Bongo Fury | ||||
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Live album with studio elementsby | ||||
Released | October 2, 1975 | |||
Recorded | May 20 & 21, 1975 (mostly live) & January 1975 (studio) | |||
Venue | Armadillo World Headquarters, Austin, Texas, U.S. | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 42:15 | |||
Label | DiscReet | |||
Producer | Frank Zappa | |||
Frank Zappa chronology | ||||
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The Mothers of Invention chronology | ||||
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Captain Beefheart chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [2] |
Christgau's Record Guide | B [3] |
Rolling Stone | (unfavorable) [4] |
Bongo Fury is a collaborative album by American artists Frank Zappa and the Mothers,with Captain Beefheart,released in October 1975. The live portions were recorded on May 20 and 21,1975,at the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin,Texas. Tracks 5,6 and 9 (intro only) are studio tracks recorded in January 1975 during the sessions which produced One Size Fits All (1975) and much of Studio Tan (1978).
In April 1975 Zappa had a one-sided demo acetate disc cut at Kendun Recorders in Burbank,California. This unreleased disc contains "Revised Music for Guitar and Low-Budget Orchestra","200 Years Old" and "Regyptian Strut". [5] Zappa's liner notes in the June 1975 album One Size Fits All mention a planned studio follow up album which never appeared. Zappa released Bongo Fury instead. The album contains a four minute version of "200 Years Old" which was edited from the one on the April 1975 acetate.
The album is a notable entry in Zappa's discography,because it was the last to feature a majority of his early 1970s band,which appeared on Over-Nite Sensation (1973), Apostrophe (') (1974), Roxy &Elsewhere (1974),and One Size Fits All (1975).
Napoleon Murphy Brock's vocals are featured both on the sprawling "Advance Romance" as well as on the three-part harmonies of "Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy". Captain Beefheart,in his only tour with Zappa's band,delivers vocals and harmonica on several tracks,including his two short prose readings "Sam with the Showing Scalp Flat Top" and "Man with the Woman Head". Bongo Fury also marks the first appearance of Terry Bozzio,who would become Zappa's featured drummer between 1975 and 1978.
Reviewing in Christgau's Record Guide:Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981),Robert Christgau wrote:"This sentimental reunion album,recorded (where else?) in Austin with (what else?) additional L.A. studio work,is dismissed by Zappaphiles and 'Fhearthearts alike,but what were they expecting? Perhaps because there's a blues avatar up top,the jazzy music has a soulful integrity,and though it's embarrassing to hear the Captain deliver Frankie's latest pervo exploitations,the rest of the songs are funnier because he's singing them." [3]
All tracks performed by Frank Zappa,Captain Beefheart and The Mothers;all tracks composed by Zappa,except where noted. This is the last non-archival Frank Zappa album on which the band name "The Mothers [of Invention]" is used.
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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1. | "Debra Kadabra" | 3:54 | |
2. | "Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy" | 5:59 | |
3. | "Sam with the Showing Scalp Flat Top" | Don Van Vliet | 2:51 |
4. | "Poofter's Froth Wyoming Plans Ahead" | 3:03 | |
5. | "200 Years Old" | 4:32 | |
Total length: | 20:55 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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6. | "Cucamonga" | 2:24 | |
7. | "Advance Romance" | 11:17 | |
8. | "Man with the Woman Head" | Don Van Vliet | 1:28 |
9. | "Muffin Man" | 5:34 | |
Total length: | 21:20 |
Album - Billboard (United States)
Year | Chart | Position |
---|---|---|
1975 | Billboard 200 | 66 [6] |
Don Van Vliet was an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and visual artist best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. Conducting a rotating ensemble known as the Magic Band, he recorded 13 studio albums between 1967 and 1982. His music blended elements of blues, free jazz, rock, and avant-garde composition with idiosyncratic rhythms, absurdist wordplay, a gravelly voice, and a wide vocal range. Known for his enigmatic persona, Beefheart frequently constructed myths about his life and was known to exercise an almost dictatorial control over his supporting musicians. Although he achieved little commercial success, he sustained a cult following as an influence on an array of experimental rock and punk-era artists.
Sheik Yerbouti is a double album by American musician Frank Zappa, released in March 1979 as the first release on Zappa Records It is mostly made up of live material recorded in 1977 and 1978, with extensive overdubs added in the studio. In an October 1978 interview, Zappa gave the working album title as Martian Love Secrets. It was later released on a single CD.
Trout Mask Replica is the third studio album by the American band Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, released as a double album on June 16, 1969, by Straight Records. The music was composed by Captain Beefheart and arranged by drummer John "Drumbo" French. Combining elements of R&B, garage rock, and blues with free jazz and avant-garde composition, the album is regarded as an important work of experimental rock. Its unconventional musical style, which includes polyrhythm, multi-octave vocals, and polytonality, has given the album a reputation as one of the most challenging recordings in the 20th century musical canon.
One Size Fits All is the fourteenth album by the Mothers of Invention, and the twentieth overall album by Frank Zappa, released in June 1975. The album reached #26 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart in the United States in August 1975.
Zoot Allures is the 22nd album by the American rock musician Frank Zappa, released in October 1976 and his only release on the Warner Bros. Records label. Due to a lawsuit with his former manager, Herb Cohen, Zappa's recording contract was temporarily reassigned from DiscReet Records to Warner Bros.
Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) is the tenth studio album by American band Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, released in October 1978 by Warner Bros. Records. The album emerged from production difficulties surrounding Bat Chain Puller, an album Captain Beefheart recorded for DiscReet and Virgin Records in 1976. DiscReet co-founders Herb Cohen and Frank Zappa feuded over the production of the album, because Cohen funded the production with Zappa's royalty checks. Captain Beefheart recorded a new album titled Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) due to Zappa withholding the master tapes of the original Bat Chain Puller album.
Roy Estrada is an American former musician. He is best known for his bass guitar work with Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention; for having been a founding member of Little Feat, playing on their first two studio albums; and for being a member of Captain Beefheart's the Magic Band.
Läther is the sixty-fifth official album by Frank Zappa. It was released posthumously as a three-CD set on Rykodisc in 1996. The album's title is derived from bits of comic dialog that link the songs. Zappa also explained that the name is a joke, based on "common bastardized pronunciation of Germanic syllables by the Swiss."
Studio Tan is the 24th album by American musician Frank Zappa, released in September 1978 on his own DiscReet Records label. It reached No. 147 on the Billboard 200 albums chart in the United States.
Orchestral Favorites is an album by Frank Zappa, released in May 1979 on his own DiscReet Records label. The album is entirely instrumental and features music performed by the 37-piece Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra. It reached No .168 on the Billboard 200 album chart in the United States.
The Lost Episodes is a 1996 posthumous album by Frank Zappa which compiles previously unreleased material. Much of the material covered dates from early in his career, and as early as 1958, into the mid-1970s. Zappa had been working on these tracks in the years before his death in 1993.
Bat Chain Puller is the 13th studio album by Captain Beefheart, released on February 22, 2012. It was recorded in 1976 by DiscReet Records, who had intended to release it with Virgin Records as Captain Beefheart's tenth studio album. It was co-produced by Beefheart and Kerry McNab.
"Muffin Man" is a song recorded live by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. It appears on his 1975 mostly live album Bongo Fury made with Captain Beefheart.
One Shot Deal is an album by Frank Zappa, posthumously released in June 2008.
"Advance Romance" is a Frank Zappa song originally from his live album with Captain Beefheart, Bongo Fury. Other versions of the song can be found on You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 3, You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 5, and Make a Jazz Noise Here. It is a humorous parody of typical love songs and is sung by Napoleon Murphy Brock with George Duke. The song was played from 1975 to 1976 and from 1982 to 1988 making the song one of Zappa's most performed. Almost all of Zappa's lineups after its release on Bongo Fury played this song in concert.
"Find Her Finer" is a 1976 single by Frank Zappa from the album Zoot Allures. The song was recorded with Zappa's lips extremely close to the microphone, creating an intimate sound. Roy Estrada provided falsetto vocals to create a comic effect to the song. It was intended to be the lead single for Zoot Allures, but failed to chart, unlike its other single "Disco Boy". A live and sped up jazz version can also be found on the album The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life. It was played in concert in 1976 and 1988.
"The Torture Never Stops" is a song by Frank Zappa from the 1976 album Zoot Allures. Other versions appear on Zappa in New York, Thing-Fish, You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 1, You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 4, The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life, FZ:OZ, Cheap Thrills, Buffalo, Philly '76, and Hammersmith Odeon.
Denny Walley is an American guitarist. He was born in Pennsylvania. He is known for working with Frank Zappa in the 1970s and '80s.
Joe's Camouflage is a compilation album by Frank Zappa, released posthumously in January 2014 by The Zappa Family Trust on Zappa Records. It represents the first official release of material by a band Zappa assembled for rehearsals in the summer of 1975 but which never toured or recorded material in the studio.
"I Have Been in You", by Frank Zappa, is the opening song on the 1979 album Sheik Yerbouti. Taking the structure of a love song pastiche, Zappa used the composition to ridicule Peter Frampton's 1977 album and single I'm in You. Zappa's parody was directed at Frampton's change from the earnest musician to teen pop idol, replete with bare chested album cover, and syrupy love ballads. The song is in the same vein as the Mothers of Invention's lampooning of the Beatles with We're Only in It for the Money.