Customer Reviews

Tis the Season to Be Jelly

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3 star:		(3)
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High point of the disc is a rousing King Kong, which has zappa's amusing introduction. Some real fine blowing by the horn section. Then a bonkers it can't happen here, loads of 'noise' including radio transmission, very out there. These two take up most of the 40 or so minutes. Also there is a 'waltz' version of you didn't try to call me, it's good. Big leg emma is ok, then you have various covers of different tunes like baby love, hound dog, bristol stomp. Moderately enjoyable tunes. Sound quality is reasonable for a bootleg...it has better sound than freaks and motherf***ers for instance. If you've never heard Frank Zappa's music, this is not a good place to start, get an official release. But king kong and it can't happen here are treasures, making this cd worthwhile for zappa fans.

This is the first disc in the first volume of the BEAT THE BOOTS series (in which Zappa collected some his more notorious bootlegs and released them himself, packaging, errors, and all). Its actually one of the more worthwhile ones that I've heard. The packaging is amusing -- handled with some care, with a rather grotesque but well-drawn cover, and a painstakingly detailed Zappaesque story on the back.

It documents the Scandanavian branch of the 1967 Mothers tour. This ill-fated leg off the tour is famous because Zappa, taking a detour in Italy and drinking some tap water, had horrible gastro-intestinal problems. This was in addition to the already awful conditions the band was performing under (see the amusing "Where's Our Equipment?" on YCDToSA vol.5). Considering the date, the sound quality is excellent. It runs at a disappointing 37 minutes.

While, as another reviewer has noted, Zappa seems decidedly uninvolved in this particular performance, its still quite interesting. The Mothers run through a song suite which contains both a snippet of Stravinsky's PETROUSHKA and the Supreme's BABY LOVE. The recording seems to cut here. NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO has a few bars of Tchaikovsky's 6th during a monologue, which leads into a few unnotable covers like HOUND DOG and BLUE SUEDE SHOES. The highlight of the disc is a pretty inspired performance of KING KONG. Bunk Gardner and Ian Underwood are in top form. IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE is the closer -- just as bizarre as usual.

Not a bad disc at all. Fans of the early Mothers lineup should definitely consider this one.

No, the sound quality isn't top-notch, and there's another reason why this album isn't highly-rated. Zappa was unwell on this particular night (he had gastro-enteritis, I think) and spent much of the concert offstage. (It's been speculated that Ian Underwood played some of the guitar parts). So those looking for Zappa solos will be disappointed. The slightly flat vocals during `You Didn't Try To Call Me' will also disappoint (I know it's not supposed to matter in the case of a semi-humorous song, but still...) even if they fit the ensuing medley of song-parodies - which includes an obscurity, `No Matter What You Do' (with an amusing talkover section), and a snippet from Stravinsky's `Petrouchka' which had to be deleted from some issues of the CD (copyright etc).
`King Kong' is what you buy the CD for. And it's an unusual arrangement, closer to the studio version than the standard live one as it's in 3-4 time (rather than 12-8) and doesn't have the composed middle-section familiar from albums like `The Ark'. The theme is stated by Bunk Gardner on clarinet, who leads off the solos with an exquisite two-part affair. Underwood follows, on alto sax - desperate and distraught-sounding, and beautifully so - then some spare and thoughtful keyboard work from Preston. Zappa stays out of the action, apart from conducting, and a few guitar licks during Bunk's solo. Which is just as well, anything he came up with would seem like an anticlimax in comparison to the other three soloists...But after Don's solo, Zappa and his baton take control, and the madness begins. Deafening synthesizer shrieks, voice samples, radio scanning, much indecipherable babble in foreign languages, a quick chorus of `It Can't Happen Here' and a gargantuan synth solo from Preston take us through to the end of the show, and album.

This was part of the first Beat the Boots boxset (that came in an actual box, with a t-shirt), but was later sold on its own and may be out of print, now. Zappa took bootlegs, and converted them to CD. I think that he cleaned up the sound on them a little, but not much. There are no record pops or overt tape hiss.

The sound quality is poor to mediocre. In terms of bootlegs, it would probably be rated "good" or "B" (because they have low standards). Don't buy that crap that the sound quality is good, considering how old it is, or it is "good for the era". This is an audience recording done on nonprofessional equipment and it sounds like it. There have been many great professonal live recordings made in the sixties, and there have been horrible, audience recorded bootlegs made in the 21st Century.

The performance is a little off. I originally wrote it off to the poor sound quality, but others say it was because Zappa was sick at the time.

The CD is 37 minutes long and you get about 20 minutes of stuff that is fairly good. The CD starts out with a very weak "You Didn't Try To Call Me", but picks up starting with Baby Love and Big Leg Emma, going through Hound Dog. It is a very good medley.

There is a 13 minute version of King Kong that is great and very much different from all of the other live versions available. It ends with an 8 minute It Can't Happen Here, which comes off as just a bunch of noise. It might have been good to see in concert, but it does not translate well to CD.

It is always nice to get a performance by the Mothers, and there are a few songs they do here that aren't available elsewhere. But, it isn't a great CD and if I lost it, I probably wouldn't replace it.

Unlike what someone else, I don't think the story on the back of cover makes this CD any more worthwhile.