["Sharleena"]—in perhaps a still longer version—will appear on You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, a Rykodisc CD scheduled for mid '87 (Barking Pumpkin plans to release a 10-album LP set under the same name in early '87).
Mr. Zappa estimates that he has led some 25 different bands and 150 musicians over the years. In what may become the largest recording project of his prolific recording career, he has begun work on a 13-volume artistic chronicle. The albums, entitled "You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore," will stitch together different performances from the Zappa oeuvre in a way that plunges the listener backward and forward in time.
"As well as chronicling the exploits of various bands," Mr. Zappa said, "it will be a living history of what has happened to recording technology in the last two decades, since the mediums in which the music was recorded range all the way from tape made with two microphones to 24-track digital."
date: June, 1970 location: AN AIRPORT IN FLORIDA original recording medium: 2 track analog recording engineer: F.Z. remote facility: UHER portable remix engineer: BOB STONE remix facility: UTILITY MUFFIN RESEARCH KITCHEN
Jeff: We started with San Antonio last night. [...] And then Atlanta, Tallahassee, Orlando, and then Jacksonville, and then we're doin' Europe. We have a few days off.
70/10/08, San Antonio, TX, Memorial Center, Trinity University, CONFIRMED
70/10/09, Tallahassee, FL, Tully Gymnasium, Florida State University, CONFIRMED
YCDTOSA Vol. 1 (1988) | The Mothers 1971 (2022) |
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1.02. Once Upon A Time | 8.03. Divan: Once Upon A Time |
0:00-4:37 | 0:00-4:36 |
And sure enough, boards of oak appeared throughout the emptiness as far as vision permits, stretching all the way from Belfast to Bognor Regis.
date: December 10, 1971 location: RAINBOW THEATER, LONDON, ENGLAND [...]
A week before this show, all our touring equipment was destroyed in a fire at the Montreux Casino in Geneva, Switzerland (remember "Smoke On The Water" by Deep Purple?). This was our first concert after scrounging for new band gear. Most of it didn't work too well. We did our best to put on a good show, however, toward the end of the concert I was knocked off the stage by an irate individual qho later told police that we hadn't given him his money's worth and that I had been maked "eyes" at his girl friend. I spent a month in the hospital and the best part of the following year in a wheel chair. He went to jail for a short while.
Q. What was the story about you getting thrown off the stage in England? I've heard several different rumors about that.
FZ. We had played a concert on December 10 at the Rainbow Theater in London. We had finished the concert and played an encore and I was on my way off the stage. Half the band was already off the stage and the security people were off to the side getting loaded. And some geek ran out of the audience and knocked me off the stage, fifteen feet down into a concrete floored orchestra pit.
Q. Did he yell anything at you or . . .
FZ. Nothin', I don't even know what he looked like, I never saw him. I woke up in the orchestra pit, my arm was broken, my rib was broken, I had a hole in the back of my head. My head was twisted all the way over onto the side of my shoulder. And my face was banged up, and I went "Uunngh!" Spent a month in the hospital there and about nine months in a wheelchair.
YCDTOSA Vol. 1 (1988) | The Mothers 1971 (2022) |
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1.03. Sofa | 8.04. Divan: Sofa |
0:00-2:53 | 0:00-2:52 |
This was the opening number of the infamous Palermo riot concert. Set #2 features another cut from this show (when the riot begins, with nicely recorded grenade launchers in the background)
Special thanks to Tan Mitsugu
YCDTOSA Vol. 1 (1988) | Date & Location |
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0:00 | Geneva, July 1, 1982 |
2:05 | Palermo, July 14, 1982 |
3:44 | Palermo, July 14, 1982 (eight bars of guitar solo edited out) |
4:39 | Geneva, July 1, 1982 (repeats 1:17-1:48) |
5:10 | Palermo, July 14, 1982 |
date: July 3, 1980 location: OLYMPIA HALL, MUNICH, W. GERMANY original recording medium: 2 track direct digital recording engineer: MICK GLOSSOP remote facility: PCM 1600 in dressing room [...]
Sony, at this time, was offering bands on tour in Europe the use of their new PCM 1600 2-channel digital recording system. This is from that first digital recording session. It is a live to 2-track original mix, executed from a makeshift "instant studio" set up in the dressing room.
That was a separate console that Mick [Glossop] & I setup in a room upstairs (Midas console) and we ran a snake with some feeds both direct split and sub mixes from my house console. I think the machine we rented for that show was a 1580, I don't remember for sure, but later came the 1600, the 1610 and we bought a 1630 which had better converters in it.
[...] That was the first digital recording Frank ever did. He did not like the sound quality on it and it almost kept us from going with digital later. Frank said that it was like getting 8 k darts in the middle of your forehead. And that it really hurt your ears.
We hired Mick Glossop, who came in and did a live digital 2-track with us one time. And him and I worked together. I set him up a console all of his own, and I did the house mix, and he did the recording mix, and I'd feed him some of the sub feeds from the keyboards, and feed things like that, but he pretty much did some really nice live recordings on his own, of tapes we did later.
That show was notable because it was recorded on an early Soundstream two-channel digital system, a brand new contraption way back in 1980.
date: February 18, 1979 location: ODEON HAMMERSMITH, LONDON, ENGLAND original recording medium: 24 track analog recording engineer: MICK GLOSSOP remote facility: ISLAND MOBILE remix engineer: BOB STONE remix facility: UTILITY MUFFIN RESEARCH KITCHEN
Prior to purchasing the U.M.R.K. Mobile Studio, all "first class" live recordings had to be done using rented equipment. This meant that high quality live recordings could only be obtained in major cities where professional gear was available (London or New York), and so it became a tradition during every European Tour that we would do a live recording at The Odeon Hammersmith in London (or the Paladium in New York City if it was a U.S. Tour).
The unfortunate aspect of this tradition is that if anybody in the band became ill on the recording day, the results of that handicapped performance wound up on tape [...].
On this recording date, many members of the band were ill, but, in spite of it, delivered one of the best concerts of the tour as you will hear from the last cut on this disc).
As Frank has expressed in song, the food in England could be pretty awful. So bad, in fact, that some of the band members got food poisoning from the rancid swill we were fed backstage at the Hammersmith. I was so sick by the last of the three days that I skipped the sound check. When I got there and told Frank I would do my best to make it through the show, he said, "Well, I've got bad news for you. We're recording tonight and I want to play everything we know, which means it will go on for three hours or so. You'd better get yourself a stool and a bucket." That is exactly what I did.
And of course, Sophia Warren on guitar.
AG: One obvious question I've got to ask you is why you were called "Sophia"?
Warren Cuccurullo: That was because I was always wearing women's clothing.
AG: I thought it was after Sophia Loren—Sophia War-ren.
WC: And she's Italian, too! We both came up with the name. I used to wear glass earrings, tiger coats, big boots, it was my first time in the UK and I went to Kensington Market. I was buying, like, jackets for 50p and I came out wearing everything I bought. I used to go to rehearsals at the Rainbow like that.
London, UK, February 19, 1979 | YCDTOSA Vol. 1 (Zappa Records, 1988) |
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0:00-0:41 | 0:00-0:40 |
0:41-2:33 | |
2:33-4:15 | 0:40-2:22 |
4:15-4:21 |
Scared of the future
'N I wish I was dead
(Mattie told Hattie . . . )
You will notice that somewhere in the middle of "TRYIN' TO GROW A CHIN," Denny Walley forgets the words to the song (which he did frequently on this tune). The references to "WOOLY BULLY" ("Mattie told Hattie, etc,') are part of another inscrutable band tradition. It appears periodically throughout the series in various incarnations.
I don't know why, but it was a pretty good bet that I would fuck up the lyrics about 30% of the time. The songs that were most in danger of getting fucked up were "Tryin' To Grow A Chin" and "Tiny Lites." Whenever you hear Frank start singing "Mattie told Hattie" (from Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs' song, "Wooly Bully") that was the signal that I had just fucked up the lyrics. I would scramble for some new never before heard lyrics of my own design to try and fill the void. The results were mixed.
London, February 18, 1979 (late show) | YCDTOSA Vol. 1 (Zappa Records, 1988) |
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0:00-3:46 | 0:00-3:44 |
date: February, 1969 location: THE BALLROOM, STRATFORD, CONNECTICUT original recording medium: 2 track analog recording engineer: DICK KUNC remote facility: UHER portable (7 1/2 ips) [...]
This is a rare recording of the early Mothers Of Invention, as constituted on the tour prior to the band's break-up (after a concert in North Carolina a few months later).
9. THE GROUPIE ROUTINE
[...] date: July 8, 1971 location: PAULEY PAVILLION, UCLA, CALIFORNIA original recording medium: 4 track analog recording engineer: BARRY KEENE remote facility: SCULLY 4TK AT MIX CONSOLE [...]The 1971 band performed this routine every night, and every night it changed a little. This L.A. version has a few good variations in it.
Los Angeles, CA, August 7, 1971 (audience tape) | You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 1 (1988) |
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20. Willie The Pimp | 1.09. The Groupie Routine |
2:51-2:54 | 0:00-0:03 |
21. Do You Like My New Car | |
0:00-0:58 | 0:03-1:02 |
0:58-1:07 | |
1:07-5:19 | 1:02-5:15 |
5:19-5:28 | |
5:28-5:54 | 5:15-5:41 |
5:54-7:46 |
Mark: Have you ever run into any of the members of the Three Dog Night?
Howard: Joe Schermie once, uh . . .
Mark: Oh-HHH! They are my favorite band, they're so professional, I mean, so creative . . .
How about David Crosby? I mean, [...] he almost cut his hair, but he didn't, well . . .
Three unreleased recordings of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young fighting at the Fillmore East
Well, we have another song for you that goes far beyond Louie Louie, Ruthie-Ruthie, or even Brian Brian
date: November 18, 1974 location: CAPITOL THEATER, PASSAIC, NEW JERSEY original recording medium: 4 track analog recording engineer: BRIAN KROKUS remote facility: SCULLY 4tk at mix console [...]
The 1974 band had nightly routines, also . . . improvised "folkloric news flashes" dealing with the previous day's road activities which, in some instances, bordered on science fiction. Examples included on other sets of this series will bear this out.
[200 Motels animated sequence] The Red Throbber is the thing about this guy who's a custom's inspector and has a cardboard dog named Babette that's been trained by the government to sniff out hash and marijuana at the airport. He just recently managed to shack up with his high school friend, [Sharleena], that he's been secretly beating-off over for ten years, and they've been going steady for three weeks, and he gets home from work one night with a lot of beer and he's ready to get it on, and [Sharleena] has gone!
date: December 12, 1973 location: THE ROXY, HOLLYWOOD, CA original recording medium: 16 track analog recording engineer: KERRY McNAB remote facility: RECORD PLANT REMOTE [...]
These two selections give a feeling for the early days of the 1973 group (which tended to be pretty happy, in spide of our crummy equipment and rather "under-rehearsed" sound).
Most of the material in this double set was recorded Dec. 10, 11 & 12, 1973, at The Roxy, Hollywood. [...] The Roxy remote recording was done by Wally Heider (16-track 30-ips), engineered by Kerry McNab
date: February 18, 1979 location: ODEON HAMMERSMITH, LONDON, ENGLAND original recording medium: 24 track analog recording engineer: MICK GLOSSOP remote facility: ISLAND MOBILE remix engineer: BOB STONE remix facility: UTILITY MUFFIN RESEARCH KITCHEN
Try and imagine a band with the diseases described in the earlier segment pulling this little number off.
A pet piece of mine is the 'Rollo' out-chorus. That was the hardest part I ever had to sing in my life. 'Envelopes' was a snap compared to 'Rollo', from 'St Alphonso' from way down here, in one breath. I had one breath to get that and I'm a heavy smoker.
Alone in the hissing laboratory of his wishes . . .
Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood: A Play For Voices, 1954, p. 69-70 | FZ |
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Alone in the hissing laboratory of his wishes, Mr Pugh minces among bad vats and jeroboams, | Alone in the hissing laboratory of his wishes, Mr. Pugh minces among bad vats and jeroboams, |
tiptoes through | |
spinneys of murdering herbs, | spinneys of murdering herbs, |
agony dancing in his crucibles, and mixes especially | |
and prepares to compound | |
for Mrs Pugh a venomous porridge | for Mrs. Pugh a venomous porridge |
hitherto | |
unknown to toxicologists which will scald and viper through her until her ears fall off like figs, her toes grow big and black as balloons, and steam comes screaming out of her navel. | unknown to toxicologists which will scald and viper through her 'til her ears fall off like figs, her toes grow big and black as balloons, and steam comes screaming out of her navel. |
(Cakes! Cakes! Cakes!)
"Broadmoor."
'Broadmoor' is referring to the high-security psychiatric hospital in the UK.
Warren, do you know one called LeFrak City?
Saint Alfonzo is, and probably will continue to be, for the duration of this show, the patron saint of the smelt fishermen of Portuguese extraction.
In the short time that we lived in Monterey, Dad made time on the weekends to take us to historic spots and landmarks, especially Fisherman's Wharf. [...] The Portuguese fishermen, with gnarly hands and enormous knuckles wore caps with a brim, not the shapeless bags that our headgear turned out to be.
[...] At first it was hard for our family to make friends. Most of the other families in the area were not receptive to outsiders.
A few of the women were wives of Portuguese fisherman and tradesmen who had lived in the area for many years. [...] The Portuguese families we came to know were large: sons, daughters, first cousins, second cousins, nephews, nieces, aunts and uncles.
Can you fix my Chevy?
Boy, you're really heavy
Special thanks to Tan Mitsugu.
London, February 17, 1979 | London, February 18, 1979 (early show) | London, February 18, 1979 (late show) | London, February 19, 1979 | YCDTOSA Vol. 1 (Zappa Records, 1988) |
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Yellow Snow Suite | Yellow Snow Suite pt. 1 | Yellow Snow Suite | Yellow Snow Suite | Don't Eat The Yellow Snow |
Don't Eat The Yellow Snow | ||||
00:00-02:26 | 00:00-02:25 | |||
Nanook Rubs It | ||||
02:17-02:56 | 02:25-03:03 | |||
02:57-04:05 | 03:03-04:11 | |||
04:14-05:20 | 04:11-05:16 | |||
05:36-06:00 | 05:16-05:40 | |||
05:28-09:36 | 05:40-09:45 | |||
07:25-08:10 | 09:26-10:30 | |||
10:41-11:54 | 10:30-11:42 | |||
11:54-12:54 | ||||
12:54-13:24 | 11:42-12:12 | |||
09:04-10:17 | 12:12-13:24 | |||
St. Alfonzo's Pancake Breakfast | ||||
10:17-10:21 | 13:24-13:28 | |||
Pt. 2 | ||||
0:03-1:48 | 13:28-15:11 | |||
Father O'Blivion | ||||
1:48-3:12 | 15:11-16:34 | |||
12:08-12:46 | 16:34-17:26 | |||
Rollo | ||||
4:04-6:50 | 17:26-20:12 | |||
6:50-6:53 | ||||
6:53-6:57 | 20:12-20:16 |
date: February 13, 1969 location: THE FACTORY, THE BRONX, NEW YORK original recording medium: 2 track analog recording engineer: DICK KUNC remote facility: UHER portable (7 1/2 ips) [...]
The spring tour of 1969 was a bus tour. It was cold and miserable. Many of the venues we wer performing in were small and "unfashionalbe." This rare recording finds the Mothers playing a bar in The Bronx, for an audience that probably would have preferred The Vanilla Fudge.
Alright, there's a green Chevy, license number 650 BN in Barry's lot.
date: March, 1977 location: HEMMERLEINHALLE, NURNBERG, W. GERMANY original recording medium: 4 track analog recording engineer: DAVEY MOIRE remote facility: SCULLY (at mix console) [...]
Recordings of performances in this German venue have usually been good. The high concentration of U.S. Service Men in the audience here has tended to the Nurnberg concerts a "special" flavor.
"YOU CAN'T DO - - -" VOLUME ONE CORRECTIONS:
[...] THE TORTURE NEVER STOPS—February 25, 1978
It has been discovered that there were two shows in Neunkirchen on Feb. 25th 1978, and "The Torture Never Stops" on YCDTOSA Vol. 1 is likely from the show that was not bootlegged. Based on the fact that only three performances are unheard from earlier in the tour, it's a pretty safe bet that it's from 2/25/78. So it turns out Frank was right all along!
date: July 6, 1982 location: PARCO RECESSION, MILAN, ITALY original recording medium: 24 track analog recording engineer: MARK PINSKE remote facility: UMRK MOBILE remix engineer: BOB STONE remix facility: UTILITY MUFFIN RESEARCH KITCHEN [...]
The 1982 Milan show will live in band folklore for several reasons. First, the venue: a vacant lot with a fence around it, next to a mosquito-infested "lake" near an industrial area. (Apparently in Northern Italy such a place qualifies as a "park.")
There were approximately 50,000 people in attendance. Most of them got in by breaking down the fence. When the show began and the lights came up, the entire band was swarmed by mosquitoes. We spent the rest of the evening swatting them off and trying to dodge the discarded disposable syringes tossed on stage by the unfortunate users in the front row. The cartoon illustration on the cover of the "MAN FROM UTOPIA" album commemorates this event.
"Zombie Woof" was performed on the 1982 European tour. I used to use Frank's Hendrix guitar, it's the actual guitar that Jimi Hendrix burned in Miami. I used it as a spare and was always a little nervous to play it, but I remember the second show of the tour we had a new guitar tech and my guitar went out of tune so I had to switch guitars. The tech handed me a guitar that had the E string tuned to F. Then he handed me one of Frank's guitars that was missing a string. So, I had to put the guitar down and wait for him to tune my guitar. Frank turned to me to start "Zombie Woof" because I was the one who started the song when he gave the cue. He looked at me and I had no guitar in my hand, and the look on his face was that of surprise, confusion, yet disappointment (and in a way that only Frank could do it). I shrugged my shoulders and smiled, and they started the song without me. The guitar tech was on a plane home the very next day. Oh, well.
date: February, 1969 location: THE BALLROOM, STRATFORD, CONNECTICUT original recording medium: 2 track analog recording engineer: DICK KUNC remote facility: UHER portable (7 1/2 ips) [...]
The exact recording date of these selections is not known, but can be placed roughly in the same month as the Bronx concert. The audience at this show (in a dance hall) also seemed to prefere the dynamic musical stylings of The Vanilla Fudge. (At another concert on Long Island some members of the audience were actually chanting "Youse guys stink . . . bring on The Fudge . . .")
About a month into the 1984 tour, we video taped two shows at the Pier in New York City. Some selections from this concert appear in a home video release called "DOES HUMOR BELONG IN MUSIC?" The little intro tape segment before "Be In My Video" is from an actual backstage situation circa 1970.
10. DUMB ALL OVER
[...]
11. HEAVENLY BANK ACCOUNT
[...]
12. SUICIDE CHUMP
[...] date: October 31, 1981 location: THE PALLADIUM, NYC original recording medium: 24 track analog recording engineer: MARK PINSKE remote facility: UMRK MOBILE [...]These selections were broadcast live as part of an early MTV concert special. It is unlikely that they'll ever let us get away with that again.
date: July 7, 1982 location: SOCCER STADIUM, GENOA, ITALY original recording medium: 24 track analog recording engineer: MARK PINSKE remote facility: UMRK MOBILE [...]
Italy had just won an important game of the World Cup Soccer finals when we arrived for the sound check. We were performing in the city Soccer Stadium. This festive occasion was nearly spoiled by the demise of the air conditioner in the recording truck and potential gastric distress. (You'd think that Christopher Columbus' home town would have at least one good pizza place . . . but NO·O·O! When we sent out for this rare delicacy after the sound check, the driver, who claimed to know of the best pizza place in town, returned with a thoroughly frightening half·cooked sort of' food simulation" with a mound of mushrooms (from a can; in water) poured over the top of it. Tommy Mars ate it anyway.)
Research, compilation and maintenance by Román García Albertos