Any Downers?

FZ album(s) in which song has appeared

 

Tour(s) on which song is known to have been performed (main source: FZShows, v. 7.1)

 

Comments

Foggy G, "The Songs That Were Played," We're Only In It For The Touring

1974 Jun-Dec: One of the many surprises we get towards the latter part of the tour. During his typically insane "Montana" solo during the 11/30 show, Frank tears into the opening "Any Downers" riff, carrying the whole band into a quasi-heavy metal jam. They ride this vamp for around two minutes, before Frank is off again, exploring new musical territory in this smorgasborg solo of melodic teases. It is an excellent and very interesting performance, but amazingly enough, just a mere shadow of the "Any Downers" monsters that would terrorize setlists a year later.

1975 Sep-Dec: Wow! One of the reasons why this tour simply cannot be overlooked. Talk about Monster performances, the "Any Downers" from this tour are raging beasts of the all-guitar variety. Within these dressed up jams, Frank plays the meanest, wickedest, nastiest guitar solos of his career. Talk about major fuzztone action. Just the sound of these solos is ugly enough to reduce the most hard-core of us into drooling idiots, and that is ignoring the actual notes that are played, and the attitude that is forced through our ears and into our frontal lobes. These are some ferocious solos. About the tune itself, what we get is a very relaxed version of the main guitar riff from the YAWYI track, with Brock calmly singing the line "Any Downers" over and over. Then, for the "No, I ain't got anymore" line, Brock maniacally screams it while the band shifts into overdrive. We then get some "oohs" and "aahs", before Frank steps up and blows us away. Sheets and sheets of distorted fury, with Frank exorcising his heavy metal demons before our very ears. Simply exhilirating. For the less-than-thrilling conclusion to this song (and the only continual disappointment in these performances), Frank and band perform some stupid routine based on Joe Cocker, or Canadian Customs, or lonely teenage musicians. The only interesting part about these routines is that over the course of the Fall tour, Frank recites, as poetry, the lyrics to both "Packard Goose" and "Tryin' To Grow A Chin" as parts of certain routines.

1980 Mar-Jul: Essentially performed as on YAWYI, allowing for obvious differences in instrumentation, and with the standard deviation coming in Frank's heavy metal tinged solo. As a segue from Frank'solo to the following vocals, there is a written piece of music that does not make it onto the album version. This 30 second piece is similar to the post solo "City of Tiny Lites" segment found on "Sheil Yerbouti", though this version sounds like that riff overdosing on amphetamines. It is pretty cool. Frank's solos during this tune are also pretty cool, very aggressive, and another continual highlight of the tour.

1980 Oct-Dec: Essentially performed as on YAWYI, with the standard deviation coming in Frank's solo.

 

Conceptual Continuity

 

 

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