punknaynowned
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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]
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scallopino
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Brilliant. Punk, you're a star! And i reckon FZ would be proud of 'horn freakery'!
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BBP
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Oh wow! Thanks a lot for sharing!
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punknaynowned
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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]
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punknaynowned
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1967 12 03 Ann Arbor, MI
is an excellent show musically. The sound of the tape is a little poorer than some of the others especially at the beginning, but you get used to it,
even tho you can't hardly hear the bass at all.
Frank was apparently not in the mood to talk, they just rocked out and rocked HARD!
Here's the setlist for it tho as there's really no point in trying to describe the musical changes: it would be confusing and not revealing.
GO get the tape!! Not just for the completists!
01 - Big Leg Emma 2:30
02 - King Kong (tapeflip/sourcechange? @ 17:30) 18:43
03 - America Drinks And Goes Home 2:02
04 - Hungry Freaks Daddy 3:34
05 - King Kong 15:16
06 - Status Back Baby (cuts) 0:53
thanx to Zappateers and WIU2B!
if I'm not mistaken this is the mini tour that the Mothers were doing with Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes!!! HA!
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punknaynowned
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I don't have the tape from
2-Oct 1967, Olympen, Lund, Sweden
26 min, Aud, B+
No Matter What You Do, Blue Suede Shoes, Hound Dog, Gee (incl. Duke Of Earl), Duke Of Earl, Orange County Lumber Truck Medley
So that concludes 1967.
I can't believe no one gives a shit enuf to say something about the lack of releases in this time period. ESPECIALLY as there aren't any 'field
recordings' or bootlegs available.
67 gigs that have been documented to have occurred between dec'66 and dec'67, NOT including the Garrick Theater residency, which was all summer.
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punknaynowned
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Oh yeah, sent Joe Travers the list of 1967 stuff inquiring of the Mothers, posted here:
http://www.zappa.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=11117
and he responded with this in just a couple days
"I have seen tapes in the vault from that year. 5" reel to reel tapes FZ
personally recorded, but the music was never properly recorded. I've yet
to listen to them all. I understand your obsession. I'll get on it.
Thanks for the request.
joe
- Show quoted text ->
> 1-Oct 1967, Falkoner Theatret, København, Denmark
- Show quoted text -"
I feel pretty cool. We'll see what happens.
I'm really pleased he's as responsive as he is.
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BBP
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That's so cool! I love the phrase "I understand your obsession."
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punknaynowned
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| Quote: | Originally posted by punknaynowned
I don't have the tape from
2-Oct 1967, Olympen, Lund, Sweden
26 min, Aud, B+
No Matter What You Do, Blue Suede Shoes, Hound Dog, Gee (incl. Duke Of Earl), Duke Of Earl, Orange County Lumber Truck Medley
So that concludes 1967.
I can't believe no one gives a shit enuf to say something about the lack of releases in this time period. ESPECIALLY as there aren't any 'field
recordings' or bootlegs available.
67 gigs that have been documented to have occurred between dec'66 and dec'67, NOT including the Garrick Theater residency, which was all summer.
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I've had this 1967 tape of Lund now for awhile and have not taken the time to 'transcribe' it. I'll do it over the next couple days and then proceed
with the 1968 recordings.
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BBP
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Ah! Spare time... how delightful!
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punknaynowned
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2-Oct 1967, Olympen, Lund, Sweden
27 min, Aud, B+
No Matter What You Do, Blue Suede Shoes, Hound Dog, Gee (incl. Duke Of Earl), Duke Of Earl, Orange County Lumber Truck Medley
the tape starts in mid speech
" . . . or we do not know what it'll sound like once we all start playing in here. It'll be a big surprise to us. Might be a surprise to you. I
hope it sounds good when we begin. If it doesn't sound good when we begin, we hope it sounds good about the middle of the show." <laughter>
"If it doesn't sound good by the middle of the show, you probably won't like any of what we do and then, well, we'll feel bad about it. <more
laughter> Hope we won't die and you won't either. We may play some things that will sound strange, we may play some things that sound pleasant,
we may play some things you won't understand at all, but I doubt it. Because, so far on this trip thru Scandanavia, they've been very far in advance
of any of the audiences that we have played for. The reason for this is . . .that you seem to have a better understanding of about what music really
is here. You grew up with music in a way that people in America never did. They know nothing about real music--" <laughter, sustained
applause> "Music for Americans begins somewhere between Herman n th' Hermits and the Monkees," <laughter, more applause, cheers, whistles>
". . . progressing forward to the Procol Harum . . . and then on . . . to bigger and better things. Bill Haley. Do y'all know Lawrence Welk? . . .
We will tune up . . . and get ready to rock out for you."
<tunings, at one point Ray says, 'hello?'
"No Mater What You Do", 15 second drum roll, then Ray Collins, speaking into the mic,
"I could be a slave for the rest of my life,
as long as I know, that you'd be my wife."
Guitar chord begins the song, [same chord and rhythm as found on Joe's Corsage, "Motherly Love"]
Same arrangement as found on the Beat The Boots release of 'Tis The Season To Be Jelly 30sep67, lyrics found here http://globalia.net/donlope/fz/btb/tis_the_season_to_be_jelly.html#... .
minor variation in the lyric , Ray speaks/sings "licking the people down at the redemption center";
"and trade it in for a rack . . . for a TV guide book,"; without the stuff about smoking fruit or 'I ,married Joan';
"No Matter What You Do" aka "I Don't Care How You Treat Me"
2:40;
Ray: "American Indians love it too."
Frank?:"Mmmmwwwooooowww, ww-uuuhhhhhh, unnggarrrr . . ." etc.
Ray: "Make some money"
<other vocal sounds>
Frank: "What a command of languages."
Several Mothers sem to join in with the vocal sound effects of different sorts.
Frank: "They could understand it in Italy". <laughter>
Ray: "Knockin me down, . . . SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSpit in my face"
<after a short pause, cymbal from JCB, much sustained laughter follows, did somebody spit at him?>
Ray: "Slander my name all over the place,"
Blue Suede Shoes, just like on Jelly 30sep67, bass-guitar-driven , straight simple rock-n-roll, 1:16
then a full stop, and a very brief beginning and a run-thru of a handful of lines of "Hound Dog", :17
Again a stop and it seems like the bass (or guitar) plucks out
'doot-do'd'doot,
do'd'doot,
do-d'doo'd'do-doo'
then "Gee", again just like on Jelly but drawn out just a little at the end, where random (yet directed) noises are happening all
over the stage then Ray and others come down to
"Duke, Duke, Duke, Duke of Earl" only once before the tape cuts; 2:08
"The Orange County Lumber Truck": it sounds like a different tape here; 18:07;
Frank tells the story: "This is the story of the song. Orange County is a place in California. California is a place in the United States where all
the real estate people want to make a lot of money. California was probably a very nice place before the real estate agents moved in. They came to
California and saw that it looked very nice. They cut it up into a bunch of little pieces and built cheap ugly houses on them and rented the houses
to a lot of cheap ugly people. These people stayed in California and made a lot of money and they themselves became real estate operators. They went
on to other parts of California, bought the property, cut it up into little pieces, built cheap ugly houses and on and on and on. Until they finally
reached Orange County. In Orange County, not only do they build cheap, ugly houses, but they built the headquarters for a thing they call The John
Birch Society. The John Birch Society is a nazi-front organization . . . in the united Sates, that burns books . . . with a smile. That's the story
of the song and now you can go to sleep.
<some laughter>
this intro lasts 1:48;
The music starts with, 'Let's Make The Water Turn Black' as performed on Ahead Of Their Time for 1:44 which then blends right into the instrumental
Harry You're A Beast 'middle section' [parallel to 'I'm not gonna be kind or easy . . .']for :55 and then blends directly into the melody we know of
as The Orange County Lumber Truck for about 45 seconds, followed by the melody of Oh No. Again, just like on Ahead Of Their Time, but just over a
year earlier. This On No melody continues for 1:40 then links back again to the Orange County melody. The head of this melody is played twice
whereas on Ahead Of Their Time it is only played once and with a kick-ass Frank lead line on top that is absent here. Then as the jam part takes off,
led by the drums it takes a few seconds for Frank(?) to get it together here but before this, JCB on drums seems either too fast or or too loose, hard
on the wrong beats even until the feverish insistent beat of the jam kicks in. Here the drums nail it and after 20 seconds Frank comes in with a
dirty guitar sound fed thru the wah-wah that is quite similar to the one on AOTT. This fever pitch goes on for 3 minutes, with Frank's lines accented
by horns. Then the drums quieten, and joined by tambourine and simple fever-pitch beat maintained, Frank takes a long, lyrical solo, that has arabic
modes, much of his later idiosyncracy and the low note that guitar execs would hate. Then by 3 minutes later still Frank has gone to the straining
high notes and more lyricism on guitar. By seven minutes into this jam, all with the same beat, Ray has come in with moanings and a kind of pagan
chant along mid-eastern lines, but more simple than that. When he quits we are left with that insitent fever beat: One-and One-and One-and One-and
One-and One-and . . . for a minute when the organ drone overtakes all until a directed upward swell of all instruments
and the tape cuts; 16:21
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BBP
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Amazing! Thank you very much for sharing!
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