Uncle Remus

Music by George Duke; lyrics by Frank Zappa

FZ album(s) in which song has appeared

Other recordings

Tour(s) on which song is known to have been performed (main source: FZShows, v. 7.1)

Comments

Foggy G, "The Songs That Were Played," We're Only In It For The Touring

1973: This is another tune which premieres early in the tour, is performed once, and then promptly disappears. During his keyboard extravaganza that opens "Dupree's Paradise", George segues into an understated yet powerful version of this tune, playing it in its entirety once through as an instrumental, and then repeating the performance but this time with vocals. Upon the conclusion of this seemingly impromptu performance, we return to "Dupree's Paradise" proper, and are soon off into improvisational heaven.

1975 Apr-May: My favorite tune off "Apostrophe" (for those of you who care), and a tune that I have not heard being performed on this tour. I'll leave your lawn jockey alone if you supply me with some info on this tune. (For those of you who care again- inspired by this song, we use to drive around Beverly Hills while in high school, and knock all the jockeys off the rich peoples lawns. In your honor, George and Frank!)

1988: This is one of the many surprises of this tour, popping up three times in the US portion of the tour. The song starts off on piano as always, though the sound of Bobby's electric piano is disappointing compared to the original. The vocals are handled by several band members in unison, Frank, Ike, and possibly Bobby. The song proceeds as normal to the solo section, at which point the horn section plays FZ's album solo, like they do Page's "Stairway to Heaven" solo. After the concluding lyrics, the horn section repeats the arranged solo part, with an individual horn player soloing over the arrangement. During the entire song, neither Frank nor Ike are taking the song seriously, joking around with the lyrics, and ad-libbing a lot of Secret Word action during the instrumental parts. Nonetheless, these performances are great, and it is a treat to hear this tune arranged this way.

 

Conceptual Continuity

 

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