Trick or Treat, London 1968

Despite this bootleg’s title (it was also released by Rhino in 1991) and the overtly Halloweenish cover art, this is not a true Halloween performance, as the live tracks are from the Oct. 25, 1968, show at the Royal Festival Hall in London. And the first half of this boot includes studio tracks that were all officially released, except for Track 3, “Lonely Little Girl.”

According to the notes that come with this:

“From Biffy the Elephant Shrew:

“No, the Trick or Treat cut is not really the single version, except for the last line (where you'll note that it does switch to mono). The single consists of the first verse of ‘Lonely Little Girl’, in mono, with a different ending (like on the Trick or Treat boot), followed by the celesta tinkle and cough. This cuts to ‘Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance’ in its entirety (indeed, the single is more about ‘Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance’ than it is ‘Lonely Little Girl’), make a musique concrete noise here, and finally a sax-led shuffle riff that repeats and fades. This sax passage appears nowhere else in the Zappa oeuvre. [This sax riff is also at the end of side one of the Trick or Treat boot - JWB.]

“This riff is known in the trade as the ‘Bunk Gardner riff’. From Johan Lif:

“During the fade-out of the rare single version of ‘Lonely Little Girl’, there is a repeated brass riff, believed to have been added by Bunk Gardner during the ‘Big Leg Emma’ sessions after Zappa had left the studio [see Chevalier, pp. 224-5]. This riff has now been identified as a copy of the opening bass riff from ‘What’s So Good About Goodbye’ with Smokey Robinson & the Miracles.”

I dunno. (Read the comments to this post. Someone fesses up!)

Things kick off with a hard-driving “Why Don’tcha Do Me Right?” Nice guitar solo, although brief, in this song that reveals the strong blues roots that have influenced Zappa’s playing. In fact, Zappa admits in his autobiography that in learning to play the guitar, all he learned were blues riffs. From that comes his distinct style of playing.

Although released with a re-release of “Absolutely Free,” I had always preferred the version of “Big Leg Emma” released with “Zappa in New York.”

“Lonely Little Girl” comes from “We’re Only In It For The Money,” launched with Eric Clapton announcing “I see God, I see God,” finished with some snorks before heading into “Dog Breath,” which appears on “Uncle Meat.” However, this version is primarily instrumental, heavy on Ian Underwood’s saxophone.


Next up is “My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama,” which first appeared on “Weasels Ripped My Flesh.” However, this stripped down version is very cool. I like the “Weasels” cut, but this one is so spare that it’s delicious.

The next cut is taken from the “Fillmore East” album with Flo & Eddie singing “Tears Begin to Fall.” This is followed by the “Junier Mintz Boogie.” This appears to be a live recording, probably circa the Flo & Eddie tours, with Frank jamming away on his guitar. It is sizzling. This solo is a precious moment captured in time, the reason why I like bootlegs. Christ almighty, Frank is killing that guitar, it is so divine.

The London live stuff comes next, with a performance of “Uncle Meat” unlike anything you’ve probably heard, unless you’ve been lucky enough to see Zappa play live during this era. He brings the song down to “one note at a time,” giving the song a completely different interpretation from the official release. This is a character trait of Zappa’s, that even when he plays consecutive shows that include the same songs, they will not be performed the same way in each show. So when we come to the live performance of “Son of Prelude to the Afternoon of a Sexually Aroused Gas Mask,” it’s similar enough to the performance on “Weasels,” but is different in its own right.

No Zappa performance would be complete without a doo-wop number, and “In the Sky” delivers on this genre. The sides closes with an instrumental medley. Zappa pulls off several nice solos when the band switches into “The Orange County Lumber Truck,” then blends into one of my all time favorite Zappa numbers, “King Kong.” This is rock-n-roll. It’s avant-garde too. Aw, what the hell, it’s freaking great!

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






PREVIOUS PLASTIC:

1. Why Don’tcha Do Me Right? [listed as “Why Don't You Do Me Right”]
2. Big Leg Emma
3. Lonely Little Girl
4. Dog Breath
5. My Guitar [Wants to Kill Your Mama]
6. Tears Began to Fall
7. Junier Mintz Boogie

TREAT SIDE:

8. Uncle Meat (One Not[e] at a Time)
9. Son of Prelude to the Afternoon of a Sexually Aroused Gas Mask
10. Oh, in the Sky [listed as “In the Sky”]
11. The Big Medley [“Let's Make the Water Turn Black / Harry, You're a Beast / Oh No / The Orange County Lumber Truck / King Kong” - largely officially released on Ahead of Their Time]

Cruising with Ruben and the Jets

It’s no secret that Frank Zappa was a fan of doo-wop. Almost every album has at the least one song dedicated to this genre. Early in his career, Zappa dedicated an entire album to this musical style, the LP that came to be known as “Cruising with Ruben and the Jets.”

I resisted for years buying this album. While I have enjoyed Frank’s occasional forays into this 1950’s musical take on rock and rhythm and blues, I had significant doubts about dedicating an entire album to the over-the-top crooning and love hyperbole that Zappa’s take on the music would include. But if I really wanted to consider myself a serious Zappa aficionado, I would need to add “Ruben” to my collection.

Oh well. I have it and I’ve listened to it once. Alright, so I listened to it again just for this post. But to say the least, it is not among my favorites. I listen to it even less than “Fillmore East.” However, because I waited so long to purchase this, I bought the CD release, which may have something to do with my dislike for this album (more later).

It’s really amazing what people will say about this recording. For example, someone wrote for the Wikipedia entry on the album that it “touched off the rock-and-roll revival movement,” giving the allusion that the album could be credited with inspiring the formation of Sha-Na-Na, and assisting with Bo Diddley’s comeback.


Yet, despite all the accolades by posters at Kill Ugly Radio, good reviews by folks like Mark Prindle, and other laudatory comments by those praising the album, “Ruben” gets just three stars in the All Music Guide and 5.38 stars out of 10 from the 42 folks who rated the recording for KUR. So it appears that people like to say they love this album, but when it’s stacked up against all of Zappa’s other releases, all that praise just turns out to be murmurs in the wind.

That’s not to say there aren’t any noteworthy points of interest contained within “Ruben.” The song “Love of My Life” became a standard during Zappa live shows, an outstanding rendition of which shows up on “Tinsel Town Rebellion.” And then with “I’m Not Satisfied,” Zappa takes doo-wop’s dolorous sound and matches with it hopeless lyrics about suicide. “Later That Night” contains a quote from “Glory of Love” by The Velvetones. “You Didn’t Try to Call Me” also became a concert staple.

But what really has a lot of Zappaphiles in a dither is the fact that Frank re-worked the original tapes in 1984 and re-released a different version from the vinyl on CD. Frank reportedly stated that all he did was re-record the bass and drum sections, but this article found on the Internet seems to dispute that assertion. And this link is to another article in which Zappa explains his reasoning for re-doing the tapes: his most significant rationale being that the original tapes had oxidized so bad that you could see through them. Take the time to read the information in the two aforementioned links; it’s worth the time.

What ever his reason for doing so, Zappa’s re-recording the “Ruben” tapes, as well as “We’re Only In It For The Money,” irked a lot of Zappa fans. It’s more evidence, in my opinion, that despite Zappa’s musical genius, his word as the final word is not always the right word. This notion that whatever he said about his music is sacrosanct is really a bit timid in my view. The bottom line is he made some bad decisions on his own, that it wasn’t always the record companies or musicians, or some other factor. Sometimes it was just him.

I rate this recording three out of five stars. Add your own rating below. By the way, don’t forget to read “The Story of Ruben and the Jets.”



Released: Dec. 2, 1968, Verve/Bizarre.

LP

Side one
"Cheap Thrills" (Zappa) - (2:20)
"Love of My Life" (Zappa) - (3:17)
"How Could I Be Such a Fool" (Zappa) - (3:33)
"Deseri" (Buff, Collins) - (2:04)
"I'm Not Satisfied" (Zappa) - (3:59)
"Jelly Roll Gum Drop" (Collins) - (2:17)
"Anything" (Collins,Zappa) - (3:00)

Side two
"Later That Night" (Zappa) - (3:04)
"You Didn't Try to Call Me" (Zappa) - (3:53)
"Fountain of Love" (Zappa) - (2:57)
"No. No. No." (Zappa) - (2:27)
"Anyway The Wind Blows" (Zappa) - (2:26)
"Stuff Up The Cracks" (Zappa) - (4:29)

CD

"Cheap Thrills" (Zappa) – 2:39
"Love of My Life" (Zappa) – 3:08
"How Could I Be Such a Fool?" (Zappa) – 3:34
"Deseri" (Buff, Collins) – 2:08
"I'm Not Satisfied" (Zappa) – 4:08
"Jelly Roll Gum Drop" (Zappa) – 2:24
"Anything" (Collins) – 3:05
"Later That Night" (Zappa) – 3:00
"You Didn't Try to Call Me" (Zappa) – 3:57
"Fountain of Love" (Collins, Zappa) – 3:22
"No. No. No." (Zappa) – 2:15
"Any Way the Wind Blows" (Zappa) – 3:01
"Stuff Up the Cracks" (Zappa) – 4:36

Personnel:

Frank Zappa – guitar, keyboards, sound effects, vocals, bass, drums
Jimmy Carl Black – guitar, percussion, drums, rhythm guitar
Ray Collins – guitar, vocals
Roy Estrada – bass, electric bass, sound effects, vocals, voices
Bunk Gardner – alto saxophone, tenor saxophone
Don Preston – bass, piano, keyboards
Jim Sherwood – guitar, vocals, wind
Euclid James "Motorhead" Sherwood – baritone saxophone, tambourine
Art Tripp – guitar, rhythm guitar
Ian Underwood – guitar, piano, keyboards, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, wind
Arthur Barrow – bass on Old Masters and compact disc versions (uncredited on CD)
Chad Wackerman – drums on Old Masters and compact disc version (uncredited on CD)
Jay Anderson - string bass on Old Masters and compact disc version (uncredited)

Lumpy Gravy

Zappa’s first official solo venture away from The Mothers of Invention, “Lumpy Gravy,” was always difficult for me to figure out. On one hand, I really enjoy the recording. There are some really nice thematic pieces and motifs on this album. But on the other hand, I am frustrated by the sense I get while listening to it that these pieces are unfinished. Does “Lumpy Gravy” have a beginning, middle and end? Or is it just snippets of material strung together in a manner to appear that they have context and purpose?

And what is it with some of the dialogue on the recording? Are these snippets the lumps in this musical gravy?

Not surprisingly, production and release of “Lumpy Gravy” was marred by legal threats and chest thumping by the record companies involved, as revealed by a Rolling Stone article from April 27, 1968, by Sue C. Clark, and an interview in Melody Maker from January 1974. But the struggles Zappa faced in releasing his material aren’t what the music is all about (although he at times made his music reflect those struggles).

Let’s first examine what others have written about this recording, starting with Jim Miller writing for Rolling Stone in 1968. Miller spends most of his review revealing the recording’s flaws, sharing his feeling that much of the music on the album doesn’t really work and probably could have been executed more effectively by using The Mothers. But in the last paragraph of the review, Miller calls “Lumpy Gravy” an, “important album, if only because Frank Zappa is one of rock’s foremost minds.” That’s like saying we need to forgive an important artist who produces mediocre work because the artist is important. Maybe it wasn’t the artist’s fault the work failed; maybe it was the result of circumstance beyond his or her control.

Then we have Mark Prindle, who gives this album nine of 10 stars. He finds this musical collage of orchestral sound interspersed with rambling dialogue one of Zappa’s best albums. While the various dialogues throughout the album can easily strike the listener as being banal and meaningless, Prindle notes their connection to something larger, and the music plays a role in this interconnectivity as well.

At Kill Ugly Radio, there is Marko J’s comment on the album that much like “Uncle Meat,” “Lumpy Gravy” completely baffled him. Yet he calls it a “stunning piece” in part, perhaps, because of the historical snapshot the piece presents of the era during which is was recorded.

So I’m not the only one that had mixed feelings about this recording. Note the past tense. Because as I was researching this blog entry and re-listening to the album multiple times, I found that my feelings and perceptions regarding “Lumpy Gravy” were shifting from “it sounds nice, but I can’t figure it out, oh well,” to a realization that the album might really have had a focus and purpose. And if that were the case, to use a cliché, the album’s conception and execution was brilliant. Hmmmm.


What began to nudge me in the direction of such a conclusion was a bit I read in an Arf entry on the album where readers submit their ideas on the origins of Zappa’s lyrics. In this discussion, one of the album’s seemingly random conversations makes mention of the “one note.” On the album, the transaction goes like this: “Everything in the universe is, is, is made of one element, which is a note, a single note. Atoms are really vibrations, you know. Which are extensions of the BIG NOTE, everything’s one note. Everything, even the ponies. The note, however, is the ultimate power, but, see, the pigs don’t know that, the ponies don’t know that.”

We could have very long and circuitous discussion on whom or what the pigs and ponies are, but that’s irrelevant for the moment. It’s the “big note” referenced in the transaction, and a couple folks from the Netherlands left comments regarding a television program they had seen during which a German doctor had theorized that the universe didn’t start with a big bang, but with a big note. It appears the posters may have been talking about Hans Jenny, a Swiss physician and natural scientist who pioneered the field of cymantics.

“The more one studies these things, the more one realizes that sound is the creative principle,” Jenny reportedly said. “It must be regarded as primordial. No single phenomenal category can be claimed as the aboriginal principle.” He conducted experiments that showed that sound gave shape to matter, concluding that sound was the creative force in the universe.

Considering that Jenny died in 1971, it is quite possible that Zappa ran across the Swiss scientist’s thesis at some previous time. Considering that Zappa’s musical influence largely came from an obscure composer, Edgar Varese, and he made references to other obscure figures with radical ideas, such as the song on “Guitar” titled, “Who Is Fulcanelli?” which refers to the French alchemist of the same name, it’s safe to conclude, I think, he knew about Jenny and his work.

The conversations recorded in “Lumpy Gravy” were staged by Zappa, who fed the participants topics to begin talking about, letting the conversation take whatever direction it would. So I think it’s safe to presume that Zappa introduced as a topic the idea that the universe began with a “big note” as opposed to a Big Bang, and the comments regarding pigs and ponies might well have been completely spontaneous.

If that be the case, can we conclude that the collection of sounds in the musical parts of the recording are there to give shape and, perhaps, even meaning to these apparently meaningless dialogues? That might still be a leap, considering what the notes say about the recording on the cover, which described it as “a curiously inconsistent piece which started out to be a ballet but probably didn’t make it.”

What do you think?

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


Released: May 1968, recorded by Capitol, released by MGM.

LP release:
Side One
Lumpy Gravy - Part I (15:45)
Side Two
Lumpy Gravy - Part II (15:56)

Current CD

Lumpy Gravy Part One (15:51)
The Way I See It, Barry (0:06)
Duodenum (1:32)
Oh No (2:03)
Bit Of Nostalgia (1:35)
It's From Kansas (0:29)
Bored Out 90 Over (0:32)
Almost Chinese (0:25)
Switching Girls (0:29)
Oh No Again (1:12)
At The Gas Station (2:41)
Another Pickup (0:53)
I Don't Know If I Can Go Through This Again (3:52)

Lumpy Gravy Part Two (15:51)
Very Distraughtening (1:34)
White Ugliness (2:21)
Amen (1:33)
Just One More Time (0:58)
A Vicious Circle (1:12)
King Kong (0:42)
Drums Are Too Noisy (0:58)
Kangaroos (0:57)
Envelops The Bath Tub (3:42)
Take Your Clothes Off (1:52)

Personnel:

The ABNUCEALS EMUUKHA electric SYMPHONY orchestra & CHORUS
with maybe even some members of the mothers of invention
PIANO, CELESTE, ELECTRIC HARPSICHORD: Paul Smith, Mike Lang, Lincoln Mayorga, Pete Jolly
DRUMS: Johnny Guerin, Frankie Capp, Shelly Manne
PERCUSSION (Gongs, Bells, Vibes, Marimba, Timpani, Timbales & assorted insanity): Emil Richards, Gene Estes, Alan Estes, Victor Feldman, Kenneth Watson (uncredited), Thomas Poole (uncredited)
WOODWINDS (Flute, Bass Flute, Piccolo, Oboe, English Horn, Eb Clarinet, Bb Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Contrabass Clarinet, Alto Sax, Bass Sax, Bassoon & Contrabassoon): Ted Nash, Jules Jacob, John Rotella, Bunk Gardner, Don Christlieb, Gene Cipriano
FRENCH HORNS: Arthur Maebe, Vincent De Rosa, Richard Perissi, Arthur E. Briegleb (uncredited), David A. Duke (uncredited), George F. Price (uncredited)
TRUMPET: Jimmy Zito
TROMBONE: Kenneth Shroyer, Lew McCreary (uncredited)
GUITARS: Jim Haynes (prob. James Helms), Tommy Tedesco, Tony Rizzi, Al Viola, Dennis Budimir
BASS: Bob West, John Balkin, Jimmy Bond, Lyle Ritz, Chuck Berghofer
STRINGS: Sid Sharp-violin; Alexander Koltun-violin; Tibor Zelig-violin; Ralph Schaeffer-violin; Bernard Kundell-violin; William Kurasch-violin; James Getzoff-violin; Arnold Belnick-violin; Leonard Malarsky-violin; Harold Ayres-violin; Jerome J. Reisler-violin; Phillip Goldberg-viola; Leonard Selic-viola; Harry Hyams-viola; Joseph DiFiore-viola; Jerome A. Kessler-cello; Raymond J. Kelley-cello; Joseph Saxon-cello; Jesse Ehrlich-cello; Harold G. Bemko-cello
CHORUS: Louie The Turkey, Ronnie Williams, Dick Barber "Foon The Younger", Roy Estrada, Spider, Motorhead, J.K. & Tony, Gilly and the girls from Apostolic (Maxine, Becky), All Night John, The other John, Cal, Pumpkin, Larry Fanoga, Monica, Jimmy Carl Black (the Indian of the group)
ALSO: Sammy, Harold, Charlie, Bruce, and the rest of the guys from Atlanta

(Personnel information courtesy of the Zappa wiki jawaka)

We're Only In It For The Money

By the time Zappa and the Mothers had released “We’re Only In It For The Money,” they were on a rock-n-roll creative roll with accelerating momentum. A target had been identified for Zappa’s satire, and the scathing exposes within the lyrics were being presented more musically, with tunes easier to follow and more effectively matched.

Even the cover more overtly capitalized on the group’s newly gained confidence by making fun of the Beatles with a mock of the cover from “Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.” By then, the Beatles had achieved super ultra mega stardom and were nearing their zenith.

The Mothers were nearing a zenith as well, and with “We’re Only In It For The Money,” Zappa held no prisoners: the album makes fun of hippies, cops, parents, society, and drugs, but also exhibited sympathy for many, identified within the album as the “other” people.

Despite the fact that this album became such a favorite among fans within the Zappa canon, it has a significant flaw: “We’re Only In It For The Money” is trapped within the period it mocks and was released. Matt P. at Ground and Sky points this out very well in his review of “Absolutely Free,” which he views as the more superior album between the two.


Some more evidence of how the album is inextricably tied to 1968 can be found in the blog post on the release at ChrisGoesRock (essentially, it’s what can be found in the Wikipedia entry for the album). I guess the fact that Paul McCartney went ahead and touted the Sgt. Pepper’s album as the first concept album didn’t quite sit right with Frank, seeing how he had already released two. The blog post also has information about all the censored versions and edits that occurred with the album.

But anyway, even with that limitation inherent in the album, it is, without a doubt, a great album. It is among Mark Prindle’s favorites in his comments on the Zappa catalogue, and even the very harsh critic Robert Christgau gives the recording an “A.” At the All Music Guide, it and “Freak Out!“ are the only two albums to receive all five stars.

All of this, however, is rather irrelevant when you consider Zappa’s words. Speaking about music critics and others in the music industry, Zappa told this to Don Paulsen for a Hit Parader article published in June, 1967, and can be read here:

“Usually they hate music. They love business and just want to make money. Whenever I have to deal with this kind of people (sic), I always tell them that I hate music and I’m only doing this for the money. They slap me on the back and we get along fine. I tell them I wish I could drive a cab instead, but I can’t get a license.” This, of course, was said shortly after “Absolutely Free” was released and before the deal over McCartney’s comment arose. For his next project at the time, Zappa had something else in mind. Obviously, however, the irony of his statement – that the band was only in it for the money – was a heart-felt sentiment, as evidenced by “Money”’s release.


Why did this album gain such a strong following? Why did it leave such an indelible impression on its listeners? I think it has a lot to do with what many have identified as the album’s duality within its content. The narrator in James Michener’s “The Drifters” eventually concludes that the counter-culture generation of the late 60s and early 70s isn’t much different from the older generation that spawned it, yet this conclusion is drawn sympathetically. Zappa, too, paints a picture with “Money” that reveals that the hippie culture isn’t much different from the older generation, but he reveals those similarities in terms of their shared phoniness.

The album begins with the short “Are You Hung Up?” which includes Eric Clapton stuttering like a stoner. This was such a cool thing for me when I first listened to the album, as I’ve always been a major Clapton fan. I bought the album in about 1974 or 1975, just before I graduated high school. I recall wondering at the time what vinyl pressing I had; it had a Verve label on the disc itself, but seeing how I bought it almost 10 years after its initial release, I figured it had to be a reissue.

So imagine my surprise and interest when I read years later about how later releases of the album were censored, such as the verse in “Who Needs the Peace Corps?” I can remember clearly the lyric in question was on the album I had bought: “I will love the police as they kick the shit out of me on the streets.” That was what was recorded on my album. I have never heard any other version of this song.

The album has been hailed by many as being ahead of its time, particularly in how it sang about cops killing kids (“Pow-pow-pow”) prior to the Kent State shootings in 1970. What makes the song “Mom & Dad” so poignant for me is how it describes the mother going home to drink, rationalizing the notion of police killing “some girls and boys” by lamenting over a drink, “they looked too weird it served them right.” A girl I knew while living in Tucson, Ariz., in about 1980 told me how her mother said the same thing, that the students at Kent State had it coming.

By the way, the song “Mom & Dad,” is probably one of the most heart-felt songs I have ever heard Zappa sing. Leading up to this song, he makes fun of hippies for being frauds, but right after that, he turns around and points his finger at the parents. He does it again at the end of “What’s the Ugliest Part of Your Body?”

Then there’s the “phone call” just before “Bow Tie Daddy.” Sound a bit like the phone call bit in Pink Floyd’s “The Wall,” don’t you think? And that’s not all that surprising since there is recorded evidence of Zappa having jammed with Pink Floyd in 1969 at a rock festival in Belgium (when I finish my research on this, I will be posting on this event).

On “Side B,” Frank gets a bit nostalgic with the songs “Let’s Make the Water Turn Black” and with “The Idiot Bastard Son,” both of which are sort of odes to a couple of characters from Zappa’s past. You’ll need to read his autobiography to get the details; it’s a very interesting story. But again, with the latter song, we hear Zappa sing a tragic story of a newborn child abandoned in the trash by the dissociative parents, a hooker and a politician.

Zappa goes deep with the recording, and even suggests in “Mother People” that he’s going deeper than his listeners realize; he mocks them knowing that they think they know what’s going on. Did they? Or was Zappa correct to suggest that they can’t see how they are just like the generation preceding them.

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


Released: January, 1968, Verve/Bizarre.

LP Release
Side one
Are You Hung Up? (1:23)
Who Needs the Peace Corps? (2:34)
Concentration Moon (2:42)
Mom & Dad (2:16)
Bow Tie Daddy (1:22)
Harry, You're a Beast (1:22)
What's the Ugliest Part of Your Body? (1:03)
Absolutely Free (3:26)
Flower Punk (3:57)
Hot Poop (0:26)

Side two
Nasal Retentive Calliope Music (2:00)
Let's Make the Water Turn Black (1:54)
The Idiot Bastard Son (3:27)
Lonely Little Girl (1:10)
Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance (1:33)
What's the Ugliest Part of Your Body? (Reprise)(1:03)
Mother People (2:30)
The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny (6:30)

Current CD
Are You Hung Up? (1:24)
Who Needs the Peace Corps?(2:34)
Concentration Moon (2:22)
Mom & Dad (2:16)
Telephone Conversation (0:49)
Bow Tie Daddy (0:33)
Harry, You're a Beast (1:21)
What's the Ugliest Part of Your Body? (1:03)
Absolutely Free (3:24)
Flower Punk (3:03)
Hot Poop (0:27)
Nasal Retentive Calliope Music (2:03)
Let's Make the Water Turn Black (2:01)
The Idiot Bastard Son (3:19)
Lonely Little Girl (1:10)
Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance (1:33)
What's the Ugliest Part of Your Body? (Reprise) (1:02)
Mother People (2:26)
The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny (6:25)

Personnel:

The Mothers of Invention
Frank Zappa – guitar, piano, Vocals, voices
Dick Barber – vocals
Jimmy Carl Black – trumpet, drums, vocals, indian
Roy Estrada – electric bass, vocals
Bunk Gardner – woodwind
Billy Mundi – drums, vocals
Don Preston – keyboards
Euclid James “Motorhead” Sherwood – baritone saxophone, soprano saxophone, voices
Suzy Creamcheese – telephone voice
Ian Underwood – piano, keyboards, voices, woodwind
Pamela Zarubica – vocals

Session musicians
Eric Clapton – Male speaking part in “Are You Hung Up?” and “Nasal Retentive Calliope Music.”
Gary Kellgren – “the one doing all the creepy whispering” (i.e., interstitial spoken segments)
Spider Barbour – vocals
Dick Kunc – “cheerful interruptions” vocal
Vicki Kellgren – additional telephone vocals
Sid Sharp – orchestral arrangements on “Absolutely Free”, “Mother People” and “The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny”