I'm listening to the 50th 3 lp set now. A W E S O M E ... I think I know that Frank originally wanted a double album for this one? I figure the King Kong solos was one side, at about 19 min, but then this version of Billy the Mountain would seem to be too long for the 4th side. I merged the two parts together, and I got 32:42 for the total ... I wonder how he would have done it ... The sound quality is fantastic!
Oops, that timing for Billy includes the Junier Mintz Boogie. So the real timing for Billy would be just under 30min, which is almost there. (Dazed and Confused was 27 min, and I think there was a Utopia (live?) album that had an almost 30 min long side ...) Ahhh ... Todd Rundgren's Utopia - Todd Rundgren's Utopia So maybe that's how they would have done it. Just a very long side for Billy ...
Zappa usually had short LP sides, rarely over 17 minutes. The version of "Billy" on JABFLA was an exception though (24 minutes I think?).
That information is not known, but he re-appropriated the original Fillmore "Billy The Mountain" for an unreleased double-LP version of "Just Another Band From LA" that had half from UCLA and half from the Fillmore, plus the other side as released and another side-and-a-half of jamming from Carnegie Hall which was eventually edited down further to become Side 4 of "Finer Moments", which also didn't come out until recently.
Some questions about this set and I couldn't find the answers in IINK. In the Homemade Radio Spot/Outtakes there is a female voice singing the background vocal along with Jim Pons (Eddie are you kidding...about this Mothers album). Who was she? Who played harmonica in the Harrisburg/Scranton show? Did Mark or Howard or both play tambourine during this lineup? I'm slowly making my way through this set and I love it.
Both. Just checked the video of "Scumbag" and it shows Howard playing tambourine and Mark holding various percussion instruments including tambourine.
Prompted by the STINYC Nothing is Real podcast, I just checked out the Lennon/Ono portion of the concert and I can't believe how much better this mix is than Lennon's 1971 mix, where he completely mixed out Flo and Eddie, added an overdubbed bass, added reverb to his vocal and buried Zappa's solos. It's enjoyable now!
Yes it does, despite being mixed from Yoko's safety copy of the 16-track. When Zappa pulled the master reel in the late 80's, he found that it had been stolen and replaced with a fake "dummy" tape. So he had to use his original unreleased 1971 mix/edit on "Playground Psychotics". Creepy, huh?
I was just thinking that Frank used both mono and stereo drum tracks for the original album (in some cases, during the same song). That might explain some of the curious mixing choices and the reverb added, maybe.
Yes, he cuts back and forth from the 5th to the 6th throughout the Groupie Opera, and he would have needed to compensate for the drum tracks being different.
Yes - and it's very interesting to see (via the 1971 box) how the sections he didn't use are surprisingly inferior and different from the ones that he did use. He clearly knew what to do.
Sometimes they're inferior, sometimes they're just different. I'm a bit surprised at the lost stanzas from "Latex Solar Beef". Pretty disturbing images in both versions.
For those who might be interested, jpc.de has the 8 CD box on sale now at e very good price of 44.99 Euro: https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/poprock/detail/-/art/frank-zappa-the-mothers-1971/hnum/10835983
Interesting comments! You listen to Billy The Mountain the way I listen to German and Italian opera. I just dig the great music and singing. I'm glad I decided to listen to some of this on YouTube and luckily I'm always on the JPC site looking for classical music bargains so I looked up the Zappa stuff and was amazed at the super low price. I'm really looking forward to this box. A Christmas gift to myself! And luckily my wife loves FZ too!
Anyone who calls Lennon 'scumbag' is someone I want nothing to do with. I just love the block feature!
Thanks for the head's up on this. I've been streaming this for awhile now, waiting for a good deal and finally pulled the trigger at this great price!
