$80.92! Time for those on the fence to buy. But of course you may run the risk of a missing CD#2. Happened to a friend but not me.
No mention yet of the quite prominent and stereo panning Lion's Roar drum on the first part of the vinyl version of Billy The Mountain ? That is probably the most noticeable overdub on the whole piece. I’ve only heard it once…I’ll have to go back to remember exactly where it was.
^^ Is that when the guy with the royalty check drives up? I'm not certain it's a Lion's Roar, but it's a cool effect.
There seems to be another 71 show professionally recorded and part of yet another collection of these FM broadcasts (Amazon link). The back cover says: Montreal, Quebec, 5th July 1971, CKGM FM Radio Broadcast. It is not part of the FZ-Shows-Page. Anyone knows something about that? In the past I bought a few of these FM collections from Queen, Bowie and Oldfield. The Oldfield one was to some parts great (Hannover show 1981, and finally not mp3 sourced), but the other two were a very mixed bag. So I am staying (mostly) away from these collections. Especially for Zappa, hope is many of these shows see a proper release from the vault. (And luckily there is also Zappateers )
I love Lion's Roar! I think it's a very funny sound... IIRC there's one on the LSO's "Mo 'n' Herb's Vacation". Yes, Zappa must have gotten that kick from Varèse.
This is an informal recording at a radio station in Montreal. It's technically not a concert, which is why it's listed here FZShows: Unreleased, radio, and weird stuff instead. This material is easily available for free, the Zappa Family makes no money off the amazon link. Don't give your money to criminals who don't deserve it.
Billy The Mountain from the hybrid concert sounds weird! Some of the narrative sound a bit unrehearsed, and the piece is clearly still "under evolution". The solo section includes a lengthy sax solo by Ian, a short drum solo and a complete breakdown in the end. To make it even more interesting, the story is incomplete. After the solos, when we are supposed to join Studebaker Hoch on the edge of Billy's mouth, the story just goes to the ending. Well, that is the beauty of these boxes. We get to hear really different versions the pieces we know and love!
They did that the first few weeks that they performed Billy live. The Fillmore versions were the first ones with the ending. In some of those early versions they do Studebaker's closing lecture to Billy before they start the piece. (I like the cartoonish comment from Studebaker they added later suggesting that he survived falling off the mountain.)
I remember hearing some vinyl boot decades ago, where FZ explained the Edgewater Inn motel of Mud Shark something like this: "... nature has provided it as an ideal place for experiments that I've always suspected Jacques Cousteau is doing when nobody is looking..." I was expecting to hear that version in this box, but it wasn't here.
Back when I still bought boots, I had one from Australia 1973 where Zappa did a version of "Mudshark" by audience request. I haven't heard that in a while but maybe that included the comment you mention.
Yes, I'm pretty sure that was from that Australian show boot - I had bought it too, around 1980 or so. I regret those purchases today; literal fortunes that could have been spent so much more wisely and legally...
It's from the Festival Hall in Melbourne on June 29, 1973 so it certainly wouldn't be included in a 1971 box. However, Zappa fans the world over have long been clamoring for a box featuring the 1973 Australian tour so here's hoping for a 50th Anniversary release next year...
I relistened to that Melbourne version to confirm - in fact, I think it is funnier than the Fillmore version, especially when George Duke does a "lounge" version of the riff under FZ's monologue.
Thanks for pointing out, where my memory comes from! I must check it again some day. Australia '73 is my top wish for a future release. Well, this year Waka / Wazoo, next year...
Honestly speaking there is not very much variation between the Billy's at The Fillmore, but the hybrid version is a different beast, as described above. But even if the dialogue parts are mostly the same, you still have the solos! The first thing that I started skipping was Yoko...
Having given this set a couple of full run-throughs I must say that I absolutely love it. The sheer energy of the jams and instrumentals makes it for me. I am yet to tire of the 'comedy' material. Happy listened through all of the Billys and laughed along each time. The whole Studabaker Hoch section absolutely lifts the whole piece to another level. I've even re-listened to Carnegie Hall to keep the vibe going. Praying that one day Joe manages to piece together a great quality stereo Sofa Suite as part of a JABL Super-deluxe At the moment, I actually think the '71 band is sitting at the top of my Zappa era list. Maybe I've listened to too much '73/'74 and have become a little complacent. We'll see what happens when Erie comes out! Current fave lineups: 70-71 73-74 68-69 76 ZINY 75
Okay, I had to listen to at least one Billy, so I chose Scranton. I'll listen to the others on the next round. The Rainbow show is feckin hot! Especially the uncut King Kong. I truly wonder how much longer Frank would have kept this band going if he hadn't been injured. Anysley Dunbar is on fire.
Right now Chungas Revenge on disk 4. Some bad ass squacking and tooting going on here. When you stop and think about it, there is > 2.5 HOURS of Billy the Mountain on there. Yet, somehow, I have yet to tire of it, the spoken parts are pretty imaginative and the solos hidden in some of them are gems. Never a BTM fan based on JABFLA but I have come to think these versions are pretty listenable. I was very very pleasantly surprised by the John Lennon and friend stuff. I kind of love it, and the title of the one track says it all, a small eternity with Yoko. Thats the way I like it. I understand they and Zappa hardly spoke or communicated prior or after the set but I think in retrospect it came off pretty well, at least judging from Zappa Trust's edit. Zappa does get off some pretty condescending comments toward the audience though. I never forgot (or forgave) when Zappa issued that Beat the Boots series...I bought several before I realized it sounded like he had literally copied bootlegs he had acquired and then put them out on cd. Which is fair, I suppose, because at least he was selling third rate recordings for retail instead of 3X bootleg price, but I was really hoping his scheme was to go to the vault and replace the crap recordings with his own ones. But, no. Now if anyone has any corrections or additions to my sketchy knowledge of that situation, please feel free to jump in and say so. I never really learned the concept or actuality of how that series came to be other than literally the title of the series. jb
The only reason to own it is to hear the boys do a very in-tune cover of Daddy's Home, the old do wop number
Zappa had no involvement with the Beat the Boots releases other than to agree to the concept. He saw that people were making money off crappy recordings and rightly figured that if money was to be spent on such a substandard product that he should get it, not the bootleggers. He was always quite upfront about the reasons for the two releases. They were compiled by the late great Tom Brown and final approval was given by Gail.
I bought the first Beat the Boots box and enjoyed hearing shows by some of the bands that weren't represented much on the You Can't Do That Onstage series, and in full sets rather than the heavily edited FZ releases. However, if Zappa hoped the series would make fans lose interest in the boots, for me it had the opposite effect. Fortunately with the Internet in the 90's I was able to make contacts quickly to trade for tapes rather than buying many of the boots.
Speaking of Beat The Boots…I enjoyed them at the time because around then I was throwing a lot of my post-teenage money at Zappa boots…along with dubbing anyone else’s tapes I could get my hands on. So i viewed it as a haul at a reasonable price. I knew what I was getting into with these releases because I’d read about them in the New York Times. Zappa's Mammoth Official Bootleg (Published 1991) I can understand how some people were extremely disappointed without that knowledge. Unmitigated Audacity anyone? Horrible. In fact I think the fact these albums were the only Zappa on iTunes for years may have done damage at the time. For instance, any sad soul in search of Camarillo Brillo was going to end up with the Unmitigated version. Yikes! I doubt they’d be coming back for more after that. But that being said I had a newbie friend who's first Zappa CD purchase was UA. After expressing my sympathies for the purchase, he said he loved it! Go figure. Also didn’t I read that Tom Brown tried to replace circulating higher quality tapes for some of these, that is till Gail caught him? Also something I never got to the bottom of was that the CD of The Ark had more dialogue on it than my copy which was a dub of the LP. Can anyone speak on that?
