Drummer reacts to The Mothers Live at the Fillmore East 1971 (Part One)

[@gmcsrbosavl6964]

This is one of the greatest live albums ever.

[@jazzzman8050]

The first track, Little House I Used To Live In, is a scaled down version of a much longer piece from Zappa’s last album with the original Mothers O.I., “Burnt Weenie Sandwich”, I think it came out in ‘69(?). The original piece is a seamless collage of live and studio material, and is well worth a listen!

[@christophermoebs5514]

When this record came out I listened to it a thousand times Zappa for President

[@arizrich]

Well, I have to admit, I never expected anyone to ever react to this. GG man! Peace

[@John_Chu]

While staying at Seattle’s Edgewater Inn in July 1969 (having shared a bill at the Seattle Pop Festival), members of Led Zeppelin and Vanilla Fudge, and their respective entourages, are alleged to have pleasured a willing groupie with a fish caught from the local bay. According to Carmine Appice, the Vanilla Fudge drummer. Appice later played with Jeff Beck.

[@spooley]

Think some link to Led Zep is in the weeds on that one or at least Jimmy Page poss repeating it once on mic.

[@alldayadventures5418]

That Explains why Plant was terrified when Zappa wanted to play a version of Stairway to Heaven. Supposidly he begged Frank not to change the words in the song. After Frank tuned the Mud Shark story into this tune... Plant must have been terrified what Frank would do to the words of SWTH.

[@jayburdification]

My mind drifts back…..

[@joshuabruner9676]

Thanks for doing this album. Watching the second part next

[@waltercrain2910]

love your frank fridays. i confess i've thought about it sometimes... "wonder what what he'll pick...." also, warms my heart to see a young man like you "getting" frank. frank's difficult for almost everyone. it's fun to see you delving in and loving it. i've long said (hoped...) that over time, frank would live on while popular artists fall by the wayside...

[@FaceBat]

You'll hear the rest of the story when you hear the rest of the album. 3/4 of the album IS that story. Mark Volman (vocals), Howard Kaylan (vocals), & Jim Pons (bass & vocals) were all ex-members of The Turtles. Ian Underwood (woodwinds & keyboards) was the one member of the '60s Mothers Of Invention who was brought back (though Don Preston makes a guest appearance on synthesiser on the last quarter of the album). Bob Harris (keyboards) reappeared in Zappa's band ten years later on You Are What You Is. Aynsley Dunbar went on to play with David Bowie (Diamond Dogs).

[@bert0522]

I saw all three of them when Flo & Eddie along with Dr. Hook opened for Sha Na Na in 1972 in St. Louis.

[@GoodCorporateRobot]

This album is epic. Great request. I love Frank Fridays!

[@jnagarya519]

Epic puerile juvenilia by a band being the same thing it is mocking. But it sells to juveniles.

[@steve-qe1sv]

OMG!! I was going to suggest this, but with some of the “questionable material, thought not. Love this, with Flo and Eddie two members of the Turtles. We played the shit out of this back in the ‘70’s!

[@501625abc]

I saw this concert at the Farm Show Arena in Harrisburg, Pa. Mud sha, sha Shark at the Edgewater. Ainsley became the drummer for Journey. When I saw Frank in State College Pa, he pointed out to the guy with the Bwana Dik T-shirt....it is just a K!

[@lw1zfog]

Dunbar was initially ‘poached’ by David Bowie, which goes some way to explaining FZ’s reportedly somewhat acerbic reaction to the subsequent poaching of Adrian Belew.

[@lassekristoffersen5906]

Allways strange things i love. First time I heard it fell in love with the down down down down down down down to mud shark. Still, allmost every day I hum this....ba ba ba ba ba ba ba and all the bas to MUD SHARK. Just love...SO STRANGE.

[@michaeldavidfigures9842]

Frank Zappa was involved in three of the most infamous events in rock and roll history. This (The Mud shark Episode), the Montreux Casino fire (Smoke on the Water), and the senate hearings on decency in music. The mud shark episode as reported by Frank here involved the members of the Vanilla Fudge a teen groupie, apparently willing to do anything in front of a camera as long as there were rock stars around, and a fish which was caught from a room at the Edgewater Inn. Let your imagination run wild.

[@nedludd7622]

The Edgewater Inn became popular among music groups after the Beatles stayed there.

[@lorcazola]

YOU ROCK !

[@nedludd7622]

I was lucky enough to have seen and heard this in concert back in the day. It was so much fun and everyone was enjoyably surprised. This album and "Just Another Band from LA"(the story of Billy the Mountain)are two of my favorites. These are quintessential Zappa. Warning, it gets very "dirty". More in detail than you might expect.

[@claudeproost1286]

The last song of side 1 stops in the middle of a guitar solo which is continued on side 2. The digital version has the 2 songs coupled!

[@IvanLeirvik]

Thanks for doing this!

[@T23000PLUS]

the mud shark in question was named Slither Bop. He had many adventures between Barbados, Baltimore and Bimini. He was a nice shark, but bold and adventurous, One time he met a very pretty girl shark, and together they swam across the sea....(to be continued)

[@Frustino]

This was the first Zappa album I bought back in the 70s, I have a lot more now!

[@shemanic1]

Two superb Zappa tracks. I first heard of Aynsley Dunbar via the John Mayall Bluesbreakers which included, at times, such icons as Peter Green & John McVie (Fleetwood Mac), John Hiseman (Coliseum) Eric Clapton & Jimmy Page.

[@alexanderduncan3347]

I seem to remember that 'The Mud Shark' is referenced in 'The Yellow Snow' suite

[@waltercrain2910]

yes... nanook rubs it in a "vigorous circular motion, destined to replace the mud shark in your mythology". part of frank's network of conceptual continuity.

[@L33Reacts]

Haha I love how it's basically the ZCU. Zappa Cinematic Universe. He has references upon references to his other material lol

[@cliffordhampton344]

Same here, Friday we could bring in an album.... yes I brought in the white album with the pencil on the cover. The teacher lost all color on do you like my new car. But I got to play the whole album.

[@BritIronRebel]

YES! The greatest performance in rock history!!! ✌️

[@jamespuleo3269]

~~~ The mud shark story will be told as the album continues. Lee, good catch on the "The Who" reference ! (That single Pete Townsend guitar chord.) Listening to "Little House IUTLI" *now,* I "get" that some parts salute Gentle Giant, who he respected as players and composers. He said (in at least one interview) that they were a band he LIKED.

[@827dusty]

This was written at the "Edgewater Hotel on Elliott Bay in the Puget Sound in Seattle Washington. Led Zeppelin was involved at the same Seattle Hotel. It's a part of Rock History.

[@gergsar]

also listen to the studio version, it has a solo piano intro that's sublime!

[@stevedotwood]

I often wonder why he ever got other drummers than Ainsley Dunbar. He was so unique and versatile - even in his jazz era with Waka/Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo. Maybe Ainsley left for other bands, I don't know.

[@waltercrain2910]

i bet musicians get burned out. it's so hard to work for frank. so demanding.

[@L33Reacts]

Yeah everything I've heard with him in it has been great. But like Walter said, I bet it's a bitch being Frank's drummer lol

[@TerryDavey-lo5ke]

I love your take on Frank, zeroed in brother, captain beefheart ya gotta do,great content!

[@johnnyparis10]

Thanks for doing my request, Lee. This album was a seminal (pun intended) part of my teenage years. Little House I Used to Live In has a whole album side on Burnt Weenie Sandwich. ijs Totally understand about the YT blocking issue, otherwise this album segues one song into another, and just made us laugh and sing along, for hours listening to this and the other album with Flo & Eddie, Just Another Band From LA Like you said, we’ll get there…..

[@gmcsrbosavl6964]

Great request, thanks. I think this is my favorite live album. This isn’t my favorite Zappa lineup but this is just raw perfection.

[@JaySpangler]

OMG, you did this one and it never hit my feed. Catching up now!

[@BritIronRebel]

Flo and Eddy of The Turtles are doing vocals. Please keep reacting to the rest of this LP...youll be glad you did. Willie The Pimp live on this night was EPIC!

[@lw1zfog]

The Mud Shark vamp is killer, Flo & Eddie’s Muppet Show like vocal performances accentuated the early 70’s gonzo period no end.

[@ziggy101ful]

First rock concert i ever saw; 1971 I was 15= 4 bucks, first come first serve

[@MrAL2491]

Mark Volman & Howard Kaylan of the Turtles (Flo & Eddie)... Great vocalists.

[@wowwhywow]

If you go back and listen to Don't eat the Yellow Snow...you will hear the line "But destined to take the place of the Mudshark in your Mythology... here it goes the circular motion...RUB IT." Just a bit of conceptual continuity.

[@hongfang2348]

This is the most lewdly entertaining album in my vinyl collection. The story continues through the album. Frank and his band pretend to be a famous rock group with a 'bullet' trying to get groupies. Around this time in Frank's career, he was joined by Flo and Eddie of a 60s pop group called The Turtles. As an aside, I saw Flo and Eddie in concert in the mid-70s. They talked about their time with Zappa.

[@russallert]

Former Turtles bassist Jim Pons was also in this line-up, which meant that half of The Turtles were in The Mothers Of Invention. Funny and ironic, considering the quote from a record company executive in the liner notes of Freak Out, telling Frank that he could make The Mothers as big as The Turtles. The Turtles' sense of humour was pretty zany, especially on tracks like Sound Asleep and Umbassa & The Dragon, which is probably why Zappa liked them.

[@howardgreene8720]

I wore this record out in high school.

[@CH3NO2Semonious]

You are 100% the type of fan Frank wanted. (Me too.)

[@wolftracks9010]

"In the work that I do, there is something to offend everyone. That's the way I like it and that's the way my fans like it." - FZ

[@davelouis4004]

Check out Zappa ‘s , “ Joes Garage”, really funny , the songs “Catholic Girls” , Crew Slut and “ Why does it hurt when I pee “ , are worth a listen !

[@kurtkish6970]

Aynsley Dunbar is my favorite Zappa drummer.

[@tixximmi1]

The album I was weened on. To this day, it's one of the best live albums ever.

[@L33Reacts]

So far so good! I loved it. The first track was such a great display of their talent as musicians.

[@karenmandeville7116]

aah...the mud shark!!

[@nathanherkowitz764]

The album cover is a reaction by Frank of his concerts being bootlegged. In Billy the Mountain this is known as the "white album with the pencil on the front"

[@johnnyparis10]

Yeah, Studebaker Hoch asks if they got those white albums with the pencil on the cover. We’ve got move some of those….

[@Royale_with_Cheeze]

A little plug for the new album, released just 5 days before that performance of Billy The Mountain.

[@DukeofPrunes11]

the rest of the story is in the rest of the album

[@Kram62]

Call any vegetable...Eddie are you Kidding?

[@Asymmatrix]

Muuuuudddd Shaaaarrrkkk mooop mooop

[@MrTortureneverstops1]

Mud shark talks about the weird usage of little sharks with groupies...

[@chitownlee]

This would have been the Flo and Eddie years.

[@bwana-ma-coo-bah425]

Someone will be able to correct me here. Isn't this the album that went to number 2 on the billboard 100 at the time and never had any air play?

[@Squarewave39]

An interesting Zappa album in that it is on the sparse side and not a particularly good sounding record. Drums are muffled and there’s a mist over everything regardless of the pressing that I play and I’ve got several including a British pressing that is brighter to the point of annoyance

[@gazzofazzofarrell3713]

when you hear frank zappa you start to look at modern music in another way,its everything and nothing

[@richgaluppo4417]

He brought back Don Preston for this show/lp. The 70/71 tours were not so great without Don. A little Flo and Eddie goes a long way.

[@edwardthorne9875]

This album was an important part of my growing up. Yep -- Frustrating to have decades of great music to incorporate into your life. I hope your situation passes into memory, and that KZbin is rewarding for you.

[@L33Reacts]

I know it will.. it's just hard for my girl right now obviously. I'm being there as much as I can for them all but it's not my grief. I'm trying to help though. I appreciate the kind words my friend

[@chrisbatchelor864]

The version of Little House much better on Burnt weeny Sandwich. This is unrecognizable at the beginning...no piano solo.

[@DukeofPrunes11]

卄乇乚乚 丫乇卂卄 乃尺口丅卄乇尺!

[@johnnyparis10]

And you’ll be my duchess, my duchess of prunes lol

[@DukeofPrunes11]

@@johnnyparis10 haha love it bro