Frank Zappa On-Stage

 

Disk 1

The Florida Airport Tape
Once Upon A Time
Sofa #1
the Mammy Anthem
You Didn't Try To Call Me
Diseases Of The Band
Tryin' To Grow A Chin
Let's Make The Water Turn Black
Harry, You're A Beast
The Orange County Lumber Truck
The Groupie Routine
Ruthie-Ruthie
Babbette
I'm The Slime
Big Swifty
Don't Eat The Yellow Snow

Disk 2

Plastic People
The Torture Never Stops
Fine Girl
Zombie Woof
Sweet Leilani
Oh No
Be In My Video
The Deathless Horsie
The Dangerous Kitchen
Dumb All Over
Heavenly Bank Account
Suicide Chump
Tell Me You Love Me
Sofa #2
This set has a little from just about every Zappa incarnation. As such, this volume will give you a good over-view of Frank's career.

Unlike some of the other offerings in this series, VOL. 1 is strong from start to finish with practically every song worth highlighting.

Check out Mammie Anthem for a 3-guitar-grunge assault, The Groupie Routine for Howard and Mark madness, Don't Eat The Yellow Snow for some bad poetry, and The Torture Never stops for an intense Zappa guitar solo, just to name a few.

 

 

Disc 1

Tush Tush Tush
Stinkfoot
Inca Roads
RDNZL
Village Of The Sun
Echidna's Arf (Of You)
Don't You Ever Wash That Thing?
Pygmy Twylyte
Room Service
The Idiot Bastard Son
Cheapnis

Disc 2

Approximate
Dupree's Paradise
Satumaa (Finnish Tango)
T'Mershi Duween
The Dog Breath Variations
Uncle Meat
Building A Girl
Montana (Whipping Floss)
Big Swifty
If You crave the '74 band, then you gotta own this one.

Frank billed this as a full concert, but I get the feeling that it has been severely edited to accentuate the musical performance.

It took quite a few listenings for VOL. 2 to grow on me, but once I "saw the light", This package converted me into a '74 band fanatic.

Several of the pieces here are the same as Roxy & Elsewhere, but the performance of those tunes is drastically enhanced by the band being more familiar with the arrangements. Take a listen to this one and you will not believe that Napoleon was suffering from pneumonia. He must have passed out after this performance.

 

 
Disc 1

Sharleena
Bamboozled By Love
Advance Romance (1984)
Bobby Brown Goes Down
Keep It Greasey
Honey, Don't You want a Man Like Me?
In France
Drowning Witch
Ride My Face To Chicago
Carol, You Fool
Chana In De Bushwop
Joe's Garage
Why Does It Hurt When I Pee?

 Disc 2

Dickies Such An Asshole
Hands With A Hammer
Zoot Allures
Society Pages
I'm A Beautiful Guy
Beauty Knows No Pain
Charlie's Enormous Mouth
Cocaine Decision
Nig Biz
King Kong
Cosmik Debris
Sharleena, which features a Zappa and son guitar workout, is enough of a reason to buy VOL. 3 The remainder of disk 1 features the '84 band and is the only "real" showcase for that incarnation of Frank's band. I just wish the band wouldn't have had such a thin and twinkly sound. Oh well.

Disk 2 features the '82 band, which is a real treat. You even get to hear the infamous Palermo riot that ended that tour.

Overall, this is a good representation of late period Zappa.

 

 
Disk 1

Little Rubber Girl
Stick Together
My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama
Willie The Pimp
Montana
Brown Moses
The Evil Prince
Approximate
Love Of My Life
--- Mudd Club Version
Let's Move To Cleveland Solos (1984)
You Call That Music?
Pound for A Brown Solos (1978)
The Black Page (1984)
Take Me Out To The Ball Game
Filthy Habits
The Torture Never Stops
--- Original Version

 Disk 2

Church Chat
Stevie's Spanking
Outside Now
Disco Boy
Teen-Age Wind
Truck Driver Divorce
Florentine Pogen
Tiny Sick Tears
Smell My Beard
The Booger Man
Carolina Hard Core Ecstacy
Are You Upset?
Little Girl Of Mine
The Closer You Are
Johnny Darling
No, No Cherry
The Man From Utopia
Mary Lou
After a weak vocal improv between Frank and Denny on Rubber Girl, VOL 4 opens into some delicious offerings from the '84 band which culminate in a must-hear version of The Evil Prince. The original version of The Torture Never Stops, a Zappa staple, closes disk 1. One would never have guessed that this Zappa classic started as a blues vamp with Captain Beefheart singing.

The guitar dual piece between Frank and Steve vai, Stevies Spanking, opens disk 2 which culminates in several '50s style tunes delivered by the '84 band. Tiny Sick Tears and Smell My Beard offer a bit of vocal mayhem along the way.

 

 
Disc 1

The Downtown Talent Scout
Charles Ives
Here Lies Love
Piano/Drum Duet
Mozart Ballet
Chocolate Halvah
JCB & Kansas On The Bus
Run Home Slow: Main Title Theme
The Little March
Right There
Where Is Johnny Velvet?
Return Of The Hunch-Back Duke
Trouble Every Day
Proto-Minimalism
JCB & Kansas On The Bus #2
My Head?
Meow
Baked-Bean Boogie
Where's Our Equipment?
FZ/JCB Drum Duet
No Waiting For The Peanuts To Dissolve
A Game Of Cards
Underground Freak-Out Music
German Lunch
My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama

 Disc 2

Easy Meat
Dead Girls Of London
Shall We Take Ourselves Seriously?
What's New In Baltimore
Moggio
Dancin' Fool
RDNZL
Advance Romance
City Of Tiny Lights
A Pound for A Brown (On The Bus)
Doreen
The Black Page #2
Geneva Farewell
Disk 1 of Vol. 5 is devoted entirely to the original Mothers, while disk 2 is The ill-fated '82 band's Geneva performance in its entirety. Frank called the concert short when his warning to the audience to stop throwing "things" on stage went un-heeded. This caused a small riot.

Performances of note include Here Lies Love, sung by Lowell George, FZ/JCB Drum Duet, Moggio and RDNZL.

 

 
Disk 1

The M.O.I. Anti-smut Loyalty Oath
The Poodle Lecture
Dirty Love
Magic Fingers
The Madison Panty-Sniffing Festival
Honey, Don't You want A Man Like Me?
Father O'Blivion
Is That Guy Kidding Or What?
I'm So Cute
White Person
Lonely Person Devices
Ms. Pinky
Shove It Right In
Wind Up Working In A Gas Station
Make A Sex Noise
Tracy Is A Snob
I Have Been In You
Emperor Of Ohio
Dinah-Moe Humm
He's So Gay
Camarillo Brillo
Muffin Man

 disk 2

NYC Halloween Audience
The Illinois Enema Bandit
Thirteen
Lobster Girl
Black Napkins
We're Turning Again
Alien Orifice
Catholic Girls
Crew Slut
Tryin' To Grow A Chin
Take Your Clothes Off when
--- You Dance
Lisa's Life Story
Lonesome Cowboy Nando
200 Motels Finale
Strictly Genteel
I get the impression that this package was somewhat "thrown" together in order to complete the 12-disk set as Frank had promised. Still, VOL. 6 has some great moments.

Be sure to check out Lonely Person Devices for the scoop on where Ms. Pinky came from. Make A Sex Noise features some great female-members-of-the-audience participation, and Black Napkins, taken from the Zappa In New York performances, features a bitchin' Michael Brecker sax workout. I'd sure like to hear more material from those concerts.