Frank Zappa An Evening With FZ & Captain Beefheart 1975

This is a recording of a radio show on KWST radio, 1-Nov-1975, where Zappa and Beefheart played oldies and oddities. (There is a completely unsubstantiated rumour that this radio show was actually a broadcast of a Warner Brothers promo record with these songs on it, which has never been found, and never been confirmed to have existed.)



Tracks 1, 3, 5, 10-12, 15, 19 & 20 have been officially released on Bongo Fury, The Lost Episodes, Mystery Disc and Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica. As for the other tracks:



* Track 2 was performed live in the studio; the Captain sings the song to a simple guitar backing

* Track 4 is a very strange track, announced as a recording of a group called "The Smegmates"

* Tracks 6-8 are CBS demos from 1965 - track 6 has been officially released (approximately) on the Mystery Disc. Track 8 may or may not include "Ned Has a Brainstorm".

* Track 9 recorded at Studio Z, Cucamonga, 1964

* Track 13 is from 1964 (very informative, isn't it?)

* Track 14 has been officially released (perhaps in a shorter edit) on the Mystery Disc (as "Original Mothers at the Broadside (Pomona)) it is the first live recording of the Mothers, from 1965

* Tracks 16-17 are from the first Mothers rehearsal in 1965; a small fragment of track 16 has been officially released on the Mystery Disc, as "Original Mothers Rehearsal"

* Track 18 is a 1968 rehearsal

* Track 21 is NOT directly from Bongo Fury, but a longer version from an acetate, clocking in at 07:55 instead of 04:31. What has been cut out on Bongo Fury is 39 seconds just before the guitar solo (a slide solo by Denny Walley), 2 minutes and 43 seconds just after the guitar solo (effectively a piano solo and one verse), and 2 seconds of the fade-out. It's a CD bonus track from another radio broadcast, on WPLR, New Haven, 18-Apr-1975, and it also appears on Chronicle and Bongo Fury El Paso TX.



Adding to this very impressive cast of characters, the album retains some radio-station chatter from Zappa and the Captain. From Patrick Neve:



I think the Mystery Disc tracks sound A LOT better [here] than ... on the Mystery Disc.



The cover/"booklet" is a single sheet folded once; no staples. The front of it is a black & white image of a 1950s American suburban family of 12 gatherered around a TV set; the title is printed in colour. The back of it has a black & white photograph of Zappa and Captain Beefheart sitting at a table - the Captain is brushing his moustache and product-placing a Coca-Cola can on the table; Zappa is watching him, cigarette in hand, bemused (or slightly drunk). Back cover has a colour photograph of Zappa on stage playing his guitar. The inside picture is a black & white photo of Zappa on stage, with his guitar, but with one hand held high over his head; Captain Beefheart sits in a chair on stage, surrounded by some Mothers.