Studio Oddities List

These bootlegs focus on and contain rare studio material. A lot of it has been officially released since they came out. Whipping Post, a spin-off from the Apocrypha box, is listed under Apocrypha.

Confidential
Wasp Man Has Hornet's Wings
Metal Man Has Hornet's Wings
Wasp Man Has Metal Wings

  • Radio-broadcast oldies and rarities
  • Other various

Re-issued as Wasp Man Has Hornet's Wings
Re-issued as Metal Man Has Hornet's Wings in 1976 (pressed from the original Wasp Man Has Hornet's Wings plates) on Dragonfly Records and on Wizardo (Wizardo 365)
Re-issued as Wasp Man Has Metal Wings on coloured vinyl (WRMB Records)

Length: ~45 min
Label: 365

Musicians: various

1. Metal Man Has Won His Wings [listed as "Metal Man Has Hornet's Wings"] [Mystery Disc version]
2. Dupree's Paradise
3. Black Napkins
4. The Story of Electricity
5. Unconditionally Guaranteed
6. Whiskey Gone Behind the Sun ["Louisiana Blues" by McKinley "Muddy Waters" Morganfield]
7. Mondo Hollywood ["Party Scene from Mondo Hollywood" - Mystery Disc version]
8. Lowell George & the Factory: Lightning-Rod Man [Lightning-Rod Man version]
9. My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama [different edit of Stage #5 version]
10. Rock Around the Clock
11. Sandwich Song
12. How Could I Be Such a Fool?
13. Boogie for Berkeley
14. Neon Meat Dream of a Octafish [Don van Vliet] [Trout Mask Replica version]
15. King Kong
16. Speed Freak Boogie [Mystery Disc version]

Most of this record is from a radio show on KWST radio, 01-Nov-1975, where Zappa and Beefheart played oldies and oddities. The bootleggers have added a few tracks (the ones that seem out of place). (There is a completely unsubstantiated rumour that this radio show was actually a broadcast of a Warner Brothers promo record with these songs on it, which has never been found and never been confirmed to have existed.)

Tracks 1, 7, 14 and 16 have been officially released on Mystery Disc and Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica. As for the other tracks:

  • Track 2 (and maybe track 3) are live at the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, 24-Feb-1974 (?)
  • Track 4 has Zappa talking about a record company's reaction to a demo tape, while two songs are playing in the background: "Power Trio from the Saints & Sinners" and "Bossa Nova Pervertamento", officially released on the Mystery Disc
  • Track 5 is the last Studio Z recording (1964) from the night before the police raid (with van Vliet?)
  • Track 6 has been officially released (perhaps in a shorter edit) on the Mystery Disc (as "Original Mothers at the Broadside (Pomona)"); it is the first live recording of the Mothers, 1965, and the song they are playing is called "Louisiana Blues"
  • Track 8 is a 1966 recording of Lowell George & the Factory, produced by and featuring Frank Zappa, officially released on the album Lightning-Rod Man in 1993
  • Track 9 is the 1969 single version from A&R Studios, New York, a different edit of which has been released on Stage #5
  • Tracks 10-11 are from Studio Z in 1964. Track 10 is an early rehearsal recording of the Mothers, with Zappa talking on top of it - he claims the group is trying to play "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley.
  • Track 12 is from the first studio rehearsal with the Mothers, 1965
  • Track 13 could be live 1968
  • Track 15 is live in London 1968

An Evening with ... Frank Zappa & Captain Beefheart is a more complete issue of this broadcast.

See also: Apocrypha

An Evening with ... Frank Zappa & Captain Beefheart (CD/CDR)

  • Radio-broadcast oldies and rarities

Length: 67:27
Label: HEAD, re-issued both by RXZ Records and by Blind Boy Grunt Records

Musicians: various

1. Cucamonga [Bongo Fury version]
2. Orange Claw Hammer [Don van Vliet]
3. Debra Kadabra / Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy [Bongo Fury versions]
4. The Smegmates: Will You Drink My Water?
5. Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band: Pachuco Cadaver [Don van Vliet] [Trout Mask Replica version]
6. I Was a Teenage Maltshop
7. Status Back Baby
8. Ned the Mumbler [may or may not include "Ned Has a Brainstorm"]
9. Toads of the Short Forest
10. Charva [The Lost Episodes version]
11. Speed-Freak Boogie [Mystery Disc version]
12. Metal Man Has Won His Wings [Don van Vliet / Zappa] [Mystery Disc version]
13. Instrumental
14. Louisiana Blues [McKinley "Muddy Waters" Morganfield]
15. Instrumental ["Party Scene from Mondo Hollywood" - Mystery Disc version]
16. Studio Rehearsal ["Sandwich Song"]
17. How Could I Be Such a Fool?
18. Boogie for Berkeley
19. Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band: Neon Meat Dream of a Octafish [Don van Vliet] [Trout Mask Replica version]
20. Muffin Man [Bongo Fury version]
21. 200 Years Old [extended version]

This is a recording of a radio show on KWST radio, 1-Nov-1975, where Zappa and Beefheart played oldies and oddities. (There is a completely unsubstantiated rumour that this radio show was actually a broadcast of a Warner Brothers promo record with these songs on it, which has never been found, and never been confirmed to have existed.)

Tracks 1, 3, 5, 10-12, 15, 19 & 20 have been officially released on Bongo Fury, The Lost Episodes, Mystery Disc and Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica. As for the other tracks:

  • Track 2 was performed live in the studio; the Captain sings the song to a simple guitar backing
  • Track 4 is a very strange track, announced as a recording of a group called "The Smegmates"
  • Tracks 6-8 are CBS demos from 1965 - track 6 has been officially released (approximately) on the Mystery Disc. Track 8 may or may not include "Ned Has a Brainstorm".
  • Track 9 recorded at Studio Z, Cucamonga, 1964
  • Track 13 is from 1964 (very informative, isn't it?)
  • Track 14 has been officially released (perhaps in a shorter edit) on the Mystery Disc (as "Original Mothers at the Broadside (Pomona)"); it is the first live recording of the Mothers, from 1965
  • Tracks 16-17 are from the first Mothers rehearsal in 1965; a small fragment of track 16 has been officially released on the Mystery Disc, as "Original Mothers Rehearsal"
  • Track 18 is a 1968 rehearsal
  • Track 21 is NOT directly from Bongo Fury, but a longer version from an acetate, clocking in at 07:55 instead of 04:31. What has been cut out on Bongo Fury is 39 seconds just before the guitar solo (a slide solo by Denny Walley), 2 minutes and 43 seconds just after the guitar solo (effectively a piano solo and one verse), and 2 seconds of the fade-out. It's a CD bonus track from another radio broadcast, on WPLR, New Haven, 18-Apr-1975, and it also appears on Chronicle and Bongo Fury El Paso TX.

Adding to this very impressive cast of characters, the album retains some radio-station chatter from Zappa and the Captain. From Patrick Neve:

I think the Mystery Disc tracks sound A LOT better [here] than ... on the Mystery Disc.

The cover/"booklet" is a single sheet folded once; no staples. The front of it is a black & white image of a 1950s American suburban family of 12 gatherered around a TV set; the title is printed in colour. The back of it has a black & white photograph of Zappa and Captain Beefheart sitting at a table - the Captain is brushing his moustache and product-placing a Coca-Cola can on the table; Zappa is watching him, cigarette in hand, bemused (or slightly drunk). Back cover has a colour photograph of Zappa on stage playing his guitar. The inside picture is a black & white photo of Zappa on stage, with his guitar, but with one hand held high over his head; Captain Beefheart sits in a chair on stage, surrounded by some Mothers.

HK elaborates on the various editions of this title:

"An Evening with ... FZ and Beefheart (CD)" only exists as CD-R if made by "HEAD"Label. The only existing silver version is made by "Chameleon." The HEAD-record is made on a gold-writable with only one word on it (direct printed on CD): "EVENING"

Some of this broadcast was also issued on Confidential.

See also: Apocrypha

I Was a Teenage Maltshop (LP/CD)

  • Studio oldies
  • Boston, Massachusettes, 27-Apr-1975

Also issued as record 7 (pale yellow label) of The History & Collected Improvisations of Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention (re-issued on CD).

Length: ~45 min
LP label: ZX 3657
CD label: RXZ Records 307

Live musicians: Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, Denny Walley, George Duke, Tom Fowler, Terry Bozzio and Napoleon Murphy Brock

1. I Was a Teenage Maltshop / Status Back Baby / Ned the Mumbler / Ned Has a Brainstorm / Toads of the Short Forest
2. Excerpt from the Uncle Frankie Show [Mystery Disc version]
3. Charva [The Lost Episodes version]
4. Band Introductions from the Fillmore West [not listed] [Mystery Disc version]
5. Plastic People [Berry/Zappa] / Solo [Mystery Disc version of something]
6. Bobby Jameson: Gotta Find My Roogalator
7. Baby Ray & the Ferns: How's Your Bird
8. Baby Ray & the Ferns: The World's Greatest Sinner
9. The Penguins: Memories of El Monte [Zappa/Collins]

10. Camarillo Brillo
11. Muffin Man
12. Let's Make the Water Turn Black
13. Willie the Pimp

Some of this stuff comes from a radio show on KWST radio, 1-Nov-1975, where Zappa played oldies and oddities. The cover track list is wrong, but the above should be correct.

  • Tracks 2-5 have been officially released on The Lost Episodes and Mystery Disc.
  • Track 1 is from the "rock opera" recorded in 1963 (the first part has been issued on the Mystery Disc). The same recording can be found on Apocrypha.
  • Tracks 6-9 are old single tracks from way before Zappa hit it big time: see Zappa's singles discography for more info. They have been officially re-released on several albums, which you can read about here.
  • Side 2 is identified as "live in Boston, Massachusettes, 11-Sep-1975". There was no such show; it could be live in Boston 27-Apr-1975 or somewhere else on the tour. 

See also: The Cucamonga Era

The Cucamonga Era (LP/CD)

  • Various OLD single tracks

Also issued as record 3 of Twenty Years of Frank Zappa (re-issued on CD).

LP label: Mud Shark MZ4803
CD label: RXZ Records 315A

This is the vinyl track list; the CD box re-issue has bonus tracks, which are as of yet unknown:

1. The Penguins: Memories of El Monte [Zappa/Collins]
2. The Hollywood Persuaders: Grunion Run
3. The Hollywood Persuaders: Tijuana Surf [Paul Buff]
4. Mr. Clean: Mr. Clean
5. Mr. Clean: Jessie Lee
6. The Rotations: Heavies [David Aernie/Paul Buff]
7. The Hollywood Persuaders: Drums a-Go-Go [?]
8. The Hollywood Persuaders: Hot Water [?]
9. Brian Lord & the Midnighters: Not Another One [?]
10. The Masters: Sixteen Tons [?]

11. The Masters: Breaktime [partly by Zappa/Collins?]
12. Baby Ray & the Ferns: How's Your Bird
13. Baby Ray & the Ferns: The World's Greatest Sinner
14. Ned & Nelda: Hey Nelda [Zappa/Collins]
15. Ned & Nelda: Surf Along [?]
16. The Heartbreakers: Every Time I See You [Zappa/Collins]
17. Bob Guy: Dear Jeepers
18. Bob Guy: Letters from Jeepers
19. Brian Lord & the Midnighters: The Big Surfer

??. The Rotations: The Cruncher [David Aernie/Paul Buff] [CD bonus track]
??. The Heartbreakers: Cradle Rock [Gallages] [CD bonus track]
??. Paul Buff: Slow Bird [Paul Buff] [CD bonus track]
??. Paul Buff: Blind Man's Bluff [Paul Buff] [CD bonus track]
??. The Pauls: Cathy, My Angel [CD bonus track]
??. The Pauls: 'Til September [CD bonus track]

(Exactly where on the CD the bonus tracks are is unknown.)

These are all singles tracks made way before Zappa hit it big time. Some he has written, some he has co-written, some he has produced, he plays on some of them and so on, some are even B-sides of tracks he was involved in. The coupling "Drums a-Go-Go"/"Hot Water" and all bonus tracks except "Cradle Rock", where he may be playing, were made without any Zappa involvement. See Zappa's singles discography for more info on the singles themselves, and the Weirdo Discography for some legal compilations of this stuff. The Weirdo Discography also has an entry for an unreleased box (The History & Collected Improvisations of The Mothers of Invention), which was planned to contain an album called The Cucamonga Era.

The Soundtracks (LP/CD)

  • Various soundtrack music

Also issued as record 2 of Twenty Years of Frank Zappa (re-issued on CD).

LP label: Mud Shark MZ4802
CD label: RXZ Records 314A

1. The Way the Air Smells
2. Run Home Slow
3. Your Eyes

4. Rance Muhammitz in a Steaming Briefcase
5. The World's Greatest Sinner [14:28]
6. This Won't Take Long
7. What Will This Morning Bring Me This Evening?
8. People Think That Groupies Are Such Dirty Girls

  • Tracks 1 and 3 are excerpts from the BABY SNAKES movie 1979
  • Track 2 is from RUN HOME SLOW, the cowboy movie Zappa scored in 1959
  • Tracks 4 and 6-8 are from the 200 MOTELS movie 1971
  • Track 5 is excerpted from the movie THE WORLD'S GREATEST SINNER, which Zappa scored in 1961. A reader commented that "it sounds like someone took the audio track of the film and attempted to edit it down to just the music. Some of the edits are not very smooth, however." It is not the same WORLD'S GREATEST SINNER excerption that is on Serious Music and Apocrypha.

Randomonium

  • Various live
  • Various studio

Re-issued as record 10 of the Mystery Box

Label: Nifty, Tough & Bitchen Records
Length: ~48 min

Musicians: various

1. America Drinks & Goes Home
2. Agency Man [Mystery Disc version]
3. Randomonium
4. "My Head" [Stage #5 version] [listed as "Lumpy Gravy (Dialogue Outtakes)"]
5. Studebaker Hoch [excerpt from "Billy the Mountain"]
6. Don't Fuck Around [excerpt from "Billy the Mountain"]
7. Well (Please Don't Go) [Ward]

The liner notes: "Track 1: Live 1969, Tracks 2, 3 and 4: Studio outtakes circa 1967. Tracks 5 and 6: Live 1971. Track 7: Unedited version from The Fillmore East."

8. In Memoriam: Hieronymous Bosch
9. 2 on the Town
10. Suicide Chump
11. Truck-Driver Divorce
12. Frogs with Dirty Little Lips [Frank/Ahmet Zappa]
13. The Kronos Quartet: None of the Above

Mr. & Ms. Liner Note: "Track 1 [on this side, remember]: Studio outtake, with live performance at The Bitter End, 1967. Track 2: Impromptu Theme for Los Angeles Television show. Track 3: Live blues version. Tracks 4 & 5: Studio outtakes. Track 6: Performed by the Kronos Quartet, Schoenberg Hall, UCLA 4-19-85".

  • Track 2 has been officially released on the Mystery Disc.
  • Track 3 is an alternate take of "Dwarf Nebula" from Weasels Ripped My Flesh, recorded at Apostolic Studios, New York.
  • Tracks 5-6 are the last bit of "Billy the Mountain"; it also appears on Cuccurrullo Brullo Brillo and Apocrypha. It's a live recording, but there has been speculation that there are some overdubs on it.
  • Track 7 is a longer edit of the Playground Psychotics version with John Lennon.
  • Track 8 is a live improvisation from a New York TV show called The Bitter End in 1967.
  • Track 10 is the same version as on disc 3 of Apocrypha (Stonybrook, 15-Oct-1978).
  • Track 12 is a 1981 studio version that also appears on Demos and Apocrypha.
  • Tracks 1, 9, and 11 are unknown versions. Track 1 must be from 1967-1968 as Ray Collins is on it. Track 11 must be from Europe, summer 1982, as Ed Mann is on it.

Chronicle (2 LP)

  • Live in New Jersey 1975
  • Various studio
  • Various "media performances"

Length: ~90 min?
Sound quality: Various, often bad
Label: Tin Can Records TCR2003

Musicians: Unknown & various - Captain Beefheart much included

The cover tracklist is considerably wrong. This should be more correct:

1. Regyptian Strut
2. Sofa
3. Who Are the Brain Police?
4. Orange Claw Hammer [Don van Vliet]

5. 200 Years Old
6. Willie the Pimp
7. Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band: Peon [Don van Vliet]
8. Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band: Alice in Blunderland [Don van Vliet]

9. Revised Music for Guitar & Low-Budget Orchestra
10. A Pound for a Brown (on the Bus)

11. Captain Beefheart: Somebody's Walking [composer?]
12. Captain Beefheart: Almost Grown [composer?]
13. Captain Beefheart: Call on Me [composer?]
14. Captain Beefheart: Sure 'Nuff & Yes I Do [composer?]
15. Captain Beefheart: Yellow Brick Road [?]
16. Captain Beefheart: Plastic Factory [?]

  • Track 1 is the officially released version from the Sleep Dirt vinyl, and from Läther.
  • Track 2 is live 1971, but a different recording from Vitamin Deficiency and Fire!: one guess is "Live on WBAX, Detroit, 25-May-1971"
  • Track 3 is not the Vitamin Deficiency version.
  • Track 4 has Beefheart singing the song to a simple guitar backing, from a radio broadcast with Zappa & Beefheart on KWST, 01-Nov-1975.
  • Track 5 is a longer, complete version of the Bongo Fury recording, clocking in at 07:55 instead of 04:31. What has been cut out on Bongo Fury is 39 seconds just before the guitar solo (a slide solo by Denny Walley), 2 minutes and 43 seconds just after the guitar solo (effectively a piano solo and one verse), and 2 seconds of the fade-out. It also appears on An Evening with ... Frank Zappa & Captain Beefheart and Bongo Fury El Paso TX.
  • Tracks 6 & 10 are live, with Beefheart on vocals - might be in New Jersey on April 19 or 29 1975, as the cover announces "New Jersey 1975".
  • Tracks 7-8 are unidentified live versions of Beefheart tracks.
  • Track 9 is the officially released version from the Studio Tan vinyl, and from Läther.
  • Track 11 is a studio version with Captain Beefheart.
  • Track 12 is an unknown version with Captain Beefheart.
  • Track 13 is probably the "slow version", a well-known unofficially circulated recording for Beefheart fans.
  • Track 14 is a version with Captain Beefheart, but not the John Peel session from 1968 (Peel is/was a BBC DJ famous for his basic, raw recordings of up-and-coming acts, and for supporting Marc Bolan in sickness and in health).
  • Tracks 15-16 are unknown recordings of the Captain ("Yellow Brick Road" and "Plastic Factory" are the titles written on the record; the words "yellow brick road" and "factory" can be heard in the songs).

The track list on the labels is so extrememly incorrect that it can be given here just for fun:

Ardous Journey
Who Are the Brain Police
Geef Mij Wat Vloerbideking [sic]

Potential for Poetry
Peon
Alice in Blunderland

200 Years
Somebodies Walking
Leave Me Alone
A Pound for a Brown

Call on Me
Yellow Brick Road
Plastic Factory
Willie the Pimp

The deluxe colour cover depicts Zappa's head and shoulders.

Remington Electric Razor

  • Various live
  • Various studio

Remington Electric Razor is a collection of one-of-a-kind outtakes that originate from Zappa himself. They were either stolen from him, or were leaked through a cohort. Most of the songs are exclusive to this record and are still essential, two songs appeared years later in the Stage series. It is unknown if the songs on this album were meant for a specific project, or if Zappa mixed them for fun or for some other purpose. [One guy claimed he had a copy with "test pressing" written on the labels, but this has not been verified - Ed.] Apocrypha used most of the songs from this record.

Length: 31:50
Sound quality: Soundboard / various
Matrix: ML-001 (also L-6150)

There were at least two versions of this.

1. Freak Me Out, Frank
2. Jumbo, Go Away [05:33]
3. Moe's Vacation [04:12]
4. The Black Page #2 [03:01] [not listed]
5. Dong Work for Yuda [03:05] [a capella version]

6. Tricky Dicky [05:49] ["Dickie's Such an Asshole"]
7. Nite Owl [02:18] [Tony Allen]
8. My Name is Fritz [02:33]
9. Interview [02:59] ["What's the Name of Your Group?"]
10. I Can't Get Me No Satisfaction [01:19]
11. Remington Electric Razor [01:01]

  • Track 1 is the bit that appears on Stage #1 just before "Ruthie-Ruthie" (Passaic, New Jersey - November 8, 1974).
  • Track 2 is a soundboard from Munich 31-Mar-1979 (early show).
  • Tracks 3-4 are live in Poughkeepsie, New York, 21-Sep-1978 (parts also appear on Project/Object).
  • Track 5 is from an unknown concert in February 1977. Almost certainly a Zappa mix leaked by a band member. From JWB:

There is a short dialogue by John Smothers right before this track, and there is another dialoge by Frank right after the track. (They are edited out on Apocrypha.) They are both talking about the song "Dong Work", and the origin is unknown. Sounds like it's stolen from a Zappa project, or from an unsurfaced television or radio broadcast.

  • Track 6 is the Stage #3 version - without George Duke's solo.
  • Track 7 is from the late show in Santa Monica on 11-Dec-1980 - a soundboard recording.
  • Track 8 is an excerpt from "German Lunch" on Stage #5, but as the Stage version is heavily edited, this contains some additional material. The full, unedited recording has been issued as a bootleg single.
  • Track 9 is an out-take from 200 Motels; its real title is "What's the Name of Your Group?".
  • Track 10 is from the late show in Stoneybrook on 15-Oct-1978, probably - an improvisation, from "A Pound for a Brown on the Bus", where a band member sings "I can't get me no ... satisfaction" over kind of a punk vamp.
  • Track 11, the title track, is the famous one - a late 1960s commercial for Remington electric razors, which was never used: a speeded-up, multi-tracked Linda Ronstadt and a Zappa saying that the lectric razor "cleans you, thrills you ... may even keep you from getting busted".

from JWB: "this copy has (real) razor on the front, track list on the back, small white blank labels and very long unmarked run-out grooves"This package came with a black & white insert "cover" and included something as disgusting as a "bloody razor blade", glued to the cover, which, by the way, was a picture of Frank with a gush in his neck. Released in 1981 (thus predating WASP with the razor blade).

There were two versions of this bootleg, and JWB tries to sort them out (aided by Zappologist legends Andrew Fignar Jr, Biffy the Elephant Shrew and Bill Lantz):

The original pressing had the following traits:

  • Plain white cover with holes where the labels are
  • One xerox insert with the LP title and song info
  • Thick vinyl
  • Plain white labels that say "Remington Electric Razor" on side one
  • The matrix ML-001 is etched in both sides; side one also has L-6150 [Kristian Kier reports a copy with ML-001-A and ML-001-B but no L-6150 - Ed.]
  • Believed to be US made

Later pressings had the following traits:

  • Shrink-wrapped plain white cover with NO label holes
  • The same insert (?), but some copies are known to have a white insert, some a yellow one
  • An additional insert for the back cover: a picture of Zappa standing in front of the earth moving machine (which can be seen in the Strictly Commercial package), holding an umbrella, with a big slash in his neck with red paint (blood) dabbed on the slash
  • A razor blade glued to the top right corner above the picture, splattered with blood (red paint)
  • Thin vinyl
  • Small blank white labels
  • No matrix etchings
  • Believed to be made outside the US (which is questionable, since both pressings are frequently seen there)

REMINGTON ELECTRIC RAZOR Discussion

From JWB:

Has anyone familiar with the Remington Electric Razor boot ever thought about what a mysterious record this is? It came on thick vinyl with a blank label and nothing etched into the run-out groove. Glued to the cover was a bloody razor blade and a picture of Zappa with a deep slash in his neck. Does anyone know the origins of this bootleg? It LOOKS evil and anti-Zappa, but the contents are the total opposite. It's probably one of the most important Zappa bootlegs ever released, or at least it was in its day.

"Nite Owl" is from 12/11/80 #2, which has never surfaced on soundboard. An alternate edit of "Dickie's" from the Roxy appeared there 8 years before on Stage #3. "German Lunch" appears 10 years before Stage #5. Where the hell did they get "Interview" from? And the Remington commercial? Could it have been a "one-of-the-guys-in-the-band" production? Any knowledge or thoughts?

From Jon Naurin:

"Dong Work for Yuda" is an outtake, which has been limitedly circulated. It has leaked out through the same source as most of the other 77/78 outtakes, rehearsals and soundboards: a band member. ... yes, whoever made this bootleg sure must have had good contacts. Wonder if it was the same guy who made the Mystery Box?

JWB concludes:

After further inspection and thought, I am now 99% certain that Remington Electric Razor is a one-of-the-guys-in-the-band production. All of the stuff on that album sounds well-mixed to me, not like a direct soundboard, and Zappa is the only possible source of material such as "What's the Name of Your Group?" and "German Lunch". "Freak Me Out, Frank" and "Dickie's Such an Asshole", for example, sound exactly like the mixes that would appear 8 years later in the Stage series. Not only that, but the post-solo rant in "Dickie's" is edited exactly the same way on Remingont Electric Razor as on Stage #3, while the Stage Sampler boasts a different edit. (Which proves that the Stage #3 version is edited, and therefore the Remingont Electric Razor version comes from the same mix.) It has already been pointed out by Jon that "Dong Work" yields from a band member tape. Therefore, I conclude that the bootleggers who made Remington Electric Razor were given the tapes directly by one of the guys in the band, or by a close friend of Zappa. (Which might also explain why the package is so plain and there is no label name or matrix number despite the amazing contents. The source of the tapes probably didn't want to be discovered by Zappa.)

UMRK Rehearsal 8/16/78 (2 CD)

  • Rehearsals, Culver City, Los Angeles, 16-Aug-1978

Sound quality: Soundboard B

Musicians: Frank Zappa, Ike Willis, Denny Walley, Arthur Barrow, Vinnie Colaiuta, Ed Mann, Tommy Mars, Peter Wolf

1. Dancin' Fool
2. Honey, Don't You Want a Man Like Me?
3. Keep It Greasey
4. Village of the Sun
5. The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing
6. City of Tiny Lights
7. Baby Snakes
8. Sofa #2
9. Packard Goose

10. I Have Been in You
11. Flakes
12. Magic Fingers
13. Don't Eat the Yellow Snow
14. Nanook Rubs It
15. St Alfonzo's Pancake Breakfast
16. Father O'Blivion
17. Bamboozled by Love
18. Sy Borg
19. Little House I Used to Live in

The bootleg FAQ informant bought this at "Mothers Records (a vinyl and bootleg store specializing in Zappa) in Tokyo" in February 1999.

See also: The Sheik's Rehearsals

The Sheik's Rehearsals (2 CD)

  • Rehearsals in Culver City 16-Aug-1978
  • Various bonus tracks

Sound quality: Soundboard B
Label: The Swingin' Pig TSP-CD-260-1

1. Dancin' Fool
2. Honey, Don't You Want a Man Like Me?
3. Keep It Greasy
4. Village of the Sun
5. The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing
6. City of Tiny Lites
7. Baby Snakes
8. Sofa
9. Packard Goose
10. A Pound for a Brown on the Bus
11. Watermelon in Easter Hay
12. Dinah-Moe Humm
13. Black Napkins
14. I Have Been in You
15. Flakes

16. Magic Fingers
17. Don't Eat the Yellow Snow
18. Bamboozled by Love
19. Sy Borg
20. Little House I Used to Live in
21. Tell Me You Love Me
22. Opening
23. City of Tiny Lites
24. Steve Vai: Fuck Yourself
25. Drafted [Again]

Tracks 1-10 & 13-21 are rehearsals from Culver City 16-Aug-1978. Tracks 11-13 live in Neunkirchen am Brand 25-feb-1978. Tracks 22-23 live in Danvers 25-Oct-1978. (Wrong dates & locations may be listed on boot.) Track 24 is a Steve Vai song, thrown in for good measure, and "track 25 is a studio outtake." From Jon Naurin:

And note that nothing on this bootleg is actually recording sessions nor rehearsals for Sheik Yerbouti. The rehearsals are for the tour after the "SY tour".

Thing-Fish - The Real Tapes

Label: Evil Records ER 818

Musicians: Frank Zappa, Steve Vai, Ray White, Tommy Mars, Chuck Wild ("Broadway piano"), Scott Thunes, Jay Anderson (string bass), Ed Mann, Chad Wackerman, Ike Willis, Terry Bozzio, Dale Bozzio, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Bob Harris & Johnny "Guitar" Watson

1. Harry & Rhonda
2. Rhonda & Harry
3. Approximate
4. Dumb All Over
5. Heavenly Bank Account

6. Harry as a Chump
7. Jumbo, Go Away
8. Drafted Again
9. I Don't Wanna Get Drafted
10. That Evil Prince [instrumental]
11. Drop Dead

It says it was produced by The Evil Prince for Evil Productions. It says the cover (a pasted-on black & white xerox copy of a picture of a nude lady holding a suitcase, a surrealistic kind of plant and a small picture of Zappa) was made by Joseph Seeso. It says "Modelling by Lady Bi". The vinyl sides are referred to as Faces 1-2. The album has been characterised as "a real gem", and the material is quite different from the finished Thing-Fish.

Frank Zappa's Thing-Fish

Length: 64 minutes

The back cover track list:

1. Prologue
2. Mammy Nuns
3. Harry & Rhonda
4. The Torchum Never Stops
5. You Are What You IS
6. Mudd Club
7. Dumb All Over
8. Heavenly Bank Account
9. Teenage Wind
10. Suicide Chump
11. Jumbo, Go Away
12. If Only She Woulda
13. Drafted Again
14. The Crab-Grass Baby (Instrumental)
15. No Not Now
16. Briefcase Boogie
17. Won Ton On (Extended Remix with Johnny "Guitar" Watson) [True Glove version]

From Sweet Nell:

This is a rare and hard-to-find CD of the Thing-Fish out-takes. A real unusual import CD. It has outtakes from the studio recording of Thing-Fish. These are the versions of the songs that didn't make the album cut. Some songs on this disc were planned to be on the Thing-Fish album, but never made it. [I think we get the picture! :)] There are some weird versions of songs on here. For instance, on "Drafted Again" it has a lady shouting orders throughout a good portion of the song. I've never heard anything like that on the studio albums. Also, on "Dumb All Over" it has Thing-Fish talking at the beginning and has Frank sing the song without the echoe sound like on You Are What You Is. Those are just a few examples of the interesting oddities found on this disc. Also, the song "Won Ton On" is an extended mix with dialogue from Johnny "Guitar" Watson added in [this version of "Won Ton On" was released, in Germany, on a maxi single called True Glove - Ed.]. It is 64 minutes long [the CD - not "Won Ton On"] and has 17 songs. On the back of the CD case it says "This is a soundboard recording" and "Original Copy".

Thing-Fish himself is on the cover, and on the left half of the back cover we see a picture from the Thing-Fish pictorial in the porn mag Hustler. Above the track list (white on red) on the right half, a heading reads "THING-FISH OUTTAKES".

Europe, Backstage & the Mystery Side

  • Live 1988
  • UMRK rehearsals 1987

Also issued as part of the box The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life ... CAN Do That on Stage.

Length: >30 min
Sound quality: "I think it would be a good idea"
Label: Showtime Records ST 006 (USA)

Musicians: Frank Zappa, Mike Keneally, Ike Willis, Bobby Martin, Scott Thunes, Chad Wackerman, Ed Mann, Kurt McGettrick, Bruce Fowler, Walt Fowler, Albert Wing and Paul Carman, Mark Volman, Howard Kaylan ... among unidentified others

1. I'm the Slime [soundcheck version]
2. Dupree's Paradise
3. Ring of Fire [Merle Kilgore / June Carter]
4. Rhymin' Man
5. Make a Sex Noise
6. Elvis Has Just Left the Building
7. Star Wars [hmm - a guitar solo]

8. Your Ethos ["The Blue Light"]
9. Strictly Genteel
10. Magic Fingers
11. Call Any Vegetable
12. Dog Breath
13. Wonderful Wino [Zappa/Simmons]
14. Ms. Pinky
15. Mom & Dad
16. Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance
17. Jewish & Small

Side one is live 1988:

  • Track 1 is from a soundcheck in Springfield, 13-Mar-1988
  • Tracks 2-3 live in Mannheim 25-May-1988
  • Tracks 4-5 live in Oslo 27-Apr-1988
  • Track 6 live in Grenoble 19-May-1988

Side two are rehearsals with Flo & Eddie in 1987 (some time before October, when Keneally arrived). (The buzz is they didn't make the tour because they decided it was no longer suitable for them to sing a certain type of lyrics (Zappa exemplified with "Andy DeVine / Had a thong rind").) Released in 1989 with a colour insert "cover".

For some reason, this bootleg has been confused with Frankie's Greatest Hits - Live 1988, a lot. It was believed that there were two versions of Frankie's Greatest Hits, and that one of them was identical to this boot. Probably, some poor fellow found this disc in a Frankie's Greatest Hits cover, where it had ended up by mistake, and that's how it all started.

Known/Unknown (CD)

  • Various live
  • B-sides
  • Various studio
  • Old singles

Length: 55:45
Label: Asian Records S 740918 (Made in China)

Musicians: various

1. Ancient Armaments (03:56)
2. Stevie's Spanking (06:13)
3. Stick It Out (04:26)
4. Burt Ward: Boy Wonder, I Love You (02:04)
5. Burt Ward: Orange-Colored Sky (02:40) [DeLugg/Stein]
6. Ned & Nelda: Hey Nelda (02:04)
7. Ned & Nelda: Surf Along [Zappa/Collins] (02:04)
8. The Talking Asshole (04:46)
9. Junior Mintz Boogie (02:42)
10. Stack Waddy: Willie the Pimp (04:04)
11. Dead Girls of London (05:35) [Zappa/Shankar]
12. Big Leg Emma (02:25)
13. Beatles Medley (12:50) [Lennon/McCartney/Zappa]: Norweigian Jim ["Norweigian Wood"] / Louisiana Hooker with Herpes ["Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"] / Texas Motel ["Strawberry Fields Forever"] / I Am the Walrus

  • Track 1 is the guitar solo (from Halloween 1978) that appeared on the B-side of Zappa's unpatriotic and undistributed single "I Don't Wanna Get Drafted" and has never reappeared officially.
  • Track 2 is a single B-side from 1984.
  • Track 3 is unknown - the album version? 
  • Tracks 4-5 are the sides of a single from Burt Ward, who played Batman's Boy Wonder Robin on TV - produced, conducted and arranged by Zappa (see Zappa's singles discography for more info).
  • Tracks 6-7 are from a "Ned & Nelda" single Zappa made way before he was famous (a Paul & Paula pastiche - see Zappa's singles discography for more info).
  • Track 8 has Zappa reading from The Naked Lunch by Burroughs.
  • Track 9 is the unique flip side of the unique "Tears Began to Fall" single from 1971 (Bizarre 1052 (DJ)).
  • Track 10 is a cover: the B-side of Stack Waddy's single "You Really Got Me" (Dandelion 20001-331).
  • Track 11 is the original (officially unreleased) version recorded for Lakshminarayana Shankar's album Touch Me There, with Van Morrison on lead vocals.
  • Track 12 is the album version from Absolutely Free.
  • Track 13 live at the Civic Center in Springfield 13-Mar-1988 (edited - "I Am the Walrus" was performed long before the medley).

That's My Girl (CDR)

  • Various live and studio from the Apocrypha box

Musicians: various

1. Lost in a Whirlpool [The Lost Episodes version]
2. Do It in C ["Ronnie Sings" & "The Black-Outs" - The Lost Episodes versions]
3. The Story of Electricity ["Power Trio from Saints & Sinners / Bossa Nova Pervertamento"] [Mystery Disc version]
4. Metal Man Has Hornet's Wings [Mystery Disc version]
5. Whiskey Gone Behind [the Sun] ["Louisiana Blues" by McKinley "Muddy Waters" Morganfield] [Mystery Disc version]
6. [Party Scene from] MONDO HOLLYWOOD [Mystery Disc version]
7. Sandwich Song
8. Interview (1971) ["What's the Name of Your Group?"?]
9. Stink-Foot
10. Duck Duck Goose ["Down in de Dew"]
11. Black Napkins
12. Son of Saint Alfonzo
13. [A Solo from] Heidelberg
14. The Squirm
15. Nite Owl
16. Falling in Love is a Stupid Habit
17. I Am the Walrus [Lennon/McCartney]
18. America the Beautiful [Katherine Lee Bates / "Materna" Samuel A Ward]
19. The World's Greatest Sinner
20. Sink Trap [listed as "Gypsy Airs"]
21. Some Ballet Music

Everything on this bootleg is taken from the Apocrypha box, and the track details can be found in the Apocrypha entry. The cover depicts a girl in what may be bondage attire, and it says "Featuring John Belushi, Mike Douglas Band, Rare TV & Radio Bradcasts".

See also: Whipping Post

home - vinyl vs CDs - weirdo discography - bootlegs - misc - hot lynx - e-mail us at zappa dot patio at gmail dot com 2006-04-22 20:02

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