The fifth anniversary party concludes with the first post of Year Six.
This one is a first in itself, in that it features not one but two essential concerts recorded on the very same date -- today's -- five years apart.
I've blogged Frank Zappa probably more than any other artist in the half decade I've been doing this, but I've never done these shows so here we go.
The first one -- taped 50 years ago in the iconic Olympia in Paris -- is a vintage Mothers romp and finds the Jazz-Rock direction FZ would explore at the turn of the 1970s really starting to come to the fore.
The second set -- recorded five years to the day later -- comes from the equally-as-legendary Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin, Texas and chronicles the advent of the band that made Roxy & Elsewhere coming together and bubbling up.
I've zipped them up separately but you're welcome to get both, one or neither, which in and of itself is galaxies more democratic than the whole of US elections since Citizens' United.
Frank Zappa/Mothers
October 26
1968+1973
i.
L'Olympia
Paris, France
10.26.1968
01 Improvisations
02 King Kong
03 Plastic People
04 tune-up & Hungry Freaks preamble
05 Hungry Freaks, Daddy
06 Green Genes preamble
07 Son of Mr. Green Genes
Total time: 50:41
Frank Zappa - guitar & vocals
Roy Estrada - bass & vocals
Jimmy Carl Black - drums, percussion & vocals
Art Tripp - drums, percussion & vocals
Ian Underwood - alto saxophone, keyboards, percussion & vocals
Don Preston - synthesizer & keyboards
Bunk Gardner - reeds & woodwinds
Motorhead Sherwood - saxophones, percussion & vocals
1st gen cassette from the soundboard master
329 MB FLAC here
ii.
Armadillo World Headquarters
Austin, TX
10.26.1973
01 FZ introduction
02 Cosmik Debris
03 Inca Roads
04 Pygmy Twylyte
05 The Idiot Bastard Son
06 Cheepnis
07 Big Swifty
08 FZ introduction
09 Dickie’s Such an Asshole
10 Farther Oblivion
11 Son of Mr. Green Genes/King Kong/Chunga’s Revenge medley
Total time 1:19:30
Frank Zappa - guitar & vocals
Napoleon Murphy Brock - tenor saxophone, percussion & vocals
George Duke - keyboards, percussion & vocals
Ruth Underwood - marimba & percussion
Bruce Fowler - trombone
Tom Fowler - bass
Ralph Humphrey - drums & percussion
Chester Thompson - drums & percussion
2nd gen soundboard master cassette
tape flip smoothed and dead air trimmed slightly to fit a single CD by EN, October 2018
531 MB/October 2018 archive link
531 MB/October 2018 archive link
So there it is, the Five Years theme writ large. I shall return on Halloween with one last spooky blast for October.
I will post again at the start of Zappadan -- on the 25th anniversary of his passing-- in December. But for now, you can listen to your Mothers and enjoy these two ridiculously entertaining sets!--J.
12.21.1940 - 12.4.1993