Frank Zappa - 1981 Toxic Shock Trilogy (3 discs)

Toxic Shock

Assault on New York - The Toxic Shock Trilogy (3-LP box)
Drowning Witch (Toxic Shock Part I) (LP)
Standing Room Only ... Arf! (Toxic Shock Part II) (LP)
Clownz on Velvet (Toxic Shock Part III) (LP)

* The Palladium, New York, 31-Oct-1981 (late show)
* The Ritz, New York, 17-Nov-1981

Issued as a 3-LP box and three separate records (Standing Room Only ... Arf! issued in two variant covers - some subtitled plainly "Standing Room Only"). Drowning Witch re-issued with 'Tis the Season to be Jelly as Thigh.

Length: 3x~45 min?
Sound quality: FM radio A-
Label: Magpie Records MGP 3001-3003

Musicians: Frank Zappa, Ray White, Steve Vai, Tommy Mars, Bobby Martin, Ed Mann, Scott Thunes, Chad Wackerman and special guest Al DiMeola

1. Bamboozled by Love
2. Stevie's Spanking [DUB ROOM SPECIAL version]
3. Cocaine Decisions [different edit of the DUB ROOM SPECIAL version]
4. Nig Biz [DUB ROOM SPECIAL version]

5. Drowning Witch [listed as "The Drowning Witch"]
6. What's New in Baltimore? [not listed]
7. Moggio [not listed]

8. Easy Meat
9. The Mudd Club
10. The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing
11. Dumb All Over [part 1, not listed]

12. Dumb All Over [part 2, not listed]
13. Heavenly Bank Account
14. Suicide Chump
15. Jumbo, Go Away

16. "While I Tune My Guitar"
17. Zoot Allures
18. Clownz on Velvet [with Al DiMeola]

19 Strictly Genteel
20. This is My Story [Forrest/Levy]
21. Whipping Post [Allman] [reggae version]
22. Watermelon in Easter Hay

According to the cover, side 1 is from the Palladium, and sides 2-6 are from the Ritz. (When Guitar Player Magazine conducted a poll in the early 1990s, the Ritz concert was voted "BEST CONCERT BY ANYONE, ANYWHERE, EVER".) A more comprehensive Ritz concert issue was Zappa in New York 81.

* Tracks 2-4 have been officially released on the DUB ROOM SPECIAL video, with track 3 slightly edited. Between tracks 1-2 on this album you can hear the beginning and end of the second movement of "Sinister Footwear", which was played but edited out, and after track 4 you can hear the start of "Doreen".
* The entire first guitar solo in "Drowning Witch" on Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch is taken from this recording, but this is a different, edited version.
* Tracks 11 and 12 are not listed on the album cover, which instead lists track 10 as being split over the side break, but the listing above is correct.
* Track 20 was originally recorded by Gene & Eunice, with Johnny's Combo (Johnny was Johnny Otis, inspiration for Zappa's moustache) on the Alladin label (3282) on 17-Feb-1955, and peaked at #8 on the R&B chart on 21-May-1955.
* Tracks 20-21 also appear on Apocrypha.
* Track 16 is a short solo by Tommy Mars, while Zappa tunes his guitar.
* Special guest Al DiMeola plays a solo on "Clownz on Velvet". (Zappa didn't play with him, because they couldn't hook up enough guitars.) Some people refuse to believe that it's the real Al DiMeola, but it is.

Drowning Witch (Toxic Shock Part I) has a yellow xerox paper glued to a white cardboard cover. It is simply a pretty ugly drawing of Zappa, backed by the letters ZAPPA, plus title, track list, venues and dates. The record labels say "Magpie Records & Ozz-Good Productions present: THE RAMBLERS".

Many of the boxes included a bonus 7" single containing:

Side 1. Envelopes [17-Nov-1981]
Side 2. Black Napkins [31-Oct-1981]

Also, the 3 LPs have been issued in one single sleeve with a xerox insert. The insert has pictures of the three album covers and an overview of the set (written by a non-bootlegger).

Frank Zappa - (1981) - Remington Electric Razor

Remington

Various live

Various studio

Remington Electric Razor is a collection of one-of-a-kind outtakes that originate from Zappa himself. They were either stolen from him, or were leaked through a cohort. Most of the songs are exclusive to this record and are still essential, two songs appeared years later in the Stage series. It is unknown if the songs on this album were meant for a specific project, or if Zappa mixed them for fun or for some other purpose. [One guy claimed he had a copy with "test pressing" written on the labels, but this has not been verified - Ed.] Apocrypha used most of the songs from this record.

Length: 31:50

Sound quality: Soundboard / various

Matrix: ML-001 (also L-6150)

There were at least two versions of this.

1. Freak Me Out, Frank

2. Jumbo, Go Away [05:33]

3. Moe's Vacation [04:12]

4. The Black Page #2 [03:01] [not listed]

5. Dong Work for Yuda [03:05] [a capella version]

6. Tricky Dicky [05:49] ["Dickie's Such an Asshole"]

7. Nite Owl [02:18] [Tony Allen]

8. My Name is Fritz [02:33] 

9. Interview [02:59] ["What's the Name of Your Group?"]

10. I Can't Get Me No Satisfaction [01:19]

11. Remington Electric Razor [01:01]

Track 1 is the bit that appears on Stage #1 just before "Ruthie-Ruthie" (Passaic, New Jersey - November 8, 1974).

Track 2 is a soundboard from Munich 31-Mar-1979 (early show).

Tracks 3-4 are live in Poughkeepsie, New York, 21-Sep-1978 (parts also appear on Project/Object).

Track 5 is from an unknown concert in February 1977. Almost certainly a Zappa mix leaked by a band member. From JWB:

There is a short dialogue by John Smothers right before this track, and there is another dialoge by Frank right after the track. (They are edited out on Apocrypha.) They are both talking about the song "Dong Work", and the origin is unknown. Sounds like it's stolen from a Zappa project, or from an unsurfaced television or radio broadcast.

Track 6 is the Stage #3 version - without George Duke's solo.

Track 7 is from the late show in Santa Monica on 11-Dec-1980 - a soundboard recording.

Track 8 is an excerpt from "German Lunch" on Stage #5, but as the Stage version is heavily edited, this contains some additional material. The full, unedited recording has been issued as a bootleg single.

Track 9 is an out-take from 200 Motels; its real title is "What's the Name of Your Group?".

Track 10 is from the late show in Stoneybrook on 15-Oct-1978, probably - an improvisation, from "A Pound for a Brown on the Bus", where a band member sings "I can't get me no ... satisfaction" over kind of a punk vamp.

Track 11, the title track, is the famous one - a late 1960s commercial for Remington electric razors, which was never used: a speeded-up, multi-tracked Linda Ronstadt and a Zappa saying that the lectric razor "cleans you, thrills you ... may even keep you from getting busted".

 This package came with a black & white insert "cover" and included something as disgusting as a "bloody razor blade", glued to the cover, which, by the way, was a picture of Frank with a gush in his neck. Released in 1981 (thus predating WASP with the razor blade).

There were two versions of this bootleg, and JWB tries to sort them out (aided by Zappologist legends Andrew Fignar Jr, Biffy the Elephant Shrew and Bill Lantz):

The original pressing had the following traits:

Plain white cover with holes where the labels are

One xerox insert with the LP title and song info

Thick vinyl

Plain white labels that say "Remington Electric Razor" on side one

The matrix ML-001 is etched in both sides; side one also has L-6150 [Kristian Kier reports a copy with ML-001-A and ML-001-B but no L-6150 - Ed.]

Believed to be US made

Later pressings had the following traits:

Shrink-wrapped plain white cover with NO label holes

The same insert (?), but some copies are known to have a white insert, some a yellow one

An additional insert for the back cover: a picture of Zappa standing in front of the earth moving machine (which can be seen in the Strictly Commercial package), holding an umbrella, with a big slash in his neck with red paint (blood) dabbed on the slash

A razor blade glued to the top right corner above the picture, splattered with blood (red paint)

Thin vinyl

Small blank white labels

No matrix etchings

Believed to be made outside the US (which is questionable, since both pressings are frequently seen there)

 Comment by Lukpac: http://lukpac.org/~handmade/patio/bootlegs/studio_oddities.html

Frank Zappa - (1981.10.30) - Palladium, New York, NY (repost)

Palladium

FromFZ Shows:
1981 10 30 - Palladium, New York, NY


119:03 Aud, (average B+, but some A- parts and some B parts)
> The B parts are in beginings of sides, all 3 sides beginings get a lower sound but slowly became better
(there is overlapp parts between sides, so the lower sound parts arrived during songs
-->14 Sinister Footwear
-->24 Joe's Garage



FZ, Steve Vai, Ray White, Scott Thunes, Chad Wackerman, Ed Mann, Tommy Mars, Bobby Martin. 
Special Guest: Artis The Spoonman



Set list: 


01 Intro-Band Installation  
02 Treacherous Cretins 
03 Introduction 
04 Montana 
05 Easy Meat 
06 Society Pages 
07 I'm A Beautiful Guy 
08 Beauty Knows No Pain 
09 Charlie's Enormous Mouth
10 Fine Girl 
11 Teenage Wind 
12 Harder Than Your Husband (Fzmoi69 version from 0:03 to 0:10)
13 Bamboozled By Love
14 Sinister Footwear (s1-s2 pasting at 3:02, lower sound after pasting)
15 Stevie's Spanking  
16 Cocaine Decisions
17 Nig Biz 
18 Doreen (Fzmoi69 version from 0:01 to 0:22) 
19 Goblin Girl 
20 The Black Page 
21 Tryin' To Grow A Chin
22 Strictly Genteel
23 Crow Noise-Preamble (a cut with fades at 7sec, present in tape)
24 Joe's Garage (s2-s3 pasting at 1:57, lower sound after pasting)
25 Why Does It Hurt When I Pee?
26 Crow Noise-Preamble (Fzmoi69 version from 0:02 to 0:28)
27 Spoonman Whips It Out* 
28 Whipping Post
29 Crow Noise-Preamble (a cut at 0:05)
30 Cosmik Debris 
31 Watermelon In Easter Hay