Zappa Live Shows, a collection

this is the first 'transcription' of shows that I have. The structure has no musical notation, merely a synopsis of the music arrangements and run of soloists. But because of the utterly different nature of these early Mothers shows, I felt there had to be a record somewhere of how Frank, at a certain age, led a Mothers show. So here goes.

Oct 01, 1967, Copenhagen :
FZ Narration,
"Well boys and girls we've got some trouble tonight. and we just want to say to you that there's a good chance that we're gonna sound shitty 'n would you believe it? we specialize in the performance of electronic music and none of the equipment that we use for making this music is here. I don't know why the man decided to drive north from Stockholm <laughter>
maybe he doesn't like our music. <more laughter> Definitely another of the many problems we've had since we came to Scandinavia. We thought the audience was very friendly and warm, but one by one the members of the band have gotten sick up here. and on top of that they were all so strange looking that the girls were all afraid of them. and of course,
they're horny. . . .
I was told that was a universal gesture for that.
We will begin, with a tune that is used to describe the, <cough>
This is a song.. . . about drunk Americans. This is the way that the Americans drink. They drink until they go blind and then they beat each other up, they take the beer bottles and hit each other in the face, in front of those bowling alleys and cocktail lounges of the United States where they go to have a good time after they pay at the office.
We would like a little audience participation in this. To simulate the effect of an American cocktail lounge you must all speak. Just keep talking, talk as much as you can over the volume
of the music , you must talk louder than the music because that's the way the American audience would do it." <laughter, applause>

"America Drinks" [with Ray Collins doing deluxe lounge version . . .], 2:07
[full music stop, but before applause can start . . .]
FZ Vocal Segue: "This Is A Song About Tits."
"Jelly Roll Gum Drop", [w/ vocals Ray Collins, starting as an upbeat pop number that would fit comfortably on the Ed sullivan show (but with a pretty cool Ian Underwood sax solo!!!! that the media would cut), this swirls into a Don Preston 'madman' kind of thing, who is joined by horns (Bunk?)
and which then rises to Varese's Octandre as Frank leads the band members through a kind of friction that doesn't seem composed but directed and with Frank throwing in lines of Octandre!!!]. 8:03
The band then changes abruptly to

"Absolutely Free excerpts", more horn freakery from Underwood too! 2:11
They change again
"King Kong"[middle segment only, found in same arrangement as 28oct68 AOTT], :47
and into
"Toads Of The Short Forest", [they play it straight for 40 seconds, like on Weasels, then it speeds up fast and rocks out for ten seconds, then drops into a beautiful slow rendition of the melody again by Don Preston for nearly a minute, then an upward swirl with heavy regular bass drum: again directed but with lots of room for horn flourishes], 2:42
"How Could I Be Such A Fool", Ray Collins vocal, upbeat, almost frenetic tempo,
that, lifts and frank takes a short solo, before a return to the slowed tempo beat of the song's two 'middle' sections for a few measures,
then a fast race to the end. A completely different arrangement than any I've heard!], 3:50

FZ intro: "The name of this song is King Kong. It's the story of a very large gorilla that lives in the jungle and eats bananas until the Americans come along and find him. They take him back to the United States and make some money off him and then they kill him." <light applause>

"King Kong" [much like AOTT 28oct68 and nearly 9 minutes, but a year earlier, the horns are given plenty and Frank joins in on guitar and runs -- great dynamics here, at 6:15 it turns into the pounding percussion typical of many early King Kong jams on tympani, more Don Preston, then Frank again leading on guitar out, all cleanly but with an ease of notes, Don and
Frank trade lines, then all drop away as the percussion beat leads into
what was later selected as . . .]
"Ian Underwood Whips It Out" [which continues as an uninterrupted take, that basically dies as a fading clarinet], 4:42 <where the tape ends>

thanx to Yojimbo and Zappateers for the seeds and files!!

[Edited on 23-1-2007 by punknaynowned]

should I link this with the thread on the zappa forum "'67 Mothers' that gives a rundown of how many shows there have been found (by newspaper articles, flyers, personal testimony etc.), and lists of the known tapes that exist of the '67 Mothers? [there are four(??!!??!)] or any other ideas, short of actually putting up the sound files. for that we could always put a link up to zappateers . . .
here's the link to the thing on the zappa forum:
http://www.zappa.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=11117

I could see this expanding year by year . . .
glad ya like it

[Edited on 30-12-2006 by punknaynowned]

Amazing! Thank you very much for sharing!