Halloween 1978 The Palladium NYC

In 1978, Zappa played the Palladium in New York City for six shows: one on Halloween, two each on Oct. 27 and 28, and one on Oct. 29. As mentioned in my post on the official “Halloween” audio DVD release, Zappa recorded all these shows, leaving behind a ton of taped material. This boot from the Halloween night show is what should have been re-mastered and officially released. Why a cut-and-paste release of various songs from these shows was put together is beyond me. And added to my dismay is the fact that the official recording was released on an audio DVD, severely limiting how folks can play it. I don’t have a home theater to play it on and it won’t play in my CD changer or in my car stereo, so I had to download someone else’s rip so I could listen to it in my car. The official release sits on my CD shelf as a testament of how I occasionally waste my money.

But when you listen to the 1978 Halloween show in its entirety, it’s like WTF! Why wasn’t this put together into a three or four CD release? It is freaking outstanding, one of the most amazing concert recordings I’ve heard!

How amazing? This concert had some serious head-banging heavy metal guitar solos that stimulate your entire body with scintillating current; you will hear the magical musicianship of the band as it displays complete mastery of some of Zappa’s most difficult material; you will be awed by Denny Walley’s super sweet and melodious slide guitar delivered with a Delta blues fingerprint so implacable and delicious that it’s like a savory sweet potato pie; and the interplay between L. Shankar’s electric violin and Zappa’s guitar approaches the mystical.

And you’ll also hear Zappa just being himself as he includes some of his famous audience participation.

Granted, this recording is a bit rough due to the fact that it is a bootleg, but the material is so incredibly awesome that it really doesn’t matter. The only portion of the recording that is so rough that the final maniacal interplay between Shankar and Zappa is almost lost is at the very end. That part of the show was re-mastered and released on the official “Halloween” recording.

This was a very long show, as you can see by the track listing, so I’m only going to touch on some of what I consider to be the highlights.

Frank shreds on the fourth track, “Easy Meat,” which was also on the “Halloween” recording, except that the performance on that release came from the second show on Oct. 27. I really like the rhythmic and melodic progression of the solo as well as Vinnie Colaiuta’s aggressive drumming.

The band is incredibly tight on “Keep it Greasy,” and Frank’s vocals on “The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing” are really good, his singing effortless. And you can hear Denny Walley warming up the slide in preparation for the next song.

“City of Tiny Lights” always gives me the shivers, and this performance delivers. Walley’s slide guitar is electrifying, his solo brings a flavor of Texas and Delta blues while still retaining that cosmic aura of floating chaotically above the twinkling lights of Los Angeles. Frank picks up on the shred to continue the guitar part while Walley’s guitar hums menacingly in the background. The two of them finish off with a note-for-note pairing of the song’s theme.

The band is fantastic during “Pound for a Brown,” a demanding piece. Ed Mann’s percussion is brilliant and the bass playing by both Arthur Barrow and Patrick O’Hearn is flawless. But it’s Mann’s vibraphone playing that stars.

L. Shankar is introduced for the next song, “Thirteen.” This is beautiful stuff. Shankar starts low, but gradually works his way up the musical scale. You begin to notice something rhythmically going on, you’re not quite sure what it is, but Vinnie Colaiuta’s drumming keeps you safe. Because when Shankar begins to unload and let it rip on that violin, it leaves me stunned every time. When Zappa begins to play, the rhythm becomes so complex that there isn’t anyone else playing except for Colaiuta. The bass begins to rejoin as Zappa goes deep into the register to haul out a solo as if from the depths of oblivion. Then Frank, I believe, becomes possessed, his playing so inspired and amazing that I am in eternal regret that I never saw this performance. Shankar comes back, his playing bordering on the outside, giving Frank’s extended feedback an aural texture that becomes transcendent; Zappa takes it another step leaving you in the cosmos, but Shankar is right there as he becomes like a chaotic comet zipping about following no course, bouncing between quasars and super novas.


Both Shankar and Zappa bring the crowd back to earth, slowly bringing them back as the band joins back in for a crescendo that makes me cry. Why this was not included on the official release stupefies me. It is 17 minutes of outstanding music.

The infamous Warren Cucurullo is introduced in this show as well, as he comes up on stage to tell a pretty interesting story of becoming infatuated with a woman who he later finds out, is someone compromising manner, is a transvestite.

Frank pays homage to doo-wop with “Go Cry On Somebody Else’s Shoulder,” and delivers very nicely on the vocals. It’s really ironic in that Zappa did so many covers of doo-wop and R&B tunes that could be construed as satirical, as well as wrote many of his own, but the man had a deep love for this music. Check out the backing vocals on this, as they transition the song into “Little Rubber Girl,” which again is used as a transition into the “Idiot Bastard Son,” which is actually a waltz.

L. Shankar returns for more violin playing on “Conehead,” who, as Zappa says at his re-introduction, “give(s) them the works.” The band provides a really cool groove in the background for this as well. Good Zappa guitar solo too with some lovely feedback.

Disc 3 has a lot of treats on it, including “Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance” sans vocals (L. Shankar again on this, putting his interpretation of surf music on this), a decent performance of “Peaches En Regalia,” and “Strictly Genteel.” I really like “Sofa” on this, and “Magic Fingers” is decent as well. The standout, however, in this section of the show is “Packard Goose,” a song filled with time changes and one not often played, but which contains Zappa’s famous progression quote about “Music is the best!” This is followed by Shankar and Zappa trading riffs that rip the top of your head off. It’s probably the most impressive and synergistic part of the show.

Disc 4 begins with the “Yellow Snow Suite,” presented in its entirety as it was always performed. It was a serious blunder, in my opinion, that on “Halloween” only “Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow” was included.

As I mentioned earlier, the last part of this bootleg probably has the worst noise, which interferes significantly with one’s auditory pleasure while listening to “The Black Napkins” and “Deathless Horsie.” However, the recording was cleaned up and used on “Halloween.”

A note: There was no artwork with this boot, so I scanned some of the cover art from “Halloween” and used that.

I rate this 4.5 stars out of five despite the somewhat substandard audio. Add your own rating below.




Disc 1
1 Ancient Armaments
2 Intro
3 Dancin’ Fool
4 Easy Meat
5 Honey Don’t You Want A Man Like Me?
6 Keep It Greasy
7 The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing
8 City Of Tiny Lights
9 Pound For A Brown
10 Thirteen

Disc 2
11 Ms. X
12 Nancy’s Life Story
13 Dinah-Moe Humm
14 Go Cry On Somebody Else’s Shoulder
15 Little Rubber Girl
16 Idiot Bastard Son
17 Bobby Brown
18 Conehead
19 Suicide Chump
20 Little House I Used To Live In
21 Watermelon In Easter Hay

Disc 3
22 Preamble
23 Stink Foot
24 Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance
25 Peaches En Regalia
26 Strictly Genteel
27 Sofa
28 Packard Goose
29 Magic Fingers

Disc 4
30 Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow
31 Nanook Rubs It
32 St. Alphonso’s Pancake Breakfast
33 Father O’Blivion
34 Rollo
35 Camarillo Brillo
36 Muffin Man
37 Black Napkins
38 The Deathless Horsie

Frank Zappa – guitar, vocals
Patrick O’Hearn – bass
Arthur Barrow – bass
Denny Walley – slide guitar, vocals
Vinnie Colaiuta – drums
Ed Mann – percussion
Tommy Mars – keyboards
Peter Wolf – keyboards

Guests:
L. Shankar - electric violin
Warren Cucurullo - monologue
Nancy - monologue

With L. Shankar on tracks 10, 18, 20-21, 24, 28, and 38.

Deutschlandhalle Berlin, 1978

One of the better bootlegs out there is of the Feb. 15, 1978 concert at the Deutschlandhalle in Berlin (don't be concerned that the order of the material does not follow the show’s format). The show occurred slightly more than a year prior to the 1979 release of “Sheik Yerbouti,” and listening to the Berlin show you quickly realize that it is quite nearly a song-for-song preview of that album. This bootleg might in fact be the one Zappa talks about at the start of “As An Am” from the Beat The Boots series, when he complains about a bootlegger that essentially recorded an entire album before he was able to release it.

Even “songs” that were really guitar solos within songs played at the Berlin concert show up as separate musical entities with new names on “Sheik Yerbouti.” For example, the Berlin guitar solo in “The Torture Never Stops” may sound very familiar, and it should. That solo appeared later on the official release of “Sheik Yerbouti” with the title “Rat Tomago.” Another killer guitar solo also shows up on “Sheik Yerbouti,” and that’s from the lengthy, avant-garde Berlin interpretation of “Little House I Used to Live In.” This solo shows up as “The Sheik Yerbouti Tango.”

So, out of the 18 songs listed on “Sheik Yerbouti,” 11 of them were played and bootlegged in Berlin a year earlier, and if you include the guitar solos I mentioned, 13 of the 18 compositions from “Sheik Yerbouti” were recorded and bootlegged from the Berlin show.

And my, what a delicious bootleg it is. Even with the sub-par sound by virtue of the fact that it is an unofficial release, it is a recording of a superb show. Had this boot been re-mastered and released officially, I would unhesitatingly give if a five-star rating.

It is that freaking awesome. It is nearly two-and-a-half hours of ripping kick ass music played with expert precision that includes some of Zappa’s best live guitar solos. There is some really outstanding and beautiful keyboard playing as well and some freaky funky bass playing by Patrick O'Hearn. The show easily swings from hard rock to sweet stylin’ jazz funk, with effortless segues into avant-garde, then back to jamming arena rock.


Frank introduces the band while they play a motif from “One Size Fits All,” then launch into “Dancin’Fool,” the first of the 11 tracks this concert covered from “Sheik Yerbouti.” I find it curious that when Frank goes through the abbreviated version of the dialogue portion of the song, he speaks with an exaggeratedly slow cadence, the way people speak to someone whom they believe can’t understand what is being said because of a language barrier. He does this in other portions of the show as well. Was he intentionally mocking the crowd? Or was he just that ignorant of his German audience’s ability to be bilingual, given his experience at Amougies?

They next move into a very cool rendition of “Peaches En Regalia.” They’ve got the crowd warmed up now, so next comes “The Torture Never Stops,” which brings Frank’s guitar out. His solo is roughly six minutes of virtuosity, which was pared down to 5:15 for appearance on “Sheik Yerbouti” as “Rat Tomago.” This was a very special moment for those in the audience; this guitar solo stands out as one of Zappa’s most self-contained musical compositions for guitar. When he finishes and returns to “Torture” I get the sense that the audience was stunned by what it just heard.

The band then sweeps into three songs from “Sheik Yerbouti,” tightly and flawlessly played. Bozzio’s vocals on “Tryin’ to Grow a Chin” are so viscerally ridiculous that it’s a perfect match for the shrill hysteria within the song’s content. Adrian Belew comes in for the vocals on “City of Tiny Lights,” which also presents us with another of Frank’s guitar solos. Ed Mann’s percussion work starts to get notice here as well; his playing certainly rivals, in my opinion, anything Ruth Underwood has done with Frank.

After “Baby Snakes,” the band moves into “Pound for a Brown,” an outstanding jazz and funk piece that I believe first officially appeared on “Zappa in New York.” I’ve been trying to track down what solos in the song Tommy Mars and Peter Wolf are performing on the keyboards here, but so far have been unsuccessful. I think both take turns with solos, but I just haven’t been able to confirm that. Anyone have some better information of this?


The band returns to some more “Sheik Yerbouti” material with “I Have Been in You,” which Zappa nicely sets up for the crowd (again apparently presuming the audience has no clue as to what he’s saying). It’s a brilliant set up for the song, which mocks Peter Frampton’s “In You.” The sixth release of the YCDTOSA series also has a similarly satirical setup for the song. In the next song, Belew does a nice job with an impression of Bob Dylan during the second portion of the song (the impression improves on "Sheik Yerbouti"), which then has a very cool guitar solo to segue into the final section of the song; not sure if it’s Belew or Zappa, but both are playing during the song’s climax just before what would have been the chorus finishing the song (which is omitted from the concert). Based on my ear alone, I’m guessing it’s Zappa’s guitar solo first, followed by Belew joining him. Could be the other way around, but because the band quickly moves into “Broken Hearts Are For Assholes,” which has Zappa singing, I’m guessing when Belew comes in with his solo, Zappa is putting his guitar down to prepare for the next song. Zappa admits in his autobiography “The Real Frank Zappa Book” that he can’t sing and play guitar at the same time.

One of my favorite compositions comes next with “King Kong.” The tempo in this version is much faster than in others, which normally had featured Ian Underwood on saxophone. But at this concert, Ed Mann comes in for some outstanding vibraphone playing, again at such a frenetic (and precise) pace that his skill rivals Ruth Underwood’s command of the instrument. We get a bit of audience participation here as well when the song moves into some avant-garde vocalizations and free-form styles. Patrick O’Hearn finishes up with some funky fusion bass grooves. It’s performances like this that keeps me hooked on Zappa bootlegs. He played so many times with so many different musicians that to be able to hear performances like this is priceless.

Performed in the same order as they appear on “Sheik Yerbouti,” the first CD of this bootleg closes with “Wild Love” and “Yo Mama,” the latter of which was played for the first time at this concert (details sketchy on this, but that appears to be the case based on some information from the All Music Guide entry on this song). Shall I say again, “killer guitar solo here”? Incidentally, the guitar solo on “Wild Love” was reportedly by Adrian Belew.

CD two begins with material that was officially released a month after this concert in “Zappa in New York.” These include “Titties ‘n Beer” and “Black Page #2.” While introducing the latter, Zappa chides the crowd, saying he won’t embarrass them by asking them to clap with the song. Indeed, that would have been a laughable feat, I believe, for any audience, given the complex time signatures within the “Black Page #2.”

After another brief diversion with more material that would eventually wind up on “Sheik Yerbouti,” this time with “Jones Crusher,” the band moves into “Little House I Used To Live In.” As mentioned earlier, it is from this song that the guitar solo later dubbed “Sheik Yerbouti Tango” was taken. But before that solo, there is some very lovely piano in this; but again, I’m not sure if it was Mars or Wolf that provided that delightful interlude (I’m guessing Wolf). Very different from the original version released on “Burnt Weeny Sandwich,” but still a great interpretation. The piece is constructed in a manner that could be construed to be a mini version of how “Burnt Weeny Sandwich” was constructed. The album was a sort of musical sandwich with the two doo-wop numbers at the beginning and end acting as the bread. In this version of “Little House,” the main theme of the song begins and ends the piece, with a bit of meandering avant-garde and the “Sheik Yetbouti Tango” in the middle.

“Dong Work for Yuda,” the next track, was later released on “Joe’s Garage.” But after that, it’s back to more “Sheik Yerbouti” material with “Bobby Brown.” Frank announces the song is named “Bobby Brown Goes Down,” although when it was first released on vinyl, it was listed as just “Bobby Brown.” The next song is a curious number titled “Envelopes.” Although we have this short number performed at this concert, it wasn’t released on vinyl until 1980 with “A Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch.” However, by the time it shows up on that album, the lyrics have been abandoned for an instrumental form. The item was also performed on the London Symphony Orchestra release.

We get a rare drum solo on this bootleg as well, rare in the sense that it was recorded. While many musicians who played with Zappa performed many solos, I really can’t think of very many drum solos. And even this one doesn’t quite qualify as a true drum solo because of the other accompanying space sounds.

The show finishes off with material from “Zoot Alures” and “Over-nite Sensation.” I’m not totally certain, but “Disco Boy” contains a vamp that I think Scissor Sisters later used. With this concert, you get both songs that Zappa wrote that explicitly deal with the disco phenomenon, the other being “Dancin’ Fool,” with which he opened the concert. “Disco Boy” is followed with “Dinah-Moe Humm,” (which has a verse skipped) “Camarillo Brillo” and “Muffin Man.” Zappa a number of times paired “Camarillo Brillo” with “Muffin Man,” starting the former out with a rapid temp that drops into a slower tempo just before it segues into “Muffin Man.”

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


Frank Zappa: Deutschlandhalle Berlin, Feb. 15, 1978.

Track List:

CD1:
01.Intro
02.Dancin' Fool
03.Peaches En Regalia
04.The Torture Never Stops (includes Rat Tomago)
05.Tryin' To Grow A Chin
06.City Of Tiny Lights
07.Baby Snakes
08.Pound For A Brown
09.I Have Been In You
10.Flakes
11.Broken Hearts Are For Assholes
12.King Kong
13.Wild Love
14.Yo Mama

CD2:
01.Titties 'n Beer
02.Black Page #2
03.Jones Crusher
04.Little House I Used To Live In (includes Sheik Yerbouti Tango)
05.Dong Work For Yuda
06.Bobby Brown
07.Envelopes
08.Drum Solo
09.Disco Boy
10.Dinah-Moe Humm
11.Camarillo Brillo
12.Muffin Man
13.fade in
14.fade out

Personnel:

Frank Zappa: guitar, vocals
Adrian Belew: guitar
Patrick O’Hearn: bass
Tommy Mars: keyboards
Terry Bozzio: drums
Peter Wolf: keyboards
Ed Mann: percussion

Studio Tan

“Studio Tan” is a studio album that Frank Zappa released that largely features leftovers from other releases that were either withheld because Zappa had second thoughts, or because he faced resistance from the record companies. The latter issue largely concerns Zappa’s original vision for “Lather.” But even that is open to debate. However, my blog is not to sort through, nor clarify, the legal issues, obstacles, problems and shenanigans that Zappa faced during the mid- to late-1970s when his recording and production efforts were gradually morphing into a completely independent company and publishing firm.

It’s about the music. And the most important observation that can be made about “Studio Tan” can be summed up in one song title: “The Adventures of Greggery Peccary.” There’s a lot going on in this piece, and its sheer brilliance makes purchasing “Studio Tan” worth the price.

To begin with, “Greggery Peccary” is an immense musical piece, filled with complexity that calls forth images within the listener to match the comedic story line. It’s literally like a cartoon, but unlike any cartoon you have likely seen. And to liken this opus to a cartoon in no way besmirches its brilliance. This is no child’s cartoon; this ain’t Bugs Bunny. I find it rather amazing that this item was initially created with the thought that it would be performed as a ballet. Unsurprisingly, however, the piece is filled with classic “project/object” references from Zappa’s catalog, including “Billy the Mountain” and “Big Swifty.” There’s also a reference to the “short forest,” which alludes to “Weasels Ripped My Flesh.”

Despite the cartoonish nature of the composition, the seriousness is not lost, particularly with the “fourth movement,” which introduces the “New Brown Clouds” theme in all its gloriousness. This particular track appears also on the bootleg “Great Wazoo EP,” as well as the official release of “Wazoo!” covering the Grand Wazoo form of the touring band (The bootleg has only this fourth movement, while “Wazoo!” has the entire “Greggery Peccary.”)

After all this musical brilliance comes the rest of the album, which unfortunately launches into the inane “Let Me Take You to the Beach.” I mean, gee, after the sublime “Gregerry Peccary,” we get a cheesy song with lyrics like, “Eat a candy!/You are dandy!/Can I kiss you?/Maybe I’ll just hold your hand-dee!” Not one of Frank’s better compositions. “Wowie Zowie” from “Freak Out!” had more class than this.


Next comes “Revised Music for Guitar and Low Budget Orchestra” (which is in reverse order on the CD release). This has a very nice piano set piece early on by George Duke, but the piece is largely guitar-centric, despite a brief march-style segue about two minutes into the song. This is followed by a guitar theme that is very reminiscent of “Burnt Weeny Sandwich.” Just before the five-minute mark on this song, the sound takes on a very large feel, with a big band style in the likeness of “The Grand Wazoo.” This is good stuff. Interestingly, the composition also goes by the title “Music for Electric Violin and Low Budget Orchestra,” with uncredited strings coming in toward the end.

“RDNZL” comes in to finish the album, a piece that has also appeared as “Redunzel” on the Beat the Boots release of “Piquantique,” and as “RDUNZL” on the LP release of this recording. This has a pretty decent guitar solo reminiscent of the style found on “One Size Fits All,” although it was written in 1972. Incidentally, RDNZL is a constellation in the “universe” of “One Size Fits All.” Check the original album cover. There’s been wide speculation as to what the title means or implies. Zappa allegedly has said it had something to do with the sequence of gears on an automatic. I think he was joking and nobody got it, especially Warner Bros., which changed the title to “Redunzel.”

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


Released Sept. 15, 1978; DiscReet Records.

LP release:

Side One
Greggery Peccary (20:40)

Side Two
Let Me Take You To The Beach (2:44)
Revised Music For Guitar & Low Budget Orchestra (7:36)
REDUNZL (8:12)

CD release:

The Adventures Of Greggery Peccary (20:35)
Revised Music For Guitar And Low Budget Orchestra (7:37)
Lemme Take You To The Beach (2:45)
RDNZL (8:14)

Personnel:

Frank Zappa – guitar, vocals, percussion
George Duke – keyboards
John Berkman – piano
Michael Zearott – conductor
Pamela Goldsmith – viola
Murray Adler – violin
Sheldon Sanov – violin
Jerry Kessler – cello
Edward Meares – bass guitar
Bruce Fowler – trombone
Don Waldrop – trombone
Jock Ellis – trombone
Dana Hughes – bass trombone
Earle Dumler – oboe
JoAnn Caldwell – McNab bassoon
Mike Altschul – flute
Graham Young – trumpet
Jay Daversa – trumpet
Malcolm McNab – trumpet
Ray Reed – flute
Victor Morosco – saxophone
John Rotella – woodwind instruments
Alan Estes – percussion
Emil Richards – percussion
Tom Fowler – bass guitar
Chester Thompson – drums
Davey Moire – vocals
Eddie Jobson – keyboards, yodeling
Max Bennett – bass guitar
Paul Humphrey – drums
Don Brewer – bongos
James "Bird Legs" Youmans – bass guitar

Zappa in New York

Frank Zappa was well-known for inserting enigmatic references to all types of “relevant” musical and lyrical material into his music. These arcane references could be lyrics that either recall previously released material, or even foreshadow material that was yet to be produced. It can be references to other works by other composers; references to current events; historical figures; places and people from his personal past.

The 1978 live recording “Zappa in New York” is a good example of how Zappa wove outside influences into his music, as well as a prime example of how easy it can be to over-read inferences into his material. Case in point: the first track on the release, “Titties & Beer.”

The discussion on this song at the Web site Arf alludes to a connection between “Titties & Beer” and “L'histoire du Soldat,” an old Russian folk tale that Igor Stravinsky had set to music. While the connection is plausible, perhaps it is more likely that Zappa just took the libretto from “L'histoire du Soldat” and altered it in his own twisted way. The song is among his better comedic material, showing much more imagination musically than much of the previous comedic material he composed with Flo & Eddie (see “Fillmore East: June 1971” and “Just Another Band From L.A.”) While the Flo & Eddie material became quite tiresome at times, “Titties & Beer” has an engaging, albeit old-as-the-hills, story line that is carried by truly astounding music.

When I bought the LP the year it was released, the next track was “I Promise Not To Come in Your Mouth.” However, the CD version of this release gives us a much broader experience of the concerts it was taken from, a series of shows between Christmas and New Year’s in 1976 at the Palladium in New York City. On the CD, the second track is an instrumental version of “Cruising for Burgers,” which first appeared on “Uncle Meat.”

The LP release I purchased in 1978 didn’t have “Punky’s Whips,” but this is a great addition to the CD release. First you’ve got Don Pardo introducing the song. Pardo was gigging with “Saturday Night Live,” and Zappa had guest-hosted the show in 1976, as well as appeared as its musical guest. It was a brilliant show because he played “The Slime,” a superb coup to the inanity of broadcast television. Zappa re-wrote a portion of the song for Pardo to be performed on the show, and apparently a musical relationship was struck, leading to Pardo joining Zappa at the Palladium.

Let’s recall the era. In 1976, the sexual revolution in America was reaching its, err, climax, as was the gay movement. Sexual freedom was so prevalent – as was the androgyny of the time exemplified by such musical artists as Marc Bolan, David Bowie, Lou Reed and Brian Eno – that it was not uncommon for straight guys to take a walk on the wild side from time to time. So the story line in “Punky’s Whips” is quite plausible: a self-professed straight man develops a sexual obsession for glam rock star famous for his pouty lips. Not that Terry Bozzio (Zappa’s drummer at the time and the target of the song) himself had a true yen for a sexual liaison with Punky Meadows of the glam band Angel; rather, Frank was using as his story-telling vehicle that element of bisexuality that briefly showed its face before the advent of AIDS. After all, Bozzio sings quite plainly that “I ain’t really queer.” Zappa’s intent for the song was strictly to zing Meadows for his outrageous pout.


The Washington City Paper in 2002 reported that most of Angel’s members didn’t like Zappa’s song so much, temporarily blocking its release on the original vinyl version that was pressed. But Punky Meadows told the reporter that he was flattered by the song. “I thought it was cool. Frank is very satirical, so you can’t have a thin skin. I found it kind of flattering.”

Good for you Punky.

Next comes “Honey, Don’t You Want A Man Like Me?”, but let’s move on to the last song on the first CD; “The Illinois Enema Bandit.” Reality makes its way into the Zappa catalog, as Don Pardo sets the story line. I like how this is set to a traditional blues style, as this makes the song. And I also really like the lyric, “The Illinois enema bandit/I heard he’s on the loose!” While the rest of the song is explicit in its content, the double entendre in this lyric is beautiful. Zappa, also, takes the traditional blues style to exciting new extremes with his guitar solo, coupled with seamless time changes managed expertly by Bozzio’s drumming.

The true Illinois enema bandit was a man named Michael Kenyon, who, for approximately 10 years, had committed a series of robberies during which he also gave his female victims enemas. According to Neil Slaven’s book, “Electric Don Quixote,” Zappa reveals that he first heard about the enema bandit from a radio news report while travelling after a gig that was in Normal, Ill.

The end of the song is filled with several “project/object” references, such as when Ray White sings that he “ain’t talkin’ bout Fontana,” an allusion to Potato-headed Bobby, a character who first appeared on the album “One Size Fits All” in the song “San Ber’dino.” And just before the finish, Zappa brings in a reference from the “Freak Out!” album with a bit from the “It Can’t Happen Here” section of the song “Help, I’m A Rock.”


By the time I heard the album “Apostrophe(‘)” I was recognizing how Zappa continually referenced other material from his catalog. While I knew the references were intentional, I didn’t know the reason behind them. Consider what he says in his autobiography:

“Project/Object is a term I have used to describe the overall concept of my work in various mediums. Each project (in whatever realm), or interview connected to it, is part of a larger object, for which there is no ‘technical name.’”

There are many other good songs on this recording. When first released on vinyl, this was the recording that debuted “Big Leg Emma,” a song originally recorded to appear on “Absolutely Free,” and which appeared later in the CD release of that album. Personally, I’m glad it was not released with “Absolutely Free.” The song works well on the New York album, but is really out of place on the former.

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



Album release date: March 1978, Warner/Discreet Records.

Original vinyl release:

Side One
Titties & Beer (5:31)
I Promise Not To Come In Your Mouth (3:31)
Big Leg Emma (2:09)

Side Two
Sofa (3:15)
Manx Needs Women (1:39)
The Black Page Drum Solo/Black Page #1 (4:06)
Black Page #2 (5:25)

Side Three
Honey, Don't You Want A Man Like Me? (4:18)
The Illinois Enema Bandit (12:09)

Side Four
The Purple Lagoon (16:20)

CD release:

Disc One
Titties & Beer (7:36)
Cruisin' For Burgers (9:12) - bonus track
I Promise Not To Come In Your Mouth (3:32)
Punky's Whips (10:50)
Honey, Don't You Want A Man Like Me? (4:12)
The Illinois Enema Bandit (12:42)

Disc Two
I'm The Slime (4:24) - bonus track
Pound For A Brown (3:41) - bonus track
Manx Needs Women (1:50)
The Black Page Drum Solo/Black Page #1 (3:50)
Big Leg Emma (2:17)
Sofa (2:56)
Black Page #2 (5:36)
The Torture Never Stops (12:35) - bonus track
The Purple Lagoon/Approximate (16:41)

Personnel:

Frank Zappa (conductor, lead guitar, vocals)
John Bergamo (percussion overdubs)
Terry Bozzio (drums, vocals)
Mike Brecker (tenor sax, flute)
Randy Brecker (trumpet)
Ronnie Cuber (baritone sax, clarinet)
Eddie Jobson (keyboards, violin, vocals)
Tom Malone (trombone, trumpet, piccolo)
Ed Mann (percussion overdubs)
Lou Marini (alto sax, flute)
Lou Anne Neill (osmotic harp overdubs)
Patrick O'Hearn (bass, vocals)
Don Pardo (sophisticaded narration)
David Samuels (timpani, vibes)
Ruth Underwood (percussion, synthesizer)
Ray White (rhythm guitar, vocals)