Untitled Document
Fillmore East - June 1971
This album was my introduction to Frank Zappa. I'd heard it many times before
I eventually bought my own copy. Tell me if I'm wrong, but I'm sure it was Zappa's
first totally live album, there are no studio cuts. Thus it marks the time when
Zappa was finally getting the control he sought over his music performed live
and gaining the ability to record that music to a more than satisfactory standard.
Sorry to use a cliché but it's a tour de force.
If the album has a central concept then it's about the rock and roll life style
and groupies, it's very much a rock opera. The perfect opening in the rôle
of traditional overture is a version of Little House I Used To Live In which
is very dear to my heart. I didn't hear the Burnt Weeny version till much later.
This segues into Mud Shark, a song about the sexual perversions of rock stars.
Then we have What Kind Of Girl Do You Think We Are? about groupies and what
entices them.
This is followed by Bwana Dik a song about the myth of the importance of a
large penis and then Latex Solar Beef, a very similar but more awe inspiring
tale of sexual prowess which segues nicely into Willie The Pimp in the rôle
of a traditional interlude. The fate of this last piece is controversial, because
on the original vinyl Willie The Pimp Part One ends side one and Willie The
Pimp Part Two begins side two. When Frank came to put this album on CD, Part
One does not segue very well into Part Two, so he ditched Part Two altogether.
Personally, I was disappointed but I still understand why he did it and I certainly
couldn't have offered the master a better solution and I've never heard one
either coming from all the people who whinge and moan about it.
Next we have Do You Like My New Car? which continues and consolidates the groupie
theme, overlapping with What Kind Of Girl Do You Think We Are? So, is it their
mythical sexual prowess or just the potency of their hit songs? And finally
we have Happy Together, the hit song with the bullet.
Then we have an instrumental epilogue of Lonesome Electric Turkey (a King Kong
(I think) solo by Don Preston) and Peaches En Regalia (still my favourite version).
And finally, Tears Began To Fall, a great little jazz vocal number.
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