FRANK ZAPPA MOTHERS OF INVENTION "KingKong" 1968

[chappolee]

Jim, you were one of my musical inspirations/heros/idols. We are all so sad that you were taken from us RIP m friend...

[BognarRegis]

RIP Euclid James "Motorhead" Sherwood.

[LuneyTune72]

It took me until now to realize that the bird cage in front of the camera is used so that it looks like the band is playing inside it; this is a metaphor for the cage that King Kong was locked inside of.

[Django5198]

you can definately hear how The Gumbo Variations was influenced

[teetomthomas]

James "Motorhead" Sherwood.

[ClarkeMarek]

@teetomthomas RIP, Mr. Sherwood.

[windygreene]

frank zapper



[colaseg]

fucking orgasmic

[myNifty350]

I don't know much about this band and never followed Frank Zappa but frome looking at some old black and white photos Mom an Dad took in somewhere in Maryland these guys must be the originals. Mom can't remember were in Maryland but it was on one of their escapades before Dad had to deploy to Vietnam. Thought I'd check out youtube and holy sh@* these guys match the pitchers. I clearly underestimated the popularity of the original members with all the hits on youtube.

[societyforrealmusic]

Duke Ellington voicings at 3:00

[elchicano2010]

@bakabana1966, no es la orquesta de hot rats, son los loqusimos de the mothers of invention, y en esa epoca eran: Frank Zappa y Jimmy Carl Black (QEPD), Don Preston, Ian Underwood, Art Tripp III,Bunk Gardner, Roy Estrada y Motorhead Jim Sherwood

[sicilianbabe8]

WOW I love this. I had an album with this song on it. The cover said "Weasels Rip My Flesh" and was the original Mothers of Invention. Greatest Zappa album ended with a hot blues song by Frank. Thanks for posting this film. RIP Frank

[Django5198]

Is the DOP tripping?

[1mo4dro]

MAN!... THAT IS SOME HEAVY SHYIT FOR 68'

[thumbfacenot]

the clean sound and the chords at the end, i love it, even the lil mistaken wrong note(s).

[snatchsour]

MORE TAMBOURINE!!

[thumbfacenot]

@snatchsour LOL, i want to kill him ! he should have lite a smoke, sat on his arse and listened. why didnt zappa take the damn thing off him and stick it up his arse.

[Navlis86]

without Frank Zappa the Music today would be in the Stone Age :)

[uluriak]

This is great, my favorites are his instrumental pieces, like this and on "Burnt weeny sandwich", very good album!

[neilmcarthur]

Jimmy Carl Black plays the greatest 12 / 8 ever ...

[MichiganMonsoon]

I'm playing with him and the key player this weekend in michigan

[DafR7]

where is the other videos that had 1/4 - 4/4 and u cud see this from the very start?

[AFullSodaCan]

3:44, a consultant psychiatrist, lol

[ichbinsnichmehr]

thats perfect art

thanrs to the poser

[remoteviewing0]

thats not the hot rats orchestra

[bakabana1967]

@remoteviewing0

i know, but i can't change it, youtube blocked me the access to my page.

[boodang062451]

Why has today's music taken such a total dump? Man, this is where it's at. God, please rid Earth of hip-hop, rap, today's militaristic "Country" gargabe and massive corporate power. Bring back Nixon, too. On second thought ... naw.

[eslmc]

Nice socks Frank!

[zwwwz12]

In franks guitar solo, the guitar and the tamb work together in syncopes

[drumbs]

NOW WE CAN ALL DIE AND GO TO WHERE EVER THEY ARE STLL PLAYING THIS !!!

SUZY CREAMCHEEZE ANYONE??

[furnesscoppernob]

So where is the rest of the 90 minutes ??????? Brilliant stuff.Great sax.

[xiuxiu12]

that sax solo was mean, hs!

[Thejohnjackjoe]

love it... it is perfectly played... what a rush... R.I.P. Frank...

[boguspomp1]

Crappy day at work? Fck It, King Kong

[tatersalad4292]

i love two things about this video. 1. the random hospital bed in the middle of the studio. 2. at 5:08 when frank turns on that killer distortion and rips into a solo. great job by the mothers!

[bwanna23]

Did Frank make much use of the tambourine in his latter works?

[RFZYJTELPJP]

has my vote for best music video of all time

[cymondo]

Babe Ruth did a good version of this on their 'First Base' album

[Voyager619]

mate incase u don't know, it's BBC not BeeBeeSea

[bakabana1967]

Francis you think you're clever !

i didn't mention BBC to avoid BBC scans my vids and take it off my page !

[colindominy]

I'm fascinated by the fact that Frank The Great was freely permitted to get his way with his far-out, on-the-edge, off-the-wall anti-commercial live music, such as this - and yet, at or even before this same time of 1968, the legendary Brian Wilson was attempting to compose some equally anti-commercial amazing masterpiece gems such as the Smile Album .. yet Wilson's endeavours were frowned upon & sabotaged. While Zappa got clean away with his particular style of musical genius.

[NoAhMaN8]

there are probably a million comments like mine on here but ill ask anyway. is there an album or bootleg with this particular version of king kong on it?

[bakabana1967]

no there is not, you can grab this with youtubegrabber, but i never tried it cause i do it on a MAC

[NoAhMaN8]

yeah i wasn't sure because there's a youtube video from this same performance of the song "In the Sky" and i didn't think it was on an album but it turns out it was on the bootleg "Apocrypha" so i didn't know.

[jnkyrdd0g]

ya know...its a shame that in this manufactured music climate we live in today ...that we may never see the likes of this again...

[NoAhMaN8]

im workin on that

[beatboy001]

Great music , great  jam session !

[danzbmw]

Saw Don Preston Nappy, Ike Willis with 'Project Object' in 2007 in Ocean Beach, talked with Napoleon Murphy foe about 20 mins, we walked across the street and I bought him a beer. It was a freaky show for sure.. I don't think Pam liked this band.

[BIGDINKMAN]

the sound coming out of franks guitar is just so sick! i cant believe it isnt used intodays music.

[volpeck]

Ian and Ruth Underwood are brother and sister.

[Jimmypppp]

irks that would be ugly!!

[bigbo02131]

Ian & Ruth Underwood were man & wife.

[thirdstone3]

Beyond EXCELLENT! Motorhead Sherwood is totally sick. Zappa in typical form...

[b0b1919]

hell yeah, motorhead defied all musical concepts. This was possibly one of the best lineups of any band ever

[aakkoin]

the band was first just "the mothers"

but the record company made them change it because "mother" was short for "motherfucker"

little trivia fact...

[Jorisman]

genius !

[UncleNico1]

This BBC take was on dutch radio somewhere in the late '70s. This recording was actually my first attempt on drums and i used this as a practise piece for a long period of time. Other people thought i'd gone mad. I knew better: with "King Kong", "Willy the Pimp" and "Whipping Post" i learned how to drum in no time... ;)

[acerflots]

am concluding that he couldnt do this in the states, so my question is: why?

[bigbabyjesusaddf]

why>?.. i cant see any american television station letting a band mostly just jam.. theyed rather have the band stand there and mime whyle they play the record companies tape and say its "LIVE" .."in studio" hahaha.. it needs to be pre packaged to be aired now a days.. .. thats how i take it anyways..regardless.. could you see this on say NBC or MTV or any network ?..notta chance.not enough breasts hahaha

[acerflots]

Dont know :) am from holland, watch different channels (on dutch television you can swear and stand on your hands, almost nothing is censored) and yes MTV would never do this, though i really wouldnt mind! It is in fact a music station right? How more musical can it get than such an artistic and typical jam

[WHATSTHEP0INT]

the Music Television doesn't WANT music, they want what the kids are listening to and want to get the income. It's a flawless technique because as long there are kids, and those kids kids have ears and a mind to speak, they will profit from them, guaranteed.

[ultrakool]

@acerflots

this could have easily aired on any pbs station at the time

[ultrakool]

@acerflots

uh...scratch that pbs comment. they would not have launched public broadcasting service in the u.s. for another two years at the time of this bbc broadcast

[locobeis]

this man was beautifuly crazy

[JivemasterJ]

@locobeis Funk Oswald of Dinosaur Holocaust is much crazier!

[greggarypeccary1]

a band like this could never get on tv today...

[Django5198]

@greggarypeccary1 I know man!!! My band is similar and I will admit that there are some damn good musicians in it. Today all the music world wants to show on tv is people with plastic on their faces who use bloody auto tune over fucking drum machines. Fuck it!!!

[vermeergirl]

@greggarypeccary1 Well, it kinda depends on how long we have the BBC for still. Although it is disintigrating pretty rapidly.

[greggarypeccary1]

does anybody know the personnel of this?

I see Don Preston, Jimmy Carl Black

[seesselberg]

It's the two you mention , plus Roy Estrada on bass , Jim Motorhead Sherwood on sax and tambourine , Artie Dyer Tripp III on second drums , Bunk Gardner and Ian Underwood on saxes plus , of course Zappa ! Hope this was useful to you x

[WHATSTHEP0INT]

is ian related to ruth underwood? im assuming so

[seesselberg]

Ruth Underwood was Ruth Komanoff - she plays on the Uncle Meat LP . She then married Ian , thus becoming Mrs. Underwood !

[WHATSTHEP0INT]

ah ha! thanks!

[pureloveracing]

Upon watching this I'm realizing, all those years ago as a young pup, I subconciously based my life on what I heard in this song... I could have done worse, but all in all, pretty scary...

[dantean]

How could you have done worse? I don't see it.

[pureloveracing]

Black Sabbath, Paranoid. Another favorite.

[pureloveracing]

Two drummers !!! Dig the boat horn attached to the front drummers tom. A crucial element in the late 60's drummers kit. CAN'T SOMEBODY ADJUST THE HORIZONTAL CONTROL !!!

[GigVid]

BBC TV music show presented by Williams 1968. This is the famous Mothers ( Of Invention ) .

Never heard of the Hot Rats Orchestra. Made that up or read it in some fictional biog about FVZ.

[bakabana1967]

these guys are hot rats

[GigVid]

The band was called

The Mothers ( as in Motherf******).

Record company wanted more ''userfriendly'' name , hence the

''Of Invention'' .

Check with his son Dweezil.

He's got YT channel.

Also it's odd you say you're the only one with a recording of this great nod to FVZ.

I have a first edition superior quality of the whole BEEB show + the extra ''doo-wap'' song for European Pop show, they did during '68 studio time.

FVZ -- RIP . Thanks for all the great music.

Lumpy Rats n' Peaches, etc.

[ProverbialMindSpread]

I love how ugly Zappa's music can become. So ugly then so beautiful.

[hommescalp]

This idea (ugly music) is a creation of YOUR mind, I think. This music is really beautiful, listen carefully.

[Retyped43]

Is that a epiphone!?

[william0000000]

All the psychedelic visuals are a bit too cute. I wish they had done a straight recording .

[mf0rz]

i think they are subliminal messages. maybe we should stay away.

[camarilloday9]

this is a story of a great ,huge GORILLA- whos lived happy in his Jungle bevor some white man came- abused him, tortured him- and than killed him- thats all folks.... (The band is fantastic)

[devolve42]

I never made it on surfing set, and I never made it on the beatnik set, and I couldn't cut the groupie set either...

And, umm. actually I really fucked up in Europe.

Now that I've done it all over and nobody else looks at me, I've come home to my Mothers.

[bakabana1966]

go quickly to the Wacko Jacko videos,

and never come back here !

[1567891011]

Dude, this is good stuff, but Jacksn is and aways will be the greatest musician. Show some respect, dont be like that other guy u've replyed.

RIP Michael and Zappa!!!

[KingOfTheCretins]

please don't mention a dancer in the same sentence as a composer like frank zappa.

[anthemsquadron]

saying that makes you sound incredibly ignorant. do some research before you run your mouth.

[hippydippy]

WAY COOL!!!

[Villstyringen]

Great, just great. Zappa is the greatest, and far ahead of his time.

[steelydan4848]

This stinks worse than 8 day old dead fish.....typical crap

[posthumanhero]

like his 60s stuff so much more.....not as slick and self-consciously 'funny'.........this period, especially, was real earthy -- no irony, just music.

[snoid23]

I'm suzy creamcheese because I never wore fake eyelashes.......

[butlincat]

great stuff....100000*

[CakeDestroyer]

What kind of cymbal is that on 2:21 - 2:25 ?

[lantefant]

i think is the edge of the symbal aaarggghhhh franks music

love you frank

[dizzypeanut]

I just posed the same question on Drumforum and everyone agreed that it was an old Zildjian tam-tam/gong with a center hole for lathing.

Pretty neat.

[benjammin420420]

makes me want a time machine

[motorwawt]

3:55-4:25 is some of the most wonderful zappa music i've heard. I have most all of his albums but have never heard that snatch... anyone else know?

[funkempfang]

checkout the album "ahead of their time"

The overal setting of the song is the same but with somemore spice to it!!!

and the other tracks are also very cool!!!

grtz......

FZ rules

in the past , now & future

[crimsonknuckles]

yeah, ahead of their time is great....skip to track 11 or 12 cause 1st half is a play(theatre style)

[funkempfang]

that right!! theatre style ......get into it there's a lot you become to know about the mothers!!!

some of them are well trained musicians like Ian Underwood!

I guess Zappa had a lot of inspiration listening to the mothers when they argued about Music!

I never skipped the 1st half because of that.......

[ShakespearesFool]

King Kong was originally on 'Uncle Meat' - different interpretations taking up a whole side of vinyl. Class.

If you like this, I would also recommend 'Hot Rats'. Brilliance.

[ClarkeMarek]

Actually, a shortened version first appeared years prior on Lumpy Gravy. But yeah, the Uncle Meat interpretations are awesome(though not near as good as this verison.)

[esthercaulfield]

Please post more from this special!!

[coopersrabbit]

lmao traditional jazz! long live frank and jimmy carl black!

[skaterocknroll]

this is so great. unique sound.

[pavelromul]

great tune; as stringed said, he's music is brilliant. thx for share with us and if you other beebeesea recordings, please don't hesitate to share with us. We are increasingly fewer those who appreciate this kind of stuff

[barackwhosSane]

"jam rag"

[craze231]

wow

[craze231]

this is perhaps the most emotional display of tambourine playing that I have ever witnessed

[benjammin420420]

hes got the tambourine fever

[StringedDuet]

this guys a genius

[mrf150150150]

haha why is there a cot on stage?

[boogster123321]

in early mothers shows they would have props all over the stage because they were weird.

[karl198]

It could be because they're the mothers? :)

[Octaviodafirst]

Its in reference to Zappa having a Sofa on stage(ie the song Sofa) It was said he would have people come up and sit on the sofa(or cot?lol in this case) in the early years. He may have done it later on but mainly in the early incarnations of The Mothers

[michaelg74]

Love the Syeeda's Song Flute tease at 3:43

[saisonsept]

where is the rest of it??

[bakabana1966]

in the BBC archives, so there is work to do ,

you could write a proper letter, and ask who the ZAPPA-fan is in that building, and that could be the beginning of finding this tape........good luck and let us know.

you'll find BBC's address on their site !!

[baftacat]

NOO! RIP jimmy carl black!

[leftnutnamedchancey]

WHOA WHOA WHOA.....He died????

[IHATEKandG]

RIP Jimmy Carl Black:(

[doohdoohhead]

the indian of the group

[mstern18]

anyone know what piano that is? im guessing something like the rmi electronic pianos?

[1zappa]

Don Preston

[Plushie12345]

Motorhead Sherwood: the original trip toy.

[herehavesomepie]

and art trip is a heck of a drummer

[ClarkeMarek]

And Bunk, Ian, and Motorhead are a nice trio of wind players.

[m11gtr]

Yes! This is "Uncle Meat" territory!

[herehavesomepie]

uncle meat is a great piece

[komputaman]

it is sad this band split up long time ago

[mario21128]

i think frank was just gettin tired of the band and drugs and them some of them not being up to standards....i heard all of that in a Motorhead interview.......but the original mothers were so great!!!!!

[mario21128]

does anyone have the other parts of the BBC recordings...i mean i know this isnt the only song they jammed.

[bakabana1966]

I advise you to write a nice letter to the Director of the BBC archives !!

this is the address:

BBC, PO Box 1922, Glasgow G2 3WT ENGLAND,

Good Luck, and let us know.

[GigVid]

Glasgow is not in England.

Contact bbc via website for all info on archive material

[sparksrule]

There's apparently ten more minutes of this King Kong in the archives

[GigVid]

this is not a jam.

precisely as the composer dictates.

[mario21128]

i meant jam as in play

ill revise my sentence...

"I mean I know this isn't the only song they played"

[komputaman]

here are proper musicians

[Zaworov]

What about the second part? And the others?

[thekidwiththefa]

Awesome, sorry for not knowing, thanks for letting me know. Tight stuff.

[thekidwiththefa]

I'll assume that's Ian Underwood on the Bari sax? Shit, that's amazing.

[robvig60]

Motorhead Sherwood on bari.

[Crudblud89]

Underwood's in the back on alto sax.

[skeptyky]

on aime ou on deteste zappa ,mais il y a toujours de la recherche musicale ,et , c'est pas de la "CAMILLE 2008" ,ELLE A RIEN INVENTEE ,

les soixante huitards on seras toujours les meilleurs ,que c'est bon les sixties ; c'est bon

les mothers of invention ,mais je preferes jethro tull ,dans le style ;

[Barbariansweater]

I hate those stupid BBC video effects in this video.

[timegrinder]

huh? 90 minute late show special of archive footage!? Where do i get a copy!!

[bakabana1966]

i have this on a vcr, took it from bbc tv when Frank died in 1993, and now it seems nobody else has it, oh god oh god i'm the american dream............

[timegrinder]

Its on Mininova!

[sparksrule]

has anyone seen the unabridged version of this that runs for 23 minutes? It was floating around on here before taken off

[kaizersfan]

whats the name of the drummers? Anyone who knows?

[ClarkeMarek]

Artie Tripp and Jimmy Carl Black. I think Bill Mundi had already left, but I'm not sure.

[kaizersfan]

Okei, thanks very much for the help :)

[ClarkeMarek]

yw!

[soremongs]

I reached in behind my computer monitor and I couldn't find the vertical hold knob.

[hemphatman2007]

That's cuz "they" control the vertical....and the horizontal.

[johnflea]

wow this is great

thanks!

[foutupourfoutu]

One of the best King Kong versions aver

[tobaccogiant23]

do you have the whole BBC documentary, been looking for it for years!

[bakabana1966]

the whole docu is on my page, i still owe the Zappafans two tracks of the life tracks docu: Black Napkins & G-spot Tornado.

[comunicationBDNot]

thank you