This is a petulant frenzy. I'm petulant. And I'm having a frenzy.

On the sofa she weeps, boo hoo hoo hoo
She weeps and she weeps, boo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo
She weeps and she peeps -
through the curtains.

"Fuck you Zappa!"

"Fuck you too, buddy; you know what I mean? Fuck you very much!"

(applause)


On the sofa she weeps......"

The best version is still YCDTOSA vol. 6, the "Sound of Long Island" version.

And I don't know why. I really should. Rather stupid of me to leave that one unbought.

"I want a garden! I want a garden!"

Yeah, it's a good one. Great jam with L. Shankar called "Thirteen" on disc two right after a smoking "Enema Bandit" solo from 84.

Plus, the "Lonesome Cowboy Nando" actually made me puke from laughing so hard the first time I heard it. (Not kidding).

The trouble with the YCDTOSA series is that Frank used too many tapes from the 84 tour (great solos, but the band sounds awful and the arrangements stilted) andd THREE different versions of "Advance Romance" and TWO of "Tryin' to Grow a Chin." I wish he'd have a had a policy of no repeats in the series and made way for, f'rinstance, a "Paladin Routine" from the Flo and Eddie band or a version of "Portuguese Lunar Landing."

I also agree with you about too much stuff from the '84 tour, and how stilted some of the arrangements are. I don't if it was a matter of not ahving good recording equipment that tour, or what it was, but that's probably my favorite sound for Zappa. It's also the only tour I ever got to see him, and it was still a hell of a show. :-)

But the CDs from the '88 tour, and YCDTOSA Vol. 2, totally make up for it.

I'm glad to hear there's an Enema Bandit on Vol. 6 - I really need to get it. But I've consistently forgotten that I don't have it, so have kept getting other ones when I've gone in and bought some more Zappa. I really need to be more anal about my collection; I was until about the time Frank died, and then had a long period of little income (grad school) and then a long period of no time to listen to stuff, so bought few CDs of anything...

in 1995 (long story). Don't know why those are still unavailable; they were brilliant. Rhino oughta reissue them and put them in the good stores.

On the 84 tour: No Ed Mann, so none of his timbral awesomeness. Instead, Martin and Zavod with their dated, Devo-esque faux-percussion synth-puke. Plus, Wackerman on electronic drums. Yuck. Plus, they couldn't SWING like the earlier bands, so they instead went for that herky-jerky sped-up precision that sounds so awful today but musta sounded ultra-modern back in 84.

But Frank did some great soloing on that tour. I think his best year for soloing was 82, though, esp. the spring European tour where he discovered the joys of the whammy-bar. And the 88 tour, of course (Ah, the 88 tour......if only I could have gone......)

As prescient as Frank was about politics and sociology, he was obstinant about dating himself sometimes; the cover of "Broadway the Hard Way," for instance, or the 84 band's sound.

I wish I had bought the boxed sets back in the 80s, but I was in college...and $100 a pop...

Ed Mann added a lot, that's for sure.

Too bad he couldn't have brought back Ruth and Napolean for the '88 tour, too. :-)

asked for too much money, so Frank kicked him off. Now, If he'd been on the 88 tour....Nice.

Ike and Napoleon are two of my all-time fave vocalists, not just in the context of Zappa, but in general. Those guys could have been huge stars in their own right on vocal talent alone. That's one of the resons I hate "Baby Snakes" and the 76-78 bands: poor vocalists (Belew's okay, but Tommy Mars? Bozzio?)

Just to ramble a bit, Bozzio's my least favorite of Frank's drummers, and the 77 band is my least favorite Zappa band, even more than the 84 band.

On the Baby Snakes DVD, there's an ad for the upcoming release of the "Token of His Extreme" 74 Roxy shows on DVD....Still haven't seen it in stores yet (crosses fingers)

but for me, too, Bozzio is the weakest of his drummers. Still, in any other band, he'd be an ass kicker. :-)

And yeah, the 76-78 bands were weak. The albums from that period aren't my favorite, either. Though the Black Napkins solo on Baby Snakes is pretty good, and a good "Broken Hearts are for Assholes".

And I love Belew. Would have been great to have him in another tour, esp. the '88 one as well.

In re: Napolean, I guess Frank was a pretty frugal guy. :-) Too bad, though, esp. since he pulled out some of the great older music for the 88 tour. Would have been hot to have back Napolean on it. What a great voice he had.

What's the video Frank did of the Napolean/Underwood/Chester/etc. band? Can't remember, but I have it on video. What a FANTASTIC band that was. Perhaps my favorite of all his bands, esp. as heard in the Helsinki Concert. That's a band that knew the music backwards and forwards and back again. Tight, and incredibly precise and on top of it all.

And then, of course, the brilliant "If anyone throws anything else on stage, we're done. . . Okay, that's it. Show's over. Goodnight."

And the Palermo riot. I'm so glad Frank put that on the YCDTOSA discs! Too funny, even though it was sad and awful.

He was great on SOME stuff, like "Rubber Shirt," "Torture," and "The Ocean is the Ultimate Solution," but Frank always complained that you had to have someone counting for Terry or he'd lose his place. You see this in the "Baby Snakes" version of "Broken Hearts are for Assholes" where he comes in to too early on a series of "ram it"s after executing some unnecessary frill and coming off rhythm. Plus the sound of his drums appalls me. Listen to "In New York:" WHY would a drummer WANT his drums to sound like that? Loose heads, weak kick, etc.

The video is, of course, the "Token of My Extreme,...." that's the one I'm talking about. I can't wait for the DVD.

Apparently everytime any rock band came through Italy in the late 70's/early 80's they were met with a riot. Lou Reed, Patti Smith, Zappa.....

I was just listening to "The Helsinki Concert" the other day and was struck by the fact that Frank's the only guitarist on it; I hadn't noticed what an effective rhythm guitarist he was, on top of being a bandleader, lead guitarist, conductor, writer, etc.

"The Helsinki Concert" is also notable for the fact that Frank plays solos over a few modulated harmonic backgrounds, something he rarely did in later years ("Alien Orifice" being one exception); ususally he liked the band to stay on one chord while he mangled his axe on top of it all.

But, oh god, the 76-78 bands...yuck. Still some moments, but definitely not the greatness the 79 Ike/Mann/Coliauta lineups were capable of, or the preceding years. And the obsession with gay sex during those years can get a bit tiresome, even to this rabid Zappaphile's ear.