Zappa Records Unearths 1968 Mothers Gig at the Whisky A Go Go 

Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention took Hollywood’s Sunset Strip by storm on July 23, 1968 with an epic three-hour performance at the Whisky A Go Go.

That concert, originally recorded for a live album that was never released at the time, will finally make its public debut on June 21st as a 3CD or 5LP deluxe set. 

A hand-scrawled ad in the L.A. Free Press served as an open invitation to the all-night affair, reading: “The Mothers of Invention cordially invite you to join them on Tuesday, July 23, 1968 when they will be taking over the Whisky a Go Go for 5 full hours of unprecedented merriment, which will be secretly recorded for an upcoming record album. Dress optional. Starting sometime in the evening. R.S.V.D.T.”

Ahead of its anticipated release, a previously unreleased live performance of “America Drinks & Goes Home,” is available to stream below (along with take two of “The Duke”). 

Originally released on 1967’s Absolutely Free, the song – featuring the crooning prowess of singer Ray Collins – was written as a parody of Zappa’s bar band days in the early 60s, and was played in the first of three sets at the Whisky.  

Also available now are the first two episodes of the four-part Whisky A Go Go Series on YouTube, hosted by Vaultmeister Joe Travers and recorded inside the Whisky. In the first episode, Travers sits down with Sunset strip icon Pamela Des Barres who reflects about her own band, Girls Together Outrageously (the GTOs), making their world premiere at the wild five-hour show, and what performing with Zappa meant to her. 

 

VIDEO: Whisky A Go Go The Series: Part 1, That One Night In 1968

The second episode continues with Des Barres reminiscing fondly about the historic gig as she sees footage for the first time ever of herself and her friends performing that night culled from previously unreleased film discovered in The Vault. A full 14-minute video of the Whisky show footage, which has been synched to the audio from the concert, will be released June 21. 

 

VIDEO: Whisky A Go Go The Series: Part 2, The Vault Film

Led by Zappa on guitar and vocals, the Mothers’ formidable lineup for this show included Collins (vocals, percussion), Ian Underwood (alto sax), Bunk Gardner (tenor sax, flute), Don Preston (keyboards, gong), Motorhead Sherwood (baritone sax, percussion), Roy Estrada (bass, vocals), Art Tripp (drum set, percussion) and Jimmy Carl Black (drum set, percussion).

Across the span of their three hours onstage, the Mothers largely improvised between performances of such early studio faves as “Help I’m A Rock,” “King Kong” and “Hungry Freaks Daddy.” “Just start playing something nice, in G minor. Make it up,” Zappa implores before The Mothers dive into “Improvisation: Episode II” — plus, there were doo-wop chops for days (“Valerie,” the soaring falsetto from Roy Estrada in “Oh, In The Sky”), foreshadowing the release of Cruising With Ruben and the Jets later on that year. 

The set was produced by Zappa’s youngest son Ahmet and longtime Vaultmeister Paul Travers, these live recordings were newly remixed in 2023 from hi-res 24-bit/96kHz digital transfers of the original 1” 8-track analog tapes by Craig Parker Adams at Winslow CT Studios. A Super Deluxe Edition box set will be released on both 5LP 180-gram black vinyl or 3CD, and feature a booklet with many unseen photos from the night’s events, along with copious liner notes by Travers, an essay by Des Barres and an interview by Ahmet with Alice Cooper, whose own band made a most momentous splash at the Whisky that night as one of the featured acts along with the GTOs and Wild Man Fischer among others.

“Nobody would touch us except Frank,” Cooper said in the interview. “He was the only one that even gave us the time of day. He saw something specific in us that was pretty insane. All the record companies wanted the next Buffalo Springfield, and we were not that.”

“It truly was a night of nights,” Travers writes. “The Mothers performance wasn’t perfect, but very good. Frank was in good spirits, the band played well, and the sequence of songs did capture the group’s live repertoire of the time.”

To best absorb the contents of Whisky a Go Go 1968, we should all follow the advice given by GTO’s royalty Miss Pamela, who implores us to “listen to all of this album in its entirety and try to envision the Whisky a Go Go that long ago night. It happened in a space and time that will never come again, so buckle up, baby, close your eyes, let your imagination soar, and set your freak free.”

Pre-order Whisky A Go Go, 1968 here. 

 

FRANK ZAPPA & THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION: WHISKY A GO GO 1968

SUPER DELUXE EDITION

Tracklists

3CD – SUPER DELUXE

CD 1

1. Whisky Improvisation: Episode I
2. America Drinks & Goes Home
3. Help, I’m A Rock / Transylvania Boogie
4. My Boyfriend’s Back
5. Bust His Head
6. Tiny Sick Tears Jam
7. “The Purpose Of This Evening…”
8. Whisky Improvisation: Episode II
9. Status Back Baby
10. Memories Of El Monte
11. Oh, In The Sky
12. Valerie

 

CD 2

1. “Fun & Merriment”
2. Hungry Freaks, Daddy
3. King Kong – Part 1
4. King Kong – Part 2
5. Octandre
6. Whisky Improvisation: Episode III
7. Meow
8. God Bless America
9. Presentation Of Wings
10. Plastic People
11. Della’s Preamble
12. The Duke – Take 1
13. The Duke – Take 2
14. Khaki Sack

 

CD 3

1. The Whip
2. Whisky Chouflée
3. Brown Shoes Don’t Make It
4. Brown Shoes Shuffle

Bonus Vintage Mixes

5. The Whip (FZ Mix)
6. Hungry Freaks, Daddy (FZ Mono Mix)

 

5LP – SUPER DELUXE

Side 1

1. Whisky Improvisation: Episode I
2. America Drinks & Goes Home
3. Help, I’m A Rock / Transylvania Boogie

 

Side 2

1. My Boyfriend’s Back
2. Bust His Head
3. Tiny Sick Tears Jam
4. “The Purpose Of This Evening…”
5. Whisky Improvisation: Episode II (Part 1)

 

Side 3

1. Whisky Improvisation: Episode II (Part 2)
2. Status Back Baby
3. Memories Of El Monte
4. Oh, In The Sky
5. Valerie

 

Side 4

1. “Fun & Merriment”
2. Hungry Freaks, Daddy
3. King Kong – Part 1

 

Side 5

1. King Kong – Part 2 
2. Octandre
3. Whisky Improvisation: Episode III
4. Meow
5. God Bless America
6. Presentation Of Wings
7. Plastic People

 

Side 6

1. Della’s Preamble
2. The Duke – Take 1
3. The Duke – Take 2
4. Khaki Sack

 

Side 7

1. The Whip
2. Whisky Chouflée

 

Side 8

1. Brown Shoes Don’t Make It
2. Brown Shoes Shuffle

 

Side 9 – Bonus Vintage Mixes

1. The Whip (FZ Mix)
2. Hungry Freaks, Daddy (FZ Mono Mix)

 

Side 10

No Music – “Mothers” Silkscreen Image