Moby Gym, 1980

This bootleg from a Dec. 2, 1980 show at the Moby Gym in Fort Collins, CO, has three really outstanding tracks that make this rather mediocre concert recording worth having. Like many of the 1980 shows, and many from 1981 as well, the band drew heavily from material that was released on “Sheik Yerbouti,” and “You Are What You Is,” with a few songs that appeared on “Tinseltown Rebellion,” which became the release in Zappa’s catalog representing this tour.

The Fort Collins concert opens with the “Panty Rap,” which became feature of this tour. It was also very well-rehearsed, offering little spontaneity, as heard through an explanation by Zappa to the crowd that varied minimally from what was recorded for the “Tinseltown Rebellion” release. This is followed by a decent performance of the title track from “You Are What You Is,” although it’s missing Ray White’s beautiful, sweeping, high-range vocals found on the official release.

We get some decent harmonizing out of Bob Harris for the next song, “Love of My Life,” but again, not quite the stunning falsetto that he delivers on “Tinseltown Rebellion.” Close, but not quite. Not sure who does a fairly decent Bob Dylan on “Flakes, but it’s nothing like Adrian Belew’s impersonation, and I really miss the harmonica that was part of the performance recorded for “Sheik Yerbouti.” When the bridge occurs, launched by the lyric, “I am a moron and this is my wife,” I’m digging the song as it builds, but then it just moves right along into the next segment that begins with the lyric “We are millions and millions” and completely lacks the dramatic build up I was expecting.

But that minor disappointment was quickly dispersed as the band jumps into “Magic Fingers.” Ray White’s vocals on this are great and not for one second was I missing the lack of Howard Kaylan’s screeching vocals normally associated with this song. This is one of the true standouts of this show. So imagine my anticipation as the bands moves into “The Blue Light.” Despite the unfinished and rambling nature of this song, I’ve tended to like it since first hearing it on “Tinseltown Rebellion.” Frank takes a decent jab Colorado’s granola culture, followed by the song’s expected final crescendo with a few more cultural jabs (“Drink that carrot juice”).

With “Tinseltown Rebellion,” Frank takes advantage of the fact that there are three other guitars on stage with a rocking guitar-centered intro to the song, something I wished he would have done with “Flakes.” Musically, I find this song enjoyable. What has always annoyed me about “Tinseltown Rebellion” was Frank’s holier-than-thou attitude regarding music; that only his and a few select others had real “substance.” Well, I’m sorry Frank, but I like all types of music, everything from empty pop and dance music, to complex orchestral pieces and avant-garde jazz. I don’t subscribe to this elitist attitude Zappa apparently held and from which he looked with disdain upon those who did not measure up.

Next comes “Pick Me I’m Clean,” which segues into a stellar guitar “Sex Jam” that is accented with vocalizations of a moaning, orgasmic woman reminiscent of “The Torture Never Stops.” This, however, abruptly stops. Our bootlegger must have run out of tape.

The recording picks up with the sing-songy “The Dangerous Kitchen,” one of the few songs that worked well with this delivery method. The best song performance comes next with “City of Tiny Lights,” an item composed with a lengthy guitar solo in mind, and Frank doesn’t disappoint. This is a real hard rock jam with amazing ambience and feedback. It is jams like this that will always keep me hungry for Zappa bootlegs. Gotta love Ray White’s vocals following the solo as well.


The last two songs, “Ain’t Got No Heart” and “The Torture Never Stops,” the former of which was competently performed, exhibit nothing special about them. Frank, however, delivers again with “Torture.” This trickles away into some rather boring keyboard sonics, except for a bit of tinkling by Bob Harris. This blather really lacks any inspiration and strikes me as very formulaic, but that has often been my criticism of Tommy Mars. Harris, however, manages to bring some character and interest into this final section of the song that would otherwise cause me to get up and leave my seat to beat the crowd exciting the venue. By the time the song returns to “Torture,” it’s lost all connection and the remaining drumming by Vinnie Colaiuta seems like filler, or worse yet, like he’s warming up by simply testing and tuning his drums. It’s the song that should have ended 10 minutes before it did. And even more astounding is the fact that the song fades out! There was even more of that!

Overall, a relatively mediocre bootleg that is saved by the presence of a few outstanding songs and guitar solos.

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




Track listing:

1. Panty Rap/You Are What You Is
2. Love Of My Life
3. Flakes
4. Magic Fingers
5. The Blue Light
6. Tinseltown Rebellion
7. Pick Me I'm Clean
8. The Dangerous Kitchen
9. City Of Tiny Lights
10. Ain't Got No Heart
11. The Torture Never Stops

Personnel:

Frank Zappa (guitar, vocals)
Arthur Barrow (bass)
Vinnie Colaiuta (drums)
Bob Harris (keyboards, vocals)
Tommy Mars (keyboards)
Steve Vai (guitar)
Ray White (guitar, vocals)
Ike Willis (guitar, vocals)

Dallas Convention Center Arena 1980

The 1980 tour could almost be given one of either two monikers: the Tinseltown Rebellion Tour or the Chunga’s Revenge Tour, as both these songs were played at many of these concerts, based on the bootlegs that are out there from the era.

With the Oct. 17, 1980 show at the Dallas Convention Center Arena, we get a blistering guitar solo out of Frank with “Chunga’s Revenge” opening the show. The sound quality of this boot fluctuates a bit throughout the song, and with the next tune, “I Don’t Wanna Get Drafted,” a song Zappa jointly composed with one of his major influences, Johnny Guitar Watson, the audio comes across very compressed, like listening to an AM radio. Incidentally, the song appeared on the album “You Are What You Is” as “Drafted Again.”

We have a decent, but brief, guitar solo, possibly out of Steve Vai, during “Cosmik Debris,” but with this bootleg the solo doesn’t come forward; you really have to listen hard to hear it. Also, this brief solo is nothing like the solo that shows up on the studio release from “Apostrophe(‘).” The band then launches into a frenetically-paced “Keep It Greasey” from “Joe’s Garage.”

The vamp and intro to “Tinseltown Rebellion” is actually pretty cool. I admit that this is not one of my favorite Zappa songs, but this particular performance actually comes pretty close to getting me to like it. And the lapse into the sing-songy presentation style at the end of the song doesn’t bother me like it does when Frank uses the technique during live performances of other songs (such as on the last track on this boot).

When you got four guitar players on stage, you have to expect some guitar-centric work during this show. This boot doesn’t disappoint on that point when “Outside Now” comes along. Deliciously eviscerating.

A primary reason that I enjoy listening to bootlegs, despite their at times substandard sound quality, is the opportunity to hear the wide variety guitar solos that Zappa performs. Another reason is to have the opportunity to hear performances of the many different musicians he played with, particularly those occasions when it was only during a concert solely available via bootleg.

But given the number of shows Zappa performed, hearing how some very standard songs get tweaked a bit for live performance – largely for the band’s benefit, I’m sure, so they wouldn’t get bored with playing it. “Honey Don’t You Want a Man Like Me?” fits into this category with this particular show.


Ah, but the guitar solo returns with the next track “Pick Me I’m Clean,” a funny song I’ve always enjoyed apparently written about a real groupie that wanted to stand out among all the others at a show, so she hollered out, “Pick me! I’m clean!”

Another excellent song that is structured to accommodate a guitar solo is “City of Tiny Lights.” However, in this boot, the song begins well after its start, moving into that guitar solo. I realize that this is a bootleg, but it sure would have been nice to hear the song from the beginning. Nonetheless, the guitar solo here (or solos? Are Vai and Zappa trading licks?) is thrilling. It smoothly transitions into a vamp from Rod Argent’s “She’s Not There” before returning back to “City of Tiny Lights.”

The next song, “Easy Meat,” also has an outstanding extended guitar solo.

Following “Ain’t Got No Heart,” the bootleg closes with “The Torture Never Stops.” Aside from the annoying sing-song segue that was common with live performances of this, we get another great guitar solo. And what is really intriguing about this solo is that you can hear how well orchestrated it is. Sometimes people think of guitar solo as purely extended improvisations, which many are, following a steady beat. The guitar player gets up there and plays what ever comes out of his fingers; when finished, he usually nods to the rest of the band to indicate he’s done, they collect themselves around a few bars to get back into synch, and then return to the song. But listening to this particular solo, you can hear quite plainly the time signature changes, as well as the melodic theme shifts, that occur and which are followed precisely by Vinnie Colaiuta’s expert drumming. Zappa’s playing is followed by a segue led by Arthur Barrow’s bass playing followed by some keyboard playing that could either be Tommy Mars or Bob Harris. But unlike other segues, the band never returns to the main theme of “Torture,” and in fact, the song ends, as does the bootleg.

Overall, not a bad bootleg despite some fluctuations in the sound quality. And while the set list was a common representation of the 1980 tour, the show contains some interesting variations that will keep a true Zappa fanatic pulling it out from time to time for a listen.

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

Track listing:

1. Chunga's Revenge
2. I Don't Wanna Get Drafted
3. Cosmik Debris
4. Keep It Greasey
5. Tinseltown Rebellion
6. Outside Now
7. Honey Don't You Want A Man Like Me?
8. Pick Me I'm Clean
9. City Of Tiny Lights (incl. She's Not There)
10. Easy Meat
11. Ain't Got No Heart
12. The Torture Never Stops

Personnel:

FZ, guitar, vocals
Ike Willis, vocals, guitar
Steve Vai, guitar, vocals
Ray White, vocals, guitar
Arthur Barrow, bass
Vinnie Colaiuta, drums
Tommy Mars, keyboards, vocals
Bob Harris, keyboards, trumpet, high vocals

Tinseltown Rebellion

There are several Zappa albums that upon first listen, I was not sure what I thought. For example, with “200 Motels,” I liked the comedic aspect, but was very ambivalent about its musical quality. Then again, at the time I was only 14. Over the years, however, I have grown to really appreciate this soundtrack. And there are also the albums that on first listen, I knew right away that I loved; releases like “Weasels Ripped My Flesh,” “One Size Fits All,” or “Burnt Weeny Sandwich.”

When I heard a mediocre album, I knew right away it was a mediocre album; “Sleep Dirt” comes to mind in this category, although there are others.

And then there are a few that when I first listened, I thought the album was good and played it often; but over time, I have listened to some albums less and less because I come to categorize them as only fair or mediocre. “Tinseltown Rebellion” falls into this category.

When I first bought this double album in 1981, Zappa played a show at Main Auditorium at the University of Arizona campus in Tucson, where I lived. I went to the second show and my recollection is that it was a great show. This set list, however, appears to exclude “The Dangerous Kitchen” and I am virtually positive he performed that. Which means that maybe I attended the Oct. 10, 1980 second show rather than the 1981 show. The site also indicates a bootleg exists of both the early and second show from 1981, but I have not found either. I know the show I attended included a brief interruption because someone allegedly broke into the tour bus and stole a gun. It occurred right in the middle of one of Zappa’s solos.

I bought a T-shirt at this show also, a canary yellow shirt that had the Barking Pumpikin logo on it. If you recall, that logo has a screeching cat hissing at a pumpkin. Out of the cat’s mouth is a balloon with Chinese characters. I had no idea what the characters said. Then, one day, I was wearing the shirt on a trip from Tucson to Puerto Penasco in Mexico to buy shrimp. A Chinese girl was on the trip with us, and she looked at my shirt and busted out laughing. I said, “Oh my god, you can tell me what it says on the shirt!” And she translated the Chinese characters as saying, “God is shit.”


Anyway, the band Zappa toured with for “Tinseltown” in 1978-80 was similar to the band I saw in Tucson. The double-album “Tinseltown” had a similar set list to the show I attended, and it got lots of play in my home.

Other than the first track “Fine Girl,” which is strictly a studio recording, and the second track “Easy Meat,” which has some studio overdubs, the rest of “Tinseltown Rebellion” is pure live taken from five different shows. And it was the third track, “Love of My Life,” that really hooked me initially on this album. The falsetto vocals are so delicious.

But nowadays, the version of “I Ain’t Got No Heart,” and the segue of “Panty Rap” just don’t entertain me much. I feel a bit reprieved by “Now You See It – Now You Don’t,” but again, “Dance Contest” doesn’t enthuse me as much as it did when I first bought the album. And “The Blue Light” has lost its appeal as well. And then there’s the title track.

This song has always annoyed me, even when I first bought the album. Ostensibly, the song is supposed to be about punk bands, but it’s just a vehicle for Zappa to attack the record companies with which he was always embattled. I knew he had troubles with the record companies, and the reps’ style of business did make them pricks. But do you have to sing about it Frank? Why do I have to listen to your troubles with record company executives? That’s not musical: it’s just Frank Zappa bitching.

I feel a bit better with “Pick Me, I’m Clean,” which is really quite funny. And with “Bamboozled By Love,” we get a delicious heavy, funky tune that has some decent guitar licks. And the double-album closes out with “Brown Shoes Don’t Make It,” which has always been one of my favorite songs, followed with “Peaches III.”

It’s worth pointing out that this album marks the album debut of Steve Vai.

So in general, “Tinseltown” is just an OK album for me now, although I admit that when I first bought it, I played it to death.

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



Released May 7, 1981, Barking Pumpkin Records.

Album release:

Side One
1. Fine Girl (3:30)
2. Easy Meat (9:17)
3. For The Young Sophisticate (3:13)

Side Two
1. Love Of My Life (2:15)
2. I Ain't Got No Heart (2:00)
3. Panty Rap (4:36)
4. Tell Me You Love Me (2:06)
5. Now You See It - Now You Don't (5:03)

Side Three
1. Dance Contest (3:01)
2. The Blue Light (5:26)
3. Tinsel Town Rebellion (4:36)
4. Pick Me, I'm Clean (5:37)

Side Four
1. Bamboozled By Love (5:46)
2. Brown Shoes Don't Make It (7:14)
3. Peaches III (4:56)

CD release:

1. Fine Girl (3:31)
2. Easy Meat (9:19)
3. For The Young Sophisticate (2:49)
4. Love Of My Life (2:15)
5. I Ain't Got No Heart (1:59)
6. Panty Rap (4:36)
7. Tell Me You Love Me (2:07)
8. Now You See It - Now You Don't (4:45)
9. Dance Contest (2:59)
10. The Blue Light (5:27)
11. Tinsel Town Rebellion (4:36)
12. Pick Me, I'm Clean (5:08)
13. Bamboozled By Love (5:47)
14. Brown Shoes Don't Make It (7:15)
15. Peaches III (5:03)

Personnel:

Frank Zappa (lead guitar, vocals)
Ike Willis (rhythm guitar, vocals)
Ray White (rhythm guitar, vocals)
Steve Vai (rhythm guitar, vocals)
Warren Cuccurullo (rhythm guitar, vocals)
Denny Walley (slide guitar, vocals)
Tommy Mars (keyboards, vocals)
Peter Wolf (keyboards)
Bob Harris (keyboards, trumpet, vocals)
Ed Mann (percussion)
Arthur Barrow (bass, vocals)
Patrick O'Hearn (bass on Dance Contest only)
Vinnie Colaiuta (drums)
David Logeman (drums on Fine Girl and Easy Meat)
Creg Cowan (voice)