5LP Vinyl Box Set and 2LP Vinyl Highlights
Collection Coming July 12th
Incredible 14-Minute Video of Footage From
the Historic Night Unearthed From the Vault
City of West Hollywood, Home to the
Legendary Whisky, Declares June 10, 2024, as “Frank Zappa Day” in
Proclamation Ceremony With Mayor John M. Erickson and Moon and Diva
Zappa
Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention’s legendary
three-hour performance at the famed Whisky a Go Go in
Hollywood on July 23, 1968, is available now as the
3CD/digital album, Whisky a Go Go, 1968, via Zappa
Records/UMe. Produced by Ahmet Zappa and Zappa
Vaultmeister Joe Travers, this extensive collection,
released 56 years after it was recorded, compiles everything The
Mothers played across their three sets that night, nearly three
hours in all, complete and newly remixed in 2023 from hi-res
24-bit/96kHz digital transfers of the original 1” 8-track analog
tapes by Craig Parker Adams at Winslow CT Studios. The Super
Deluxe Edition box set features a booklet with many unseen photos
from the night’s events, along with copious liner notes by Travers,
an essay by Pamela Des Barres of the Zappa-signed group
The GTOs who played that evening, and an interview by
Ahmet Zappa with the legendary Alice Cooper, whose
own band made a most momentous splash at the Whisky that night as
one of the featured acts.
This press release features multimedia. View
the full release here:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240621667755/en/
(Photo: Business Wire)
Purchase/stream Whisky a Go Go, 1968 here:
https://frankzappa.lnk.to/WhiskyAGoGo1968PR
On July 12th, Whisky a Go Go, 1968 will be
released as a 5LP box set, containing nine sides of music and a
silkscreen printed image on the 10th side plus a custom turntable
mat. A 2LP Highlights edition will also be available,
spotlighting highlights from all three sets. All vinyl was cut from
hi-res digital file by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman
Mastering in 2023 and is being pressed at Optimal: Media
in Germany on BioVinyl, a new environment-friendly formulation and
sustainable product made from bio-based PVC (polyvinyl chloride).
The petroleum previously required for PVC production is replaced by
recycling used cooking oil or industrial waste gases. Through the
use of renewable energies and recycled raw materials, CO2 emissions
are significantly reduced. More information about BioVinyl
available here: https://www.optimal-media.com/en/news/biovinyl/
Last week, the city of West Hollywood, home to the iconic Whisky
a Go Go, declared June 10, 2024, as “Frank Zappa
Day,” in honor of the many valuable contributions the legendary
musician, activist and counterculture icon made to music and
culture in West Hollywood and beyond. In a private ceremony at the
Whisky, located on Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood, Moon
Zappa and Diva Zappa, the daughters of Frank and Gail
Zappa, were presented the proclamation by West Hollywood Mayor
John M. Erickson and Vice Mayor Chelsea Lee Byers.
View photos of the event here:
https://dam.gettyimages.com/assignments/frank-zappa-day-proclamation-ceremony
In conjunction with today’s release, a 14-minute video featuring
newly restored 16mm film footage shot at Zappa’s historical Whisky
show has been unearthed from The Vault and is available to
view for the first time. The film, which was shot in increments
throughout the night, has been painstakingly synched to music for
the first time, marking the first time it’s ever been seen with
audio (Zappa himself never had the opportunity to see the footage
synched to the music). The video is an incredible document of the
five-hour festivities and shows fans lined up around the block on
Sunset Blvd., the late ‘60s free-spirited revelry of the packed
audience and the musicians and never-before-seen performance
footage of The Mothers along with scenes involving The Freaks and
the debut of The GTOs (Girls Together Outrageously). In the
audience that night were Flo & Eddie (The Turtles), John
Mayall, Elliot Ingber (The Fraternity Of Man), Alice Cooper and
members of the Rolling Stones. Watch the video here:
https://FrankZappa.lnk.to/LiveAtWhisky
Also available now are the first three episodes of the four-part
Whisky A Go Go Series on YouTube, hosted by Travers and
recorded inside the Whisky. In the first episode, Travers sits down
with Sunset strip icon Pamela Des Barres who reflects about
her own band, Girls Together Outrageously (the GTOs),
making their world premiere at the wild five-hour show and what
performing with Zappa meant to her. The second episode continues
with Des Barres reminiscing fondly about the historic gig as she
sees footage for the first time ever of herself and her friends
performing that night culled from previously unreleased film
discovered in The Vault. The third video sees Travers and Des
Barres discussing the “freaks and fashion of 1968 and Zappa’s
influence on the freak out culture.” Check out the series here:
https://frankzappa.lnk.to/WhiskySeries
Additionally, a new merch collection for Whisky a Go Go, 1968 is
also available now. Visit the official Frank Zappa Store to see the
new offerings: https://store.zappa.com/
The hand-scrawled ad in the L.A. Free Press — an open invitation
to Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention’s all-night
affair at one of their favorite venues, L.A.’s historic Whisky a
Go Go — laid things out in black and white as to what Zappa and
the band’s intentions were for that soon-to-be epic evening. It
read: “The Mothers of Invention cordially invite you to join
them on Tuesday, July 23, 1968, when they will be taking
over the Whisky a Go Go for 5 full hours of unprecedented
merriment, which will be secretly recorded for an upcoming record
album. Dress optional. Starting sometime in the evening.
R.S.V.D.T.” The show was billed on the Whisky marquee as “Mothers
Of Invention – Recording Session,” and thus, Zappa had indeed
recorded the entire evening’s aural festivities with the intention
of releasing an album. That project never quite fully materialized
— until now.
Early on during the Whisky proceedings — right after the quite
gnarly eight-minute “Tiny Sick Tears Jam” — Zappa told the
eclectic gathering of freaks and hippie-cum-hipster music geeks
alike, “The purpose of this evening is supposedly to make some
recordings of The Mothers live, in person.” Zappa’s core intention
of live invention that night was to capture an entire Mothers
performance on multi-track tape. The only other time this had
occurred was two months earlier at the Miami Pop Festival on May
18, 1968, when Eddie Kramer had documented The Mothers’ set on 1”
8-track tape. For the Whisky engagement, Zappa had hired the Wally
Heider remote truck, which itself had been outfitted with a 1”
8-track recorder that would be helmed by recording engineer
Dick Kunc.
The choice of venue was no accident either. The Whisky had been
very good to The Mothers over their formative years, and this
showcase event was a way to give back to the place where manager
Herb Cohen had persuaded producer Tom Wilson to
witness Zappa and The Mothers perform in late 1965. That ultimately
resulted in the band securing a record contract with MGM, not to
mention planting the seeds of the fruitful relationship that
developed between Zappa and Wilson. By the time The Mothers came
back to the Whisky in July 1968, they had quite well established
themselves as leaders of the underground.
Led by Zappa on guitar and vocals, The Mothers’ formidable
lineup for this extravaganza included Ray Collins (vocals,
percussion), Ian Underwood (alto sax), Bunk Gardner
(tenor sax, flute), Don Preston (keyboards, gong),
Motorhead Sherwood (baritone sax, percussion), Roy
Estrada (bass, vocals), Art Tripp (drum set,
percussion), and Jimmy Carl Black (drum set,
percussion).
Along with the three individual sets The Mothers played that
night, there were also performances by Alice Cooper, Wild
Man Fischer, The GTOs, and a still-mysterious guitar
player from New Jersey named Joe Piresanti. The ensuing
mayhem during these performances — “from time to time, there’ll be
interesting events taking place here in the arena, to keep you
occupied,” as Zappa put it — was duly captured on film as well.
Vito, Szou, Carl and The Freaks writhed and
contorted themselves in an orgy-like state on the floor in front of
the stage, while The GTO’s danced, twirled, and screamed along for
the entire evening, hands down the most raucous and most verbally
reassuring cheerleading section in the house. Besides all their
gyrating, whooping, and hollering, The GTOs also performed a pair
of carefully hand-selected numbers onstage during “King Kong –
Part 2.” Other notable scenesters in attendance that evening
were The BTO’s, Kim Fowley (whom, at FZ’s insistence, joins in
vocally early on in the set, a la his accompaniment on Freak Out!),
The Turtles, John Mayall, Elliot Ingber (a former Mother now part
of The Fraternity Of Man), and members of The Rolling Stones.
What attendees and participants alike witnessed that night at
the Whisky — keeping in mind that some audience members had to be
swapped in and out from set to set, since people were lined up
around the block to get in (Thank you teenagers, one and all).
Linchpin songs like “Memories of El Monte” and “Help, I’m
A Rock” were there, and well known from the beginning days of
The Mothers’ L.A. gigs. Improvisation was critical — “Just start
playing something nice, in G minor. Make it up,” Zappa implores
before The Mothers dive into “Improvisation: Episode II” —
plus, there were doo-wop chops for days (“Valerie,” the
soaring falsetto from Roy Estrada in “Oh, In The
Sky”). As for Zappa himself, not only did he commence the first
set by utilizing his trademark hand signals to direct the band in
real time, he also got to deploy his then newly acquired Les Paul
Gold Top guitar before the Bigsby tailpiece and other experimental
modifications on the instrument had been implemented.
For his part, Alice Cooper remains thankful to this day
for not only what Zappa saw in his fledgling group, but for giving
them a cherished slot on that fateful Whisky night. “Nobody would
touch us except Frank. He was the only one that even gave us the
time of day,” as Cooper related to Ahmet Zappa in the liners. “He
saw something specific in us that was pretty insane. All the record
companies wanted the next Buffalo Springfield, and we were not
that.” No, they were decidedly not that — and Alice Cooper
collectively lit the Whisky ablaze with an incendiary performance
of their own that set the table for a career that’s still in full
swing.
“It truly was a night of nights,” as Travers oh-so-succinctly
put it in the liners. “The Mothers performance wasn’t perfect, but
very good. Frank was in good spirits, the band played well, and the
sequence of songs did capture the group’s live repertoire of the
time.” The Mothers were already poised for greater pastures and
pastimes ahead by virtue of the music they would soon enough be
creating for their next studio album, one that would arrive before
the tail end of 1968 — the doo-wop-inspired concept piece, Cruising
With Ruben & The Jets. But for five glorious hours on a hot
mid-1968 summer night in L.A., the Whisky a Go Go was the most
happening place to be. To best absorb the contents of Whisky a Go
Go 1968, we should all follow the advice given by GTOs royalty Miss
Pamela Des Barres, who implores us to “listen to all of this album
in its entirety and try to envision the Whisky a Go Go that long
ago night. It happened in a space and time that will never come
again, so buckle up, baby, close your eyes, let your imagination
soar, and set your freak free.”
FRANK ZAPPA & THE MOTHERS OF
INVENTION: WHISKY A GO GO 1968 SUPER DELUXE EDITION
Tracklists
3CD – SUPER DELUXE
CD 1 1. Whisky Improvisation: Episode I 2. America Drinks
& Goes Home 3. Help, I’m A Rock / Transylvania Boogie 4. My
Boyfriend’s Back 5. Bust His Head 6. Tiny Sick Tears Jam 7. “The
Purpose Of This Evening…” 8. Whisky Improvisation: Episode II 9.
Status Back Baby 10. Memories Of El Monte 11. Oh, In The Sky 12.
Valerie
CD 2 1. “Fun & Merriment” 2. Hungry Freaks, Daddy 3.
King Kong – Part 1 4. King Kong – Part 2 5. Octandre 6. Whisky
Improvisation: Episode III 7. Meow 8. God Bless America 9.
Presentation Of Wings 10. Plastic People 11. Della’s Preamble 12.
The Duke – Take 1 13. The Duke – Take 2 14. Khaki Sack
CD 3 1. The Whip 2. Whisky Chouflée 3. Brown Shoes Don’t
Make It 4. Brown Shoes Shuffle
Bonus Vintage Mixes 5. The Whip (FZ Mix) 6. Hungry
Freaks, Daddy (FZ Mono Mix)
5LP – SUPER DELUXE
Side 1 1. Whisky Improvisation: Episode I 2. America
Drinks & Goes Home 3. Help, I’m A Rock / Transylvania
Boogie
Side 2 1. My Boyfriend’s Back 2. Bust His Head 3. Tiny
Sick Tears Jam 4. “The Purpose Of This Evening…” 5. Whisky
Improvisation: Episode II (Part 1)
Side 3 1. Whisky Improvisation: Episode II (Part 2) 2.
Status Back Baby 3. Memories Of El Monte 4. Oh, In The Sky 5.
Valerie
Side 4 1. “Fun & Merriment” 2. Hungry Freaks, Daddy
3. King Kong – Part 1
Side 5 1. King Kong – Part 2 2. Octandre 3. Whisky
Improvisation: Episode III 4. Meow 5. God Bless America 6.
Presentation Of Wings 7. Plastic People
Side 6 1. Della’s Preamble 2. The Duke – Take 1 3. The
Duke – Take 2 4. Khaki Sack
Side 7 1. The Whip 2. Whisky Chouflée
Side 8 1. Brown Shoes Don’t Make It 2. Brown Shoes
Shuffle
Side 9 – Bonus Vintage Mixes 1. The Whip (FZ Mix) 2.
Hungry Freaks, Daddy (FZ Mono Mix)
Side 10 No Music – “Mothers” Silkscreen Image
2LP – WHISKY A GO GO 1968
HIGHLIGHTS
Side 1 1. Help, I’m A Rock / Transylvania Boogie 2. My
Boyfriend’s Back 3. Bust His Head 4. Tiny Sick Tears Jam
Side 2 1. “Fun & Merriment” 2. Hungry Freaks, Daddy
3. King Kong
Side 3 1. “The Purpose Of This Evening…” 2. The Duke –
Take 2 3. Khaki Sack
Side 4 1. The Whip (FZ Mix) 2. Brown Shoes Don’t Make
It
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240621667755/en/
UMe Media umemedia@umusic.com