Zappa/Mol live in Germany-1968-YT clip

[walt]

There's something about this incarnation of the Mothers that's magical. They had........soul!.I bought most of the available legit cd's of the band live in 1968.I never tire of hearing them stretch out.I recently saw this 14 minute clip for the first time and it made my day.I wanted to share it.Hope you dig it as much as i did.

[Phlakaton]

There are periods where Frank's guitar playing was at ridiculously cool levels. .. '67-'68 for the tone he had - and the plucky grotty notes - '73-'74 - thick --- and man... my favorite period - '79-'80 - where he had some out of this world growling tones and really imaginative and ballsy things going on. I sure did help (for me) that Vinnie was along side him - those two could improvise like they'd been together for 30 years.

[walt]

I love it at 1:20 in,Frank stomps on the fuzz box and...magic time.

[Phlakaton]

2:13 --- now this is what I'm talking about - that shit is off the hook. The tone!! Chunga's Revenge - Transylvania Boogie has a similar sound too.

https://youtu.be/HV1YaBxhewE?t=132

[mkeneally]

wow, this is fantastic footage. Never seen it before. Some sort of modern-day computer manipulation of the visuals going on, am I right about that? Looks and sounds amazing.

[Scrotum Scissor]

The Mothers at this precise stage of their development was one of the most interesting rock groups ever to assemble, IMHO. They constantly broke ALL the rules, including the unwritten ones and those that most others didn't even know existed - only to progress into inventing new rules for themselves and future innovators to break.

1968!

[zombywoof]

... And you can basically hear the birth of 'krautrock' and zeuhl, not to mention jazz fusion. Thank you for sharing.

[mogrooves]

Not many--if any--rock groups using the whole-tone scale in '68. Caught these guys a couple of times the following summer.

[Bytor]

WOW!!!!

[trurl]

I don't think the director was able to figure out that was a sax solo Great stuff. The original Mothers seem to have a reputation as not being the caliber of players that later bands were but damn, in '68 who could touch that outside of a jazz context?

[flowerking]

The original Mothers seem to have a reputation as not being the caliber of players that later bands were but damn, in '68 who could touch that outside of a jazz context?

I think the reason for that criticism is because you have the original members versus those that Frank added around 67/68. The original players were all from the band the Soul Giants that Zappa joined. So you had Jimmy Carl Black, a competent but not extraordinary drummer, Roy Estrada, decent on bass but nothing special, and Ray Collins on vocals. I believe that none of them could sight read and they probably felt challenged by doing any unusual time signatures (thats just my guess). He added Don Preston and I have no idea if he could sight read but he at least gave Zappa a musician that Zappa could have do more unusual things with. Zappa probably felt comfortable with any ideas of kicking them out of the band that he joined. So he added players like Ian Underwood, Bunk Gardner, Motorhead Sherwood, Billy Mundi and Art Tripp and now he had players who were capable of doing the avant garde/jazz material he wanted to play. So if you look at the original MOI, the criticism is probably valid but by the end of their tenure, they were as you say doing things that no one else was doing in 1968. Ironically, Zappa had to disband them because he couldn't afford to pay a 10 piece band. I wonder if it was still a 5 piece if he could have held them together longer?

[Phlakaton]

wow, this is fantastic footage. Never seen it before. Some sort of modern-day computer manipulation of the visuals going on, am I right about that? Looks and sounds amazing.

HAHA.

[chalkpie]

The sound quality of this is so damn good - none of the Beat the Boots from this era sound as good to me, or do they?

Thanks Mr Walt BTW

[pmrviana]

The sound quality of this is so damn good - none of the Beat the Boots from this era sound as good to me, or do they?

Thanks Mr Walt BTW

There is one called "The Arc", which has excellent sound quality. Zappa even mentions to the audience that the concert was being recorded, so it seems like it was an official recording that somehow got bootlegged.

[pb2015]

There is one called "The Arc", which has excellent sound quality. Zappa even mentions to the audience that the concert was being recorded, so it seems like it was an official recording that somehow got bootlegged.

In fact a section of this recording is also in Finer Moments, the record Zappa compiled in 1972 that the ZFT released a couple years ago.

[Dave (in MA)]

There's something about this incarnation of the Mothers that's magical. They had........soul!.I bought most of the available legit cd's of the band live in 1968.

Which ones? Just wondering.

[walt]

Which ones? Just wondering.

Road Tapes-Venue #1
Ahead Of Their Time
Wollman Rink-Central Park(bootleg)......i'll have to check my Zappa collection to see if there's anything else.

[Supersonic Scientist]

THAT !......was fucking awesome....made my day too.

as some one said above....birth of 'krautrock' and zeuhl, not to mention jazz fusion....I definately heard hints of Soft Machine in there too.

[Iowana]

My first post here. Hi all!

I'm really getting into the '68 Mothers lately and this has just added more fuel to the fire.

[chalkpie]

There is one called "The Arc", which has excellent sound quality. Zappa even mentions to the audience that the concert was being recorded, so it seems like it was an official recording that somehow got bootlegged.

OK - I need to bust that one out again - danke

[mkeneally]

HAHA.

Oh hey, I just figured out that the "computer manipulation" was actually my laptop fucking up. I think I need a new laptop. Trust me though, it looked really cool!

Anyway, yeah, fantastic clip! There really is nothing like late 60s Mothers, never will be. What a sound.