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Fall '77 Reviews
page one
The earliest tape extant from this AMAZING tour is the rather skeevy quality audience
tape. Essentially it's a sea of mud!! But it is not without it's moments. FZ gives good
"Torture" here, building on the forceful solos of the previous tour. The band is
clearly finding their way with "Envelopes" (VERY early and raw!!) and "I
Promise..." though the latter is much more successful than the former. "Wild
Love" is already friggin' incredible...two months later and it would rate in the
"legendary" category all around--particuarly here, FZ seems to be giving the
guys a chance to stretch out a bit--perhaps he was showing off the ensemble? He had to
know that this band was capable of revelatory happenin's!!
The main treat here though is the encores: in jumbled order and a longer segment than
usual, capped by a "Daddy Daddy Daddy" that is nice to hear (I think that's
Adrian on the backing vocals--nice job, whoever!!), but the execution is a bit limp--the
song seems to be not ideally suited to this
group, which evidently is why FZ removed it from the sets soon after. "King
Kong" is short but nice to hear in this spot too. Probably as a result of it's Encore
status, there isn't as much wide-ranging improv as there would be when inserted into the
main set. FZ closing proceedings with a very sweet "Black Napkins" solo.
Overall, it's an interesting show, but there are better quality tapes out there!!
--SP
Here we go again with a new band, one that during its half-year existence would qualify
itself as one of the best ever, through a huge quantity of great shows. Like many other FZ
bands, they would grow stronger and stronger, and reach their peak near the end (Feb '78,
in this case), but even an early show like this one shows what capacity they had.
If there's one thing to complain about, it's the tightness. Especially in the segues, many
of which are messed up pretty badly. Black Page is far from perfect, and they start
Punky's Whips at a breakneck pace which FZ has to correct. But these are only minor
complaints, and the quality of the songs played, and the solos played therein, easily
compensate for the occasional glitches.
This is also the tour where Patrick has taken the step from "merely great" to
"pure genius". The mix on this tape does a lot to emphasize this fact, and in
the Torture Never Stops solo, he's more audible than FZ. Both are playing really well,
making our first solo from this tour more than enjoyable. City Of Tiny Lights comes with a
bass solo only, but what a solo! O'Hearn shows not only astounding technique, but also
some of the startling creativity and originality that would become one of the many
redeeming features of this tour.
Next, Pound For A Brown, which hasn't really reached Monster status yet, but serves us
with typical, good solos from Tommy, followed by an excellent guitar solo. At first, I
wasn't really sure if it was Belew or Zappa, but in the end, there's no doubt it's FZ. It
starts out with some odd melodic figures, continues with some funky playing and ends up in
a R&R frenzy. Terrific! Even the segue into the next song is great.
Flakes, in one of its first performances, sounds great. Most of Envelopes is cut out, but
it seems to be without vocals. Then, after Disco Boy, it's time for the tragically
underplayed I Promise Not To Come In Your Mouth. FZ's solo is good, Tommy's is so-so, but
Peter's is great, matching the beauty of Eddie Jobson's efforts on this song. One thing
that's bugging me is the little piece of music before Wild Love - I've never understood if
it's a coda to IPNTCIYM or an intro to WL.
Wild Love isn't really as wild as it would become later in the tour, but definitely great.
Peter takes the first solo (very good), while Terry rules in the background. Adrian plays
one of his characteristic solos, quite nice. In Titties 'n Beer, FZ deviates into a
story about Sam, the tire salesman who purchased $80,000 worth of "dungeon
equipment" at The Pleasure Chest in L.A. Nice versions of Black Page, Jones Crusher,
Broken Hearts and Punky's Whips close the regular set.
The first set of encores brings us the standard Dinah-Moe Humm, Camarillo Brillo and
Muffin Man. But the second set is far less predictable: Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, followed by
King Kong and Black Napkins. King Kong turns out to be the Monster Song of the evening
too. Pretty short, but full of random madness, all conducted by the guy with the funny
beard. Black Napkins brings us one of the best solos of the show. An awesome ending to a
very good show
--JN
Now, while the Fall 77 tour is indeed one of my all time favorite tours, it has to be
said that it starts off slow, like most FZ tours. This is not one of the must-have
wonderful all the way though 1977 concerts. But there are one or two oddities that make
this a tape and a half worth getting.
Peaches sounds more energetic and fresh than it ever would again, thanks to a harsh Belew
guitar and Bozzio drum Fury. The Torture solo is quite good, using a lot of echoplex
effects (at least I hope those are effects, rather than the quality of the theatre). City
of Tiny Lites gets a few weeks as the Patrick O'Hearn spotlight, and he carves out a nice
little bass solo, very different in style from his Wild Love excursions later on.
Pound for a Brown is the early highlight, though. We get an excellent Tommy Mars solo,
with lots of scat and fast, classicalish notes. Then, to my surprise, a FZ solo, very
staccato and tempo changing. Quite interesting, and he actually takes a few minutes to
stretch out.
Then, after a short interlude of Flakes and Big Leg Emma, we get a surprise. It's the 6th
anniversary of Hendrix's death, and to commemorate it Frank lets Belew solo for about 5-6
minutes in the style of. It's a fabulous solo, quoting from at least 5 or 6 JH songs, and
even Star-Spangled Banner. The band flow smoothly behind Adrian, and we get a lovely
spontaneous improv.
After that, we get a very early Envelopes, sans Mars vocal, and a dull plod through Disco
Boy. Lather has good if quick Belew and Wolf solos, then on to Wild Love. Sadly, this is
not quite the monter of monters it would become. We get some excellent keyboard work from
both guys, a 4-5 minute E-bow solo from
Adrian. Then a FZ solo which is sadly cut VERY short before going back to the theme. It's
OK, but a far cry from the 30-35 minutes Wild Loves to come in November.
After that, the rest of the show kinda runs on 77 autopilot, with no more surprises. My
tape is missing all of the Titties 'n Beer improv, so nothing new there [ My tape isn't,
and contains quite a bit of O'Hearn stepping up and joining in the stand-up routine, which
involves the Gay Club scene and O'Hearn's "Buddy Love" character.... I laughed a
couple times- Fogz]. Frank's Punky solo is good, but still shorter than usual. And
Dinah-Moe is now sans the slow, vocal-oriented ending, thus making it totally dull.
Luckily, Frank's Muffin Man solo is a good capper to the night.
Despite the disappointing latter third, this is a good show, with Pound and the Hendrix
instrumental making it worth getting. But this is only a rehearsal for what we'd get in a
month or two...
By the way, for an eyewitness account of this show, visit here:
http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/Delta/9078/zap77.html
--SG
An average fall '77 show in above-average sound, well that's enough to make this
reporter's mouth to water. Everything on this tape ranges between good and awesome: the
less interesting vocal songs sound fine because of the inspired and energetic
musicianship, and the jams are more or less great because of...well, the inspired and
energetic musicianship.
Peaches is nice as always, and Torture brings us the first guitar solo of the evening. A
very good solo - the first, echo-plexed half sets a sad mood, which is transformed into
anger in the second half. Patrick delivers some of his characteristic fills in unexpected
places. This is one of the best tours for the City Of Tiny Lights/Pound For A Brown
combo, and this show provides an excellent example. COTL comes with a O'Hearn solo, but
Bozzio almost makes into a solo spot for himself too. The interplay between these two
makes this a very memorable jam, and has also a great part in the following Pound improvs.
Tommy has his usual, nice little synth orgy, which is followed by a FZ solo. Here, Ed has
joined the rhythm section, and the outcome is great. A long, funky solo, one of the
highlights of the show.
FZ does a little preamble to Flakes, has some extended dialogue with Adrian, and adds some
guitar fills in the Dylan part. Good versions of Envelopes and Disco Boy, before it's time
for the wonderful Läther/Wild Love. Good solos in Läther, but the keyboards (especially
Peter's) should have gotten more time if
you ask me. And then Wild Love...this song would keep growing over the course of the tour,
but already at this early stage, it's really great. Terry, Patrick and Ed whip out a
speedy "samba" beat, that's absolutely terrific, and on top of this, Tommy and
Peter play one great solo each. Then Adrian's typical e-bow solo, which sounds more
violin-like than ever tonight.
After this mini-monster, the band continue with a strong suite of more regular songs.
Titties 'n Beer has one of the more entertaining FZ/Bozzio dialogues I've heard. As we've
noticed before, Frank is in a good mood, and keeps cracking up the poor devil, who doesn't
seem particularly dangerous tonight. Black Page has grown much tighter over the first two
weeks of the tour, and Jones Crusher grooves nicely (unfortunately it doesn't lead into a
jam as it did the previous tour). Punky's Whips is missing on my copy, so instead we move
right into the final encore - The Illinois Enema Bandit. Quite a surprising choice, and
highly appreciated by the Illinoi Enema Bandit. The song itself lacks a lot of power as
Frank sings it, but it spawns two good guitar solos, one by Adrian and one by FZ.
Definitely a show worth having.
--JN
Hey!! I get to review a decent audience tape!! Actually I've noticed if I play
around with the EQ a bit I can get maximum (well, sorta) O'Hearn out of it. Actually
it is a quite good tape, with nice balance between the instruments (the solos are
particualrly clean and nice for the era). And here we have another rippin' '77 show!
FZ is fired up for his solos tonight, as "Torture" makes clear once again.
The rhythmic support for FZs solos are phenomenal tonight, as they are for the entire
tour, but this tape brings out just how good the Bozzio/O'Hearn rhythm section truly
is. A standard set for this tour (although the standard is VERY high), but we do get
passable early versions of "Flakes" and "Envelopes". "Jones
Crusher" really stomps tonight...long live Adrian Belew!! Special mention: FZ's solos
in "Punky" and "Black Napkins" are among the best of the entire tour!!
Bottom line: This one makes great car listening...that is, an easy-on-the-ear tape from a
great band!!
--SP
September 29th, 1977
Apart from your Flo 'n' Eddie laced encores, this show is your standard,
possibly sub-standard Fall '77 affair. I am a great fan of this tour, and rate it as one
of Frank's Top Five excursions, and would probably even choose to listen to this show
before listening to the Great shows from many other tours ('80, '84, heck, even '88). But
compared to most of the other shows available from this tour, this Toronto affair just
does not cut the mustard.
The first side of music is one disappointment after another. Frank's
"Torture" solo patiently rallies into an aggressive attack, but just as things
are getting truly interesting, Frank halts the proceedings and returns us to the final
verses. "Pound for a Brown" falls victim to the same such abortion, only this
time a tape cut is the culprit, prematurely ending Mars' solo and jumping us forward to
the tail end of Frank's "Conehead"-vamp solo. "Wild Love", the song
which would eventually become THE MONSTER, is nothing more than three tweedle-deedle
solos, with neither Wolf, Belew, or Frank whipping out anything worth remembering.
There are two moments of note in this show- one of which may redeem the entire tape. To
open the second set, Frank throws in a surprise "Illinois Enema Bandit", a song
not normally in this band's repertoire. Frank does the vocals (poorly), and the solo
section becomes a mini-Monster. Belew goes first, and while his solo is not all that
great, it is truly interesting to hear his guitar pyrotechnics played over a blues vamp.
Keyboards and Frank also solo, though nothing special comes out of these. Not a great
performance, but the simple fact that Frank sings, coupled with Belew's "fish out of
water" solo (he is not a blues player), make this a worthwhile listen.
The encores are also quite entertaining. With special guests Flo 'n' Eddie, the band
runs through several 200 Motels-era numbers, slightly tweaking each one enough to give it
that Fall '77 "damn we're a good band" stamp. Not the most challenging or
rewarding music of the tour, but damn solid entertainment.
Finally, one last positive aspect of this tape- something I am finding with all the
Fall '77 tapes- is that the audience recordings highlight different sonic aspects of the
band. Wolf's cheesy keyboard in "Peaches", Belew's rhythm work in
"City", Mann's percussion in "Punky's"- these are just some of the
examples of tiny little things that jumped out at me while listening to this tape- things
that I did not notice or Frank chose to bury in the other mixes. So that alone made me
happy that I listened to the show.
But when all is said and done, this is at best an average show from a great tour.
--JG
September 30th, 1977
Fall '77 is one of my favorite Zappa tours, so how did I get stuck writing two negative
reviews in a row? Like the previous night's Toronto show, this Detroit concert is one of
the weaker links in the Fall '77 chain. To begin with, the tape does not document a
complete show, missing a good chunk of songs in the second half of the performance,
including two of my favorite, "I Promise Not To Come In Your Mouth/Lather" and
"Wild Love". What remains on the tape is some lackluster performances and a
couple ridiculously short solos. Frank's guitar solo in "Punky's Whips" races by
so fast that I had to rewind the tape twice and re-listen, making sure that there wasn't
an edit somewhere in the 60 second effort. Even the "Black Napkins" encore,
which would be a guitar orgy in St. Louis two days later, is nothing more than a tweedle
tweedle, bend bend, flurry flurry "Good Night" solo- a strictly by-the-numbers,
but only up to five, effort.
Unfortunately, the sound on this tape is awesome. I say unfortunately, because it is
truly a waste that such a lackluster performance is captured in such clear sound. The only
real musical highlight is the second half of Frank's "Pound for a
Brown/Conehead" solo. After whipping out what appears to be a complete,
damn-that-is-short solo, Frank cannot seem to bring the band back together and into
"Flakes". So he scratches some strings, whips out some runs, makes some noise,
with O'Hearn and Bozzio following his lead. For roughly over a minute, they explore this
funky new collage of noise, resulting in an interesting little patch of music. They then
proceed with the show and everybody goes back to sleep.
The show is really not as bad as I paint it, but it does fall to the bottom of the Fall
'77 barrel, with much disappointment that such a good sounding show could be so musically
Blah! Oh well.
--JG
This show has some historical importance since FZ met Ike Willis on this occasion, and
since it received a glowing review in Down Beat. As the review notes, the band members
played well despite their discomfort at being outside in cold weather; FZ gets some
mileage from this scenario during his comments tonight.
All that aside, this tape finds the band on its way to the heights they reached at the end
of the month, though not there yet. There are several details in the arrangements that
would get tweaked as the tour
went on, and a few mistakes, most of them on FZ's part (he comes in with an out of place
guitar lead during Chin and causes a train wreck in the middle of Punky's Whips). That
cheesy organ sound that Tommy uses on several songs here, which got abandoned by fall '78,
sort of symbolizes the shortcomings of the tour.
Still, there's lots to enjoy. FZ's Torture solo doesn't have the punch of Rat Tomago yet,
but Bozzio and O'Hearn are starting to rage in a way that they rarely did in the previous
band, and they also have the
chance for a barnstorming jam in Tiny Lites (which also features an unusually bluesy Belew
vocal) that I would take over most solos FZ ever played on this song. There's also a good
Conehead solo with some odd meter switches from the rhythm section (unfortunately, the
coolest part gets caught in a tape flip), and FZ tacks an interesting brief coda onto Wild
Love.
The dialogue improv in T & B is short, but O'Hearn and Bozzio throw some adlibs in
Broken Hearts that crack FZ up, causing him to blow many of the lyrics in that song as
well as the Punky's Whips intro. FZ ends the show with a fine Black Napkins.
This is a good recording which, though not on par with 10/30/77 or 2/15/78, shows one of
FZ's better bands developing its chops. Recommended.
--PB
October 17th, 1977
This is one of those tapes that makes tape collecting so worthwhile. The sound
quality, the audience, the mix, and best of all, the performance all join forces to
deliver one of the most enjoyable from-start-to-finish Zappa shows captured on tape.
From the get-go, the music is off to an interesting- and promising- start. The opening
Purple Lagoon vamp tinkers on musical chaos as Bozzio and O'Hearn try to funk things up
early, but get a little too excited. The funk may not work here, but their eagerness to
jump in and get cooking early is good. "Peaches-> Torture" opens the show
well, though nothing special jumps out yet. Bozzio messes up the lyrics to "Tryin' To
Grow", and the early anticipation begins to look misguided. But then, during
"City of Tiny Lites", O'Hearn steps up and takes what would be the last of his
regular COTL bass solos, and from here on out, the show can do wrong. This solo is typical
O'Hearn- melodic at first, slowly building in intensity until it reaches a solid funk
groove. When the band returns to the instrumental bridge prior to the lyrics, O'Hearn is
still going full-bore, playing his written parts as over-the-top as he can, while
embellishing the music as only he knows how. The whole band is pumped by now, and the show
takes off.
"Pound for a Brown" finds the band riding several solid grooves, with Mars'
solo going from a jazzy, acoustic tinged jaunt into a hard, fast hitting funk. O'Hearn
continues pushing the music to its limits, bringing the jam to an early
tension-and-release. Mars' takes full advantange of this with contrasting keyboard sounds
that bring out the emotional impact of the jam.
"Conehead" finds Frank taking his first memorable solo of the night- a long,
lazy, very low-key affair that simply glides over the steady groove that O'Hearn and
Bozzio churn out. "Envelopes" arrives with lyrics, "Disco Boy" sounds
great thanks to this particular tape and the way it highlights Belew's guitar, and
"Lather" finds this band sounding tighter and more confident than ever.
The obvious highlight of the show is "Wild Love". From the get go, this
performance yells "Monster", with O'Hearn once again amplifying the intensity by
laying down bass lines during the written sections that make everyone sit up and go
"Oh shit!". I have heard this song performed dozens of time on live tapes, and
no other version has the power that this one exerts. Once the solo section arrives, the
band is already going full steam, and the keyboard solo simply takes off into the
stratosphere. O'Hearn once again pushes the groove to its limits, and by the time Belew
begins his solo, it seems as if the seams are already ready to burst. The first half of
Belew's solo is indescribably intense. O'Hearn and Bozzio continue to escalate the funk
frenzy, while Belew emits a rapid series of high pierced shrieks and screaming weasels
from his guitar. The tension builds to a point beyond what we seem able to take, before
the band effortlessly slides into a walking disco beat, providing the relief we need at
this moment. It is then that the band slaps us on the head. Belew jumps back on the floor,
this time with a herd of raging elephants, and proceeds to stomp on and tear up everything
in site. Belew eventually wears himself down, though amazingly enough the rhythm section
continue laying down the groove. At this point, Frank steps onto the floor and tries to
dance, and at first, it does not look as if his guitar will be able to cut it. But he
eventually finds the groove, and with some silky and suave moves, dances in and out and
through the steady beat, attracting attention and stirring the whole crowd onto its feet
and into the dance floor. By the time the main theme returns minutes later, everyone is up
shaking their ass, waving their arms, and smiling like fools. This is one of Frank's best
"feel good" solos.
From here on out , the show runs on pure adrenaline, with O'Hearn once again stepping
up and repeatedly wowing us with his prowess. "The Black Page" is a sonic
Monster, with O'Hearn's bass jumping out of the mix and literally pounding me in the ears.
The segue into "Jones Crusher" is easily the most powerful ever, as O'Hearn
drops a four note bomb right at the intro, sending us into the song like we are on a
four-loop rollercoaster. "Broken Hearts" finds the band cutting loose and having
a few laughs, as does "Punky's Whips", which eventually builds up to an
exhilarating rock 'n' roll climax. The encores dish up the goodies as expected, though
sadly my tape lacks the closing "Black Napkins", which could be one of those
monster solos the '77 and '78 tours typically brought about in that vehicle.
This is all-around a GREAT TAPE!! Excellent sound, excellent band, excellent tour,
excellent performances, and O'Hearn. For what more could you ask?
--JG
Another show proving that the band is growing better and better, but it doesn't go
really as fast as I'd expected. There is nothing bad about this show, but unfortunately,
there's nothing really great either. It's especially Frank's solos that doesn't really
live up to the expectations.
To begin with the positive aspects, Pound For A Brown is a success tonight. The keyboard
players and the rhythm section have found each other, and produce some really fine
jamming. The instrumental Conehead follows as a coda (it would soon become a stand-alone
piece), and works very good, one of the best guitar solos of the concert. Wild Love has
also kept evolving, now earning true Monster status. Many good solos, the best being a
joint Wolf/O'Hearn effort. This song has a lot more to give, as the following reviews will
prove, and is still a little disappointing.
The suite that follows, Titties 'n Beer through Punky's Whips is strong, despite lacking
instrumental improvisations - the energy with which they're played and the vocal
deviations make up for that. T&B, Broken Hearts and PW are full of little jokes that
crack up the performers as well as the listeners.
The negative aspects, then? Well, FZ has taken over O'Hearn's solo spot in City Of Tiny
Lights, leaving us without any real bass solo, which is a shame. The replacement is one of
Frank's weakest solo vamps ever, IMO, one that would spawn very few memorable solos over
it's 1,5 years. The vamp and the solos
sound like they could be parodies, but I doubt they were. Tonight's attempt is a typical
example: FZ keeps hammering out heavy chords and typical R&R licks, which sound pretty
cool on the surface, but upon closer listening turn out to contain very little of
interest.
The same could be said about most of Zappa's solos tonight. He doesn't toy around with the
echoplex in Torture, but starts off aggressively and works his way slowly towards a
climax. Pretty good, but he seems to lack really interesting ideas. His Punky's Whips solo
suffer from the same syndrome as Tiny Lights - lots of R&R, little real content.
Muffin Man comes with a really nice solo, cool vibrato, along with Conehead the best of
the show.
Maybe I sounded overly negative above - overall, this is a good show, but far from the
heigths we know these guys could reach. The sound is pretty good on the first 90 min, but
bites it for the last 25.
- JN
Now we're cooking! The band is really on tonight, and Frank's in a great mood.
"We're ready to burst into song," he tells the Boston audience, and indeed the
band seems ready to expand the boundaries of the 77 setlist, making solos longer and more
adventurous.
It always surprises me how many songs I find to be in their 'perfect' version with this
band. Peaches is one of them, with Tommy and Adrian's 'ba-ba' vocal chorus being a
wonderful highlight. Torture is your typical first solo of the show song, as Frank warms
up by experiemnting with various styles, starting off with a clean, picked sound unusual
in Torture. It's also notable that at this point on my tape, Bozzio was VERY LOUD in the
mix. A good song to listen to Terry's drumming style.
City of Tiny Lites is now sadly minus an O'Hearn bass solo, and Frank's is OK, but not
great. O'Hearn and Belew, however, sound fabulous in the background, with their riffs
becoming far more interesting than Frank's solo.
Pound for a Brown starts off with a very assured head. Damn this band was tight. Instead
of the usual keyboards, however, we first have a long, 4-5 minute monologue improvised by
Patrick, mostly riffing on 'The Reverend Buddy Love'. The audience loves it, and it is
amusing at times (though only at times). Luckily this doesn't replace any solos, so we
have Tommy soloing with his usual 'scat along to my synths' thing, then Peter and Patrick
have a short duel before Peter takes a longer solo. Conehead enters, and Frank finally
realizes the band is showing him up and pulls out all the stops, delivering a terrific
solo, with lots of dissonance.
The middle of the show then arrives, showing Frank's keen ability to balance a setlist.
The Big Leg Emma/Envelopes/Disco Boy threesome is one example of variety and never keeping
the mood quite the same. By the way, if you've always had difficulty understanding what
Tommy Mars sings in Envelopes, this is the tape to get, as his lyrics are quite clear.
Nice drum solo by Terry, though by now it's more a composed piece - 'Drum Solo' by T.
Bozzio - rather than a solo in itself.
I'd just like to note that Patrick and Adrian are INSANE in Disco Boy. Thank you.
Wild Love, like the other songs in this show, is played flawlessly at the head. This is
where I really noticed how many times we see Peter Wolf dueling with another member of the
band. Tonight he and Frank trade licks for a minute or so, and then it almost becomes Wolf
v. Band. Very cool. Tommy gets a shorter break, then Ed plays his usual entertaining but
not amazing solo. Adrian is really, really on tonight, with a very long e-bow solo. Frank
needs to top that, and is finally stretching out his Wild Love codas. We hear snatches of
Inca Roads, and what may be the first appearance of the lick I think of as 'The Squirm'.
Fabulous.
After that we get a normal final 30 minutes, though with this band that's not a letdown.
Frank and Terry both seem to be doing lots of mid-song impro in Titties 'n Beer, but FZ
cuts it off early. Frank's Punky solo is still short, but it's getting there. Presumably
Frank was getting cued from offstage about show length, as he cuts things off after
Camarillo Brillo, with only a brief Muffin Man tease.
Still, a really nice concert, with great sound. They'd get even better, too. A keeper.
--SG
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