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Folks, for this week, family stuff prevented me from finishing any of the pieces that I’ve been working on, so with your kind permission, I’d like to dive in once again into two of my favorite Zappa performances.
Some of you know that I live in Waterbury, Connecticut. Waterbury is a small city (not so affectionately known as the “Dirty Water”), with nothing particularly special to recommend it apart from the fact that Waterbury boasts a theater that was one of the more notable northern East Coast rock venues of the 1970s, the Palace Theater. The Palace is your typical small theater. At capacity it seats about 2500 people. The intimate nature of it made the Palace a popular stop over for mid-level touring acts back in the 70s.
And there were some very notable concerts that happened in this town. Bob Dylan played one of his legendary Rolling Thunder Revue shows here. The Ramones played their first show outside of New York City here in 1976, opening for Johnny Winter of all people (and getting booed off stage). Pink Floyd played here very shortly after The Dark Side Of The Moon was released. Queen played here on their first and second US tours. The Grateful Dead played a couple of very long and brilliant shows here during what was arguably their live peak in 1972.
Like a lot of musicians that preferred to have the complete attention of their audience, Frank Zappa liked to play shows in smaller venues. Frank believed that the finer details in his music got lost in bigger venues, and he was probably right. Even on his final tour in 1988, Frank played mostly in theater or small arena venues, with the only big arena gig being the very last show that he ever played in the United States, at Nassau Coliseum on Long Island.
One venue that Frank visited several times between 1972 and 1975 was Waterbury’s humble Palace Theater. His last couple appearances at the Palace were sort of warm-up gigs for the bigger New York City Halloween shows, and much like those New York performances, the vibe at the Waterbury shows had a bit of extra energy to it. By all accounts, Frank always seemed like he was in a good mood in Waterbury.
Frank first played in Waterbury on November 1st, 1972. He was touring with the version of the Mothers known as the Petite Wazoo, on a bill that had Tim Buckley opening. While no complete tape of this show has ever surfaced, we know that Frank recorded it on his four-track setup, and this show still exists in the Zappa Vault, as “Imaginary Diseases” from the show was released as the title track of the 2006 album compiled from recordings of this tour.
A little over a year later on November 16, 1973, Frank played for the second time at the Palace. Sadly, there is no known recording of this performance. We have only a fragmentary recording of the October 28, 1974 Waterbury show, which features the band performing the “Yellow Snow” suite. Presumably the rest of it was recorded, though this may be all that survives from this show.
The 1975 performances in Waterbury would be, unfortunately, Frank’s last. But as the audience tapes below prove, they were some fun gigs. It’s probable that at least some of Frank’s fans from the greater New York area made the drive north for this show, and there is a wild atmosphere that pervades throughout the performance. Watch out in the early show performance is “Stinkfoot” for Frank’s reference to Holy Land, U.S.A., a sort of semi-decrepit religious monument/park that still can be seen on the hill overlooking the city as you’re passing through on the highway to this day.
So for this week, I give you the only complete recordings I know of to exist of Frank’s performances in my home city of Waterbury. Enjoy!
October 29, 1975
Palace Theater, Waterbury, CT (early show)
88 minutes, AUD, A-/B
Naval Aviation In Art? (intro tape) (1:40)
Stinkfoot (10:39)
Dirty Love (3:49)
How Could I Be Such A Fool (4:22)
I Ain’t Got No Heart (2:26)
I’m Not Satisfied (1:46)
Black Napkins (incl. Tryin‘ To Grow A Chin) (7:35)
Advance Romance (9:46)
Honey, Don’t You Want A Man Like Me? (3:56)
The Illinois Enema Bandit (17:04)
Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy (5:52)
Lonely Little Girl (2:42)
Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance (2:09)
What’s The Ugliest Part Of Your Body? (1:08)
Chunga’s Revenge (12:56)
Not too far from the very place Your Humble Author is typing these words lies the ancient and venerable Palace Theater of Waterbury, Connecticut. This particular Groovy Old Building hosted a large number of concerts by Important Rock Acts, and on this evening Frank Zappa and his Mothers Of Invention are here to whip two big shows on the local Zappa-loving contingent. The early show comes through the years to us in the form of an excellent audience tape, crystal clear and a contender for best recording of this type from this era. Unfortunately it is incomplete, requiring a second recording (not as good but still decent) to complete it. With this as the last stop before the Halloween New York City extravaganza, the band is ready to whip out a few surprises, tasty treats for the fans who have been following the group around of late.
As is often the case with these early shows, this one is tightly paced. The recording begins with the “Naval Aviation In Art?” intro tape, and Napoleon is already onstage and making his monster noises into the mic before it ends. The usual blues jam starts the night, and abbreviated solos from André and Napoleon entertain the crowd before FZ arrives. After checking his guitar and introducing the band (tonight FZ is apparently 1940s character actor Cecil Kellaway), the audience is delighted to recognize the “Stinkfoot” opener. FZ draws some applause from the locals with a mention of local attraction Holy Land USA (a hilltop monument famous for its huge crucifix, easily visible from the highway). FZ’s closing solo is a very serious affair indeed, gloriously menacing and going much further afield than most of his “Stinkfoot” outings. This is going to be a serious evening for FZ’s guitar.
Monitor issues -- mostly related to the fact that the mixing console has to be setup on the side of the venue -- are addressed before and after “Dirty Love” The attempt to rectify these problems results in feedback marring the start of “How Could I Be Such A Fool”. Everything is copasetic for the remainder of the Freak Out! medley however, and the PA hassles do not dampen FZ’s good mood. Feedback and hum return for the start of “Black Napkins”, and FZ is moved -- perhaps as a stall tactic -- to recite the first verse of a brand new song, “Tryin’ To Grow A Chin”. This tune will soon become a full-blown vocal extravaganza for little skinny Terry Ted Bozzio, but here it is simply a recitation before FZ breaks into another deep solo on this still-untitled tune. He plays around with some ‘ugly notes’ at one point, though this sounds more like he made a mistake and was trying to salvage something out of it.
“Advance Romance” is longer than usual, with FZ raging so mightily on his SG in the solo that his guitar is quite out of tune before the end. A slight miscue occurs over the final chorus, possibly as a result of the continuing monitor problems. Despite this, “Honey, Don’t You Want A Man Like Me?’ is strong and proves popular with the crowd.
In lieu of solos, “The Illinois Enema Bandit” features a new routine tonight. A young audience member by the name of Kelly Bruckner (from Stonington High School -- anyone know her?) gets to come onstage and pretend to be the Enema Bandit’s (played by Roy, with assistance from Napoleon) victim. Kelly is tied up with wire and forced to lay down on stage while Roy and Napoleon “administer” to her. It appears that this as far as the routine gets, although Kelly is a good sport about it all, even offering to hop her way offstage without being untied.
The vacuum left by the lack of a solo in “The Illinois Enema Bandit” is filled neatly by an electrifying outing in “Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy”. This is cut short by FZ before it properly resolves, for reasons unknown. The band then works through the fun of the We’re Only In It For The Money medley (with FZ flubbing the end of his ‘solo’ in “Lonely Little Girl”) and on into “Chunga’s Revenge”.
Napoleon gets all wrapped up in his Echoplex-enhanced sax squealing to start the solo cycle; this gives way to André and his Melodica, and FZ covers for him while he prepares the instrument. Interestingly, he is something of a Melodica virtuoso; he could probably play the entire solo without a switch to the Mini-Moog and all would be just dandy. In any case, his Mini-Moog solo consists of little more than a single, piercing note. Terry’s usual Animal-esque (the Muppet character, that is) drum bashing has been moved to third in the line of “Chunga” solos tonight; this appears to be due to time constraints as FZ brings the main set to a close following this without a guitar solo. If there was an encore, the tapes do not tell the tale. See you back here for the late show!
During “Stinkfoot”:
FZ: Good evening ladies and gents, welcome to the Mothers Of Invention Waterbury, Connecticut extravaganza 1975, which features -- for your dancing and listening pleasure --Napoleon Murphy Brock on tenor sax and lead vocals. The dynamic André Lewis on keyboards and thing that he blows in the middle of the show, little skinny Terry Ted Bozzio on drums, Roy Ralph Moleman Guacamole de Managua Estrada on bass. And yours truly, Cecil Kellaway on guitar. And now…
Before “Dirty Love”:
FZ: And now we have another song that deals with the relationship between good dog and your Mom. And we also have a -- just a slight, just a slight twinge of a midrange ring in the monitor here, it seems to be located somewhere around 500 cycles. Maybe you could d -- yeah, that’s a lot better. Just pull it down a little bit, right around 500 cycles. A little lower. Hellooooo. That’s better. Yes.
Before “How Could I Be Such A Fool”:
FZ: Now wait just a moment, all the time while the poodle has been biting and chewing it and everything, we have been experiencing a drastic reduction in the overall presence of the monitor system up here. I know it’s very difficult to function in this hall because of the fact that the mixer is over there on the side, he can’t tell what you’re hearing out there, and he has certainly no idea what we’ve got up here. But you can reduce the level of the drum monitor a little bit, and that would help us. Just a nerd. And while we, while we smooth into another song of ancient vintage, this one extracted from the Ruben & The Jets album. The name of this song is “How” -- and I mean to apply this to each and every one of you -- “How Could I Be Such A Fool”.
Before “Black Napkins (incl. Tryin‘ To Grow A Chin)”:
FZ: Thank you.
Before “Honey, Don’t You Want A Man Like Me?”
FZ: The name of this song is “Honey, Don’t You Want A Man Like Me?”
Before “The Illinois Enema Bandit”:
FZ: Alright, now this is another -- bring the band on down behind me boys. This is another sad but true song. This is the story of the legendary Illinois Enema Bandit. Has anybody here ever heard of the Illinois Enema Bandit? You have. Who has not heard about the Illinois Enema Bandit? Alright, I’ll tell you about the Bandit so that you’ll all know what’s going on. This is a real guy in a town called Bloomington, Illinois. It was written up in the Police Gazette and in newspapers across the country. If you read the little articles in the papers, you might have seen something about this guy. What he does is he puts on a ski mask, and he breaks into the homes of college-educated women with a briefcase, he’s got a little pistol, and in his briefcase he’s got an enema bag and a thermometer and some rope. He gets in there and he points the gun at these college-educated women. And he makes them lay down; he ties them up face down on a bed or something. And then he takes their temperature, he makes sure that they’re OK, and then he runs into the bathroom, he fills the bag up -- this gurgling, pinkish sort of a bag -- he fills it up with tepid water, and then he dashes back into the main arena, and spreads ‘em like that and it’s GOING IN! He rams it right in there and stands by -- stands by in sort of a testifying kind of a pose -- he’s holding the bag, pumps ‘em, pumps ‘em up with about a quart and a half -- -- give it to ‘em right there. And then when they’re all filled up he pulls it out, lets ‘em go to the toilet and poot it out. Meanwhile, he’s jerking off all over himself. And then --sounds like somebody over there is doing the same thing! Want a napkin? OK. Anyway, really it’s a lot of fun; try it on your friends. They caught this guy, finally caught him, his name is Michael Kenyon, and he’s going to have to stand trial in Bloomington. I believe the charge is going to be “rape with a foreign object”. The question of the day is does it constitute rape if you give a college-educated woman an enema? Some of us think perhaps not. The worst has already been done at school. And here’s the song.
After “Chunga‘s Revenge”:
FZ: Napoleon Murphy Brock on tenor sax and lead vocals, André Lewis on keyboards and things that he blows in the middle of the show, little skinny Terry Ted Bozzio on drums, Roy Ralph Moleman Guacamole The Man With One Leg Estrada on bass. Thank you very much for coming to the concert; hope you enjoyed it, and goodnight.
October 29, 1975
Palace Theater, Waterbury, CT (late show)
125 minutes, AUD, B/B-
Naval Aviation In Art? (intro tape) (1:23)
Stinkfoot (12:17)
Dirty Love (2:23)
Sleep Dirt (8:12)
How Could I Be Such A Fool (4:18)
Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up (2:46)
I Ain’t Got No Heart (2:28)
I’m Not Satisfied (1:58)
Black Napkins (6:17)
Honey, Don’t You Want A Man Like Me? (3:45)
The Illinois Enema Bandit (8:46)
Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy (6:20)
Lonely Little Girl (2:24)
Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance (2:10)
What’s The Ugliest Part Of Your Body? (1:05)
Chunga’s Revenge (Incl. Sy Borg, Tryin‘ To Grow A Chin, Wipe Out) (23:38)
Zoot Allures (7:00)
Swallow My Pride (4:26)
Any Downers? (7:28)
Packard Goose (3:40)
I’m The Slime (5:10)
Camarillo Brillo (3:10)
Muffin Man (3:58)
The late show in Waterbury’s fabulous Palace is preserved for general eternity on an audience tape which, unfortunately, is nowhere near as good as the recording of the early show. The worst parts of the recording suffer from slight amounts of distortion. It is still fairly listenable however, and the band is certainly pumped up and ready to deliver the goods tonight.
The tape begins with the “Naval Aviation In Art” tape once again, with Napoleon accompanying this with his guttural growling. The ensemble then alights into dem ol’ “Stinkfoot” blues, keeping the crowd entertained until FZ makes his Grand Entrance onto the stage. For this show, he introduces himself as Wendell Willkie, a man most famous for losing to Franklin D. Roosevelt as the Republican nominee for President of the United States in 1940.
FZ’s “Stinkfoot” solo is a slow builder, taking its sweet time to mutate from a rather light blues outing to some Hungarian Minor-infused weirdness. The solo ends with a quote from a piece known to fans as “Mystery Tune”, an apparently untitled and possibly unrecorded instrumental that would occasionally pop up on Zappa recordings over the next several years. “Dirty Love” is cut midway through the second verse, and it isn’t until midway through the third verse that we return to the action.
Breaking from the usual program sequence, FZ directs the band into “Sleep Dirt”, the final known live version of this piece (it will be revived in 1988, but it will never make it out of rehearsals). This is probably the most gorgeous live version of this piece available, which has now lost favor in the live set in favor of the melodically not dissimilar “Black Napkins”. This is the sort of composition that encourages the soloists (Napoleon, André and FZ) to approach it with a different mindset, and all three are well up to the challenge.
We are then off into the Freak Out! medley. Following “How Could I Be Such A Fool”, the band breaks into “I Ain’t Got No Heart”, apparently not looking at their setlists as FZ has planned another surprise for the Waterbury faithful. He then leads them into “Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up”, another last-known version for this tour (it will be revived in 1980). This version is as pleasing as ever, but apparently there is no longer room in the program for this obscure (at the time) oldie. The crowd seems familiar with it however, and laps it up.
The Freak Out! medley then continues as scheduled with “I Ain’t Got No Heart” and “I’m Not Satisfied” before we land into the next stretch of guitar wrangling with “Black Napkins”. Although some clarity and detail is lost in the echo of the Palace, this is an absolutely brilliant, fleet-fingered exercise, and the crowd goes deservedly nuts at the end of it. “Honey, Don’t You Want A Man Like Me” is also quite popular with the crowd, though it is cut near the start with only a tiny bit missing.
FZ‘s solo in “The Illinois Enema Bandit” starts with him referencing the “Spoonful” riff, and this is the starting point for one of the more lyrical workouts he would whip out on this tune. Over the final chorus, FZ is amused by Napoleon’s ad lib of “tushy, tushy”, prompting him to comment “you’ve been hanging out with Beefheart too long!“ There is apparently some audience interaction during the verses in “Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy”. He stays in lyrical mode for the subsequent solo, soaring heroically over the steady support of Terry’s drums. Unfortunately, there is another small tape cut just after the start of the solo. This section of new and recent material empties out into the We’re Only In It For The Money medley, with FZ providing some nice variations in the “Lonely Little Girl” solo.
At this point, we get what must be the high point of this show -- and one of the high points of the tour so far: the definitive monster version (for this era) of “Chunga’s Revenge”. Pushing 25 minutes, this is the longest version of this soloing vehicle the band has played so far, and it’s a doozy -- everyone is at their peak here. First up we get a powerful and dynamic Napoleon solo that incorporates all the tricks he has up his sleeve, building to an ecstatic, almost Volcanic finish. As André begins another fine Melodica workout, FZ indulges in some rhythmic riffing that sounds a bit like André Williams’ “Bacon Fat” (a longtime favorite of FZ). This is a short solo for André, and it appears that he does not go to the Mini-Moog to finish it off.
FZ’s solo is one of the longest of the tour, and no time is wasted in getting right down to it. He starts off with a gentle pass through the “Sy Borg” melody before leading the band through an instrumental version of “Tryin’ To Grow A Chin”, the lyrics to which he had recited in the early show. This breaks down to abstract lines played against an almost non-existent backing, with FZ randomly drifting in and out of modes and melodies. At one point the touches on “Blessed Relief” from the 1972 album The Grand Wazoo, and this merges back into more mangled references to “Sy Borg”. This leads into a snatch of “Ship Ahoy”, and by this time the rest of the band is completely silent, letting the man do his thing.
The band charges back in when FZ thrusts forward with some heavy metal riffs, and this leads into a single-chord blues workout with Our Hero brilliantly continuing his mind-bending wailing. Again this breaks down into a bit of Hungarian Minor before FZ’s guitar finally goes silent. After this pregnant pause, he kicks into the “Wipe Out” riff, the signal for a most energetic Terry Bozzio drum clinic. Unfortunately, bits are this are lost owing to a pair of tape cuts. Regardless, this is a “Chunga” for the ages, and it must be heard by anyone with even a passing interest in Frank Zappa’s live performance art.
But FZ is not through with his guitar explorations. The band moves into “Zoot Allures”, and almost as soon as the solo starts, everyone else onstage has largely given up trying to follow The Maestro. Minimal accompaniment is a major advantage in that FZ is allowed to go wherever his mile-a minute mind wants to take him, and so he wanders all over the place here without landing on a single solid idea. This is, without doubt, some of the finest and more exhaustive guitar explorations that he would indulge in during his career.
Suddenly, the mood is broken as FZ bursts into “Swallow My Pride”. After spending the last half hour-plus in the stratosphere, this is a nice bit of contrast and relief for the audience. It is also the main set closer tonight, taking the audience out on an upbeat note. Despite the calls from the audience for “Dinah-Moe-Humm”, “Big Swifty” and other tunes this band doesn’t know, FZ opens the encore with “Any Downers?” For the most part, this is a showcase for the antics of Roy and Napoleon, doing their usual drug-addled routine. Despite FZ’s cranking up with his usual heavily-metallic riffage (shades of secret FZ favorite Black Sabbath), there is no guitar solo on this tune tonight.
Instead we get a real treat: a full-blown rendition of “Packard Goose”, the lyrics to which FZ has recited earlier on this tour. He dedicates the song to “everyone who writes for a rock and roll newspaper”, he sings what would become the basic melody of the song over a variation of the “Any Downers?” vamp. The lyrics are quite a bit different, but the message is the same -- the song has now become a scathing commentary on rock and roll journalism, and would become even more scathing as the lyrics were refined over the next few years.
Noting that he can’t think of anything else to say to the rock journalism contingent, FZ jumps into “I’m The Slime” to cheers from the just plain folks of Waterbury. Something grabs his attention at one point, causing him to alter one line to “eat the cucumbers that I feed you”. His solo touches on the jazz standard “Little Coquette” and his own “Willie The Pimp”, and is partially played unaccompanied once again. The crowd goes even crazier for the solid “Camarillo Brillo” that follows, with another tape cut losing a small piece near the end. “Muffin Man” closes out the evening with another brief but ferocious FZ solo. Sadly, this was the final occasion in which FZ would play in Waterbury -- his Connecticut gigs would be in the bigger cities of Hartford and New Haven from here on out.
During “Stinkfoot”:
FZ: Good evening ladies and gents, welcome to the Mothers Of Invention extravaganza number two for Waterbury, Connecticut 1975, featuring the dynamic and ubiquitous Napoleon Murphy Brock on tenor sax and lead vocals, André Lewis on keyboards and thing that he blows in the middle of the show, little skinny Terry Ted Direct From The Jazz World, Bowtie And (…) All Over His Body Bozzio on drums ladies and gentlemen, Roy Ralph (…) Managua (…) Jesus Mendoza de la Guacamole Estrada on bass. And yours truly, Wendell Willkie on guitar. And furthermore…
Before “Dirty Love”:
FZ: And now another song in the, in the (…). Oh thank you, music lovers. This is being brought to you direct from the Over-Nite Sensation album (…), and this is a song that I really enjoy singing because I hope that one day it will do some good.
Before “Sleep Dirt”:
FZ: Now in this episode, where the poodle is biting and chewing and everything, we are going to play a song that might be suitable for -- let’s see, hold it. What’s the most tasteful (…)? This, this song is suitable (…) purposes, if you know what that is.
Before “How Could I Be Such A Fool”:
FZ: More, (…).
Before “Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up”:
FZ: No no, I was gonna give you a surprise. It goes like this.
Before “Black Napkins”:
FZ: Thank you!
Before “Honey, Don’t You Want A Man Like Me?”
FZ: And now, “Honey, Don’t You Want A Man Like Me?”
Before “The Illinois Enema Bandit”:
FZ: And now, once again, the terrible true story of “The Illinois Enema Bandit”. For those of you who might not have heard of the Bandit, here is the complete package of information. In Bloomington, Illinois there‘s a guy that‘s running around with a ski mask on, and a little pistol and a briefcase. And in the p -- and in the briefcase he’s got an enema bag, a thermometer and some rope. And he would break into the homes of college-educated women and (…) and he’d go “OK, lay down” and he’d tie these chicks up, take their temperature, go into the bathroom, fill up the bag up with tepid water, and then he dash back to his victim, (makes various water-glugging noises) it’s GOING IN! (more glugging noises), lets them p -- lets them poot it out, jacks off a little bit and then leaves. (…) We’re trying, we’re trying to make him famous now. His name is Michael Kenyon, and he is going to have to stand trial. You can read about it in the newspapers. This -- the trial is coming up here pretty quick. And this is, uh, the story about him, “The Ballad Of The Illinois Enema Bandit”.
Before “Lonely Little Girl”:
FZ: Well, here we go again.
After “Swallow My Pride”:
FZ: Napoleon Murphy Brock on tenor sax, lead vocals and (…), André Lewis on keyboards and thing that he blows in the middle of the show, little skinny Terry Bozzio on drums, Roy Ralph Moleman Guacamole Managua Estrada on bass. Thank you very much for coming to the concert; hope you enjoyed it, and goodnight.
After “Muffin Man”:
FZ: Hey listen. Before we (…) everything up, I’d like to announce that tonight is Sydney’s birthday. Sydney is the man that has driven us up here from New York, working real hard to make sure (…) the show. And I would appreciate it if you all would just give around of applause for Sydney because it is his birthday. (…). Meanwhile, you have been listening tonight to the golden tongues of Napoleon Murphy Brock on tenor sax, lead vocals and stuff that he (…), André Lewis on keyboards and thing that he blows in the middle of the show. Where’s Sydney? Come here, Sydney. Happy birthday man! Little skinny Terry Ted Bozzio on drums, Roy Ralph Guacamole Estrada, the man who (…) Estrada on electric bass. And yours truly, (Stompin’?) Sydney on guitar. Thank you very much.
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