1974 Jul-Dec
DUPREE'S PARADISE- Intro by Duke- with nightly updates, road stories, keyboard noises, and random band orchestration by Frank; contained "The Booger Man" jam in several of the November shows. Without a doubt, the highlight of any '74 show is the transition riff from George's intro into "Dupree's Paradise" proper.1975 Apr-May
Frequently throughout the tour, George gets a chance to simply play. As he does in the "Dupree's Paradise" extravaganza's throughout the '73 and '74 tours, George exploits his keyboards to their fullest in these spotlight moments, with Frank conducting the band in support. Immediately after the segue into this improvisational spot, George starts things off by hitting his finger cymbal (as he does on the Fall '74 tour), with Frank only occasionally providing the commentary. Then, once he hits himself into a frenzy, George puts his finger cymbal down and gets funky. These are typically quite lengthy affairs (at least five plus minutes), containing the usual orchestrated chaos, plus the keyboard-led funk jams that George is so good at inspiring. Occasionally, towards the end of these improvisational highlights, Fowler or Brock get a chance to step up and solo, leading the band off into stranger, more exotic locales. The Captain even gets his chance every so often, with one such jam (on 4/27) containing an abbreviated "Sam With the Showing Scalp Flat Top" recital. [And David Lynch again- "Note that the song listed on the early show for 4/11, "George's Boogie", is not simply a George Duke improvisation, but an actual written song (in FZ's words, "just a ditty"), with a quirky full-band theme reminiscent of FZ's Roxy-era writing bookending a brief Duke solo."]
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