Added: 4 years ago
From: dstillermann
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  • @Tadej37 He'd using his Les Paul Goldtop here.

  • Was he using his SG here?

  • That was an interesting 9 minutes of my life..

  • do they change the tempo in the middle of the song?

  • Am I right in thinking this is from the Late Show Zappa compilation shown when Frank died?

  • Am I right in thinking this is from the Late Show Zappa comilation shown when Frank died?

  • it seems all my favorite Zappa songs have no singing. Just great jamming and jazz fusion. 

  • This is a man with a lot of insight and saw things as they are over the candy coated explanations of our surroundings . We lost a good man with a realistic view of life . Thank Zappa for sharing your views !

  • HEEEEEEEEEY mr tambourine man(with the shades) would you pleeeeeeeeeeeeease put that saxophone away and play your percussion part-it sounds soooooo much better.

  • Frank zappa is and always will be the REAL THING!! He lived breathed AND SHOT CUM FILLED NOTES OF PURE MUSIC. THERE WILL NEVER BE ANYONE LIKE HIM, EVER. If you question that turn on your radio today. Yeah see what I mean. Pretty bland, huh??

  • Gotta love the "consult a psychiatrist" subliminal message

  • Also props to the Gold Top LP.

    

  • it pumps oxigen to your brain...Thanks Mr. Zappa

  • 2:33 al 4:45 maton que saxes tan fregones y mas me encanta el solo de sax de motorhead

  • Que banda aqui tocan: Frank Zappa Y Jimmy Carl Black (QEPD), Ian Underwood, Bunk Gardner, Art Trip III,Roy Estrada,Don Preston, Y Motorhead Jim Sherwood. Que desde mi punto de vista, fue una de las mejores formaciones de las queridas,.recordadas y extrañadas madres de la invencion

  • All I can say Is FAR OUT!!! FZ was way before his time!!! I am the big 50 and my nieces and nephews are 14 & 16 and they have discovered FZ in their music class??!! Go figure!!?? In my day teachers would look at you suspect when one would listen to this!!?? It just proves FZ's point that the beureacratic society back then was made up of Fricken Nazi's just like it is now except for some geniuses like the music teacher, me and ultimately Frank Zappa!!! Thamks very much for the post!! RIP FZ !!

  • this is just awesome. unfortunately the sound quality is too bad to enjoy this quintessence of the 60's

  • With all the crap on the radio, i forgot what real music sounds like !!!

  • So nothing has changed, it still can't be done in the united states !! Now , with the socialist system, it's even worse ! ;o((

  • @giamozz Eh?

  • Comment removed

  • The BBC couldn't do this again; unless it had a time-machine!

  • We didn't have much time

    Frank Zappa and the Mothers

    Were at the best place around

    But some stupid with a flare gun

    Burned the place to the ground

  • BBC was trippy in 68!

    weird effects in the image, that's awesome

  • Not B 4 or since!

  • Ian Underwood whips it out!!! Great stuff!

  • Can someone send me a link to a picture of Ray Collins with hair, or doesn't one exist?;)

    P.S. Yes, I know that Ray is not in this video.

  • I never heard Frank Zappa's music, and he's a genious. wasted my whole life listening trash but this is REAL MUSIC. I LOVE IT!!!!

  • Bravo!

  • yeah this is is awesome.. wish the quality was better.. awesome display of the Zappa prowess.. I'm still a HUGE fan of Jean Luc Ponty's version of KK.. and the Sweden 73' ...wow.. dumbfounded.

  • absolutely amazing

  • If only the quality was a little better... Great performance though, and I hope that one day this film and the accompanying audio get remastered and released to the public.

    By the way, Leersham may let this performance remind him of anyone he likes, Green Day or otherwise! There's no right or wrong when it comes to music! Zappa fans should know this better than anyone!

  • Is there a version of King Kong as good as this that's on an official release?

  • @Zuhzuhzombie The two versions from "Uncle Meat" are still pretty darn good classics, especially the one closing the album, which is blessed by an extensive soloing by Underwood. The one from "Make a Jazz Noise Here" is a nice sample of FZ's late big band work, but it's so tongue-in-cheek many would hate it.

  • @dstillermann

    Yes, the "Uncle Meat"-Version is the best available, but there's also a VERY good one on "Ahead of their Time".

  • @aeronpanick Agreed, and also not a bad one on "'Tis The Season To Be Jelly".

  • @dstillermann And the Live In Toronto album, that's pretty close--the album which has John Lennon and Yoko Ono on it....

  • @dstillermann The one on "Make a Jazz Noise Here" is great, a very unique 'Reggae' version. Has a nice live version of "Porn Wars" stuck in the middle as well, a most epic surprise. The version of "King Kong" on Uncle Meat is disappointing in my opinion, because the sound quality is rather poor.

  • @Zuhzuhzombie ahead of their time album

  • @Zuhzuhzombie check the "ahead of their time album" It has a great version of this piece!!!

    And yes what an impact when the tune actualy starts!!!

    It sends the shivers up and down with some gooses on the top of it.............

    

  • @Zuhzuhzombie The one on Live In Toronto. I think that's the name of the album. The one on Uncle Meat pales in comparison with this behemoth of a performance!

  • @vollsticks Link?

  • The intro is from "Weasels Ripped My Flesh" as a bit of "Dwarf Nebula Processional March" and then they get into King Kong.

    "We heard about how people in this land like traditional jazz" is classic from Frank.

    always great

    KING KONG

  • This sort of reminds me of Green Day.

  • @lesharam

    You're nuts.

  • @lesharam

    Yeah, I can see what you mean. I mean, Green Day have an electric guitar too, don't they?

    This would be comparable to Green Day only if we were suddenly thrown into an alternate universe and Green Day weren't the Green Day of this universe but a different one that knew how to play their instruments and weren't wholly lacking even the slightest creative impulse.

  • @lesharam dude shut the fuck up

  • @lesharam ?!

  • No one like Frank Zappa..Music is the Best!

  • @boangrooster u better not be chinese

  • @zootallurez ,unfortunately not Chinese but i wonder hw many Chinese fans of Frank there are? lol..

    Music is the Best..

  • Does this count as Jazz fusion?

  • @DimensionsofChange in that it blends jazz instrument6ation and improvization with a rock beat yes. or jazz with a rock guitar sound. zappa parodied and aped genres but his compositional fingerprint is so strong that it usually just sounds like zappa music!

  • @gtr1359 I'm gonna go ahead and count that as a yes. Compositional fingerprint eh? I'm taking that term if i's not already widely used by everyone.

  • legenda

  • Gee that guy must have a small attention span.

  • seems pretty boring. probably takes a while to get into

  • did you manage to wait until 1:49?

  • Still magnificent 42 years later!

  • Pretty cool

  • awesome

  • wtf...

  • The quality of this video is very degenerated compared to the mint condition version available right now for free on the Tapecity torrent tracker! Just search for Zappa BBC Documentary. FYI

  • Many thanks for recommending this!!!

  • @cmadera100 tapecity has disappeared, any chance anyone here can upload it to a new torrent?

  • Muziek ist het beste!

  • that saxophone solo is...

  • love when the epic gongs kick in..legendary

  • la cabeza q tenia el chabon era unica... no era un musico de rock... estaba mas alla de todas las definiciones posibles... simplemente ZAPPA

  • de grootste van allemaal

  • Impresionante.

  • Maestro el GRAN ZAPPA

  • We had three TV channels then and this was on one (BBC2). Ohmihgod

  • While Kenny and his buddies have a game out in the back, LET'S MAKE THE WATER TURN BLAAAACK

  • such an awesome composer!!!!

  • Awesome.

  • bunk gardner!! yeah!!

  • the song king kong was one of the first jazz fusion songs ever and not many people seem to recognize that.

  • give it up for Motorhead Sherwood y'alll

  • Frank Zappa is a genius!!! I've only heard some of his work so far but from what I gather he wasn't afraid to experiment n put it out there to the public. This masterpiece is brilliant, a nice mix of jazz n fuzz guitar acid rock!

  • Genius!!!!

  • I second that!!!

  • There's just something about his sound from this era. He was really pouring his heart out.

  • the blackouts

  • They think they're Lawrence Welk. :D

  • 3:31-4:44 = EPIC!!!

  • 4:44 - 9:07 = EPIC!!!

  • 0:00 - 9:07 = EPIC!!!

  • 0:00 - 9:07 = EPIC!!

  • complex.

  • think about it! thats happand 1968´

    irre geil

  • muy sobrado y aburrido. Zappa era un genio pero su musica de un petulante

  • inventive, and innovative, he is far far out ahead of the curve, man he was never let in the box so he always was outside of it.

  • Intense, epic...Zappa!!!

  • wow, I've never seen such tambourine playing! - but seriously, oh Frank - so good, so good.

  • Hey hey now. Don't dis psychedelic music.

  • Frank did. On his very first album.

  • well i still like frank. but not the person below me.

    haha just kidding. i love you too :)

  • this is kinda psychadellic music innit?

  • you will be dead by morning

  • I saw the Mothers with this incarnation when I was 12. They were the best band on the planet at that time. And funny as hell in between songs.

  • aw man i wish theyre were more vids from this show/era

  • Esta version de KING KONG es anterior a grabarla en el gran "UNCLE MEAT" y es mas resumida por que es una sesion televisiva pero igualmente es GENIAL, hay una parte (2:23) que Don Preston y su piano electrico se quedan solos y es realmente soberbia (aparte que esa parte no sale en la grabacion de Uncle Meat) aparte en la intro de Zappa es muy chistoso como baila Motorhead Sherwood.

    "GOD SAVE THE MOTHERS"

    !!! GRANDE ZAPPA ¡¡¡

  • no habia escuchado a FZ y la verdad su musica esta muy cabrona el y sus musicos son de lo mejor que he escuchado

  • nice

  • It was refreshing to hear some free improvisational baritone. I'm a fan or Zorn and Coleman and Ayler and Coltrane and I love the free improv saxophone sound but never heard it on the lower saxes. Awesome. He could have seperated his notes better though it sounded kinda sloppy. I love the soprano sax on Absolutely Free too.

  • heh, the joke is kind of that motorhead is the only one that doesn't really play an instrument (kind of the "teenage eye-candy"... and the other two sax players in the back seem less that excited that he got to take a solo on Tv. The older looking one, Bunk Gardner played that soprano solo on Absolutely Free, amazing stuff.

  • How'd they get that phonetic electric belch at the end?!

  • This is my favorite version of King Kong.. Well I really like the Lumpy Gravy version too but that one is too short. If Frank had made that one into a 6/7 minute long jam then that would be my favorite version but he didn't so the 1968 BBC version is my favorite.

  • The person who posted this video should receive some sort of humanitarian award for preserving and sharing this historic and ripping version of mighty Kong. And the In The Sky video, too.  But this is Classic. The only thing that could've made these any better would be the velvety croon of Ray Collins.

  • I apologize if this has been mentioned previously but who is who in the video?

  • Frank Zappa - guitar

    Jimmy Carl Black - drums (in the corner)

    Art Tripp - drums

    Roy Estrada - bass

    Don Preston - electric piano

    Ian Underwood - alto sax

    Bunk Gardner - tenor sax

    Motorhead Sherwood - baritone sax & tamborine

  • Thanks!

  • And as an attachment:

    Ian Underwood played with the Mothers through the summer of 1973 and was the major player (after Frank) on Hot Rats so FZ knew how good he was, and for that matter Don Preston continued through the Flo and Eddie years and was a quest on Roxy and Elsewhere.

    It is just that the 60's had to end,

    at some point,

    my friend.

  • I like the defending of the Originals,

    they need NO defending.

    It was time to move on,

    BUT Don Preston himself admitted that he could't read music on a page,

    he played by ear.

    And they all moved on.

    And this IS a great KK.

    The live section on Uncle Meat was at Gulfstream Park for a SoFla pre-cursor

    to Woodstock.

  • now i have to dig up my LP copy of this...as this was astounding. I don't remember the guitar as fiery on the LP..his Fuzz lead is just fab. I forgot how precise he was on the guitar (tend to focus on his compositional skills..)..and how much soul he pours into it. Very cooll...thanks for the clip!!!

  • I started listening to Zappa around '90 or so...I'm only now begining to grasp how brilliant Frank really was.

  • Ian Underwood had a BA in composition from Yale, and a masters from Berkeley. Artie Tripp was a percussionist with the Cincinnati Orchestra. Jimmy Carl Black and Roy Estrada may have been the weak links, but Zappa clearly loved them and has mentioned in interviews how they were the two players in The Soul Giants who most impressed him. I think the breakup of the Mothers had more to do with Zappa's dissatisfaction to the way the band was being marketed and/or received by audiences in the states.

  • Meh, yes and no.. It was a large part also because he couldn't rehearse them nearly as hard as he needed in order to play the music he was starting to form in his brain. The only way for Zappa to move on at any point was to dissolve all weak links and take control of the band creatively. I think he understood that the moment he started to do this the life of the "original mothers" wasn't long for this earth.

  • shut up, you don't knwo frank zappa

  • And you don't know how to spell. I'd rather take that one, to be honest.

  • I still think that Zappa's most fertile period was during the disintegration of the Mothers Of Invention, when he still had some tension against his more extravagant idiosyncricities (and his guitar didn't sound like it had gone through a chemical personality remover).

    I'll admit he wrote good stuff throughout his career, but he was never as consistently Great (as opposed to merely hyper-competent or good) as he was during that period.

  • There was a lot of chemistry with the early Mothers, whether they were getting along or not.

  • Very true.

  • @GolumTR

    actually i'd go further and say this was his most fertile period. straight mothers. less talk more thought. not that frank didn't have a lot (of important things) to say, and that 'one size fits all' didn't change my life but... 'uncle meat' ... perhaps the most under-rated album of all time.

  • It's odd that there are a bunch of comments (including quotes from Zappa himself) about how the original Mothers weren't good enough to play the harder compositions. Don Preston was a respected jazz musician who had played with Elvin Jones and whose father was a resident composer for the Detriot Symphony.

  • this was up on youtube a long time ago but it got taken down. Great to see it back up again. Wonder what the hell people were thinking of this stuff back in 68??? ha!

  • They need to make this into a recording its sooooooo damn good!!!

  • Alright everyone. This version, the Uncle Meat recording, and the BTB: The Ark recording. Which one do you prefer? I would like to say that I enjoy the Uncle Meat recording for it's studio cleanliness(however I don't care for the mix of the horns). I love the Beat the Boots recording for the drums following the Uncle Meat intro. Between the two live versions, I find the one from The Ark to have too many time change mistakes. I like this one most. I only wish I could find a recording. Oh Well...

  • Agreed... I wish to god I could find an actual recording of this, but all I could get was the version of "in the sky" that precedes this performance. The compositional sections are mind blowing, and the drums sound thunderous in this take.

  • Grazie MAESTRO

    your music make me feelin'good.

  • RIP Jimmy Carl Black

  • "We would like to thank the people of BBC for allowing us to play some of the things that they would not allow us to play in the United States"

    FZ

    That has NOT changed - for your listening pleasure.

    KING KONG

  • Happy B-DAY FRANK ZAPPA! Your music in all ways moved me.I breifly new you.Your music is the best,and still is thanks to Dweezel,and ZPZ! 12/12/08 Roxy-You would be so proud Frank!

  • Motorhead is a trip to watch. One of my favorite arrangements ever.

  • esta chido compa

  • FZ was the original DIY indie rock star. Yet from where I can see, he still receives very little respect from the indie rock scene. This piece alone defines a large majority of indie rock tunes.

    This, along with a lot of the Roxy/Elsewhere album rank as the best Zappa output. Cream of the monumental crop.

  • I'll repeat something I posted 3 months ago just to get a conversation going after the recent hi-jack:

    The intro is actually from "Weasels Ripped My Flesh" as a bit of "Dwarf Nebula Processional March" and then they git into King Kong.

    One of the reasons Zappa got rid of the Original Mothers is that it took them over 6 months to learn this song and he figured he needed better musicians.

    To do what he had to do.

    This is the Best of the Original Mothers!!!

  • Very interesting, your comment about Zappa disbanding the Mothers in search of better musicians. As a musician myself, I'd be deathly affraid of working for the man himself. He seems like a very outgoing guy, unless you botched a measure on stage, I could definitely see Frank busting your balls about it backstage. He is the only person that can fully satisfy my jones for tonal addiction. Because of that fact, I sometimes wish I'd never stumbled upon his treasures. Long live his many masterpieces

  • I'd be intimidated, too. There's a vid somewhere of Steve Vai talking about what FZ put him through for his audition. Back in '79 when I was in college and was a gigging drummer I heard he held open auditions. I was practicing 4-6 hrs. a day, playing to FZ records (try St. Alfonso. Ralph Humpfrey). But I never got to do it, and it's probably a good thing since I might have blown it. But even the thought of FZ made me a better musician. He raised the bar for everybody.

  • Yeah and?

  • That's one heavy tambourine.

  • best FZ song ever

  • theres a lot of videos that dont show the guitarist during his solo

  • jimmy carl black rip

  • Why can't America have the same taste in music as the UK does?

  • Isn't it because most Americans have an unfortunate fascination with all things Plastic/Corporate/Idiotic?

    (At least, that's what we've been led to believe is most popular by the Corporations...)

  • Some of these pricks making comments could never appreciate the music of the master that is Zappa. Fuck you.

  • i read these racist comments and thank god i was born british and raised with tolerance

  • how the fuck do these comments have to with frank zappas music

  • From my point of view...best song of Frank Zappa...With Uncle Of Meat, Black Page, Peaches and Regalia and Dog Breath Variations...

  • totally agree with you, fusion rulex..

  • i wish this was released on a album.

  • FZ so good some people just dont get it!

  • Absolutely Feckin Brilliant...........the legend lives

  • As a completely unbiased viewer, I can safely say that this is the greatest thing I have ever heard.

  • best band ever

  • Does anybody know if the guy on baritone sax is Ian Underwood?

  • Motorhead Sherwood

  • Thanks a lot!

  • motorhead sherwood is playing the tambourine, bunk gardner is playing baritone sax

  • not quite, motorhead is playing both bari and tambourine... Bunk is the older looking guy playing tenor

  • Motorhead was playing the bari during the solo, though. Gardner was on tenor.

  • Utube is like looking through the garbage to find a treasure. Tonight, I found a treasure. Thank you dstillerman.

  • Well Said

  • The funky opening makes me laugh out loud.

    Frank Zappa was the Spike Jones of the late 60s and 70s.

  • King Kong is the top of the early stuff.