Norwegian Rhapsody Volume 1 (2 LP) (CD & MC?)
Norwegian Rhapsody Volume 2 (CD)
Norwegian Rhapsody (2-CD Box)
* Skedsmohallen, Oslo, Norway, 27-Apr-1988
The entire production run of Volume 2 seems to have been confiscated by the police. However, RXZ Records put out a 2-CD box later with both volumes.
Sound quality: audience A-
Label: Todeskuss / Ultraschall / "Barking Pumpkin"/PAX Records
Catalogue numbers on the LP cover: LP 20789-8, MC 120789-8, CD 220789-8 (maybe there were a cassette and a CD)
Another number that's also on the LP cover: 4002583105819
Matrix: ZP1/ZP2/ZP3/ZP4
CD box label: RXZ Records 311-312/A
Musicians (1988 band): Frank Zappa, Mike Keneally, Ike Willis, Bobby Martin, Scott Thunes, Chad Wackerman, Ed Mann, Kurt McGettrick, Bruce Fowler, Walt Fowler, Albert Wing and Paul Carman, plus "Gunn Janne" - credited on the back cover as "guest vocalist on the audience participation time"
1. Stink-Foot (08:15)
2. I Ain't Got No Heart (01:55)
3. Love of My Life (02:15)
4. Packard Goose (02:29) [incorporating the Royal March theme from Stravinsky's "L'Histoire du Soldat" and a theme from Béla Bartók's third piano concerto]
5. Alien Orifice (09:25)
6. Sharleena (07:20)
7. Let's Make the Water Turn Black / Harry, You're a Beast / The Orange County Lumber Truck / Oh No / Theme from Lumpy Gravy (10:20)
8. Advance Romance (06:40)
9. Bobby Brown (02:15)
10. Keep It Greasey (03:25)
11. The Torture Never Stops [including "Lonesome Cowboy Burt" and "Theme from BONANZA" (by Ray Evans / Jay Livingston)] (19:15)
12. The Texas Motel Medley (09:30) ["Norwegian Jim" (02:30), "Louisiana Hooker with Herpes" (03:45), and "Texas Motel" (03:15) - "Norwegian Wood", "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and "Strawberry Fields Forever", by Lennon/McCartney/Zappa]
13. City of Tiny Lites (06:40)
14. A Pound for a Brown on the Bus (09:48) [including "Make a Sex Noise"]
* Track 1 has a spoken intro where Zappa announces the "audience participation time", which is "Make a Sex Noise", included in track 14, and a band introduction outro.
* Track 9 is slightly edited: the first nine seconds have been cut out - a bad edit, because what was cut out was the band singing "ooh, Fornebu-uuu" (in the manner of "ooh, we sure do" on Stage #6). On the record, the track instead begins with "Hey there, people, I'm Bobby Brown". (Fornebu, a Norwegian airport, was a secret word that night.)
* Track 13 is heavily edited: some one and a half minutes have been edited out - the end of the guitar solo and the beginning of the last verse, after the solo.
* Track 14 ends with the first few bars of "Stairway to Heaven".
The front cover is dark blue/lilac with the title set in white, and Zappa's face in blue and pink. The back cover has a black & white negative picture of Zappa's face, and it too has the title in white, on a blue background, plus a track list that is almost correct. It also lists the musicians, location and date, secret words ("schauschesch" (bodyguard John Smothers' pronunciation of "sausage") and "Fornebu" (an Oslo airport)) plus, in an attempt to masquerade as an official album, the following information:
For mail order and info write to
BARFKO_SWILL
Box 5418
North Hollywood
U.S.A.
ZAPPA HOTLINE:
U.S.A.: 18187867546
U.K.: 017342434
Frank Zappa - producer
Bob Stone - engineer
Harry Andronis - engineer
Dwayne Taylor - road manager
Bob Rice - synclavier
Bernie Grundman - mastering
UMRK - remote studio
LP 20789-8
MC 120789-8
CD 220789-8
4002583105819
Composed and produced by Frank Zappa, exept "The Texas Motel Medley" words by F.Z., music by Lennon/McCartney.
All compositions published worldwide by Munchkin Music ASCAP.
(C)+(P) 1990 Barking Pumpkin / PAX Records.
All rights reserved.
It's a very professional cover, made to look like a legal release. The labels, though, paint a different picture: They're black and blue and say "TODESKUSS", plus:
All rights reserved by ULTRASCHALL
(P)+(C) by ULTRASCHALL REC. Deutscland
6000 Frankfurt/M. - Pötchengasse 51 [there is no Pötchengasse in Frankfurt]
Made in Germany 1988
According to a German bootleg dealer, a Volume 2 was made but the entire production run was confiscated by the police. However, RXZ Records later made a 2-CD box of both volumes. The track listfor Volume 2 is as of yet unknown, but if it includes the rest of the Oslo show, it would have:
* Stairway to Heaven
* Bolero
* Rhymin' Man (world premiere - what a stange place to premiere a song about Jesse Jackson)
* Sofa
* Andy
* Inca Roads
* Strictly Genteel
Informants: Andreas Kerschgens, "U"
