Part IX, which surpasseth any reasonable soul's explostications. This will be as bad as Rocky, if we're not careful
Well, I had thought that with Waka/Wazoo the Orgy had drawn to a close. But in June I found that I was mistaken. Here comes The Roxy Performances, a 7-CD box, which may not seem quite my cup of Assam from the mere fact that I never owned nor felt much inclination to own the 1974 release, Roxy and Elsewhere. This impulse purchase therefore surprised me first of all, and not a little.
Disc 1: A smooth, slightly laid-back “Cosmik Debris” with sweet solos by Napoleon Murphy Brock and George Duke (saxophone and electric piano then el. harpsichord, respectively) yielding then to Zappa soloing with characteristically expressive wah-wah. Then, one of the songs in this band’s rep which I personally had undervalued: “Pygmy Twylyte,” which I never realized is derisive of drug use (not actually the reason I like it better than methought.) One of a number of things which Zappa found tiresome was people wondering how he could be so wildly inventive in his art without “chemical recreation.” I delight in the “Mothers classics” in this band’s rep: “Idiot Bastard Son,” “Dog Breath Variations” and “Uncle Meat,” e.g.
Is it a safe assumption that even dyed-in-the-wool Zappa enthusiasts have tunes they can take or leave (in my case, and pertinent to the program of this disc, “Cheepnis”) and even tracks they might be perfectly content to do without? (“Penguin in Bondage.”) After all, in the first place, an artist as effusively prolific as Zappa won’t please every fan at every turn, and in the second, this is only in line with Zappa’s notion of “optional entertainment.” There is nary a smidgen of complaint in my writing so, as overall, I am richly pleased with this box. Two more of my previously undervalued tracks are “T’Mershi Duween” and “Dupree’s Paradise,” the latter, esp. I had not much known apart its appearances on Make a Jazz Noise Here and volume 2 of You Can’t Do That on Stage Anymore (neither of them bad performances, to be sure—so what was my problem, we might ask?) There are both more dulcet electric piano from Geo. Duke, and a playful incursion of “Montana” in/into “Dupree’s Paradise.” The only remaining tracks to report on this disc are “RDNZL” and “Montana,” two numbers (esp. the former, as I have remarked ere now) I can always do with more of. In the latter, as in “Cosmik Debris” above, Zappa was one with his wah-wah pedal. Also, at the outset we learn that “on the record there’s a little section where there are girls’ voices that are speeded up and they’re singing something really complicated you know and really fast. Well tonight, Tom Fowler is going to play that part on the bass, and may the Lord have mercy on his soul.”
Disc 2 opens with the final number of the first show on Sunday, 9 Dec 73: “Dickie’s Such an Asshole,” a number represented three times in this box, which (in the first place) makes sense, given how topical Watergate was then, and (in the second) suits me just fine. This may likely be the song’s début, Zappa introducing it with: This is a song which is also for the President of the United States. The safe title of it is “The San Clemente Magnetic Deviation....” The balance of the disc is the start of the second show. It appears to be a day for débuts, the show opening with the first outing for “Inca Roads,” with Zappa explaining (correctly pronouncing Erich von Däniken, mind) that the inspiration was the hypothesis expounded in Chariots of the Gods. This first go has George Duke starting it off in a very louche manner (with whistling, and Napoleon Murphy Brock playing flute) and his delivery of the tongue-twister lyrics is itself inspiringly virtuosic. There follows a medley: “Village of the Sun/Echidna’s Arf (Of You)/Don’t You Ever Wash That Thing?” Served thus, “Village of the Sun” pleases me just fine, which, I reflect, must mean that I simply do like it, because the medley is fantastic. Especially tasty is this take of “Don’t You Ever Wash That Thing?” which runs upward of 13 minutes, breaking into an energetic jam which then yields to a relaxed-tempo coda and closing with a duck call. “I’m the Slime” and a nice-&-tight “Big Swifty” close the disc.
The show concludes on Disc 3, however, with the début of “Be-Bop Tango (Of the Old Jazzmen’s Church),” an audience participation piece cum sonic experiment which works better as sound-only entertainment than “I guess you had to have been there” might suggest. It’s 18 solid minutes of musical deliciousness and nutritiousness (with regard to the latter, it ultimately winds down into Booker T’s “Green Onions.”
Then begins the first show of Monday, 10 Dec ’73 with a solid “Montana” (the poignant tale of one man’s quest for a horse about this big, a bush of floss, the wide open prairie and the sincere hope that the background vocals will be in tune) with a sweet solo from Zappa (what else is new?) and a magisterially funkified “Dupree’s Paradise.” Disc 3 closes with “Cosmik Debris,”
Disc 4, encompassing the end of Monday’s first show and the start of the second, turns out to be a personal favorite, including as it does, two performances of “RDNZL” and one “Dickie’s Such an Asshole.” And despite (we might almost say) two takes of “Penguin in Bondage.” For what it’s worth, at the least as a record of Zappa’s intent with the number there is a “Bondage Intro.” I’ll say this, though: this disc giving us two “Penguins,” I enjoyed the opportunity to concentrate on both the writing for the winds and Zappa’s solos (Show 1: largely in cello range with a wah-wah breakout; Show 2: more compression and claustrophobic syncopation, moving to a glimmer of interaction with the electric piano.) Both performances of “RDNZL” have Bruce Fowler mini-soloing between the intro and the guitar solo, and there are nice communal devolutions before Geo. Duke’s synth solo. Zappa’s solo is lyrically outgoing in the Show 2 performance. Given my own ears’ long familiarity with “RDNZL,” I take it as read, but in fairness let me explicitly point out that one of the chief joys of the number is Ruth Underwood’s stellar mallet work.
Disc 5, then, concludes the second 10 December show. The repertory by now well established, the most notable item is a performance of “Be-Bop Tango (Of the Old Jazzmen’s Church).” George Duke, in noodling behind Zappa telling the audience what is or is about to be happening, foreshadows the sneaky references to Thelonious Monk’s “Straight, No Chaser.” The Universe waited for me to hear this number until I could recognize the allusion.
Disc 6 opens with the performance of “Dickie’s Such an Asshole” which was included in Volume Three of You Can’t Do That on Stage Anymore, whose liner notes log the date as 12 Dec 1973. Then a Bonus Section beginning with a Roxy Rehearsal (10 Dec) comprising “Big Swifty,” “Village of the Sun,” “Farther O’Blivion” (material which would be incorporated into “The Adventures of Greggery Peccary” and “Pygmy Twylyte.” Then an Unreleased “That Arrogant Dick Nixon,” Napoleon Murphy Brock’s heartfelt gloss on “The Idiot Bastard Son.” And ultimately a 12 December recording session at Bolic Studios largely workshopping the famous suite later to appear on Apostrophe (’): “Kung Fu” (whose musical destiny is presently opaque to me, and may well ever remain so) “Kung Fu” with guitar overdub, “Echidna’s Arf (Of You),” “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow,” “Nanook Rubs It,” “St Alfonzo’s Pancake Breakfast,” “Father non Farther O’Blivion,” and a be-bop version of “Rollo,” fun and interesting and quite different to what I expected, as I am apt to associate “Rollo ” with the marimba lick in “St Alfonzo’s Pancake Breakfast.” But of course, Zappa being so prolific, and so many bits, elements and songs being works-in-progress, there’s a lot of fluidity which calls for flexibility on any musicologist’s part.
Disc 7 winds the clock back to 8 December, a Sound Check/Film Shoot. There’s staged buffoonery with Jeff Simmons and Don Preston expanding on “Pygmy Twylyte” which, well, would be more interesting if we were watching the film, but to be sure, this is just the sort of era-specific artifact which we like about these special releases. We have fairly straight-ahead takes of “Echidna’s Arf (Of You)” And “Don’t You Ever Wash That Thing?” I expected “Orgy, Orgy” to be “Louie, Louie,” and of course I was right. The show ends with “Penguin in Bondage,” “T’Mershi Duween,” “the Dog Breath Variations” and the “Uncle Meat” Main Title. This band is tight and it’s all very, very good.
Tangentially, I learn (14 years after the fact) that killuglyradio.com has been chloroformed. ’Tis pity, at times I found it a useful resource.
Finally, just noting that writing this post took me longer than composing many a piece. (Just a function of my going back to listen closer again and again—an indicator, mostly of how much I’ve been enjoying this box—see “Unexpexted,” above.)
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