Concert Bootlegs List
1967-1970

These are bootlegs with material from only one or two shows or from the same band. Bootlegs with material from several different concerts and from different bands are dealt with in the Live Compilations section (widespread use of "bonus" and "filler" tracks makes the line hard to draw). The order is as chronologic as possible.

1967

1968

1969

1970

'Tis the Season to Be Jelly (LP/CD)
Thigh (2 LP)
Petrouska (LP/CD)
King Kong Ripped My Flesh (LP)
Child's Play (LP)
Concerthouse67 / Royal Festival Hall68 (Oldies But Goldies / Live - Over 20 Years Old) (LP/CD)

  • Konserthuset, Stockholm, 30-Sep-1967 (date has been debated)
  • CD bonus tracks from various sources
  • Re-issued as Child's Play (Pyramid Records RFT LP 013), on vinyl, in 1988, with a different track order and a bonus track
  • Re-issued as King Kong Ripped My Flesh on Barner Wros
  • Re-issued with Drowning Witch (Toxic Shock Part 1) as Thigh (2 LP) on Shogun Records
  • Re-issued on CD by Living Legend Records with plentiful bonus tracks (later as a "promo" (?) and on Exile Records)
  • Re-issued on LP and CD as Concerthouse67 / Royal Festival Hall68 (Oldies But Goldies / Live - Over 20 Years Old) by Koinè Records
  • Concert also issued as Petrouska (with material from the Long Beach Arena, 31-Dec-1974) as ZX 3658
  • Side one also issued on The Real Thing with most of Swiss Cheese
  • Legally re-issued as part of the Beat the Boots set

Length: ~45 min
Sound quality: FM B
Label: "Bizarre" FVZ 967 (LP)
Original bootlegger: "Richard"

Musicians: Frank Zappa, Jimmy Carl Black, Ian Underwood, Bunk Gardner, Don Preston, Jim Sherwood, Roy Estrada, Ray Collins and Billy Mundi

This show was supposed to be televised or broadcast on radio, so Zappa tried to play even though he was very ill. He soon left the stage, however, and the band carried on without him. It's a unique performance you don't have to like. (The boot is taken from a 1977 Swedish broadcast in the series "Rock från underjorden" (Rock from the Underground)).

'Tis the Season to be Jelly Vinyl

The original vinyl track list: 

1. You Didn't Try to Call Me
2. Petroushka [Stravinsky]
3. Bristol Stomp [Appel/Mann]
4. Baby Love [The Supremes]
5. ??? [...?]
6. Big Leg Emma
7. No Matter What You Do (Tchaikovsky's 6th)
8. Blue Suede Shoes [Perkins]
9. Hound Dog [Leiber/Stoller]
10. Gee [William Davis / Viola Watkins]

11. King Kong
12. It Can't Happen Here

Track listings may vary slightly between re-issues. Track 2 was removed from the European Beat the Boots issue (the spoken intro was removed as well, and the printed title obscured), but included and listed on the American version (probably for reasons of differing copyright regulations). Track 10 is an old Crows number from 1953. Track 7 is also known as "I Don't Care How You Treat Me", and is probably written by Zappa (one musician plays Tchaikovsky's 6th symphony in the background). Apparently, Zappa gave the intro to the Animals when he produced their Animalism album.

The colour cover shows a caricature of Zappa with a huge right foot, spraying a sweaty sock with deodorant, thinking "Warum tut es weh, wenn ich pinkle?" (German for "Why does it hurt when I pee?") - drawn by the French comic artist Jean Solé for a comic version of "Stink-Foot" he made in a French mag called Fluide Glacial (of comic artists interpreting rock songs).

Back cover has a short story called 'Tis the Season to be Jelly (by science fiction writer Richard Matheson), beginning "Pa's nose fell off at breakfast, it fell right into Ma's coffee and displaced it" (a line which later became the title of another bootleg). (The artwork for some re-issues is completely unkown.) Some LP labels have the incorrect title "TIS THE SEASON TO JELLY". (For our international viewers, the title "'Tis the Season to be Jelly" is a play on the (christmas?) slogan "'tis the season to be jolly".)

'Tis the Season to be Jelly CD

Label: Living Legend Records LLR-CD002 (CD)

The CD re-issue track list: 

1. You Didn't Try to Call Me
2. Petroushka [Stravinsky] / Bristol Stomp [Appel/Mann]
3. Baby Love [Supremes]
4. Big Leg Emma
5. No Matter What You Do (Tchaikovsky's 6th)
6. Blue Suede Shoes [Perkins]
7. Hound Dog [Leiber/Stoller]
8. Gee Improvisation ["Gee", William Davis / Viola Watkins]
9. King Kong
10. It Can't Happen Here
11. Opus 5
12. This Is What We Sound Like [listed as "We Are the Mothers & This Is What We Sound Like"] (03:48)
13. Right There [listed as "Run Home Slow"] (04:12) ["Skweezit Skweezit Skweezit" on Mystery Disc plus a bit of "Right There" on Stage #5]
14. The Jelly (02:07) [last part of the CD version of "Didja Get Any Onya?" from Weasels Ripped My Flesh, plus a few extra seconds]
15. Igor's Boogie (07:03) [including parts of "King Kong" on Ahead of Their Time]

The Stockholm section is taken from Petrouska, not the original 'Tis the Season to Be Jelly: track 1 has a longer spoken intro section, and tracks 9-10 are edited down ("King Kong" is the 5:20-14:10 section and "It Can't Happen Here" the first 50 seconds). "Petrouska" is not listed.

Tracks 11-15 are CD bonus tracks, taken from We Are the Mothers & This Is What We Sound Like, which is an old unreleased Zappa album (the original title is not certain, but may have been Rustic Protrusion) bootlegged as Rustic Protrusion, Necessity Is ... and We Are the Mothers & This Is What We Sound Like. They also appear as bonus tracks on the Live USA CD, which is a re-issue of The Ark by Imtrat. Some of them are cut shorter there.

  • Track 11 is "Mount St. Mary's Concert Excerpt" from The Lost Episodes, but starting 70-80 seconds before the official version and ending some 45 seconds earlier. It's falsely listed as "live Dallas".
  • Track 12 is a live jam with a famous Zappa solo.
  • Track 14 is identified here as 1967. It's also on Track 15 is probably from the same date and venue as track 14, which is identified on Apocrypha as a live improvisation from a soundboard tape from Stratford, Connecticut, February 1968. People who actually attended the show place it in February 1969.
  • See the unreleased album's entry in the Weirdo Discography for more details on these tracks.

The cover depicts some cut-out paraphernalia, not unlike the Joe's Garage Acts I-III booklet, on a yellow background.

Concerthouse67 / Royal Festival Hall68 (Oldies But Goldies / Live - Over 20 Years Old) (LP/CD)

LP label: Koinè Records V881105
CD label: Koinè Records K881105

In certain countries, it has been legal for anyone to release certain live recordings if they were over 20 years old; this version was a fully legal release in its own country, although of course not to Zappa's liking. The LP version:

1. King Kong (22:10)

2. Uncle Meat Big Medley ["The Uncle Meat Variations"/"Oh, in the Sky"/"Let's Make the Water Turn Black"/"Harry, You're a Beast", "Oh No"/"The Orange County Lumber Truck"] (24:40) [largely officially released on Ahead of Their Time]

Track/side 1 is the 1967 recording, and track/side 2 is live at the Royal Festival Hall, London, 25-Oct-1968. ("Oh, in the Sky", included in the "Uncle Meat Big Medley", is a Ruben-esque tune sung by Roy Estrada.) Track/side 2 has been officially released as tracks 16-20 of Ahead of Their Time. (There are some edits on the official album.)

The cover is pale yellow with a pink-and-black photo of Zappa from about 1974. The back cover reads "Oldies but Goldies" and "Live Over 20 Years Old". It also says that it's available on CD with two bonus tracks, and lo and behold, the CD version looks like this:

1. Intro (00:55)
2. Freak Out Medley (06:55)
3. Fifties Medley (05:09)
4. King Kong (22:10)
5. Uncle Meat Big Medley ["The Uncle Meat Variations"/"Oh, in the Sky"/"Let's Make the Water Turn Black"/"Harry, You're a Beast", "Oh No"/"The Orange County Lumber Truck"] (24:40) [parts officially released on Ahead of Their Time]

Tracks 1-4 are the 1967 recording, and track 5 is live at the Royal Festival Hall, London, 1968. ("Oh, in the Sky", included in the "Uncle Meat Big Medley", is a Ruben-esque tune sung by Roy Estrada.) Parts of track 5 have been officially released as tracks 16-20 of Ahead of Their Time. (There are some edits on the official album.) 

Child's Play (LP)

Label: Pyramid Records RFT LP 013 (1988)

This vinyl re-issue has a different track order and a bonus track:

1. King Kong
2. It Can't Happen Here
3 You Didn't Try to Call Me
4. Petroushka [Stravinsky]
5. Bristol Stomp [Appel/Mann]
6. Baby Love [The Supremes]
7. ??? [...?]
8. Big Leg Emma
9. The Big Medley ["Let's Make the Water Turn Black"/"Harry, You're a Beast"/"The Orange County Lumber Truck"/"Oh No"/"The Orange County Lumber Truck"] [Child's Play bonus track - in all likelyhood mostly officially released on Ahead of Their Time]
10. Hound Dog [Leiber/Stoller]
11. Gee Improvisation ["Gee", William Davis / Viola Watkins]
12. King Kong
13. It Can't Happen Here

The date and location of the bonus track, "The Big Medley", are not known, but it's likely from the Royal Festival Hall, London, 25-Oct-1968, in which it has been officially released as tracks 16-20 of Ahead of Their Time (and there are some edits on the official album). The cover has a photo of the Mothers holding babies, and a bad drawing of King Kong and a naked woman in a window on the back. The woman cries out: "Oh no ... not another version of 'King Kong'!".)

King Kong Ripped My Flesh (LP)

Time: 14:00+22:40
Label: Barner Wros Limited FW 36 A/B, printed and made in Canada

A very professional re-issue of 'Tis the Season to Be Jelly. The front cover has a black & white drawing of King Kong in front of a cliff, holding a white woman in his left hand, tearing her dress with his right forefinger claw. The lady cries "King Kong ripped my flesh". Above, in white letters, are the words "Frank Zappa". The back cover has a small version of the front cover in the middle, with a black border. White letters spell out "Recorded Live - Stockholm, Sweden 1967" and a track list. The medley ("No Matter What You Do"/"Blue Suede Shoes"/"Hound Dog"/"Gee") is listed as "Medley: Hound Dog / Whole Lotta Shakin' & More". The bottom-right corner says "Barner Wros. LTD.", "All rights reserved" and "Printed an made in | CANADA".

The labels are red and say "Real Time Series Vol. 2", "ZORRO" and "Live in Stickholm '67". They have incomplete track lists on them, and list "Bristol Stomp" as "Stockholm Stomp". They are numbered FW 36 A and B, and also claim a "(P) 1967 by RTS" and "All Arrangements Patrick Fizz". The recording itself is exactly the same as the original 'Tis the Season to Be Jelly.

Petrouska (LP/CD)

  • Konserthuset, Stockholm, 30-Sep-1967 (date has been debated)
  • Long Beach Arena 31-Dec-1974

Also featured as record 8 (bright yellow label) of The History & Collected Improvisations of Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention (re-issued on CD).

Length: ~45 min
Sound quality: Soundboard B (Stockholm)
LP label: ZX 3658
CD label: RXZ Records 308

  • 1967 musicians: Frank Zappa, Jimmy Carl Black, Ian Underwood, Bunk Gardner, Don Preston, Jim Sherwood, Roy Estrada, Ray Collins and Billy Mundi
  • 1974 musicians: Frank Zappa, Ruth Underwood, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Tom Fowler, Chester Thompson and George Duke

1. You Didn't Try to Call Me
2. Petrouska [Stravinsky]
3. Bristol Stomp [Appel/Mann]
4. Baby Love [Supremes]
5. Big Leg Emma
6. King Kong [edit]
7. It Can't Happen Here [edit]
8. No Matter What You Do (interpolating Tchaikovsky's 6th)

9. Pygmy Twylyte
10. Room Service

  • Side 1 is live in Stockholm 9/13/30-Sep-1967.
  • Side 2 is live at the Long Beach Arena 31-Dec-1974.

Tracks 6 and 7 are much shorter than on 'Tis the Season to Be Jelly: "King Kong" is the 5:20-14:10 section and "It Can't Happen Here" the first 50 seconds. Track 1 has a longer spoken intro section.

Pigs & Repugnance (LP/CD)

  • Fifth Dimension, Ann Arbor, 03-Dec-1967

Length: ~43 min
Label: Flashback Flash 04.89.0101-33 (CD number omits the -33)
Sound quality: B

Musicians: Frank Zappa, Roy Estrada, Jimmy Carl Black, Billy Mundi, Ian Underwood, Don Preston, Bunk Gardner and Motorhead Sherwood

1. Big Leg Emma (2:15)
2. King Kong [listed as "Pigs and Repugnant Variations"] (17:55)
3. America Drinks & Goes Home (2:00)

4. Hungry Freaks, Daddy (3:37)
5. King Kong Variations (15:30)
6. Status Back Baby (0:48)
7. King Kong (14:06) [CD bonus track]

The date and location on the cover is June 20, Garrick Theater, New York, but the real date and location is December 3, Fifth Dimension, Ann Arbor. (At any rate, it's odd that "King Kong" should have been played twice at that concert (tracks 2 and 5).)

Track 7 (the CD bonus track) is the same recording as on Electric Aunt Jemima, but this is slightly speeded-up (or maybe it's slowed down on Electric Aunt Jemima): on Electric Aunt Jemima, it's 16:27 and here it's 14:06. It's from Graugahalle, Essen, 28-Sep-1968. Track 5 has also been issued on Jungle Folksongs with Zappa & Kong.

The track indexing on the CD, by the way, is not very good: it does have 7 tracks, but they don't match the 7 songs. Track 1 is "Big Leg Emma" plus one and a half minute of "King Kong"; track 2 is a four-minute part of "King Kong"; track 3 is the rest of "King Kong" (11 and a half minutes) plus "America Drinks & Goes Home" plus "Hungry Freaks, Daddy", plus the first 8 and a half minutes of the next "King Kong". Tracks 4 and 5 are parts of the second "King Kong", and track 6 is the last one and a half minute of "King Kong" plus most of "Status Back Baby". Track 7 is the last ten seconds of the "Status Back Baby" fade-out, plus some 14 minutes of the bonus track (the third "King Kong"), plus some fifteen minutes of silence after the end.

The front cover is a drawing with white clouds, yellow fields and a pink-and-black pig: the black spots on the pig form Zappa's face. The pig stands on the word ZAPPA in red letters (the letters P have pig noses), erected in the pig's mud.

The back cover has the track list, some gray and yellow decoration and the following notes: "Words and music composed and performed by Frank Zappa. All songs recorded live from the GARRICK THEATRE, New York, June 20th, 1967. We thank: Brigette Kowalczyk for colour drawing. Andreas Rodenbeck of Repro Art for color scans. Tko Yan of Ducks Design for typesetting and logo works. Andrea Krueger of Duck Design for mounting. Cover design by Duck Design, Ch. Knåk, D-4600 Dortmund. Produced and published through Flashback, L2914 Luxembourg, Flash 04.89.0101-33". However: it's really from Ann Arbor, December 3 - tape traders had it identified before the boot came out and called it "Garrick" and stirred up temporary confusion. Note also that the shows at the Garrick theater were billed as "Pigs & Repugnant", not "Pigs & Repugnance" as the album is called. Conveniently, Pigs & Repugnant is a different boot.

The record is pressed on see-through vinyl. Some copies have some kind of sunburst figure of different colours.

(Also: on this record we hear Zappa use the wah-wah pedal at a very early date. Jimi Hendrix did not use such a pedal in Monterey on June 18, or earlier, but he did use it in late July that year, recording in New York with Curtis Knight - after he had attended a Zappa show on July 7th - I don't know the source of this factoid; it may be completely made up.)

Electric Aunt Jemima (LP/CD)
Caress Me (CD)

  • Family Dog (!), Denver, 03-May-1968
  • Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, 20-October-1968
  • Grugahalle, Essen, 28-Sep-1968
     
  • Also issued legally as part of the Beat the Boots II set
  • Also issued as Caress Me on Black Panther (BP-072)

Length: ~64 min
Sound quality: Soundboard B
Label: Pyramid Records PYCD026 (CD)

Musicians: Frank Zappa, Jimmy Carl Black, Roy Estrada, Bunk Gardner, Don Preston, Jim Sherwood, Arthur Dyer Tripp III and Ian Underwood

The cover track list is hopeless ("Electric Aunt Jemima Variations & Soft Sell Conclusion", "Jazz Is Not Dead? Just Smells Funny", "Dog Breath", "King Kong", "Caress Me", "The Witch Song Including: Plastic People"). This has been suggested instead:

1. Little House I Used to Live in [excerpt] (00:00-02:20) / Dog Breath Variations (02:20-04:01) / Little House I Used to Live in [excerpt, continued] (04:02-12:27) / An Der Schönen Blauen Donau [Strauss] [interpolated] (at 12:27) / Hungry Freaks, Daddy [interpolated] (at 12:27 as well)
2. whät [with a tilde (~) over the W]
3. Dog Breath [instrumental]
4. King Kong (16:27)
5. Trouble Every Day [instrumental + variations]
6. A Pound for a Brown on the Bus / Sleeping in a Jar
7. English Tea-Dance Interludes (00:00-05:45) / Plastic People [Berry/Zappa] (from 05:45) / King Kong [interpolated] (at 09:32) / America Drinks [interpolated] (at 10:07) / Wipe-Out [The Surfaris] (11:45-11:55)

  • Tracks 1-2, 5 & 7 are from the Family Dog (!), Denver, 03-May-1968
  • Tracks 3 & 6 are from Amsterdam 20-October-1968.
  • Track 4 is from Essen 28-Sep-1968. Thanks to Charles Ulrich, Jon Naurin, Graham Connah och Eric King for pinning down the sources and the date of the Family Dog show.
  • Track 1 starts off with excerpts from "Little House I Used to Live in". At 02:20 it becomes instead "Dog Breath Variations"; at 04:02 it returns to "Little House I Used to Live in", and at 12:27 "An der Schönen Blauen Donau" is introduced, ON TOP OF "Little House I Used to Live in", while Zappa is at the same time playing "Hungry Freaks, Daddy" on his guitar.
  • Track 2 is an R&B jam, possibly an existing song.
  • Track 7 starts off with something called the "English Tea-Dance Interludes". At 05:45 it becomes instead "Plastic People". At 09:32 "King Kong" starts, ON TOP OF "Plastic People", and at 10:07 "King Kong" is replaced by "America Drinks", with "Plastic People" still going on in the background. At 11:45 they start playing "Wipe-Out" instead, but at 11:55 the record ends abruptly.

Track 4, "King Kong", also appears as a CD bonus track on Pigs & Repugnance, where it's slightly speeded-up (or maybe it's slowed down here), clocking in at 14:06 compared to 16:27 here.

A guy who admitted he couldn't quite understand the cover picture said it might be "a framed picture of a LEGO man and small dolls in doll house surroundings; the picture borders are covered with sand". There you have it. The spine of the CD spells "Jemina", not "Jemima".

The Caress Me issue has a psychedelic blue cover (butterfly on golf-ball texture) with title in red.

Live in Europa (LP)
Live in Europe 1966-1968 (CD)

  • Konserthuset, Stockholm, 30-Sep-1967 (date has been debated)
  • The Ark, Boston, 1969

LP label: Black Panther Records / Electrecord ELE 03899
CD label: Black Panther Records (Japan)

  • Musicians on side 1: Frank Zappa, Jimmy Carl Black, Ian Underwood, Bunk Gardner, Don Preston, Jim Sherwood, Roy Estrada and Arthur Dyer Tripp III
  • Musicians on side 2: Frank Zappa, Jimmy Carl Black, Ian Underwood, Bunk Gardner, Don Preston, Jim Sherwood, Roy Estrada, Ray Collins and Billy Mundi

1. Freak Out Medley: You Didn't Try to Call Me / Petroushka [Stravinsky, listed as "Petruska"] / Bristol Stomp [Appel/Mann] / Baby Love [Supremes] / Big Leg Emma
2. Fifties Medley: No Matter What You Do [Tchaikovsky's 6th not mentioned] / Blue Suede Shoes [Perkins] / Hound Dog [Leiber/Stoller] / Gee [William Davis / Viola Watkins]
3. Big Leg Emma

4. Status Back Baby
5. Valarie [Clarence Lewis / Bobby Robinson]
6. My Guitar

  • Tracks 1-2 are from 'Tis the Season to be Jelly. All talking between the songs has been edited out, and "Gee" is cut early.
  • Tracks 3-6 from The Ark. Boston is, of course, not in Europe.

The (LP) cover depicts Jimmy Carl Black in Zappa moustache and beard from the We're Only In It for the Money cover. (Live in Boston 18 July 1968, another Black Panther product, has an identical cover design but with a picture of Zappa instead of Jimmy Carl Black.) The back cover says "All songs written or arranged by Frank Zappa" (good solution, actually), and lists a few names involved in producing it: Romeo Vanica as "redactor muzical", Emil Mihai as "postprocesare", and Ion Fratila as "transpunere". It also says "DISC DOCUMENT" and "Licenta BLACK PANTHER", and "N.I.I.433/88", "Made in Romania" and "Exporter: ARTEXIM Bucharest". If you want to see this text in real Roumanian letters with correct diacritics, go to our Central-European page (requires Central-European language support for your web browser).

Our Man in Nirvana (2 LP)
The String Quartet (LP/CD)
The "Strong Willie" Shape (Shaped 45-RPM EP)

  • California State College, Fullerton, 08-Nov-1968
  • Also issued as The String Quartet (on clear/sunburst vinyl and CD by Flashback Records)
  • Also issued legally as part of the Beat the Boots II set
  • Parts also issued on the "Strong Willie Shape"

Sound quality: B
Label: Frank's Records PC 1101/1102, Copenhagen 1985

Musicians: Frank Zappa, Jimmy Carl Black, Bunk Gardner, Don Preston, Jim Sherwood, Roy Estrada, Arthur Dyer Tripp III and special guests Larry "Wild Man" Fischer and Don Cherry (?)

1. Feet Light Up
2. Bacon Fat [Andre Williams / Brown]
3. [wait]
4. A Pound for a Brown on the Bus
5. Sleeping in a Jar
6. The Wild Man Fischer Story [Fischer]
7. I'm the Meany [Fischer]
8. Valarie [Clarence Lewis / Bobby Robinson] [partial]
9. King Kong

Track 1 is a spoken intro: Zappa tells the audience not to trip on the wires lest their "feet light up". Track 3 consists of silence, soundcheck and an introduction of the next track. Tracks 4-5 are listed as parts of "The String Quartet", an early number that was later split up into the two individual pieces. Tracks 6-7 are solo performances from Wild Man Fischer ("I'm the Meany" is about the Beatles). Track 8 is just a tiny bit of "Valarie". A better "Valarie" can be found on The Ark, also in Beat the Boots. Colour covers. Pressed on both red and blue vinyl. The back cover credits "Kutekkie Remote Control. Produced by Rod'n Nodny".

In the late 80s, one of the old Mothers tried to sell the tape of this show to collectors and/or bootleggers for a "fantasy price" so high that nobody was interested. Soon afterwards, that tape was rendered worthless when an identical tape leaked out from somewhere else and someone made this bootleg from it.

(In the '60s, Zappa was planning to release a real album called Our Man in Nirvana; you can read a bit about that in the Weirdo Discography. The title, of course, is a play on Graham Greene's book title Our Man in Havana. Our Man in Nirvana also inspired another bootleg title - Our Man in Italy.)

The String Quartet (LP/CD)

Vinyl label: Flashback L-2914, Luxembourg

Either The String Quartet is an exact copy of Our Man in Nirvana, or it has the blow simple track list:

1. The String Quartet (A Pound for a Brown on the Bus / Sleeping in a Jar)

2. King Kong

A sunburst vinyl copy has been confirmed.

Trick or Treat (LP)
Trick or Treat (CD)

The LP and CD versions are very different.

LP Version

  • Singles tracks
  • Royal Festival Hall, London, 25-Oct-1968

Length: ~45 min
Label: "Bizarre" Poop (or Pop) 1348

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]

  • PREVIOUS PLASTIC is from official singles (except track 3 - see below). Tracks 1-2 have been officially released on the CD version of Absolutely Free, and a different edit of track 5 has been released on Stage #5.
  • The TREAT SIDE is live in London 1968. Track 10 is Roy Estrada singing a Ruben-esque tune. Track 11 has been officially released as tracks 16-20 of Ahead of Their Time, though there are some edits on the official album.

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 concrète 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.

CD Version

  • Royal Festival Hall, London, 1968
  • California State College, Fullerton, 11-Aug-1968
  • The Beat Club, Bremen, Germany, 06-Oct-1968 (SPURIOUS)

Label: Living Legend Records LLR 027

1. Uncle Meat (One Note at a Time) / Son of Prelude to the Afternoon of a Sexually Aroused Gas Mask / Oh, in the Sky (08:19)
2. The Big Medley: Let's Make the Water Turn Black / Harry, You're a Beast / Oh No / The Orange County Lumber Truck / King Kong (17:03) [largely officially released on Ahead of Their Time]
3. Bacon Fat (04:20) [Andre Williams / Brown]
4. The String Quartet (First Part) (13:36)
5. The Wild Man Fischer Story [Fischer]
6. I'm the Meany [Fischer]
7. The String Quartet (09:47) [listed as "Let's Make the Water Turn Black"]
8. [?] [listed as "Uncle Bernie's Farm"]

  • Tracks 1-2 are live in London 1968. "Oh, in the Sky" is Roy Estrada singing a Ruben-esque tune. Track 2 has been officially released as tracks 16-20 of Ahead of Their Time, though there are some edits on the official album.
    Tracks 3-6 are as on Our Man in Nirvana (Fullerton, 11-Aug-1968).
  • Tracks 7-8 are identified as live in Bremen 1968. They are listed as "Let's Make the Water Turn Black" and "Uncle Bernie's Farm" but do not actually represent these songs. Track 7 is the "String Quartet" (the instrumental medley of "Pound for a Brown" and "Sleeping in a Jar" with jamming), and track 8 is an "extremely slow instrumental". If they are indeed from Bremen, they are from the show that was televised in Germany as Lieder Liches. 

From Charles Ulrich:

I was trying to track down the edits in the "Orange County Lumber Truck" medley that are alleged on the Zappa Patio. I was very surprised at what I found.

"Let's Make The Water Turn Black" is longer on Ahead of Their Time than on Trick Or Treat. On Trick Or Treat, it has an intro, but is then missing the first verse ("Now believe me ... neighbors didn't know"). The Ahead of Their Time version has the missing verse (as well as all the material that's in the Trick Or Treat version).

So either Trick Or Treat is expertly edited to eliminate one verse (which seems unlikely), or the song was performed two different ways (with and without the first verse), and the Ahead of Their Time version is at least partly from a different performance (possibly the early show the same day).

By the time it gets to the "Oh No" guitar solo, Ahead of Their Time is from the same show as Trick Or Treat. Can anyone identify where the edit comes?

... If Trick Or Treat was edited from two or more shows, that would provide an alternate explanation for the absence of "Uncle Meat" and "In the Sky" from Ahead of Their Time.

Pigs & Repugnant (LP/CD)
Son of Pigs & Repugnant (LP/CD)
Pigs & Repugnant (2CD)

  • California State College, Fullerton, 08-Nov-1968
  • Lawrence University, Appleton, WI, 23-May-1969
     
  • First issued as two separate LPs on Nifty, Tough & Bitchen Records
  • Also issued as records 1 and 2 of the Mystery Box
  • Re-issued on two separate CDs on the same label
  • Coupled as Pigs & Repugnant for double CD release on Vulture Records

Length: 52+48 min (all track times taken from the double CD)
Label: Nifty, Tough & Bitchen Records / Vulture Records VT CD 001/1 & 1/2

"Pigs & Repugnant" was the title of a series of shows at the Garrick Theatre in New York, which has nothing to do with this bootleg. There is a bootleg from those shows, and it is called Pigs & Repugnance.

  • Fullerton musicians: Frank Zappa, Jimmy Carl Black, Bunk Gardner, Don Preston, Jim "Motorhead" Sherwood, Roy Estrada, Arthur Dyer Tripp III and special guest Don Cherry (?)
  • Appleton musicians: Frank Zappa, Ian Underwood, Bunk Gardner, Buzz Gardner, Jim "Motorhead" Sherwood, Roy Estrada, Don Preston, Jimmy Carl Black, Arthur Dyer Tripp III and Lowell George - lookingly his last concert with the band

Pigs & Repugnant (LP /single CD)

1. The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbeque (10:01)
2. Hungry Freaks, Daddy (03:36)
3. The Wild Man Fischer Story [Fischer] (03:34)
4. I'm The Meany [Fischer] (01:34)
5. Bacon Fat [Andre Williams / Brown] (03:32)

6. King Kong (28:41)

  • Tracks 1-2 are live in Appleton 1969, taken from Gas Mask. Track 1 begins with "The Jelly" and cuts to "The Eric Dolphy Memroial Barbecue" at 02:20.
  • Tracks 3-6 taken from Our Man in Nirvana (Fullerton College, 08-Nov-1968). "King Kong" is 31 minutes long on Our Man in Nirvana, here it is 28 minutes and 41 seconds. It IS the same recording, yet it is slower here (and in a lower key, of course) and includes a final "goodnight" which is cut from Our Man in Nirvana. So one part has been edited out of this version, and the edit occurs at 14:24.

(The spine of the CD says "PIG & REPUGNANT".)

Son of Pigs & Repugnant

1. The String Quartet (24:05)

2. The Duke (08:46) ["Return of the Hunch-Back Duke" - including "Aybe Sea" & "Transylvania Boogie"]
3. Help, I'm A Rock! (04:55)
4. [instrumental jam, listed as "Return of the Son of Monster Magnet"] (10:02)

Track 1 is "A Pound for a Brown on the Bus" plus "Sleeping in a Jar", taken from Our Man in Nirvana (Fullerton College, 08-Nov-1968). At the time, Zappa called this conglomeration "The String Quartet". Tracks 2-4 are live in Appleton 1969, the recording that also appeared on Gas Mask. Track 2 is like "Return of the Hunch-Back Duke" on Stage #5 and includes "Aybe Sea" and "Transylvania Boogie", and track 4 is an instrumental jam. This side is a real live segued sequence. From Oscar Bianco: 

The second side of Son of Pigs & Repugnant includes all track 6 of Gas Mask, starting some minute before with the normal intro of "Little House I Used to Live in" interpolated with the "Penis Dimension" theme and fading out many minutes later after the "Help, I'm a Rock"/"Transylvania Boogie" and various madness jam. This is the most complete live 60s version of "Little House I Used to Live in" avaible on boot.

PATRICK NEVE: ... basically, the last 10:18 of side two of Son of Pigs & Repugnant breaks suddenly from "Help, I'm A Rock" circa Appleton 69/05/23, and cuts into a jam preluding the same title from what's known as "the Worcester Tape". [Copenhagen 68/10/03]

Pigs & Repugnant Double CD

The double CD re-issue has a group photo of the Mothers on the front cover, and a Vulture logo on the back. It says that Don Cherry guested in "Fullerton, California Europe". Furthermore, it says that "The Duke" was formerly known as "Return of the Son of the Hunkback [sic] Duke" and later became "Little House I Used to Live in". It also says that everything was written by Frank Zappa, quite wrong, and that Carla Sello did "graphic & design" and Riproduzioni Scanner (FI) did "colours separation and retouching". It must have been made in Italy. The title is written "PIG'S'N' REPUGNANT".

To Motherbuggers Everywhere (LP)

  • The Beat Club, Bremen, Germany, 06-Oct-1968
  • Unknown live 1980 (bonus track)

Length: 35 min + "Watermelon in Easter Hay"
Label: Acid SPEED 2
Sound quality: [corresponding tapes have been graded FM A-]

1. King Kong/Improvisation
2. A Pound for a Brown (on the Bus)
3. Sleeping in a Jar

4. Afternoon of a Sexually Aroused Gas Mask [listed as "Improvisation"]
5. Uncle Meat
6. Lohengrin [Wagner]
7. Let's Make the Water Turn Black
8. Watermelon in Easter Hay

Tracks 1-7 are live in Bremen 1968, and track 8 is a 1980s live bonus track. "Lohengrin" here is of course less than the whole opera. The Bremen show was televised in Germany, and the name of the program was Lieder Liches. Here is what it contained:

  • Jam/soundcheck
  • Interview, 19-Jun-1970
  • King Kong (last part)
  • A Pound for a Brown (on the Bus)
  • Sleeping in a Jar
  • Afternoon of a Sexually Aroused Gas Mask
  • Uncle Meat
  • Lohengrin
  • Lets Make the Water Turn Black

It was 45 minutes long, and the Bremen part of the LP is 35 minutes, missing the jam/soundcheck and interview. With the bonus track, "Watermelon in Easter Hay", the LP is probably around 40 minutes.

(There has been a rumour about a double-LP with this title, label Acid/PAG A1/A2, but the single LP has been confirmed. Of course, the double LP has not been ruled out. If you know anything about it, mail me.)

Informants: JWB

Pachuco Hop (CD)

  • Rockpile, Toronto, 23-Feb-1969 (early show)

Label: Gold Standard SOBF-001 (Japan)PACHUCO HOP front cover
Sound quality: "excellent soundboard"

Musicians: Frank Zappa, Lowell George, Ian Underwood, Bunk Gardner, Buzz Gardner, Jim "Motorhead" Sherwood, Roy Estrada, Don Preston, Jimmy Carl Black and Arthur Dyer Tripp III

1. Intro
2. Bacon Fat [Andre Williams / Brown]
3. [Those] Lonely, Lonely Nights [John Vincent]
4. Corrido Rock [A. Egnoian/J. Balcom]
5. Pachuko Hop [C. Higgins/V. Haven]
6. Behind the Sun [The Rocking Brothers?]
7. The String Quartet
8. Charles Ives
9. WPLJ [Dobard/McDaniels]
10. In the Sky ["Oh, in the Sky"]
12. All Night Long [Harris Woody]

"The String Quartet" was an early number, which contained the melodies of "A Pound for a Brown on the Bus" and "Sleeping in a Jar". (And "Charles Ives" is a piece written by Frank Zappa.) This is a most remarkable show: tracks 2-6, 9 and 12 are old R&B hits, that the Mothers play VERY well! 

Released in Japan around November 20 1999. (Considering how interesting this recording is, it's strange that it took over 30 years before someone bootlegged it.)

Gas Mask (LP/CD)
Days of Yore (LP)
The Mothers of Invention Appleton Album (LP)
Appleton Volume 2 (LP)

  • Lawrence University Chapel, Appleton, 23-May-1969
  • Deutschlandhalle, Berlin, 14-Sep 1974

Length: ~45 min
Sound quality: Soundboard A (Appleton)
LP label: Mud Shark MZ4804
CD label: RXZ Records 316A

Appleton musicians: Frank Zappa, Ian Underwood, Bunk Gardner, Buzz Gardner, Jim "Motorhead" Sherwood, Roy Estrada, Don Preston, Jimmy Carl Black,  Arthur Dyer Tripp III and Lowell George - lookingly his last concert with the band

Solid track list for Days of Yore:

1. Some Ballet Music
2. Uncle Meat
3. Eye of Agamotto [misspelled as "Agamoto"] [Don Preston]

4. My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama
5. Clap & Vomit [audience participation]
6. Dickie's Such an Asshole

Track 1 is a jazz-waltz piece that later appeared on the first Grandmothers album, credited to Don Preston. The Eye of Agamotto is a magical amulet belonging to the Marvel Comics character Dr. Strange. Track 6 is a filler track from the Deutschlandhalle, Berlin, 14-Sep-1974.

The Mothers of Invention Appleton Album issue was a 200-copy edition, with "gimmick covers" housing the first 80. At least some runs had hand-sprayed titles on the cover. Some covers had a 1972-era picture of Zappa wearing a "buffoon hat" and the text "Volume one includes the first public performance of My Guitar and Uncle Meat [both had actually been played eariler] more four previously unreleased tracks. Limited first edition of 200 copies (first 80 have a special gimmix cover). Volume two is coming soon. [sic]".

(This is a track list we used to display for Gas Mask, which may be wrong:

1. Eye of Agamotto 
2. My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama
3. Clap & Vomit [audience participation]
4. The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbeque
5. Hungry Freaks, Daddy
6. The Return of the Son of the Hunchback Duke
7. The Story of "A Pound for a Brown on the Bus" [Guild Hall, Portsmouth, 05-Jun-1969])

Appleton Volume 2

Label: Angry Taxman Records ATR 016

The cover has a 1969 photo of Frank Zappa smoking a cigarette and wearing "a jugglers hat". 200 copies made. The record includes:

  • Hungry Freaks, Daddy
  • The Return of the Son of the Hunchback Duke (Medley: Little House I Used to Live in)
  • Help, I'm a Rock
  • King Kong

and more. From Jed A Harris:

You might be interested to know that Frank often referred to this concert. I saw him in Beloit and in Greenbay and both times the first thing he said was "Is there anybody here from Appleton?". At the Beloit concert (Flo & Eddie period) he went on to say that he didn't know why it was, but the two concerts he did in Appleton were two of the best performances that the band ever gave.

Got Zapped Back in '69

Lawrence University, Appleton, 23-May-1969

Musicians: Frank Zappa, Ian Underwood, Ray Collins, Don Preston, Jim "Motorhead" Sherwood, Bunk Gardner, Roy Estrada, Jimmy Carl Black, Art Tripp, Buzz Gardner and Lowell George - lookingly his last concert with the band

Label: MO 1- / 1101-0 (?)

1. Flute Solo (from "The Adventures of Greggary Peccary")
2. Uncle Meat Variation
3. Eye of Agamotto [misspelled as "Agamoto" (Don Preston)]

4. Prelude to the Afternoon of a Sexually Aroused Gas Mask
5. Hungry Freaks, Daddy
6. The Return of the Hunchback Duke (Little House I Used to Live in)

Track 1 is of course not from a performance of "The Adventures of Greggary Peccary", because that hadn't been written yet, but it's a melody that would later become part of "The Adventures of Greggary Peccary". Track 3 is a jazz-waltz piece that later appeared on the first Grandmothers album, credited to Don Preston. The Eye of Agamotto is a magical amulet belonging to the Marvel Comics character Dr. Strange.

The original was made in 100 copies: 80 on black vinyl, 20 on red. The cover has a black & white photo of the Mothers on stage, 1969.

Incognito

  • Royal Albert Hall, London, 06-Jun-1969
  • Fillmore West, San Francisco, 06-Nov-1970

Length: 15:06+15:30
Label: Safe Records Ltd

1969 musicians: Frank Zappa, Lowell George, Roy Estrada, Jimmy Carl Black, Arthur Dyer Tripp III, Ian Underwood, Don Preston, Bunk Gardner, Motorhead Sherwood and Buzz Gardner.

1970 musicians: Frank Zappa, Mark Volman, Howard Kaylan, Jeff Simmons, Aynsley Dunbar, Ian Underwood and George Duke

Originally pressed on black vinyl, repressed on blue & yellow. One side has an excerpt from the Royal Albert Hall, London, 06-Jun-1969. Sound can be rated as audience B-. No track separation but the following content:

1. Uncle Meat (03:24)
2. Drum Duet (01:26)
3. Some Ballet Music (07:15)
4. Improvisation (04:30)
5. Big Leg Emma (02:25)

The other side has the beginning of the Fillmore West 06-Nov-1970. Sound can be rated as soundboard A-:

1. Have Gun, Will Travel (01:31)
2. Call Any Vegetable (10:19)
3. The Sanzini Brothers (Intro) (00:19)

"Have Gun, Will Travel" was a "comedy" routine featuring "Paladin and Hayboy, a Chinese manservant". ("Have Gun, Will Travel" was a real western show on American TV.) The same recording, with "Call Any Vegetable", also appears on Time Sandwich.

An alternative track list, reversing the side order:

1. Have Gun Will Travel / Call Any Vegetables  (11:58)
2. Uncle Meat / Improvisations [segue on side 2] (03:32)

3. Improvisations [including drum duet / "Some Ballet Music" / "sexually aroused vocals" and "assorted madness" - segue from side 1] (12:52)
4. Big Leg Emma (02:04)

(This is the track list we used to display, which is either another version or much more likely completely wrong: 

1. Call Any Vegetable [1971]
2. A Pound for a Brown on the Bus [1971]
3. Improvisations
4. Sexually Aroused Vocals
5. Big Leg Emma [1969])

The Ark (LP/CD)
Special Edition Original (LP)
Live in Boston 18 July 1968 (CD)
Live USA (LP/CD)
Twenty Years Ago ... Again (CD)
Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention Live (CD)

  • The Ark, Boston, 08-Jul-1969 (often confused as 1968)
  • CD bonus tracks
  • Re-issued on CD on Living Legend Records, in 1988, as a "promo" (?!) - and on Exile Records, and by Evil Records as part of their 20 Years Ago ... Again series (in certain countries, it has been legal for anyone to release a live recording of a foreign artist, if it was at least 20 years old)
  • Re-issued on LP as Special Edition Original (in a "cartoon cover with lots of pictures of mouths")
  • Re-issued on LP and CD as Live USA (Imtrat /Live & Alive IMT 900.001 (CD))
  • Re-issued on CD as Live in Boston 18 July 1968 (Black Panther Records BPCD 014)
  • Re-iussued on CD as Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention Live (DV MORE RECORD CDDV 5502) (Italy 1991)
  • Also issued legally as part of the Beat the Boots set - actually in an edited, erroneous and slightly longer version, because vinyl side 1 was played somewhat slower than 33 1/3 RPM during the transfer.

The rough mix of the Ark tapes was STOLEN from Zappa - or "spirited away" out of TTG studios in Hollywood. Very energetic. The Actual release date has been suggested as around 1984.

Musicians: Frank Zappa, Jimmy Carl Black, Ian Underwood, Bunk Gardner, Don Preston, Jim "Motorhead" Sherwood, Roy Estrada and Arthur Dyer Tripp III, Buzz Gardner and maybe Lowell George

Original Vinyl

Length: ~45 min
Label: "Bizarre" Fydo-768 (LP)
Sound quality: Soundboard A-

1. Big Leg Emma (04:33)
2. Some Ballet Music (07:14)
3. Status Back Baby (05:55)
4. Valarie [Clarence Lewis / Bobby Robinson] (03:53)
5. My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama (06:50)

6. Uncle Meat / King Kong (Medley) (23:27)

Those are the six tracks on the fully legal re-issue, and on the original bootleg LP. Track 2 is also (same recording) on Apocrypha. It contains what would later become the "If it's wide enough, everyone will know ..." section of "The Adventures of Greggery Peccary".

The cover shows various creepy pictures of teeth sourrounded by monster-comic style monster heads. "Mothers" is written in dripping monster-comic style letters, too. Back cover imitates a Cal Schenkel montage with some Mothers and some other stuff. There are copies on black, red and multi-coloured vinyl.

Living Legend Records CD

Label: Living Legend Records LLR-CD 013

The CD re-issue on Living Legend Records has these three bonus tracks:

  • Agency Man (04:23) [Mystery Disc version]
  • The Story of Electricity (02:20)
  • Metal Man Has Won His Wings [listed as "Metal Man Has Hornet's Wings"] (02:56) [Mystery Disc version]

"The Story of Electricity" is Zappa talking about a record company's reaction to a demo tape, while two songs are playing in the background: "Power Trio from the Saints & Sinners" and "Bossa Nova Pervertamento", both officially released on the Mystery Disc.

20 Years Ago ... Again VS the Beat the Boots Version

(In certain countries, it has been legal to issue live recordings of foreign artists, as long as they were more than 20 years old. You didn't need permission.)

From Richard Kolke:

I have both the Beat the Boots CD and the Twenty Years Ago ... Again CD (Evil 001). There are a few differences between the two. First, the Beat the Boots version of "My Guitar" ends abruptly with the sound of a needle being scraped off the vinyl at 06:46. The Evil CD has the complete version and clocks in at 9:15. The Beat the Boots version has been run through some kind of noise reduction system, while the Evil CD has not. The 56-second intro to "Big Leg Emma" is missing from the Evil CD, and there are a couple of other edited intros as well. Total disc time is 50:15 (Evil) compared to 51:52 (Beat the Boots).

Live USA

Label: Imtrat IMT 900.001 (Live & Alive CD)

The Live USA issue has these bonus tracks:

7. Opus 5
8. This Is What We Sound Like [listed as "We Are the Mothers & This Is What We Sound Like"] / Right There (04:27)
9. Right There [continued, listed as "Run Home Slow"] (03:29)
10. The Jelly (02:05) [last part of the CD version of "Didja Get Any Onya?" from Weasels Ripped My Flesh, plus a few seconds extra]
11. Igor's Boogie [cut] (03:49) [including parts of "King Kong" on Ahead of Their Time]

They are taken from We Are the Mothers & This Is What We Sound Like, which is an old unreleased Zappa album (the original title is not certain, but may have been Rustic Protrusion) bootlegged as Rustic Protrusion, Necessity Is ... and We Are the Mothers & This Is What We Sound Like. They also appear as bonus tracks on the 'Tis the Season to Be Jelly CD on Living Legend Records. Some details:

  • "Opus 5" is "Mount St. Mary's Concert Excerpt" from The Lost Episodes, but starting 70-80 seconds before the official version and ending some 45 seconds earlier. It's falsely listed as "live Dallas".
  • "This Is What We Sound Like" is a live jam from the '60s, with a famous Zappa solo.
  • "Right There" is spread out over two tracks, so that it starts at 03:48 in track 8 - altogether it's 04:08 here, and 04:12 on the 'Tis the Season to Be Jelly CD. It's "Skweezit Skweezit Skweezit" from Mystery Disc, plus the last 40 or so seconds of "Right There" on Stage #5.
  • "The Jelly" is identified here as 1967. It's really from spring 1969 - exact date/ location unknown.
  • "Igor's Boogie" is probably from the same date and venue as track 10. It's shorter here than the 07:03 version on the 'Tis the Season to Be Jelly CD.
  • See the unreleased album's entry in the Weirdo Discography for more details on these tracks.

The CD version of Live USA has a painted Zappa in bow tie and suit with some faded musicians in the background on the cover. From Kristian Kier:

This CD is one of the first made by Imtrat, at that time this series was called "Live & Alive". In fact, it's their first CD ever (imt 900.001). They had a different grafic design as well. But it says "Live USA" on the CD itself. The first five CDs were in that outfit. Zappa, Dire Straits, Prince, Springsteen, and another one I don't have.

Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention Live

This issue has two of the Live USA bonus tracks, too, with this special track order:

1. My Guitar (08:53)
2. This Is What We Sound Like [listed as "We Are The Mothers, This Is What We Sound Like"] (03:48)
3. Status Back Baby (02:41)
4. Valerie (03:00)
5. Big Leg Emma (02:14)
6. Opus 5 (02:56)
7. The Uncle Meat / King Kong (23:32)

The cover and the CD both have an apple crossed with the text "MORE Than 20" (In Italy at the time, it was perfectly legal to issue certain foreign live recordings, as long as they were more than 20 years old - you didn't need permission). See the Live USA section for details on the bonus tracks.

Live in Boston 18 July 1968

Label: Black Panther Records BPCD 014

The cover has a picture of Zappa's face. Live in Europa, another Black Panther product, has an identical cover design but with a picture of Jimmy Carl Black instead. The date, of course, is wrong.

The Mothers of Invention Live in Framingham '69 (LP)
Framingham 1969 [?]

  • Carousel Theater, Framingham, 08-Aug-1969
  • Unknown

Label: Angry Taxman Records ATR (2) 006/007; FZ69

1. The Legend of the Golden Arches
2. Sleeping in a Jar
3. Improvisation
4. Bacon Fat [Andre Williams / Brown]

5. Big Leg Emma
6. Improvisation Around "King Kong"

Side 1 represents the entire recording known from Framingham 1969; side 2 is probably something else (date and location unknown).

Pressed on black vinyl, white vinyl and probably other colours as well. The covers came in various colours, with spray-painted titles. Someone adds that the "speed was too high". A marbled vinyl edition had the catalogue number FZ69, label unknown, and may have been titled "Framingham 1969".

Frank Zappa & Hot Rats at the Olympic (LP)
For Sharleena (LP/CD)
Twinkle Tits (CD)
Frank Zappa & Hot Rats at the Olympic / 200 Motels Live with Zubin Mehta & the LA Philharmonic (2 LP)
Provocative Squats (2 LP)

  • Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles, 07-Mar-1970
  • Also issued on LP and CD as For Sharleena by Flashback Records (FL 03.90.0113 (LP))
  • Re-issued on CD as Twinkle Tits
  • Re-issued with 200 Motels Live with Zubin Mehta & the LA Philharmonic (2 LP, TMOQ 7506, black/coloured vinyl) - and that double was copied on POD Records (with a different cover), re-pressed on green and orange vinyl from the TMOQ plates by K&S records as K&S 020 (150 copies), and re-issued as Provocative Squats, with a white cover and red insert
  • May have been re-issued on a "Big Pig" label

Length: ~45 min
Sound quality: Audience B
Label: Trademark of Quailty Records TMOQ 71059

Musicians (Hot Rats line-up): Frank Zappa, Ian Underwood, Aynsley Dunbar, Don "Sugar Cane" Harris and Max Bennett

1. Sharleena (10:25)
2. Twinkle Tits (10:20)
3. Directly From My Heart to You [Penniman] (5:50)

4. Chunga's Revenge [sometimes listed as "The Clap"] (24:31)

Tracks 2-3 are also on Apocrypha (same recording). Track 3 is a Little Richard number. Zappa announces "Twinkle Tits" as "a waltz" and a "world premiere" (the piece, "Twinkle Tits", is similar to "Little House I Used to Live in"). Track 4 is listed as "The Clap" only on the original, not on the re-issues. Some report that it was first pressed on black vinyl and housed in a hand-stamped white cover, and that later issues sport several printed covers and red and blue vinyl pressings, but there are confirmed report of an orange vinyl pressing of TMOQ 71059, housed in an orange, hand-stamped cardboard cover. The CD cover of For Sharleena is very yellow, with ZAPPA in large flowing letters.

The original Frank Zappa & Hot Rats at the Olympic bootleg LP was one of the earliest Zappa bootlegs. It was released some time between 1970 and 1974.

Freaks & Motherfuckers (LP)

  • Fillmore East OR West, 1970 (location & date fiercly debatable)
  • Re-issued in a 222-copy editition (because it says so on the cover!) with a bonus poster of Zappa's head
  • Also issued legally as part of the Beat the Boots set as Freaks & Mother*#@%!

Length: ~45 min
Label: The Swingin' Pig Records TSP 017
Sound quality: Bad

Musicians: Frank Zappa, Mark Volman, Howard Kaylan, Jeff Simmons, Aynsley Dunbar, George Duke and Ian Underwood

1. Happy Together [Bonner/Gordon] (01:25)
2. Wino Man - with Dr. John Routine (07:44) ["Wonderful Wino", Zappa/Simmons]
3. Concentration Moon (01:18)
4. Paladin Routine (01:14)
5. Call Any Vegetable (08:46)

6. Little House I Used to Live in [inclduding "Penis Dimension"]
7. Mudshark Variations
8. Holiday in Berlin [with lyrics!] [including "Would You Like a Snack?"]
9. Instrumental [including "Inca Roads" & "Easy Meat" themes]
10. Cruisin' for Burgers (02:51)

Total track time for tracks 6-9: 16:34.

Black & white cover: an ugly, sketchy drawing of Zappa holding a guitar. Small texts read things like "Like this one!". Track listings scribbled on the back. Sound characterized by myself as unlistenable. Made in Europe. The original came out in 1983. "Realised somewhere over the rainbow - all rights reserved".

This seems to be hodge-podged together from tapes of two shows that night (that goes also for the Tengo 'na Minchia Tanta boot). Probably tracks 4-5 are from the early show, and tracks 1-3 and 6-10 are from the late show.Track 9 contains 40 seconds of "Inca Roads" (a very early version, of course, with only the 16th-note theme) and 24 seconds of "Easy Meat". Side 2 is the same performance as side two of Hotel Dixie and tracks 11-14 of Tengo 'na Minchia Tanta, but here you can hear Zappa's introducing the suite and a "thank you" after "Cruisin' for Burgers", which are not included on Tengo. 

The location and date of this show is up for grabs. Beat the Boots claims it as Fillmore East 11-May-1970, which is wrong; the Flo & Eddie band had not been formed then. According to fanzine T'Mershi Duween, the tape the boots are struck from is recorded at the Fillmore West and sometimes identified as 24-May-1970, sometimes as 6-Nov-1970. (As Mike Phillips points out, Zappa does talk about "the speech-impediment lounge at the Fillmore East" on Tengo 'na Minchia Tanta.) Some people identify them as 14-Dec-1970, but according to Miles' book A Visual Documentary, Zappa was in Europe in December 1970, which has given rise to the date 14-Nov-1970. The Hotel Dixie boot claims to be from that date, but is it the same recording? Pick your favourite.

Tengo 'na Minchia Tanta (LP/CD)
A Snail in My Nose (CD)

  • Fillmore East OR West, 1970 (location & date fiercly debatable)
  • Re-issued on CD (Lost Rose 8)
  • Re-issued on CD as A Snail in My Nose (Teddy Bear Records TB 49 (Italy)), with the bar code 8 016607 942492
  • Also issued legally as part of the Beat the Boots II set

Length: 51:37
Sound quality: Soundboard A

Musicians: Frank Zappa, Mark Volman, Howard Kaylan, Jeff Simmons, Aynsley Dunbar, George Duke and Ian Underwood

This is the 14 tracks on the CD version:

1. Does This Kind Of Life Look Interesting To You? (00:49) [intro]
2. A Pound for a Brown on the Bus (07:26)
3. Sleeping in a Jar / Interlude (04:50)
4. Sharleena (04:31)
5. The Sanzini Brothers / FZ Talking to Audience (02:22)
6. What Will This Morning Bring Me This Evening? (02:30)
7. What Kind Of Girl Do You Think We Are? (01:44)
8. Bwana Dik (01:46)
9. Latex Solar Beef (01:00)
10. Daddy, Daddy, Daddy (02:50)
11. Little House I Used to Live in [including "Penis Dimension"] (04:10)
12. Holiday in Berlin [with lyrics!] [including "Would You Like a Snack?"] (04:29)
13. Instrumental [including "Inca Roads" & "Easy Meat"] (07:16)
14. Cruising For Burgers (02:46)

The Italian title comes from a 1980s number in the Uncle Meat movie and on the Uncle Meat CD re-issue; an Italian has translated it as "I got a big bunch of dick". An Italian re-issue is cowardly renamed A Snail in My Nose.

This seems to be hodge-podged together from tapes of two shows that night (that goes also for the Freaks & Motherfuckers boot). Tracks 1-5 are probably from the early show and tracks 8-14 from the late show (?). Tracks 6-7 could be from both. The "Interlude" includes "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head", and track 13 includes 40 seconds of "Inca Roads" (a very early version, of course, with only the 16th-note theme) and 24 seconds of "Easy Meat". Around the track break between tracks 11 and 12 there are some "Mudshark Variations".

"Sharleena" is the same performance as on Hotel Dixie. Tracks 11-14 are the same recording as side two of Freaks & Motherfuckers and Hotel Dixie. 

The location and date of this show is up for grabs. Beat the Boots claims it as Fillmore East 11-May-1970, which is wrong; the Flo & Eddie band had not been formed then. According to fanzine T'Mershi Duween, the tape the boots are struck from is recorded at the Fillmore West and sometimes identified as 24-May-1970, sometimes as 6-Nov-1970. (As Mike Phillips points out, Zappa does talk about "the speech-impediment lounge at the Fillmore East" during "Does This Kind of Life Look Interesting to You?".) Some people identify them as 14-Dec-1970, but according to Miles' book A Visual Documentary, Zappa was in Europe in December 1970, which has given rise to the date 14-Nov-1970. The Hotel Dixie boot claims to be from that date - but is it the same recording? Pick your favourite.

A Snail in My Nose has a different, imagainative track listing on the cover, but everyone says its a copy of Tengo 'na Minchia Tanta. The cover picture is a black and white snail on a colourful background. The Lost Rose CD cover has a sepia head-and-upper-body photo of Zappa playing guitar with a blurred portrait of him in the background.

Hotel Dixie (LP/CD)

  • Fillmore East, 14-Nov-1970 [?]

Also featured as record 5 of Twenty Years of Frank Zappa (re-issued on CD).

Sound quality: Soundboard
LP label: New Sound Records/Mud Shark MZ4805
CD label: RXZ Records 317A

Musicians: Frank Zappa, Mark Volman, Howard Kaylan, Jeff Simmons, Aynsley Dunbar, George Duke and Ian Underwood

1. Sharleena (04:31)
2. The Air (03:10)
3. Dog Breath (02:05)
4. Mother People (02:11)
5. You Didn't Try to Call Me (03:14)
6. King Kong (01:19)
7. Mom & Dad (03:37)

8. The Duke ["Little House I Used to Live in"/"Penis Dimension"/"Mudshark Variations"]
9. Would You Like a Snack? / Holiday in Berlin [with lyrics! - not listed]
10. Instrumental [including "Inca Roads" and "Easy Meat" themes]
11. Cruisin' for Burgers

"Sharleena" is the same performance as on Tengo 'na Minchia Tanta. Side 2 is the same recording as tracks 11-14 on Tengo 'na Minchia Tanta and side 2 of Freaks & Motherfuckers.

The front cover has a couple of pictures of Zappa, a track list and the "House of Stairs" litograph by Maurits Cornelis Escher. Band photo on back cover: Dunbar and Preston sawing into person strapped to table. The label says "The Billy Dexter Band" instead of Zappa; side two is called "THE AGONY OF DEFEAT". "Billy Dexter" was a name Zappa used instead of his own on the Mothers' single "Tears Began to Fall", in 1971.

Hotel Dixie was the title of one of the albums in The History & Collected Improvisations of The Mothers of Invention, a big box Zappa planned but never released: not to be confused with its bootleg box namesake.

Wino Man (LP)
Schischgebab (LP)
Los Botas Graciosas Marchan Sobre Polonia (LP)
Thanks for the Mammaries (LP)
From the Vaults to the Biggest Halls Volume 1 (LP)

  • The Mothers live in Uddel, The Netherlands, 18-Jun-1970
  • Canned Heat
  • Steve Miller
  • Richie Havens
  • Bob Dylan
  • Wino Man possibly re-issued as Schischgebab
  • Los Botas Graciosas Marchan Sobre Polonia, Thanks for the Mammaries and From the Vaults to the Biggest Halls Volume 1 are completely different records

Length: ~45 min
Label: BM1020

1. Wino Man ["Wonderful Wino", Zappa/Simmons]
2. Mother People
3. Call Any Vegetable
4. King Kong

5. Canned Heat: Future Blues
6. Steve Miller Blues Band: Shake
7. Richie Havens: High Flyin' Bird
8. Bob Dylan: Ramblin' Gamblin' Willie
9. Bob Dylan: I'll Be Your Baby Tonight

  • Side one is the Mothers live in Uddel, the Netherlands, 18-Jun-1970. Tracks 1-2 can also be found on At the Circus.
  • Side two is a bunch of other artists.

There have been rumours that this album was put out legally by the VPRO, a Dutch broadcast organisation, who televised the Uddel set in a series called Piknik (the videotapes have been lost), but it wasn't; in fact, it was the first Dutch bootleg. Live in Holland & Elsewhere is a more complete issue of the same set. "Hand made" cover reported.

The odd track assortment bears some resemblance to sampler issues like Radura Una's Los Botas Graciosas Marchan Sobre Polonia (A6957B, Zappa "contributed" the "Camarillo Brillo Bomp" - a 1975 live version), The Amazing Kornyphone Record Label's Thanks for the Mammaries (Zappa appeared with "Jones Crusher") and From the Vaults to the Biggest Halls Volume 1 (LLPR 901) from Living Legend Records (the track was Wild Man Fischer's "I'm the Meanie", as on Our Man in Nirvana) - but these are generally more balanced. :)

Live in Holland & Elsewhere (LP)

  • Uddel, The Netherlands, 18-Jun-1970
  • "Pittsburgh 1981" bonus tracks (SPURIOUS)

Matrix: VINCENT A/B

1. Interview
2. Wonderful Wino [Zappa/Simmons]
3. Concentration Moon
4. Mom & Dad
5. The Air
6. Dog Breath
7. Mother People
8. You Didn't Try to Call Me
9. Call Any Vegetable (part 1)

10. Invocation & Ritual Dance of the Young Pumpkin
11. Soft Sell Conclusions
12. King Kong
13. Black Napkins
14. Andy

Tracks 2-12 live in Uddel 1970; tracks 13-14 are unknown bonus tracks identifed as "Pittsburgh 1981". Track 9 is partial. This Uddel set was televised by the Dutch broadcast organisation VPRO, in a program called Piknik. Track 1 might be an interview from that broadcast. Live in Holland & Elsewhere is a numbered edition - 350 copies, according to some sources.

Safe Muffinz (LP)

  • 21-Aug-1970, Santa Monica Civic Center (not El Monte Legion Stadium, July 1971)

This recording has for a long time been thought to come from the El Monte Legion Stadium, July 1971, but it doesn't - Zappa does say "welcome to the El Monte Legion Stadium", but it's clearly the 1970 band on the record, and the recording has been identified as Santa Monica 21-Aug-1970.

Length: ~45 min
Sound quality: Audience B
Label: The Amazing Kornyphone Record Label TAKRL 1929

Musicians: Frank Zappa, Mark Volman, Howard Kaylan, Jeff Simmons, Aynsley Dunbar, Ian Underwood and George Duke

1. Call Any Vegetable
2. The Air
3. Dog Breath
4. Mother People
5. You Didn't Try to Call Me
6. Would You Go All the Way?
7. Rudy Wants to Buy Yez a Drink

8. Road Ladies
9. What Will This Morning Bring Me This Evening
10. What Kind of Girl Do You Think We Are?
11. Bwana Dik
12. Latex Solar Beef
13. Daddy, Daddy, Daddy [partial]

14. Do You Like My New Car?
15. Happy Together [Bonner/Gordon]
16. What Will This Evening Bring Me This Morning?

(The last 3 tracks are on side 2; however, they're not included in all listings, but have been confirmed.)

The 50 original copies were issued with black & white inserts-in-the-shrink-wrap instead of covers - re-issues have colour cardboard covers (first orange, then green) and colour inserts (an orange cover copy with red & white insert has been reported). The front cover is based on the Cal Shenkel poster for the 1971 Pauley
Pavilion concert, and (misleadlingly) says "El Monte Legion Stadium 1971". Originally released in 1974.

This bootleg is archived in the United States Library of Congress! It's true: search for it in their on-line catalogue, they have it! :D (I don't know if there's such a thing as an item being removed from the Library of Congress, but as of April 2000, it was there. Control number 5672537.)

Disconnected Synapses (LP/CD)
Not Just Another Zappa Record (LP)
Frankie Goes to Paris - Continued (LP)
Struck All of a Heap (LP)
Paralipomeni della Batracomiomachia (CD)
Live in Paris 1970 (CD)

  • Palais Gaumont, Paris, 15-Dec-1970
  • Also issued as Not Just Another Zappa Record (Z-5)
  • Also issued as Frankie Goes to Paris - Continued ("continued"?) in 300 copies, 50 on blue vinyl (in the '80s, there was a pop group called "Frankie Goes to Hollywood")
  • Also issued on CD as Paralipomeni della Batracomiomachia (Teddy Bear Records TB48)
  • Concert also bootlegged as Struck All of a Heap
  • Concert also issued on CD as Live in Paris 1970 (Armando Curcio Editore) in Italy in 1992
  • Also issued legally as part of the Beat the Boots II set

Musicians: Frank Zappa, George Duke, Aynsley Dunbar, Howard Kaylan, Mark Volman, Jeff Simmons, Ian Underwood and special guest Jean-Luc Ponty

Disconnected Synapses

Sound quality: Soundboard A-
Label: Wild Bird (CD)

1. Sanzini Brothers
2. Penis Dimension (interpolating early "Bwana Dik") (11:18)
3. The Air (03:57)
4. Dog Breath
5. Mother People
6. You Didn't Try to Call Me (03:36)
7. King Kong (32:29)
8. Who Are the Brain Police? (06:28)

On Paralipomeni della Batracomiomachia, track 1 is not listed (but appears) and tracks 4-5 appear as one CD track. Live in Paris 1970 has tracks 7, 3, 2, 6, 4-5 as one track, and 8, in that order.

(Dr. István Fekete has researched the title Paralipomeni della Batracomiomachia, and according to him, it is taken from the works of Giacomo Leopardi, a 19th Century Italian poet. He wrote it as a sequel to the comedy The Frogs by Aristophanes, one of the classic writers from ancient Greece. (Leopardi had translated The Frogs into Italian three times.) "Paralipomeni" means appendix or sequel; "Batracomiomachia" means approximately "frog-mouse fight" or "much ado 'bout nothing" - so it's basically "The Sequel to The Frogs" or "The Frogs II". It probably has something to do with the fact that it's a French recording.)

Not Just Another Zappa Record

From the same show, but with better sound, and a slightly different track list.

Label: Z-5

1. Call Any Vegetable
2. Amp Repair / The Sanzini Brothers
3. Penis Dimension

4. Instrumental [the same basic structure as "Nine Types of Industrial Pollution"]
5. The Air
6. Dog Breath / Mother People
7. You Didn't Try to Call Me
8. King Kong [fades out]

Struck All of a Heap

1. A Pound for a Brown on the Bus
2. The Air
3. The Bee-Gees [?]
4. Dog Breath
5. Mother People
6. You Didn't Try To Call Me
7. King Kong [continues on side 2]

8. John Cale Interview [no Zappa relation]
9. King Kong [continued from side 1]

According to some sources, this bootleg contains "Transsylvania Boogie". This does not seem to be the case, according to the reported track list above. The cover has a black & white photo of Zappa dressed in an overcoat.

 

On to 1971-1975

home - vinyl vs CDs - weirdo discography - bootlegs - misc - hot lynx - e-mail us at zappa dot patio at gmail dot com 2006-04-22 20:02

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