Binghampton, N.Y., St. Patrick’s Day 1988

Have we got a treat for you, boys and girls! This boot was given the moniker of “Frank Zappa’s Best Band,” and indeed, it’s the same lineup that was presented in the official release, “The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life.” This lineup did some crazy and outstanding shit during its brief incarnation – it’s also known as the last tour – and this particularly delightful example is from the St. Patrick’s Day show at the Broome County Veteran’s Arena in Binghampton, N.Y. This was a very high-quality audience recording filled with searing and down-in-the-dirt guitar solos, impeccable percussion, and a priceless capture of the band doing satirical renderings of Beatles songs, in particular songs long attributed to John Lennon.

There is also a minor political theme running through this show, as indicated by the liner notes. There are frequent, seemingly spontaneous mentions of bananas, Nicaragua, and a training exercise in Central America. All of this was in reference to Ronald Reagan’s ventures in Central American against all types of bad guys, such as Sandanistas who wanted to oust the puppet dictator we were keeping there in Nicaragua. Hence we have the brief, but poignant, “When the Lie’s So Big.”

Overall, this was a really great show. But there were some standouts in the set list. For example, there was Ike Willis doing a great job at getting the words out during “Montana” when he sings, “even though he’s a bit dinky to strap a big saddle or blanket on anyway.” Now, in the original release on “Over-nite Sensation,” this song has a killer guitar solo: not during this show. Just when you think the solo is going to begin, Ike Willis is singing away.

But then comes, “City of Tiny Lites.” This song was made for a guitar solo, and Zappa delivers one here that is just so twisted and delicious.

“A Pound for a Brown” comes along next, with its silly segue into audience participation, “Make a Sex Noise.” The band is really tight during this number, a complex instrumental filled with thematic changes and time signatures varying all over the place. Walt Fowler’s horn solo is excellent. “Make a Sex Noise” wound up on YCDTOSA Vol. 6, but when the band finishes with this diversion and returns to playing, it’s so much more interesting. It’s finished off with a scintillating guitar solo and some very beautiful piano playing by Mike Keneally.

Other tunes from this show that were later released officially include parts of “Dickie’s Such an Asshole,” which turned up on “Broadway the Hard Way.” And the brief bits including “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” and “Theme from ‘The Godfather II’” are on “The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life.”

The first CD closes with “Jesus Thinks You’re a Jerk,” a song filled with so many wonderful lyrics and which also shows up on “Broadway the Hard Way.” I think my favorite line is, “Convinced they the chosen ones, and all their parents carry guns.”

CD 2 opens with three songs from the brilliant album “Once Size Fits All.” It starts with “Florentine Pogen,” followed by a killer performance of “Andy.” The guitar solo on “Inca Roads” is good, but not outstanding. Ike Willis also briefly forgets how to count and starts to sing before Zappa’s through playing.

There are a lot of – how shall we say? – covers on the second CD, beginning with some quick quotes from “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling,” and “Theme from ‘The Godfather II.’” After a brief interruption of sorts with “Who Needs the Peace Corps” from “We’re Only In It For The Money,” the band plays another short cover with “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” a sort of final ode to the San Francisco scene, perhaps, that Zappa and the early Mothers of Invention had derided so well.

Then comes some really interesting stuff. First, after a somewhat awkward and rambling start, Ike Willis launches into singing the opening to Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” This also shows up, although from a different performance, on the official release of TBBYNHIYL. Zappa plays a great solo here that even approximates the original by pulling a few quotes from Jimmy Page’s performance. And the horns playing at the final chorus is thrilling, playing note-for-note the Page solo.

While that was an exciting treat, the medley that follows is probably the coolest part of the show – three songs satirizing Beatles compositions, more specifically compositions attributed to John Lennon. We first have “Norwegian Jim,” which plays off the melody of “Norwegian Wood” from “Rubber Soul.” This is followed by “Louisiana Hooker With Herpes,” sung to the melody of “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” from “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” The last is “The Texas Motel,” which is sung to the tune of “Strawberry Fields,” from “Magical Mystery Tour.”

While these songs are all technically Lennon/McCartney compositions, they tend to be largely attributed to Lennon, with whom Zappa had an interesting relationship. Lennon, along with Yoko Ono, joined Zappa on stage in New York during one of the Flo & Eddie shows when Yoko let loose some of her infamous howling and shrieking. This showed up on Zappa’s “Playground Psychotics.” But there were plenty of problems that followed over copyrights and other problems, particularly when the same material showed up on a Lennon live release. Some of these alleged problems are alluded to here in an extrapolation from an interview during which Zappa reveals that the song on the Lennon album identified as “Jam Rag,” was in fact “King Kong,” a Zappa composition, and yet it was identified as a Lennon/Ono composition.

Obtaining this boot just for this medley of Beatles spoofs is worth the effort alone.

For an audience recording, this is a good boot. And the fact that it contains a raw performance of this final touring band of Zappa’s is great too, as it contains mistakes and all, unlike the official version of TBBYNHIYL that contains songs with quotes and portions from different shows mixed to sound like what your hearing was actually played that way live at one particular show.

I rate this four of five stars. Add your own rating below.





Disc 1

1. The Black Page (New Age Version) incl. Intro – 9:36
2. Dickie’s Such An Asshole – 6:15
3. Stick Together – 1:58
4. My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama – 3:31
5. Willie The Pimp – 2:11
6. Montana – 4:00
7. City Of Tiny Lites – 9:49
8. A Pound For A Brown (Make a Sex Noise) – 18:10
9. When The Lie’s So Big – 0:33
10. Jesus Thinks You’re A Jerk – 7:19

Disc 2

1. Florentine Pogen – 8:17
2. Andy – 5:31
3. Inca Roads – 10:24
4. Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up – 3:06
5. Let’s Move To Cleveland – 7:40
6. When Irish Eyes Are Smiling – 0:47
7. Theme from ‘The Godfather II’ – 0:28
8. Who Needs The Peace Corps – 3:08
9. I Left My Heart In San Francisco – 1:12
10. Stairway To Heaven – 10:10
11. Norwegian Jim – 2:57
12. Louisiana Hooker With Herpes – 3:23
13. The Texas Motel – 3:08
14. Sofa No. 1 – 3:06
15. The Illinois Enama Bandit – 7:12

Personnel:

Frank Zappa – lead guitar, computer synclavier, vocals
Mike Keneally – rhythm guitar, keyboards, vocals
Ike Willis – rhythm guitar, synclavier, vocals
Bobby Martin – keyboards, vocals
Scott Thunes – bass, mini moog
Chad Wackerman – drums, electronic percussion
Ed Mann – vibes, marimba, electronic percussion
Kurt McGettrick – baritone sax, bass sax, contrabass clarinet
Bruce Fowler – trombone
Walt Fowler – trumpet, flugelhorn, synthesizer
Albert Wing – tenor sax
Paul Carman – also sax, soprano sax, baritone sax
Also, special guest Eric Buxton.

As An Am

The entire Beat the Boots series is an exercise in irony. Zappa had a special dislike for bootleggers, which he shares on the opening track of “As An Am,” the first CD in Volume 1 of the Beat the Boots series.

“The bootleg problem as it applies to the work that I do is very much, uh, out of control, and so the FBI is working on it for us … As far as my material goes, it’s a very big business … They’ve already got the stuff recorded live and in concert before I can even release it on a record, and that makes me mad.”

And yet, the entire Beat the Boots series is nothing more than bootlegs Zappa got a hold of and which he dubbed for his own release. Clinton Heylin writes in his 1995 book, “Bootleg: The Secret History of the Other Recording Industry”: “Beat the Boots I and II consisted of two eight-album boxed-sets that were simply counterfeits of existing bootlegs, dubbed direct from the original versions, complete with pops and crackles and original artwork … The Beat the Boots volumes were not intended to legitimize this part of his oeuvre but to undercut the bootleggers and make Zappa money from the bootleggers’ industry (and make money they did).”

But what makes this irony complete is that with the Beat the Boots series, the listener gets unmodified concert recordings. Despite how crappy the sound is with some of them, you are hearing the real deal. These “boots” are real, raw, live recordings without any studio overdubs or modifications or additional parts added or removed or re-done – the opposite of how every legitimate “live” recording was packaged that Zappa officially released.

“As An Am” is not a single-concert boot. It covers two shows from 1981 and 1982. Both the songs “Young & Monde” and “Sharleena” came from a May 21, 1982 show at Sporthalle in Cologne, Germany. The final three tracts come from the late show from Halloween night, 1981, which I’ve already reviewed. So I am just going to stick with the first two songs.

“Young & Monde” (which is also known as "Let's Move to Cleveland") is a very cool mini suite that explores syncopated rhythms around a relatively secure musical theme. It opens with the syncopation, but switches back and forth with a soaring guitar theme. After a few of these presentations, the song devolves into a whining and groaning guitar solo with some machinegun guttural picking, eloquent feedback pumped by a whammy bar, and several time signature changes that only Chad Wackerman can keep up with. About 6 minutes into the song, Frank pulls out some industrial sounds out of his guitar, then goes into a series of repeated oscillating rhythms punctuated with a return to the song’s central theme. But the feedback keeps going, and then there’s another burst of this industrial like sound, like huge manufacturing machines above which are triplets of high notes that are sheer brilliance. It all abruptly stops as the band then begins to return to the original theme as Frank squeezes out a few more fuzzed up chords. The song concludes with some brief, but excellent, vocals by Ray White.

Quite tasty.

With this version of “Sharleena,” I end up asking myself, why didn’t Frank include this live recording on the YCDTOSA series instead of the one he released on Vol. 3. The interplay on this version between Zappa and Steve Vai is so much more interesting than what was going on between Frank and Dweezil on the other release.

I still cannot find the words to describe the solo as it begins. It varies so quickly from fuzzed up bass to trilling notes and squeaks – it even includes a bit of a march tempo mixed in a Hendrix-like acid rock sound that electrifies my scalp as I listen. There are periods in this solo that my hair is standing on end. But then again, my hair is so short, it’s always standing on end. And when the jamming starts to include Steve Vai, I am in guitar heaven. Stick a fork in me, I’m done.

If you’re a hardcore Zappa fan, then you will want to collect the Beat the Boots series, if you haven’t already. But if you’re only a strident fan or a moderate fan, you might want to pass on the investment. As noted, these are unpolished copies of bootlegs, so you really got to love the music and not be bothered by how sucky the recording is.

I rate this recording three of five stars. Add your own rating below.




Released as part of Beat the Boots box set, July 7, 1991, Rhino Records.


Track listing:

“That Makes Me Mad” – 0:51
“Young & Monde” – 11:24
“Sharleena” – 9:09
“Black Napkins” – 3:58
“Black Page #2” – 7:12
“The Torture Never Stops” – 11:03

Personnel:

FZ--lead guitar/vocal
Ray White--guitar/vocal
Steve Vai--stunt guitar
Tommy Mars--keyboards/vocal
Bobby Martin--keyboards/sax/vocals
Ed Mann--percussion
Scott Thunes--bass
Chad Wackerman--drums

Falkoner Theater, March 1979

It was at the Falkoner Theater in Copenhagen, Denmark, where Ian Underwood’s saxophone solo during “King Kong,” following his explanation of how he met Frank Zappa found within the track “Ian Underwood Whips It Out” on Uncle Meat, was recorded. That event occurred on Oct. 1, 1967. This bootleg, however, is a recording from a show at the same venue from March 5, 1979.

Frank has some outstanding guitar solos on this boot, so don’t be misled by my rating. It’s the sound quality of this alleged soundboard recording that brings it down to the four-star level, not the material. In general, I have vowed not to award five stars to a boot, simply because of the diminished sound quality with boots. However, this concert boot is one that I could easily give five stars to had the sound quality been better.

A picture LP bootleg was apparently released of this concert, with the Falkoner show on one side, and on the other side, a February show from Gothenburg, Sweden, from a year earlier. I’ve read in a few spots, such as here, that the 1979 tour was very erratic, with some outstanding shows like at the Falkoner, as well as some very mediocre performances. This should come as no surprise, really. When you’re touring and performing that many shows, it’s difficult to call up every night the same inspiration to play equally well as the night before. It’s like the NBA; there are so many games scheduled in the NBA season that if you were a season ticket holder, you’re inevitably going to watch some very boring games during which the home team gets its ass whupped. You follow any rock band’s tour, you’re bound to hit a few bummer shows.

The Falkoner show begins with “The Deathless Horsie,” which was a common opener during the 1978-79 tours. Frank puts his guitar through the wringer on this number, cranking out an amazing solo as he tests his axe from one extreme to the other. Many bands would avoid this type of solo as the first number in a set, as the opening number is usually a fairly routine item used to make sure everyone’s instruments are functioning properly and are in tune. The next tune, “Dead Girls of London,” never showed up on an official, Zappa “studio” release, the closest official recording it was released on being YCDTONA Vol. 5. However, Zappa recorded it with Lakshminarayana Shankar for the latter’s 1979 release of “Touch Me There,” an album that Zappa produced and on which he appeared, along with Ike Willis.

After a quick “I Ain’t Got No Heart,” we get a decent, full-blown performance of “Brown Shoes Don’t Make It,” one of my favorite Zappa compositions. There’s a brief, but searing, guitar solo on “Cosmik Debris,” (I suspect by Warren Cuccurullo), followed by “Tryin’ to Grow a Chin,” with competent vocals turned in by Denny Walley. But there’s a special treat coming up next with “City of Tiny Lites,” a song constructed with a guitar solo in mind, and with this performance we get two good solos, one each from Frank and Denny Walley. Denny starts first with a furious slide guitar, followed by a demented Frank, who is almost vicious with the way he takes his playing to the high end of the neck. Arthur Barrow and Vinnie Colaiuta provide a rhythm line in the background on bass and drums respectively that sends this song into the stratosphere of kick-ass arena rock. It’s tracks like this one that I would normally give a recording 4.5 or five stars, but the recording isn’t that clear or mixed well, so alas, I can’t give it a higher rating than I did.


The band zips through “Dancin’ Fool,” followed by “Easy Meat,” featuring another of Frank’s amazing solos. And again, Colaiuta’s pounding on the drums really turns this song into an intense, heavy-metal of a head-banger. Good god, those Danes were treated to a musical miracle that night. And we’re not even half way into this more-than two-hour show.

Things slow down a bit with “Jumbo Go Away,” but the heavy intensity remains (the sound quality is very muddled through this as well). Following is one of the few live performances of “Andy” that I’ve heard, followed by “Inca Roads,” a song of such rhythmic complexity that it frustrated George Duke to no end. One of the few times I saw Zappa in concert, the band played “Inca Roads,” but the solo he played in that show was nothing like on this boot. This is certainly one of Zappa’s more cerebral, yet still accessible, works.

Another song from “One Size Fits All” comes along with a tune about a cookie, “Florentine Pogen.” This brings the band into a period of the show when they sweep through a series of songs from, at the time, yet-to-be-released albums, including “Tinseltown Rebellion,” (which wasn’t released for another two years) “Joe’s Garage,” (released later in 1979) and “You Are What You Is” (released two years later). This is followed by one of Zappa’s most recognizable melodies, “Peaches En Regalia.” Better sound quality would have made this version much more enjoyable, as there are some very interesting rhythmic interpretations going on here. The song is the concert’s closer, but there is an encore!

That encore begins with “The Yellow Snow Suite,” which includes the first four songs from “Apostrophe(‘).” You can hear the crowd digging this performance. “St. Alphonzo’s Pancake Breakfast” and “Father O’Blivion” are normally fast-paced songs, but the tempos of these two numbers during this concert are amazingly frenetic; the band is spot-on.

Next comes “A Pound For a Brown (On the Bus),” which demonstrates again the band’s tight playing on some very complex rhythms. Ed Mann on the vibes is fantastic, as are Tommy Mars and Peter Wolf, who play some brilliant keyboards (normally, Tommy Mars’ keyboard playing bores me). And Vinnie Colaiuta provides a rare and outstanding drum solo.

The concert closes with the dark “Treacherous Cretins,” a very grand piece featuring Frank’s virtuoso guitar. This is a more-than eight-minute song with Zappa’s guitar front and center. It is a beautiful piece, one that rivals “Watermelon in Easter Hay.”

I give this four of five stars. Add your own rating below.




Recorded live at the Falkoner Theater, Copenhagen, Denmark, March 5, 1979

Set list:

The Deathless Horsie
Dead Girls Of London
I Ain't Got No Heart
Brown Shoes Don't Make It
Cosmik Debris
Tryin' To Grow A Chin
City Of Tiny Lites
Dancin' Fool
Easy Meat
Jumbo Go Away
Andy
Inca Roads
Florentine Pogen
Honey Don't You Want A Man Like Me
Keep It Greasy
The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing
For The Young Sophisticate
Fembot in A Wet T-Shirt Nite
Why Does It Hurt When I Pee?
Peaches En Regalia
The Yellow Snow Suite
A Pound For A Brown (On The Bus)
Treacherous Cretins

Personnel:

FZ (guitar, lead vocals)
Arthur Barrow (bass)
Vinnie Colaiuta (drums)
Warren Cuccurullo (guitar)
Ed Mann (percussion)
Tommy Mars (keyboards)
Denny Walley (slide guitar, vocals)
Ike Willis (vocals, guitar)
Peter Wolf (keyboards)