March 20, 2012 – 4:34 am

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FRANK ZAPPA

Howdy! Austin 1973 [Kaktus Records 10K06R02, 1CD]

Live at Armadillo World Headquarters, Austin, TX; October 26, 1973. Very good to excellent soundboard; with a bit of hiss.

It’s just tragic that Frank Zappa died at the relatively young age of 52 in 1993. And it’s one of rock’s could-have-beens had Zappa lived on - who knows what types of music he would create. As it is, it’s already impossible to pigeonhole Zappa’s show - there’s a bit of everything; everything sort of gels and the only thing anyone can say is that the man’s a true national treasure.

The Real Frank Zappa Book has many memorable quotes and here’s one:

I want to know three things when I go on stage: i) that my equipment is working, ii) that the band members absolutely know the material, so I don’t have to worry about them, and iii) that the rhythm section can hear what I’m playing and that it has some “concept” of it so it can help build the improvisation.

And this is what Arthur Barrow, who was Zappa’s bassist in the late ’70s and early ’80s, wrote:

Rehearsals were grueling and wonderful. We rehearsed at least 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, for about 6 weeks or so before a tour. Rehearsals usually got started around mid-afternoon, with the Clonemeister leading for the first half of the day, then Frank would arrive and take over for the remainder of the day…

On the first day of rehearsals for the last tour I did, Frank brought in a list of about 200 songs that he wanted us to learn. I knew right away that it would be impossible for us to learn that many songs in the amount of time we had. I also knew from past experience that when Frank called for us to play a tune from the list and it sounded bad, he would often remove it from the list. If the tune in question happened to be one that the band liked and wanted to continue to work on, the band would be begging him to please give a little more time to work on it some more and get it right. I think he used it as a threat to try to motivate the band.

And now… on with the show.

Click on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s (224 kbps). As far as we can ascertain, these tracks have never been officially released on CD.

Please Do Not Hammer The Links. Due to the size of some of the files, please be very patient when downloading the tracks. It could be that the server was very busy. The tracks should still be around. Please try again later. Kindly email us at [email protected] if you encounter persistent problems downloading the files.

Track 01. Cosmik Debris (11.1MB)

Track 02. Inca Roads (18.2MB)

Track 03. Pygmy Twylyte (6.0MB)

Track 04. Idiot Bastard Son (3.9MB)

Track 05. Cheepnis (7.6MB)

Track 06. Big Swifty (15.4MB)

Track 07. Dickie’s Such An Asshole (14.3MB)

Track 08. Farther O’blivion (12.6MB)

Track 09. The Muddshark Dance Be Bop (13.4MB)

Track 10. Son Of Mr Green Genes/King Kong/Chunga’s Revenge (24.5MB)

Lineup:

Frank Zappa - guitar, vocals

Napoleon Murphy Brock - tenor saxophone, vocals

Tom Fowler - bass

George Duke - keyboards

Ruth Underwood - percussion

Bruce Fowler - trombone

Ralph Humphrey - drums

Chester Thompson - drums

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