You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 1

 

The Original 10/13 LP Set

Tom Wheeler, "Zappa & Son Onstage Together For The First Time," Guitar Player, January, 1987

["Sharleena"]—in perhaps a still longer version—will appear on You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, a Rykodisc CD scheduled for mid '87 (Barking Pumpkin plans to release a 10-album LP set under the same name in early '87).

Stephen Holden, "The Pop Life," The New York Times, February 3, 1988

Mr. Zappa estimates that he has led some 25 different bands and 150 musicians over the years. In what may become the largest recording project of his prolific recording career, he has begun work on a 13-volume artistic chronicle. The albums, entitled "You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore," will stitch together different performances from the Zappa oeuvre in a way that plunges the listener backward and forward in time.

"As well as chronicling the exploits of various bands," Mr. Zappa said, "it will be a living history of what has happened to recording technology in the last two decades, since the mediums in which the music was recorded range all the way from tape made with two microphones to 24-track digital."

 

disc 1

1. The Florida Airport Tape

Liner notes by FZ

date: June, 1970 location: AN AIRPORT IN FLORIDA original recording medium: 2 track analog recording engineer: F.Z. remote facility: UHER portable remix engineer: BOB STONE remix facility: UTILITY MUFFIN RESEARCH KITCHEN

Jeff: We started with San Antonio last night. [...] And then Atlanta, Tallahassee, Orlando, and then Jacksonville, and then we're doin' Europe. We have a few days off.

Charles Ulrich, Frank Zappa Gig List: 1970, December 12, 2012

70/10/08, San Antonio, TX, Memorial Center, Trinity University, CONFIRMED
70/10/09, Tallahassee, FL, Tully Gymnasium, Florida State University, CONFIRMED

 

2. Once Upon A Time

And sure enough, boards of oak appeared throughout the emptiness as far as vision permits, stretching all the way from Belfast to Bognor Regis.

 

3. Sofa #1

Liner notes by FZ

date: December 10, 1971 location: RAINBOW THEATER, LONDON, ENGLAND [...]

A week before this show, all our touring equipment was destroyed in a fire at the Montreux Casino in Geneva, Switzerland (remember "Smoke On The Water" by Deep Purple?). This was our first concert after scrounging for new band gear. Most of it didn't work too well. We did our best to put on a good show, however, toward the end of the concert I was knocked off the stage by an irate individual qho later told police that we hadn't given him his money's worth and that I had been maked "eyes" at his girl friend. I spent a month in the hospital and the best part of the following year in a wheel chair. He went to jail for a short while.

Salman Rushdie, interviewed by Rock & Folk, November, 1999

Of course I was a hippie, I had hair then (laughter). The music of this period is my music, like the Mothers of Invention. I was at the Royal Albert Hall the night a guy came on stage and threw Zappa into the orchestra pit because he had winked to the guy's girlfriend.

FZ, quoted by Ed Baker, The Hot Flash, May, 1974

Q. What was the story about you getting thrown off the stage in England? I've heard several different rumors about that.

FZ. We had played a concert on December 10 at the Rainbow Theater in London. We had finished the concert and played an encore and I was on my way off the stage. Half the band was already off the stage and the security people were off to the side getting loaded. And some geek ran out of the audience and knocked me off the stage, fifteen feet down into a concrete floored orchestra pit.

Q. Did he yell anything at you or . . .

FZ. Nothin', I don't even know what he looked like, I never saw him. I woke up in the orchestra pit, my arm was broken, my rib was broken, I had a hole in the back of my head. My head was twisted all the way over onto the side of my shoulder. And my face was banged up, and I went "Uunngh!" Spent a month in the hospital there and about nine months in a wheelchair.

 

4. The Mammy Anthem

Liner notes by FZ, 1988

This was the opening number of the infamous Palermo riot concert. Set #2 features another cut from this show (when the riot begins, with nicely recorded grenade launchers in the background)

Sources

Special thanks to Tan Mitsugu

YCDTOSA Vol. 1 (1988) Date & Location
0:00 Geneva, July 1, 1982
2:05 Palermo, July 14, 1982
3:44 Palermo, July 14, 1982 (eight bars of guitar solo edited out)
4:39 Geneva, July 1, 1982 (repeats 1:17-1:48)
5:10 Palermo, July 14, 1982

 

5. You Didn't Try To Call Me

Liner notes by FZ, 1988

date: July 3, 1980 location: OLYMPIA HALL, MUNICH, W. GERMANY original recording medium: 2 track direct digital recording engineer: MICK GLOSSOP remote facility: PCM 1600 in dressing room [...]

Sony, at this time, was offering bands on tour in Europe the use of their new PCM 1600 2-channel digital recording system. This is from that first digital recording session. It is a live to 2-track original mix, executed from a makeshift "instant studio" set up in the dressing room.

Mark Pinske, January 26, 2003

That was a separate console that Mick [Glossop] & I setup in a room upstairs (Midas console) and we ran a snake with some feeds both direct split and sub mixes from my house console. I think the machine we rented for that show was a 1580, I don't remember for sure, but later came the 1600, the 1610 and we bought a 1630 which had better converters in it.

[...] That was the first digital recording Frank ever did. He did not like the sound quality on it and it almost kept us from going with digital later. Frank said that it was like getting 8 k darts in the middle of your forehead. And that it really hurt your ears.

Mark Pinske, interviewed by Chris Michie, Mix, January 1, 2003

We hired Mick Glossop, who came in and did a live digital 2-track with us one time. And him and I worked together. I set him up a console all of his own, and I did the house mix, and he did the recording mix, and I'd feed him some of the sub feeds from the keyboards, and feed things like that, but he pretty much did some really nice live recordings on his own, of tapes we did later.

Arthur Barrow, Of Course I Said Yes!, 2016, p. 106

That show was notable because it was recorded on an early Soundstream two-channel digital system, a brand new contraption way back in 1980.

 

6. Diseases Of The Band

Liner notes by FZ, 1988

date: February 18, 1979 location: ODEON HAMMERSMITH, LONDON, ENGLAND original recording medium: 24 track analog recording engineer: MICK GLOSSOP remote facility: ISLAND MOBILE remix engineer: BOB STONE remix facility: UTILITY MUFFIN RESEARCH KITCHEN

Prior to purchasing the U.M.R.K. Mobile Studio, all "first class" live recordings had to be done using rented equipment. This meant that high quality live recordings could only be obtained in major cities where professional gear was available (London or New York), and so it became a tradition during every European Tour that we would do a live recording at The Odeon Hammersmith in London (or the Paladium in New York City if it was a U.S. Tour).

The unfortunate aspect of this tradition is that if anybody in the band became ill on the recording day, the results of that handicapped performance wound up on tape [...].

On this recording date, many members of the band were ill, but, in spite of it, delivered one of the best concerts of the tour as you will hear from the last cut on this disc).

Arthur Barrow, Of Course I Said Yes!, 2016, p. 86

As Frank has expressed in song, the food in England could be pretty awful. So bad, in fact, that some of the band members got food poisoning from the rancid swill we were fed backstage at the Hammersmith. I was so sick by the last of the three days that I skipped the sound check. When I got there and told Frank I would do my best to make it through the show, he said, "Well, I've got bad news for you. We're recording tonight and I want to play everything we know, which means it will go on for three hours or so. You'd better get yourself a stool and a bucket." That is exactly what I did.

And of course, Sophia Warren on guitar.

T'Mershi Duween #36, February, 1994

AG: One obvious question I've got to ask you is why you were called "Sophia"?

Warren Cuccurullo: That was because I was always wearing women's clothing.

AG: I thought it was after Sophia Loren—Sophia War-ren.

WC: And she's Italian, too! We both came up with the name. I used to wear glass earrings, tiger coats, big boots, it was my first time in the UK and I went to Kensington Market. I was buying, like, jackets for 50p and I came out wearing everything I bought. I used to go to rehearsals at the Rainbow like that.

Sources & edits

London, UK, February 19, 1979 YCDTOSA Vol. 1 (Zappa Records, 1988)
0:00-0:41 0:00-0:40
0:41-2:33  
2:33-4:15 0:40-2:22
4:15-4:21  

 

7. Tryin' To Grow A Chin

Scared of the future
'N I wish I was dead
(Mattie told Hattie . . . )

Liner notes by FZ

You will notice that somewhere in the middle of "TRYIN' TO GROW A CHIN," Denny Walley forgets the words to the song (which he did frequently on this tune). The references to "WOOLY BULLY" ("Mattie told Hattie, etc,') are part of another inscrutable band tradition. It appears periodically throughout the series in various incarnations.

Denny Walley, interviewed by Andrew Greenaway, The Idiot Bastard, July 31, 2008

I don't know why, but it was a pretty good bet that I would fuck up the lyrics about 30% of the time. The songs that were most in danger of getting fucked up were "Tryin' To Grow A Chin" and "Tiny Lites." Whenever you hear Frank start singing "Mattie told Hattie" (from Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs' song, "Wooly Bully") that was the signal that I had just fucked up the lyrics. I would scramble for some new never before heard lyrics of my own design to try and fill the void. The results were mixed.

Sources & edits

London, February 18, 1979 (late show) YCDTOSA Vol. 1 (Zappa Records, 1988)
0:00-3:46 0:00-3:44

 

8. Let's Make The Water Turn Black/Harry, You're A Beast/The Orange County Lumber Truck

Liner notes by FZ, 1988

date: February, 1969 location: THE BALLROOM, STRATFORD, CONNECTICUT original recording medium: 2 track analog recording engineer: DICK KUNC remote facility: UHER portable (7 1/2 ips)

Tracks recorded at The Ballroom, Stratford, CT, February 16, 1969

 

9. The Groupie Routine

Liner notes by FZ, 1988

9. THE GROUPIE ROUTINE
[...] date: July 8, 1971 location: PAULEY PAVILLION, UCLA, CALIFORNIA original recording medium: 4 track analog recording engineer: BARRY KEENE remote facility: SCULLY 4TK AT MIX CONSOLE

How about David Crosby? I mean, [...] he almost cut his hair, but he didn't, well . . .

Three unreleased recordings of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young fighting at the Fillmore East

 

10. Ruthie-Ruthie

Well, we have another song for you that goes far beyond Louie Louie, Ruthie-Ruthie, or even Brian Brian

 

11. Babbette

Liner notes by FZ

date: November 18, 1974 location: CAPITOL THEATER, PASSAIC, NEW JERSEY original recording medium: 4 track analog recording engineer: BRIAN KROKUS remote facility: SCULLY 4tk at mix console

FZ, interviewed by Barry Miles, NYC, November 14, 1970 (International Times, January-February, 1971)

[200 Motels animated sequence] The Red Throbber is the thing about this guy who's a custom's inspector and has a cardboard dog named Babette that's been trained by the government to sniff out hash and marijuana at the airport. He just recently managed to shack up with his high school friend, [Sharleena], that he's been secretly beating-off over for ten years, and they've been going steady for three weeks, and he gets home from work one night with a lot of beer and he's ready to get it on, and [Sharleena] has gone!

 

12. I'm The Slime

 

13. Big Swifty

Liner notes by FZ

date: December 12, 1973 location: THE ROXY, HOLLYWOOD, CA original recording medium: 16 track analog recording engineer: KERRY McNAB remote facility: RECORD PLANT REMOTE

FZ, Roxy & Elsewhere (1974) liner notes

Most of the material in this double set was recorded Dec. 10, 11 & 12, 1973, at The Roxy, Hollywood. [...] The Roxy remote recording was done by Wally Heider (16-track 30-ips), engineered by Kerry McNab

 

14. Don't Eat The Yellow Snow

Liner notes by FZ

date: February 18, 1979 location: ODEON HAMMERSMITH, LONDON, ENGLAND original recording medium: 24 track analog recording engineer: MICK GLOSSOP remote facility: ISLAND MOBILE remix engineer: BOB STONE remix facility: UTILITY MUFFIN RESEARCH KITCHEN

Try and imagine a band with the diseases described in the earlier segment pulling this little number off.

Tommy Mars, interviewed by Axel Wünsch & Aad Hoogesteger, T'Mershie Duween, July-September, 1991

A pet piece of mine is the 'Rollo' out-chorus. That was the hardest part I ever had to sing in my life. 'Envelopes' was a snap compared to 'Rollo', from 'St Alphonso' from way down here, in one breath. I had one breath to get that and I'm a heavy smoker.

Alone in the hissing laboratory of his wishes . . .

Dylan Thomas vs. FZ
Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood: A Play For Voices, 1954, p. 69-70 FZ
Alone in the hissing laboratory of his wishes, Mr Pugh minces among bad vats and jeroboams, Alone in the hissing laboratory of his wishes, Mr. Pugh minces among bad vats and jeroboams,
tiptoes through  
spinneys of murdering herbs, spinneys of murdering herbs,
agony dancing in his crucibles, and mixes especially  
  and prepares to compound
for Mrs Pugh a venomous porridge for Mrs. Pugh a venomous porridge
  hitherto
unknown to toxicologists which will scald and viper through her until her ears fall off like figs, her toes grow big and black as balloons, and steam comes screaming out of her navel. unknown to toxicologists which will scald and viper through her 'til her ears fall off like figs, her toes grow big and black as balloons, and steam comes screaming out of her navel.

(Cakes! Cakes! Cakes!)

Warren, do you know one called LeFrak City?

Saint Alfonzo is, and probably will continue to be, for the duration of this show, the patron saint of the smelt fishermen of Portuguese extraction.

Bob Zappa with Bob Stannard, Frankie & Bobby: Growing Up Zappa, 2015, p. 74-85

In the short time that we lived in Monterey, Dad made time on the weekends to take us to historic spots and landmarks, especially Fisherman's Wharf. [...] The Portuguese fishermen, with gnarly hands and enormous knuckles wore caps with a brim, not the shapeless bags that our headgear turned out to be.

[...] At first it was hard for our family to make friends. Most of the other families in the area were not receptive to outsiders.

A few of the women were wives of Portuguese fisherman and tradesmen who had lived in the area for many years. [...] The Portuguese families we came to know were large: sons, daughters, first cousins, second cousins, nephews, nieces, aunts and uncles.

Sources & Edits

Special thanks to Tan Mitsugu.

London, February 17, 1979 London, February 18, 1979 (early show) London, February 18, 1979 (late show) London, February 19, 1979 YCDTOSA Vol. 1 (Zappa Records, 1988)
Yellow Snow Suite Yellow Snow Suite pt. 1 Yellow Snow Suite Yellow Snow Suite Don't Eat The Yellow Snow
Don't Eat The Yellow Snow
      00:00-02:26 00:00-02:25
Nanook Rubs It
02:17-02:56       02:25-03:03
    02:57-04:05   03:03-04:11
  04:14-05:20     04:11-05:16
    05:36-06:00   05:16-05:40
  05:28-09:36     05:40-09:45
    07:25-08:10   09:26-10:30
  10:41-11:54     10:30-11:42
  11:54-12:54      
  12:54-13:24     11:42-12:12
      09:04-10:17 12:12-13:24
St. Alfonzo's Pancake Breakfast
      10:17-10:21 13:24-13:28
  Pt. 2      
  0:03-1:48     13:28-15:11
Father O'Blivion
  1:48-3:12     15:11-16:34
    12:08-12:46   16:34-17:26
Rollo
  4:04-6:50     17:26-20:12
  6:50-6:53      
  6:53-6:57     20:12-20:16

 

disc 2

1. Plastic People

Liner notes by FZ, 1988

date: February 13, 1969 location: THE FACTORY, THE BRONX, NEW YORK original recording medium: 2 track analog recording engineer: DICK KUNC remote facility: UHER portable (7 1/2 ips)

 

2. The Torture Never Stops

Liner notes by FZ, 1988

date: March, 1977 location: HEMMERLEINHALLE, NURNBERG, W. GERMANY original recording medium: 4 track analog recording engineer: DAVEY MOIRE remote facility: SCULLY (at mix console)

You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 2 (1988), liner notes

"YOU CAN'T DO - - -" VOLUME ONE CORRECTIONS:
[...] THE TORTURE NEVER STOPS—February 25, 1978

JWB, October 12, 2013

It has been discovered that there were two shows in Neunkirchen on Feb. 25th 1978, and "The Torture Never Stops" on YCDTOSA Vol. 1 is likely from the show that was not bootlegged. Based on the fact that only three performances are unheard from earlier in the tour, it's a pretty safe bet that it's from 2/25/78. So it turns out Frank was right all along!

 

3. Fine Girl

 

4. Zomby Woof

Steve Vai, "Notes: You Can't Do That On Stage, Vol. 1," vai.com

"Zombie Woof" was performed on the 1982 European tour. I used to use Frank's Hendrix guitar, it's the actual guitar that Jimi Hendrix burned in Miami. I used it as a spare and was always a little nervous to play it, but I remember the second show of the tour we had a new guitar tech and my guitar went out of tune so I had to switch guitars. The tech handed me a guitar that had the E string tuned to F. Then he handed me one of Frank's guitars that was missing a string. So, I had to put the guitar down and wait for him to tune my guitar. Frank turned to me to start "Zombie Woof" because I was the one who started the song when he gave the cue. He looked at me and I had no guitar in my hand, and the look on his face was that of surprise, confusion, yet disappointment (and in a way that only Frank could do it). I shrugged my shoulders and smiled, and they started the song without me. The guitar tech was on a plane home the very next day. Oh, well.

 

5. Sweet Leilani

Liner notes by FZ, 1988

date: February, 1969 location: THE BALLROOM, STRATFORD, CONNECTICUT original recording medium: 2 track analog recording engineer: DICK KUNC remote facility: UHER portable (7 1/2 ips)

 

6. Oh No

 

7. Be In My Video

 

8. The Deathless Horsie

 

10. Dumb All Over

 

11. Heavenly Bank Account

 

12. Suicide Chump

 

 

Research, compilation and maintenance by Román García Albertos
http://globalia.net/donlope/fz/
This page updated: 2019-12-25