …pulling my wrong chain back there. They didn’t tell me what the time situation was like in this place. We have a mere few minutes to give you what you would call your encore, and we are going to give you your encore and it is going to be short. And the name of this song is Black Napkins.”
So Frank didn’t know the time situation (I think he may have found out during the Punky intro?), and we get what’s maybe the shortest existing Black Napkins performance. It ends just as it gets going, but what we do get is still pretty nice, and better than no encore at all.
Despite the lackluster ending, this is really a fantastic show, and one I strongly recommend. Everything that can be said about the early show can be said about the late, but with more confidence and energy. Both Boston shows are some of the best of the tour, and probably the best all around shows from before Halloween, in terms of performance, setlist-uniqueness and sound quality. These are some of the first shows I’d recommend listening to after consuming Halloween ‘77, so make sure to check these ones out!!
1977 10 22 – Forum, Montreal, Canada (Audience B/B-)
We’re back in the great northern land of Canada, the French-speaking land of Quebec to be specific, and we’ve got a mixed bag of a show. This is a classic example of a good show that’s captured on a cruddy tape. It’s nothing too terrible, 100% listenable, but it’s pretty muffled and occasionally a little distorted. After the excellent Boston recordings, and knowing about the even better Halloween shows, tonight can be a little hard to get into. But anyway, despite my petty complaints about the recording, this is a pretty fun show. Frank’s in a great mood tonight, we get another unique Canadian intermission, and there’s enough musical highlights to keep me interested. He comes out, tests his guitar for a little while, then delivers a long, amusing intro to tonight’s “bilingual presentation”:
“Alright, just testing. Good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to our Montreal extravaganza for 1977! That’s right! [unintelligible]…that’s having a birthday. Which one of you people here is having a birthday tonight? All of you people are having a birthday? Happy birthday to you. Is anybody here having an anniversary tonight? [unintelligible]. You’re having an anniversary? Happy anniversary to you. Any other things that you want to celebrate, just let us know. We’re happy to be of service. As I promised, this afternoon on the radio we’re actually going to have a bilingual presentation of the members of our rocking teenage combo. That is to say I’m going to tell you their real name in English, and then mispronounce something horrible in French afterwards, just as a token of my extreme ladies and gentleman. And so without further ado, I’d like to introduce you to Patrick O’Hearn alias Frère Jacques on bass, Adrian Belew AKA Dormez Vous on guitar, Tommy Mars otherwise known as Sonnez Mes Patines [sic] on keyboards ladies and gentleman, Little Skinny Terry “Ted Spindle Boy” Bozzio also known as Ding Dong Te [sic] on drums, Peter Wolf on keyboards, and Ed Mann on percussion. Isn’t’ that a fantastic command of the language ladies and gentleman. Now are you ready? You’re not ready, c’mon get ready. Alright you’re almost ready!”
Peaches is fun like always, but the muddy audio quality is a bit of a bummer, and the same goes for the following Torture. FZ yells at the mixer to “turn those screams up!”, and cranks out a serviceable solo. Frank’s guitar tones are great, but this solo doesn’t really go anywhere, and never gets particularly hype. Maybe it’s because of the slightly-distorted, flat sound, but I wasn’t wowed by this one, nor the following standard Grow Me A Chin. City Of Tiny Lights is tonight’s first musical high point, featuring another cool, passionate, razor-sharp FZ solo. Things end a bit abruptly, but this is a fairly minor complaint. Pound For A Brown is a standard affair, with a solid Tommy Mars solo, featuring a little back and forth with our bass player in the back half. There’s a noticeable drop out in Tommy’s solo, which slightly hampers the experience, but it’s overall enjoyable. When the tune ends Terry starts up the Conehead vamp, but it’s Bobby Brown time. It’s definitely a bummer, and I’ll really miss the Pound-Conheard transition, but Bobby Brown is here to stay. There’s no intro tonight, Frank just goes right into the song. It’s the third performance ever, but it’s starting to find its feet; This is by far the most confident performance yet. The background singers (Tommy and/or Patrick?) are especially audible here too, along with the early guitar-heavier arrangement.
Frank announces “Watch me now: the name of this song is Conehead!”, and a short drum lick takes us into the tune. Adrian messes up right near the start, but recovers well, and the tune continues without issue. We get an electric performance, with more delicious, angular FZ guitar over one of his all time best vamps. There’s even a little hint of the I Come From Nowhere riff about 2 minutes in (that song would’ve been wild to hear from this band). The bad news is that the take is brought to an premature end due to a tape cut. Not only does this cut miss the end of the tune, but it also misses Frank’s intermission announcement (which is another bummer, because these Canadian Mandatory Intermission announcements are usually pretty funny.). The Knick Knack people tape plays during the break, and this Canadian intermission ends with a return to the Flakes Dylan theme, over which Frank introduces the next tune. [Sidenote: Right when Frank walks on someone near the tapper yells “C’mon Frankie!!!” which I find really amusing. He actually does it a few times throughout the show, notably right before Adrian’s solo in Wild Love]
“Alright everyone get your beer? Get your popcorn? Did you get your weenies!? Are you ready for some mo’? Alright…hey…[something about popcorn?] [Cheers] Thank you! Now we have a new song. This is a song that is about a subject that is very close to my heart, as if I had one ladies and gentleman. This is a song about the subject of incompetence. This is a song about people who never do what they’re supposed to do. This is a song about people who fuck up and it’s a song about the people in California that just never seem to get it right. You set your car out to get fixed and they can’t really fix it. The TV breaks down and the TV repairman can’t fix it. The reason these people can’t fix it is because they never were meant to hold the jobs that they have. These people are flakes ladies and gentlemen. [something flakes]. And this is for them. I hope they never move to your town.”
It’s neat to hear the Flakes walk-on head right into the actual full tune, but besides that we get a standard version of the sorta-folksy song. Big Leg Emma follows, and leads into a total vibe shift:
“Thank you! Alright, this is another new song. The name of this song is Envelopes. I don’t know whether you’re going to be able to understand the words to it all. They’re a little bit strange. So is the tune. But just, just pretend it’s just like rock and roll.”
Frank’s Envelopes intros are getting shorter over time, but they’re just as funny. Tommy slightly whiffs the “you’re are fine” line and there’s a small drop out near the end of the theme, but it’s a nice take overall. Then there’s a frenetic, tweaky segue into a classic Terry drum sola, which then leads into Disco Boy. Frank yells stuff throughout the second half of the tune (mainly the ending), which would be amusing if he was intelligible (I think he yells “hi-de-ho” for one off ‘em). An excellent Läther makes up for this, with a nice solo guitar coda (these codas just keep getting longer and better as the tour goes on). The piece is followed by tonight’s highlight: Wild Love. Peter starts us off with an excellent latin-kinda jam, and Ed follows with a fun little marimba solo. Adrian delivers another excellent, monster guitar event over the disco-type vamp, and ends with some very crunchy, heavy, knotty, King Crimson sounding lines. When he finishes Terry switches to a totally different, plodding beat, making Frank’s solo feel more separate from Wild Love than ever before. Frank immediately dives right in, and he plays around with the Squirm lick enough for me to declare this the first ever Bowling on Charen! (though it’s a very, very prototypical version). Eventually Pat comes in with a sparse, simpler version of the disco-vamp bass line which really gets Frank grooving and the Bozzio/O’Hearn/Zappa power trio just propel each other to further greatness (there’s a really short cut about three and a half minutes into FZ’s solo, but it’s inconsequential). Frank returns to the disco vamp for a little bit near the end before finally cuing the closing theme. He proceeds to whip out a long, sick, angular guitar coda to end this fantastic, nearly 25 minute musical event. This is really a great Wild Love, and an easy show highlight. Frank plays so long that the tape actually misses the end of this little acapella guitar jam, and it doesn’t return until the beginning of Titties N Beer. Frank plays around with his lyrical delivery in tonight’s Titties (Son of a “who-a”), and when the devil dialog starts he quickly goes into a long rant about Warner Brothers!!!!
“Frank: You mean I’m supposed to tell you right now the fondest desires of my heart?”
Terry: Yeah that’s right because you know how contracts are man.
Frank: Well I tell ya, do I know how contracts are. Well I’m gonna tell you the fondest desires of my heart. You’re gonna give all these things to me if I give you my soul. Is that correct? All right, I want everybody who works for Warner Brothers Records to go down there with me. [Cheers] And while they’re down there I want them all to kiss my ass. And after they kiss my ass I want them all to be wearing a thick coating of brown lipstick, if you catch the drift. And in particular I wanna get Mo Osten down there, I wanna set him on a rose thorn-encrusted spindle attached to the gigantic bionic version tower of power. I wanna have an Evinrude 28 horsepower outboard motor attached to the aforementioned spindle and run at approximately 28,000 rpm from now until the end of time. [Terry: Most definitely man] And while Mo is squatting on the tower of power getting his Titanic ream-job, I want David Berman to suck his dick, but I want him to do it in such a way that nothing good ever comes of it if you know what I mean because it’s a little bit tough for either of them to get it up, you know what I mean, these record company guys. Okay, and then while they’re down there I want to get all the guys from the Gang, Tyre, and Brown law firm. I want them down there. They each get a little mop And with this mop, they’re supposed to pummel David Berman soundly about the head and shoulders while he’s sucking Mo.
Alright and I’m an easy guy to do business with, you can have my soul so long as I get all this stuff, and titties n’ beer, titties n’ beer, titties n beer…..
Terry: Listen I work for Mo so dig this! No, don’t sign it…..”
This is the first appearance of Frank’s big Warner Brothers tirade, featuring the President of Warner Brothers Records Mo Osten, Vice President of Business Affairs David Berman, and WB’s law firm Gang, Tyre, and Brown. Frank was so pissed about their mis-handling of the Lather album, he created this little satanic fantasy to recite during Titties N Beer when sufficiently enraged. Once this short but sweet performance wraps up, Frank gives the now standard audience participation intro to The Black Page #2:
“Okay right now while we rev up Mo’s spindle, we’re gonna go into another part of the show that requires audience participation. This is very simple. I know you people have probably been to a lot of concerts, you know, all the rock and roll bands want you to clap your hands, you know what I mean? Well we want you to clap your hands but we want to make sure you clap your hands on the right beat because you see the next song that the band is going to play is real complicated, you know, and if you lose the beat, they’re gonna be in a lot of trouble. Now I know that you can all clap in French as well as English so let’s get off with it. Alright just like Woodstock! Isn’t it fun? The name of the song is The Black Page #2!”
After that amusing little ‘bilingual’ rap for audience participation, we get a lively Black Page that’s muffled due to clapping, and is missing a big chunk in the middle due to a tape cut. The always fun Jones Crusher comes next, and brings us out of the abstruse back into the world of the sexually depraved. Broken Hearts follows this trend, but due to the mid sound quality the subtle details of Pat’s Gilded Grape asides are very hard to make out. You can tell he’s really into it, leaning on every word, but you really can’t tell much of what he’s saying. Terry messes up the “been to the grape” line, and the crowd goes wild for the big poop chute ending. Patrick takes a long pause before the ending “oh I figured you might be surprised, Verne”, and this leads us into a Warner-Brothers-hate filled intro to Punky’s Whips.
“In today’s rapidly changing world, pop groups appear every fifteen minutes with some new promotional device. Mo knows this, David knows this, everybody at Warner Brothers knows this to be a fact. As a matter of fact every record company knows this, i’m just repeating what is already history, but pay attention, please pay attention. These pop groups come out of the woodwork every fifteen minutes with some new promotional device. Some of these devices have been known to leave irreparable scars on the minds of foolish young consumers. One such case is seated before you, little skinny Terry ‘Ted’ ‘Spindle-Boy’ Bozzio, that cute little drummer. Terry recently fell in love with a publicity-photo of a boy named David Berman, no Punky Meadows. Lead guitar player from a group called Angel. In the photograph…….”
Patrick mentions “listening to Warren’s tapes of the Allentown Pennsylvania show” during his intro quip, which must be a reference to future FZ stunt guitarist Warren Cucarullo (also, I wonder what happened in Allentown? This band played there on October 8th, but no tape is known to circulate). We get a very nice performance of this out-there song, with more amusing dialog and great instrumental performances all around (Pat to Terry: “what do you WANT from me??”). Frank whips out a really fun, rockin’ solo to end the tune, and conducts a long, chaotic ending crash to close the main set (“Goodnight Montreal!”). [There’s apparently a quote from Steely Dan’s Rikki Don’t Lose That Number quote somewhere in here, but I’m not sure where. Maybe near the end of Frank’s solo?]. When they return for the encore, Frank gives a short PSA:
“Thank you! And you with the sparkler, be careful, those things can burn people. I know it looks pretty but don’t burn anybody with it, y’know what I mean? Safety first! Y’know? Right, same to you buddy. The name of the song is Dinah-Moe Humm”
We get a standard but honestly pretty hype version of Dinah-Moe, but the tape cuts out before the actual end of the concert (the recording ends as the sex song is starting to wrap up). We miss out on whatever tunes came next, which is probably a bummer based on other encores around this time. This is a pretty good show, it is a late October gig after all, but this tape doesn’t sound particularly great, and it has a handful of unfortunate cuts. Tonight’s Wild Love and the following Titties N Beer are really great so I’d recommend those. The Intermission break is interesting, and Conehead is pretty good too (but really they’re all worth a listen). So in conclusion, check out parts of this show if you really want to, but this isn’t a must-hear tape.
1977 10 23 – Leroy Concert Theater, Pawtucket, RI (Audience A-)
We’re back to the States for another New England show, this time recorded by famous taper Dan Lampinski, who taped over 100 concerts in the Boston/Providence area during the 70s (I didn’t mention it in the review but he potentially taped the Boston shows too) . Like most of his work, this is an excellent recording and it’s one of the best sounding documents of the tour. We only have the early show for tonight, but it’s better than nothing because this is a really fun show. It’s one of the more relaxed shows from this era, probably because it’s an early show, but that doesn’t stop the boys from putting on a great time. Our recording starts during Knick Knack People, and leads into the Flakes walk-on, with a pretty chill intro:
“All right. You guys comfortable yet? Y’all relaxed? Are you ready to have a good time? All right. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 1977 Pawtucket, Rhode Island, Leroy Theater extrava-fuckin’-ganza! Featuring Patrick O’Hearn on bass, Adrian Belew on guitar, Tommy Mars on keyboards, Little Skinny Terry Ted Bozzio on drums, Peter Wolf on keyboards, Ed Mann on percussion. And here we go!”
A high-energy Peaches starts us off at breakneck speeds, but we quickly slow down for a long and mellow, but very entertaining Torture Never Stops (“Alright, everybody get tortured now!”). Frank solo is long, methodical, beautiful and incredibly satisfying. It starts off as one of Frank’s slowest jams, but really kicks into gear around 8 minutes in, all the while still remaining relatively downtempo and dirty. This is a really really good solo, made even better by Patrick’s throbbing bass and Terry’s somewhat restrained playing. Frank plays an Alvin Lee-esque lick right after he picks up speed, and it sounds like he’s quoting something around 11 minutes in (anyone know what?). A Really cool and unique solo that’s worth a listen. Terry misses the “It popped out once” line early in Tryin’ to Grow A Chin, but it’s overall a great take. The guitars sound really nice on this recording, and somewhat overpower the keyboards, but that’s okay with me (at least on this occasion). An excellent City Of Tiny Lights follows, with another sick, slower, chiller FZ solo. The band vamps for a little while before Frank begins and he delivers a very clear toned, somewhat sparse, atypical FZ solo. It completely works though, and we get this long, chugging, delightful guitar event. Pound For A Brown comes next, emerging from the tiny ashes. I always love FZ’s chorded intro to the solos, they’re a little bit different every night, and tonight is a great example. This performance features a long, fun solo from Tommy, with a slightly egregious amount of scat singing and intermittent tasty bass breaks from Pat.
As they end we get a strange shift into another early Bobby Brown, and tonight’s arrangement is a weird guitar heavy, chorded version. It’s a different feel, one that could potentially just be mostly the recording, but it’s one I like. It’s a really fast take, and Frank says “folks” instead of “people”, but otherwise it’s a fairly normal performance. They end with the regular “Watch me now the name of this song is Conehead”, and we get an excellent, historic performance of the following tune where Frank sings a couple lines from the final version!!! [“She’s a conehead…. Potato chip crumbs all over her face, is there any more beer stashed away at her place she’s a conehead!”] It’s super cool, and helped me understand how this tune would eventually evolve into the Conehead heard on You Are What You Is. Frank whips out another excellent, angular, fiery solo, and eventually stops for a short Flakes intro (God do I love me an early Conehead). There’s a small cut near the end of his solo, but it’s hardly noticeable. This might be one of the best versions out there, and that’s saying something because I don’t think there’s a performance I wouldn’t recommend.
“All right. This is a song about people who don’t do what they’re supposed to do. This is a song about people in California who don’t do what they’re supposed to do. These people are called flakes.”
A nice take of Flakes ensues, followed by Big Leg Emma, which for some reason I never tire of. They make the ridiculous transition into Envelopes, but this time Frank skips the usual spoken intro. Tommy ends the head with a screech and Terry delivers a long, solid drum solo. Next is a lively Disco Boy, with some fun vocal interjections from Frank throughout (“Alright disco really sucks….”) The always wonderful Läther follows, with three more beautiful solos from Frank, Peter, and Tommy. Tommy even quotes from the Inca Roads post-solo theme, which was really great to hear. Wild Love then takes Pawtucket by storm, with a set of great solos from our usual suspects (Peter, Ed, Adrian, and Frank). Like the rest of the program tonight, this Wild Love is taken at a slightly slower tempo, and we get a series of more relaxed, but still excellent solos. Peter and Ed create two lovely jams, with fantastic support from Terry and Patrick (especially Pat here). Adrian is fan-fucking-tastic as always, and FZ’s solo is once again over a sort of amalgam of of the disco vamp and the upcoming Bowling on Charen vamp (though tonight’s skews more disco, and there’s no squirm riff). Frank’s guitar extravaganza is very pleasant and melodic, and it ends with a jaunty doo-wop-esque riff reminiscent of the start of Jelly Roll Gumdrop. Frank returns to the disco vamp for a second, before closing the tune out with an excellent extended guitar coda. Overall a very unique, chill Wild Love experience that would be an excellent fit for a morning listen (compared to the intense hot fire of some other performances). Titties sounds nice, and features some exaggerated vocal performances, but there’s an unfortunate cut right after Terry asks Frank what he’s into that seems to take out a good chunk of the improvised dialog (though it’s hard to tell how much is missing). Frank gets interrupted by a fan, chats off mic for a little bit, and then when he starts talking to Terry again about passing “the test” it cuts right to the outro theme, followed by some audience participation.
“All right folks, you having a good time so far? How about you guys up there? All right. Here’s what we’ll do then. You know, if you really are into it, you know, I mean, if you’re all warmed up, man. All you have to do, this, here is your… Brillo, of course. Don’t worry about it, you take care of everybody. Here is your challenge for tonight, Pawtucket. All you have to do is keep a steady beat during the next song, and you will pass the test. Now, keep that up. No matter what they do, you keep doing that. The name of the song is The Black Page #2”
After a somewhat relaxed audience participation rap, we get a wonderful take of the impossible tune, followed by a very nice Jones Crusher. Adrian blanks on the vocals for a second in the last third of the tune, but it doesn’t hurt the performance too bad. Broken Hearts comes next to shock another crowd, and we get a fun, above average performance of the tune. Pat talks about Dagmar (“once you get to know him he’s a nice fellow”), “Don Pepe himself”, rubber, and drops a classic “Niiiiice”. Tommy plays The Sailor’s Hornpipe, and at the end of the “You’re an asshole” section Frank yells “me too!”. Patricks’ delivers some amusing outro quips (“Whiff of the fist”), and the uniquely perverted energy of Broken corrupts Frank’s intro to the following Punky Whips:
“In today’s rapidly changing world, poop chutes appear almost every 15 minutes with some new promotional device. Some of these devices have been known to leave irreparable scars on the minds of foolish young poop chute consumers. One such case is seated before you. Little skinny Terry ‘Ted’ ‘Spindle Boy’ Bozzio, our drummer. Terry recently fell in love with a publicity photo of a boy named Punky Meadows, lead guitar player from a poop chute called Angel. In the photograph, Punky was seen with a beautiful, shiny poop chute. And his hair, oh his hair, was so cute in this picture. Terry went crazy when he saw this picture. And he was in a semi-profile, which emphasized the pooched out succulence of his insolent, pouting, how shall I put this discreetly, rictus!. The sight of which drove the helpless young drummer mad with desire.”
[Pat: “Well, to you it may just be a pucker poop chute, but to Punky Meadows, it’s home sweet home.” Terry: “Punky I’ve never even seen your poop chute”]
We get a very nice, standard, template, kinda version of Punky’s (apart from the intro of course), with a spirited vocal performance from Terry and an excellent guitar solo from Mr. Zappa. A chill thank you and goodnight from our lead guitar player ends the main set, but the band makes a quick return for our early show encore.
“Well as you all know there’s a bunch of people waitin’ outside to get into the next show, however…. Hey heeey hey. Hey hey. We got time for two more songs. So listen, yeah yeah…. so it’s two and then bye bye, but two hot ones! The name of this song is Camarillo Brillo!”
A standard, crowd pleasing Camarillo ensues, followed by an absolutely excellent, noteworthy Muffin Man. Adrian solos for a bit while Frank picks up his guitar, and creates the perfect lead up for a terrific solo from the master. FZ’s jam is long, fiery and epic, but ends with a very inspired Ship Ahoy kinda finale! Really fuckin cool, one of the best Muffin Mans (Men?) of the tour and the perfect end to this chiller gig.
“Thanks for coming to the show. I hope you enjoyed it. We’ll see some of you during the next show and We’ll see the rest of you next year. Goodnight!”
This is a very fun, unique feeling show for this tour, and one of my favorite shows of the tour because of it. My only complaint is that we don’t have the second show! Frank’s early shows are almost always upstaged by the late show, so imagine how good this late show must have been!! Anyway that’s just my desperation, if you’re reading this deep in this page and haven’t heard this tape, what are you waiting for!! Check it out!!!!
1977 10 24 – Spectrum Theater, Philadelphia, PA (Audience B+/B)
We’re rapidly approaching Halloween, but first we have another great show from Philly. FZ and the band are on fire, and Frank is PISSED at Warner Brothers. The situation with Läther has completely broken down at this point, but this provides some very memorable moments of humor, and some great, angry guitar from Frank. The sound on this tape isn’t fantastic but it’s completely serviceable. The intro is from a worse quality source so don’t let the first three minutes color the whole experience. We start off with a fairly long segment of the Knick Knack People tape, and a fun Flakes intro (“Alright Philadelphia! You guys are gonna move tonight?”). Frank speeds through the intros so he can get right to his record company woes:
“How many of you people heard me on the radio this afternoon? How many of you people noticed that the man who walked out on stage here a little while ago had a Warner Brothers shirt on? Utterly disgusting. Listen, for those of you who didn’t hear me on the radio today, I’m going to tell you all right now. Warner Brothers Records is trying to release an album without my permission, against my wishes, and in violation of my copyrights. If you see this album in store, don’t buy it, don’t buy that record. Warner Brothers will not stop me from making music so fuck those people!”
The better tape starts at the very end of Frank’s opening rant and right as he stops talking the crowd goes wild while the band launches into an excellent Peaches En Regalia. This great energy carries into The Torture Never Stops, and we get a truly standout performance. During the long moan break 3 minutes in, Frank demands that “if there’s anyone out in the audience tonight who thinks they can do better than that just let me know about it!” (“There’s a good one!”). He then totally mutates the next verse to reflect his current anger
“Warner Brothers be cursed! Warner Brothers be cursed! Warner Brothers be cursed! and disagree well, not even the Doobie Brothers durst! They’re the best of course of all the worst. Something wrong been done, Fleetwood Mack done it first!”
This outburst leads into a really great, moody guitar solo. It’s long, thoughtful, emotional and just fantastic. We’re fully in the peak days for this monster tune, and this jam is a great example of what a wonderful Fall ‘77 Torture should be like. It doesn’t have the strongest ending, but FZ creates an immaculate vibe that’s well worth hearing. A fun Grow Me A Chin brings us back to fast paced rock, and it leads into another excellent Tiny Lights. Frank whips out a burning solo, and once again shows that this song was always meant to have a guitar solo. It’s wild he only started playing in this tune a week or so before, because his playing here is already so fiery and confident. Pound is very nice today too, with a Weather Report-esque jam featuring Tommy and Patrick. Tommy plays a solid Mars-solo, then when he reaches his peak he trades off with Patrick for a little. Eventually the two of them kinda duet until the tune reaches its frenzied conclusion. Tommy scat sings a bunch, and Pat provides some excellent, crazed bass lines. Their interplay here is really great. Tommy goes far out towards the end, and when we’re done we’ve got one of the best Pounds yet. Frank thinks so too!
“That was really good! I really liked that! Alright, ladies and gentlemen this is a new song, it’s only about a week or so old. This hat that I’m wearing was given to me by a gentleman in Allentown Pennsylvania who insisted that I wear it when I came to Philadelphia and I hope he’s out there watching me wear the hat of his dreams. Somehow I think that this hat goes with this song. What….the hat? Wait a minute, I got a hat already. Okay, this song goes out to all the ladies in the audience that are deeply involved with the women’s liberation concept. This song traces one of the possible results of advanced women’s liberationism. I’ll give you a little background on this story, bring the band down a little bit, you know, this is lecture time. Ladies and gentlemen, let’s just presume that it was a long time ago, you know, back when women’s liberation first started off, you know, we started hearing these speeches and there was always one guy in town that wanted to make sure he was going to get some, you know what I mean? And so, it was that first original little schmuck, the first guy in town to say miz before he asked the girl to suck him off. This traces the life of one such poor misguided fool. Yeah, I know, I see the signs. They distract me, hold them down. I have a one-track mind, you know, I see all that beautiful manuscript out there and it just goes DOOT. Okay, now look, this isn’t a true story, but you can see where it could have happened and may even yet happen in the future.”
This is a surprisingly amusing little spiel, with another hint at the Allentown Pennsylvania concert, last mentioned in Montreal (I wish we had this show!). I feel that when Frank explains Bobby Brown it actually makes it a little better by clearly stating it’s satire (which some of the audience definitely needs). I also like that FZ gets annoyed with someone in the audience holding up a sign, but he realizes he’s being an ass and actually corrects himself, which is kinda cute. Bobby Brown has pretty much reached its final form at this point. Frank’s vocal delivery is a little stilted still and the instrumental arrangement isn;t quite finalized, but overall this is a standard performance (with a few hundred more standard Bobby Browns to follow….). The following Conehead is fuckin crazy though, with six delisous minutes of fantastic, angular, furious guitar. I’m not sure there’s a Conehead from this era that isn’t worth a listen. It’s truly one of FZ’s all time best vamps, inspiring some of the greatest playing of his entire career. There’s a 20 second patch near the end of the jam, and it leads into a long amusing Flakes intro:
“This next song is called Flakes. It’s a song about people who don’t do what they’re supposed to do. California is full of people like this. Most of them are centered right around the Burbank offices of Warner Brothers Records unfortunately. But besides the people who work at Warner Brothers there’s all kinds of other schmucks who just don’t perform, y’know? The plumbers don’t plumb. The carpenters don’t carp. The TV repairmen do not know how to use a soldering iron or do anything except to collect a large bill. Everybody who performs a service in California wishes he was someplace else just collecting unemployment. But somehow or another every moocher in the world winds up out there, and you have to depend on them to have your life in order, you know what I mean? It’s not even safe to have somebody else pump gas for you at the gas station. So we’re gonna dedicate this song to them, in sincere hope they don’t move to your city.”
God is Frank mad. Regular performances of Flakes and Big Leg Emma comes next, followed by a succinct intro to Envelopes:
“Thank you! Alright ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for your moment of pseudo intellectual gratification. This is a song entitled Envelopes. It features the lilting voice of Tommy Mars, some peculiar words and a bunch of hard notes for the rhythm section”
A very solid Bozziolo (or a Bozzio solo for the layman) ends the abstruse section of the show, and leads us into a surprisingly eventful Disco Boy. Frank has some fun asides throughout the tune (“There it is just give it a little kiss now” & “Aw jerk it Disco Boy” stand out), but the notable moment comes afterwards when he conducts a musical crash from the band and stops to address the audience.
“You’re probably wondering- You’re probably saying to yourself what could be going on during this part of the show. There’s nothing really happening, and there’s just some little noodling over there in the percussion section. He’s walking around there, Tommy Mars is sweating [and probably?] taking the moisture off of his body, Terry’s sitting there looking cute, Peter is [unintelligible], but the main thing we need to appreciate during this part of the show, is that by the time he’s done tweezing those little knobs on the end of his guitar: that suckers gonna be back in tune, and then we can play the next song for you.”
After this amusing delay we get another, longer meltdown/crash (Pat plays a bit of Strangers In Paradise underneath) and a smooth count off into Läther. It’s a very, very nice version, with a sick little guitar coda too. Every performance of this tune is enjoyable, but this is a standout, especially peaceful take. A great Wild Love follows this up, starting with great solos from Peter and Ed over the usual Samba-style beat. The cool riff that signifies the end of Ed’s solo makes its first appearance tonight (I believe), and Ed improvises over it a bit, which is amusing. Adrian bangs out another fun Disco EBow event (featuring some wild, angular, KC-esque lines), and leads us into a monster solo from Frank. Terry brings the drums down to a plodding-kinda tempo, and Frank starts to play around with the Squirm, so we’re fully in true Bowling on Charen territory now, no more proto-versions from this point on! Terry’s drums change, but the bass from the disco vamp remains, and continues to get louder and more prominent as the jam goes on. Frank really kicks into shredder-mode about two minutes in, and wavers between this and more thoughtful, slower playing through his solo. Ultimately we’re treated to a very weird guitar solo, but as is frequently the case with Zappa this ends up being a very good thing. He ends by playing around with the vamp a little, finishing the tune, and jamming acapella for a minute or so (*heart eyes emoji*). When he finally concludes his this excellent Wild Love, they transition into a very fun Titties N Beer featuring a long rant from Frank about record executives and sexual gratification via spindles:
“Frank: You’re a curious little devil, aren’t you?
Terry: Yeah, that’s right.
Frank: Hey, well, I’ll tell you what I’m into. I’m into fair play this week. You know what I mean? If I have to go to hell, look, if I have to go to hell in order to get my girlfriend back, the least I can do is take those guys from Warner Brothers with me. You know what I mean?
Terry: Well that might be able to be arranged.
Frank: Hey, you think you can do that?
Terry: Sure.
Frank: Hey, that’s real nice of you. Listen, as long as they’re down there, can I figure out what you do to them? Is that part of the deal?
Terry: Yeah, that could be arranged also, man. What did you have in mind for them?
Frank: Hey, well, you know about the Tower of Power, right?
Terry: Oh, sure, I invented it.
Frank: And the seven rings of hell?
Terry: Oh, yes, of course.
Frank: Well, I would like to arrange a room in uh, black leather. [Terry: Nice.] And right in the middle of it, I want to have two adjoining towers of powers, so to speak. [Terry: Uh-huh.] One of them is going to have Moe Austin, the president of Warner Brothers, and the other one is going to have David Berman, their head of their legal department. [Terry: Yes, right.] spindling side by side on the Tower of Power. Now, I want these spindles modified slightly. I don’t want your normal pink vinyl butt plug in these Tower of Power aparati.
Terry: That would be much too nice
[FZ To Fan: Put that movie camera away, this is not…..]
Frank: Warner Brothers, ladies and gentleman. Anyway, I want these two Tower of Power spindles modified. I do not want the pink vinyl butt plug as I said before. I want the new exotic, exciting, extremely enticing, and horribly painful carborundum. What? How was it? The carborundum partially modified hand-grenade spindle.
Terry: Oh, of course, now wait. Would you like the, uh, the modified…
Frank: Yeah, with the naugahyde detonator.
Terry: Is this the electric model?
Frank: That’s right.This is the, uh, actually, no, it’s the diesel model. [both laugh] I want the spindle itself powered by an Evinrude outboard motor.
Terry: Oh, of course., yes all this can be arranged man
Frank: And while they’re sitting on the spindle and it’s cranking away and we turn on the detonator and the hand-grenade blows up while they’re squatting on this thing, I want you to play all of Black Sabbath’s albums in the background. And while you’re doing that, I want Titties and Beer, Titties and Beer, Titties and Beer, Titties and Beer, Titties and Beer, Titties and Beer, Titties and Beer, Titties and Beer.”
I’ll always enjoy a WB-hate filled take of Titties, and I love that quick Black Sabbath reference thrown in tonight too. When Frank’s unleashed enough anger, it’s time for a technical introduction to audience participation and The Black Page #2:
“Alright, you guys having a good time so far? That’s good. From what I can see, you appear to be a somewhat over supervised audience. So… That’s all right, just so long as you’re getting into it, you know what I mean? Okay, this is, this is, ladies and gentlemen, this is your moment. This is audience participation tonight. Now I’m sure some of you have been to regular rock and roll concerts where the guy says, ‘hey, get your hands together’. But, nobody ever asks you to get your hands together to a song like this. Here’s the trick. What they’re going to be playing… does fit within equal spacings of quarter notes. That’s right, four to a bar, ladies and gentlemen. So you go- like that. What they do will come out on the downbeat of each bar, but it’s going to get there the hard way, you know what I mean? So you just keep that beat going. Try to keep it steady, and watch what happens when they play The Black Page 2!. One, two, three, four!”
We get an excellent take of the comically difficult song, followed by a lovely Jones Crusher and a riotous Broken Hearts Are For Assholes. Pat’s asides start off pretty stock, but they get funnier as the tune goes on (from “50 cents cover” to “tomorrow night Jimmy pulls his chain!!”). This isn’t the best one out there (sound quality makes it hard to make out most of the quips), but Pat almost cracks Frank up with his enthusiasm which is fun. Our Bass player ribs Ed a bit during the poop chute ending (“Ed is big daddy law”), and this leads into the song about the mischievous desires of “charming little Terry Spindle Boy Bozzio”: Punky’s Whips. It’s a standard, fun take of the homoerotic tune, with another couple mentions of our percussionist in the “Punky, you’re an Angel” section (“Ed… Ed….”) Frank concludes this song and the main set with a solid guitar solo. It starts off a little lame/tame, but it gets really good by the end and finishes the main set on a high note. They quickly return for the encore and Frank asks the roaring crowd: “Okay how ‘bout some entertainment?” before churning out a standard version of Dinah-Moe Humm. “Heeeey, there’s another good song on that album”: Camarillo Brillo! Perhaps inspired to outdo the mundanity of that Dinah-Moe, The rocking teenage combo unleash a great take of Camarillo with an absolutely crazy fast first half. They eventually slide into a wonderful Muffin Man, with a lovely opening solo from Adrian, and a fantastic, shredding solo from FZ.
“Well thanks for coming to the concert, really appreciate it. Hey, put the spotlights on the audience! Heyyyyy. Alright, since there’s so many of you, since you outnumber us, we’ll do one more. Oh yeah we had a request for this song. Name of this song is San Ber’dino.”
We end the show right with a great, rare performance of this One Size Fits All classic, which heavily features the great Adrian Belew. He comes in a little too early with the final “San Ber’dino” (but he gets a pass for being the best), and Frank ends the night with a big conducted crash. Though the sound quality isn’t amazing, this is a really lively, energetic show, and a wonderful precursor to the upcoming Halloween madness (like many 70s Philadelphia shows). Musically great with lots of WB hate from Frank; If you can handle an average audience recording and are into this particular rocking teenage combo, make sure to check this one out!
[We’re unfortunately missing a show in Quebec on the 26th, but that means our next recordings are the legendary New York Halloween 1977 shows!!!!!]
1977 10 28 – Palladium, New York, NY (Two Shows – Official Release)
click here to listen to the early show (Spotify)
click here to listen to the late show (Spotify)
(All my links for New York ‘77 are on Spotify, for some reason this release is not officially uploaded on YouTube).
[All transcriptions graciously taken from IINK]
The time has come. The band is in New York, Halloween is rapidly approaching, and we have six officially released shows included on the massive, monumental Halloween 1977 box set. This New York run is widely considered to contain some of the best shows from Frank’s entire career, and it’s a take I can get behind. This fantastic rocking teenage combo has been continuously growing in power over the previous seven weeks on the road, and by the time Halloween comes around they are red hot and ready to amaze the deranged citizens of New York. While Frank has been playing Halloween shows since 1972, this is by far the biggest holiday event yet. The rocking teenage combo played two shows each on the 28th and 29th, then a single show on the 30th, and the Halloween finale on the 31st. These shows were all professionally recorded and filmed for future use by FZ, the most notable product being Frank’s second major motion picture: Baby Snakes! (Sidenote: I’m actually not totally sure if they filmed on the 28th, since no video from those two concerts has surfaced). In 2017 the complete shows were finally released, delighting Zappaphiles everywhere. These are the only professionally recorded shows from this tour, and thus the only live recordings of Fall ‘77 in the vault (but there’s a fair amount of Winter ‘78 thankfully). The sound quality on these recordings is just wonderful, and the music within is some of the best rock music ever played in front of a live audience. Frank’s guitar playing reaches another career peak during this run, one that will continue to delight and amaze audiences until this band deconstructs at the end of the following European tour. And this of course goes without mentioning the fantastic group of musicians who perfectly surround and support him, all while showcasing their own unique talents.
Anyway, on with the show. The early show on the 28th, starts with the excellent ambiance of the band tuning/warming-up over the Knick Knack tape, while Funkadelic’s Jimmy’s Got A Little Bit Of Bitch In Him fades out on the PA. Frank comes out to riotous applause to give his first holiday introductions.
“All right! Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Halloween #1, 1977! Patrick O’Hearn on bass, Adrian Belew on guitar, Tommy Mars on keyboards, Terry Bozzio on drums, Peter Wolf on keyboards, Ed Mann on percussion, and it’s my pleasure to announce that out in the recording truck, out in the back, we have Kerry McNabb engineering and we are recording all of this live. Hope you’re ready. Are you? All right, let’s go then!”
And boom! A fast, energetic, delightful Peaches En Regalia starts this run off and quickly heads into a dark, emotional, Torture Never Stops. Frank’s clearly in a good mood as he amps up the crowd during the head of the song (“Ah, scream right along! Ah, I know you can do better than that!”), before ripping into a thoughtful, dirty solo. He starts off with a clearer tone, playing light and delicately, slowly increasing in volume and fury over the course of his long solo, ending in a terrific depiction of power and rage channeled through his guitar. I haven’t even mentioned how locked in Terry and Pat are today, elevating everything around them with the pure power of their perfect rhythm section. We’re only about 15 minutes into these shows and I’m already blown away. [One interesting sidenote is that none of the moans normally heard over the solo section in Torture made it into the actual official recording of the tune, I believe because they were played over the PA]. Anyway, Tryin’ To Grow A Chin is funny and lovely, and City Of Tiny Lights is great too, but this is probably the worst one of the set. This track actually contains the only edited performance of the entire boxset, because Frank had some guitar issues. He begins to solo but something is clearly wrong (“I’ve got a bad tail[?] there[?]”), so the band vamps for a few seconds, and Frank instructs Adrian to play while they fix his guitar! He whips out a fun little whammy-bar tinged solo that leads right into Frank’s short, fiery conclusion. Not the best Belew solo around, but an amusing little oddity that saves the performance from mediocrity. The official release edits directly from the start of the solo section to when Frank gets his guitar working, so that it seems like Frank just played a short solo in this tune. I totally understand why they would edit out this section (it is the first City on the set, so a lot of people are going to hear it), but it’s kinda a bummer we don’t get to hear Adrian’s only Tiny Lights solo in high quality. This performance is a bit of a failure, but it’s still relatively neat, in part due to Terry who is just completely going ham tonight. He carries this energy into A Pound For A Brown, and we get a lovely take, with the standard Tommy insanity (including lots of scat singing), and more input from Patrick than ever before. Pat plays a bit of Strangers In Paradise, and at about 5 minutes in the vibe shifts to a tweakier realm, led by our wonderful bassist. We get a really great Pound, and it ends with one of the first good segues into Bobby Brown:
“All right, folks, it’s time for a new song! This is a special song, it’s dedicated to… well actually, it’s dedicated to everybody! In one, in one sense, this song is dedicated to the ladies in the audience, to the female people, because… the women’s role in this song is so—how shall we put this discreetly—the women’s role in this song is so all-pervasive. However, the main character in this song is a guy. Now this, this isn’t an ordinary guy, this guy is a schmuck! This, the hero of this song, was probably the first guy in town—when women’s liberation came ’round, he was the first guy in town to say “Ms.” He probably said something like “Ms., will you suck me off?” He, he figured that if he went along with the routine, that he would get a little extra mileage out of it, and what this song deals with is the delicate balance between— would get a little extra mileage out of it, and what this song deals with is the delicate balance between— well, you’ll figure it out. The name of this song is Bobby Brown Goes Down.”
Tonight’s Bobby Brown is a standard take; Frank’s at 95% confidence with the still-new tune. The audience really reacts to the “kiss my hiney” line, which makes Frank laugh a little, and the arrangement has changed slightly. Adrian’s guitar riff has been relegated to the chorus, and there’s now some harmonica over the second verse. We get the amusing “and the name of the next song is…” transition into an absolutely jaw-dropping Conehead. At over 9 minutes this is one the longest performances of this song we have, and it’s maybe my all time favorite. Frank is constantly pushing out new ideas, all of which seem to work, creating a nonstop onslaught of fantastic, unique and creative electric guitar. The guitar vamp intro sounds so mesmerisingly cool in high quality. There’s the coolest fucking string scratch noise about three minutes in, and a lovely tone switch around seven minutes in, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. This is just an all time great performance, and it’s not even Frank’s best solo from this show! As he ends, the crowd freaks out (as they should), and Frank introduces the next tune.
“The next song we’re gonna do is called ‘Flakes.’ This is a song about people who don’t do what they’re supposed to do, and there’s a large concentration of these denizens in the state of California. The problem simply stated is that everybody who moves to California moves there to collect unemployment or welfare or both, and so, consequentially, if they ever do find gainful employment, they are never really well-suited to the job that they choose, like for instance, the people who supposedly fix your television set can’t fix your television set, the plumbers don’t know one pipe from another, and God help you if you ever try and get your car fixed. This song is for them.”
Standard takes of Flakes and Big Leg Emma follow, and when this pair of tunes concludes Frank gives a very brief introduction to Envelopes (“Here’s something a little bit weirder for you…). The weirdo number “features the charming voice of Tommy Mars” and a very nice solo from Bozzio (one of his best, due to his great energy tonight), before leading us into a lovely Disco Boy. There’s some feedback near the beginning of the tune, and Frank has a couple fun asides (“Disco sucks!”), but the main takeaway from this performance is how loud and insane the crowd is. You can hear just rapturous screaming throughout the entire tune. This is pretty much the case for the entire six show run, but it’s very apparent here, I’m assuming because Disco Boy is the closest thing to a “hit Zappa song” from this era. The vocals sound great here too, and it left me wondering who does the high part (Adrian? Tommy?). Next is an amazing version of Läther, which sounds absolutely heavenly in this audio quality. It features the normal greatness from our three soloists, and leads us into our first of six monster Wild Loves.
The early show’s jam starts off as a good, but fairly standard take. We have an absolutely amazing sound profile, but these aren’t the best Peter, Ed and Adrian can do. Not bad by any sense, all three solos have their moments, but they just ultimately aren’t the best of the box. I’m assuming they’re all a little intimidated by the insane crowd, this is their first Zappa Halloween experience after all. The same cannot be said about Frank. As Adrian ends FZ whips out what I believe is one of his best solos of all time, a solo he ultimately prepared (and edited) for release on the posthumous Trance-Fusion entitled Bowling on Charen. This has the best use of the opening squirm lick, followed by 8+ minutes of absolutely fantastic, mind-boggling, almost evil guitar. Terry perfectly supports him with scant, restrained drumming, and just lets the master do his work. He creates such a unique, disturbed atmosphere with this piece, and constructs a wonderful musical story within this freaky environment. It’s really just a perfect moment of instantaneous composition, and it can barely be put into words. Check. This. One. Out. The tune ends with a long, wonderful solo guitar coda, and a jolting transition into somewhat perfunctory Titties ‘N Beer:
Terry: What do you want to do with those suckers?
Frank: Hey, well listen, once [those Warner Brothers executives] get down there, can I— can I arrange some of the entertainment for ’em, y’know, since I’ve been in the entertainment business for thirteen years now, I gotta… I’d like to— I’d like to show those people from Warner Bros. a really good time, y’know what I mean?
Terry: Yeah, well, uh, what did you have in mind for ’em, man?
Frank: Are you familiar with the device known in the trade as the “Tower Of Power”?
Terry: The Tower Of Power?
Frank: Yeah!
Terry: Man, you’re looking at the INVENTOR of the Tower Of Power!
Frank: YOU INVENTED THE TOWER OF POWER?
Terry: You mean, THE Tower Of Power?
Frank: Right!
Terry: The little wooden mahogany based spindle-like object, kinda like a stool, with a pink rubber anal plug in the middle of it?
Frank: Right, that’s the thing! The Tower Of Power!
Terry: Of course I know what the Tower Of Power is!
Frank: All right, I want you to fix up a special matched set of towers of power for all of the people who work for Warner Bros. Records AND for their legal department!
[…]
Frank: Can you arrange to have a Naugahyde detonator?
Terry: Yeah!
Frank: And while it’s— it’s exploding, over and over again, up the ass of everybody who works for Warner Bros., can you arrange to have a whole collection of Doobie Brothers, Leo Sayers albums playing in the background?
Terry: Oh sure man, all at the same time, of course!
Frank: How about Fleetwood Mac? You think you can arrange to have all that stuff going on there?
Terry: Sure— oh yeah, man, yeah, we can even play them backwards for ’em!
Frank: How about some of Warner Bros. really sharp disco music? You think you can play that for them?
Terry: Oh yeah, yeah.
Frank: Well OK then! Do we have a deal?
Terry: Man, you’se—
Frank: Because along with that, all I really need is some titties and beer, titties and beer…
[…]
“All right! How we doing so far? You guys having a good time? OK! It’s time now for AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION! Now look, this— this is a little bit complicated, gee wiz, I hope you can handle it. All you gotta do—now here’s the trick, y’know, you go to these rock & roll shows and the guy says “clap your hands,” y’know, like that? But of course, what you’re clapping to keeps going like that, so there’s no challenge, y’know? I want you guys to clap your hands like this no matter what they do, ’cause they ain’t gonna be playing what you’re doing, OK? Just see if you can keep it going…The name of this song is “The Black Page #2.” One, two, three, four!”
This is far from the best Titties of the run. Frank spends too long talking about the “DEAL” then gives a fine performance of the WB-BDSM monologue he’s been crafting. He’ll perfect this speech over the coming few days, but it’s still neat to have an early version (though less neat on repeat listen). When they wrap up the tune Frank stops to introduce the subject of audience participation, and the soon to be legendary Black Page. We get a flawless version of the infamous instrumental, with an honest but confused attempt at clapping along from the audience. Jones Crusher is a wonderful little rock tune, that’s perfectly placed after the statistically dense Black Page, and before the even stupider Broken Hearts Are For Assholes. This show features a fun take of the perverse tune, and it’s fantastic to actually be able to clearly hear most of Pat’s asides. My favorites from this show: “How ’bout a coupla rounds on Buddy Love’s Tower Of Power”; “I’ll tell you what’s coming up next… What’s coming up is Don Pepe!” and of course “Three-hundred and fifty-five pounds of Samoan dynamite!”. Pat and Tommy have a great time with the poop chute ending too, taking turns yelling thinly veiled sexual references (“Enemas!”, “A tight wet rubber shirt!”, “Johnson’s Baby Powder!”, “Gobs of Crisco!”). This leads into the always wonderful, chronically underrated Punky’s Whips. The intro is slightly modified (“one such case is seated before you on the spindle of the Tower Of Power itself”), but overall this show’s take isn’t incredibly unique. That being said it’s still very well performed, and features a great ending solo from Frank to close out the main set.
Frank says “thanks for comin’ to the show! Good night!’, but of course returns for an encore. He admits “All right, I know why you guys really came down here”, and cues the boys to tear into an above average take of Dinah-Moe Humm. Pat does this really cool, frantic bass line starting about two and a half minutes in and continuing until the song restarts, and Frank lets the lunatics closest to the stage scream the closing lines to the tune (“Where’s that lady coming from!?” is my favorite). FZ yells “All right! Let’s do another one!” and we get a great Camarillo Brillo. “One more!” of course means Muffin Man is next, and we get everything you could want from the tune: a fiery opening guitar solo from Belew and a fantastic rock n roll jam from Zappa.
“Seriously now folks, thank you very much for coming to our concert! Happy Halloween! Patrick, Adrian, Tommy, Terry, Peter, Ed. ‘Night.”
Frank conducts a quick crash ending and brings Halloween #1 to an end. You may have thought that the first show of the run would be one of the worst, but it’s actually one of my favorites. The whole band is cookin’, but Frank and Terry are the star players of the early show. The guitar solos are of course the highlights, with Torture, Conehead and Wild Love/Bowling on Charen all easily making the “required listen” category, but this whole show is a damn good time and an easy recommendation (even if some tunes, like City, the first half of Wild Love, and Titties N Beer are a bit subpar).
Late Show:
Here we are for show #2, and everything said of the first show applies here: amazing playing, fantastic solos, and a wonderful vibe. Somewhat unsurprisingly, this show works as a nice complement to the early show. It succeeds in the spots where the first show flounders, but it still holds its own when compared to the highlights from the early show. Anyway, our recording begins with The Knick Knack People tape, The Flakes walk on, and Frank’s opening statement:
“Good evening. And I do mean good evening. Welcome to Halloween #2, 1977. How many of you people were at Halloween #1? Good. Then you already know that that is Patrick O’Hearn on bass. And you also know that that is Adrian Belew on guitar. And you know that that is Tommy Mars on keyboards. And that is little skinny Terry “Ted” Bozzio on drums. And that remains Peter Wolf on keyboards. And of course, last but not least, Ed Mann on percussion. Are you ready? Oh, I thought you were ready.”
The cheers from the raving audience grow louder and louder until….Peaches En Regalia! It’s a fantastic build up, and it leads to a great take of this seminal tune. The Torture Never Stops comes next, and the crowd is still fully riled up (“Alright, scream along then!”). FZ whips out a fantastic solo. It’s a little shorter than the early show but not to the detriment of the tune, just more focused and to the point. Frank starts out somewhat chill, but reaches an incredible frenzy before the end, and overall tells a great story. I think I slightly prefer the unrestrained craziness of the first show, but I also love this more polished take. Tryin’ To Grow A Chin is perfectly placed in the setlist, and it leads right into another great City Of Tiny Lights. Just when you think Frank is settling into a regular groove in this tune, he whips out a Ship Ahoy-esque solo!! It’s really, really cool, and after a little while he heads into the regular furious guitar that we’ve come to expect. It comes to a pretty abrupt ending, but it’s still an awesome, fiery solo that’ll knock your socks off if you’re not ready for it. A lovely Pound For A Brown emerges from the City, with lots of Tommy Mars and an ever-increasing amount of Patrick O’Hearn (just how I like it). Frank’s solo-section-opening-chords are especially beautiful tonight, and they lead into a really nice, far-out jam from Tommy. After about 5 minutes, Patrick appears and duets with Tommy. Pat is just the coolest, his bass is looming, eerie and ominous, yet ridiculously funky at the same time. He pretty much plays a standalone solo, with occasional accompaniment from Tommy. The two (plus Terry) finish the jam by going nuts all at once, and Frank plays the toy police car! Tommy then starts singing about New York! (“New York, New York, New York. I love New York. You’re an inspiration to me. New York, New York, I love you, love you, love you…”). They crescendo to a big finish, and someone (Ed?) rhythmically squeaks a toy as they transition into Bobby Brown:
“All right, all right! It’s a new song. The song is about two weeks old. Let me tell you the story of this song. ‘Cause all the songs have a story, you know that. Once upon a time I was being interviewed by these three assholes—these guys were trying to really, I don’t know, ask these deep, probing questions. These were three really assholes. These guys were really ass-HOLES. They were trying to ask me these questions, see. Now, there’s all different kinds of interviewers, you know. The worst kind of interviewer is the kind of interviewer that brings his girlfriend to the interview, so they— He can go like, “Hey, baby, come with me, I’m gonna go talk to Zappa.” All right? Well I— I did an interview with three of these assholes one time. This is right at the— the beginning of the Women’s Movement. Now, see, these guys—they had a little problem. They weren’t sure they were gonna get any that night, so they figured that if they said some Women’s Movement oriented things to me that they would look good to them, and later on those guys would get together and hey-hey-hey. However, you know as well as I do, ladies and gentlemen, that this world is infested with bullshit. And these guys—these poor little guys— Let’s see if I can give an example of some of the questions they were asking, you know, like uh— Well, anyway, it was all about the words to my songs, you know, they were— they were coming on like, “Hey, how can you write these sexist lyrics, man? You know, when the Women’s Movement and everything,” and I was going, “Hey, blow it out your ass! Go talk to Mick Jagger for sexist lyrics.” You know, in a very nice, succinct, kind of quasi intellectual way, I intimated to these young gentlemen that they were barking at the wrong tree, because the words to my songs aren’t particularly sexist in either direction. I figured that there’s stupid people on either side of the fence and they all need a shag. And this particular song is dedicated to those three assholes. I’ve for— taken all of their three whizzing little personalities and melted them down into one character, named Bobby Brown.”
This is another now-standard “Three Assholes” story, but I do enjoy that quick jab at Mick Jagger. We get a pretty normal Bobby Brown performance, though at the start Frank actually really tries to sing, not his usual talk-singing-shtick. The song finishes like normal, the crowd cheers, and Conehead is up next! Frank gets off to a somewhat casual, chill start, but around 4 minutes things begin to get really interesting. This playful, bouncy groove forms, and not long after Terry starts this weird repetitive drum riff. This seems to really inspire Frank, and he picks up the pace a bit, delivering a long, experimental and just plain lovely solo. He increases in intensity as the minutes go on, and near the end he even touches on the Nowhere riff! This take isn’t quite as great as the early show (IMO), but it gets close. It’s still very entertaining, and it’s got a completely different, somewhat more relaxed feel. After nine ridiculous minutes, he finally lets his hands rest and he introduces the next tune:
“This is a song about people who don’t do what they’re supposed to do. These people are called ‘flakes.’ Most of these people live in California. And there’s a good reason why they live in California, because everybody in California is there for the purpose of collecting unemployment or going on welfare or both. And so, if anybody does got a job there, they can never do it right. They fuck up all the time. The mechanics can’t fix your car, TV rep— TV repairmen always electrocute themselves, and so on and so forth. Vamp-vamp-vamp… while I get the guitar ready, and the name of this song is ‘Flakes.’”
It’s a standard Flakes intro without too many embellishments, but I love the bored attitude at the end there. The song itself is an average version, but it’s notable because Frank asks Adrian “You wanna buy an unused copy of Music From Big Pink, Bob?”. I have no idea why Frank chose to reference this tonight, but this is the debut album by The Band, and the cover of this album is a painting by Bob Dylan. The always enjoyable Big Leg Emma follows, and when this pair of vocal tunes is complete, Frank gives a short introduction to Envelopes (“It falls into the classification of thoroughly twisted pseudo-love song, featuring the charming voice of Tommy Mars.”). Tommy performs a nice rendition of the tune (if that’s possible), and we get a really good solo from Terry, with a really cool electronic ending. He even drops a stick and comments on it in the middle (“Oh I dropped my stick…”). I say this all the time but I think this is one of my favorite drum solos of the tour. A fun Disco Boy comes next (“Rock n roll!!!”), followed by a fabulous Läther. I really enjoyed Frank’s solo on this one. Tommy’s and Peter’s are lovely too, but Frank really plays some top tier guitar here. Really just a lovely performance, with a nice acapella guitar coda too. Another monstrous Wild Love of course follows, with three great solos from Peter, Ed and Adrian. The transition into Adrian’s disco vamp is just heavenly, and his anthemic solo is nothing to scoff at either. Frank’s jam is fantastic. It’s really cool and spacy and pretty long, but it comes to a bit of an abrupt end. It’s a really great solo. not quite as earth shattering as the early show but it’s very different, filling a different niche, y’know? Anyway, Frank’s guitar coda is excellent too, and it leads into a long, Anti-WB Titties ‘n Beer, which in a way showcases FZ and the rhythm section:
Frank: You know, well, listen, we should get better acquainted, you know? I figure you and me together would make a good team. You know? I mean, I like— I like your style. I like your little mask, I like your horns. You have a very good beat.
Terry: Listen…
Frank: You’re cute… Ha ha ha…
Terry: Listen now…
Frank: No, I just threw that in there, just to amuse you. You are cute, though. You got a— Let’s admit it, you are cute. Here. Hold this. I wanna find out what’s on this film, ha ha ha… I bet it’s really good. Uh, oh, back to the song now. Look. Uh. I wanna go down there, I’ve heard that throughout literature, there’s all these stories about people who make a deal with the Devil, you know, the Devil gets their soul, and as soon as the Devil gets the soul, then of course everything is wonderful, you can have everything you want, everything on Earth is really cool, you know. And all you gotta do is give a guy with a rubber mask your soul. I figure that’s a pretty good deal, you know, since I don’t believe in any of that shit, so look, let’s make a little deal. I’ll go down there, sure, I’ll play along with the gag. You can have my soul. I’ll go down there with you. Only I wanna be able to take some other people with me.
Terry: Who’s that, man?
Frank: You know who it is, we— Same as last show. I wanna take everybody who works for Warner Bros. Records.
Terry: And what do you wanna do with them?
Frank: I want all of those guys, all those guys and gals, I want the entire Warner Bros. Communications family, every fucking one of them, down there with me.
Terry: Okay.
Frank: You know, I wanna be able to say with authority, “Get down, Warner Bros.”
[…]
Frank: I think that they should have the best. Only the best. Have you heard of a device called The Tower Of Power?
Terry: Have I heard of a device called The Tower Of Power?
Frank: What?
Terry: You mean— Ha ha… You mean that little, uh, wooden spindlely-like object, you know, kinda like a stool with a little anal plug in it that you seat on?
Frank: Yes, precisely the device.
Terry: Yeah.
Frank: Here’s what I want you to do. I want you to rig up a bunch of those things, see, but ins— instead of the cute little vinyl—the pink vinyl butt plug, I want you to rig up some nice rusty ones, made up of Carborundum with a hand grenade attached to the top of it that’s rechargeable.
Terry: Far out.
Frank: And I want the whole thing to rotate powered by about a thirty horsepower motor, you know, for really consistent ream-ability. And I want a Naugahyde detonator. Can you work that out?
Terry: I think it can be arranged, yes.
Frank: Hey, listen, I can just see Mo and Dave Berman squatting on that thing. And then, while they’re playing th— the entire Fleetwood Mac songbook, I’ll pull the chain and it’ll blow up over and over again.
I love the WB hate, and the Fleetwood Mac reference too. This isn’t the most original or unique Titties N Beer, but Frank and Terry are in a great mood so it’s a pretty fun time. After this Frank immediately goes into the audience participation segment of the night, which brings me back to the old Be-Bop Tango days:
Frank: Okay! Nice tits, by the way. Really nice tits, and a nice shirt. Would you please stand up and show everybody your shirt? That’s a smart girl. I mean, she made that shirt herself, I didn’t ask her to. That is a homemade shirt. And it really— It says it, you know. It really says, “Warner Bros. Sucks,” in case you can’t read it. Now, for this part of our program we’re going to have audience participation. Not only are we— Hey, listen. Well, I got news for you, you with the three-piece suit. You look very good. I don’t know what you’re doing here. Wha— What kind of suit is that? What? Naugahyde? It’s a Naugahyde three-piece suit? Looks good. Okay. I elect you to be the cheerleader. Stand up. Come ‘ere. No. Come ‘ere. Come up here! Awright. What’s your name?
Will: Will [McC…]
Frank: William, because you’re so well dressed and setting such a wonderful example for the rest of the people in this audience here tonight…
Will: America… America, baby, America.
Frank: That’s right. I mean, let’s face it, you do look good. And because you look good and you— and because a person who looks that good obviously has to have a lot of natural rhythm, I hereby appoint you as official cheerleader for this part of the program. That means that you have to make these people stay on the beat while they clap their hands. You think you can do it?
[…]
Frank: Okay, here’s what you guys do. They’re gonna play this song, it’s called “The Black Page #2.” The audience is gonna try and keep a beat. It’s not gonna be easy, ladies and gentlemen. It’s never easy. I never promised you a rose garden. But concentrate, keep the beat going. These two people are going to actually dance to “The Black Page #2.”
It’s the first Black Page Dance Contest! Frank brings up Will and Mary to dance to the abstruse number (Will is apparently in a three piece suit). They launch into a great take of The Black Page, where you can hear Frank laughing and yelling to our dancers (“Awright!… Ha ha… Work out”!). The audience gives up on clapping a little earlier than the first show (I think), our contestants dance their hearts out, and Frank lets our dancers off stage (“Mary. Here, you keep the poodle, it was really good on you.”). A fun Jones Crusher comes next, and the tune ends with a LONG final chord. It leads into another amusing Broken Hearts Are For Assholes, with more lovely homo-erotic ramblings from Patrick. “Baby Buns is no longer with us anymore… nor is Angel” and “Two-hundred and twenty pounds of Peruvian leather” are this show’s standouts. A lively poop chute ending leads into a great Punky’s Whips (what a sentence…). Frank stops during the intro to poke fun at Terry (“Watch him drink, watch him eat. Watch him drink and eat and play the drums”). I believe this is a reference to the Uncle Meat movie, but more on this in the Halloween show review. Pat’s “pouting for me” intro dialog is notably out there too (Pat: “I don’t think he is because Al says he thinks he’s gay”/Terry: “What the hell does Al know for Christ sake…”). The whole band gets into a fantastic fuckin groove for the ending solo and Frank whips out maybe my favorite Punky solo so far. Angry but focused; it’s just a fantastic guitar event and a great way to end the night.
“Thank you! You don’t mind if I get something cold to drink, do you? Is anything out— Is there a Coke or anything around the stage? It’s coming? Oh, okay. Wonderful. That’s right, that’s right… Well, we can’t keep you people waiting around forever just because I’m thirsty. Fuck it. Let’s go”
What an encore intro! Unfortunately it’s just for Dinah-Moe Humm. It’s a normal performance: fun if you’re in the mood but otherwise a little mundane. There’s some light slight variation in the fauna part (Kiss my aura, Dora… You’re probably wondering why I would say that to a person. Well, the reason is because it’s real angora, I don’t mess around.”), but otherwise it’s Dinah-Moe Humm. At the end Frank yells “A little medication here… Ah! The American wine!” and heads into a pretty killer Camarillo/Muffin combo. In Muffin Man, Adrian plays a dirty intro solo, and Frank follows it up with a tasty few minutes of heavy guitar gratification (“Nils Lofgren!”). He eventually stops his fury and sings a couple closing bars:
Thank you very much
For coming to the concert
Thank you very much
For coming to the concert tonight
Thank you very much again
For coming to the concert this evening
And thank you once again
For coming to the concert…
On behalf of Patrick, Adrian, Tommy, Terry, Peter, and Ed. Good night. One more time, really loud…
But it’s not over just yet! We get a final intense minute of delicious guitar fury, before a surprising, massive, conducted crash quickly brings the show to a close. A great finale to a great concert, and an excellent sign of the nights to come. Like I said before, I feel this late show really compliments the early show, succeeding where the early show slightly slumped, like in CIty Of Tiny Lights, Titties N Beer, the audience participation and the grand finale. All of the Halloween shows are worth a listen, and both shows on the 28th are where you should start. Honestly, they’re not a bad place to start with this band in general.
1977 10 29 – Palladium, New York, NY (Two Shows – Official Release)
click here to listen to the early show (Spotify)
click here to listen to the late show (Spotify)
Here we are: New York Day #2 Show #3. Now this is my least favorite show of the whole run, but it’s still a Halloween ‘77 show. You can’t exactly go wrong with this box set. This, to me, is the most average of the six shows. Frank’s guitar playing is solid, but a lot of his solos end somewhat abruptly, and I clocked a lot of sloppy playing from Tommy too. I imagine the whole band is a little weary from the two wild shows yesterday, but on top of that, this is the first filmed night! (as far as I can tell). So I wouldn’t be surprised if these two variables affected the music from show number three. Despite my complaints, this show still has some amusing highlights, it really picks up steam in the second half, and is not a bad listen whatsoever (just try not to compare it with the other shows too much). The night begins with a prominent song playing over the pre-Flakes walk-on (I don’t know what it is though), and Frank emerging to introduce the night’s festivities:
“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. You’re probably wondering what we’re doing here, right? Well, we’re making a movie, you see. And you people are in the movie. You like that idea, right? In case anybody who is, uh—jam on, right—in case anybody who is seeing this film wonders where it is and what’s happening—yes, you will hear Disco Boy—what’s that one say? No, we do not play ‘Suzy Creamcheese’—this film is being made in New York City, October 1977. Bob. Phil. Dick. All right. Now, let’s get on with the show, okay? You guys just sit down, relax, just relax. Okay. I’d like to introduce you to the members of our rockin’ teen-age combo. Ladies and gentlemen, Patrick O’Hearn on bass. Where’s that spotlight? That’s Patrick. This is Adrian Belew on guitar. Tommy Mars on keyboards. Little skinny Terry ‘Ted’ Bozzio on drums. Peter Wolf on keyboards. And Ed Mann on percussion. And what’s my name? [ZAPPA!] Huh? All right, you’re ready?”
We start this show off right with an excellent Peaches En Regalia, performed with a fiery passion. The Torture Never Stops come next, bringing the pace down slightly but without losing any energy. As is now the usual FZ throws a few asides to the roaring crowds in there (“Thank you Sue and Michelle” – any idea who they are?). “All right! You people want to get tortured tonight or what?” Frank whips out a rockin’ n’ riotous solo, immediately getting low down and dirty, and keeping that vibe through the jam. It’s not my favorite of the run, but it’s very very good, it stands on its own, and is an easy highlight of show #3. Some fans shout for Dinah-Moe Humm, and we transition into a fun ‘Grow Me A Chin’. Tiny Lights has a solid, high-energy solo from Frank, with great accompaniment from Pat and Terry. It ends a little abruptly, but the transition into Pound is really lovely, maybe even better than average dare I say. Unfortunately though this isn’t the best take of the theme. Tommy’s composed scat feels a little off (which is really saying something), and I feel the keyboard playing just doesn’t sound fantastic on this cut. Though this is somewhat forgiven when Patrick takes the first solo tonight! A real full length solo too! It’s a very nice, chiller jam, and you can tell Patrick is wondering what the tone of his Pound solos will be. He gets really quiet towards the end, making the transition into Tommy’s scat filled extravaganza even more pronounced. Mars plays a nice little jam, not his best, but still fun. The ending’s really great though; he goes into this crazed spacey kinda thing, and Terry and Patrick created a controlled demolition kinda vibe underneath him [This is nonsense but I know what I mean]. They finally crescendo into a big bang, and we get an amusing transition into the mellow Bobby Brown beat.
“Why, it’s almost like Alvin Lee’s watermelon, only perverted. All right. I’m sure that some of you were at the show last night when we gave this song its New York premiere. But some of you weren’t at the show last night so you need to hear the story about this song, you know? Some of you people need to hear the story too. All right, in order to hear the story that means you have to use your ears and listen to the story, because a person such as myself can only talk so loud in a room like this. Now, listen. This is sad, this is a sad and somewhat serious story. This is the story about the three assholes. Once upon a time there was a rock & roll musician who got interviewed by three assholes. These assholes came to the rock & roll musician hotel room along with their girlfriends. The reason they brought their girlfriends along is because they wanted to let their girlfriends know that they were going up there to interview that Zappa guy and they weren’t gonna take any shit from him. Right on, brothers and sisters, right on! And so, they— Hey, give me the hat. Sure, I’ll take the hat. Heh heh. I need a hat like that. Thank you. Anyway, these three crumpet munching idiots came to my room with their girlfriends, you see? And they wanted it to be known in no uncertain terms that they were right behind every concept involved in the Women’s Movement, you know what I mean? In other words, if they did things a certain way and if they said things a certain way then maybe later their girlfriends would suck them off because they were saying things that they wanted to hear. So, consequently, you get these guys—these guys are like the first guys on the block to say “Ms.,” in hope that it’s gonna get ’em some mileage. And I’m gonna dedicate this song to the three crumpet munching assholes. And their girlfriends. Because I figured that any woman that wants t— any woman that wants to take her little teen-age pants off for a guy like that deserves it.”
This is one of the better Bobby intros, mainly because it’s shorter and more to the point, but also from Frank’s extraneous comments. The Alvin Lee’s Watermelon bit is a hysterical reference to a famed moment from Woodstock, and I really love the term “crumpet munching assholes”. Frank goes right into the song, accidentally skipping the drum intro, but he starts over during the first verse because the band is going “just a little bit too fast.” (“Slow it down just— I wanna be able to get all the words out, okay?”). Frank sings kind strangely in parts, but this is otherwise a standard performance. Conehead comes next, and while it’s significantly shorter than the last two show’s, and doesn’t quite reach the same peaks, it’s still a very good time (A regular Conehead if you will). Frank whips out a cool chugging ending, and introduces the next song.
“The next song we’d do is— is about the subject of incompetence … By the way, I hope the lights and the cameras and everything aren’t gonna bother you, you know. We’re just going about our business as usual except we’re trying not to trip each other with all these wires … This song is about the people in California who hold uh, various positions in science, industry, politics, you name it. All these people have one thing in common—they are flakes, they do not do what they are supposed to do. It’s impossible in California to get something fixed when you wanna get it fixed—unless of course you’re paying off a judge. So, this goes out to them…”
An alright version of Flakes ensues (this is really not Tommy’s show), followed by a regular, fun Big Leg Emma, and a longer-than-usual Envelopes intro:
“All right. The name of this song is ‘Envelopes”… That’s right, you like that song? You really like that song? You only heard it last night, right? And already you like that song?… You never can tell what’s gonna happen in a major metropolitan area. Well, ladies and gentlemen, this song features the succulent voice of Tommy Mars, and he will now take it away…”
Tommy pulls it together for a solid Envelopes, with an ever growing amount of squeaky percussion and a solid Terry Bozzio solo. Disco Boy is surprisingly energized; It starts off with an odd but amusing scream and Frank shouts off a number of fun little asides (“Now what am I gonna do with them this thing”, “Lotta Pumpkins tonight”, “Very nice, just like my little brother”). It leads into a solid Läther. Nothing special with this one, a good time but not the set’s best (which sums up this show so far for the most part). Wild Love is a different story though. It’s an overall shorter performance (22 minutes), but it still shines with great solos from all 4 regular contestants. Frank’s solo starts off absolutely menacing, but he eventually ends up at an epic, monumental place and rides that wave for a while. From good to evil in one fantastic guitar jam (Shut Up N Play Yer Guitar Esque I say). It’s really a lovely solo, with perfectly sparse accompaniment from the rhythm section. They return to the disco vamp for a second when FZ wraps up, and we get a short, fun additional guitar jam to transition us back into the closing theme. Not on the same level as the sparse jam of course, but definitely appreciated. A long tasty acapella guitar coda brings us into an amusing, surprisingly non-Warner Brothers Titties ‘n Beer.
Terry: Well, I don’t know what I’m gonna do, I mean, uh … I don’t know if you’re the right cat for the job, you know?
Frank: Yeah.
Terry: I mean, I just don’t know about, uh … let me […] the Hell, you know?
Frank: You mean going to Hell is like having a job?
Terry: Say that again.
Frank: You mean going to Hell is like having a job?
Terry: Yeah.
Frank: You mean I have to apply to go to Hell?
Terry: Well, that’s what you told me to do in the dressing room.
Frank: Hah hah hah … No, you’re just supposed to say, “Oh, well, a cloud of doom crosses my mind when you say you want to make a deal with me.”
Terry: No, wait a minute! Wait a minute! That’s my old shit, I thought we were talking about doing something else.
Frank: Ah! Do that one!
Terry: Okay. Here we go.
Frank: Hit it!
Terry: Cut. (Whistle.) A cloud of doom crosses my mind when you say that you want to make a deal with me.
[…]
Frank: Let me give it to you straight.
Terry: Okay.
Frank: Only because I like you so much, and because you really look good with that particular mask on …
Terry: And …
Frank: That is a good mask.
Terry: … because this mask is so fucking hot …
Frank: Hah hah …
Terry: … then you better get this over with quick.
Frank: I bet it smells really neat inside too.
Terry: Yeah, and this stupid little light here is roasting my weenie.
Frank: Hey … Would you— You got the littlest costume on so you’re okay.
Terry: Yeah, I know, but still, man …
Frank: All right. Look, he—
Terry: There’s more skin to burn, you know?
Frank: Here, here is the, the crux of the biscuit, as they say in the trade … I don’t mind going to Hell. You understand this?
Terry: Yeah.
Frank: I don’t care. That doesn’t bother me. So long as I achieve my objective.
Terry: What, what objectives, man? What is this?
Frank: Well, look … All I am interested in really is titties ‘n beer, titties ‘n beer …
Frank and Terry have some funny dialog confusion to start us off. FZ seemingly gave Bozzio directions in the dressing room to try and do something different with the improv but then changed his mind on stage. They get back on track, Terry comments on his hatred of the hot, sweaty devil mask, and Frank references the legendary Crux of the Biscuit. Not a super memorable Titties, but a fun listen in the context of the show. Then, inspired by the success of the previous show, Frank ends the tune with another Dance Contest intro:
Frank: All right. Okay. You know what time it is—How you doin’?—You know what time it is now, don’t you? That’s right, it is audience participation time … Okay, now look, how many of you were at the second show last night? … All right. I thought that was really good. The guy with the three-piece suit and everything. All right. In fact, I liked that so much I think we should have another dance contest, but we need to have just the right people. There’s a girl there—the girl right there. You. Come ‘ere. We have a girl. And we have a guy. Hey hey hey … What’s your name? What’s your name?
Jimmy: JIMMY!
Frank: Hey, JIMMY! How you doin’, Jimmy?
Jimmy: Alri-i-IGHT! NEW YORK CITY!
Frank: All right, Jimmy. What’s your name?
Sheryl: Sheryl!
[…]
Frank: No, listen, you’ve got the deal. Sheryl Dobbs, you have the deal. Now, here’s what’s going to happen. You are going to dance with JIMMY!
Sheryl: Okay!
Frank: All right?
Sheryl: All right!
Frank: Except that there’s a little problem here. You think the beat’s okay, ’cause it’s going on like that, it’s kind of nice right now, but in a minute they’re gonna play a song that’s got rhythm all over the place and you have to keep on dancing to that. Understand?
Sheryl: I understand.
Frank: All right?
Sheryl: Yep.
Frank: And you can’t fuck up, you know?
Sheryl: No, I won’t.
Frank: Okay. Now, you guys have to help … Hey … Just pretend it was a Slade concert, you know what I mean? … All right! “The Black Page #2” and may the Lord have mercy on your soul …
Ah yes audience participation time in New York City. He invites “very rhythmic” Jimmy and the “moderately” rhythmic Sheryl from the audience up on stage, and has a lengthy talk with them before launching into the The Black Page #2! [Side Note: I love Frank’s funny impression of JIMMY!] We get another nearly flawless performance of the tune (though I think there’s maybe a keyboard issue at 1:40, where it’s only Ed carrying the melody). People go nuts cheering at the end, and we get a slow transition into Jones Crusher. It’s an absolutely lovely, fantastic, perfect take, so it makes sense that Frank decided to use it for both the Baby Snakes movie and album! A great Broken Hearts Are For Assholes follows this, and it’s also the performance in the Baby Snakes movie! It’s a fairly standard take (but this may just be because I’m comparing it to itself basically), with some amusing quips from Pat. My favorite line from this show is “You’ve undoubtedly heard of the Seven Rings of Hell… This boy is wearing them”. Pat’s got some good, erotic one liners over the ending too (who doesn’t love “a hot, wet, tight, black rubber shirt”?). Frank and Terry get off sync for one of the final “ram it’s” (but in a kinda cool way…), and we get a nice transition into the fantastic closer that is Punky’s Whips. Frank used the majority of the head of this performance for the Baby Snakes movie, and it makes sense why. The album Baby Snakes uses a hybrid version of the head from this show with large chunks from the 31st, and both the movie and the album use Frank’s guitar solo from the 31st. This is a classic, “straight” take of the tune. It’s very nice, light and bouncy, and features especially great rhythm guitar from Adrian. Frank whips out a fantastic, rocking solo (it’s pretty close to perfect imho, but I understand why he used the 31st solo), and brings the main set to an excellent end.
Thank you. […]! Hee-hey! Awright. Oh, excuse me, didn’t— Let’s play […]. All right, you already know what the song it’s gotta be—you already know how it goes. And because you know how it goes, and because you really know how it goes, you have to help out, clap your hands, sing along, whatever you like…
Of course our first encore is Dinah-Moe Humm, and we get a better-than average take, with some fun audience participation. During the “kiss my aura” section, Frank asks an audience member “the reason I asked you to kiss my aura, why do you think that was?” and she replies correctly with “it’s because I have no commercial potential“!!! (a reference to the abandoned 60s project!). Frank goads Roy Estrada to come on with a “Managua!”, but I don’t particularly want that to happen. Frank does get him to come out, and he moans out a high falsetto “Rock N Roll!” like it’s 1969 all over again. Frank dedicates the next tune to Roy unfortunately, and kicks into a great Camarillo Brillo (“Actually Mike I was very busy then”). It’s a wonderful, energized take, and it leads into an equally great Muffin Man. Adrian whips out a sick opening solo, and Frank absolutely brings the house down with his (Frank yells to fan “What do you think about that?” at the start of the solos). This excellent, biting, passionate solo is possibly the best of the run so far and provides an excellent end to the show.
All right! This is it, folks, this is really the end of the first show tonight. Hey, you know what I mean! Thanks for coming to it! We gotta do it all over again in a couple of minutes. And I know we’re probably gonna see a bunch of you for the second show, so all right. That gives you a chance to go and get some popcorn or something. And for the rest of you people, I’ll see you the next time. Good night…
Frank then conducts a huge, fun crash, which brings this great encore to an end. This concert doesn’t have the best start but things get really great after Läther, and the boys sustain this energy for the rest of the night. There’s nothing bad in the first half of course, but it is probably the worst show of the set. Though really this says more about the quality of all the other shows in this run than anything negative in show number three. So while I still think you should listen to this one if you’re doing the whole box set, it’s probably the show I would return the least to.
Late Show:
Halloween #4! This show starts with the same energy that the last show left off with, which is a very good thing, and we get a much more well rounded, dynamite show. We’ve got great music, we’ve got great players, we’ve got a great time, what else can I say? The late show starts largely like all the others, Patrick shows off during the walk on, someone yells to Frank off mic about something, and Frank starts his opening articulate announcements:
“All right, good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the second show. I suppose you noticed we are making a movie. And I suppose you also noticed that you are in the movie! And you are in the movie! And you’re in the movie! And you’re in the movie, you’re in-in the movie, and you’re in the movie, you’re in the movie, all of you people are in the movie! That is why the lights just went on, because you are in the movie. This is your movie. Awright! Now, listen… Oh, you like that, huh? That’s what you want? How ’bout that? Like that? That one? Just that one? How ’bout this one? Like that one? All right. Want to introduce you to the members of our lovely motion picture team. Phil, Bob and Dick! And, the members of our rockin’ teen-age combo. Patrick O’Hearn on bass, Adrian Belew on guitar, Tommy Mars on keyboards, Terry Bozzio on drums, Peter Wolf on keyboards, Ed Mann on percussion. And what’s my name?… [ZAPPA!] What’s my name?… [ZAPPA!] And what’s my name?… [ZAPPA!] And what’s my name?… [ZAPPA!] Awright! [cheers] I may be wrong, but I think you are ready… And therefore, we shall begin…”
Such a great intro. I love the ”and you’re in the movie” stuff, it reminds me of the “and there’s a camera there” bit from the Roxy Movie. I also like that he introduces the cameramen, and I absolutely love the Zappa chant. The boys burst into a perfect take of Peaches En Regalia, with this sick guitar scratch about 30 seconds in, and follow it with a lively Torture Never Stops. Frank’s clearly in a great mood, as he quips and grunts throughout the head (“That stuff’s not good for you!” “Happy Halloween!” “Hooplah” “Did you know that?”). It leads to another low down and dirty guitar solo, one of Frank’s slowest in a long while (In a good way). Patrick and Terry shine here once again and there’s some interesting rhythm guitar accompaniment from Adrian around seven minutes in. Frank’s solo is shorter than our last three tortures, and it has a somewhat abrupt end, but it’s still a fantastic solo. Tryin’ To Grow A Chin follows this up and maybe I’m insane but I feel like this one is a little lacking? Just slightly less energetic than the normal Chin, and somehow feeling more routine? But all this being said it’s probably not any different from a normal chin. A red hot City of Tiny Lights comes next, and similar to Torture we get a great, rocking FZ solo, that ends unfortunately abruptly (I think this is an example of Frank having a hard time with counting and finding the one).
Another excellent Pound For A Brown comes next. The transition out of city is always lovely, and tonight’s chorded intro to the solo section is especially beautiful. Patrick starts with a delightfully weird and funky bass jam (with a tiny bit of scatting from Tommy) that pretty quickly turns into Aerosmith’s Walk This Way! After this fun quote, he resumes his bass solo, then plays more Aerosmith, and finally returns to the pound vamp to hand things off to Mr. Mars. Tommy scats, jams, and plays a bit of Inca Roads! (The “did a vehicle come from…” part). His solo is filled with fantastic style changes, and finishes with an almost broadway sorta feel. It’s a really cool ending to a fantastic, top tier, S-rank Pound For A Brown. There’s a moment of silence after the song explosively concludes, and we get the (dreaded) Bobby Brown drum fill intro. This is a looooooooong intro, like 6 minutes long, and it’s like 6 minutes more than I want to hear Frank talk about Women’s Liberation.
“All right! That’s right! That’s right. All right. And that’s right. And all right. That’s right. Or as they say in the world of rock & roll, ROCK & ROLL! Okay. Check this out. This is a story for you. Wait a minute, story time. This is the story of the three assholes. Some of you people already know the story of the three assholes. As a matter of fact, two or three of the assholes might even be in the audience tonight, you can never be sure. There one— No, you aren’t one of them. Let me tell you. These— Let me tell you about these assholes—they were crumpet munchers, you know what I mean? The worst kind of assholes.
These three assholes came to interview me at the hotel room one time, you know? Only they needed to bring their girlfriends along, to impress them, you know? It’s always important to impress your girlfriend. And you’ll notice that whenever I get really sincere I take my glasses off just like they do on television. So, you’ll understand that when I really MEAN IT, then you get it like that, all right? Now, these assholes brought their girlfriends to the hotel while they were going to interview me.
Why were these people assholes, you might ask, you know? I’ll tell you why they were assholes, because they wanted to impress those girls, and not only that, their fucking girlfriends were assholes too. They were all a bunch of crumpet munchers, everyone of them. Probably by the time they got done interviewing me they went home and fed crumpets to each other, oh, I— Some of the perverted things that people do after interview me I just can’t even believe it. You see, I’m regular, I’m normal, I’m a nice person, and these assholes, they come over and start talking to me, asking me stupid questions, you know? What? I’m an asshole too, so are you, what’s the difference? Now, look. Except I am not a crumpet muncher. If there’s one thing that I can say, I haven’t the slightest trace of English blood in me. That’s for goddamn sure. Now, listen. And that’s probably why I never had a hit.
However, these three assholes came over there and they wanted to interview me, see? And they brought their girlfriends along because they wanted to let their girlfriends know that they were… (assholes!) No, worst than that! Worst than— Worst than being mere assholes, they wanted their girlfriends to know that they were into the Women’s Movement… Hey, now, look! Don’t get the wrong idea, ladies and gentlemen! The women’s struggle is a very important struggle. However, let’s face it, the female species is divided into three main segments. These segments are the girl—the girl is a kind of a person that wears metallic green fingernail polish and silver eyeshadow, and doesn’t ever cut her toenails. And she goes to a lot of rock concerts—probably she’s over at a Kiss concert right now. Those are girls. Then, the next phase—you got ladies, you see? Now, a lady is a person that used to be a girl, but as she got older she put on some white gloves, eats fried chicken with the gloves on, and went and got a nice hairdo. Now, that’s a lady.
Then, last but not least, you’ve ha— you’ve have— pfft, pfft… you have women! Now, the problem is that there’s very few real women, you see? And the ones that are already women they don’t need to be liberated, you know? They know what’s going on, they got their own little thing going. You’ve run into a very difficult philosophical problem here. Do you really wanna liberate somebody who’s got green metallic fingernail polish? Do you really wanna liberate somebody who’s got little white gloves on while she eats fried chicken? Maybe yes, maybe no, but you have to think about it before you turn ’em loose, you know? There’s no telling what they’ll do once they get out into the world. If somebody does come from a background of a green metallic fingernail polish, once she certainly become a woman, hey, a lot of you men are in for trouble.
Anyway, these assholes came down there with their girlfriends because they wanted to prove to their girlfriends that they wanted to help out. They were into the Women’s Movement. They wanted to say “Ms.” a lot. They said “Ms.” every time the asshole girls sucked ’em off, I know they did. And this song is dedicated to them. And it’s dedicated to every asshole in the audience tonight who might have had a similar experience. Any of you guys out there who had the stoop to go along with the gag in order to get laid, this song is for you…”
It feels wrong including that whole thing but there it is. This speech overall is pretty bad but somehow not as offensive as you’d expect. Bobby Brown is a parody song, and the men being parodied in the song are in the wrong and deserve to be made fun of, but I’ve never gotten the idea that Frank actually respects the Women’s movement, just that he also doesn’t respect men pretending to be feminists. But he also seems aware of this? I feel when he says “once she certainly become a woman, hey, a lot of you men are in for trouble”, he has to be talking about himself in some way. I may be wrong but I feel that the whole girl-lady-woman story is an important part of understanding Frank’s flawed views on women. But this being said I still don’t really want to listen to this. I hate how Frank says “female”, or “wo-man” or “college educated woman”, it just comes off as so nasty, though I’d still take this over the ten minute enema bag lectures from Halloween 1975 (*Shudder*). Anyway, Bobby Brown rant over. Something positive: Patrick really really enhances this monologue with his excellent bass. The moment when he comes back in after Pound is especially grand and he plays around with the bass line as always (the backing track changes slightly at 2min). Plus we can’t forget about his vocal comments throughout te speech as well (“Spit it out boy”). As for the song itself we get a very standard early-ish take of tune. FZ’s vocals get a little out there around the golden shower line and stay that way til the end, but it’s really nothing too notable. The best part comes when FZ finishes and a fan catches his eye, I’m not totally sure what Frank sees but we get a little reference to a certain Wino-related tune:
“Watch me now, I’m goin’ down…What?… Free the label?… Oh, wait a minute, hey, wait a minute, that— Where did you hear about that? D’you know the story of “eat the label”? That’s a true story, ’bout the wino… Yeah, I know what you’re talking about. It’s about the wino. Yeah. Ah, no, no. We’re not gonna do that song. Hey-hey! No way! No way. I’ll tell you, the reason we’re not gonna do that song is because we didn’t practice it, you know, you can’t learn everything, you know. Oh, well. Ah? Hey, wait a minute, what are you saying? What this—?… Hey, hey… hey… One at a time. Now it’s my turn. The name of this song is—thank you—’Conehead.’”
The fans are too rabid for Frank, and he sadly doesn’t get to tell his wino story, and instead heads into Conehead. Tonight’s take has a chiller solo than the usual performance, but it’s absolutely killer. It’s a shorter solo, but it’s more focused so I don’t really find it detrimental in this case. Frank’s guitar is dark, moody and slow building, and sculpts a beautiful soundscape for the entirety of the song. Just a delightful time.
“Awright. You already know what the story of this song is. This is the song about people who do not do what they are supposed to do. These people are called “flakes.” Most of these people live in California, but I found out that some of them have moved back to New York—which is where a lot of them came from to begin with. And it goes like this…”
A solid Flakes intro, followed by a solid Flakes. It’s not exactly the smoothest take, but it has a funny back and forth in the Dylan dialog that makes up for it (Frank: ”Can I sell you another harmonica, Bob?” AB: “You know what? This one don’t play too good, doesn’t it? and they charged me double for it, too”). The tune leads into the obligatory Big Leg Emma. After a standard performance they end with a long held chord, and Frank gives an introduction to Envelopes with more audience interaction.
“Thank you! The name of this song is “Envelopes.” It is a weird sort of love song. Just for you, because you have the look. You have the look of a person who needs desperately to relate to this particular number. I want you, with the ball, with the short hair, with that nice shirt—that very nice shirt. What is your name?… John, this song goes out to you from Tommy Mars. This is a dedication from Tommy to Johnny.”
After a bit of fun with John, we get a very lively Envelopes, perhaps the best take of the tour. Tommy has made the lyrics his own at this point, and he really leans into the last few lines in an enjoyable way. He shouts “Terry’ll make it go faster!!” as Bozzio erupts into a long, cool, highly electronic drum solo. Terry’s absolutely on fire, and whips out one of his best solos of the tour. Disco Boy comes next, and it’s a nice time filled with little asides to the audience from Frank (the best being: “A live one in the corner ladies and gentleman!!!”). A fun disco outro leads into a very nice Läther. Tonight’s second performance really feels like a full band affair, with excellent bass from Pat, and I don’t know how else to describe it, it just feels like everyone is on fire in this performance. Each musician is competing for the spotlight and simultaneously succeeding at the same time. Frank, Tommy and Peter each deliver a beautiful solo, and the event is capped off by a long, sick, heavy guitar ending! This is one of the best performances of this tune in my book, and the infectious energy carries over into a great Wild Love.
I rarely have comments on the head of this tune, but tonight Frank briefly plays the toy police car over the theme (right between the second verse and chorus), and shortly after you can hear a deranged fan screams “Zappa!”, Fun! We get a very quick, “boom we’re in it now” transition into the solos, with more excellent bass from Pat. Peter starts somewhat quieter than usual, and crescendos into an excellent, synthy, spacey kinda jam. Ed’s next with a nice little marimba solo, and he finishes off with a very fun extended take of his solo-ending riff. Adrian whips out another fantastic uniquely Belew-solo, and Pat continues to showcase his mastery of the bass guitar throughout. As Ade wraps up, the band heads into an amusing little boogie beat before the stark sincerity that is Bowling on Charen, and boy this is a good one. Frank instantly amazes with some wildly evil guitar, and Pat yells something like “A martian, behold!” which is an absolutely fantastic little detail. FZ just keeps going and going, never losing energy, and eventually returns to the “squirm” lick in the middle of the performance. After this the sparse staccato beat evolves into a totally new, chugging boogie vamp, and the whole shebang ends with a great heroic sounding conclusion, The segue into the ending is a little odd, but it works well enough. Overall it’s an absolutely stunning FZ solo and a 10/10 Wild Love. A show your friends, “hey check this out it blew my mind” kinda Wild Love. Frank’s post-song guitar coda is pretty short, but we got a long one after Läther and a monster solo in the main tune so I’m not bothered one bit. They make the dramatic transition into Titties ‘n Beer, and Frank once again let’s us know who’s been pissing him off
Frank: It’s very simple, I don’t mind going to Hell so long as I can achieve some of my objectives.
Terry: What is that, man?
Frank: Well, look, I’ve got some people that I wanna take down there with me.
Terry: Oh, yeah?
Frank: Yep. Can you guess who they are?
Terry: Listen, man, with the overpopulation problem growing everywhere…
Frank: I know…
Terry:… what do you have in mind?
Frank: Hey, look, I wanna take everybody who works for Warner Bros. Records down there with me.
Terry: Oh, man…
Frank: Not only that, I wanna do them a favor, since I— Huh?… Take [Garci] with ya? No, not him! I’m talking about the people in the office. Mo Ostin, David Berman, the whole legal staff, you know, over Gang, Tyre & Brown, you know, Howard King, all those guys. Really a bunch of assholes. Really a bunch of assholes. I would like to… I wanna take all those people down there with me, you know. If I gotta go they’re going with me and while they’re down there I’m gonna fix ’em up, I’m gonna get ’em some entertainment. If, of course, you will cooperate. Will you work along with the program?
Terry: Well, we’ll see, man, you know… Like I said, what do you have in mind?
Frank: Okay, once I get ’em down there, I want you to set ’em all up on this device that they call The Tower Of Power. Do you know what The Tower Of Power is?
Terry: Do I know what The Tower Of Power is?
Frank: Yes, do YOU know what The Tower Of Power is?
Terry: Not only is The Tower Of Power a recording group that works for Warner Bros. Records, BUT The Tower Of Power is also a little device which I invented—it’s kind of like a mahogany type stool…
[…]
Terry: Yeah… What else, man? What—?
Frank: Okay. You’re gonna give me anything I want? While they’re getting reamed on this bionic Tower Of Power…
Terry: I suppose, you know…
Frank: I— Yeah. I want y— I want you to arrange in living octaphonic sound—I want you to arrange it to play the entire Warner Bros. catalog, including the worst of their bogus disco collection.
Terry: Oh, man…
Frank: That’s right! I want it all playing at once. And then when it— when it really gets loud—when it really gets loud, I want you to turn up just the opening cut of that Black Sabbath album—you know, that goes TA-DAH-DUNN… Right. And then pull the string on the Naugahyde detonator and then they all blow up. Got the picture?
Terry: Yeah, I got the picture.
Frank: And then, I want titties ‘n beer, titties ‘n beer, titties ‘n beer…
It starts off pretty standard, and like usual Terry has some problems hearing FZ (due to his “funny mask”). Frank then starts to inch towards the topic Warner Brothers (“I’ve got some people that I wanna take down there with me…. Can you guess who they are?”) and we get another amusing, anti-WB rant. Frank mentions the Tower Of POWER, which causes Pat to quote Black Sabbath’s song Black Sabbath (off the album Black Sabbath), and Terry makes a reference to the funk/RnB recording group of the same name (which makes FZ chuckle). Frank describes sexually mutilating some Warner execs, makes a shot at disco (which cues some disco bass for a sec), and ends the whole thing with another Black Sabbath reference. This is a long, somewhat relaxed take, and probably one of my favorites of the tour for that exact reason (along with the amusing musical references). As the tune concludes, Frank begins his nightly audition participation plea:
Frank: All right. All right. It is now time once again for audience participation… Yes, every audience likes to participate. And you will participate. Yes, you will. Now, here— here’s— here’s the way it goes. For the last couple of shows, we have been fortunate enough to find in these first few rows people who were, let’s say, dance oriented. These people were of the world of dance. Last night, about this time, there was a guy sitting right where you’re sitting wearing a beige three-piece suit. And that boy really wanted to dance—I don’t know whether he could dance too, but he really wanted to. You’re not exactly right. Have to find… I— I tell you what. We’ll do it by magic. Okay? Wherever the weenie points… I just have to see where the weenie wants to go… There you are! Hey you, with the white shirt, yes, you, get up here. All right, come on up here… What is your name?
Jason: Jason.
Frank: Jason, pleased to meet you. Jason, can you dance?
Jason: Oh, not at all.
Frank: Fantastic.
[…]
Frank: We’ll call this the guys side, hey. All right. Now, we need some girls… Look at this balloon. If there’s one thing I go for is art… This balloon says, and I quote, “Here’s a big nipple, Zappa.” Thank you… I’ll definitely use that later. Now, we need some girls. We need lovely, talented girls who can dance. There is a lovely talented girl if I ever saw one. Get up here.
[…]
Frank: All right. Now, here’s the problem—This is a problem in quantum economics… You’ve got a little beat going on and it’s okay—You tap your foot to it, eh?—That’s normal, right? Okay, unfortunately in a minute those guys up there are gonna play some stuff that is not normal. You’ve gotta keep that beat going, so that they can dance to the abnormal part of the music. You understand? The name of this song is “The Black Page #2.” One, two…
We get a very funny dialog with some freaks in the audience (definitely the most amusing so far). Frank lets a spinning “weenie” decide the first contestant of the dance contest, but he has a little bit of trouble finding someone who claims they can dance. We end up with 6 contestants: Jason, Jeff, Charlie, Jodie, Jeanie and Nancy, and Frank lets them pair up to dance to the Black Page #2. Pat’s brain starts to drift and he plays In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida near the end of the dialog, and Ed quickly joins him for a little before the actual song starts. We get a spotless, excellent take of The Black Page #2, and Pat continues to show off by quoting Louie Louie right at the very end. A great, rocking take of Jones Crusher follows, and next up we get another rocking Broken Hearts Are For Assholes.Adrian botched a note near the start, right after “some of you might not agree”, but I love ‘em so he gets a pass. Pat’s asides are mostly biblical in nature and all really funny (“Thou shalt not judge a homo by his keys, scarfs or haircut… It’s Buddy Love Revised Bible… Since it was Sunday I thought it might be appropriate… to quote the late great reverend Love and a couple of other passages”). The poop chute ending almost goes off the rails completely when Pat randomly yells “Friskies” (yes the cat food brand!). Pat cracks up, Frank yells “No natural rhythm whatsoever, fantastic!” and we end with an amusing “Oh I thought you’d be surprised, Brother Love”.
This unique, really amusing Broken Hearts leads into another fun Punky’s Whips. Frank gets interrupted during the opening monologue (“…a boy named Punky Meadows! Now you listen to him… Uh?… So what?… I can’t hear ya, I wish I could. I bet it’s really good.”) and Pat makes another absolutely insane comment about pet food right at the start (“Hey, listen, I heard that Punky Meadows does rather X-rated abnormal things with Friskies pet food. Did you know about that?” [Terry: What? Punk X-rated…?]). The composed section of the piece is wonderfully performed as always, but Frank’s ending solo is a bit of a letdown. It’s still a pretty good solo, but it’s kinda short, and not up to the caliber of the rest of the solos from Halloween #4. This performance ends the main set, but of course the show’s not really over. The boys leave, they come back, and Frank stops to talk for a sec.
“All right, all right… Thank you. And thank you, what does it say?… Mmh… This is your—… Huh… My birthday, 10-25-77. Love your bodddy—with three “ds”… Mm-hmm… Pardon me. Very dramatic, very dramatic! I must retain this… Okay. It’s now time to go back to work. It’s time for the reason why you all came here—I know you came here for one reason, you came here just to hear this one song. This song—let’s face it, this song is a stupid song. What the hey? You can clap your hands to it, though…”
The stupid song is of course Dinah-Moe Humm. There’s some little asides near the start (“Scum, that’s right”), and Tommy yells “AHA!” during the “but she could use a little ______ if I wasn’t done yet” section. Frank continues to talk to the audience throughout (“What’s going on down there?” at 3:50), and lets the rabid fans scream Dinah-Moe into the mic (“At least this one does it on the beat! How about the rest of you?”). There’s a ton of crown stuff near the end (“Isn’t this simplistic? It’s so primitive, you know. So primitive yet effectual.”), and Frank’s consistent mild dissatisfaction with playing the song makes for an amusing performance. Plus Pat and Terry are of course great too, building up a wonderful groove. Suddenly, Pat starts to play more of Iron Butterfly’s In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida and Frank actually sings the title!!!
“In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, baby… Ooo-la hunya… All right, all right… Hey, just— I’m just kiddin’ ya. All right. Seriously now, hey, bring the band on hah hah boy… Hey, you remember that song, don’t ya? You’re one of the older members of the audience, right? Okay. Just remember one thing. It’s true today just as it was ten years ago. Flower Power still sucks. Still does. Wasn’t any good then but… In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida [sung] . All right, we are now going into “Camarillo Brillo” and other stuff, so… watch!”
Flower Power still sucks!!!! We get a great Camarillo Brillo, with some fun ending quips during the slow section (“Is that a real camera, or is that a Sears camera?”) and more fantastic bass playing from Patrick (how many times can I glaze a single bass player???). When this tune wraps up they slide right into Muffin Man, the perfect show closer for this wonderful band. Adrian whips out a fantastic little solo to lead into Frank’s wonderful, heavy guitar finale. Frank makes our ears melt with joy, repeats the lyrics, outros the band and finally conducts a long wonderful crash ending to close off this monster concert. This encore was fairly relaxed, and a whole lot of fun. I feel like Frank was just basking in the amazement of this fantastic crowd of freaks, and this created a positive feedback loop for nonstop good times.
“All right, ladies and gentlemen, this is without a doubt the end of our program for tonight. We hope that you enjoyed it. And hope to see some of you people back here for Halloween. Don’t mangle yourselves on the way out. There is nothing quite like an audience at the Palladium, that’s for sure. Good night!”
This is a great, great show, much better than the early show from this date, and somewhat of a return to form for this specific rocking teenage combo. Lovely spontaneity is felt throughout, even though this band has a pretty strict setlist. Just a wonderful, lovely show, that is somehow blown out of the water by the incredible following two nights. Another unsurprising recommendation!
1977 10 30 – Palladium, New York, NY (Official Release)
click here to listen (Spotify)
Now this is a monumental show. Often considered the best of the tour, and certainly one of the best shows of Frank’s career, tonight we have the penultimate show of the Halloween 77 run. This is by far the most unique show of the run, with a number of world premiers, rare tunes and guest appearances too! At different points in the night Frank brings on stage original Mothers bassist Roy Estrada, FZ guitar tech Thomas Nordegg, and road manager Phil Kaufman, all with acts slightly outside their normal wheelhouse. Large swaths of this show are featured in the Baby Snakes film too! I’m not quite sure this is my absolute favorite Fall ‘77 gig, Halloween night and November are still yet to come, but this show is certainly up near the top. Anyway without further ado this is Halloween ‘77 Show #5. As the band walks on Tommy plays an angular FZ guitar lick, and Frank gives his opening announcements. Surprisingly we don’t hear the normal Flakes intro vamp, but some familiar blues chords:
“Good evening. All right. Okay, now listen. We are making a movie. Not only that, not only are we making a movie. You see, I figured it was time I made another movie, it’s been a long time since 200 Motels, and so, I felt that the people all over the world needed to see another weird kind of a movie. You’re ready, I know you’re ready. Okay. That’s why we’re making the movie, now here’s how we’re making the movie. All you people have to do is remember that the camera man is your friend, the camera man is here to take pictures of everybody. The camera men are named Bob, Phil and Dick. Brooklyn! — Is your name really Chrissie? How big are your tits? All right, Chrissie. All right! I hope that the— Hey, you again! You’re looking good tonight. Looking really good. All right. Don’t let the cameras and the extra lights bother you, don’t let them get in the way of your enjoyment of the show. We’re gonna try not to let them get in the way of our enjoyment of the program. We’re gonna start up now with a song— That’s right! A very nice sign. You just keep showing that to me and I’ll do a wonderful show. We’re gonna start up with a song from the Apostrophe (‘) album.”
And the show begins with the return of Stinkfooot!! We get a great rendition of the classic tune, in the style of the mid 70s live renditions, but with the amped up arena rock feel of this rocking teenage combo. Adrian solos a tad near start, after the imaginary disease line (“aww hit it Adrian come on now, aw give ‘em some fuzz tone!”), and Frank delivers a really tasty solo to perfectly cap off this now-rare treat. Now I wish I could say that this was the only revived song, but Frank decides to revive the entire “dog medley” from 75/76, meaning the dreaded Poodle Lecture comes next. It’s a standard rendition of the vile speech, with a handful of asides and interruptions from the audience to make it listenable.
“Thank you. ‘Brooklyn for Zappa: a card. The present day composer refuses to die.’ You should give Edgard Varèse credit right down there, it should have his name on it. Thank you. Okay. [Guy In The Audience: You’re the best!] That stuff is very bad for you, throw it away, okay. Now you’re interrupting my story, now listen . . . What is that? Is that the Tower of Power or what? Oh no no, it’s one of those dope fiend devices, take it away. Just take that thing— Take that and stuff it up David Berman’s butt.”
I ain’t including the whole lecture, as it’s largely the same every time. Someone in the audience hands Frank a card for a Brooklyn based fan-club, and someone else shows him their bong for some reason. Frank used this take in the Baby Snakes movie, and included it as a track on the sixth and final You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore entry. It’s over five minutes, well too long, but it leads into the closing poodle number Dirty Love! It’s a lovely little version, with a cool solo from Adrian, and a fun marimba riff throughout. If listening to the Poodle Lecture is the only way to get this tune then I can sit through it!
“All right. It’s now time for us to go into another song that may be familiar to you. Here at the home of the hits, ladies and gentlemen! The name of this song is ‘Peaches En Regalia.’”
Now our regular scheduled programming resumes. We get a lively Peaches En Regalia, filled with Halloween energy. I’d say this is about as heavy as Peaches can be, while still resembling the original. A great take. An excellent The Torture Never Stops follows this up and we get a perfectly sultry performance of the head, with crazed New York fans yelling to Frank throughout. During an instrumental break Frank tells the mixer to “Turn those screams up!” and tells the audience to sing along, before crafting a legendary guitar solo. It’s perfectly paced, starting with an excellently angry first half, before evolving into a wonderfully “Ship Ahoy”-esque second half. Just a wonderful guitar experience, and a fantastic sign of things to come. A perfectly rockin’ Tryin’ To Grow A Chin follows this, and after Terry finishes screaming comes City Of Tiny Lights. It’s a wonderful version, with a classic red hot solo from Frank. The majority of this performance is in Baby Snakes, with about a minute of the solo edited out (and roughly 30 seconds of the solo section from tomorrow night edited in!). This brings us into another delightfully weird Pound For A Brown showcasing Mr. O’Hearn and Mr. Mars. The perfectly composed and arranged theme leads into the beautiful chorded transition to the solo section. Pat plays a nasty bass solo, showing off why he’s pretty easily my favorite FZ bassist. He gets really cool, laid back and chorded in the middle, before ending his delightful funky jam with a return to the Pound bassline and a transition to the wild world of Tommy Mars. We start off with a ton of scat singing, and he gets spacey and out there for a little. Tommy and Patrick duet for a bit, then there’s more scat singing and keyboard playing, all while Terry gets this jungle-y kind of a beat going. This is a really, really good version, and Frank thinks so too. Not only does he comment on it (“How do you like that one!”) but he uses Tommy’s solo in the Baby Snakes movie! The jam finally ends with a satisfying, energetic crescendo and FZ brings the band down behind him to deliver a long, long speech introducing the next tune:
Awright. See that? That’s what you call a new song. When I’m gonna stand up here and read the son of a bitch while I’m doing it. We figured that this is a good place to do this song. It’s only been performed once before and that was the, the evening after it was actually written in uh, Boston. I’ll tell you the story of this song. This is called CREATIVE DEVIATION FROM THE NORMAL PART OF THE PROGRAM, simply because you trust the audience’s good taste so much that you know that even if the band fucks up they’ll go along with it. Awright. Because, ladies and gentlemen, this song has an important message and I believe this message has to be brought to the people of this great metropolitan area.
Awright, now check this out. How many of you people feel that ROCK has gotten entirely TOO PREPOSTEROUS? I see that you’re not all convinced. Some of you believe that ROCK is REAL. I can see that there was probably about 20 percent of the audience has had it up to here, and the rest of you people still believe in that shit. Okay, well this is dedicated to the rest of you people that still believe in that shit.
Now check this out: How d- how do you rationalize the appearance of an album entitled I’m In You? I mean, wha… what, what is that? Is that guy kidding? (What, I gotta kiss you again? Okay.) Really, look, all kidding aside, folks. Let’s think about the world of rock, just for a moment. Some of you already have those cute little shirts on that say “disco sucks,” right? That’s not all that sucks. ‘Course Warner Brothers sucks, but besides Warner Brothers there are other things about this business that really suck. One of ’em is the way in which the subject of LOVE is dealt with in the lyrics of various ‘serious rock artists,’ the intensive-care contingent of the rock world. These people, these people are FUCKED UP, they’re really FUCKED UP. Because see, love isn’t the way they’re telling you about it, you know, they’re telling you wrong. I’m gonna tell you right, you see.
A few handy pointers… a few handy pointers about the subject of love. First of all, love is not the end of the world. Love is the BEGINNING of the world, you see. Many people write about the subject of love as if that was some ultimate attainment to a spirit. Go fuck yourself! But no, really, ladies and gentlemen, they are trying to stultify your minds, because you can have love where you can go beyond that into realms that are even more interesting. I won’t bore you with the details, but uh… check this out. This song is called, you already know ’bout “I’m In You,” right? This song is called “I Have Been In You.”
Now all of the ladies in the audience, you get to have fantasy time. This is female fantasy hour. Okay? You’re a teen-age girl, right? You have abducted the succulent popstar of your choice, right? You have taken the aforementioned popstar, who is really cute and Aryan and eats a lot of crumpets, back to your teen-age room. That’s right, spindle twice. You have taken this turkey back to your room, you have laid on your teen-age bed, you have put your teen-age legs up in the air, you have actually taken your own teen-age pants off. You have the teen-age red bulb on, right next to the bed. The curtains are drawn, it’s dark, it’s midnight. You put on a Phoebe Snow record, you’re really relaxing. Tears come to your eyes, you are sensitive, you are in love. The popstar of your choice takes off his pants and climbs on top of you, and the next thing you know you hear this little voice in your ear and it says:
“I’M IN YOU!” Okay. You know— You know how the rest of that might go. Now here’s my song…
So this is where things get really interesting. Frank gives a long intro to a very new, only-played-once-before tune: I Have Been In You! The majority of this speech is included in Baby Snakes, removed from the rest of the tune, and Frank also released an edited version on YCDTOSA6 as “Is That Guy Kidding Or What?”. This is not a good version of the song. It’s fairly well played all things considered, but you can still definitely tell it’s the second time it’s ever been performed (but that is undoubtedly where a lot of the fun in this specific performance lies). The tune starts really slow, but it speeds up over the course of the song. The hand isn’t “stinky” yet, and Frank says “That’s right” instead of “that’s true”, but for the most part all the lyrics are there. The big difference is that the ending doesn’t build up like later versions, so we don’t get the big “I’m going in you again” finale, which I think pulls the whole song together and is really needed. Fun in context, but not something I return to often.
“Silvester Stallone, ladies and gentlemen! Awright. Thank you. Hey, that was kind of fun, I enjoyed it. You guys aren’t in any hurry tonight, are you?… All right. Hey, would you like to hear some other new songs we’ve been working on that aren’t completely ready yet?… All right. Okay. Now this one, this one really isn’t in very good condition at all, but I wanna test it on ya, because, you see, this song is about the Disco Boy’s father. Now you gotta imagine— You know about Disco Boy, you gotta imagine that his dad wants to stay young. And to stay young, you think young. You also dress young. That means you have to get several chains around your neck. One of them must have a shark tooth on it. Another one must have a tiny golden spoon and maybe a mezuzah or some other sort of religious artifact. You must wear some sort of very casual clothing that would be open to your navel. You must look good. The trouble only starts when you go to a discotheque and try and dance with the rest of those assholes that are pumping their buttocks around down there. Now this song is— This song is called “Dancin’ Fool,” and it is in such bad repair at this stage of the game, that I’m gonna have to dwindle back over there and me and the band are gonna talk it over, and we’re gonna try and give “Dancin’ Fool” its world premiere right here, at the Palladium. (You guys up for it? Okay. You remember enough of it from the rehearsal to try and do it?)
I don’t know. Hey, cameraman, cover this. This is, this is the real shit, this is vérité, this is really happening. It may be terrible but let’s get it on film. All right. Let me hear the G, you got the chimes, right?… Duh! All right. Don’t forget your choreography. Here we go.”
Now it’s time for the world premier of Dancin’ Fool! And just like Frank says this one is in rough shape. The basic structure is there but it is SHAKEY. Frank has to start over the “Disco folks all dressed up” verse, and the chorus is way more like samba-y than any other performance. The “beat goes on but I’m so wrong” section is crazy, and feels super disjointed, which is probably the intent? The best part is the insane, abrupt conducted smash ending, bringing this interesting train-wreck-esque oddity to a close. This isn’t incredibly musically pleasant to listen to, but it’s super interesting from a super-fan perspective.
“All right, that’s one of ’em. Now we’ve got another one… hey… Okay. It’ll— It’ll be better when we get the arrangement tight. Now this song is called “Jewish Princess.”… Now th— Now this one, hey… Do you have any idea how much fun it is just to come up here and say, “Hey, you know, we’re gonna mess this up, but what’s the difference?” It’s Halloween. Okay. I’m sure that in this audience here in some place there are people who go under the classification of Jewish Princess. And, I don’t know how many songs have been written about the Jewish Princess phenomenon. Maybe none. But I figured I had to do one— What?… So what? [Fan: “‘Rich Bitch’ by Iggy & The Stooges!”] And it’s about Jewish Princess? Would you t— After you hear this song you make sure you tell me whether or not mine songs are any like Iggy’s. Okay. What?… Oh, we won’t do that one… Okay. Now, we worked— we worked on this one just this afternoon… Okay. How they go? You ready? Okay, hit it. One, two, three, four . . “Roy, come on out to sing! Roy Estrada, ladies and gentlemen.”
Another world premier! And this one is actually the only known performance, live or otherwise, of this infamous shock-song. Frank tries to get Roy to come out and sing but I don’t believe he does. The basic tracks appear on Sheik Yerbouti, and Frank rerecorded the vocals and other little effects in the studio for the album (Except for his “Awright, back to the top! Everybody twist! outburst).BSo somewhat surprisingly, this song is really put together, and the most-complete sounding song from tonight’s rarities. I do miss the little vocal bits added on the album, but this is still a great little addition to this special show.
“And now we’re gonna go into some other material that you’ll recognize. And hope that nothing drastic happens… Because the name of this song— Now, those of you who’ve uh, seen us in New York for a lot of years—and we have been playing here for a lot of years—probably would recognize the song as one of the numbers we used to do at the Garrick Theatre. The name of this song is “King Kong.” One! One! One! One!”
It’s King Kong! I love the extremely fast, late 70’s version of the theme, and this is one of the best performances of said arrangement. After the theme zips by, Ed plays a brief solo while Frank brings their Road Manager Phil Kaufman on stage to play the “human trombone” (you can hear most of their off-mic conversation while Ed plays). It’s all just mouth noises, but it’s pretty wild how much he actually sounds like a trombone. Peter jams along with him as he winds down and exits, while Frank brings Roy on, and tells him to “get the gas mask”! There’s then an abrupt switch to just Ed, playing some very Roxy-era esque percussion, and after a few seconds Roy begins to ramble on stage to the entire Palladium crowd. It’s a fantastic weirdo improvisation, with wonderfully conducted chaos from the whole band, crazed vocalization from Roy, and some really sick fretless bass playing from Pat. The whole thing is a lot like a live Läther grout, but there’s also a strong reminiscence to the classic late 60s Mothers improvisations. Eventually this chaos builds up to a frenzy and we return to the more keyboard soloing, with variations on the main theme (I believe from Tommy). They quickly calm down after reaching this jazzy peak and what follows can only be described as a Toy Police Car solo. Frank plays the “give yourself up” dialog for about a minute. It’s completely acapella at one point, that is until the Dragnet theme on keyboards appears underneath (very fitting). It’s such a fun, goofy, stupid little moment but an absolutely riotous event. AAAFNRAA defined. A fantastic throwback to the true chaos of the original Mothers, and one of the highlights of the entire run. The entire performance can be seen in Baby Snakes, but the first section with Phil “The Human Trombone” is separated from the Gas Mask half.
Frank conducts a crash, then Terry solos! It’s a long, great one, one of his best from his FZ years, with lots of crazy synth stuff going on too. This is the one used in the Baby Snakes movie (though about 2 minutes in the middle are edited out). We (briefly) resume our regularly scheduled programming with a great Disco Boy, which also shows up in the film (and the soundtrack album too). I feel fine calling it the definitive take of this tune, Pat’s got a great groove going, Frank makes a fun comment after the chicken delight line (“That’s right and when she feeds it to ya you have to eat it.”), and even the backing vocals are notably fun! Then suddenly, we get a big crash and Frank announces Envelopes! (Typically Envelopes comes after Disco Boy, but Frank had different plans tonight). Tommy sings the hell out of the tune (“Squat on my blaster… Would ya Frank!”) and as soon as he finishes, in place of a drum solo, he starts scat singing over this weird plinky improv while Frank announces the next special occurrence of the night.
“Ladies and gentlemen, a special treat tonight. It’s Halloween treat time. From far off Austria, Peter Wolf and Thomas Nordegg. Come on out here… Now there’s a problem with this part of our show, ladies and gentlemen, because what they do is, well—It’s uh, it’s little. You have to watch very closely. Eventually we are going to require somebody from the audience to come up and help with this. Thomas… This is Thomas. Get— Get in the light, Thomas. Very good. And this is Peter. Get in the light, Peter. Okay. Now, Thomas does things with his hands and Peter tells you about it in German. So, take it away, Peter and Thomas…”
For no better reason than the fact that “it’s Halloween treat time”, Frank makes Peter Wolf come down to accompany Thomas Nordegg (Frank’s guitar tech) and describe his magic trick in German. Peter and Thomas are both Austrian and old friends, so I imagine that’s where Frank got the idea. Thomas does a card trick, and some sort of ball trick too. Peter describes it in German, then FZ takes over, and once Frank gets bored he gets Roy to describe it via “song”. Pat plays a bunch of cool weird, jazzy shit, Adrian starts some beautiful chords partway through, and Tommy plays some nice lounge piano throughout. The talking is not particularly interesting, but the background instrumentation keeps the entire experience afloat. This absolutely feels like a Baby Snakes movie outtake that didn’t end up as great as Frank planned. That being said, this really speaks to how great this run is because in any other shows this would be a unique highlight, but here it’s just a bit of an afterthought.
“All right, I think that’s enough card tricks. Throw the cards into the camera so it looks really good. You’re ready? There it is, almost like Halloween. Now, if we can just pick up all these cards of the front part of the stage, let us resume our normal program, ladies and gentlemen… The name of this song is “Läther.” Formerly entitled ‘I Promise Not To Come In Your Mouth.’”
We get a rare spoken introduction to Läther (including a reference to the former, more commonly known title), and with it the real return to our regularly scheduled programming. From this point on the show is back on the regular setlist, but it’s such a wonderful setlist that I can’t complain. Läther is fantastic as always, and tonight we get three more lovely solos from our regular players. This is another one of my favorite versions (though I can’t count how many times I’ve said that in these reviews), and it leads into a terrific, magnanimous Wild Love. Pat and Terry are rhythm section perfection, and our opening three soloists (Pete, Ed and Ade) are all at the top of their game. Even Tommy comps so intensely over Ed’s solo that it’s almost a duet. Then of course we have FZ’s absolutely insane, nearly ten minute solo. It follows the same successful pattern as the previous two nights, with a creepy, Bowling on Charen riff beginning and a heroic, momentous ending. Frank cycles through so many moods, constantly changing tones, and keeping the listener more than engaged throughout. He even quotes Lohengrin around 20 minutes in! It’s a fantastic solo, and the jam of course ends with a long, lovely acapella guitar coda. And like usual, an angry Titties N Beer comes next:
“Frank: All you gotta do, you just help me take care of a little business. All right?
Terry: Well, I, I don’t know, man.
Frank: Come on, just say, “Yes.”
Terry: Okay. Yes!
Frank: All right. Because you’re the devil and I know you’ve got a lot of connections in Washington.
Terry: Yeah. Plenty.
Frank: Here’s what I want you to do: I want you to arrange an anti-trust investigation.
Terry: An anti-trust investigation.
Frank: Sure! Should be a simple thing for you. Here’s what you do, you have to investigate the fact that Warner Brothers Records and Capitol Records have the same law firm. The law firm is called Gang, Tyre & Brown. [Terry: Yeah.] Now there’s only a couple of law firms in Hollywood that handle things relating to the music business, you see. [Terry: Uh-huh.] And they’ve got it all tied up. And what happens is, when a new artist comes to a record company, and they don’t have a manager and they don’t have a lawyer, the record company in many instances sends the unsuspecting young artist to the law firm that also happens to represent the record company, thereby causing a conflict of interest and sticking it right up the poop chute of the person who’s making the music.
Terry: Oh, yeah!
Frank: You see?
Terry: Yeah!
Frank: So I thought that maybe because you were the devil and you were on such good terms with all those other assholes in Washington, that you could just put in a word, you know, and recommend that somebody investigate the anti-trust implications of major record companies all having the same law firm and law firms only get the job because they have connections elsewhere. So I think what you ought to do is take those law firms with the connections elsewhere away from the record companies and give the people who want to make a record contract a chance to do something fair and square. And after you do that, I want titties and beer, titties and beer, titties and beer…”
Frank reasons with the crowd for a sec at the start (”I can’t come over there because it’ll feedback if I stand in front of that.”), and we get an interesting improv section. The “story” of this one goes on a little long, but things get interesting when Frank asks the devil about an antitrust thing related to Warner Brothers! It’s not the normal, Tower of Power “I hate these guys” kind of rant, but a different more serious dialog. Frank ends up spitting out a pretty poignant rant about how big record companies use law firms to abuse and control musical artists, and it saves this Titties N Beer completely! Anyway, the poignancy ends when Frank comments “nice legs” during Crissy’s shout at the end, and afterwards we get a long, long, looong Dance Contest Introduction.
FZ: How many of you people actually know what that means? Do you? You don’t? Just curious. Just a li— Just a little sociological research, ladies and gentlemen. D’you know what this really means? D’you know what that is?… Do you know? That’s a real thing. For those of you— Hey, listen to this, handy helpful hands. Suppose you’re a regular person in the street and one guy—one day a guy, probably of Italian extraction, puts the evil eye on you. This is the classic antidote for the evil eye. This right here. So if they ever give you the business, you give ’em that and it takes it all away. Listen, this is just like going to college. And now, it’s audience participation time!… Now some of you—in fact a lot of you have probably been here to the other shows that we’ve already done—I think we’ve— What have we done? Four already? This is number five… All right, I’m glad you do, I need all the friends I can get. Now wha— what we need tonight for our dance contest—last night we experimented with people who had no natural rhythm. Now, we’re gonna mix and match tonight, we need a couple of people who are definitely uncoordinated. Are you uncoordinated? You’re not? You are? Well, what are ya? Are you coordinated or uncoordinated? Oh, whatever? No, I want a real, genuine— Okay, I’ll take a chance on you. You, come up. Okay. Now, it’s— Look, just look deep into your heart, say, ask yourself this question, “Can I dance or am I a chump?” Are you a chump? You can dance? All right, wait a minute, look, let’s— let’s take it, let’s take it chumps first. How many people will openly admit in front of the world at large, including our movie cameras, that you are a chump?… There’s one! Hey! I can spot him […], come ‘ere. We’re gonna— We’re gonna go—Last night we went three and three, tonight we’re gonna— How’re you doin’, man? What’s your name?
[…]
FZ: I think I have somebody backstage who can really join in on this. Can we get Roy Estrada to come up here? Because a lot of you don’t know this, but Roy is a wonderful dancer. An expert in the […]. Quickly, Roy. Over here. Now, now the ladies. Now you girls see what kind of guys we have up here. There ares some girls out in this audience that are totally uncoordinated and we have just the man for you. In fact we have three uncoordinated guys to match with three uncoordinated girls. What? Pointing to her on the end? What is she? She shies what she is, she doesn’t really want to get up. She’s too shy. But this girl over here willingly admits that she can’t dance. You can’t dance? Come on up. Okay… There— Believe me, there is space in this world for people who can’t dance. What’s your name?
[…]
Nanuka: Nanuka.
FZ: Nanuka! Oh, my God! Nanuka, right over here. Hah hah hah… All right, now we’re— Now we’re getting somewhere. I need— Bring the band on down behind me, boys, uh… I need three girls who really can dance. You’re one. You ask for it, you got it… You wanna dance? Are you good? Come on up… You wanna dance? Come on up. What’s your name?
Grace: Grace.
FZ: How’re you doin’, Grace? I hope you can really dance. Okay… What? You wanna dance with Roy? Come on… What’s your name?
[…]
FZ: Manuela! Oh, my God! Manuela! Manuela! Ma-nu-ela! Okay. Have you all chosen your partners? Hey… Go ahead. All right. Everybody are all teamed up now?… Now usually, usually during this part of the show… usually during this part of the show we play a song called “The Black Page #2,” and this song has a steady 4/4 beat, but the melody to it is uh, broken up into little subdivisions that are complicated. So you know that you gotta clap your hands to keep the beat for the dummies over there who cannot move their feet. You know? Okay?… You know you may think I can’t see you up there but I can tell you’re not clapping your hands, so let’s get on with it. And you guys too. All right! Just remember one thing, rock & roll is totally preposterous, and I’m in you!
I’m not sure what Frank is doing when he’s talking about the evil eye. I feel like it’s a 70s thing, as I’ve heard my aging pseudo-hippie parents mention it. We get a long, long stretch of dance contest talk after this. “Last night we experimented with people who had no natural rhythm”, so tonight Frank is gonna “mix and match” and get some “chumps” along with “other ones who can dance their ass off”. He brings up Chris, Al, John (“President of Brooklyn for Zappa”), Roy Estrada (“Roy is a wonderful dancer. An expert in the Harabe Tapatillo”), Denise, “Nanuka”, Grace, and Manuela! The name Manuela breaks Frank’s brain for a sec for whatever reason, but he recomposes himself, pairs up tonight’s contestants, does a little rhyme (“you gotta clap your hands to keep the beat for the dummies over there who cannot move their feet.”) and launches into the Black Page #2 (“Just remember one thing, rock & roll is totally preposterous, and I’m in you!”). It’s not a super exciting listen, but still fun in the context of the show, especially since this is the grandest dance contest so far. Tonight’s Black Page is pretty riotous, and Frank even shouts a couple lines to tonight’s contestants (“Everybody Dance! Come on, let’s get a little action here!”). A great Jones Crusher follows this, with a surprisingly interesting, sorta-bluesy guitar outro. A perfect take of Broken Hearts Are For Assholes follows this. Nothing but funny, classic quips, humorously delivered by Patrick (“nice balls Felix”). It’s got a real good ending too (Patrick: “Marques DeSuede!”). Something in the audience cracks Frank up (“No, not you! That girl back there who wants it up the poop chute!”), and Pat slightly amends the outro (“I knew SHE’d be surprised”) that leads into the unmatchable Punky’s Whips.
“…..lead guitar player from a group called Angel—Oh-huh, you almost have an Angel costume on, that’s… What is your name? [“Alison”] Alison. So delightful to meet you. Could you please make yourself comfortable right here on the size of the stage? Because it’s gonna get very loud in a moment…. On that— Oh, Tex, you tell her. Alison, I’d like to introduce you to Tex. Tex, come ‘ere. Tex, come on. Come on, Tex. You’re like a rugged he-man sort of a guy from Texas. Alison, this is Tex. I now pronounce you. Okay. Terry recently felt in love with a publicity photo, as I’ve said before, of a boy named Punky Meadows, guitar player from a group called Angel. In this photograph, Punky was seen with a beautiful shiny hairdo in a semi-profile which emphasized the pooched out succulence of his insolent pouting rictus—you know what a rictus is? This is the rictus. That’s the rictus—the sight of which drove the helpless young drummer mad with desire!”
Frank gets distracted during his monologue, and he has some fun introducing a random girl named Alison to his roadie Tex Abel. Plus he demonstrates to the crowd what a rictus is! Pat starts with a classic “pouting for you?” quip, and it leads into one of the best Punky’s Whips around. The tune is perfectly performed, the energy builds in such a great way, and it concludes with an absolutely amazing solo. Frank goes far out, the vamp changes underneath him as he mangles his guitar, and we get what I believe is the longest Punky’s solo ever! Just a perfect fiery explosion of Rock N Roll, and an amazing ending to the main set of this iconic show.
“Patrick O’Hearn, Adrian Belew, Tommy Mars, Terry Bozzio, Peter Wolf, Ed Mann, somewhere back there, Roy Estrada. All right. As you know, ladies and gentlemen—Bring the band on down behind me, boys—Hey, I know you guys are really a sophisticated audience—you don’t believe for a minute that this is the end of the show, but, what we’re gonna do is stop for just a minute so we can get a drink and stuff, and we’ll be right back with what they call The Encore Part of the program.”
FZ does an announced encore (I always love when he pulls stuff like this), and the band disappears for a minute. They quickly return, FZ does just the sickest little guitar test to make sure his equipment is all good, and then introduces the one and only:
“That’s right! “Dinah-Moe Humm”… Let me— Let me give you some details about the song “Dinah-Moe Humm.” First of all, it is—out of all the songs we ever recorded—we get more requests for that one than anything else, I don’t know why, but that’s the one that everybody comes to concerts for. What do you say about this? Anyway, it’s our pleasure to do it for you. Just like rock & roll!”
Our fake-encore begins with an above average take of Dinah-Moe Humm, fueled with Halloween energy! Tommy does a weird yell for his “But she could use a little ______ if I wasn’t done yet” thing, and the Angora section is pretty fun. It stars like normal but gets cut short when Frank spots a familiar face:
“You’re the guy—Every Halloween, the same guy. The same makeup. Always there in the front. Every time at the Felt Forum—I gave you the goddamn poodle last year… I can’t hear ya. I talk to you in a— What? He sold it? That’s good, you’re an American. He sold it. Very good… Somebody stole it? Well, they were an American. Very good. Probably work for Warner Bros. All right, let’s do it all over again, this time with handclaps. One, two, three, four… It’s really tough making these movies, you know?”
I love Halloween conceptual continuity! Overall this is a great version, the best you can hope for from Dinah-Moe: fun funky energy and lots of amusing interactions with the audience. Frank ends with a big speech critiquing rock audiences, and to a lesser extent Californians:
“Wait just a minute, hey, listen, I see what’s going on here. You people are from California. That’s right. No, look, I— look, I— Listen, this is supposed to be the end of the show, where it’s rock & roll and you guys jump up and down. I look out there and I see a bunch of people that look like those laid back studio people they have in California, you know? Really… No, no, no, no. Listen, no, let’s be realistic about this. Let’s no— Hey, really, I mean… (Thank you!) You’re welcome. Don’t— Don’t exert yourself. There’s no reason— See, rock is preposterous, that is my theory. Rock is preposterous. There is no reason why every concert has to end with the people sitting in the chairs going crazy. That is not logical. That’s, you know, that doesn’t belong. That’s not part of the American way of life. I prefer a more direct approach. Let’s take it the way it comes, you know what I mean? We just played “Dinah-Moe Humm,” all right, we can play another song. We’re not going away. We’re gonna stay here. You don’t have to clap. Just sit there. We’re gonna play.”
Camarillo Brillo! Another great, lively take, with Pat prominently jamming Sunshine Of Your Love in a couple spots near the end. Frank hands someone their hat back, and smoothly transitions into the next tune (“Yes it was useless anymore… That’s why we went into another song”). The following song is of course Muffin Man, and this is one of the most legendary performances of this tune we have. Ade gives a great first solo (and is playing lovely throughout the head too), but Frank completely blows him out of the water with one of the greatest solos of his career. This is the one used in Baby Snakes (the head of the tune and Adrian’s solo in the movie are from the 31st), and it’s just wonderful. Heavy, hard-core and angry, this is easily one of the peaks of Frank’s hard rock guitar years and one of the best Muffin Man (Men?) ever performed. The chords three and a half minutes in are so fucking great, they always just make me go nuts. Then just when you think they’re done from the night, Frank yells “we’re gonna actually play one more song!” and whips out San Ber’dino! I’m pretty sure this was a surprise to the band, because it’s a little bit of a shaky performance, but the intro guitars are cool and Adrian’s got a nice solo in the middle. Tomorrow’s performance of this tune is better, but this one is still really fun too. Belew ends the tune a measure before he’s supposed to (or Frank missed the cue, which is maybe more likely), and show #5 finally comes to its conclusion.
This is a legendary concert for a reason. Frank and his amazing band are firing at all cylinders and the crowd is ready to receive whatever he can throw at them. Perfect performances of the staples, rare tunes, and special guests, what else can you ask for? An incredible show and, depending on who you ask, the best of the tour. I’d recommend checking out another show from this run first to really appreciate the setlist changes going on tonight, but that being said this concert is mandatory listening for any budding Zappa fan. Check it out!
1977 10 31 – Palladium, New York, NY (Official Release)
click here to listen (Spotify)
Well here we are. The final show of the iconic 1977 New York Palladium run. The gig this whole tour has been leading up to, Show #6, the Big One, the Baby Snakes show: Halloween ‘77! Though the previous night was more experimental, this show mostly adheres to the regular tour setlist (keyword “mostly”). I don’t find this to be a bad thing, because we already got a healthy dose of weirdness on Halloween Eve, and because Frank whips out what’s probably the best “regular” show of the entire tour on this holiday night. 10/30 and 10/31 are both just over three hours, but 10/30 has all those new songs and guest appearances to account for the extra time. This show is all killer no filler. 3 straight hours of the amazing Baby Snakes band going absolutely nuts. Original Mothers Bassist Roy Estrada makes another entertaining guest appearance too. Everything’s gotta be right on Halloween: perfect playing, wonderful tunes, and even a secret phrase that pops up throughout the night (more on that later). The band starts off with the Flakes vamp, and it takes a little while before Frank talks. He knows he’s good shit, and he lets the crowd revel in their insanity for a little bit as he walks on.
“All right! Happy Halloween! … All right. Calm down, now. Calm down … I’d like to introduce the members of our rocking teen-age combo to you tonight. Patrick O’Hearn on bass; Adrian Belew on guitar; Tommy Mars on keyboards; little skinny Terry “Ted” Bozzio on drums; Peter Wolf on keyboards; and Ed Mann on percussion. And what is my name? [ZAPPA!!!] No, all together now. One, two, three, four [ZAPPA!!!!!] Not bad. Not bad. It’s nice to have an a— It’s nice to have a little identity in the world of rock. I suppose you’re ready, and we will now begin…”
We begin with another excellent Peaches En Regalia (you really can’t ever go wrong with Peaches), and it’s followed by another monstrous Torture Never Stops (“Alright you people wanna get tortured tonight??? You will!!!!”). It’s a great performance, with a fantastic, perfectly paced, beautiful solo that easily could’ve been on Shut Up N Play Yer Guitar. Frank’s end comments are very funny too, highlighting the insane crowd a few feet from him (“Look at her, with the tongue over there! Look at him, that meatball with the little hat!”) Another easy contender for best Torture of the tour. A perfect Chinterlude follows this dark tune, and Frank must’ve liked it too cause it ended up on the final You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore volume. City Of Tiny Lights comes next with a jawdropping, fantastic, fiery solo. Another “best yet” candidate for me. Frank used about 45 seconds from the first half of his solo in Baby Snakes (the vamp into the solo section is from this show too, but the rest of the performance is from the 30th). Now we’re in for the big, wild Pound For A Brown Halloween experience! 20 minutes of excellent, experimental, mostly instrumental bliss. Tommy really screams during the intro, and we another get a lovely chorded Frank and Peter duet into the solo section. Pat starts us off with a wonderfully weird and funky bass solo. About four and a half minutes in, he changes the vamp to this really amusing, bouncy bass line, and finishes off his lovely solo shortly after. Frank used this section of Pat’s solo in Baby Snakes, attached to Tommy’s solo from the night before. Back on Halloween, Tommy starts to sing/talk this weird “Watch him eat” dialog!
dialog
Tommy: Watch him eat. And while he’s eating. Talk to him. While he’s eating. And ask him what he’s doing
Patrick: What’s he doing?
Frank: He’s eating.
Tommy: Now. Ask. Him what he’s doing
Frank: Talk to me while he’s eating and ask me what he’s doing.
Tommy: He’s eating
Frank: What’s he doing?
Tommy: He’s eating
Frank: What is he doing?
Tommy: He’s eating
Frank: What is he doing?
Tommy: He’s eating
Frank: He’s eating, isn’t he?
Tommy: He sure is
Frank: Now, watch him eat, and while he’s eating, talk to me while he’s eating, and ask me what he’s doing. What’s he doing?
Tommy: He’s eating
FZ: Ask me again.
Tommy: What’s he Do-ing?
FZ: What’s the answer?
Adrian & Audience: He’s eating.
This dialog can be heard once in Baby Snakes (during “Roy’s Halloween Gas Mask”) but it actually appears a handful of times throughout Halloween night. The phrase’s origins actually go all the way back to the Uncle Meat movie, but no one in 1977 would know this except for Frank. FZ, Tommy, Patrick, Adrian and even some of the audience chime in with the call and response bits (“He’s eating!!”), and Frank comments “You don’t know what that means yet, but wait till the movie is finished”. After this Tommy returns to his solo, creating a long, pleasant keyboard jam that kinda defies genre-labelling. It’s really good, and even gets kinda boogie-woogie/bouncy towards the end (if I’m using that term right). Frank asks yet another “what’s he doing?”, this time directed at the audience (“That’s what I thought”), and as Tommy concludes his riotous solo FZ brings out Roy Estrada (the original Mothers Of Invention bassist) to scream and cackle a la Prelude To The Afternoon Of A Sexually Aroused Gas Mask! Before the true festivities can begin though, FZ talks to the crowd about the lights in the theater for the movie (“You guys don’t wanna be in the movie? … Hey, put them in the movie”), and then intros our next segment
“This is the part of our program that is dedicated to the theory that Grand Opera is not dead, it just smells funny […] Now, let’s get serious, folks, this is Grand Opera time—this is our Halloween Grand Opera… I mean, you don’t wanna have a regular Halloween, do you? Right. You want the best. You deserve the best. You’re gonna get the best. Ladies and gentlemen, Roy Estrada and the Demise of the Imported Rubber Goods Mask. [Roy shouts] In this scene, a lonely boy of European extraction… is falling in love with a sexually aroused gas mask.”
Frank proceeds to conduct the band while Roy moans. Roy’s vocals are very funny, and the band’s improvised accompaniment is so wild and grand that it becomes even funnier in response, while also creating an “epic” feeling in a way. Ed plays a composed-sounding percussion riff in the middle, and Roy continues to “sing”, quoting the old 30s song ‘You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby’, almost like a Läther grout. They hit a wonderfully majestic peak about six minutes in and end up in an area of delightful tweaky weirdness until the end of the event. Frank starts up the “he’s eating” dialog again (“Watch him eat, and while he’s eating- ah, go fuck yourself”), then tells the band “one big loud noise!” before noticing that Roy’s microphone wire got disconnected! Thankfully it was only for a minute or two (“Could you hear what he was saying at all? Oh, I hope that wasn’t wasted! It wasn’t wasted? Good.”) and most of the insanity was captured. This Gas Mask event is one of the best examples of Frank conducting his band, and the Baby Snakes movie captures it wonderfully (nearly this whole performance is in the movie, minus the first couple minutes of intro). The whole improvisational event is absolutely fantastic. It’s a great throwback to the madness of the 60s Mothers, and one of the highlights of the run. Once everything settles back down, the show must go on, and Frank makes an abrupt transition into Bobby Brown, luckily with no intro!!!!!! It’s a normal take, but at the start of the second chorus Frank stops for a second to talk to the audience:
“Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Hold it. Hold it. Hold it, I want to do this right. I’m thinking about—wait a minute, hold it, wait a minute—when somebody—wait a minute—when somebody hands me panties and a brassière with a note, I gotta read it. Okay. “Frank, came all the way from Canada to see four shows. They’re fantastic. Please play ‘Bobby Brown’ and some Läther or ‘Enema Bandit.’ Love … Lacy, Tracy and Richard. Hi, Adrian (spelled wrong),” and then it says, “‘Jewish Princess’ was great.” Okay.”
Pat plays a mutated version of turn of the century popular standard “By The Beautiful Sea” while Frank begins to read the note, and after FZ finishes the song continues like normal. Next is the regularly wonderful Conehead, and tonight’s is no different. Frank gets pretty experimental tonight, not all the parts/moods perfectly transition into the next, but I fucking love the rawness of it all. There’s some Ship Ahoy-type modulation about two and half minutes in, and Frank goes pretty hard rock crazy for the remainder of the eight minute event. This is truly an amazing solo, and my favorite since the first night of the run. Frank ends with a totally perfect, composed sounding riff (I don’t actually think it’s composed), and makes a very quick, barebones introduction to Flakes. This is a top tier ‘77 Flakes, the band is energized, Patrick’s bass is exceptionally frantic on this performance, and Adrian whips out some of his best, funniest Dylan quips
(Wanna buy some acid, Bob?)
You know I don’t do that stuff
I write my songs on a typewriter
[…]
‘Til your head’ll go through th’ ceilin’
Yes it will! Just like a woman!
Big Leg Emma is your standard good ‘ol time, but Envelopes gets the Halloween treatment. Surprisingly, there’s no lyrics tonight! Tommy instead kinda vocalizes throughout the tune. It’s definitely weird, and kinda shoddy, but I’ve always preferred this song as an instrumental so I’m happy to hear it this way. Terry then starts his drum solo but stops fairly early on….
Terry: I might as well do this now. Watch him eat, and while he’s eating, talk to me while he’s eating, and ask me what he’s doing.
Frank: What’s he doing?
Crowd: He’s eating!
Terry: He’s eating. Now ask me what he’s doing.
Frank: What’s he doing?
Terry: He’s eating.
Frank: What’s he doing?
Terry: He’s eating!
Frank: Play your drums.
This third appearance of the secret phrase of the night! such a cool, weird moment. Only Frank. The rest of Terry’s solo is nice, and he gets really synth-y in the middle which I always like. Probably not Terry’s best of the run, but still a great, unique time. It leads into a solid Disco Boy, with at least one unique aside from FZ (“Ah, kiss his comb now! Get all the flakes off of it!”). Another excellent Läther follows, with a lovely set of three solos and a great guitar coda from Frank. Now comes the big moment. The Halloween Wild Love. Peter starts his jam out on the horn synth, which is a little different from usual, but his solo is fantastic as always. Around eight and a half minutes in, Frank comes in with some killer distorted guitar and duets with Peter for a little. An absolutely fantastic little moment. Frank and Peter play the mid-tune solo transition music, and Ed comes in after with a lovely little solo. Adrian’s up next with another fantasticly crazy EBow solo, and in the middle of his jam he gets his turn with Franks little poetic thing:
Adrian: Watch him while he’s eating. Talk to me while he’s eating. What is he doing?
Patrick: He’s eating, you jerk!
Adrian: You sure he’s eating? I thought I was playing the guitar! I don’t know…
Adrian then finishes his fiery solo (on regular guitar, with uh, fingers), and concludes with a sick transition to Frank’s slowed down drum vamp. Pat plays for a sec while FZ gets his guitar (I assume), and the maestro begins with some absolutely evil guitar. The solo progressively gets lighter as time goes on, and ends up incredibly majestic. Frank plays for a long time, about nine minutes, and Pat plays a variation on the Pound For A Brown riff at 23:00 min in. It’s really just a fantastic solo, a wonderful slow build that showcases a wide variety of Frank’s musical language. And after the tune ends, just when your mind has been thoroughly blown, he plays a three minute long guitar coda! The full band joins in after a bit and Frank just goes fucking insane. Definitely should have been a Shut Up N Play Yer Guitar contender, and arguably the best Wild Love of the tour. The beast ends with a great transition into a classic Titties N Beer (the take featured on the Baby Snakes movie and soundtrack album!):
Terry: Listen fool, you got to prove to me that you’re rough enough to get into Hell, that you got the style enough to get into Hell, so start talkin’…
Frank: All right, lemme tell ya somethin’.
Terry: All right!
Frank: I’ll prove to you that I’m bad enough to go to Hell.
Terry: Yeah!
Frank: Because I have been through it!
Terry: Yeah!
Frank: I have seen it!
Terry: Yeah!
Frank: It has happened to me!
Terry: Yeah!
Frank: Remember, I WAS SIGNED WITH WARNER BROTHERS FOR EIGHT FUCKIN’ YEARS!!!
Terry: Tell me about it! Now you’re talkin’ my language!
Frank: Now how bad is that?
Terry: That sounds good to me, motherfucker!
Frank: A— And not only that! I know Mo Austin personally!
Terry: Oh, no!
Frank: Yeah!
Terry: No!
Frank: I’ve been personally abused by Mo Austin.
Terry: You don’t know Mo Austin personally.
Frank: Yeah!
Terry: You haven’t been personally abused by Mo Austin.
Frank: You know him too, don’t ya?
Terry: Listen, man…
Frank: What?… Say it louder!
Terry: That fool is my brother.
Frank: Say it louder!… That’s right, you got the right idea. Thank you— Oh, just what I need. Thank you. Hey, look, I’ll— I’ll show you how bad I am, look at this—look at this.
Terry: I can’t see.
Frank: You know—Yep. Have you ever been to Japan?
Terry: Have I ever been to Japan?
Frank: Yeah.
Terry: Just once, yes.
Frank: You were over there on that Lockheel— Lockheed deal, all right?
Terry: Yeah…
Frank: Okay, look. Let me tell ya.
Terry: Oh, no…
Frank: This do anything for ya?
Terry: Is that Rodan or Woody Woodpecker?
Frank: Hah hah… Is a little bit of both.
Terry: Yeah.
Frank: It’s Rody Woodpecker, actually.
Terry: Hah!
Frank: Am I getting my point across to? Because this song is going on for far too long—these people want rock, you know?
Terry: Okay, man. So move right along, tell me what your interests are, you know… if we’re gonna come to some kind of agreement, I’ve got to know what you’re all about, you know… ‘Cause I don’t know if you’re the right cat for the… for the place, you know.
Frank: Look… lemme tell you what my problem really is, you see.
Terry: Okay…
Frank: My problem is that I don’t belong anywhere.
Terry: A-ha…
Frank: You see… I don’t even belong where you are, you see.
Terry: I hope not!
Frank: I, I’m a simple person, you know, I have very small desires in life, Titties ‘n beer, you know.
[…]
Terry: Oh, I can’t stand titties ‘n beer!…
Frank: Ay-ya hey-yah! Ah-titties ‘n beer, ah-titties ‘n beer, ah-titties ‘n beer, ah-titties ‘n… (I’M IN YOU!)… titties ‘n beer… (I’M IN YOU!)
This is a great Titties, probably the most iconic one after the ZINY version. It’s another classic Anti-WB performance, and it features Frank’s timeless line “I was signed with Warner brothers for eight fucking years!!!” (Terry’s guttural “yeahs” in response to Frank are also really funny and he doesn’t get enough credit for frequently carrying this dumb-ass tune). Anyway, they briefly talk about Mo Osten, the ‘76 tour of Japan, Rodan and Woody Woodpecker. As the song starts to wrap up Pat plays Sunshine Of Your Love and In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, and Frank makes some more “I’m In You!” references.This leads into a loooong, but pretty entertaining, audience participation (the take seen/heard in Baby Snakes).
“Frank: You know what time is, don’t you?… I— ‘Cause know a lot of you people I s— I see the same people here tonight that I’ve seen for many of these shows… and I re— I really appreciate the fact that you came back. Thank you. Okay. This is—for those of you who haven’t been here before—this is Audience Participation Time. Now, tonight, since this is Halloween, we’re gonna— Hi, there! You’re a cute girl. Come up here… Yeah, you. Come here… Hi. What’s your name?
Janet The Planet: Janet The Planet.
[…]
Frank: What’s the friend’s name?
Janet The Planet: Her name is Donna U Wanna.
Frank: Donna U Wanna? Would Donna U Wanna, please, step to the podium. It’s Donna U Wanna, hey… And what is this in the bottle? What is— Yoo-Hoo, oh, hey…
Donna U Wanna: Hi!
Frank: Ok. Are you gonna be her assistance in this abusage here? Ok, here’s what you do. Do we have any oth— Do we have a utensil for Donna U Wanna? Is there any? Do you take this? Is there anything that Donna U Wanna can use to whip this poor boy? Where’s the whip?… Okay! This, this is a real whip. Hey, this is Halloween, we don’t fuck around! All right… Hey, relax, there’s plenty— We’re gonna have plenty of fun ‘n games up here during Audience Participation Time, okay? Uh, would that young lady please come up here, that one there, yes, send her right on up. You were here last night for “Disco Boy.” You were the one I was going, “You never go doody, that’s what you think,” that’s right. Okay. Now, just relax. Just hold yourself in abeyance momentarily because we have to get on with Phase One of Audience Participation! You, with the white. You, come up here. You. Okay. Now. You’re sure you want this?
John: I don’t know if I can go through with this if that’s a real whip.
Frank: It’s a real whip!
John: A real whip!
[…]
Frank: Angel, my God… now look, this, this guy here who looks so… What?… Oh, waitiminnit. Oh, how fun… now, listen. This guy here, as, you John, you really asked for it, he thought we were just gonna had fun up here. John. They’re going to beat the living shit out of John tonight. Okay. Now, John, I want you to make yourself comfortable… all right. Just put the, there you go, John. Now, sit, make yourself comfortable on any place on the stage. You shouldn’t stand up for this because it’ll take too much energy. Better to just lie down on your, there, there on the side, that’s it. Okay. Now. What you’re watching here tonight is not merely Audience Participation, it is a re-enactment of the sum total of modern civilization. John represents the abused, down-trodden artists of the world… Here we have the president of Warner Bros. Records, the head of the Warner Bros. legal department, and two famous attorneys from Gang, Tyre & Brown. Okay. Give him his contract!
So while the band vamps, Pat (or at least it’s mostly Pat-led), play quotations from so many songs. I’m not gonna break them down cause its just too many but here’s the list: Sunshine Of Your Love, The Third Man Theme, Dance Of The Cuckoos, Song Of The Volga Boatmen, Disco Boy (Frank sings this one too), It’s Only A Paper Moon, Ach du lieber Augustine, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Entry Of The Gladiators and Stranger In Paradise. My God! Frank thanks the returning audience, and brings up “Janet The Planet” and “Donna U Wanna”. Janet is actually the future wife of Denny Walley! And Donna brings a Hot Yoohoo bottle! (see The Fillmore East, 1971). FZ then gets a whip from somewhere (“Hey this is Halloween we don’t fuck around!”),
and grabs “John” from the audience, who’s rightfully reluctant to get whipped. Frank somehow gets him to go for it and organizes a reenactment of getting fucked over by Warner Brothers via whip (“He thought we were just gonna have fun up here. They’re going to beat the living shit out of John tonight.”) So the girls whip the shit out of him, Roy comes out for a sec dressed as the Rejected Mexican Pope and yells “dominus vobiscum!” and John ultimately gets a record contract with WB. [This whole whipping event is possibly a reference to the infamous incident at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go nine years earlier.] After a little while FZ ends the complete chaos that has taken over the stage, and gets the show back on track. Now it’s time for the “meat” of the audience participation: The Dance Contest.
“All right! This is chaos, stop it! Stop! Stop! All right. It is now time to get into the meat of our performance, and that is the Dance Contest. Now, last night we had ten people up on the stage, maybe twelve, who knows. They were dancing and twirling and trying to keep the beat to “The Black Page #2.” Unfortunately, this stage is too small to accommodate the type of spectacle that I wanna put into this film. We don’t want just a few people on the stage, we want everybody in the audience trying to dance to this stupid song, so stand up! Stand up! Stand up! All right! Everybody dance to this song, but remember, hey, keep, keep, keep the aisles clear, keep the aisles clear, you never, you never know when there’s gonna be an emergency. Okay.”
After a loooong seven minutes, they burst into the Black Page and everybody gets down with their bad selves. It’s a wondrous take, though at this point they all are, and it’s the take that ends up on Baby Snakes (the movie and the album!). The following Jones Crusher is also excellent, so much so that Frank used the basic tracks on Sheik Yerbouti! Broken Hearts Are For Assholes is next with a baller take, and I’d expect no less at this point. Pat’s got some great quips throughout (“Oh, Charlelle is back in town… Bigger, fatter and wetter than ever before”) and gracefully moves from his reverend routine (“though shall not judge a homo by his keys, scarf or haircut”) into his wrestling routine (“Two-hundred and forty-five kilos of hot Mexican dynamite”), which cracks Frank up. [Pat then keeps saying “B.F.” during the outro. Anyone know what this means?] Anyway, after this definitive take of Broken Hearts (FZ: “That’s right Angel”), we get a great “surprised” transition with a long laugh and “leather” drop from Pat.
And finally: the show stopping Halloween Punky’s Whips (which makes up the majority of the Baby Snakes album version, but not the movie). Tonight’s take has standard intro, and Pat drops some crazy nonsense in the opening quip-slot (“Al Santos thinks Bonny Prince Johnny is Gay….”) We get an overall great performance, with fun little asides from Pat and Terry throughout and an amazing ending solo from Frank. It’s the perfect, crazy, rockin’ guitar jam to close off this momentous Halloween set. Frank uses this solo in the movie, which tracks because it’s probably the best solo of the run (and thus, one of the best Punky solos period). He never ends when you think he’s going to; he just continuously gains intensity throughout the solo. When he’s done we get a pretty tame spoken outro, but it’s cause everyone in this massive room knows nothing’s over. Don’t leave yet because things arguably get even better after this.
“Awright… I wanna tell you one more time, I wanna thank you, because I really appreciate this. Okay, all right, all right, all right… okay, look, no… there’s, there’s no way that I can show my appreciation to you. But lis— but n— let’s not get maudlin about this… The name of this song is ‘Dinah-Moe Humm.’”
A top tier Dinah-Moe Humm follows, filled with riotous energy from the riotous crowd (and say it with me: It’s the Baby Snakes take!). We get a fun “fauna” section, with some great audience participation in the form of the “Frank Zappa perform alike contest”
Frank: Are you having an okay Halloween, Brian?
Brian: I’m having an excellent time! Sing for Greenwich, man, Greenwich, Connecticut…
Frank: All right now, I’ll tell you what, Brian, do you know the words to this song?
Brian: Well, in a way, in a way…
Frank: Okay, here’s… Brian, this is your golden opportunity. This is the Frank Zappa Perform-Alike Contest, and here’s what you’re going to do: We’re gonna play the song again and you’re gonna pretend you’re me, and you pretend to sing the song and dance all across the stage and give these people a very good Halloween show, would you?
[….]
Frank: All right, all right… What? “San Ber’dino”? No, no, not yet. I’ll tell you what. Boy is this thing hard to hold on your head! Let’s do another song. Here…
Guy From The Audience: “San Ber’dino”!
Frank: No no, we’ll do that later… Hey, thanks, man, you do a pretty good imitation of me. Nice fingernail polish! Really good! Really good! I like that. Let’s wait, look at, show the camera, show the camera your fingernails. Very good, nice…”
We get a solid Dinah-Moe ending, with fans screaming the titular heroine’s name. Pat plays even more Sunshine of Your Love and we get an abrupt transition into Camarillo Brillo. It’s a great version (Surprise: it’s the one in Baby Snakes), and when re-listening I thought about how delightfully weird the vocals of this group are. Not a regular lead singer of the bunch, yet together they completely make everything click. Anyway, it’s a good version, Frank again confirms a future song to end a request (“Okay Black Napkins”), and tries to stop some crowd crush as the song ends (and transitions into Muffin Man):
I chewed my way through her rancid panocha
(Joey Psychotic, ladies and gentlemen!)
She laid buck naked by the door
We did it till we were un-concho
(Hi, darling, how you doin’?)
And it was useless anymore
Yes, it was (back up, back up!) anymore
(Hey, you’re hurtin’ Joey Psychotic!)
Yes, it was useless anymore
(Move back now!)
FZ honks a masked man’s nose (hence the “doot doot”), and the Muffin Man arrives. Frank decides to force John Smothers (famed bodyguard and manipulator of the English language) to sing the second verse of the song, and he completely fucks up the lyrics in a hysterical way. Adrian plays another fantastic opening solo, and perfectly deposits us into Frank’s heavy, monster jam (the head of the tune and Adrian’s solo are both in Baby Snakes, but Frank cuts to the 30th for his own solo). Frank’s solo, while not quite as fantastic as the night before, is really amazing, and easily one of the best Muffin Mans (Men) in its own right.
“Thanks for coming to the show… Now we’re gonna do another song… ‘Cause I— I promised that guy out there that we would do it… Name of this song is ‘San Ber’dino.’”
Things aren’t over just yet, this is Halloween after all, and we know Frank doesn’t fuck around. Since somebody requested San Ber’dino, we’re gonna hear San Ber’dino. The rocking teenage combo delivers a perfectly energetic and bouncy take of the tune. Adrian is just fantastic throughout, delivering a great solo and absolutely killing it on the ending Johnny Guitar Watson vocals. It’s a wonderful take, it’s the one on Baby Snakes, and just like in the movie it leads right into Black Napkins (you guessed it: The Baby Snakes Version). This is of course one of the best versions of this tune around. The theme is wonderful (though this is an instance where I think Tommy’s horn-syth really stands out in a negative way), and Frank whips out a beautiful, cool, sexy, angry, passionate guitar solo. It’s a long solo, most of which makes it into the movie, with just wonderful accompaniment from the whole band, especially the incredible rhythm section. It’s hard to describe how great this Black Napkins is; just one of the most iconic performances of Frank’s career. At some point though, the night must come to a close. Frank thanks the audience again, conducts a crazy explosion of an ending, and the show concludes with the rabid New York audience going insane (and man they play the lamest music to calm everyone down and go home).
What else is even there for me to say? This concert (along with the entire run) is absolutely legendary. Nearly every performance from this show could be considered the best of the tour, and you wouldn’t even have to put up much of an argument. This is the first show I’d recommend a fan to check out. If you’re reading this review you’ve probably heard this show, or at least seen clips of it on YouTube, but if you haven’t, do yourself a favor and check it out.
“Thank you! Thank you… thank you… thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank everyone of you, and good night.”
1977 11 06 – Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, MI (Audience B/B-)
Following the world famous Halloween run, the band gets three days off before they’re back on the road for two gigs each in Chicago and Pittsburgh (God I wish we had those shows!). Our first recorded show after Halloween comes from Ann Arbor, a college town 45 miles west of Detroit, and it’s a bit of a mixed bag. This is definitely an excellent performance, but this sound on this one ranges from acceptable to cruddy. To make matters worse the whole show wasn’t recorded, so we have a somewhat fragmented experience. The tape cuts in during Peaches en Regalia, so we miss Frank’s opening remarks, instead here’s a quote about the recording of the show from the original taper!
“My brother and I saw [news of the Ann Arbor Zappa show] in the paper the day of the show. [It was] an encore performance two and a half weeks after Cobo from the Student Union at U of M. We jumped in the car and drove to Ann Arbor, went to the ticket window at Hill and got tics. Got in late as Peaches was playing. Part way through [the] show I dropped my only other blank tape and the guy next to me accidently kicked it. I found it after [the show] a bunch of the rows in front of me. [I] rushed the stage for encores. I crawled on [my] hands and knees searching. I found it in time for the end!”
His memory is a little off (it was about five weeks after the Cobo Hall show) and his grammar is far from perfect, but it’s pretty cool to actually have a statement from the original recorder. It’s so rare we have stuff like this! This statement explains the missing segments of the show, which gives more character to this flawed recording. But anyway, they arrived as the show was starting, so this tape misses whatever introduction occurred and the first half of Peaches En Regalia. From what I can tell it seems to be a good performance, but before you know it they’re playing The Torture Never Stops. Frank says something right before the solo section, but it’s impossible to make out. We get a really really good, slow, soulful, perfectly paced guitar jam. It starts incredibly cool and echo-y, and eventually morphs into this excellent, low down and dirty masterpiece. Sound is not fantastic, but it’s definitely listenable. It’s followed up by an excellent, energetic Chin and a MONSTER Tiny Lights. Frank is full of pure fury , and delivers a red hot solo. It’s loud and long, but sadly ends up somewhat distorted because of this. Adrian concludes the song beautifully (with some surprisingly long held notes), and brings us into a solid Pound For A Brown. There’s a pretty noticeable error in the theme (I think it’s Frank’s fault honestly, losing track of the one), but it doesn’t derail anything. Patrick plays a long solo, and it’s a really good solo, but it doesn’t quite reach the heights of his Halloween jams or the following November Pounds. Then Tommy starts scattin’, before leading us into a classic Tommy Mars adventure (he says something around 7:40 in, but I can’t make it out). We end up with a really cool and spacey Mars solo, capping off another enjoyable Pound. Not the best ever, but a solid 7/10. He wraps up the event with a chaotic explosion, so sudden it makes the transition into Bobby Brown a little abrupt:
“Wasn’t that wonderful? [cut] ..and dancing pleasure. And now, ladies and gentlemen, a song for the ladies. [cheers] The reason I say this is a song for the ladies is because they always go, ‘owwww’ when you say this is a song for the ladies, but actually this is a song for the guys, too. Because the hero, if you can call him a hero, of this song is a guy. He’s sort of a disgusting kind of guy. There may even be people like the disgusting guy in this song at this school. Now, ladies, you’ve seen a guy like this before, I know you have. Because every college has its own women’s liberation movement thing going on, you know what I mean? And you know that there’s some guys that hang around the school that will sing Ms till they’re blue in the face until they get a college-educated blowjob, you know that’s the truth. There’s always going to be those turkeys that are going to pretend to go along with your program hoping that by saying the mystery word that you will hey, hey, ho, ho, hey, hey, hey, ho, ho, ho. But you know deep down in your heart that these guys are full of shit. They know, of course, that the reason that you’re in the women’s movement is because there’s a guy in your dormitory that’s gonna stab you if you don’t do it. So, think something good out. The name of this song, Bobby Brown Goes Down.”
It’s pretty amusing for a Bobby Brown intro, and thankfully only about 90 seconds, but of course it’s fairly hard to make out. We get a standard take of the tune, the first of the post-Halloween arrangement (no harmonica and less guitar) and it’s followed by a pretty perfect Conehead. Frank’s guitar is experimental and angry, and the mood starts off inviting but ends up ferocious. Just a really great performance, and my personal show highlight. As the tune ends Frank introduces Flakes, but it’s pretty impossible to make out.
“Next song we’re gonna do is about the subject of incompetence.. [The residents of this city?]. You may have this kind of a problem here I don’t know, it’s quite possible you do. But I believe that most of the people that […] are Flakes live in California […] And It’s easy to suntan, and it’s easy to […] This song is….”
Flakes and Big Leg Emma are standard fun performances, but the sound quality is really starting to grate on me at this point.
“Thank you! Alright try your imagination out…This song is called Envelopes. It’s a love song for the industrially(?) retarded [.. ] and features the industrially retarded voice of Tommy Mars”
I can just barely make out that transcription and I’m not even sure it’s super accurate. The head to Envelopes is real fun, and it leads into a crazy solo from Terry. It’s lengthy, energetic and electric, so really the best you can hope for. The following Disco boy is solid. I think Frank throws in some one liners here and there but I can’t make ‘em out. Next is a really excellent Läther, with three beautiful solos from the usual suspects (I just wish the recording was a little better). This leads into a promising Wild Love, and I say promising because the tape cuts off about a minute into the usually 20+ minute jam. Peter starts off really strong, but that’s really all I can say. One of the saddest tape cuts of the tour for sure, especially given how strong FZ’s playing has been today.
Well the show concludes after this, I’m assuming we miss at least five songs after this, but our taper finds his final tape and starts the recording again during the encore break. We return to a bit of Louie Louie from Pat before Frank comes out to announce “Alright! Now for something else[?]”. This of course is nothing but the obligatory encore Dinah-Moe Humm, but thanks to some amusing audience interactions, we actually get a really funny version. They play the song like regular, and at the end of the first go through Frank begins the nightly “optional” audience participation, but when it’s not to his liking he’s forced to address the crowd.
“Alright. I told you it was optional. I told you the audience participation was optional. I told you to relax a little. I told you [?] I told you that you were intelligent because you [?] at school. Forget it! I want you to say Dinah Moe Humm. I need a irresident[?] pavlovian response from this audience. One miserable fucking word, I’ll even spell it. It’s got a D. It’s got an I. It’s got an N. It’s got an A. It’s got an H. It has a hyphen. It has an M, an O, and an E. Okay, here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re going to have audience participation, just as if the Beatles had gotten back together. [Cheers] It’s all make believe, It’s all pretend, you see. And you have to get into the nostalgic groove of it all you understand. [?] John, Paul, George, Ringo, and Murphy K!”
I love the Beatles reference and I love how patronizing FZ is here. Sing his stupid fucking song! I’m not sure who Murphy K. is, but my guess is it’s a reference to a missing Black Page Dance Contest. There’s apparently a Day Tripper quote somewhere in there but I can’t make it out for the life of me. Anyway, the crowd screams along with the tune, FZ comments on how “stupid” it is, and talks to the crowd some more:
“As if that weren’t bad enough, just stop and think about stuff like that. I mean how many times do you get to a concert and somebody asks you to do that sort of thing. It is absolutely preposterous. Well don’t worry about it. I know it’s preposterous, as well as you[?]. I don’t take it seriously [unintelligible] But the stupidity is not over ladies and gentleman because we have another stupid song for you!! [final sentence unintelligible]”
So after this surprisingly fun Dinah-Moe, we get the regular high-octane Camarillo Brillo-Muffin Man ending. The first tune is a standard take, with an amusing “Ha! Simba!” at the end, but Muffin Man is a real treat. Adrian whips out a great little opening solo (though it’s pretty difficult to make out), and Frank unleashes some amazing, ferocious guitar onto us until the night comes to its inevitable close. Our night ends with a mostly unintelligible FZ outro, and a fun conducted crash finale.
This, unfortunately, is a really good show on a bad recording. November 1977 is one of the best months of Frank’s touring career, but this tape is pretty sucky. The sound is less than pleasant and about a third of the show is missing. I can’t speak to the missing parts obviously, but Frank and the boys were on fire tonight so I’d be really surprised if the second half of the main set was any less than fantastic. If a better, more complete recording appeared this show would be an easy recommendation, but right now it’s kinda in bad-tape limbo. I’m glad this recording exists for us super freaks, because it’s got some wonderful moments (Torture, City, Conehead and even Dinah-Moe), but the average person should skip this one.
1977 11 11 – Uptown Theater, Kansas City, MO (Audience A-/B+)
click here to listen
The rocking teenage combo returns to the stage for an excellent, crazy show in Kansas City. Zappa shows in Kansas City always seem to be a great time, and this one is no exception. The boys seemed to have a few days off after Ann Arbor, then played Louisville on the 10th, before ending up in Kansas on the 11th. There were two shows on this night, and while it’s not directly stated that this is the late show, it’s got strong late show vibes. This has what I can only describe as a “crazy weirdo fucked up” setlist, and boy is that a positive. This fact alone makes it one of the most interesting shows of the tour, but on top of that it’s filled with some of the best playing of the year, and it’s captured on a very nice tape. Pretty much an ideal bootleg if you ask me! Our recording begins during the opening vamp to Stink-Foot, so we know we’re in for a good time. Frank comes out, tests his guitar and gives a short introduction (“Just relax, just settle back, make yourselves comfortable”). He introduces the band, including “The hardest working man in show business” Ed Mann, and jumps right into Stink Foot.
We get a wonderful take of the classic Apostrophe tune. Frank chides the dog (“Oh you helpless little canine specimen”) and a lovely conducted crash brings us into a baller fucking solo. It’s really long, biting, and constantly enjoyable throughout, definitely one of my favorite post-74 versions. This show is off to an instantly riotous start, but unfortunately Frank goes into the Poodle Lecture next. It’s a pretty tolerable version. Frank does slam men as bad as women in this performance so it’s honestly one of the best takes I can recall, but it’s still the same basic story. [I’m not typing this whole thing out, I guess the Poodle Lecture is where I draw the line on transcriptions]. After this pseudo-religious affair, we get a lovely transition into a tight Dirty Love. It’s a wonderful take, Adrian whips out a baller solo (“Peter Frampton ladies and gentleman!”), and a pretty short poodle bites ending concludes the dog suite.
“The poodle has chewed it long enough. It’s time now to wind our way into the other part of the program, yes ladies and gentlemen, this is the sensitive, somewhat intellectually exhilarating part of our show. Hey, you know I’m just teasing you. There’s nothing like that gonna happen tonight. This is the part of the program that we reserve for the golden voices of the instruments themselves. Believe me. Wait a minute. Keep the band going. I’ll tune up. [Frank Tunes] Okay. Okay, Did the tension build up? Are you ready? to see what’s gonna happen now? We’re all ready now, right? You wouldn’t lie to me, would you? I’m your friend, right? You won’t treat me wrong, huh? Okay. The name of the song is Peaches En Regalia.”
Frank’s “intellectually exhilarating” spiel always gets a chuckle out of me, and as FZ tunes the band vamps for a bit while Ed plays various percussoid devices. The tension builds and builds, until finally Frank launches into a great Peaches. A baller Torture Never Stops follows it up, and features a long, fiery guitar workout from FZ. He starts his fantastic solo out mellower than the average Torture, but slowly increases in intensity over the nearly 10 minute jam. He uses a lot of the same wild effects heard in his Torture solos from earlier in the tour, and switches guitar tones at least two or three times. While overall fairly mellow, it’s still slick and grimy like all great Torture solos should be (Pat’s of course delightful too). Tryin’ To Grow A Chin is the same, high energy Terry-scream-fest as always, and a pretty good City of Tiny Lights comes after. Frank’s playing is great but brief, and to make matters worse the tape cuts right after his solo ends (we miss about 30 seconds to a minute). Never fear though, the following Pound more than makes up for this lackluster City. The perfectly composed theme leads into a lovely chorded solo transition which leads into a fantastic O’Hearn bass showcase. Pat starts off incredibly slow, carefully creating a long, beautiful piece of music, all while slowly building up a pleasant groove throughout. He’s got just the coolest damn bass tone too. You can also hear the audience screaming, whistling and just going nuts throughout, which adds to the ambiance (“Dinah-Moe Humm!!” “Mudshark!!!”). This is a fantastic, unique, and beautiful bass solo, and it just might be my favorite O’Hearn jam of the tour (possibly of all time). Tommy has the daunting task of following this up next, but he whips out a real good solo too (just not quite as good as Patrick’s). He whips up a typical, energetic, eclectic Mars jam, and eventually trades licks with Terry for a little while, which is neat. Tommy returns to the main melody during his excellent spacy, chaotic ending, which brings this monster Pound to a close. This is a terrific performance, easily one of the best of the tour , and it leads into a surprisingly amusing Bobby Brown intro. You know the show is good when even the intro to Bobby Brown is kinda happening!
“Alright. No, this is not the Bebop Tango. This is Bobby Brown Goes Down. This is a tragic story of what happens- this is an extension of that other tragic story. You remember I told you a little bit earlier, and I’ll say it again because it’s still true. Men are really stupid. And the women ain’t too much better. That’s why they were made for each other. When women’s liberation came along, a few guys, who thought they were smart, figured that now is their big chance to get in on the ground floor of something big. That’s why a few of these deceitful little suckers decided that they would be the first guys in town to go up to the girl and call her Ms, figuring that that would, heeeey, get him across, and he would, heeey, hooo, heeey, please, Ms, would you suck me up? Well, you know, you know, ladies, they didn’t mean it then, and they don’t mean it now. Because, let’s be realistic about it, folks, none of these guys wanna go along with that crap. Heh? What? No, I’m not talking about Dweezil. Now listen, anyway, this traces the deterioration, the sociological deterioration of one gentleman who decided to go along with the program.”
This specific speech is nice because it actually gets down to the realistic thing that inspired the tune, without Frank saying anything too horrid. Plus I love any Be-Bop Tango reference, and the nice bit of conceptual continuity when Frank refers back to the Poodle Lecture. The crowd loves the “shoots too quick” line so much that Frank misses the “Vasiline” line (that or something visual happened). So the song comes to a close, and right as we’re all expecting another riotous Conehead, Frank says “watch me now because we’re going to go into a song called King Kong”! They tear into the lightning fast ‘77 arrangement of the theme and Peter shoots out the gate with an equally high-octane jam. It’s an exciting, lightning fast solo with great accompaniment from the rest of the boys in the band, then Boom! Crash! Now it’s Frank’s turn! Just a wildly fucking cool transition. FZ starts off slow and methodical, but pretty quickly ramps up to a frenzy, all while Terry is just pounding away at his kit. This is another long, ten minute solo, and Frank is just red hot for the entire ride. He shifts gears/moods a few times throughout the tune, and gets really heavy at 10 minutes in. The rhythm section gets really bouncy about a minute after this, and it’s followed by a crazy musical crash. This triggers something in Frank and he just goes absolutely insane until he decides the song is over. A truly insane solo, and a must hear track for anyone reading this page. Once Frank settles down he stops to introduce the next tune:
“Alright. Thank you. And now on with the entertaining part of the program. This is a song that deals with incompetence ladies and gentlemen. No, L.A. style. This is a song about all the assholes in Los Angeles that don’t do a good song for whatever you hire them for. Name of the song is flakes and it goes something like this.”
We get a solid version of Flakes, with some funny harmonica playing, but it kind of pales in comparison to the preceding King Kong. There’s a long held outro, while Frank informs the band what the next tune will be: Broken Hearts Are For Assholes! So now we’re in a bit of uncharted territory setlist-wise. Nevertheless, this is a great take. Pat unleashes a variety of hysterical “Hail Caesar!” comments (“Caesar, 249 lbs of roman dynamite…. At 7 o’clock he’ll be wrestling Don Pepe”) and is totally audible throughout, and rarity on audience tapes. The ending is really lively and fun, Frank yells “everybody sing along!!”, and afterwards we move right into Punky’s Whips! There is a very short skip in the intro, but nothing is really missing here. Terry yells “Yeah and he had big lips too” after FZ talks about Punky’s rictus, which gets the guitarist to laugh (Frank: “Yeah and it was deep too!”) Pat and Terry have a funny little interaction in the opening vocal improv bit too (Pat: “Hump or Dumb Terry”/Terry: “Punky don’t destroy my dreams!”). Overall this is a very fun, loose-feeling take. Terry yells “spread your wings!” during the Isn’t It Romantic quote, and we get some very cool guitar over the “more fluid with Jeff Beck” section. Now for the sad news, the tape cuts out during “yank it all night long” bit, and resumes during FZ’s solo. I think we get the majority of the solo, but it’s hard to tell how much is missing (it kind of feels like a sizable chunk). Whatever the case, it’s still a really fucking good solo, and we have a large enough section to appreciate it as hot fire.
Then there’s a sick, sudden transition into the introductory Wild Love music, complete with acapella guitar!!! The Punky/Wild Love transition wasn’t something I thought I needed until hearing it but man is it cool. Wild Love, as expected, is wonderful. Terry sounds absolutely great on this tape, and it’s lovely to hear him going nuts throughout the head of this odd tune. Everyone’s playing is somehow both relaxed and epic tonight, resulting in a casually-fantastic vibe. Peter’s latin-tinged solo is wonderful, and Ed’s at his best tonight too (much better than his usual “not-super-notable-but-not-unpleasant-in-any-way solo”). Adrian’s jam is of course incredibly beautiful, very Matai Kudusai for all the Crimson heads out there. It develops into an excellent rager by the end, and it makes a lovely transition into FZ’s monster jam.
Frank starts with these beautiful, While You Were Out-esque phrases. Really cool, chorded stuff. He then hints at the Nowhere Riff and Funiculi Funicula, but never commits to a full quote of either. Then suddenly the big nasty Bowling on Charen lick! (and I mean nasty in the coolest possible way). Like many of the best Wild Love solos, this one is constantly evolving and changing as Frank tries some crazy shit out. He’s got the craziest, spacy tone with this neat like multiplying effect added on. Again, really fucking cool. Things get more majestic as our lead guitar player continues, and somehow around 22 minutes in we end up with this crazy triumphant march beat! After a few minutes we’re back to fantastic chugging rock guitar, but suddenly there’s a big feedback-laden crash and Frank whips out the Zoot Allures chords!!!!!!! Holy shit is this cool. He plays this part mostly acapella, until Pat and Terry come back in and he makes a very abrupt transition to the Wild Love outro theme. Patrick plays a really neat, unique, bass line over this, and when it concludes, symbols crash as Frank plays some fiery guitar and outros the band. Wow what a fuckin’ show, and its not even over yet!
Frank and the boys come back, and with no dialog we get Disco Boy as an encore (possibly the taper missed the encore walk-on?). Because it’s The Kansas City show we get an above average take. Frank says “It’ll make you go blind too” after the “shake it more than three times” line, and shouts a couple other fun one liners in the regular places (“Work! Work baby! Work out!” & “Heyy rock n roll!!”). The ending is a little looser than we’re used to, and it leads to some nice keyboard riff-age over the end. Well once this “entertainment” ends, just as you’re thinking maybe this show peters out, we get a sickeningly smooth transition to Black Napkins! It’s a beautiful version, filled with that tinge of anger all the best Napkins have. Not the best solo of the night, but still a lovely time, and a perfect finale. When Frank’s done we get a quick “thank you for coming to the concert!!!” followed by a night-ending-crash.
Well if you couldn’t tell, this is simply a great night of music. Frank shuts up and plays his guitar for sure. This is maybe the first show I’d recommend after the Halloween set, just a fantastic time all around, and possibly THE guitar show for fall 1977. Plus it’s a fantastic recording! Just a baller fuckin’ time right here. If you like Sheik Yerbouti or the Halloween ‘77 box, take two hours from your day and throw this one on, you won’t regret it.
1977 11 14 – The Auditorium Arena, Denver, CO (Audience B+/B)
After Kansas the boys have two days off and head to Denver for our next November performance. This is a solid show, captured on a solid good-not-great tape (it’s a very hissy recording). The big bummer though is that it’s incomplete. The recording starts during the head of Torture, and cuts out (luckily for us) at the very end of the Wild Love solos. I imagine the taper had one 90 minute tape, and that they captured as much as they were able to. There’s definitely enough to enjoy in the chunk of the show we have, though obviously it would be way more fun if we had the whole thing. That being said, I’m still glad we have any document of this show, it is November ‘77 after all! But enough talk, onto the show.
The tape fades in about 3 or 4 minutes into The Torture Never Stops. Frank yells out “no movies allowed!” (I’m assuming someone was filming lol), and Tommy plays the Bowling on Charen lick a few times during the transition to the solo section (which is cool as shit). FZ plays a solid solo, overall not his best but with some great moments here and there. He starts off really strong, with a crazy, spacy tone similar to his September solos, but with the ferocity of his November playing. He kinda loses steam in the second half, and we don’t get that feeling of like, a beginning, middle and end that the best Torture solos have. Still a good time, just not as great as the last handful of shows. Terry’s Chin is solid tonight and the following City Of Tiny Lights has a rocking solo, but again it’s really short. The end of Frank’s solo is so abrupt it legitimately caught me off guard. I think the band felt the same way, cause the post-solo riff is a total mess. Frank plays part of it so fast that the band gets confused and this whole section barely hangs together (it kinda reminds me of Awakening by The Mahavishnu Orchestra, but much less controlled). So honestly this is a pretty bad take (though Adrian’s vocals are baller as always).
Despite the lackluster first few tunes, Pound For A Brown appears and gives us our first highlight of the night. We get a great Frank/Peter intro to the solo section followed by a long frenetic, jazzy bass solo. Pat plays a great energetic jam, seemingly in response to his more calming solo from the last show in Kansas. Terry gets really into it too, and the crowd goes absolutely nuts (pretty rare for a bass solo!). The transition to Tommy’s spotlight is ridiculously smooth, and not too long after he starts he plays the Squirm lick! (AKA the start to Bowling on Charen). So cool! He whips out a really nice, slightly above average keyboard jam, filled with everything you’d expect: mainly scat singing, and spacy, fast paced synthesizers. Tommy concocts a really great, explosive ending and this excellent Pound comes to a close with the regular Bobby Brown drum beat. Frank tells Terry “it’s too fast” and to “slow it down”, and skips the “Three Assholes” intro (woo!). Love it or hate it, we get a regular performance of this soon to be overplayed song.
“Watch me now because the name of this song is King Kong!” With this appearance it now appears that King Kong has replaced Conehead in the setlists, but this only lasts for about a week in mid-November. Frank cranks off a red hot solo, with a number of exciting vamp changes and crazy guitar tone shifts. It’s a really great solo, and the crowd starts to go insane near the end. After seven or eight minutes of fantastic guitar, Frank plays a super cool distorted version of the melody of A Pound For A Brown and ends his solo. This closing quote bookends the previous 20 minutes of music, and creates a great little instrumental suite (if you ignore that damned Bobby Brown). Sick as fuck. Then boom right into Flakes! This is another rough, sloppy transition, and there’s even a cut taking out a few seconds right after too. Fireworks go off at a minute in, Adrian plays some funny harmonica and the band moves right along into Big Leg Emma. Both songs are solid, and both tunes find Tommy stretching out on his keyboard devices. Frank then very quickly introduces Envelopes, and we get a real nice drum sola from Terry (the crowd noise in this section was pretty perfect too, concocting a great ambience). Disco Boy’s alright tonight. I hear a slip-up around 30-40 seconds in and I can’t tell exactly what causes it, but they recover quite well and it’s not super noticeable in the grand scheme. Läther is beautiful as always and features an excellent guitar outro (I’m gonna really miss this tune after this tour).
Then the unstoppable Wild Love bursts violently onto the scene, and like with much of this show the composed section is a little shaky (there’s a missing “yea-uh” around 3 minutes in). The solo section doesn’t disappoint though, well at least not too much. We start with an absolutely fire Peter solo. He kicks ass, but sadly the recording cuts out and the ending of his jam is missing (potentially even the last half or two thirds are missing, it’s hard to tell). We jump to what seems like the start of Ed’s solo (you can hear applause so I assume Pete just finished). Ed delivers an above average solo, and there’s some really cool keyboard comping of the main Wild Love theme, which is probably why it’s an above average Ed solo. The band fucks up the transition to Belew’s disco vamp (There are more fucked up transitions in this show I swear to God), but Adrian don’t care and proceeds to play a ripping only-Belew-can-pull-this-off kinda solo. The crowd goes nuts as he finishes, and we get a stark transition to Frank’s solo. He begins with a beautiful chorded intro, and after about two minutes he lays into the comparatively disgusting “Bowling on Charen” lick. Frank proceeds to whip out another terrific Wild Love solo, complete with crazy tone shifts (whatever he’s doing around 18 minutes in is absolutely insane), and a building, majestic nature. The ending is heroic, but Frank stops somewhat abruptly, and the tape cuts out for good about 15 seconds after he finishes. It’s a really great solo, and I’m very happy we have the whole thing, but it’s also a bit of a buzz kill knowing I won’t be able to hear the rest of the show.
This is a total mixed bag show. It’s November ‘77, so there’s a baseline of amazement, but there’s a lot going against it too. The recording isn’t complete, the sound quality is simply OK, there’s a bunch of sloppy transitions, and Frank doesn’t really find himself on guitar until about 30 minutes in. Pound/King Kong and Läther/Wild Love are truly fantastic, and worth checking out for the super fan, but the layperson should check out other shows first.
1977 11 18 – Memorial Auditorium, Sacramento, CA (Audience B+/B)
As the tour winds down, the boys arrive back in California to play the state’s capital: “Sac Town” (that is legitimately what people call Sacramento). Despite being located in Sacramento, this is a really inspired show. The band is firing on all cylinders leading to some fantastic jams, and there’s even a mildly special guest during the Black Page: the lovely Lana, direct from the Roxy and elsewhere album! The recording is solidly listenable, good not great. The vocals can be hard to make out, but instruments generally sound good. Sadly, there are a handful of really unfortunate tape cuts, but overall this is a really fun show. Thankfully, the entire Flakes walk on is caught on tape, and we get some amusing band intros from the maestro:
“Well […] Happy Birthday K-ZAP! You nasty little radio station. Before we get started I want to introduce to you the members of our rocking teenage combo. Patrick O’Hearn on bass, Adrian Belew on guitar, Tommy Mars on keyboards, little skinny Terry ‘Ted’ ‘Banana Hammock’ Bozzio on drums, continental Peter Wolf on keyboards ladies and gentleman, and last but not least on percussion and vapors arriving from partly decayed vegetable material, Ed Mann…and I’m Donny Osmond!”
Right after his funny comment about the Mormon icon, they leap into a solid Peaches En Regalia. They tear though the Hot Rats tune then promptly dig in to an excellent Torture. Frank’s fantastic solo starts off with this really cool like pick scratching effect? Whatever it is it’s sick, and it’s simply a great start to an amazing solo. He tells a great “story” here, you can really feel the arc when you listen (or at least I can). It’s not quite a Shut Up N Play Yer Guitar contender but got damn it’s close. A nice Chin follows, with a surprisingly longer than normal guitar ending. City of Tiny Lights is solid, but like the last few shows Frank’s solo is unfortunately short. Very rocking and fun, but with a somewhat abrupt end. Adding on to the misfortune, there’s a cut during the “tiny sheets” line that takes out the last moments of the tune, the entire head of Pound For A Brown and a large chunk of Patrick’s solo. And then to make things even worse, there’s a second cut that takes out the end of the bass solo and the beginning of Tommy’s!! What we get from Pat is very nice and jazzy/vibe-y, and Tommy’s is good too but a pretty standard late ‘77 Mars Pound ending jam. So ultimately this seemed to be a pretty nice Pound For A Brown (especially Pat’s solo), but it’s pretty ruined for me by all the tape cuts. Such a bummer, Pound For A Brown is usually a show highlight, but not tonight (at least not for us). Anyway Frank seemed to like the jam, as he comments on it heading into Bobby Brown:
“Pretty good, huh? That’s the [woman?], Terry Bozzio and Tommy Mars, ladies and gentlemen, for your dining and dancing pleasure. All right, you guys, and you gals. This is a… Oh, look, artwork. This is a special song. This song goes out to all the ladies in the audience, because God knows how you’ve suffered. This song goes out to all the guys in the audience, because of the way you’ve made these poor girls suffer. You know the song I’m talking about? Now, this isn’t a regular kind of a song. Oh, no, no, no. This is one of those fantasy songs. The name of this song is Bobby Brown Goes Down. Now, some of you may wonder, what the fuck is this song all about, really? And why should a person such as myself bring it to a place which is reputed to be the capital of the state of California? Well, I’ll assure you, folks, it wasn’t just to collect some extra laundry. Now, the character in this song is a tragic sort of a guy. He was probably much like so few people up there in that part of the audience. I know there’s got to be at least a dozen Bobby Brown type guys up there. You see, Bobby was probably one of the first guys on the block when women’s liberation came along, Bobby knew he could get a little extra if he went along with the program. You know what I mean? And so, well, he figured he would be smooth, really smooth. He was the first guy in town to say Ms, before asking the girl to suck his weenie! And do you [believe?] that is the way? Of course it did. Of course it did. It always does! As they say in the trade, give them an inch and they will take a mile. [FZ mumbles something] Alright, here’s the song!”
After this long intro, we get a solid, standard take of Bobby Brown, but it’s followed by a riotous King Kong! The theme is a bit sloppy, but still enjoyable, and the solos commence with Ed on percussion. He starts off on the chimes which is super weird (but in a good way) and by the end of his two minute jam he’s constructed a nice little percussion solo. Afterwards Frank hits the scene with a fantastic solo, sounding like the missing link between a ‘74 Dupree’s Paradise solo and the Persona Non Grata guitar events from ‘78 and ‘79. Just a super cool, excellently dark and moody guitar solo. There’s a couple of weird kinda cut/skip things around six or seven minutes in, but it doesn’t really affect the overall experience of this crazy breath-taking FZ solo. These King Kongs from November offer such a neat look into the future of Frank’s guitar playing. Anyway, once Frank’s done, we get a great (relatively quick) intro to Flakes.
“And now it is with great pride that I give the California premiere of a song written about the people in our great state. And the reason this song exists is because most of the people in this great state wouldn’t do an honest day’s work if it came up and bit them in the ass. You know this is true up here! Try to get your car fixed some place! The name of this song is Flakes and it goes out to all of those assholes who never do what they’re supposed to do when you pay them for it.”
The California premier of Flakes! I really like this Flakes preamble and it’s probably one of my favorites, mainly because it’s on the song’s home turf. The song itself is pretty standard, but Adrian’s harmonica playing is getting funnier by the day, which I really enjoy. There’s a little tape skip at the end of Flakes, Big Leg Emma proceeds without any surprises, and Frank introduces Envelopes afterwards.
“Thank you! Alright, let’s be pseudo-intellectual for a moment ladies and gentlemen. After all consider the area that you’re in. The name of this song is Envelopes and it features the guaranteed pseudo-intellectual [cuts]”
Unfortunately the tape cuts out while Frank is talking, and we miss most of the head of the tune (the recording returns during the “you are mine” section). Tommy lets out a nice scream at the end, and Terry plays a solid drum solo. A standard Disco Boy comes next (“Yeah you”), and it’s followed by another beautiful Läther. Great solos, a great guitar coda, and nice playing from Terry throughout. Wild Love takes the scene, and we get another long, tasty jam. Peter begins the festivities with a great latin-tinged synth jam. He starts off somewhat chill, but slowly, ramps up to a wonderful electric frenzy. When he wraps up, he plays what’s usually Ed’s transition riff, but we go right into Adrian’s solo! Ed is skipped! Maybe they were having equipment problems? Maybe Ed pissed Frank off? Whatever the case, it’s not a big loss and Adrian cranks off a classic disco-tinged Wild Love solo. He gets ample time to stretch out, and creates a beautiful jam that ends with a great, heroic, animalistic guitar explosion. Now it’s Frankie’s turn. Frank continues the post-Halloween trend by starting his solo off really spacy, mellow and beautiful before sending it all crashing down a few minutes in with the Bowling on Charen riff. After this turning point, FZ slowly builds in intensity, while creating this wonderful, heroic kind of a vibe. This all eventually concludes when Frank unleashes some pure guitar fury. Just so fucking good. This solo doesn’t have a perfect ending (it goes on just a little bit too long), but Frank makes up for it with a wild, long, angular acapella guitar outro. Not the absolute best Wild Love out there, but well worth a listen for FZ jam fans. Sadly though, the recording cuts out before Frank finishes (curse these tape cuts!!!), and we resume a few seconds into a great Titties N Beer.
“Terry: Wait a minute, wait a minute. A cloud of doom kind of crosses my mind when you’re so anxious, you know what I mean? What’s the story, man? What do you really into? I don’t know if I want to get into this now.
Frank: Hey, look at this. Isn’t this cute? Hey, but look. It’s very simple. I’m a regular guy. I have natural instincts just like the people here in this audience.
Terry: Oh yeah?
Frank: Look, me and him, me and him, right over there, we’re the same kind, you know?
Terry: I don’t know…
Frank: He could be my brother. Look at him. Listen to his voice. How good he sings and everything. What’s your name? Kevin? Out of sight, Kevin. Come here. Let’s say that you were going to make a deal with the devil. Wait a minute. Thanks. What does this say? ‘Bet you didn’t expect to see one of these in Sacramento. Remember Halloween 76? This El Bumbo originated in Richwood, New Jersey, where I used to live. Could you sign this for me and send it? Jeff Clark.’ You got a pen?
Terry: Hey, man. Remember me? Remember the show?
Frank: I remember you. You’re cute…. Oh okay, just a second I got to sign Kevin’s arm. Kevin?…. Listen, I got to make a deal with the devil. You jump back down there.
Terry: Oh, wait a minute, man. This is getting too crazy.
Frank: I know it’s disgusting, but whenever we come to a place as glorious as Sacramento, California, I just lose control. I mean, it’s hard for me to just concentrate on the show, y’know, because there’s so many other wonderful things to think about. I mean, you’re the devil and everything, and I know you want my soul, and I know I want to get my girlfriend back and all that stuff. But every night when we do this part of the show, it’s getting increasingly harder to negotiate with you, because let’s face it, devil, you do drive a hard bargain.
Terry: Oh, man, please. Just let me get out of this tight, red, wet, rubber mask.
Frank: You just don’t want your dad to see you wearing that shit for too long, that’s all.
Terry: He’s seen me in worse shit than this, right, Dad? Yeah.
Frank: Well, okay, well, Terry’s dad, wherever you are, don’t hold it against him. We make him wear that thing. He’s not really, he’s just a little weird. Okay, look, you’re the devil, right? Here’s what I want, and here’s what I hope I can get tonight. Titties and beer, titties and beer, titties and beer, titties and beer, titties and beer, titties…….”
These are exactly the kind of Titties N Beer I want. Frank immediately gets distracted by “Kevin” in the audience, who seems to look just like him. He then gets passed an apparently hard to read note and gets further distracted by that, which leads Terry to yell “remember me? remember the show?” Frank gets back on track, makes a funny, probably sarcastic Sacramento comment and points out that Terry’s dad is in the audience! (which leads to more amusing conversation). After Titties Frank talks to the crowd again, this time about audience participation:
“You know what time of the show this is right now? Do you have any idea? This is what you call your audience participation moment. Now this is the part of the show where I have to make the big [cut] …At this point in the show, I have to decide whether this is the kind of an audience that you ask to merely clap along to the song, or whether this is the kind of an audience where you can actually get a couple of people up on to the stage to dance. I think we’ll take a chance. Ohhhh heyyyy. Alright. Lana right? Of course!
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the legendary and notorious Lana, who is the girl who is dancing in the dance contest on the Roxy and Elsewhere album, who happens to be a resident of your very community. [Lana: Hi!] All right, Lana, you have pretty good eyes, right? [Lana: Huh?] Pretty good eyesight. [Lana: Oh, yeah!] Come over here. Pick one of these guys. Your choice. Wait a minute, we’ve got to get a guy first.
Now just calm down there. It’s Lana’s choice. Hey, what’s your name? [Mathew: Hi, my name’s Matthew. It’s a Christian name.] Matthew, a Christian name. Hey, outta fucking sight. Now, we need to have another young lady, and you appear to be a volunteer. Come on up here. Don’t hurt yourself. What’s your name? [Lily: Lily!] It’s Lily, ladies and gentlemen. Lily, Lily, choose your partner. Lily chooses Kevin. Oh, boy.
Now, this isn’t going to be as easy as you think. We have a song now that is sort of like the missing link between the Be-Bop tango and Uncle Meat. It’s a little bit tweezed. I’m sure you can get the drift. I’m not going to ask you to clap your hands because I’m sure you’re entirely too laid back and adult for such a practice. It’s, It’s optional. Now, this contest is different than the ordinary dance contest. We are not giving away a pint of champagne imported from Paris, France. No, no, no. The winner of this lucky dance contest actually gets to sit back down in the audience when it’s all over without any previous personal injury. Are you prepared? The name of this song is The Black Page #2 and may the Lord have mercy on your soul. One, two, three, four!”
A really amusing audience participation rap! There’s a (seemingly) short cut a few seconds into the rap but it’s not very noticeable at all. Frank decides on a dance contest for the raucous norcal crowd, and who should appear but Lana from legendary Be-Bop Tango on Roxy And Elsewhere!!!! It seems like even Frank is surprised. In addition to Lana, FZ invites Mathew, Lily and the aforementioned Kevin on stage to dance. He drops the Black Page “missing link” line, makes a funny quip about the price of the contest, and sends the band into a nice version of Black Page #2 (the first one we have since Halloween!). The boys still have it down and they sprint through the impossible tune with ease. They hold the final note for a long while while the dancers leave the stage, and Tommy’s long held synth note starts to warble and change pitch, so by the time Jones Crusher comes around, it’s out of tune. This kinda bungles the entire Jones Crusher opening, but the band pulls things together relatively quickly. Broken Hearts is nice tonight too. There’s nothing too unique going on, but the teenage combo is very enthusiastic and makes it worthwhile none the less. Pat is a little hard to make out, but there’s some fun Hail Caesar talk (“220 Lbs of Venusian dynamite…”) and he drops a “tight hot wet rubber shirt” in the poop chute outro, which always gets a chuckle from this reviewer. Punky’s Whips gets a similar description: nothing very unique, but still a great, enthusiastic performance. Pat’s got a good one liner at the start (“Pouting for you? Hahaha silly homo…”) and Terry gives a great performance for his dad out there in the audience. In the regular spot, Frank whips out a fantastic, rocking Punky solo for a perfect ending to this night in Sac Town. Sadly the encores (if there were any) are not captured on this tape, so this brings this fun norcal night to an end.
This is a really great show and another lovely highlight from November. My favorite post Halloween show after Kansas City. It doesn’t have the best sound, and the handful of unfortunate tape cuts do hamper the experience a bit, but overall this is still a really lovely time. Torture, King Kong, and Wild Love through Punky are all really just lovely. If there’s ever a tape upgrade that could patch Pound and the encores, well that would make my day. Once you’ve heard the Halloween run and a couple other heavy hitters, Check this show out. I predict you’ll have a good time.
1977 11 19 – Maples Pavilion, Stanford University, Stanford, CA (Audience B)
The penultimate date of the FZ ‘77 North American tour finds the boys in the college town of Stanford, just south of San Francisco. This is another excellent November ‘77 night, and among the best shows of the tour. Frank and the band are in a great mood, and just straight cookin’. This whole show is FAST. The rocking teenage combo tears through every song, and they continue to increase tempo throughout the program (getting especially notable around the area of Big Leg Emma). The setlist isn’t incredibly notable, but there’s another mildly special guest dancer tonight, Carol Ann Bozzio, the sister of little skinny Terry Ted (but more on her later). The sound quality of this tape leaves some room for improvement, but it’s overall listenable. Pat’s bass is hardly audible, and the recording tends to get distorted when it gets really loud, especially when Frank goes crazy on his more rockin’ solos, but again most of it sounds alright. The show starts with an incredibly funny intro from the “talented” Frank Zappa:
[Sidenote: The Zappateers upload says that someone plays Steve Miller’s Livin’ In the USA during the intro but I don’t hear it at all]
“Well, good evening, ladies and gentlemen. So you guys won today, huh? How incredibly thrilling. Ladies and gentlemen, we hope that this concert will be a fitting conclusion to your day of victory. And to help make it wonderful, we’ve brought to you the finest talent that California has to offer. Patrick O’Hearn on bass. How do you like that talent? Adrian Ballew on guitar. Extremely talented. Tommy Mars on keyboards. An incredible talent in his own right. And you say to yourself, whatever happened to all the good singers? Little skinny Terry ‘Ted’ Bozzio on drums, ladies and gentlemen. Let’s say that continental charm is your dish: Peter Wolfe on keyboards. And I’m sure there are plenty of vegetarians out there, that’s why we’ve brought to you Ed Mann on percussion. As you can see, we’re about ready to burst into song. If we could get one loud, roaring kind of a cheer sort of building up.”
Frank gets the crowd into a pseudo-artificial roar and catapults us listeners into an excellent Peaches En Regalia. It’s always such a cool transition. After Peaches is the regularly scheduled mind-blowing Torture Never Stops. Frank says final “bones been choakin’” in his funny voice (you know the one), and when he’s gearing up for his solo he yells “Alright. Do You People Want To Be Tortured Tonight. You Have Come To The Right Place.” Frank’s tone on this wonderful solo starts off very echoey and dissonant, but gets angrier, sharper and heavier as it goes on. It’s a very nice length too. All meat and no filler, just a great solo, hinting at the future Rat Tamagos of the following tour. Trying to Grow Me A Chin actually has an ad lib tonight. It’s just Terry saying “yes I am!”, but it’s something! Bozzio’s really giving it his all vocal wise, going all in on this dumb little song that’s goin’ on two tours old. It’s probably because his sister’s in the audience (but again, more on her later). This great Chin ends with a great teenage ending scream, leading us into City of Tiny Lights (with a weird tape glitch or something at the start?). Adrian kills the vocals as always, and Frank’s solo is pretty amazing tonight. Fast, angry, heavy, and just plain low down and dirty I tell you hwat. It’s a great time, and a lovely return to the energy and length of the Halloween Cities, though the tape does get a little distorted during some of the louder parts. Adrian lets out a loud “huh!” near the end of the tune, and we head into another fantastic Pound For A Brown. The theme sounds really great tonight, and there’s a big keyboard glissando near the end of the intro (everybody’s doing a little extra tonight). Tommy solos immediately, skipping the chorded guitar/synth intro to the solo section and Pat’s solo altogether! It’s a major bummer that we get no wild O’Hearn bass solo tonight, but we do get a pretty fantastic solo from Tommy. There’s a wide range of insanity over this one solo, with scat singing, a crazy Rhapsody In Blue quote, and hyper fast keyboard lines throughout (and that’s just scratching the surface!). There’s a cool drum break section, and right after that Tommy actually quotes Filthy Habits! (about 4 minutes in!). Eventually it comes to a regular explosive ending, and we’re thrown into a somewhat compact Bobby Brown intro.
“Hi guys and gals! This is a song that’s uh, the kind of a song that we usually do when we come to an institution of higher learning. This is a song that goes out to all the ladies in the audience cause god knows how you’ve suffered. This is a song that goes out to all the guys in the audience because the way you treated all those poor girls in the audience. This is a song that goes out to each and everyone of you in the audience tonight who is undecided, cause God knows how you have it from both ends haven’t you. The name of this song is Bobby Brown Goes Down.”
A solid, maybe even above average Bobby Brown comes next, with Frank really giving it his all on the vocals. But enough about the sex tunes, because tonight marks the beautiful, triumphant return of Conehead! Frank starts off his solo with some fantastic, angular guitar like we’re used to, but after about three and a half minutes there’s a crazy, complete vamp shift to a totally different, open and spacy mood. This was the really cool, proto-Persona Non Grata vamp for King Kong from the day before, Frank functionally just combined the two songs into one. It’s such a cool jam, filled with echoey, reflexive guitar and neat little percussion fills from Ed and Terry. Just a wonderful solo, and another hint at the future of FZ’s playing. They make a smooth transition to the original Conehead vamp at the very end, and jump right into Flakes, without any intro (this transition is a little less smooth). Adrian does a great Dylan tonight, and the tune is followed by another fun bouncy Big Leg Emma.
“Thank you! Thank you very much! Hope you guys are comfortable out there! Well you don’t look like it. The name of this song is Envelopes. This is a little something we put into the show to help make you more comfortable. It features the succulent voice of Tommy Mars as he sings to you words of love”
We get a great Envelopes tonight. Tommy gives the vocals his all, letting out an “I’m in you” and a weird-ass scream right at the end, and the tune is capped off with a great Bozziolo. We get the always cool drum transition into a solid “Rock N Roll” Disco Boy, followed by another great Läther, and this is a tune where you can really tell it’s extra fast tonight. We get three great solos in the regular spot, and the piece concludes with some nice acapella guitar. And now it’s time for the nightly big one: Wild Love! The band blasts through the head, and we’re thrown into another classic, exciting Peter Wolf jam. His solo ends with Ed’s solo-ending phrase, so it seems like Ed may get skipped again, but then marimba appears! Our resident percussoid plays a fun little solo, and he quotes the main theme, but it’s nothing too interesting. Then, like clockwork, it’s Adrian’s turn to blow our minds. Like we’re used to we get an excellent EBow first half, followed by a fantastic screaming second half, and the whole thing builds up to Frank’s impending crazed jam. Frank cranks out a really amazing, heroic and hopeful solo, and unlike other Wild Love’s from this period he doesn’t really take the complete dark turn he usually does. Tommy plays the Squirm lick around four minutes in (Frank doesn’t at all), and FZ gets angrier and more ferocious after this, but the band continues with the heavenly vamp instead of following Frank to hell. Oh and there’s a great acapella ending too. Overall this is somewhat chiller than the average Wild Love, but in a really cool, unique way. Another excellent jam to add to your collection. And now ladies and gentlemen: it’s Titties squeezing time.
“Terry: Hold everything, wait just a minute, you know you ain’t supposed to be so, so anxious, so immediately ready to get into this kind of a thing, I mean I’m a dangerous kind of character you know, aren’t you afraid of me?
Frank: No listen I ain’t afraid of you at all, as a matter of fact I really like you, especially because of the way you were playing drums on that last song, as a matter of fact it was so good, if you didn’t have that stupid mask on I’d come up there and kiss you, you know, [Terry laughs] but that’s beside the point, that was really good Bozzio, really good, now look here, in this song, in this particular part of your existence you’re supposed to be a miniature rubberized devil, and you’re supposed to be trying to make a deal with me you see, now I’m willing to make the deal because I’m crazy enough to believe that you don’t exist, you see, I ain’t afraid of no devil, they can take the devil and cram it, I don’t believe you’re really there, I mean you may be a good drummer and everything but you ain’t no devil.
Terry: Hey man, well take it easy you know, I mean, uh
Frank: Look I’m very easy to get along with, let’s make a very simple little bargain okay, you take my imaginary soul and you give me my titties and beer, titties and beer…..”
This is a short but sweet, surprisingly meta Titties N Beer. Frank kinda just compliments Bozzio on his playing, and says that he’s not exactly the real devil, but a miniature rubberized version (which Terry understandably has a hard time responding to). I guess he’s supposed to be like a little devil sitting on your shoulder? Whatever the case, FZ’s comments are pretty funny (I like when he says he could kiss Terry) and in the end this is a pretty short take. When it wraps up we’re lead into a cool, notable dance contest, featuring a member of the Bozzio clan:
“Now, ladies and gentlemen, this is the magic moment of our program. This is going to be very interesting, because just before we went on stage, I had the opportunity to meet little skinny Terry Ted Bozzio’s sister. He has a very nice sister, and his nice sister wants to dance to this song. Where is Carol Ann Bozzio? Where is she? Is she going to chicken out at the last minute? Send me up one drummer’s sister. Well, if we can’t have her, let’s have Tex. You know what always happens? You get these things working so smoothly, but they don’t work. She’s scared. I know she’s scared. She changed her mind. She saw Terry with that mask on. She’s not going to do it. Well, I’ll tell you what. Here she is. Just imagine how cute she looks. She’s a little bit smaller than Terry. Here she is. She’s going to dance for you now. What? She is coming? Oh, with a costume and everything! All right! Thought you weren’t going to make it! [Carol: Huh?] I thought you weren’t going to make it. Would you like to introduce yourself? Would you tell about this expressive dance that you’re going to do? [Carol: “I’m gonna do tap dancing] Okay. Keep your eye on her, ladies and gentlemen. The name of this song is The Black Page No. 2, and may the Lord have mercy on her soul.”
Yes, it’s Terry Bozzio’s sister! When she almost doesn’t make it in time Frank nearly brings up his guitar tech Tex Able instead, but thankfully she makes it onstage and dances her heart out to another perfectly performed Black Page (with some real great drumming from Terry, especially around 2:15 in). This leads into another great Jones Crusher. Something cracks Adrian up in the middle of the tune, and it ends with a nice long bit of FZ guitar. Broken Hearts goes crazy tonight, but unfortunately Pat’s comments are really hard to hear (just like his bass playing). Whatever he says first (I think “bag on six”?) nearly breaks the entire band, and they just barely keep it together. Then he starts saying “Ed?? Ed????” Which totally cracks Frank up. Frank and the band then repeat the monosyllabic question throughout the tune. The poop chute ending is fun too, and features another amusing “I’m in you!!!” from Tommy. It’s a totally amazing, unique Broken Hearts experience, even with Pat’s presence downplayed. Terry slightly fucks up the very last beat of the tune (or maybe misses a cue?), which Frank makes clear he noticed:
“I take back everything I said about you during the last song Bozzio honestly Jesus Christ. Get you into a major metropolitan area with your whole fucking family in the audience… Did you know that in.. [FZ chuckles & counts off Punky’s Whips] In today’s rapidly changing world, rock groups appear every fourteen to fifteen minutes using some new promotional device. Some of the devices have been known to leave irreparable scars on the minds of foolish young consumers. One such case is seated before you in the tower of power itself, spindle #7….”
Ooof harsh, but Frank always had fun when relatives were in the audience, usually at his band’s expense (see anytime Ruth played New York). Anyway, we get a pretty great Punky’s Whips. Patrick yells something insane at the start [“the last time I saw Punky pout…”] but Terry kinda talks over it. You do get to hear him drop another “Ed?” in the “you’re an angel” section though, which is very fun. Overall this is a pretty great version, and it ends with a totally fantastic solo from Frank. There’s some unfortunate audio issues and a small cut at the start, but 90% of it sounds great. Frank is on fire, just tearing up his fretboard, and even slipping in a little bit of Isn’t It Romantic! It’s just a great, angry, ripping solo, one of the best of the tour I think, and a wonderful conclusion to the main set. Frank’s band outros include Carol Bozzio and “Ed?” Mann, and the band leaves the stage with an insane crash.
The tape cuts out here, but it cuts back in on a solo FZ performance of Isn’t It Romantic on guitar!!! Really cool!!. Frank thanks the audience, and then plays the Baby Snakes Police car! What a treat! While it plays, Frank counts the band off into the regular Dinah-Moe Humm encore experience. It’s a great time, and Frank makes some fun comments during before the theme reprise:
“Would you like some more-a? Right here on your college educated flora? And how bout you Fauna? Do you wanna? You sure? Alright one more time from the beginning with college educated hand clapping!”
They finish the tune and Frank is clearly still having some fun with the Californian crowd.
“Alright alright. I can tell that we’re back in California. You’re probably wondering how I can tell we’re back in California. Because you guys are so laid back. I mean really, are you sleepy? Are we keeping you up? I mean I thought this was going to be a frenzied, incredible, unbelievable, audience, but I’ve been wrong before!”
The band then launches into a lively Camarillo Brillo, but they only get about 75 seconds in before Frank abruptly announces the end of the night.
“Alright I’ve been given that magic signal that for some strange reason this show has to come to an end. Well who knows these things happen. Thanks for coming to the concert, goodnight!”
FZ seems pissed, and this wild show concludes with a sudden, funny crash ending. Based on the tape alone it’s unclear what happened here, my first guess was that the show was cut short due to a curfew or something, but it was actually for safety reasons. In an interview conducted immediately after the show, Frank says that a fixture holding lighting and PA equipment looked like it was about to collapse onto the audience.
“It’s a question of having ten thousand people hate you because you stopped the show or several hundred in the front getting killed from stuff falling on top of them”
Despite the nearly tragic ending, this is a crazy good show. November 1977 goes so fucking hard. Though the sound isn’t perfect, the performances are. Over two hours of fantastic, energetic playing from Frank’s best, tightest band since One Size Fits All. Frank’s really talkative too, which is always a treat in my book. After you’ve heard the New York run, make this one of the first boots on your list.
1977 11 20 – Pauley Pavilion, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA (Audience B+/B/B- with C+ Patches)
This is it: The Last Show Of The Tour! Frank calls it the “homecoming concert”, and it has a loose, home turf kinda vibe. The band feels relaxed, despite Frank’s claims that they can’t relax until after the show. Because of this, there’s a handful of botched transitions and other mistakes, but this isn’t traditional sloppy-ness, it’s “end of tour” weariness combined with the extreme comfortability of being back home. Frank and his rocking teenage combo have completely dominated this music over the last three months, and are feeling so confident and relaxed that mistakes are bound to occur. This is bad for the composed sections of the show, but fantastic for improvisations. So in the face of multiple casual errors, this is another excellent late 1977 show, with all the regular highlights of an excellent late 1977 show, and a couple of fun, one time only events thrown in for good measure. The recording though is a mixed bag. Most of it sounds pretty good, and the sound improves throughout the tape, but there’s a few missing segments patched with a pretty nasty C+ tape. In general though, the audio is quiet but very listenable, so just be ready to turn the volume up. The night begins with a patch from the C+ tape, but luckily the good tape starts right as Frank beings his amusing intro:
“Hi! Welcome to our Los Angeles homecoming concert. We just finished a three month tour of the United States and Canada. We get to come back home and relax, but before we relax, we have a special program for you tonight. A program dedicated to the concept that rock and roll is absolutely preposterous. Living proof! Before we start the show I’d like to introduce you to the members of our rocking teenage combo circa 1977. Patrick O’Hearn on bass. Adrian Belew on guitar. Tommy Mars on keyboards. Little skinny Terry ‘Ted’ Bozzio on drums. Peter Wolf on keyboards. No, there you go. Spotlight there, very good. Ed Mann on percussion, ladies and gentlemen. I’d like to say some special hellos to all of the famous people of Hollywood, the record industry, that have attended tonight. We thank you for coming to the concert. I’m sure that you especially will derive a certain amount of amusement from our program. And may the Lord have mercy on your soul… Now I gotta get dressed… Are you ready? [Yeah!] Louder! [Yeah!!!]”
Frank’s in a great mood, we’re in for a good time, and more on the “famous people of Hollywood” later. FZ does the fun crowd-roar-into-the-opening-number bit that he’s been doing for a few weeks, and the boys crank out another electric Peaches En Regalia. They cruise into a great Torture Never Stops next, with a great, slow, low-down and dirty guitar solo. (“How many of you would like to be tortured? [Crowd roars] That’s enough”). It’s a little shorter than average, but there’s no filler whatsoever. Just a real fuckin good solo. It leads into a great Chin, followed by another solid City Of Tiny Lights (with some weird tape bleed though from Regyption Strut around a minute and a half in). Frank whips out a really nice solo, but like many others from November it comes out tad short. Adrian just kills it as always, and we make the great segue into Pound For A Brown. Unfortunately, like the night before, FZ has elected to skip the guitar/synth intro to the solo section and Patrick’s bass solo entirely. It’s a solely Tommy affair today sadly, but he does whip out a real good one nonetheless. It’s a fairly standard Pound solo, but that’s not a bad thing for Mr. Mars. When the mad keyboardist concludes, we get a surprisingly interesting and amusing Bobby Brown intro. Frank decides to comment (mostly positively) on the entire band in front of them, and only vaguely introduces the next tune.
“All right, we’re back[?]. We’ve had our jazz-ette moment. And Terry, I want you to just relax. Concentrate on keeping the beat. Patrick, those fundamental low notes that we have all come to know and love in the bass pedals of these songs, ultimately desirable in your own home turf. Adrian, your choreography, exquisite, but watch your intonation. Ed, simply delightful. Peter, don’t tell him what’s gonna happen when […]. Tommy, you should have played longer. These are the things we’re concerned about today. […]. And so, at this point in our program, because we don’t want these guys to be nervous playing for you, because we know this is the big one. This is the audience. And all those English groups come in and want to jack off all of us. And so, we don’t want to be left out. Now it’s our turn. Oh, thank you. We have a song now that deals with a delicate subject. It’s the subject of social deterioration. One of the big problems in the world today. Many groups aren’t willing to confront this problem. We will confront this problem. We have confronted the problem several times during this tour. We’re going to come to grips with it again tonight in a song called Bobby Brown Goes Down.”
A solid, no nonsense Bobby Brown follows, but a surprise comes when Frank ends the tune. He announces that “you gotta watch me one more time because the name of this next song is Tom Snyder And The Red Spiders From NBC!” and launches into Conehead!!! Tom Snyder was a late night TV show host on NBC in the mid 70s, but I’ve got no idea what this new title means or where it comes from (it’s very very Frank though). We get another fantastic November Conehead, the first major highlight of the show I think. Frank starts out with some classic, devilishly evil guitar over the regular Conehead riff, but about three and a half minutes in, just when it seems like we’re going to get a fairly normal performance, the band shifts to the spacier, proto-Persona Non Grata vamp that FZ has been tinkering with. Really, really cool. This allows Frank to stretch out even more, and we get an excellent, spacey, sorta-mellow, sorta Bowling-on-Charen-y type solo. One of the many solos from late November that feels like a direct bridge to where Frank’s playing will end up in 79/80, and we all know that’s a great thing. Once he creates a beautiful, heroic sonic environment, we get an almost comedic return to traditional angular riff at the end. Unfortunately, chunks of this tune are patched in from the terrible source (0:00-0:04, 1:45-2:00, 6:58-7:09), but at least we have the whole thing. When Frank finishes, he stops to introduce another Californian Flakes.
“The next song we’re gonna do is something that relates particularly to this part of the world. This is a song that is basically about Los Angeles and the people that live here. Not exactly the people that live here but the people of Los Angeles who pretend to work here. Because as you all know this is the center of the universe for that phenomenon known in the trade as the flake. This town is crawling with flakes. Flakes usually hang out in places where they fix things like your car, your television set, your plumbing or maybe you even want to get your house worked on. These people hold positions for they are definitely not qualified, and if they were qualified they probably wouldn’t do an honest day’s work because that’s not why they’re here. This song is called Flakes and it’s for them.”
We get another solid Flakes/Big Leg Emma combo, followed by another delightfully weird Envelopes. Frank introduces it as “a love number, sung for you by Tommy Mars”, and that is, uh, technically correct. Bozzio whips out a really fun drum solo, and beats us into a frenzy before leading into Disco Boy. It’s a standard version, though Frank asks a question near the end but I can’t make it out, and it leads into what’s basically a perfect Läther. The composed sections are beautifully performed, we get three lovely little solos from the regular contestants, and Frank plays a really nice guitar outro that leads into a terrific, monster Wild Love.
The vocals start off too quiet on the theme, but the PA levels get adjusted quickly, and we get a really fantastic solo section. Peter’s jam is absolutely wonderful, and Ed plays what might be his best solo of the tour, with some really nice interplay between him and Terry. Adrian’s solo is emotional, energetic and fantastic as always, and it makes for a great contrast with Frank’s mellower, more reflexive solo. FZ starts out really quiet and laid back, until the Bowling on Charen lick comes in to shift us towards the dark side for a little while. Eventually good triumphs over evil, and we get another delightfully heroic ending. Just a great guitar solo (really long too!). There’s a noticeable cut around 22 minutes in, but I don’t believe too much is missing. The outro is a little shaky, but Frank’s ending acapella guitar is so cool it’s easy to overlook. Terry accompanies him with some very tasteful cymbal crashes tonight, which is the cherry on top. A “just when you thought things couldn’t get better” moment. One of the final massive Wild Love jams, and another that shouldn’t be overlooked. Next is a great Titties N Beer, with another strange Tom Snyder comment and a surprise Warner Brothers rant!!!
Terry: Now wait a minute, man [..] want a cat like you around You know, with the funny flowers sticking out of your hair and You know, all the weird things you’ve been known to do. I mean, look what you did to Tom Snyder? I mean, you know, I don’t know if I could use that.
Frank: I wouldn’t do anything to Tom Snyder. That fucker was roasted before I got on this show. Sorry, Tom, it’s the truth. You know, let’s be honest about it. The guy does scratch things off of his coat when nobody’s looking. I don’t know whether they’re red spiders or whether they’re blue spiders but that guy’s got the spiders. Hey, look You gonna take my soul or what?
Terry: Well, I don’t know, man I mean, I’m kind of chickening out I don’t know what I’m..
Frank: Hey, I’ve got such a deal for you You don’t want my soul I know some other people that you can take down
Terry: Oh, yeah? I wonder who they are
Frank: I can make you a package. It’s a number of brothers
Terry: Oh, yeah?
Frank: Yeah
Terry: The Doobie Brothers?
Frank: No, you’re getting warm
Terry: The Brothers Johnson?
Frank: A little warmer
Terry: Uh, The Isley Brothers?
Frank: Let’s try it Hey, this is real- It’s a real package deal You can have the Cohen Brothers Mutt & Herb and the Warner Brothers including, but not limited to Mo Austin, David Berman and their law firm of Gang, Tyre and Brown with such notary people as, What’s that guy’s name? Howard King. That silly little guy that stood there in the court and lied in front of a judge simply because the rules of that game were that you didn’t have to be under oath and there was no cross-examination and that little rat stood up there and said that Warner Brothers paid almost $400,000 into court in order to make this thing look like it was really happening. Boy, you know, the way these crooks in this town operate it makes me want to, well, vomit. But, hey, I’ll tell you what,why don’t you take all those guys…. No, I’ll tell you what. Don’t take everybody at Gang, Tyre & Brown. Leave Pace and Wolfe[?] because he was the only one who seemed to have any brains about the thing. Pace is a nice guy. If it weren’t for these little runts at these companies going around kissing everything that will emanate brown lipstick in order for them to become junior executives, maybe the potential vice president of the future. I don’t know why they’d want a stupid job like that. You can see what it did for Stan Kornan[?]. Take them all!
Terry: Oh man…
Frank: But, look. You take them and you just give me Titties and beer, titties and beer, titties and beer Titties and beer, titties…..
Sorry Tom, but Frank really dragged you in front of an audience of your peers. I love the “Brothers” back and forth too, just a classic Terry/Frank titties dialog. Plus, tonight’s Warner rant is a little different than the others, and it gives us a little more insight into Frank’s legal woes circa November 1977. But anyway, once Titties concludes, Frank gets the crowd ready for some Californian Audience Participation.
“Alright, do you know what time it is? Do you know what time it is? This is not a rhetorical question. The answer to the… The answer to the… The answer to this stupid question is it is audience participation time. Every rock and roll show has to have audience participation time and that means you guys up there too. Over there in the marvelously obstructed view, obstructed hearing seats. Listen. In all these other places where we’ve been working where they have these wild, crazy teenage thrill seekers, not necessarily institutions of higher learning, important teams and so forth, we usually ask these people to clap their hands or attempt to clap their hands for the next song we’re gonna play. But it’s a toughie, it’s not an easy one because of what they do while you go, you go eh eh eh like that and they do other stuff that makes it harder to keep going like that. Now, California being what it is, you know, laid back I know you guys are just sort of lying around waiting for the next sensation for us to see. And so, I figure that we’re not going to have enforced audience participation here at UCLA. No way. It will not work. So instead, we are going to have optional audience participation. This is for the people who feel a little shy, maybe a little tense. Maybe you’d rather be home watching Judy Way go “mingle”[???] Maybe you’d rather be home watching that other guy with the blue hair that sticks up and tells you about the long-lasting naked mile. I don’t know what you’re into. But, if you wish to the mode of performance during this song is to clap your hands together, in a demure fashion of course, on the quarter notes, while we play a song called The Black Page No. 2”
We enter the final chunk of the program with another funny, Californian themed optional audience participation spiel, followed by the lovely Black Page #2. As always, it’s paired with a great Jones Crusher, which tonight features Adrian nearly cracking up during “just a nub” bit. The ending is a little looser and choppy, but has some really great FZ guitar (especially for this tune!). Broken Hearts is well played and energetic and Pat talks a lot, but it’s all fairly hard to make out. Nothing super unique, but all hits, like “Crushed velvet leather….” , “Hail Ceaser!” and “350lbs of gelatinous…”. The best one though is the “Perpetual love log!” in the ending, which breaks our lead guitar player. Then as Frank starts to introduce the next tune there’s a noticeable “boom” while he’s talking.
“Alright. [POP] Whoops. No, not there. That’s not where the bomb goes off. Aw, shit. This is a special song, and it’s even more special tonight because one of the people that the song is about is actually in the audience tonight. We’re not going to name any names or point any fingers. We wouldn’t want to embarrass him. Because a love song such as this belongs to the ages. It really does. This is an unusual love song. You’ll soon find out. It involves our drummer, Terry. Now I’m going to go into the stock opening of the song, and I’ll wave my hand where the bomb was supposed to go off since I told you guys, okay? Now watch this. In today’s rapidly changing world….”
Yes there’s an unfortunate miscommunication with a times explosive, and you can tell that Frank seems legitimately bummed that the bomb went off at the wrong time. But the show must go on, ladies and gentlemen because Punky Meadows is in the audience!!! I think Frank waves after “Punky Meadows” (based on the crowd response), and I believe they’re showing his infamous publicity photo while FZ does the intro. This leads into a great show ending Punky’s, with all the possible highlights. Pat and Terry’s intro comments are weird, Terry sings horribly over Isn’t It Romantic, the band nails the hard parts, and Frank whips out a great solo. Terry’s ending screams leading into the solo are a bit more verbal than usual and Frank’s solo is long and cookin’. He gives a quiet goodnight to the audience, but we all know they’ll be back shortly. The recording cuts out here, and when it returns FZ is soloing on his own while the crowd cheers! He then transitions into Isn’t It Romantic! The rest of the band sorta follow him and we get a weird kinda swing version of the tune. Really cool! As this impromptu performance peters out, Frank immediately rips into Dinah-Moe Humm!
Tonight brings a fun, compact Dinah-Moe experience. Frank makes a ridiculously smooth transition to the reprise of the theme (“alright then do it again from the top”), which is like the coolest thing to ever happen in this tune, and when it ends he chides the audience via a fake barb at the band (“Wait a minute, hey listen you guys are playing far too loud you’re keepin’ these people up…”). Despite the sarcasm, the boys launch right into a lively Camarillo Brillo, with a great slow second half featuring some classic Zappa “funny voice”. They make the satisfying slide into Muffin Man, but unfortunately the good tape misses the actual transition. The Muffin Man himself is fantastic; Adrian tears up his opening solo, and Frank’s main event solo is absolutely excellent. A classic, rockin’, A-tier Muffin Man. Belew plays a couple licks after FZ finishes, Frank sings “Thank you very much for coming to the concert” along with the melody, and rattles off some laid back outros (including “Little Skinny Punky-Loving Terry Ted Bozzio”). “Oh, you wanna hear another one? Okay, this is a song about a town that’s not too far away from here.” Yes you heard right, we get the extra encores! The rocking teenage combo tears into an excellent San Ber’dino, with another slick Belew solo. After this Frank says another fake goodnight, because before long he returns with more delicious acapella guitar! He shows off for about a minute, then gives us “one more”: Black Napkins! It’s a slow, beautiful, methodical version, and a perfect way to end this monumental tour.
This is a fantastic show, and I don’t know why more people don’t mention it! I’m assuming the sound quality rating turns people off, but it’s a solid B/B+ for the majority of the show. I also think the relative “sloppyness” of this night might bug some people too, but I think it’s really overstated. Yes there’s a few slip ups here and there, but nothing too major, and we’ve got dozens of perfectly performed shows, give the boys a little slack! This night is a fantastic conclusion to a wonderful, legendary tour. The recording is far from perfect, but the performances are something else! I say check this one out!
1977 12 29 – Rehearsals (SBD A-)
So this isn’t a live show, but it’s the Baby Snakes band rehearsing for their New Years Eve show, and ultimately the upcoming European tour. This rehearsal is captured on a pretty nice soundboard recording, the only one available from this era. The whole band is there, including Frank, who seems to be in a recording booth talking to them through a speaker (though you can hear his guitar so this might not be totally correct). Roy Estrada is here too, providing occasional background vocals. He shows up at the New Years show, but thankfully doesn’t continue with the band to Europe. This isn’t a particularly interesting thing to sit down and listen to (at least not more than once), but it’s neat to hear Frank develop new songs and arrangements, especially for songs like Dancin’ Fool, that would go on to become live staples. There’s a couple rare songs too, which are neat to hear, just don’t go in expecting the same energy and pacing as a live show.
[Sidenote: There’s some tunes and arrangements unique to this rehearsal that I’ll only talk about here. I want to keep the “songs played” section strictly to songs that were actually played live to an audience.]
The tape starts with some amusing instructions from Frank on the new-old show opener: The Purple Lagoon (“I don’t wanna hear nothin’ but cowbell!”). Frank appears to be in a pretty bad mood, but his spirits lighten a bit as the session goes on. He sings along with the abstruse melody, before we transition into an in-progress Dancin’ Fool. The Sheik Yerbouti tune is fairly put together, but at this point in time the chorus is a totally complicated, percussion heavy mess, and Frank realizes it. He switches things up and tells Terry to “play it John Bonham mongoloid style […] When the levee breaks…” and suddenly it’s the recognizable Dancin’ Fool chorus! Really cool! Tommy says something about what they were “originally” instructed to play and Frank replies “Don’t ever tell me about ‘originally’. This is the modern world!”, which I just find totally amusing. They start over from scratch after this and we get another full Purple Lagoon, with the transition to Dancin’ Fool (though there’s a cut as they switch where it sounds like the tape gets stopped so Frank can yell at them). When we return to Dancin’ Fool Frank fucks up and says “quick everybody tell me I’m an asshole.. go ahead!” (I think only Ed does). This bit of self reflection seems to lighten the room, and the rest of the recording feels way less tense.
After the aforementioned adjustments Dancing Fool is now about 90% finished. The whole structure of the tune is there, but parts of the arrangement, especially the drums (I believe) will change come January. The end is really sloppy too, but overall it’s so much better than the Halloween Eve take. They then rehearse the transition from Dancin’ Fool into Peaches en Regalia. Frank yells a smothersism (“I wave my bags, you wave yours?”) while straightening out the “can I buy you a drink” ending, and he ends up dropping the intro drum fill to Peaches to make the transition smoother. After this we get a full performance of the Hot Rats tune, and crazily enough Roy sings over the medley. It’s just the beginning (and at the end where everyone sings) but it’s absolutely cursed. I’m a Flo and Eddie apologist and I don’t even like when they sing over the melody, so this version is pretty unholy. Moving on.
Now they head into the regular set for a little while, so the Torture Never Stops comes next. Frank laughs at something near the start (Roy maybe?) and he also flubs the lyrics a little. Then suddenly: Chattanooga Choo Choo jump scare! I totally forgot Frank adds this swing tune to Torture, so it caught me crazy off guard here. They work on making the Choo Choo fit for a little while, then continue from there. You get to hear Frank give stage direction to the band for an Ed Mann percussion cue, which is neat (“watch his greatness as he shakes the sign!”), and he really hits the Iron “Sausesh” line here, which causes Roy to laugh (probably recalling the madness from last Germany). Frank starts what sounds like a fantastic solo, but the tape cuts out pretty instantly and resumes at the start of City Of Tiny Lights. So we missed out on two solos, but it’s a rehearsal tape so what can you do?
But wait, more new material! Baby Snakes is largely put together, but there’s definitely noticeable differences. The biggest being that the “maybe i think” section is just Wipe Out with Baby Snakes lyrics! There’s a little drum solo, a weird little instrumental bridge (I believe this is a leftover from the early ‘77 Jones Crusher) and another little drum solo before the end. They play through most of the tune once, stop for an arrangement adjustment, then do a full take.
At the end there’s a moody gong hit, and Frank starts Zoot Allures! This is the primary reason to get this tape, because the Baby Snakes band never performed this tune live, making this a unique never-played arrangement. It’s pretty close to the ‘76 versions, but with that fuller, weirder ‘77 sound. Frank plays a solid solo, probably not something I’d listen to all the time but very neat for the superfan. When he finishes they then segue right into another rare tune: My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama! It’s the early ‘77 arrangement, but unfortunately Frank stops them about 30 seconds in and the tape stops here too.
We resume during the beginning of I Have Been In You (post-monologue). It’s a standard early performance, but it’s the best it’s ever sounded so far. Terry and Roy have additional vocal parts you can’t hear elsewhere (I think), and there’s this weird electronic drum hit or something throughout. It almost sounds like a glitch but it’s so regular that it seems cued. Anyway, after this the rhythm section goes right into the new “moron” theme from Flakes. This clearly confuses Frank, who clears his throat at a bunch and asks “what do you think you’re playing there?” I guess they played the new end of Flakes by accident instead of the intro? It’s unclear what happened, and after half a minute of confusion the tape ends for good.
This tape has its highlights but overall is not a super interesting listen. The Zoot Allures performance is pretty neat, as is hearing Dancing Fool get worked on, and the high quality recording of an early Baby Snakes too, but the rest of the tape is only for the biggest of super fans, and even then it’s a rare listen. If you’re really interested, listen to the Baby Snakes>Zoot Allures>My Guitar section, but the rest isn’t worth your time.
1977 12 31 – Pauley Pavilion, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA (Audience B/B-/C+)
Frank’s final show of 1977 and his first show of 1978 are one and the same: this exciting New Year’s Eve performance! This holiday gig is interesting because it has a totally wild set list for the era. I considered including this as part of the next tour because it’s more like the European tour’s setlist than the standard Fall ‘77 show, but it really doesn’t fit into either category perfectly. This is because it’s not truly a part of either tour, it’s a one off show in LA in between tours, but I have to put it somewhere. This is the last of Frank’s three mid-70s Los Angeles New Years Eve shows, which he started in ‘74, continued in ‘75 and skipped in ‘76, in favor of the New York holiday shows, which I consider spiritually similar (and the best of the bunch).
FZ’s NYE ‘77 is a fun night, with a crazy setlist, featuring regular tunes from the next tour, unique arrangements and some one-time-only performances! It’s not a particularly musically inspired show and it’s pretty underrehearsed, but there are still plenty of highlights to be found. Additionally, original Mothers Bassist Roy Estrada is here, but only in a background vocalist capacity. He doesn’t add a whole lot to the show, and he’s not crazy audible when he does “sing” so it’s somewhat of an afterthought (I almost forgot to mention it here). The night is captured on a standard not-very-good-but-still-listenable 70s audience tape, and if listened to on nice headphones it doesn’t sound too bad. That being said the sound quality does take a significant dive around the mid-point of the program (during Punky’s Whips), which is a definite bummer. But enough talk, let’s get into it. The recording brings with some of the Knick Knack People tape (a section that seems to entirely be like quaking noises) and leads into the revived Purple Lagoon opener!
“Happy New Year! Alright..wait a minute… Welcome to the New Year’s hop ladies and gentlemen. Oh you’re so wise to come down here this evening. Tonight you’ll be squarely entertained by Patrick O’Hearn on bass, Tommy Mars on keyboards, Adrian Belew on guitar, little skinny Terry ‘Ted’ Bozzio on drums, Roy Estrada on Gas Mask, Peter Wolf on keyboards, Ed Mann on percussion and no fireworks in the audience. They’re bad, bad, bad. You see somebody lighting fireworks out there tell them they’re stupid because they cause injuries. I want y’all to have a good time but I don’t want no blood, get the picture? Alright this is a new song for ya, one two three four!”
I love the Purple Lagoon and am very glad that it comes back for this show and the ‘78 tours. Frank’s in great spirits, and drops a quick, witty introduction (I love anytime he mentions fireworks, obviously thinking about Montreux in 1971). The boys quickly jump into the world premiere of a presentable version of Dancing Fool! This was played during the Halloween run, but boy was that a shaky performance. Here the tune sounds largely complete, but there’s still a few tweaks left before the finished arrangement. It’s a little looser in places, and Frank still says “flash my roll” instead of “see ‘em there”. Frank stops the tune about 30 seconds in because of a sound issue (“hey listen we don’t fuck around”), but quickly gets the night back on track. Roy’s clearly audible on the ending “Ki-ni-shinai”s, and we get a smooth transition into a great Peaches En Regalia. A nice Torture Never Stops follows, with a few unique differences in arrangement. There’s weird laughter throughout the head (almost like the Drowning Witch effect from a few years later), and Roy moans in places in addition to Gail’s pre-recorded moaning. This is also the first live performance to feature the Chattanooga Choo-Choo quote (which almost trips up Terry), and jumpscared me. Frank yells “It’s New Year’s torture time!” and whips out a delicious, smooth spacey solo. It ain’t the most standout Torture solo, but it’s really enjoyable none the less. The ending vocals are particularly lively, and they lead in an energetic Trying To Grow A Chin. Terry whiffs the “next of kin” line but recovers nicely, and Frank whips out a cooler-than-usual guitar ending that leads us into a terrific City of Tiny Lights. Adrian nails the vocals and we get a long, biting FZ solo, what more can you ask for? It’s really a great version, and one of the highpoints of the night.
Pound come ne… no wait, it’s the premier of Baby Snakes!! A neat song, and mostly complete too. Everything’s normal until the “maybe I think” verse, where the lyrics are the same, but the band plays Wipe Out underneath! This section ends with a short short drum solo, followed by a fast guitar/synth riff borrowed from the early version of Jones Crusher. The tune finishes like normal after this but with an additional drum break before the very end [Editorializing: While I do like this song, I’ve never loved that it comes between City and Pound, two of a perfect pair.] After this, we get the Pound For A Brown we deserve, with the return of The Patrick O’Hearn Bass solo!!!! It’s an excellent, happy, jazzy and weird solo, even more Jaco-Pastorius than normal in places (I kept waiting for the Third Stone From The Sun quote that never comes). It’s a really awesome solo, and it doesn’t so much as end but instead transitions right to Mr. Mars. Tommy has a really fucking cool solo too, like one of my favorite ever I think. It’s just really well paced and hits all the regular fantastic Pound solo highlights (without scat singing), plus there’s this ridiculous, spacy yet distorted, almost video game-y section from about seven to eight minutes in that’s just wildly cool. We get a typical big chaotic end to his solo, but just when you expect the song to end there’s a short tape cut and Roy appears for a full blown Gas Mask! It’s a cool, haunting experience, just as amusing as the Halloween performances. He even does the “you must have been a beautiful baby” thing as seen in Baby Snakes. It’s a totally crazy extravaganza, and an easy highlight of the night. It ends with a big echoey explosion of Roy’s voice and Frank counting us off into I Have Been In You! Complete with “is this guy kidding me?” rant:
“Did you ever stop to think that rock and roll really sucks? Well, you probably never stopped to think that rock and roll really sucks, but I did. Now look, let’s be honest about it, ladies and gentlemen. Rock and roll is quite a bit of fun, but it’s getting too fucking preposterous, do you know what I mean? I watched a movie on television last night, I could not believe it. I mean, I couldn’t believe it. How many of you people have seen A Star Is Born? Well heyyy, I couldn’t believe it. I said, is the world coming to an end? Is rock and roll really like this? And then, just a few mere months before A Star Is Born, there was an album that was released, entitled I’m In You. I said, hey, is this guy kidding me? Is he kidding you? What the fuck is going on here!?
Let’s carry this to its logical extreme. This is ladies’ hour now, come on now. You’re a lady, right? You’re a very nice lady. You go out one night, and you abduct the succulent pop star of your choice, right? He’s really cute, he’s really aryan, he eats bushels of crumpets, and he’s all yours for the night. You take him back to your teenage room, the red bulb is on, you know what I mean? It’s really romantic, it’s right next to the Jimi Hendrix poster. It’s one of those nights when, hey, you have to light three sticks of incense, don’t you, it’s the big time. You lay back on your teenage bed. That’s right, you do, don’t you!? You take your very own teenage pants off, because he’s too tired, and you put your teenage legs up in the air. Oh, but first you put on a Phoebe Snow album, because you’re really sensitive, and you are in love. You lay your teenage legs up in the air, and the teenage pop star of your choice takes his pants off. He climbs directly on top of your throbbing, quivering, pulsating, pre-moistened teenage body. And then he whispers in your ear, you know? He gets right down next to your ear, and he goes, I’M IN YOU!
You know what I mean? Is Rock N Roll preposterous, or what? No, that’s part of it[?]. We know it’s rock- I’m just teasing you, I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t say that rock n roll sucks, nooo, heyyy. We have a song that is almost like, I’m In You, except that it’s different. It’s called, I Have Been In You. And it goes like this…..
The Frampton parody is better put together than ever. It’s pretty close to the final structure of the album, even if the hand isn’t “stinky” yet. Roy moans all over this tune, and Terry screams over the fake ending leading into the little improvised turnaround from Frank:
“I told you I was going in you again. Fuzz tone and every goddamn thing’s goin’ in ya. Yeah. But I just want to tell you one more thing before we wrap this turkey up. And it goes like this. I’m goin’ in you again baby…”
The song whips into a frenzy for the first time with the fun, necessary rock ending, and just like on the album it leads into Flakes. There’s a pair of Smothers “huh?”s from Frank and Adrian in the Dylan section, but the big moment from this performance is the introduction of the “I’m a moron” finale!!! Now this isn’t the vocal version heard on the album, all of the “moron” vocals are overdubs, instead, we get a calm yet blistering Belew solo! You can hear Adrian’s guitar very faintly under the vocals on Sheik Yerbouti, but here (and throughout the following Euro tour) it’s the main attraction. Flakes feels so much more complete with this ending section, and leaving it as an instrumental really highlights what a beautiful piece of music this is. This is far from the best solo Adrian would play in this tune, but it’s still nice to hear, and a great sign of things to come. Broken Hearts follows this up, and it feels so wrong hearing it this early in the program. It’s a fun version, but it comes with the typical audience tape “pat is hard to hear” caveat. You can clearly make out his “butt plug de lala” comment along with the ending “the atomic homo!” shout, so at least we have that. Roy is fairly audible here too, which isn’t something I’ve even wanted, so let’s just go into Wild Love.
Frank ditches the old march-like intro/transition theme used through the fall, and now we get the main-theme-variation intro as heard on Sheik Yerbouti! Tonight’s Wild Love features a solid set of opening solos from Peter, Ed (who quotes a little bit of the theme) and Adrian. These are all good solos, but they’re a little uninspired, and far from the best Wild Love jams available (the tape quality definitely flattens the music too). Luckily, the same can’t be said about Frank, who comes in hot with the Squirm riff and completely saves the performance. It’s a classic Bowling on Charen type solo, and absolutely fantastic. It’s got a perfect build into the now familiar heroic landscape, and there’s even a hint of Inca Roads! Frank eventually returns to the chaotic opening riff near the end of his solo and finishes the event off by tearing apart his guitar. This is simply a terrific solo, and the last of its kind too, because beginning next year Frank is going to swap out his Wild Love solo for Yo Mama. Even without the old transition music, there’s still a little bit of fiery outro guitar following the ending theme, and this time it leads us directly into Punky’s Whips!
This is a fantastic version, I think partly inspired by Frank’s monster Wild Love solo, which breathes a nice bit of life back into the night. The whole take is a little slower than normal, which I enjoy because it amps the funk level way up. Unfortunately though, the sound quality takes a significant dive about halfway through this tune and never recovers. I’m not sure what happens, but about four minutes in, during the skin doom section, the sound just gets way hissier and more muffled. Anyway, Terry sings (poorly) over Isn’t It Romantic, and there’s a couple of small cuts in the composed section. Despite the increased hiss level , FZ’s guitar still sounds great and we get a really nice “Jeff Beck” section. The tune ends with a great FZ solo, featuring more red-hot, ferocious guitar. It’s really long for a Punky solo too, so overall this is a 10/10 take. This song has such “show closer” energy, it’s strange to hear it just go right to the next tune, especially Find Her Finer of all things!
This rare tune starts with some neat guitar from Adrian, before the vocals slowly (and hesitantly) come in. Despite the shaky start (and Roy’s moaning during the chorus), this ends up as a pretty lively, funky little version (more so than the studio take at least, probably because it’s so much faster). Not an amazing performance, but fun for what it is. As you’re getting into the groove of it all, the band makes a stark transition into Envelopes, with a minimalistic intro from FZ. This is a somewhat shaky performance (looking at you Ed), but Tommy makes up for it with a great vocal performance, and the whole thing is capped off by a solid, short Bozzio solo that leads right into Stinkfoot!
“What time is it? 11 o’clock? Alright, got an hour to go. You think you people can take it for another hour? [Cheers] …It’s the American way”
This Stinkfoot, like pretty much all performances of Stinkfoot, is a great time. There’s a nice bit of Belew guitar after the imaginary diseases line, and Frank whips out an absolutely wonderful solo in the prescribed spot. It’s a really cool, long, laid back kind of a solo. Not the best ever, but just a good time. I don’t know why this specific tune gets him so unbelievably hyped but I’m glad it does. When he’s finished, he seems to start the dreaded Poodle Lecture, but it quickly takes an amusing turn…
“In the beginning, God made the light, yes he did, shortly thereafter, God made three big mistakes. The first one was called man, the second one was called wo-man, and the third one was called John Smothers. Now John, you’ve seen John, he’s wandering around here, the handsome gentleman with no hair. John is a fantastic person but he has done some very naughty things to the English language. What I’m trying to tell you in a pleasant sort of way is that he has taken your tongue and mine and mangled the son of a bitch so that no one can understand what he’s talking about. Now listen, John is a wonderful person but he has a way of communicating which is, let’s just say that it’s nimbus nine[?], ladies and gentlemen, nimbus nine[?]. So we have a song that is dedicated to John. The name of this song is Dong Work For Yuda. Shift into the key of D and change the beat and away we go!”
[Does anyone have any idea what the nimbus nine/nigh thing means?]
That’s right, it’s the Poodle Lecture meets John Smothers! This is a really fun, unexpected turn, and it leads into the premier of the full band version of Dong Work For Yuda! This is a unique arrangement, largely the same as the following Euro-tour versions but with an extended ending featuring even more Smothers-isms (“my body contain wattuh!”). Overall the basic structure is pretty similar to the studio take on Joe’s Garage, but the arrangement is completely different, and the whole tune is way faster. [see the song entry for a more in depth comparison]. I love this dumb little song, so it’s a nice New Years Eve treat hearing it pop up tonight. Dong Work abruptly concludes and the band makes an insane transition directly into the Black Page #2! Like no vamping at all, they just jump right into the first note. It’s a perfect take (as far as I can tell), and it’s followed by a wonderful, energetic Jones Crusher. Roy is doing a voice effect or something during the just a nub section and at first I thought the ending was different, but I believe it’s just a little sloppy and mixed differently. Disco Boy appears next, and it’s a standard take, but it has a surprisingly long ending. Frank eventually brings the band down behind him to ask for the time, and we get a show update over a cool kinda low key Disco Boy based vamp
“What time is it? 11:23 by his watch. Y’wanna build the tension up y’know what I mean. Alright normally this is the part of our show where we pretend to say goodnight and we go off the stage and then we come back and do an encore. None of that tonight ladies and gentlemen because let’s face it, I mean, this is the end of 1977 and what a stinker of a year it’s been. Let’s get that son of a bitch out of here in a hurry! So instead of wondering off and wondering back we’re gonna keep on playin’ straight through. But! When we say goodniiiiiight. That’s it. That’s a long god damn show. The name of this song. Is Dinah-Moe Humm”
A fine performance of Dinah-Moe follows. It feels like February ‘76 all over again when I can hear Roy moan along to the first half. There’s a small cut at about two and a half minutes in, Frank says “Great Googly Moogly its real angora” and we get a really funny, snarky audience participation rap in the middle section:
“Alright now look. Hey, we’re gonna go against tradition here ladies and gentlemen. I know you guys really, hey, how shall I say it discreetly. You want me to let my hair down, what’ll you give me? You’ll give me a kiss if I let my hair down? How long are your lips? Okay here we go… I can’t reach it! Here I’ll pretend. Alright. Thank you. I just love to have my hair down except when I’m working, and it gets in my mouth when I’m eating, and Y’know when yer… look at this shit….
Anyway, what I was gonna tell you is, you guys are really sophisticated, I mean y’know you come from Hollywood and everything y’know and, You’ve seen it all you’ve seen it a million times before. There’s no way, there’s not- there’s not a chance of a snowball in hell that you people will clap your god damn hands to the end of this song. So I’m not gonna ask you because it’ll probably embarrass you. If there’s one thing that’s really near and dear to the heart of Los Angeles audiences it is certainly not being uncool. Do you know what I mean? There might be a talent scout sitting right there and then everything would be really bad for your career if somebody was y’know clapping along. I mean what if the guy sitting next to you knows where the one is and you’re not clapping on the one that could blow your record contract. So, I tell you what Roy do me a favor, no you guys just relax we’re here to entertain. Roy do me a favor. You pretend you’re the audience and you clap your hands. I know you don’t know where the one is. [Laughs] Good. very good. I like it. He has a lot of rhythm. He has several[?] rhythms per song. Okay one more time from the top. One two three four!”
I love how poorly Frank thinks of LA audiences, and the amusing dig at Roy’s musicality gets me too. After the Dinah-Moe-Humm-Clap-Along-Reprise Frank says that “ordinarily we’d go into another song here […] Let’s do Bobby Brown”. Interesting to see Frank pair these two songs together so early (his two biggest crowd pleasing sex/shock tunes). This take is notably slower and more laid back compared to previous performances, but overall the same as always. The final instrumental Conehead comes next, and it’s a really interesting one. Frank starts off fairly strong, with some cool chugging chords and neat riffs, but he doesn’t really find any big ideas to grab onto, so he hands it off to Tommy! Really cool! Tommy doesn’t typically solo over these evil-type vamps, and Frank has always been the lone Conehead soloist so this is a pretty neat performance. Mr. Mars lays down some cool spacy synth music, a completely different vibe than the usual loud, angry Zappa solo, and when he wraps up Frank comes in with some cool Ship Ahoy-style guitar, before concluding with a typical FZ Conehead ending.
Following this we get a standard, solid Camarillo Brillo, which leads into an unfortunately short, but still rockin’ Muffin Man. Frank asks for the time at the start and end of the tune, then says “10 more minutes? Name of this song is San Ber’dino”. It’s a very nice performance, with a lovely little Belew solo in the middle. Frank then starts tuning his guitar over the ending rap, while also trying to artfully work it into a solo (think 1974 Stink-Foot, but less successful). He’s clearly having a tough time, so he says “It’s really hard to tune up like that, talk amongst yourselves”. Then after a minute and a half of ambient tuning, Frank announces the big finale:
“Alright, here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna play Back Napkins until it’s midnight and then we’re gonna play that horrible song they always play at this time of year.”
Frank rips into a beautiful Black Napkins for about three lovely minutes, and you can hear the crowd freaking out as the clock slowly ticks towards the new year. Suddenly, we get a loud, nasty version of Auld Lang Syne on Frank’s distorted guitar and Tommy’s horn synth. It’s a fun performance, the crowd is in New Year’s hysterics, and it’s time for the boys to leave.
“Happy New Year everybody!!! Patrick O’Hean, Adrian Belew, Tommy Mars, Terry Bozzio, Roy Estrada, Peter Wolf, Ed Man, Phil Kaufman, Tex, […?] Alright, I said that was gonna be it, and this is goodnight. Don’t get too drunk[?] on the way out of the parking lot. I know you guys got a lot of parties to go to. Goodnight.”
There’s a massive, crazed, conducted musical crash, and the show concludes. Right at the very end Adrian plays the “You have been a beautiful baby” medley that Roy sings around this period (as heard on Baby Snakes and in this show’s Gas Mask), and the crowd cheers until the tape fades out. A really neat ending to 1977, and a great beginning to 1978.
This is a very interesting night, and somewhat of a mixed bag. It’s not always the most inspired show, but it has a unique vibe and there’s some really great highlights throughout. It’s nice to have a new, altered setlist, but at the same time it doesn’t flow as well as the standard one from the Fall tour. Overall though, this is a fun and novel enough show for me. Frank’s solos, the new/rare tunes, the fun New Years talks from Frank, the cool Conehead with a Mars solo and the great Pound jam with a Gas Mask all make the slower bits worth it. The sound quality though, especially in the second half, is a pretty big put off. If you’re an FZ freak and you’re interested in the full historical context of Frank Zappa’s 1977 New Year’s Eve warts and all, you’ll have a good time with this tape, but for the average fan I’d recommend jumping around and checking out the many musical highlights.
The Songs Played:
Auld Lang Syne – “We’re gonna play Back Napkins until it’s midnight and then we’re gonna play that horrible song they always play at this time of year.” This traditional New Year’s song appears at the very end of the show closing Black Napkins on, you guessed it, New Year’s Eve. As the clock strikes midnight Frank begins the melody on distorted guitar to end his solo, and the keyboards continue the theme after he stops to wish us a Happy New Year. He outros the band, conducts a big crash and brings the show to a close. It’s a somewhat haggard performance (I think Frank’s guitar is out of tune), but it’s fun in the context of the show.
Baby Snakes – This bubbly Sheik Yerbouti song premiers on New Years Eve, and while its arrangement is largely finalized, there are still a few glaring differences. Everything’s the same up until the “maybe I think” section, which is way faster, and sung over the 60s surf tune Wipe Out! This is followed by a short drum solo, and then a fast guitar/synth riff borrowed from the early version of Jones Crusher from Winter ‘77. After this the song resumes like normal, but with an additional drum break thrown in between the screaming section and the closing “Baby Snakes” riff. And like in all live versions of this tune, SMPTE stands for “suck my peepee towards the end”, not The Society Of Motion Pictures and Television Engineers. Though I prefer the final version, this is a very neat curiosity, and a good reason to check out the New Years gig.
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. The arrangement is just like Zappa In New York, except without the horns and overdubbed guitar, and with the added zany keyboard/guitar sound of this band. It’s a wonderful version, and I especially love Terry’s yelling throughout. Frank changed the chorus order slightly from the classic ‘67 single. It originally went “put on weight”, then “face broke out” and then the song would end with a “face broke out” repetition, but Frank switched the first two choruses for this revival so it now goes “face”>”weight”>”face” (which I think flows better and overall makes more sense). A fun, dumb tune, always coming after Flakes, and before Envelopes. [And just a sidenote: I want to give a special shout out to the juxtaposition of this song leading into Envelopes of all tunes, a perfect display of the breath of Frank’s writing.]
Black Napkins – This Zappa classic, originally released on Zoot Allures, returns as an occasional encore delight. It’s not a regular number, but the tune pops up as a special bonus encore 10 times throughout the tour, always played as the final song of the show. This is a shorter, more compact version than previous tours, on average only lasting about 5-6 minutes. So it’s overall pretty close to the structure of the Osaka ‘76 edit heard on the album (theme>solo>closing lick). Frank is the only soloist this time around, and each time he whips out a terrific, dark, beautiful guitar piece. The Halloween night performance is the longest of the tour (about 7.5 minutes), and considered by many to be one of Frank’s best solos ever. This New York performance is definitely the best of the tour, but every time this tune shows up it’s a delight (even the handful of times it’s cut short). Good rule of thumb: If a Fall ‘77 show has Black Napkins, it’s probably a show worth checking out.
The Black Page #2 – “This may be one of the weirdest rock and roll tunes you’ve ever heard in your life. All you gotta do is keep that beat going.” This iconic Zappa In New York composition returns after its premier in December ‘76, and we get a fantastic version of the impossible tune. This is the full band disco version of the piece, slightly easier than the drum solo version (aka The Black Page #1). Pat plays this throbbing disco kind of a beat while Ed, and the keyboards play the melody. Terry switches between disco and the “hard parts” throughout and I’m pretty sure Adrian never plays this tune, as you can see him dancing through the whole thing in Baby Snakes (he gets off easy!). The first month of performances are solid, but not quite perfect. It takes a couple weeks for the band to really nail the tune, and once they do it’s absolutely superb. Also, this arrangement is pre-guitar solo (we don’t get a Black Page solo until ‘81). Starting in mid October (the 18th to be exact), Frank adds an element of audience participation to this number. Most of the time he just asks the audience to clap along with the perturbed tune, but on special occasions (the first recorded one being 10/28 Late in New York), he brings us back to olden days of the Be-Bop Tango and we get a full blown Dance Contest! Though we can only see this event occur in the Baby Snakes film, it’s always a treat to hear Frank talk to the audience members he invites on stage. We occasionally get a fun guest dancer too. Roy Estrada dances during at least one of the Halloween shows, Lana from the famed Roxy and Elsewhere Be-Bop Tango takes the stage in Sacramento, and Terry’s sister Carol Bozzio tap dances in Stanford. Always a treat, the Black Page #2 is played nearly every night, usually preceded by Titties ‘N’ Beer and followed by Jones Crusher.
Bobby Brown Goes Down – Whether you love it or hate it, this shocking Sheik Yerbouti tune makes its debut on this tour, premiering to the world in Hartford Connecticut on October 17th. It reappears a few days later in Boston, and after that becomes a regular part of the setlist for the rest of the tour. It will continue to be a regular number on the following European tour, and Frank plays it at least a few times on every subsequent rock tour. FZ wrote the song shortly before its debut, and although it’s a shaky performance, the whole song’s basic structure is pretty much there from the beginning (though the opening drum fill isn’t solidified until 10/28). Over the following weeks Frank figures out how he wants to sing the satirical number, and tweaks the tempo and arrangement a bit. He accidentally sings “and my name is Charlie Brown” in Boston, which is an S-tier flub. Overall, the tune ends up pretty much as it is on the album, but notably without the layers of overdubbed vocals. The tempo generally slows down as the weeks go by, though it was never played incredibly fast. In these fall performances, Adrian plays a neat, melodic guitar riff that’s totally missing from the released version. The earliest takes (post-Hartford) feature Belew’s guitar over the whole song, but for New York it’s suddenly only played over the chorus, with added harmonica over the second verse. Then sometime after Halloween we lose both the guitar riff and the harmonica, and by the New Years Eve show the tune has reached its final, euro tour/Sheik-backing arrangement. There’s not a huge difference between the New Years take and the November performances, but you can tell it’s more composed and rehearsed. There’s potentially more minor differences from show to show, but I’m losing my mind comparing all these prototype Bobby Browns.
Frank often introduces the song over the Bobby vamp with “The Story Of The Three Assholes”, which tells the tale of how three duche-y interviewers tried to use the women’s liberation movement to make themselves seem attractive (and to make Frank seem bad). Once it becomes a regular part of the setlist, this tune always comes between Pound For A Brown and Conehead (or King Kong for that week in November), and honestly this is my least favorite aspect of this tune. I can handle the three minute sex song, I can even handle the long intro speeches, but I really enjoyed the Pound>Conehead segue and the regular 20 minutes of uninterrupted instrumental madness. But love it or hate it, Bobby Brown is here to stay.
Broken Hearts Are For Assholes – This ridiculous Sheik Yerbouti tune makes its sophomore appearance on this tour, where it’s reached its classic arrangement. On stage it’s largely the same as on the album, but without the overdubbed guitar throughout (Frank doesn’t play any guitar outside of the main riff). The body of the tune never changes from night to night, but there’s actually a lot of lyrical improvisation thanks to our deranged bassist, who regularly mixes up his hysterical asides during the middle “Dagmar” section. There were a handful of frequent terms Patrick would use (like “nice balls Felix”, “leather” or “the tower of power”), but a lot of his phrases were totally off the cuff (like “Buddy Love is a very sensitive nude wrestler”, “Sweet mother of Pepe”, “Number six with a cup of soup”, or of course “tomorrow night: the perpetual love log”). He also makes shorter comments throughout the following “ram it” section (like “crisco”, “homo”, or “a tight wet rubber shirt”), and starting in New York Tommy chimes in here too (usually just a “meow”). The “don’t fool yourselves” ending doesn’t usually feature any asides, and the tune always ends with an “I knew you’d be surprised’, just like on the album. Patrick’s mid-song interjections are typically a highlight of every show (well, only if the tape quality is good enough where you can make them out), and they’re based on his experiences frequenting the gay/trans bars in New York, specifically the Gilded Grape. Performances from earlier in the tour tend to have more direct references to the denisons of the Grape, such as Dagmar, Charlelle, Coco and Fifi Dupree, but over the course of the tour they start to shift to more of a wrestling vibe with sayings like “Hail Caesar!” and “—- lbs of Samoan dynamite!” Patrick also occasionally does a pseudo-religious deal and talks about the Reverend Buddy Love, though this is a little rarer. The best performances feature an aside from Pat that’s so off-kilter it cracks Frank up and nearly causes the song to fall apart (makes me wonder why this tune didn’t return in 1984). Anyway, this guilty-pleasure song is a riotous (and mildly sexist) event that usually cracks me up (thanks to Pat). Always performed between Jones Crusher and Punky’s Whips in a normal concert.
Camarillo Brillo – This Overnite Sensation classic gets the now regular hard rock treatment from this band. Like on the last few tours, they play through the song 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 basically always make a perfect, iconic segue into Muffin Man. Adrian plays the guitar “responses” to Frank’s vocal lines (most if not all are based on Frank’s guitar from the original studio recording), which makes this band’s takes the best live versions of the rock ‘n’ roll arrangement of this tune. By this tour, the repetition of the line “She stripped away her rancid poncho” is usually (always?) changed to “I chewed my way through her rancid panocha”. Occasionally in the first half of the tour, inspired by Adrian’s harmonica playing, Frank does a Bob Dylan impression in the slow half of the tune, which is always super amusing. My personal favorite versions of this song come from 1973 & ‘74, but these are probably my second favorite live renditions. The Camarillo Brillo/Muffin Man combo was exclusively played as an encore, and would always end the night on a high note (If a San Ber’dino or Black Napkins doesn’t appear).
City Of Tiny Lights – This Zappa classic returns on this tour, and it’s finally the Sheik Yerbouti version! Gone is the funk from the Ray White lead performances, and we get a reworked, rock-foward version belted out by the absolutely fantastic Adrian Belew, who just nails this tune from the get go and only gets better as the tour goes on. There’s one huge note to mention though, for the first half of the tour this song features a Patrick O’Hearn bass solo. Until October 18th in Poughkeepsie, Pat would play a delightfully weird and amusing solo, but these solos rarely fit the tone of the tune and usually feel somewhat out of place. Pat quotes a fair amount of random showtunes and other numbers in his solos, and has some identifiable riffs/lines that he really likes and will play often. The Toronto take features a long Lemme Take You To The Beach quote, which is the closest this tune ever got to a live performance. Patrick’s my favorite FZ bass player and I love his soloing, but his wild solos fit so much better in A Pound For A Brown (which he gets a regular solo spot in a week and a half after he loses it in this tune). When Frank takes the solo spot in Poughkeepsie, it’s an instant fit. I can’t believe it took him a year to make the switch! From October 18th on, Frank whips out a fantastic, angry, red-hot solo, almost always significantly longer than what’s heard on Sheik, and often an early highlight of the night. Peter has a short little solo spot right after the post-solo guitar theme that was edited off the album for some reason. This section is more like a piano break than a solo, but it provides a nice transition between the instrumental middle and the vocal ending. Though my all time 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, these versions from the second half of the tour (and the following Euro-tour) are easily my second favorite. Adrian is just as fantastic a vocalist as Ray (but with a very different style), and Frank’s solos are usually smokin’. City Of Tiny Lights always comes after Tryin’ To Grow A Chin and precedes A Pound For A Brown, with the latter being one of Frank’s all time best transitions.
Conehead – An early, instrumental proto-proto-version of this You Are What You Is tune first appears on this tour, and it’s pretty much unrecognizable. This tune eventually evolves into the final version of Conehead, but I don’t believe Frank used any part of this early version in the final arrangement (except the dirty vibe, but please correct me if I’m wrong!). At this stage in development this tune is functionally a heavy, angular riff over which Frank plays a long, spine tingling, show stopping, monstrous guitar solo. The piece first shows up in Bloomington on September 25th, and feels more like an extension of Pound For A Brown than its own tune. Before Bloomington, Frank would play a solo to end the Pound jam, but once Conehead appears Frank stops soloing in Pound. Over the next few weeks the band gets more comfortable with the odd, jangly riff and Frank strengthens the arrangement, giving the tune more of a start where the instruments come in individually over time (typically drums/guitar first, then bass and chimes). This is mostly finalized by October 17th in Hartford, where we also start to get this cool drum pattern at the beginning that matches the jangly guitar riff. Also around this time Ed begins to double the bass part on chimes during the head, which is just so cool. The earliest performances are shaky, but they have a great, “could fall apart at any moment” energy which would propel Frank into amazing, raw and raucous places, while the more constructed, cleaner versions let FZ stretch out and get more experimental, without losing any ferocity. Pat and Terry also shine in these sections, simultaneously letting Frank breathe over this weird alien soundscape, but also joining him on the adventure.
The performance in Pawtucket is special as the tune actually has a bit of lyrics! Frank sings a chunk of the finalized tune along to the melody of the guitar riff (“She’s a conehead…. Potato chip crumbs all over her face, is there any more beer stashed away at her place she’s a conehead!”). For about a week in November (The 11th in Kansas City, the 14th in Denver, and the 18th in Sacramento), this tune is replaced by King Kong. Frank brings it back for the final two days of the tour, and for the New York Eve show, but these performances are a bit different. In Stanford, and at the final show of the tour in LA, Frank solos over the Conehead vamp for the first few minutes, but then switches to this very open, spacey vamp, like a proto-version of the Persona Non Grata vamp from the next year. These are fantastic solos, with a very different feel from the average Conehead. They offer a very cool, unique view of exactly where Frank is headed on guitar. Then on New Year’s Eve, we get the final take of the proto-Conehead. Frank seemed to be getting bored of this vamp by this point, so after a few minutes of soloing he hands it off to Tommy Mars and we get the only known Mars Conehead solo! It’s one of the darkest and moodiest solos I’ve heard Tommy play, and the performance is capped off by a second, shorter FZ solo. Really neat stuff. Also for whatever reason, on the last date of the tour in LA, Frank announces this song as “Tom Snyder and The Red Spiders From NBC”. I can;t tell you what that means exactly, but it’s just so Frank.
Overall this is probably my favorite solo vehicle of the tour, and one of Frank’s best riffs of his career. I can’t believe he never (really) released it! His soloing over this tune is just so ungodly cool, dark and experimental. It’s really just an amazing musical experience. This song almost always leads into Flakes (Frank would usually introduces Flakes over the Conehead vamp), and depending on the stage of the tour it’s either preceded by A Pound For A Brown or Bobby Brown (the Pound transition was so much better, and is a rare instance where the earlier part of the tour beats the latter).
Daddy, Daddy, Daddy – This underrated 200 Motels tune shows up on two special occasions, first as an encore in San Diego right at the start of the tour, and later in Toronto when Flo and Eddie guest with the band. It’s largely the same as the Fall ‘76 arrangement, but of course not identical, and both live versions are pretty different from the original. Frank drops the “do you like my new car” intro, but everything else is there, including the classic “if his dick is a monster!” and the outro missing from the ‘76 takes. The tune is played significantly faster, giving it an even poppier feel, and there’s a more prominent guitar riff throughout (though it’s not as noticeable as in ‘76). Frank sings lead on the tune in San Diego, and he sings it with Mark and Howie in Toronto, though The Turtles are somewhat hard to hear on the available tape (you can clearly make them out yelling “Flo and Eddie!” along with the normal “it’s a Rambler”s at the end). The Toronto performance definitely feels a bit more rehearsed, but the San Diego one isn’t bad. The best part of these performances is Ed honestly. He is all over this tune on marimba. He plays a unique riff over the intro, he plays along with the chorus and the “dick is a monster” bit and he even does the “Do it do it y’wanna y’wanna”s over the ending! Frank messed with the ending line of the chorus a bit, replacing the second “alright I got my eyes on you” with another “alright you got ‘em screamin’ all night”. Terry (and Flo & Eddie) now do the composed scat/yell during the break after the first “screamin’ all night” (Terry previously yelled “Work Work Workin’ The Wall!” in ‘76) and fun fact, this same break is reused as a drum fill in Disco Boy – right after the Chicken Delight line! Anyway, though we don’t have a truly great recording of it, this tune is always fun when it pops up. It’s one of the best Flo and Eddie tunes, and a highlight of the two shows it appears in.
Dancin’ Fool – This Sheik Yerbouti tune debuts on Halloween Eve, but in a very early, rough state. Frank describes it as “not in very good condition at all”. It later appears on New Year’s Eve mostly complete, but still notably rough around the edges. On Halloween Eve Frank talks about how the Dancin’ Fool is Disco Boy’s father, then gets the band ready to make it through the song. It’s REALLY rough, like one of the roughest things I’ve ever heard Frank whip out live. The tune is super barebones and has a simple structure. There’s no guitar intro yet, no “I got it all together now” bridge section and no “can I buy you a drink” ending. The transitions between the existing sections are really shaky, and halfway through Frank even makes them start over a verse because he can’t hear the changes well enough. They play it really slowly, and it kinda comes together as they play, but it’s still a total mess. “The beat goes on but I’m so wrong” section has a completely different arrangement, with a frantic, almost latin rhythm. The ending “I might be totally wrong” chant is great, and Frank’s abrupt, conducted crash out ending is my favorite part of the whole performance. When the fool returns on New Year’s Eve, it’s much, much more complete. The tune is still a bit underrehearsed, and some of the parts will continue to get refined, but it’s a complete Dancing Fool experience. There’s one line that takes Frank a while to figure out though and surprisingly it’s “I walk on in ‘n see ’em there/Gonna give them all a thrill”. In New York FZ pretty much just mumbles through that line (he does it twice because this is the verse he had the band repeat). By New Years it’s evolved to “I walk on in and flash my roll”, but it won’t end up as the final version until the Euro-tour. So ultimately it’s pretty neat to get to see the evolution of Dancing Fool in 1977, but it’s not exactly the most pleasant listening experience (especially the New York take, yowza).
Dinah-Moe Humm – This (in)famous Over-Nite Sensation tune returns yet again to please another crowd. It’s pretty much always performed as an encore, and usually the final song of the show. We get a pretty direct representation of the studio recording, but with the funk of the original traded for rock. Tommy and/or Adrian cover the Ike-ettes’ vocals from the record, and Frank sings the main bulk of the tune, but skips the classic “zircon-encrusted tweezers” line. In its place he talks to the audience, usually demanding some kind of audience participation. Sometimes a clap along, sometimes singing along with the ending “Dinah-Moe”s and sometimes he even brings some fans up on stage! (the Halloween show has a “Frank Zappa perform alike contest”). These are amusing performances, and I think Frank’s enthusiasm for this tune is slightly revived by the power of his new band. So Frank’s having a good time, Patrick plays the hell out of his part, our rag tag group of backing vocalists really give it their all, and the audience participation segments are usually fun. All in All this tour has a pretty high quality Dinah-Moe event.
Dirty Love – This Over-Nite Sensation was a staple of the “dog medley” in ‘75 & ‘76, but in 1977 it only returned twice, on October 30th in New York, and November 11th in Kansas City, always paired with Stinkfoot (and The Poodle Lecture). It’s much faster than the original, and more rocked-up, but the basic structure is there. Frank sings the tune, Adrian plays a hot little, distinctively-Belew solo in the middle, and the ending “c’mon Frenchie”s are sadly skipped completely. The arrangement is pretty close to the 1979 versions, but less frenetic without Vinnie. Unlike previous ‘76 versions with Patrick, this time he plays the standard Dirty Love bassline over the “the poodle bites!” coda, not the one from Stinkfoot. Like in all(?) live versions, Frank plays around with the rhyme in the second bridge (“I don’t need no consolation/I don’t want your reservation”). For example on Halloween he says “I don’t want your perspiration/I don’t need your reservation”. I think he just says whatever comes to his mind here, but that’s just a guess. I’ve always liked this tune, and while these aren’t the most perfect versions, they’re a lot of fun. It’s a neat arrangement with this band’s unique sound, and Belew’s solos are always really cool. Like I said before, always preceded by Stink-Foot/The Poodle Lecture (the story usually leads right into the song, ex “she looked at the dog and said…”), and now that it’s a rarity I don’t even mind when the Poodle Lecture shows up (at least not too much).
Disco Boy – This tour sees the live debut of the complete version of this Zoot Allures tune (it first appeared as a guitar heavy instrumental a couple times in early ‘76). It’s much faster and more “rock n roll” compared to the pretty subdued studio version. Frank sings this tune in his normal voice (instead of his talk-singing on the record), and while he says “get a little laid tomorrow!” on the studio take, pretty much every live version I’ve heard he sings “get a little pussy” instead. This song is pretty much always performed the same every night, but Frank occasionally shouts some fun unique asides in the middle, like “rock n roll!” or “disco sucks!”. I’m not a big fan of the studio version of this song, so to me this arrangement, with its fast pace and better instrumentation, really makes Disco Boy shine. If you’ve never connected with the studio take, try out a live performance, it gets a recommendation from this reviewer. Disco Boy almost always appears at the end of Terry’s drum solo in Envelopes, and transitions into Läther.
Dong Work For Yuda – This Joe’s Garage tune about Frank’s English-language-manipulating bodyguard John Smothers reappears on New Year’s Eve. This version is much faster and poppier than the studio take and has a totally different arrangement, but overall mostly follows the same basic structure (though there are some differences in the ending). It’s the first full band version, not acapella like the live versions from earlier in the year, and a unique arrangement too. What we get on New Year’s is basically an extended version of the upcoming Winter ‘78 performances with a longer ending past the “Ahapa Magandha” bit. Unlike the earlier takes, the Smothers quotes in this arrangement are set in stone, not improvised. Also Frank does the impression in this arrangement, not Terry. The first four “sorry John sorry better try it again” responses are: “I need a dozen towels so the boys can take a shower”, “I wave my bags you wave your’n”, “how much did they wave?” and “hey, Davey, this room got good acusnics”. After these four, there’s another “sorry John” and Frank exclaims “that boy’s so skinny he look like Ahapa Maganda!”, which is Smothers’ attempt at saying Mahatma Gandhi. The band vocalizes a response four times, there’s a quick little walkdown, and Frank then continues to list Smothers-isms (“falcum, take me to the falcum”, “bartender “bring me a colata and milk”, “my body contain wattuh”, “that girl much be pracatin’ witchcraft”, and “boy I just love the way these Copenhagens talks”). After this FZ sings a slow “sorry John sorry better try it again” and ends the tune with a long “…try try try again” outro, just like on the album (but again, much faster and poppier). The previous and following tours’ versions end with the slowed down “sorry John sorry” line, and this comes right after the “Ahapa Maganda” bit on the following Euro-tour. This isn’t the best version of this tune, it’s a little bit shaky and under rehearsed, but I’ve always liked this silly little tune, so it’s fun to hear it get a sorta-premier on New Years, with a sorta unique arrangement.
Envelopes – “This is a song entitled Envelopes. It features the lilting voice of Tommy Mars, some peculiar words and a bunch of hard notes for the rhythm section.” This weirdo number doesn’t get an official release until 1982 on Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch, but it was written around 1969 or 1970. Envelopes was played as part of 200 Motels in 1970, and it was toyed around with in the studio by the first Flo and Eddie band in the same year, but these 1977 performances mark the rock band debut of this tune. The piece starts off as an instrumental, very similar to the Drowning Witch version, but slower, eerier, and without very ending ten seconds (just the very last “lick”). It’s completely instrumental for the first five weeks of the tour, but between the St. Louis show on October 2nd and the Hartford show on October 17th, Frank added words for Tommy Mars to sing! These are a truly vile set of lyrics and some of the dumbest of Frank’s career, which is really saying something. The lyrics are about a relationship, sorta… You can read them here, but just know the phrase “squat on my blaster” has been permanently burned into my brain. The instrumental section of the tune largely remains the same throughout the tour, though Adrian squeaks a cartoonish horn along with the ending starting around Detroit. He doesn’t do it in every October performance, but by New York it’s a permanent part of the arrangement. Tommy claims that Frank added another keyboard part to the tune at the same time as the vocals, but I have yet to spot what he’s referring to. Additionally, there’s a couple shows where Tommy scats/vocalizes the melody: in Champaign on September 23rd, in Toronto on September 29th, and in New York on Halloween night.
Nearly every performance is capped off by a sick Terry Bozzio Drum Solo. These solos are always cool, but never have a ton of variation from show to show. Terry almost always uses a percussive kind of synth board to augment his solos, which I think works very well. Though they’re similar from night to night, it’s a very cool and unique type of solo. Bozzio’s solos on this tour remind me of a firework show. There’s smaller bombs going off throughout each drum jam, and they always end with a massive explosive finale. The one exception is the penultimate New York date on the 30th. Terry plays a solo in King Kong earlier in the show, and when Envelopes finishes we get Thomas Nordegg’s Magic Trick instead of a drum solo. Frank’s guitar tech Thomas Nordegg comes out and does card magic while Peter Wolf narrates the conversation in German. Frank tries narrating later (in English), and he brings out Roy to sing-describe the scenario after. Not the most memorable moment but a Halloween oddity none-the-less. The next day on Halloween, Terry stops in the middle of his solo to recite Frank’s “watch him eat” dialog, which is fun too.
Overall, this is a little neat tune, and though I prefer the earlier (and later) instrumental versions, it’s still a moment of joy for all the musical weirdos out there whenever it appears. Nearly always played after Big Leg Emma (what a transition!) and leading into Disco Boy (via a drum solo).
Find Her Finer – This Zoot Allures tune makes a special appearance at the New Year’s Eve show, before disappearing for 11 years. The tune is faster and more rock band-y, and Frank sings in his normal voice, not the Zoot Allures whisper talk. It’s kind of a shaky performance, and the recording is pretty bad, but structurally the tune is all there. Roy Estrada (a guest for the night) sings throughout, notably tackling the fun ending falsetto. Adrian Belew plays some cool guitar at the start, but it unfortunately does not continue through the rest of the song. I generally like the live performances of this more than the original, but of the live versions this is maybe the worst. A neat oddity, and fun in the context of the New Year’s Eve extravaganza, but not something you need to check out.
Flakes (incl. Intro Walk On Theme) – “The next song we’re gonna play is about the subject of incompetence.” “This is a song about people in California who don’t do what they’re supposed to do. These people are called flakes.” This Sheik Yerbouti sort-of-a-protest-song debuts on this tour, but it’s not quite complete. It’s pretty much identical to the album version (minus the many layers of vocal overdubs of course), but Frank hasn’t written the closing “I’m a moron” theme yet. So on this tour the tune ends following the sweeping instrumental bit after Belew’s Dylan section, with a simple repetition of the intro lick. Frank’s “wanna buy some Mandies, Bob?” is actually not exactly the normal line. At pretty much every US show, Frank asks Dylan-Belew, “Wanna buy some acid, Bob?” This starts sometime between the 09 09 San Diego and 09 17 Baton Rouge shows (potentially in Baton Rouge). In September the Dylan section was slightly more conversational, with Frank and Ade usually sharing an improvised line or two, but this aspect was slowly dropped over time.
The ending “moron” section first appears on New Year’s Eve, and surprisingly is completely instrumental! This new Flakes finale is a showcase for Adiran, who plays a fantastic, emotional solo over the ending of the tune. He solos until the count off (“One! Two! Three! Four!”), and we get the raw, guitar heavy ending without the “we are millions and millions” lyrics. This became the norm for Flakes on the next tour (but with an even longer outro with a second count off and more Belew guitar). While I don’t mind the studio outro lyrics, these instrumental versions are fantastic and easily my favorite version of this tune. At the same time, the regular “shortened” versions from this tour always feel incomplete to me, and are some of my least favorite versions of this song. The big moron ending buildup, regardless of the version, is a necessary conclusion to the tune. It just feels kinda empty without it. In 1977, Flakes functionally always comes after Conehead (It follows Pound For A Brown until Conehead appears), and leads into Big Leg Emma. Frank would typically stop after his Conehead solo and give an amusing intro to this tune (which is where the quote above comes from).
Additionally, starting sometime early on in the tour, between the second show in San Diego and the Baton Rouge show on 9/17, Frank begins to use the “Bob Dylan” backing chords as a walk on theme (this is sometimes listed as the “Flakes Walk On”). Nearly every show we have from Fall ‘77 starts with the Dylan theme, except for the earliest recording in San Diego (which features no walk-on), the New York 10/30 and Kansas City shows (which both start with Stinkfoot) and the New Year’s Eve gig (which starts with the Purple Lagoon). This is the only tour with this unique walk-on music, so it always provides a really fun one-of-a-kind specific Fall ‘77 Zappa experience.
I Have Been In You (incl. Is This Guy Kidding Or What?) – This Sheik Yerbouti opener debuts on this tour in Boston, and pops up two more times in the US (in New York and on New Years Eve) before becoming a regular part of the setlist in Europe. Frank wrote the song the night before the world premier, after discovering Peter Frampton’s song/album “I’m In You” and finding it and the whole world of rock “preposterous”. The first performance from Boston is incredibly minimalistic, and New York’s take is much more confident lyrically and instrumentally, but still very barebones. The majority of the tune is technically there, but it’s much slower, and we’re missing the big rockin’ “I’m goin’ in you again girl” ending. So after the “wash your hand” section (which is very shaky in Boston), Frank would end the tune by repeating the slow “I’m going in you again, baby/You can go in me to” ending (and throwing in a few “I’M IN YOU”s too). These are incredibly rough performances, and more interesting then they are musically, uh, enjoyable. By the time the tune reappears in LA on New Year’s Eve, it’s the complete Winter ‘78 live version, which is kinda like an expanded version of the Sheik Yerbouti track. In live performances from New Year’s on, following the first “I’m goin’ in you again” ramp up and repetition of the intro (which Roy sings over on NYE), Frank will stop and improvise a monologue. He usually starts off with “Well, I told you I was going in you again”, talks for a little while, then leads us into the regular “I’m going in you again, baby” and the whole ending shebang. Besides the additional dialog in the second half, this version of the tune is basically the same as on Sheik Yerbouti (accounting for the overdubs on the album of course).
Also, each performance starts with a long introduction over the chords of the tune, where Frank tells this story about a teenage girl abducting her favorite English pop star, and bringing him back to her bedroom for a night of ecstasy (and a Phoebe Snow record). Every time the story ends with the succulent Aryan pop star yelling “I’M IN YOU!!!” in a high pitched voice, and then a transition right into the start of the song. These stories, like the Poodle Lecture, are generally the same from night to night, but Frank can choose to alter them wherever and whenever he chooses. A late ‘78 recitation of the intro speech was released on You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 6 as “Is This Guy Kidding Or What?”.
This isn’t my favorite FZ tune, but it is a lot better than Frampton’s song. They’re very different tunes, but I see where the parody comes from. They sort of have a similar melodramatic structure/buildup, though the main parody is found via the inane lyrics. The tune itself is catchy, but ultimately kinda stupid, which I’m pretty sure was Frank’s intention. The opening Is This Guy Kidding routine is pretty funny, and a lot better than the Poodle Lecture, but note that I’m still comparing it to the Poodle Lecture. Overall, the New Year performance is alright, but overall on this tour I Have Been In You is just an interesting in-development rarity, not something really worth seeking out (the performances from the euro tour are typically pretty funny, though very, very long).
I Promise Not To Come In Your Mouth – see Läther entry.
The Illinois Enema Bandit – The Enema Bandit strikes again, on at least two occasions! This Zappa In New York tune pops up twice in the first month of the tour, in Champaign and Toronto. It’s a special Illinois encore in Champaign, and a surprise second set opener after a forced Canadian intermission in Toronto. These are weird performances though. We basically get what’s heard on ZINY, but Frank sings the first half! He explicitly states that he shouldn’t be singing this tune, but since Ray White isn’t here he’s got no other choice. The two performances are a little different from each other, and the earlier performance in Champaign is the simpler of the two, so I’ll use that one as the basis for comparison.
Frank (for the most part) skips the written opening monologue, but he does give the tune a spoken intro in both performances. He then somewhat clumsily makes his way through the head of the tune, before yelling “go on pump it Adrian!” and letting Belew take the first solo! (he says “take it away Bob!” in Toronto). Adrian cranks off a neat little solo, though you can tell a blues vamp is not his ideal territory, and Frank follows it with a longer, angrier, bluesier solo to finish off the jam. In Toronto, both Belew and Zappa are featured again, but this time Peter plays a solo between the two guitarists! Peter’s playing is really slick and cool, and a great addition to the tune. It seems to hype Frank up too, cause his Toronto solo is pretty inspired. The solo vamp typically isn’t the same as on ZINY, but more of a nondescript, bouncy, chugging blues (though Frank’s Toronto solo is over the ZINY vamp). The back half of the song feels much more familiar, since Frank normally sings the courtroom section. Adrian provides the voices of the victims, and takes over Ray’s outro “pumpin’ every one of ‘em” vocals (it’s actually kind of a duet with Frank strangely enough). In Champaign the song ends with a guitar fueled “it must be just what they all need” conclusion, followed by a little blues guitar outro and “goodnight”. The ending is much more complete in Toronto, with the same fun, guitar/vocal laden coda, but with the acapella ending verse heard on ZINY. Adrian sings the outro, but he forgets the final lyrics and Frank has to finish for him.
Though these performances are a little shaky, the tune was definitely rehearsed. Ed has all these unique percussion riffs throughout, and the band seems to know what’s going on, albeit hesitantly. These are not the best versions of this song out there, they are honestly probably some of the worst, but they’re bad in an interesting sort of way, which is the best kind of bad (and in reality they’re not terrible, just bad comparatively). Hearing Frank attempt to sing this tune is really neat, even if it doesn’t really work (why didn’t Frank have Ade sing this?), and hearing Adrian and Peter play Enema Bandit solos is amusing too, even if they’re not show stoppers. Frank’s solos are always nice too, so really there’s not too much to complain about here. A fun oddity, just not my preferred version.
“Instrumental In Memory Of Jimi Hendrix” – The only true complete improvisation of fall 1977 comes from early on in the tour in Atlanta, and I think Frank can explain this one best:
“Alright, check this out. We’re going to do something different now. This isn’t normally part of our program, but I was down at the station today, and this guy mentioned to me that tonight is the 7th anniversary of Jimi Hendrix’s demise. And, sorry Jimi, sorry you’re gone, but I thought we would have Adrian, who is our feedback expert here tonight, perform live in person a tribute to Jimi Hendrix. And you can just imagine that he has a feather boa on and his hair all frizzed up. We’re just gonna make this up as we go along, so we’ll see what happens. Okay? In G!”
So after this Adrian launches into what fans have titled “Instrumental In Memory Of Jimi Hendrix”. It’s a fantastic jam that begins with some deliciously fuzzed hendrix-esque riffs from Belew that lead right into The Star Spangled Banner. Pat and Terry come in after a couple minutes as Belew wails away, and finally Frank comes in and the two guitarists duel it out! After a few minutes of great sorta Hendrix-esque jamming, the piece ends with Terry mistakenly(?) starting a strange vamp for a second. Frank quickly stops him, and cues the next tune. Super neat, tasty stuff! I wish Frank unleashed his late 70s bands more often, because these random little jams are always great!
Jewish Princess – This edgy little Sheik Yerbouti ditty appears as a special Halloween Eve treat in New York. This tune premiers very well developed, which tracks because this is the only known live version, and Frank used this take as the basis of the Sheik Yerbouti version (so really this is only known performance in general). Frank added tons of new vocal tracks, little sound effects and kazoo parts in the studio, but the bulk of the song is live. Frank exclamation halfway through the tune (“Awright, back to the top… Everybody twist!) is from the live performance and not overdubbed. I always liked that he kept that bit in. I think he removed some of Adrian’s guitar too. Overall though, the Halloween Eve performance is functionally just the backing tracks to the Shake Yerbouti version. When Frank released this tune it would get him in a lot of trouble with the Anti-Defamation League, which I think is part of why this tune is never performed again (though Frank sneaks the main melody into the end of Catholic Girls, which was written in response to the public reaction to Jewish Princess). Franks’ response to the League? “I did not apologize then and refuse to do so now because, unlike The Unicorn, such creatures do exist—and deserve to be ‘commemorated’ with their own special opus.”
Jones Crusher – This classic Sheik Yerbouti rocker returns on this tour, and is finally the version we know and love. The tune first appears in Winter ‘77, but that version is a completely different, almost unrecognizable arrangement. The album version was recorded on Halloween, so live versions are practically the same, except they lack Frank’s overdubbed guitar. Well only most of the time. In September Frank would improvise some lead guitar over the “here she comes with her red dress on” section and the following “wind can’t blow til the skies gone” section. Then in St. Louis on October 2nd Frank drops the guitar over the “wind can’t blow” section, and by the next recording two weeks later in Hartford there’s no FZ lead guitar in either section. He must have changed his mind when assembling Sheik Yerbouti because he functionally just reinstated the “wind can’t blow” guitar part. The red dress lead guitar stays in September though, as Frank switches to some cool, chugging rhythm guitar in this section, as heard on the album. I do prefer the arrangement with more guitar, but the performances from October-November are much stronger overall, as Adrian gets much more comfortable with the tune after a few weeks. Also, the length of the very end purely depends on how much guitar Frank decides to whip out (and as usual, the more the better!) This is a great little rock number, and one of Frank’s best in this category. It was only played in this arrangement by this specific band, so it’s always a delight when it shows up in the second half of the show. Almost always played after The Black Page, and leading into Broken Hearts Are For Assholes.
King Kong – This Uncle Meat classic (that actually first appeared on Lumpy Gravy), appears a handful of times across the tour. It’s a great “anything can happen” tune, and it’s delightful every time it pops up. The theme is played lightning fast. The band just blazes through the entire tune in 30 seconds before heading right into some improvisational insanity. This tune was played at least five times on this tour, and each version has a totally different set of happenings. It first appeared as an encore early on in San Diego, then it returned as a special treat of Halloween Eve, and finally it replaced Conehead for a week in November (in Kansas City, Denver and Sacramento). Really anything can happen in this tune, so I’ll quickly break down the five performances.
In San Diego, we start with a marimba solo from Ed, followed by a bunch of conducted madness from Frank, some madness from Tommy, some variations on the theme, and a short drum solo (all in under 6 minutes!). New York features the most out there King Kong of the tour, with special appearances from the band’s road manager Phil Kaufman on “human trombone” and original Mothers bassist Roy Estrada on Gas Mask! (AKA cackaling, singing and screaming a la Prelude To The Afternoon Of A Sexually Aroused Gas Mask off of Weasels Ripped My Flesh). This is a crazy take, with lots of improvisation and conducted madness, and it ends up sounding a lot like a live Läther grout. The jam concludes with what can only be described as a toy police car solo (“give yourself up, you are completely surrounded”) with the Dragnet theme on keyboards underneath. When the tune returns in November it’s more of a regular solo vehicle, but it provides some of the best jams of the tour. Kansas City’s version is absolutely amazing. Peter concocts a hot opening jam, and Frank follows it with an insane, unhinged solo, one of his best of the tour. In Denver Frank is the sole soloist, and whips our a delectable solo, ending with a cool, distorted version of the melody of A Pound For A Brown (sick as fuck). Then the tune makes its final appearance in the hellhole that is Sacramento, where it opens with a strange Ed Mann percussion solo (starting on chimes). FZ finishes the tune with a fantastic guitar jam, sounding like the missing link between a ‘74 Dupree’s Paradise solo and the Persona Non Grata guitar events from ‘78 and ‘79. FZ’s guitar work in these November Kongs are all fairly proto-Persona Non Grata and offer a neat peak into the future of Frank’s guitar playing (this is especially true in Sac Town, as the Kansas City and Denver performances are a bit more rockin’). Overall, this rare tune is more than welcome whenever it pops up, in whatever form it takes. This band excels at weirdness, but can also rock the fuck out, and the King Knogs from this tour can give you both (depending on the day).
Läther – This beautiful Zappa in New York Tune, formerly known as I Promise Not To Come In Your Mouth, returns after premiering at the ‘76 Xmas shows. The basic structure of the tune is the same as on ZINY, but obviously heavily reorchestrated for this zany band. Frank trades the horn section for a pair of synthesizers and a pair of guitars. The theme of this piece is expertly played, and is still one of Zappa’s most beautiful compositions. On the album we get one FZ guitar solo and one keyboard solo, and in 1977 we get the same length of solo section, but the keyboard solo is split between Tommy and Peter! So the solo order is always: Frank, Tommy, Peter, but Frank’s solo is twice the length of each keyboard solo (though the two keyboard solos work very well together, and usually feel like one solo). There’s not a ton of variation from night to night, but each performance is delightful and usually worth a listen. Overall, this is a ridiculously fantastic piece, one of the most beautiful melodies Frank ever wrote, and an easy highlight of the era. This is the only real tour this tune appears on, which is part of what makes Fall ‘77 special in my book. This tune is always played after Disco Boy, and before Wild Love, connected to the later by some unique transition music.
So about that “unique transition music”. There’s this short piece that’s only ever played on this tour that appears before and after Wild Love, or depending on how you think of it, after Läther and after Wild Love. The piece is hard to describe. It’s strict and kind of regal sounding, but also very keyboard heavy and futuristic, and it’s always followed by an acapella (or mostly acapella) guitar solo from Frank. The composed section is about 15 seconds, but Frank’s final guitar can last anywhere from a few seconds to over a minute! That being said, the ones coming after Läther typically just consist of a few phrases and quick runs, though they tend to get longer as the tour goes on. It’s debatable whether or not to consider these chunks of music an intro and outro to Wild Love, or shared endings to Läther & Wild Love. I personally feel the piece works better as a twin coda, but this is mainly just on vibes (similar to how I feel about the Jones Crusher/My Guitar debate from the last tour). Plus, this is how the performances are tracked on the Halloween ‘77 box (meaning Lather and Wild Love both end with the shared piece), and I just think it’s neat conceptual continuity wise.
Muffin Man – This Bongo Fury tune regularly appears throughout the tour as an exciting encore number. It’s always played following Camarillo Brillo, emerging out of the slow second half of the song. The boys play the vamp, FZ brings the band down behind him for the lyrics, and then we’re sent to guitar heaven for a couple minutes. Frank’s solos are typically fantastic this time around. He 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. Adrian always plays a short solo before Frank comes in, and they frequently complement each other so well that it can be hard to tell where one starts and the other begins. These intro solos may seem trivial, but they really seem to inspire Frank and propel him to terrific heights. Ade’s part can be difficult to hear in September and early October because Frank plays the heavy Muffin Man riff over it, but I think he realizes this around mid-October and lets Adrian solo unencumbered starting in Hartford. For the first couple weeks of the tour (through 9/18 in Atlanta), Frank and Adrian kind of solo together! Frank is still playing the “main” solo for lack of a better term, but you can hear Adrian improvising along with him underneath Frank’s monstrous guitar playing.
If inspired, Frank could decide to sing the tune again after playing his solo, and crank out some more hot licks (basically playing the song twice), but he sometimes just sings the head again as an outro. In Boston, Frank starts the tune, but runs out of time and has to announce the end of the show over the vamp (sad but true). Frank begins to play Muffin Man in Detroit but skips the tune in favor of Black Napkins, and he’s forced to omit the song (along with half of Camarillo Brillo) in Stanford because of some unknown issue. On Halloween, Frank gets his bodyguard John Smothers to attempt to sing the second verse, and it goes about as well as you’d expect. If the vamp goes on for long enough while Frank is outroing the band, our backing singers will start to sing “Scandi-Scandinavi-Scandinavia”. If they go on for long enough they eventually sing “What’s the name of the city in Scandinavia? I have no idea why this happens, or what it means. It seems improvised, but it happens multiple times. I’ve never seen anyone mention this, so If you have any clue please send me an email!
While 1977 is the best year for Muffin Man, this might just be a THE tour for the Muffin Man. The Baby Snakes version (a combination of performances from 10/30 and 10/31) is considered by many to be the best Muffin Man experience, and it’s hard to argue with. Like I said earlier, Frank really delivers on this tour, crafting a heavy, inspired, and occasionally emotional solo in nearly every performance. This tune was always followed by Camarillo, and is usually the last tune of the show (though it’s occasionally followed by San Ber’dino or another special treat).
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 the 70s. It’s way faster and much more rock-oriented than the studio take, but it’s a perfect fit for this rocking teenage combo. The closest comparison would be Peaches III on Tinseltown Rebellion, but with this band it’s even faster, more energetic, and it lacks the crazy Devo-esque sections (those get added in Fall ‘78). In the same vein, this arrangement of Peaches is crazier and more electric than the winter ‘77 performances, and like to the ‘71 versions we get a chunk of the final repetition of the theme delivered mostly acapella (I’ve seen this scat singing negatively described as “chicken squawks”). This large ensemble gives a very fun, high energy, rocking take on the melody, FZ delivers a tasteful mini-solo in the middle, and Terry goes crazy at the end. This is a totally crazed version of this tune, and a great way of mixing old Zappa with this new band to start each show off right. Nearly always played as the first number after the Flakes intro, and leading right into The Torture Never Stops. For the New Year’s show, to make the transition out of Dancin’ Fool stronger, Frank drops the drum intro (sacrilegious!).
A Pound For A Brown – This Uncle Meat piece pops up yet again, and is, yet again, fantastic! You probably could have guessed it, but we get a wildly different version of the tune compared to what we’re used to, even considering the past couple tours! It’s pretty close in structure to the ZINY-era ones, but the calm jazziness of those takes are lost in favor of fast, rockin’ Tommy Mars-style electric craziness complete with scat singing over the middle part of the theme. Before I get to the solos I have to mention that there’s also this cool, beautiful chorded keyboard/guitar transition between the head and the solos that’s unique to this tour. It’s just 20 seconds or so and mostly improvised by Frank and Peter, but it’s an immaculate vibe and makes a lovely bridge into the solo section (Frank for some reason drops this segment at the penultimate date of the tour in Stanford). The soloists on this tune are constantly changing throughout the tour, but Tommy Mars is the through line, and is featured in every Fall ‘77 performance. Tommy is pretty much always great in this tune, crafting crazy adventurous solos that can be jazzy, spacy, bouncy, frenzied, mellow, you name it. His solos often feature scat singing, which I’m kind of on the fence about. Sometimes I think “shut up n play yer keys”, but other times I can really vibe with how out there he gets if it’s in controlled bursts. Overall though, his solos in this tune are typically fantastic, and Pound is a regular instrumental highlight from the first third of the show.
I’m going to break down the general way soloists in this tune changed, but there’s a chart at the bottom of this page that probably gets the info across clearer. There’s three exceptions but I’ll get to those later. The tune starts off as a Tommy and Frank venture until Conehead appears at the end of September in Bloomington. Frank’s solos in this tune are interesting but not great. I’d describe them as hit or miss and kinda meandering. It’s a great day when Conehead arrives, but for the following three weeks or so Pound is a solely Tommy affair. Beginning in Poughkeepsie in mid-October, Patrick becomes more involved and starts getting short solo breaks in the second half of Tommy’s jam. [I’ve included this as “Tommy (with Patrick)” on the chart, because it’s a notable change, but it’s not quite a duet.] He nearly gets his own solo on October 28th in New York, but it isn’t until the 29th that Patrick officially gets the first solo spot, and his delightfully weird bass solos are a perfect addition to the tune. He previously played a bass solo in City Of Tiny Lights, but this is such a better fit for him. Patrick’s jams often feature quotes of other tunes (Aerosmith’s Walk This Way is a notable one during the Halloween run). The 10/30 show has kind of an amalgam performance, with a standalone Pat solo, and breaks in Tommy’s solo for Pat to play. The Pat/Tommy era easily contains my favorite Pounds from fall ‘77, but for some reason Frank reverts to the just-Tommy arrangement for the last two days of the tour in Stanford and LA. Luckily though, Patrick gets his solo back on New Year’s Eve.
Okay so here’s the weirdo exceptions. The first comes from the early show in Boston, where the key/guitar transition is nearly skipped completely, and the solo section starts with Christian-y organ music, and a long, Gilded Grape-style preacher kind of a sermon from Patrick! (“Though shall not judge a homo by his keys, scarf, or haircut. Now doesn’t that make sense brothers and sisters?”) It goes on a little too long on repeat listens, but it’s pretty funny and always catches me by surprise on a relisten. After this the performance ends with the regularly scheduled Tommy (featuring Pat) solo. The other weird exceptions happen on Halloween and New Years, when OG MOI bassist Roy Estrada guests with the band, and Frank incorporates a Gas Mask event into the end of each show’s Pound! This is of course referring to the strange improv Roy would “sing” with the original Mothers, as heard on Prelude To The Afternoon Of A Sexually Aroused Gas Mask off of Weasels Ripped My Flesh (There’s also a Gas Mask in the Halloween Eve King Kong, but since the tune is always a part of another song and reliant on a guest performance, I didn’t want to give it its own entry). On The Halloween boxset the track is titled “The Demise Of The Imported Rubber Goods Mask”. These two performances are really weird and out there, but a lot of fun, in a crazy Zappa sort of way. Roy’s strange moaning/singing usually gets a laugh out of me, and this band accompanies him in such a way to make the whole performance feel really avante-guard and interesting. They of course bring us back to the 60s and the chaotic improv of the original Mothers, but they also remind me of a live Läther grout, since Roy is present on some of those as well. Other fun, unique moments include an instrumental Mudd Club quote in Frank’s solo in Bloomington (“Hey, they’re really dancin’ – They’re on auto-destruct…”), and on Halloween Tommy scat sings Frank’s “watch him eat” dialog.
Overall, Pound For A Brown is a live highlight throughout Frank’s entire career. From the Original Mothers to the Yellow Shark, this tune is nearly omnipresent, and this arrangement marks the start of another great era in this song’s legacy. Totally different from the versions before it, but a uniquely Pound For A Brown experience nonetheless. In fall ‘77 Pound was always preceded by City of Tiny Lights (one of Frank’s all time best transitions/song pairings), and followed by either Flakes, Conehead or Bobby Brown depending on the stage of the tour.
Punky’s Whips – This perverted, not-quite-a-love-song returns after debuting during the ‘76 Xmas shows. I associate this operatic tune with Zappa In New York, but it has a complicated release history, and technically its first major release was on the Baby Snakes soundtrack. I’ll be comparing it with the version found on the ZINY CD and the version found on Läther (which is functionally the version that was pulled off of the ZINY LP). The basic structure of the tune is the same as on Läther, meaning the repeating ascending part following the line “squirm with ecstasy” about a minute in the tune has been pared down (unlike on the ZINY CD). That being said, this version is a totally different beast in many places. The whole piece is way faster and the sound is of course completely different too, with the lush horns replaced by wild synthesizers and guitar. The whole band comes together to make this weird, complicated, horny piece work, and Terry of course sings (and drums) his heart out.
Frank delivers the intro speech made famous by Don Pardo, and rock groups now form “every 14 or 15 minutes” instead of “every day” like in December ‘76. Depending on FZ’s mood these speeches can veer pretty far of course, but he typically tends to stick pretty close to the script. Pat gets to improvise two spoken lines over the monster tune. The first is right at the start after “cause he might not be pouting for me” (“Pouting for you? Punky Meadows?”) and the second is during “Punky, you’re an angel, you’re too much” (“oh niiiice”). The first one is generally very audible, and Terry usually responds to Pat. The second is usually much harder to hear and typically a shorter phrase. Both ad libs can get really out there though, leading to Pat saying shit like “Hey, listen, I heard that Punky Meadows does rather X-rated abnormal things with Friskies pet food.” Additionally, Terry will sometimes sing along (poorly) with the Isn’t It Romantic quote. Also of note: the version from Poughkeepsie is ever so slightly different, because Tommy utters the “voice of my thoughts” line. He has to change it to third person though since he’s not the main character (“the voice of his thoughts, in his lonely bedroom”).
Frank always improvises some beautiful guitar accompaniment in the “Jeff Beck” section, and there’s a new, funk-rock backing for the ending Punky breakdown and FZ guitar solo. I enjoy the ZINY vamp, but I think that this tour’s might take the cake. Frank’s solos are usually fantastic, rocking numbers that create an amazing finale for the main set, though they probably have the biggest miss rate of the regular FZ solo vehicles on this tour, occasionally coming in disappointingly short. But when Frank does stretch out, oh boy are we in for a good time. Just pure exhilarating, groovy, adrenaline fueled guitar. This is a wonderful song, and I wish I saw it get talked about more often. The tune is insanely complex, funny and can easily sit right up there with the best of Frank’s work. Terry goes nuts, the band nails the twisty, intricate musical passages, and Frank brings it home with a tasty guitar solo, what else can you ask for? Anyway, Punky’s Whips is almost always played following Broken Hearts Are For Assholes, and typically closes off the main set.
[On a couple of performances from the end of the tour (Stanford and L.A. #1), when Frank returns after the encore break he plays Isn’t It Romantic alone on his guitar. In Stanford it seems to be played alone, but it’s a part of a slightly larger guitar improvisation in LA. You could argue this is it’s own performance, but it’s the exact same arrangement as the quote in Punky, just standalone, so I think it fits better as a “Punky-related-anomoly”.]
The Purple Lagoon – This tune returns on New Year’s Eve, but it’s not the monster heard on Zappa In New York. Instead we get a quick 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. FZ introduces the band over the song, and leads into Dancin’ Fool to kick the show off. This tour’s regular walk-on tune is the Bob Dylan theme from Flakes, but Frank switches back to the Purple Lagoon on New Years Eve, and continues to use the tune as an opener for the following Euro tour. In fact this is the only tour with Pat and Terry that doesn’t regularly use the Purple Lagoon. I love this weird little melody, and am always glad to hear it come up (which is fortunate for me, because it shows up a lot).
Revenge Of The Knick-Knack People – “Now Davey’s gonna play you a tape, these songs were chosen for their amusement value”. This sound collage reappears as the pre-show music, after first appearing for the same purpose last fall. Frank created this track using bits and pieces of forgotten recordings from the late 60s and early 70s (some from the original Mothers, some from the Hot Rats 2/Funky Nothingness sessions). This quote sums it all up: “ It was just a sound object that I wanted to make, just choppin’ tape together, and then, since there was no way to release it anyplace, I thought people might enjoy hearing it, and we used it to open the show.” The tape was played as the musicians walked on stage and tuned up, before the Flakes Dylan-theme begins the show for real. It’s a weird way to start a concert, but it fits this weird group well.
Road Ladies – This Chunga’s Revenge blues tune about Life on The Road (see what I did there?) returns for a final time when Flo and Eddie make a guest appearance in Toronto. This tune is pretty much the same as the studio recording, but with very different instrumentation of course. FZ sings the first half, Frank and the former Turtles sing the chorus, then Adrian plays a solo. I’m pretty sure it’s Adrian; it could be Frank, but I’d expect FZ to play a better blues solo. Howard belts out the final verse, and the three vocalists sing the ending like it’s 1970 all over again. Frank even yells “Woodstock nation!” after the guitar solo! This is a surprisingly strong version, Frank, Flo and Eddie sound great and the tune is a lot of fun, I just wish Frank played the solo here instead. That being said, the whole Flo and Eddie encore from Toronto is pretty delightful, and a wonderful nostalgic throwback to a bygone era.
San Ber’dino – This underplayed One Size Fits All tune is a rare encore number, popping up six times over the tour, starting on October 18th. The structure of this tune is pretty much the same as on the studio album, though it’s of course rearranged to fit this band’s unique sound. It’s played significantly faster live, and the country/rockabilly vibe almost gets lost in the vibrant arena rock, but Adrian’s twangy guitar and vocals keep it alive. The most notable difference is the complete lack of harmonica in this version, but I don’t think this arrangement is lacking because of it (I imagine it would probably be asking a lot of Adrian too). This is another tune that highlights Belew’s contributions, as he takes the solo spot, sings the Johnny “Guitar” Watson outro vocals and does a fantastic job with both. This is a terrific version of the tune, and a highlight of every show it appears in. There isn’t really a bad arrangement of this song, besides maybe the ‘74 proto-version, but this one is one of the best. Always played as an encore, following Muffin Man.
Stinkfoot (incl. The Poodle Lecture) – This Apostrophe classic returns once again on this tour, largely the same as the last several tours, and still different from the album. Unlike late ‘74 through late ‘76, this tune was not a regular part of setlists, and it only popped up three times in fall 1977 (on the day before Halloween, in Kansas City, and on New Year’s Eve). This tune starts the show on Halloween Eve and in Kansas City, but it’s kind of thrown randomly into the middle of the set on New Year’s Eve. When this tune starts the show, it replaces the normal Flakes walk on. Frank would introduce the band over the main vamp (or just talk to the audience on New Years), before moving into the meat of the song. He recites the lyrics to the tune over the classic live vamp (which is similar but not identical to the studio version), and then plays a blistering hot solo. Adrian plays the guitar fill after the “imaginary diseases” line on this tour, which is a fun little addition. And of course since this is the live version the tune ends following Frank’s long, rockin’ solo (“Sick!”), omitting the entire second half of the tune. On previous tours, when this song was a nightly staple, there was usually some lyrical variation from night to night, but these performances largely lose that aspect (the ending “sick” section is still a little ad libbed). These takes also lose the added pre-solo segments, so really Frank just reverts Stinkfoot back to the standard ‘74/‘75 version.
Unfortunately though, FZ’s infamous Poodle Lecture is still attached. It doesn’t ruin the song, but I’d definitely prefer it if it wasn’t there. Frank added this speech in fall 1975, and it sticks around for way too long (these are the last known live performances, though he rehearsed it again in ‘82). After his solo, Frank would tell a long, nasty story about God’s creation of Man, Woo-Man and the Poodle, all while the band plays the backing for Stinkfoot. The ultimate point of the tale is how the Poodle got its iconic, stupid haircut. The man goes to work, then falls asleep when he gets home and the woman ends up shaving the dog, so she can get some oral gratification from the poor creature. The basic story never changed much from show to show, and is one of the most vile moments from Frank’s live career. On previous tours, FZ would usually name drop a local city as an area that needs to get shaved on the Poodle, but he reverts back to the default “Burbank” in ‘77. There’s also usually a “zircon encrusted tweezers” reference which makes the crowd go wild (the woman buys one for the dog, great). Frank always used the story as a bridge between the two opening poodle songs: Stink-Foot and Dirty Love, except on New Year’s where Frank starts the speech, but quickly pivots into an intro for Dong Work For Yuda! (“In the beginning, God made the light, yes he did, shortly thereafter, God made three big mistakes. The first one was called man, the second one was called wo-man, and the third one was called John Smothers”)
Despite the full blown Poodle Lecture (and thank god this is the last band to ever feature it), this is still a really fun era for the tune, with the standard tasty solo from Frank. Since this tune is now a rare occurrence, it loses the over-played factor from ‘76, and you can focus on the fun lyrics and Frank’s electrifying blues guitar. Just a great time, and a highlight of the three shows where it appears.
Titties ‘N Beer – This dumb, funky, goofy tune loosely based on Stravinsky’s “L’Histoire Du Soldat” reappears on this tour, and we get the Zappa In New York arrangement. The “Chrissy Puked Twice” verse is finally gone, but there’s still a couple smaller exceptions compared to the album version (along with obvious differences in instrumentation). 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. This speech is less common on this tour, I think because Frank literally forgot about it. It first appears in Boston, where Frank says “Wait a minute, I don’t mean to interrupt your satanic interview, but I forgot part of the song. No. Koi told me about this. Listen, here’s my part of the deal. That’s alright, you can have my soul…..”. It’s in most if not all performances after Boston.
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). For most of the tour Terry would almost always 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. But during the Halloween run Frank brings back the ZINY era “I don’t think you’re the right cat”, “cloud of doom”, “you want to make a deal with me” stuff. [since this tune is kinda lyrically fluid, all of this comes with a *generally* warning]
Whatever the case, this tour has some of the best Titties ‘N Beer out there, with nearly every performance containing a riotous dialog about sex, religion, music, politics or whatever else might come up. Warner Brothers complaints, Leather/Tower Of Power/Rubber shit and combinations of the two are by far the most frequent topics on this tour, and they always provide an entertaining time. In late October Frank concocts an amusing, somewhat scripted Warner Brothers rant that shows up in numerous shows around Halloween. It has to do with subjecting extreme bondage acts on the WB execs that wronged Frank. Fun! Also when there’s audience participation in the Black Page, it’s introduced over the ending vamp of this tune.
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 changes from night to night and almost always makes me chuckle. What more can you ask for? Titties is always preceded by Wild Love, and followed by The Black Page Number 2, in an incredible moment of contrasting tunes.
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, really nailing the creepyness of the lyrics, and Patrick and Terry push him to great heights during his solo. Each version of this tune contains a long, tasty, interesting guitar solo, and they only get better as the tour goes on. In my opinion this is THE tour for this song, the best performance of the theme, and fantastic Shut Up N Play Yer Guitar level solos nearly every night. The following tour has solos that rival, and occasionally best the guitar on this tour, but this is the last time Frank performs the song straight. Beginning on New Year’s Eve, and continuing through the ‘78 Euro tour, Frank adds a quotation of the “Chattanooga Choo Choo”, a big band/swing tune made famous by Glenn Miller. Though this is funny, I feel it takes away from the serious tone that builds over the five minute head of the piece (though we still get amazing mind boggling guitar solos, so it’s really not the biggest deal). Frank would typically shout something to the crowd to rile them up before his solo, which is always fun (“you people wanna get tortured tonight?”). Also, the sex noises were played over the PA, so they were not recorded at the Palladium, and thus don’t appear on the Halloween boxset. In the end, this is a band that truly understands The Torture, and they know exactly how to make this slow-burner shine. Frank, Patrick, and Terry come together to create a wonderfully dark improvisation every night on this tour, and it’s frequently the first highlight of each show. The Torture Never Stops is always played as the regular second number, between Peaches En Regalia and Tryin’ To Grow A Chin.
Tryin’ To Grow A Chin – This riotous, Terry-led, dumb little rock number returns once again. Besides the added production and overdubs, or the occasional live vocal flub or ad lib, this tune is pretty much exactly as found on Sheik Yerbouti. The biggest change of the tour happens in Hartford, where Terry starts yelling “get the picture!” after the first “please kill me cause that would thrill me”. Frank must have liked this, because Terry keeps doing it. This song is one of Frank’s greatest rock numbers, and it’s well represented on this tour. Always played between The Torture Never Stops and City Of Tiny Lights.
Wild Love – This Sheik Yerbouti tune debuts on this tour, and it’s a totally different beast on the stage. The intro is notably different, and there’s of course all the overdubbing, but the big distinction is that Frank edited out a long solo section! This section was constantly evolving throughout the song’s life, and by the end of the tour Wild Love was always over 20-30 minutes long! But more on that later, first I gotta head through the composed differences.
On this tour the tune technically starts and ends with a unique chunk of transitional music (see below), but the main body of the piece starts directly with the vocals (“many well dressed people….”), missing the instrumental intro verse heard on the album [The Sheik Yerbouti arrangement of the intro starts on New Year’s Eve and continues into the following tour]. The bulk of the theme, including the Sinister Footwear section, is all there from the beginning. The live composed sections are very similar to the album version, but without the added production. There’s lots of overdubbed vocals on the album (Adrian’s live parts were re-recorded by Napoleon Murphy Brock), and there’s even clarinet overdubs on the Sinister Footwear section! Patrick’s vocals (“A fireplace….”) are surprisingly tame at the start of the tour, but they get dumber over time, and by October they’re pretty close to what we’re used to. Tommy always scats along with the melody during the Sinister Footwear section, except on the earliest tape from San Diego (and it’s also possible we just can’t hear it on that recording). Overall there’s never much variation in the theme from night to night. The only regular variable is that Frank will occasionally use the Ship Ahoy modulation effect on the very end of the main theme (which is sick as hell). Additionally, FZ plays his toy police car over the Sinister Footwear segment in Detroit, which is super fun too. Now for the big difference. Immediately after where the theme ends on Sheik Yerbouti, Adrian comes back in with some chugging guitar (the same heard after Sinister Footwear) and the long solo section starts! I’ll go over the soloists, then I’ll break down their vamps, and finally I’ll tackle some fun exceptions.
For the first ten days of the tour, Wild Love is a strictly Peter/Adrian affair, but starting in Atlanta on September 18th, Frank takes his first solo at the end of the tune. It’s pretty short but FZ’s solos only get longer as the tour goes on. Then, exactly one month later in Poughkeepsie, Ed gets a regular solo between Peter and Adrian, so the final (and best) line up goes Peter, Ed, Adrian, Frank.
The solos always start over this really cool, latin style vamp, with a delicious throbbing bass line (Pat will also just change the bassline whenever he wants, so factor this in). Peter plays monster keyboard solo over this vamp, and when Ed joins the fun he plays over this vamp as well. Peter’s solos are typically wonderful, and regularly feature cool, fast, jazzy keyboard playing, with fantastic synth sound(s). Ed’s solos are always pleasant, but rarely incredibly memorable. I believe Shaggy “The Opinionated Hippie” said that Ed’s solos are a great time to listen to the rhythm section, and that’s a perfect way to put it (if somewhat harsh). Starting in Philly, Ed ends his solos with a fun, jaunty, composed riff (the keyboards and/or guitars usually play it along with him). This riff leads us directly into the next section of the tune: the disco vamp. Terry plays a slick disco beat while a new bouncy keyboard/bass riff brings the energy. Adrian then comes in and burns the house down with an amazing guitar solo. He typically (always?) starts off by playing his guitar with an EBow, creating a beautiful Matte Kudasai-esque mood, before ditching the electronic device and finishing with some red-hot, screeching, animalistic electric guitar. Adrian’s guitar playing on this tune is just fantastic, and a highlight of pretty much every one of this band’s shows.
When Frank first started soloing in this tune, he would play over the same disco vamp as Adrian. These solos are usually good, occasionally even very good, but FZ’s playing just doesn’t fit this vamp nearly as well as Adrian’s. Frank seemed to realize this, so throughout the second half of October he began slowing down the vamp for his solo, and playing over a sparser beat. At about the same time, Frank started to develop this sick, super cool, descending lick during his Wild Love solos. It’s an absolutely evil sounding phrase, and beginning right around the start of the Halloween run in New York, Frank combined and perfected the two ideas, creating the fantastic section of the song known as Bowling on Charen (from the name of the track on Trance-Fusion). This title is similar in function to Ship Ahoy, where it’s describing a very specific guitar event that’s always part of a larger tune. The wildly evil lick I mentioned earlier is frequently called the “Bowling on Charen Lick”, or by the fan title “The Squirm” (which is a very apt description). In late October Frank would always start his solo off with this devilishly cool lick, but it isn’t until the Halloween #1 that we get the first, truest Bowling on Charen. This Squirm is in place in Philly (four days before New York), but there’s still some remnants of the disco vamp in the backing of Frank’s solo. So from New York on, we get a Bowling on Charen event at the end of every Wild Love, and these are truly some of the best guitar moments of FZ’s career. They typically start off totally dark and evil, but slowly erupt into a riotous, heroic conclusion. After Halloween Frank sometimes starts beautiful and angelic, before crashing into the Squirm lick, and building back up to a heroic ending all over again. Just an amazing, long, beautifully paced FZ solo, night after night. This section of the tune eventually evolves into Yo Mama on the following tour, but there’s a special raw magic to these Wild Love performances that is lost in the Yo Mamas (but it’s replaced by a different kind of crazy, so I’m not complaining). Additionally, and it goes without mentioning, Pat and Terry absolutely deliver on this tune. They perfectly complement each other, and support and push Frank and the entire band to great places. Pat being the fantastic bassist that he is, will frequently deviate from the established bassline, and ever so gently push the jam into new, crazy directions. I can’t give the two of them enough credit.
Ahh now for the few exceptions. In Bloomington on September 25th, Frank seems to be pissed off by something Ed said (just my best guess), and snarkily gives Ed his own solo spot at the end of the tune! In Boston and on Halloween Frank, filled with excitement, comes in early and duets with Peter! These performances are really cool, and some of my favorites of the tour. Also on Halloween, Adrian pauses in the middle of his solo to deliver Frank’s “watch him eat” dialog, before resuming his wonderful guitar playing. Then finally in Sacramento, for whatever reason, Ed’s solo gets skipped and we revert back to the early October order for a single night.
So after the solo section there’s an instrumental reprise of the main theme (the same part immediately preceding the solo section), a short bit of FZ guitar fury, and then a weird part. This tour features a unique piece of music that always appears both before and after Wild Love, or depending on how you think of it, after Läther and after Wild Love. The piece is hard to describe. It’s strict and kind of regal sounding, but also very keyboard heavy and futuristic, and it’s always followed by an acapella (or mostly acapella) guitar solo from Frank. The composed section is about 15 seconds, but Frank’s final guitar can last anywhere from a few seconds to over a minute! Though, the ones coming after Wild Love tend to get real long, especially as the tour goes on! It’s debatable whether or not to consider these chunks of music an into and outro to Wild Love, or as shared endings to Läther & Wild Love. I personally feel the piece works better as a twin coda, but this is mainly just on vibes (similar to how I feel about the Jones Crusher/My Guitar debate from the last tour). Plus, this is how the performances are tracked on the Halloween ‘77 box (meaning Lather and Wild Love both end with the shared piece), and I just think it’s neat conceptual continuity wise. That being said, when this tune appears apart from Läther in Kansas City, both the intro and outro pieces are played. So while my vibes might not be completely accurate, I still like to think of it that way. Whatever the case, this intro music is dropped for the New Year’s Eve show, and does not continue into 1978. Instead we get the instrumental intro heard on the album version of the tune.
So yeah, have I talked about Wild Love enough? It’s not my favorite track on Sheik Yerbouti, but it’s easily one of my favorite pieces on the tour. The solo sections on this tune are legendary, with every band member coming together in perfect harmony. Even Tommy, who doesn’t get to solo, fills this tune with brilliant comping and rhythmic energy. The six Halloween versions are all amazing, and an excellent place to start. The official Bowling on Charen released on Trance-Fusion comes from the first New York show, and is one of my favorite FZ solos of all time. Fall 1977 performances of this tune are simply wonderful, and any Zappa fan should check one of these performances out. Wild Love was nearly always played following Läther, and leading into Titties ‘N’ Beer (with the regular transition music).
Would You Go All The Way? – This Chunga’s Revenge number returns for a final time during Flo and Eddie’s guest appearance in Toronto. The structure of the tune is the same as the studio version, but it’s played much faster, which gives the little ditty way more energy. Ed and Tommy have unique composed-sounding parts too, so it’s possible this tune was rehearsed along with Daddy Daddy Daddy, but neither song made it into regular rotation. FZ and the former Turtles sing the whole thing in unison, and Frank starts the song off by yelling “Remember Eddie and Flo!”, which is cute. This is far from my favorite Flo and Eddie-era Zappa number, but it tends to fare a lot better live, and this performance is no exception. Though it doesn’t contain my all time favorite ‘70/’71 songs, the whole Flo and Eddie encore from Toronto is pretty delightful, and a wonderful nostalgic throwback to a bygone era.
Solo Table:
Life On The Road 