FILLMORE EAST, JUNE 1971

The first of many Zappa live albums. This album features one of the last concerts performed at the Fillmore East. This features the Flo & Eddie line-up. Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman(I can't remember who is who) were of course members of the Turtles, and they manage to fit in that band's most well known song here. This is the worst sounding of Zappa's live albums. In fact, the whole Flo & Eddie period sonically is not up to Zappa's usual high standard. You will notice that Frank's voice is a bit different here than on later albums. This was before his accident in 1971/72 when a audience member pushed him off the stage. Since then his voice was deeper.

"Little House I Used To Live In" is a bit different from the Burnt Weeny version. Flo & Eddie do the sax and violin parts with their voices. "The Mud Shark" is a blues-rock song about an incident involving Vanilla Fudge, a groupie and marine life. For this concert the "secret word" was Mud Shark. Zappa had 'secret words' he would repeat in concert at this time. "What Kind Of Girl Do You Think We Are" is more blues-rock. Basically a skit about band members trying to pick up groupies. Alice Cooper gets mentioned in this song; it was Zappa who got Alice a record deal.

"Bwana Dik" is probably the best song here. Lots of variation. "Mud Shark" gets reprised in "Latex Solar Beef". That song leads into "Willie The Pimp". Apparently the vinyl had a longer version of this. On CD it really sounds like something is missing between this and the start of "Do You Like My New Car?" It's the longest song and the most skit oriented. Band members pretend to be groupies. At one point one of the 'girls' denies having sex with famous rock stars, including "Robert Planet". The girls want to hear the big hit, that's #1 with a bullet(every time "bullet" is said the band imitate a gunshot...funny).

What's the hit? Well the Turtles' "Happy Together" of course. That's the end of the main concert. After we get an instrumental called "Lonesome Electric Turkey". This features Don Preston soloing on a MiniMoog over a jazz-rock vamp. This must have been one of the few times a synthesizer was used onstage at the Fillmore. Then the band does a version of "Peaches En Regalia" with Flo & Eddie singing the sax parts. The last song, "Tears Began To Fall", was a song Frank recorded with the original Mothers in the 1960s.

This is part rock concert/part comedy act. You can hear the crowd laughing throughout. This is a decent live album, but Just Another Band From LA is even better. 3 stars.