A Guide To The The Recorded Works Big Of Frank Note Zappa Charles Ulrich vancouver :: new star books :: 2018 New Star Books Ltd. 107 – 3477 Commercial Street 1517 – 1574 Gulf Road Vancouver, BC V5N 4E8 canada Point Roberts, WA 98281 usa www.NewStarBooks.com Copyright Charles Ulrich 2018. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be repro- duced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). The publisher acknowledges the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the British Columbia Arts Council. Cataloguing information for this book is available from Library and Archives Canada, www.collectionscanada.gc.ca. Cover design & illustration by Rayola Creative Printed and bound in Canada by Friesens Printing Published Mother’s Day 2018 :: Second printing, with corrections, August 2018 . Contents introduction: Frank Zappa’s jeff simmons 86 Project/Object ix Civilization Phaze III 89 The Touring Chronology xxviii working version 90 Acknowledgments xli ali n. askin 99 Conceptual Continuity 719 Absolutely Free 1 ‘Congress Shall Make No Law . .’ 104 igor stravinsky 4 Cruising With Ruben & The Jets 108 jim fielder 7 ray collins 110 Ahead Of Their Time 12 Dance Me This 118 jim ‘motorhead’ sherwood 14 tuvan throat singing 119 Anyway The Wind Blows 712 kaigal-ool khovalyg, anatolii Apostrophe(’) 18 kuular, kongar-ool ondar 122 ralph humphrey 20 Disconnected Synapses 720 ruben and the jets (for real) 24 Does Humor Belong In Music? 125 The Ark 714 allan zavod 127 As An Am 716 The Dub Room Special! 130 At The Circus 717 Electric Aunt Jemima 722 Baby Snakes 27 Everything Is Healing Nicely 132 terry bozzio 28 todd yvega 133 Beat The Boots 711 Feeding The Monkies At Ma Maison 137 The Best Band You Never resolver + brutality 137 Heard In Your Life 31 Fillmore East – June 1971 140 mike keneally 34 bob harris #1 142 Bongo Fury 41 Finer Moments 147 captain beefheart 44 Francesco Zappa 151 Broadway The Hard Way 47 david ocker 152 robert martin 52 Frank Zappa Meets Buffalo 58 The Mothers Of Prevention 155 vinnie colaiuta 60 johnny ‘guitar’ watson 156 Burnt Weeny Sandwich 64 Frank Zappa Plays The Music bunk & buzz gardner 66 Of Frank Zappa 163 cal schenkel 70 Freak Out! 165 Carnegie Hall 75 elliot ingber 167 Chunga’s Revenge 82 Freaks & Motherfu*#@%! 724 working version 84 FZ:OZ 174 v vi the big note andre lewis 177 the piano people 308 The Grand Wazoo 179 Lumpy Money 317 Greasy Love Songs 183 Make A Jazz Noise Here 327 Guitar 186 the 1988 saxophone section 330 the guitar world according ed mann 332 to frank zappa 187 The Man From Utopia 335 chad wackerman 190 meltdown 336 Halloween 194 arthur barrow 338 l. shankar 196 The MOFO Project/Object 343 denny walley 198 Mothermania 353 Hammersmith Odeon 200 billy mundi 353 tommy mars 202 Mystery Disc 355 Have I Offended Someone? 206 the history & collected Hot Rats 209 improvisations of the ian underwood 212 mothers of invention 358 Imaginary Diseases 215 roy estrada 364 the petit wazoo band 216 One Shot Deal 368 Jazz From Hell 219 the impossible concert 369 bob rice 221 One Size Fits All 372 Joe’s Camouflage 227 ruth underwood 374 novi novog 228 Orchestral Favorites 380 Joe’s Corsage 231 Our Man In Nirvana 726 henry vestine 232 Over-nite Sensation 386 Joe’s Domage 235 over-nite vocalists: joe travers 236 ricky lancelotti & kin vassy 389 Joe’s Garage Acts I, II, & III 239 The Perfect Stranger 393 peter wolf 243 pierre boulez 396 Joe’s Menage 252 the chord bible 400 norma jean bell 252 Philly ’76 404 Joe’s Xmasage 254 bianca 405 Just Another Band From L.A. 257 Piquantique 728 working version 258 Playground Psychotics 409 flo & eddie 260 the official mothers of Läther 265 invention bootleg album 410 precursors of studio tan, sleep aynsley dunbar 413 dirt, orchestral favorites, Quaudiophiliac 420 & läther 266 max bennett 423 patrick o’hearn 272 Road Tapes Venue #1: Vancouver 425 London Symphony Orchestra, edgard varese 426 Vol. I & II 279 Road Tapes Venue #2: Helsinki 432 kent nagano 284 jean-luc ponty 434 a zappa affair 289 Roxy & Elsewhere 437 The Lost Episodes 296 the fowler brothers 440 sugarcane harris 300 Roxy By Proxy 448 Lumpy Gravy 306 chester thompson 450 albumcontents _ title vii Saarbrücken 1978 729 sal marquez 573 Sheik Yerbouti 454 Wazoo 575 adrian belew 456 the grand wazoo band 576 Ship Arriving Too Late Weasels Ripped My Flesh 581 To Save A Drowning Witch 466 don preston 582 moon zappa 467 We’re Only In It For The Money 589 chalk pie 470 working versions 592 Shut Up ’N Play Yer Guitar 473 jimmy carl black, warren cuccurullo 474 indian of the group 596 shut up ’n play yer acetates 479 the hippie riff 600 Sleep Dirt 482 The Yellow Shark 615 hunchentoot 484 ensemble modern 616 thana harris 482 You Are What You Is 630 Studio Tan 487 crush all boxes 632 gary panter 488 david logeman 638 james ‘bird legs’ youmans 491 You Can’t Do That On Stage Swiss Cheese/Fire! 731 Anymore, Volume 1 645 Tengo Na Minchia Tanta 733 louie louie 646 Them Or Us 493 jim pons 649 sinister footwear 496 You Can’t Do That On Stage steve vai 498 Anymore, Volume 2 654 Thing-Fish 502 george duke 656 ike willis 504 You Can’t Do That On Stage working version 511 Anymore, Volume 3 662 Tinsel Town Rebellion 514 ray white 666 bob harris #2 516 You Can’t Do That On Stage warts and all 519 Anymore, Volume 4 670 ’Tis The Season To Be Jelly 736 You Can’t Do That On Stage A Token of His Extreme 523 Anymore, Volume 5 677 napoleon murphy brock 525 lowell george 678 Trance-Fusion 527 You Can’t Do That On Stage dweezil zappa 528 Anymore, Volume 6 686 scott thunes 530 Zappa In New York 694 Frank Zappa’s 200 Motels 533 eddie jobson 696 theodore bikel, phyllis the december 1976 bryn-julson, elgar howarth, horn section 700 classical guitar trio, martin Zoot Allures 704 lickert, top score singers 534 night of the iron sausage 707 predecessors of 200 motels 542 Uncle Meat 555 appendix: Beat The Boots 711 art tripp 556 Chronological Discography 742 no commercial potential 567 Index of Sidebars 746 Understanding America 569 Index of Song Titles 748 Unmitigated Audacity 738 Waka/Jawaka 572 Introduction Frank Zappa’s Project/Object Frank Zappa was one of the most prolific musical figures of the twentieth cen- tury. Between 1966 and 1993, he released over sixty official albums — many of them multi-disc sets. These include over four hundred compositions. Officially- reissued bootlegs and posthumous albums bring the total to over one hundred albums. Some of the albums are credited to a band — the Mothers Of Invention or The Mothers. Others are credited as Frank Zappa solo albums. FZ explained, The thing that makes the difference between a Frank Zappa album and a Mothers album is whether or not the group that’s on it is actually a touring Mothers unit.1 . Mothers music can only be played by people who have stayed together long enough to be able to express it as a group. If I write a piece and hand it to an orchestra, it’s not Mothers music. Or if I write a piece and hand it to a group of studio musicians, I’ll get perhaps a note-accurate performance. But it won’t be Mothers music unless I get an indi- vidual sum-total craziness of everyone in the group, and you can’t extract that unless the group has worked together for a long time, has been together on the road, and has had a chance for all the personalities of the people in the group to blend to a point where they can feel comfortable being weird in a performance situation.2 But sometimes the distinction was arbitrary. Waka/Jawaka is billed as a solo album (‘At the time of Waka/Jawaka, according to my contract, a Frank Zappa album was called for’),3 while Grand Wazoo — which features many of the same musicians plus more, most of whom never toured with FZ — was originally credited to The Mothers. MGM/Verve Records objected to the original band name The Mothers, so all Mothers albums on Verve were credited to the Mothers Of Invention, as were the first three on Reprise. Most fans associate this name with the group that FZ disbanded in October 1969 — with gradually-changing personnel, and Roy Estrada and Jimmy Carl Black as constants. While it is true that Weasels Ripped My Flesh was credited to the Mothers Of Invention and Fillmore East — June 1971 was credited to The Mothers, FZ continued to use the MOI name sporadi- cally through 1975. It appeared on the cover of 200 Motels and the head of Ralph Humphrey’s bass drum. One Size Fits All was credited to Frank Zappa and the Mothers Of Invention. Circa 1976, FZ stopped calling his band The Mothers. The new band name was simply Zappa (just his surname — like Santana, Argent, Montrose, or Van Halen), although promoters still sometimes billed them as The Mothers or even the Mothers Of Invention. ix x the big note There’s only one problem with that commercial. The name of the group is Zappa.