Wild Man Fischer - An Evening With Wild Man Fischer

As a lover of Zappa's music and his many collaborative releases and productions, it's with great pain I explain how awful I feel this album is. It is AWFUL. I know there are people who hold Wild Man Fischer in high esteem and consider this album a field recording of his aesthetic, but I think it's simply excessive as hell. Wild Man can't sing, can't write songs and is annoying as hell. His best moments here, like Monkeys Versus Donkeys and The Mope, are a testament to his childlike love of music and performance, whereas everything else sounds like a legitimately ill man who hopes to become the next Allan Sherman of his time. My favorite moment of the album, The Taster, is saved primarily because of Zappa's framing of the lyrics in a catchy melody and performance. Overall, I will probably never listen to this album or anything else by Wild Man Fischer EVER AGAIN!

With all of the above negativity expelled, I'd like to make it clear that those statements are merely my opinions. Remember, I'm the guy who thinks Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music is a work of breathtaking art that everyone needs to hear, so if you like Wild Man's music, good for you! I'm never one to tell someone their musical taste is bad no matter what I think of it, and I know many people who find his albums quite fascinating. As a document of Fischer's existence this album is very enlightening and intriguing. He was clearly a disturbed individual and I have no doubt he was not faking his mania. Zappa's position on this album was always that he wanted to act as a cultural anthropologist and document Fischer's lifestyle rather than exploit it. Of course, by releasing a double album focusing entirely on his wild behavior and trying to sell it to a commercial label it can be argued that Frank had always intended to exploit Fischer, but even Frank admitted that works like An Evening With... were more about a payday from Warner Bros. than actual record sales. There are very good reasons that this album is near impossible to find and hasn't went back in print, and most of those reasons have to do with the extreme fringe nature of the recorded works and the lack of an audience. Rhino Records released a compilation of Fischer's works for them as a limited edition item on their Rhino Handmade imprint many years ago, but they clearly knew the expectation of only a few thousand copies being sold was a fair estimate.

As with most of the material the Zappa Family Trust owns the rights to that is unavailable, many people ponder whether this album, alongside far more deserving fare like Captain Beefheart's Bizarre/Straight catalog, will ever see reissue. Supposedly Gail Zappa has said that she would like to give this album a limited reissue but who knows when that will happen, although there are once again rumors that the long unreleased, original version of Beefheart's Bat Chain Puller may see issue next year, so who really knows. As for this copy of the album, it was ripped by a Zappa fan from their original US vinyl pressing and mailed to me. That individual asked that I not reveal their identity so I'll respect their wishes. If there is enough interest I may post this in FLAC but I honestly don't know if anyone needs this in any better quality than I'm posting it here. Regardless, enjoy, or try to.


Wild Man Fischer - An Evening With Wild Man Fischer

Side One: The Basic Primer
01 Merry-Go-Round (This Is Larry's Theme Song, Sort Of)
02 New Kind Of Songs For Sale (Live On The Strip)
03 "I'm Not Shy Anymore!" (Larry Relives The Past In The Studio)
04 "Are You From Clovis?"
05 The Madness & Ecstacy (Kim Fowley & Rodney Bingenheimer Provide An Introduction To, and Make Prophesies About The Future Of Wild Man Fischer)

Side Two: Larry's Songs, Unaccompanied
06 Which Way Did The Freaks Go?
07 I'm Working For The Federal Bureau Of Narcotics
08 The Leaves Are Falling
09 85 Times
10 Cops & Robbers
11 Monkeys Versus Donkeys
12 Start Life Over Again
13 The Mope
14 Life Brand New
15 Who Did It Johnny?
16 Think Of Me When Your Clothes Are Off
17 Taggy Lee
18 Rhonda
19 I Looked Around You
20 Jennifer Jones

Side Three: Some Historical Notes
21 The Taster (Fancy Version)
22 The Story Of The Taster
23 The Rocket Rock
24 The Rocket Rock Explanation & Dialog
25 Dream Girl
26 Dream Girl Explanation
27 Serrano (Sorrento?) Beach
28 Success Will Not Make Me Happy
29 Wild Man On The Strip Again

Side Four: In Conclusion
30 Why I Am Normal
31 The Wild Man Fischer Story
32 Balling Isn't Everything
33 Ugly Beautiful Girl
34 Larry & His Guitar
35 Circle (Larry's first psychedelic hit)
36 Larry Under Pressure

Zappa re-ups and new (to here) stuff

As promised/threatened, here are the Zappa re-ups with some new gems thrown in for good measure.

Live @ Armadillo World Headquarters 10/26/73

Conceptual Continuity... (comp I made of Zappa rarities)

Chalk Pie (excellent unreleased album from the early eighties)

Lather Goods (a compilation of Lather era outtakes I compiled. several Greggery Peccary bits included here)

"Roxy" Music V2: This is a revised and significantly expanded version of the "Roxy" Music comp I posted of material from the Roxy shows in 73. If you liked that, grab this, it's much improved!
Disc 1
Disc 2


And just in case you're wondering, the phone messages and piano pieces were never taken down and can be found here. Enjoy!

Frank Zappa - Warts 'n All

I pulled the downloads from most of my Frank Zappa posts awhile ago because I wanted to respect something Gail Zappa wrote, but in retrospect I think it was unnecessary because I'm not sharing anything that's being released and all of the content is available elsewhere. On top of that, I still stand by my statement that I will pull anything down if I'm requested to do so, and since there was no request from anyone, I'm going to put those Zappa downloads back online. Before doing so though, I want to share a hell of a find that I received from the Zappateers community.

Apparently Frank was compiling a very large live album for release named Warts 'n All, presumably in the very early eighties. As Frank had a habit of assembling very large albums, it's no surprise to find that this one never came out, at least not in it's original form. Some of the tracks ended up on Tinseltown Rebellion and the Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar series, but the grand majority remain unreleased.

One very important thing to understand about this post is that the version of Warts 'n All presented here isn't necessarily the finished version that may have been released, and there may not be a finished version either. As this collection has been presented and shared with fans, it appears to be organized for a seven sided vinyl release. A lot of speculation has been made about this odd number of sides and it is generally assumed that Frank may have created a test version of the album for his and other folks examination, possibly to have some of the content released if not all of it, but the only people living who might know are Joe Travers and the Zappa family, and that most likely would be based upon any data they found in the vault. What we do know though is that all of these recordings were assembled, edited and mixed by Frank himself, and even if they weren't 100% ready for prime-time, they're still pretty damn fascinating.

So, for your listening pleasure, I present all seven sides of the proposed Warts 'n All album. I've split this into two zip files and labeled each side as it's own disc, although if you listen to the whole thing you'll hear fade-outs at the end of what would be each side. On top of that, if you'd like more information on this project and the sources of the recordings, you can visit The Zappa Patio's Unreleased Records page for all that and more. There is lots of incredible information at The Zappa Patio and if you're a fan of Frank, you'll be wonderfully entertained by the copious amount of detail contained therein!

And in regards to the reposts, there will be a very simple, no frills post here, probably tomorrow, that will contain links for those items previously removed and a few other gems I dug out. Hope you enjoy them!


Frank Zappa - Warts 'n All

Sides 1 through 4

Side 1:
01 Band Intros
02 Dead Girls Of London
03 Suicide Chump
04 Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar

Side 2:
01 Thirteen
02 Magic Fingers
03 Ancient Armaments

Side 3:
01 Ms. X
02 Little House I Used To Live In
03 Lobster Girl
04 Thirteen (Keyboard Solos)

Side 4:
01 The Deathless Horsie
02 The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing
03 For The Young Sophisticate
04 Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar Some More


Sides 5 through 7

Side 5:
01 Conehead
02 Jumbo Go Away
03 Mo Mama
04 Persona Non Grata

Side 6:
01 Bamboozled By Love
02 I Ain't Got No Heart
03 Easy Meat

Side 7:
01 Dance Contest
02 A Pound For A Brown (Solos)
03 Rubber Girl
04 Peaches III


PS - This has nothing to do with the above post but I wanted to say RIP to Guru of Gang Starr. On top of that, FUCK SOLAR, his controlling methods will soon lead to the unravelling of his so-called career. Whatever he is, it will be revealed soon enough. And to anyone bothered by the venom in these words, my apologies, but I'm so upset by the blatant abuse caused by this fool which probably assisted in Guru's death that I had to say it and let anyone who cares know my position. Okay, rant over.

Lowell George & The Factory - Lightning-Rod Man

So I was going to put this up yesterday, but I was tired and still am, so please forgive me tardiness. Anyway, big props to bumkuncha for identifying the track, Lightning-Rod Man, which is taken from the compilation of the same name, a collection of early recordings by Lowell George, founder of Little Feat, and his late-sixties band, The Factory. As far as I can tell, none of the material on the CD was officially released prior to 1993, when the compilation was issued on the long-dead Bizarre Records imprint via Warner Brothers. As to why this happened when it did, especially with Bizarre and Straight Records long having been put to bed, is a mystery, but it may have had something to do with Frank Zappa's then very recent or impending death. Perhaps Herb Cohen thought he could get away with it, although that doesn't appear to have quite worked out. The CD is out of print but you can purchase the release digitally via Amazon, so I won't be posting the whole thing here, but a few tracks never hurt.

Lowell George was a member of The Factory circa 1966 and had gotten in touch with Frank Zappa and his then business partner, Herb Cohen, about a possible contract, to which I get the impression a deal may have been made, but as is evident with all of Zappa's labels created with Cohen, apart from Zappa/MOI releases, everything else happened whenever Cohen got around to it. Such individuals as Tim Buckley (Jeff's father, just in case you didn't know), Alice Cooper and Tom Waits were signed to Bizarre, Straight or DiscReet. Waits' didn't even see a record issued during his contract, although a lawsuit was brought against Herb Cohen regarding some of Waits' early demos being sold without his consent, which I assume are the contents of Waits' Early Years compilations, also issued via Bizarre/Straight.

Zappa produced two songs for The Factory, the aforementioned Lightning-Rod Man and The Loved One, although it doesn't appear they saw release apart from Lightning-Rod Man appearing on some Zappa-related bootlegs. These two songs, several performances from an audition for Zappa and Cohen, and some post-Factory demos by George round-out the Lightning-Rod Man compilation. If you're expecting Little Feat, you'll probably be disappointed, but as a document of the era, with psychedelia on George's mind as well as strong songwriting from him and his various writing partners, it serves it's purpose very well. Mr. Lowell George would later join Zappa's Mothers Of Invention before forming his own band, Little Feat, and achieving success both with that band and on his own, but you knew that, right?

Just for the record, some of the tracks featured on Lightning-Rod Man have appeared on Little Feat's 2000 box set, Hotcakes & Outtakes, so don't be too surprised if you see them there. You can purchase Lightning-Rod Man digitally here, although I am including three tracks for your sampling enjoyment. Generally, I always want to see the artist supported, but with George having passed away in the late seventies, I haven't a clue who receives the benefits from recordings like these. Nonetheless, I urge you to purchase this legally, but I don't think anyone will lose sleep if Herb Cohen's "Trust" loses a few dollars. He died quite recently you know, but no hard feelings here. Just another record-label scumbag and his lawyer brother out to make a fast buck by abusing their artists. Hope it was worth it fellas.


Lowell George & The Factory

Lightning-Rod Man
Candy Cane Madness
Teenage Nervous Breakdown


PS - As pointed out by James E B, my mistake for ignoring the ID3v1 tag. Don't generally think of it nowadays with iTunes and foobar. Oops!

quick update regarding my FZ posts

Hey everyone. Just wanted to let you all know that I'm removing the download links for all of the FZ posts but one, and that one isn't going to be mentioned. The reason for this is I just read a letter from Gail Zappa on why she has issues with people sharing Frank Zappa's content online. I have my issues with the speed at which the Zappa Family Trust issues new content but that is a small thing and I have no issues with them otherwise, nor would I want them to have an issue with me so I will respect their wishes, especially since I never asked their permission.

Most of the time I post content with the intent to inform an audience that may not be familiar with said content, but I've never claimed to own the copyright and I respect those who hold it, so I'm going to respect the ZFT here and follow their request, and as I've also said before, if I have posted something that you own the copyright to and would like removed, please let me know and I'll be happy to do so just as I have done on all previous occasions it has been requested.

All said, I want to thank Gail Zappa and the Zappa Family Trust for continuing to release new content and being all-around good folks. And thanks to you for visiting my site!

Regular business will resume Monday. Have a good weekend!

PS - If you'd like to read what Gail Zappa wrote which convinced me to remove the downloads, you can do so here.

FZ - The Last FZ Post For A While

In recent times, my admiration for Frank Zappa's music has come bubbling back to the surface. As with certain artists, my love of Zappa comes and goes from the top of my priority list, mainly because I listen to such a wide variety of music and there aren't many new Zappa releases showing up, legal or otherwise, to divert my already compromised attention. I'm not very into digging through live tapes because while there are tons of incredible recordings in circulation, I've heard most of the really good ones and not much has shown up since that particularly blows me away. I have a wish-list of releases I'd love to see, but that's mostly a pipe dream since I don't have any connection to the Zappa Family Trust and fan requests don't seem to have sped things up greatly, although I reaffirm my belief that this is mostly because the ZFT isn't a huge organization and are limited to releasing only so many projects a year. So, while I'm in another Zappa phase, that doesn't mean I have to make all of you go through it with me, and I keep this in mind whenever it comes to an artist for which I have lots of rare or unavailable material from. So, there may be additional Zappa posts in the future, but this will be the last one for the time being. Arf arf.

This is basically a Zappa rarities mixtape from throughout his career. If you're an avid Zappa rarities collector I'm sure you've heard all these tracks before, but if not I hope you're entertained. Enjoy.


Frank Zappa - Conceptual Continuity Can Really Be A Pain in The Ass
UPDATE: Sorry guys, this download is no longer available. You can read why here.

01 Two On The Town
This was an improvised theme song for a non-existent television program. Cute for an intro. Yeah, I wanna go to Hong Kong too! I'm serious here.

02 I'm The Slime (Single Version)
This version is from the same sessions as the album version, but the mix is a little different and there is a completely different guitar solo at the end. Pretty cool.

03 Cruising For Burgers (Live 1976 Rough Mix)
This is the same performance as featured on the double disc reissue of Zappa In New York, but this version features no overdubs. Totally bitchin'!

04 Dead Girls Of London (Original Version feat. L. Shankar and Van Morrison)
This should actually be credited as an L. Shankar performance. Shankar was a pal of Zappa's and Frank donated this song and produced it for him. This version does indeed feature none other than Van Morrison on lead vocals, although he was deleted from the released version due to then record label conflicts.

05 200 Years Old (Extended Version)
Pardon the terrible hiss on this one, it's sourced from a radio show hosted by Zappa and Beefheart. This is a significantly longer version of the song from Bongo Fury.

06 Rollo (Rough Mix)
This track, sometimes named Rollo Interior or Son Of Saint Alphonzo, was recorded for the Orchestral Favorites album which also includes Läther stuff. A version of this recording was eventually released on the QuAUDIOPHILIAc DVD-Audio album, but this is a longer edit. It's a little muddy sounding but this is an awesome track!

07 RDNZL (Alt. Version Rough Mix)
A version of this recording was released on The Lost Episodes, but this mix features less brass and an unreleased Zappa guitar solo. Jean Luc Ponty is on this track which dates it back to early 1973.

08 Dong Work For Yuda (Acapella Version)
Frank explains a little about this one in the intro, but John Smothers was his bodyguard and was known for messing up words in conversation quite frequently. In turn, Frank wrote this ditty which features Terry Bozzio doing an impersonation of Mr. Smothers. The intro and outro are apparently featured in or were outtakes from the Baby Snakes film. I've assembled this from a slightly different source which should explain why the ending dialog continues a little further than certain circulating edits.

09 Remington Electric Razor (feat. Linda Ronstadt)
An unreleased commercial for the aforementioned product featuring narration from Frank and multi-tracked backing vocals from Linda Ronstadt. Yes, that Linda Ronstadt. This is sourced from the bootleg album of the same name.

10 Randomonium
Parts of this recording are featured in Dwarf Nebula from the Weasels Ripped My Flesh album. Nice and noisy and random. Insert bizarre quote here: "Have you been there too?"

11 Five Five Five (Extended Version)
This is taken from an acetate for the Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar album.

12 Bognor Regis
An unreleased b-side for a single version of Sharleena from the Chunga's Revenge album. Apparently this is an outtake from the Hot Rats sessions. I can't believe this hasn't been released officially, it's that good!

13 The Black Page #1 (Synclavier Version)
From a flexi-disc, it's just what it says it is.

14 Dumb All Over (Alternate Mix)
Significantly longer version of this song from You Are What You Is featuring none of the effects on Frank's voice and long, unreleased guitar solo. Very nice.

15 Junier Mintz Boogie
This b-side is mighty rare, and to makes things more complicated it exists in two slightly different edits. This is the UK version which cuts off abruptly at the end as opposed to the US version which fades out but isn't any longer.

16 Outside Now (Demo)
Exactly when this demo was recorded isn't known for certain, but the percussion track, performed by Terry Bozzio, was extracted and combined with a bass performance by Patrick O'Hearn to create the track Rubber Shirt from the Sheik Yerbouti album.

17 My Guitar (Extended Stereo Mix)
This is the single version of My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama which is completely different from the album version featured on Weasels Ripped My Flesh. The released, shorter version of this track somehow made it's way onto one of the You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore compilations despite not being a live recording, but this is an unreleased, longer and true stereo version of the track. The sound here is a bit muddy but this is a great track which I prefer over the Flesh version.

18 Revenge Of The Knick Knack People (True Speed Edit)
Okay, this one is complicated. Frank recorded a number of bizarre improvisations with the early Mothers line-ups, edited them together, sped them the hell up and used small bits of them throughout his career, making this more of his conceptual continuity grouting. An edit of the sped-up version of this recording was released as a bonus track on Läther, although a slightly longer edit exists as well as a significantly longer edit. This is the slightly longer edit played at normal speed so you can hear the weirdness in a less compressed manner.


Thanks again to all the fine folks at Zappateers and The Dangerous Kitchen for their help and kindness throughout the years, especially when it comes to all the stupid questions I've had to ask.

FZ - "Roxy" Music Revisited

I promise there aren't going to be a million Zappa posts, but I've got one more after this and that will be it for a while. That said, this one is pretty great, as it's Zappa and the Mothers less than two months before the Roxy performances and in pretty great form. On top of that, the sound quality of this show is incredible! Frank probably wanted this show recorded because it features the premier performance of Dickie's Such An Asshole, Frank's anti-Nixon number. It's essentially a bluesy jam dressed up in Frank's usual percussion insanity, which is perfectly fine.

Most shows I've heard from this line-up prior to the Roxy performances seem a little stiff, most likely because they're still getting comfortable with Frank's impossible arrangements. The post-Roxy shows, on the other hand, feature a band so loose and nimble that some of the joy of hearing them perform is lost in their swift runs through the repertoire. I'll take the variations of this line-up any way I can find them, but they sound so full of energy in everything I've heard from the Roxy shows that it just makes their absence from release all the more difficult to bare. Of course, a somewhat acceptable replacement until then is the official release of The Dub Room Special! on DVD, which primarily features performances from the Token Of His Extreme TV special that was filmed in 1974. Supposedly that entire show may see the light of day sometime in the near future, but this begs huge questions like "why issue part of something only to reissue it in a complete form shortly after?" or "why does it take so long for you guys to put these things out? you're gonna miss (what's left) of the market!", both of which I'm dying to know.

I say all of the above about long-delayed releases without wanting to sound completely cynical, as I honestly believe the Zappa Family Trust wants to issue these projects, it just seems to take a long time. So, until then at least, we've got lots of unreleased recordings and bootlegs to survey, but please don't make us wait forever guys!


Frank Zappa - Live @ Armadillo World Headquarters, Austin, TX, 10/26/73
UPDATE: Sorry guys, this download is no longer available. You can read why here.

01 Tuning (just what it says it is)
02 Cosmik Debris
03 Inca Roads
04 Pygmy Twylyte
05 The Idiot Bastard Son
06 Cheepnis
07 Big Swifty
08 Dickie's Such An Asshole
09 Farther O'Blivion
10 The Mr. Green Genes Medley (features Son Of Mr. Green Genes, King Kong, Chunga's Revenge and a reprise of the end of Dickie's Such An Asshole)