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Xavier Birtwich's Collection

Frank Zappa   02/16/1974

Berkeley Community Theatre, Berkeley, CA
Source 126 min AUD B+ / outlook account one drive/ Frank Zappa master folder
Media FLAC   2 discs
Tech Notes Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention
Community Theatre
Berkeley
CA

1974 02 16

~~ Second generation audience tape ~~

Current FZshows entry:
1974 02 16 - Community Theatre, Berkeley, CA
125 min, Aud, B+
soundcheck intro, Andy, Florentine Pogen, Kung Fu, Penguin In Bondage, T'Mershi Duween, Dog Meat, Montana, improvisations (incl. Dupree's Paradise story), Dupree's Paradise, Cosmik Debris, Pygmy Twylyte (incl. Dummy Up), The Idiot Bastard Son (That Arrogant Dick Nixon), Cheepnis, Approximate, Inca Roads[/size]

This copy: 125.26 min, Aud, B+

Lineage: Sony portable cassette deck > MC > Reel > Reel > DAT > Apple (aiff) > Xact > Flac (48.000 hz) > SF10 (speed corrected, edited, downsampled to 44.100 hz) > wav > FLAC

Taped by: unknown
Transferred by: Musigny23
Speed corrected and edited by: Galeans

== The Mothers Of Invention, February - March 1974 ==

FZ, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Jeff Simmons, Tom Fowler, George Duke, Ruth Underwood, Bruce Fowler, Ralph Humphrey, Chester Thompson.

Setlist:

01 Soundcheck intro [08:00]
02 Andy (Something/Anything) [11:23]
03 Florentine Pogen [04:55]
04 Kung Fu [01:15]
05 Penguin In Bondage [06:38]
06 T'Mershi Duween [01:58]
07 Dog Meat [04:09]
08 Preamble & technical problems [02:53] ��� cuts in, no music missing
09 Montana [06:26]
10 Dupree's Paradise part I (improvisation & story) [15:13]
11 Dupree's Paradise part II (theme & solos) [16:24] ��� cut 13:31 music missing, fades out after the song
12 Preamble & tune-up [01:58] ��� fades in
13 Cosmik Debris [08:43]
14 Preamble [01:12]
15 Pygmy Twylyte [07:53]
16 The Idiot Bastard Son (That Arrogant Dick Nixon) [02:26]
17 Cheepnis [04:31]
18 Preamble [01:13]
19 Approximate [05:36]
20 Preamble & tune-up [01:47] ��� cuts in, no music missing
21 Inca Roads [10:43]

At long least a good version of this excellent show appears on the tracker: It's actually incredible that it took so long for such an hystorical show to appear! There was a good version before Zappateers seeded by BengoFury and later a noise reducted version seeded by Jimshoes in 2005 which got eventually pulled and moved to The Bad Sources. In 2011 Musigny23 seeded on The Shoebox a version that was superior to both of these. A sample procedure revealed that no one seemed to have a better version so here it is: speed corrected and properly tracked. This is a very good audience tape with good clarity and nice ambience. Unfortunately the recording is also marred by channel drop outs that spoil a bit the enjoyment, especially on "Montana" and "Dupree's Paradise": my original plan was to work on these but it turned out to be impossible so they are left as they were. When those are not present, the sound is one of the most enjoyable of this era.

As per Charles Ulrich's excellent giglist this is this Mothers incarnation's second concert and it shows: there are instances where they get lost a bit, noticeably on "Approximate" and "Inca Roads". This said, flaws or not, this is an excellent concert and one of the truly essential tapes. First of all, the sound of this band is lovely and all the players are great. There is a lot of energy in the performance and Frank plays some mean solos. The highlights are the early version of the "One Size Fits All" tracks: "Andy" is taken at a slower tempo and sounds more majestic in place, "Florentine Pogen" is performed twice at double speed with a guitar solo in the middle and this is the first non-cocktail version of "Inca Roads" in circulation and, although some bits still need fixes, the bulk of it is already there. Oh, there's also the lyrically mutated version of "The Idiot Bastard Son" which is quite nice! A truly fascinating document from one of the most interesting periods of Zappa's career.

Credits:

Thanks to the unknown taper!
Thanks to Musigny23 for providing the best sounding copy and seeding it on The Shoebox!
Thanks to Flambay for giving speed correction values!
Thanks to those who partecipated in the sample process!

Enjoy !!

Brought to you by Musigny23 and Galeans

www.zappateers.com/bb - December 2017
Trades Allowed Yes
Ratings Sound: B+
Reference / Generation Firewalkwithme41@gma
Owned by Xavier Birtwich · Last Updated May 23, 2023