Eddie, are you kidding? (Frank Zappa) (LP 607 - 609)

The Mothers Fillmore East - June 1971 (Vinyl, Reprise Records, 1971) ****

Frank Zappa Frank Zappa's 200 Hotels (Vinyl, United Artists, 1971) ***

The Mothers Just Another Band From L.A. (Vinyl, Reprise Records, 1972) ****

Genre: Alternative rock 

Places I remember: Fillmore East came from the RCA record club in 1971, Just Another Band was bought at a Newmarket Record Store in 1972, and 200 Motels came from a record shop/bric-a-brac store in Keswick from a visit to the Lake District in 2011.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: The encores at the end of Fillmore East: Lonesome Electric Turkey/Peaches En Regalia/Tears Began To Fall

Gear costume: Strictly Genteel (from 200 Motels)

Active compensatory factors: Record clubs introduced many collectors to their first taste of bands. The RCA Victor Record Club did exactly that for me by opening up the world of weird, fringe, alternative music like that produced by Frank Zappa.

In 1971, I sent away for The Mothers' Fillmore East live album, and it duly arrived in the post to my Royal Oak, Auckland home. To say it was a shock to my teenage system is an under-statement.

I think I knew that The Mothers was shorthand for The Mothers Of Invention and that Frank Zappa was the guiding force because I read the music papers (Circus, Sounds and NME mainly) but I had no real idea what the music was about, because I'd not heard anything by the band to that point - it certainly wasn't something that NZ radio would broadcast.

So when I listened to it I was shocked to hear lurid stories of groupies, sex, and band debachery in a kind of comedy music format (as 200 Motels introduces). If my parents had heard it there is no way I'd have been allowed to keep it!

So I listened to it in secret and when Just Another Band From L.A. came along (with the purchase of John Lennon/Yoko Ono's Sometime In New York City double album from 1972 also containing some Zappa/Mothers' jams), I also listened to them on headphones in my bedroom. 

The comedy music of this version of The Mothers was short lived - 1970 to 1972 (starting with Chunga's Revenge). It flamed out after Frank was pushed off the stage and was laid up for a while (working on Waka/Jawaka).

During those three years Frank and The Mothers produced the film and soundtrack - 200 Motels. I have yet to see the film, but the music is stand alone. It's not my favourite Zappa album but a long way but it does contain some fun moments and Strictly Genteel, as the climax on side four, is superb!

It has to be said, that some of this stuff hasn't aged that well and the comedy routines can be gross and unfunny at times, but he was a trail-blazer, a real rebel in the music industry and a creative genius, so I forgive him his excesses.

Finally, I do retain a real soft spot for Billy The Mountain - a side long barking mad suite that tells the convoluted story of Billy and Ethel (his wife - a tree growing off of his shoulder). Only in Frank's wild imagination could this exist, and actually work as a 'song'.

Where do they all belong? Next up - we are still in the early seventies for Waka/ Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo