10 maart 2023
officiële release 125
3cd
disc 1
1. Mudd Club Show Start
2. Chunga’s Revenge
3. Keep It Greasy
4. Outside Now
5. City Of Tiny Lites
6. Pound For A Brown
7. You Are What You Is
8. You Didn't Try To Call Me
9. I Ain't Got No Heart
10. Love Of My Life
11. Easy Meat
12. Mudd Club
13. The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing
14. Joe's Garage
15. Why Does It Hurt When I Pee?
disc 2
1. Munich ’80 Show Start
2. Chunga’s Revenge
3. Keep It Greasy
4. Pick Me, I’m Clean
5. City Of Tiny Lites
6. Pound For A Brown
7. Cosmik Debris
8. You Didn’t Try To Call Me
9. I Ain’t Got No Heart
10. Love Of My Life
11. You Are What You Is
disc 3
1. Easy Meat
2. Mudd Club
3. The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing
4. Joe’s Garage
5. Why Does It Hurt When I Pee?
6. Dancin’ Fool
7. Bobby Brown Goes Down
8. Ms. Pinky
9. Stick It Out
10. Nite Owl
11. The Illinois Enema Bandit
Frank
Zappa: lead guitar, percussion, vocals
Ray White: guitar, vocals
Ike Willis: guitar, vocals
Tommy Mars: keyboards
Arthur Barrow: bass
David Logeman: drums
------------------------------------------------------------
Concert in Munich recorded at The
Olympiahalle, Munich, 3rd July, 1980
|
Outside Now (Live At Mudd Club, NYC, May 8, 1980)
Tsja, wat moet je hier nu weer mee? Wat maakt deze release
zo bijzonder dat hij uitgebracht moet worden? Ik zou het
niet weten. De eerste vrijgegeven opname uit de Mudd Club
klinkt precies als de naam van de club en lijkt opgenomen in
het publiek. Het concert in Munich is al vaker op cd
uitgebracht (bootleg), want is indertijd via FM Radio
uitgezonden. Daar heb ik tot nu weinig bijzonders gehoord.
Het is dezelfde band die eerder in Ahoy stond. Ook daarvan
zijn talloze bootlegs in omloop. Ik was bij het concert in
Ahoy en vond het toen al niet heel bijzonder. De foto - weer
die kop - zegt het al. Zappa was toen vooral actief als
krukzitter en er kwam weinig actiefs uit. Af en toe een
solo. De band speelde ondertussen plichtmatig door en deed
wat van ze verwacht werd, maar niet meer dan dat. In maart
weten we meer en ook of dan de mening bijgesteld moet
worden, maar ik vrees van niet.
de commercial:
TWO FULL CONCERTS RECORDED AT INTIMATE NYC VENUE, THE MUDD
CLUB, AND MASSIVE GERMAN ARENA, OLYMPIAHALLE, IN MUNICH
INCLUDES NEARLY THREE HOURS OF UNRELEASED LIVE PERFORMANCES
AND MARKS FIRST TIME FULL SHOWS HAVE EVER BEEN RELEASED BY
THIS EXCITING BUT BRIEF BAND
BOTH CONCERTS PRESENTED ON 3CD/DIGITAL OR SEPARATELY ON 2LP
AND 3LP VINYL
Presenting two previously unreleased concerts from Frank
Zappa's short-lived 1980's band, the latest exciting live
collection to be released from The Vault, Zappa 80: Mudd
Club/Munich, offers fans an opportunity to hear two
blistering shows recorded in two distinct settings: the
intimate 240 capacity Mudd Club in New York City and the
massive 12,000 seat German arena, Olympiahalle in Munich.
Produced by Ahmet Zappa and Zappa Vaultmeister Joe Travers,
this historically significant release, releasing March 3 via
Zappa Records/UMe, marks the first time that full concerts
have ever been released featuring the 1980 lineup of Zappa
leading the five-strong band which included the dual vocal
attack of Ike Willis and Ray White, Arthur Barrow on bass,
Tommy Mars on keyboards, and newcomer David Logeman on
drums. Additionally, this is the first posthumous release of
this distinct, brief lineup, as Logeman, who replaced
drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, would end up leaving when Colaiuta
returned to the band. Previously only two tracks from these
shows – "Love Of My Life" from Mudd Club and "You Didn't Try
To Call Me" from Munich – were ever released by Zappa on his
CD live series, You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore.
The Mudd Club show was recorded on May 8, 1980 by Klaus
Weidemann on a 2-track Nagra tape recorder while the
Munichshow at Olympiahalle was recorded and mixed by
engineer Mick Glossop direct to digital 2-track stereo and
has the distinction of being the first digital live
recording of Zappa ever. The Maestro was early to embrace
the emerging technology and would importantly shift to it as
a result of this recording. Made on a Sony PCM 1600
recording system, the show was recorded on 3/4" U-Matic
videotape, which at the time was state of the art but is now
a relic of the rapid evolution of sound recording. The show
was transferred from the original digital masters and audio
drop-outs, a common issue with this format, were fixed by
Travers using multiple tape backups, some analog, some
digital, that Zappa worked on, signaling he was considering
a potential release at some point. Both shows were mastered
by Bernie Grundman at Bernie Grundman Mastering.
Zappa '80: Mudd Club/Munich, which is being previewed today
with a scintillating performance of Joe's Garage standout,
"Outside Now," from the Mudd Club show, will be available
digitally and as a 3CD set with the 15-track Mudd Club
performance in its entirety on disc 1 and the 22-track full
Munich concert spread across discs 2 and 3. The package
features cover photography and a host of rare and unseen
photos of Zappa and the band members in the accompanying
17-page booklet shot on tour by superfan George Alper.
Alper, the son of seminal '60s photographer Joe Alper, who
befriended Zappa and became part of his inner circle in NYC
and eventually sold merch on tour, provides some of his
personal memories in the extensive liner notes that also
includes an introduction from Joe Travers, a detailed
track-by-track of the setlists by band member, Arthur
Barrow, who also offers up a reminiscence about the tour and
1980 lineup, and is rounded out with an illuminating essay
by Steve Vai who attended the Mudd Club show as a
19-year-old fan who was hired by Zappa to transcribe
recently recorded guitar solos and drum tracks. A few months
later Vai was invited to join the band and as the virtuoso
guitarist/songwriter pens in the liners, "From that point
on, the whirlwind world of Frank Zappa that I embarked on
for the next 3 years was intense, funny, terrifying at
times, but deeply and soulfully rewarding."
In addition to the 3CD set, the Mudd Club and Munich shows
will also be available separately on 180-gram vinyl, with
the Mudd Club pressed on 2LP at 45 rpm and Munich on 3LP 33
1/3 rpm vinyl. uDiscover Music and Zappa.com are also
exclusively offering a limited edition 180-gram color
pressing of each title with Mudd Club on Coke Bottle Green
and Munich on Transparent Orange vinyl, which both come with
iron-on transfers. Like the CD and digital, the vinyl
releases have also been mastered by Bernie Grundman. Vinyl
has been pressed at Optimal Media in Germany.
In 1980, The Mudd Club was a happening, underground venue in
lower Manhattanbest known for being a popular hangout for
the counterculture and a bastion of new wave and punk which
dominated NYC's music and fashion scene. As Travers writes
in the liners, "celebrities and musicians alike would
frequent the 'art bar cabaret' during its heyday between
1979 and 1983, dancing, drinking and making the scene
amongst the New York City denizens of the deep." Zappa loved
the small, seedy club and the punks, posers and hipsters
that called it home, and so made it a priority to play there
while on tour, scheduling a performance on May 8th, 1980, at
the tiny 240-capacity room, sandwiched between much larger
arena dates in Cincinnati, Philadelphia and the Nassau
Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Long Island where he played
two shows in one night to more than 20,000 fans total.
Zappa and his five-piece band treated the sweaty, packed
club to a thrilling 15-song, hour-long set filled with
tracks from the recently released 1979 albums, the triple LP
rock opera, Joe's Garage ("Joe's Garage," "Keep It Greasy,"
"Outside Now," "Why Does It Hurt When I Pee?"), and Sheik
Yerbuti("Bobby Brown Goes Down," "City Of Tiny Lites"),
along with songs from across his prolific catalog, including
"I Ain't Got No Heart" and "You Didn't Try To Call Me" from
1966's Freak Out!, and the title track from 1970's "Chunga's
Revenge." Additionally, the band played early versions of
Zappa's homage to the club, "Mudd Club," "The Meek Shall
Inherit Nothing," and "You Are What You Is," which would all
be recorded after the tour and released the following year
on You Are What You Is. The show was famously captured by an
Austrian film crew DoRo (Rudi Dolezal and Hannes Rossacher)
who included two songs – "Mudd Club" and "Chunga's Revenge"
– in their documentary, "Frank Zappa: New York and
Elsewhere."
Whereas the Mudd Club show took place early into the tour,
the concert at Munich'sOlympiahalle arena was the final show
and saw the band firing all on cylinders after three months
on the road together. The set, which included most of the
songs played at the Mudd Club, was nearly twice as long and
also featured such highlights as "Cosmik Debris," "Dancin'
Fool," "Pound For A Brown," "The Illinois Enema Bandit," and
a cover of Tony Allen's "Nite Owl." Notably the band played
an early rendition of "Pick Me, I'm Clean," which Zappa
would release the following year on the double live album,
Tinsel Town Rebellion.
Zappa '80: Mudd Club/Munich is an opportunity to experience
Zappa and his terrific yet transitory 1980 band playing two
fantastic concerts at two very different venues for the
first time.
|
