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On the third day of Zappadan, I listened to a 40-minute bootleg called Thing-Fish - The Real Tapes. It consists of tracks from an earlier, alternate version of the Thing-Fish album, including songs that were later cut from the album and alternate mixes. Though various configurations of this material has been in circulation for years, I've never really heard any of it. I'm by no means a big fan of Thing-Fish, but the "alternate nature", shall we say, of the material makes this bootleg quite fascinating! Some parts more so than others, of course. But I'd like to give you a little run-down of some of the important differences between this material and the more familiar versions of it elsewhere. Behind the cut.
Harry and Rhonda has the same dialogue as on the official release, but different musical backing -- a darker, more sparse Synclavier piece.
Galoot Update was the real treat for me here. On the official release, the text is a little different and the backing track is some different mix of the basic tracks of "The Blue Light". This version is a little different in the text, and the backing music is a completely different piece. A little chunk of this was used in "Porn Wars" on the Meets the Mothers of Prevention album, and the backing music with some pretty wild guitar playing going on sounds like it must have come from a live tape of the 1982 band, but what song? I wondered if maybe it was an extract from a "Black Page" guitar solo. The complete song reveals itself to be some other unreleased piece of rock music, though. It must have been recorded during a sound check in 1982 (it wouldn't be the only piece of music that was, either -- the backing tracks of "I Don't Even Care" and "Baby Take Your Teeth Out" were recorded during soundchecks and not during actual concerts). It definitely has live guitar playing from Zappa, but it's not an identifiable song that was ever played live. It's nothing too complex, just a cool little vamp with FZ guitar over it. Right after the section that turned up in "Porn Wars", the backing music becomes "Approximate"! Wow.
Dumb All Over is a different mix of the You Are What You Is track. Under FZ's vocal, which is not treated at all with the weird echo/flange effect as on the familiar version, it's pretty much just bass and drums (Chad Wackerman replacing David Logemann) and all those wacky Syndrum noises. The backing vocals at the end might have been re-recorded, and there's no guitar solo.
Heavenly Bank Account gets much the same treatment. Different mix, Wackerman drums and, in fact, there is very little that is Thing-Fish-ified about this track. You can sort of hear a new Ike vocal track in there, but it's not prominent. Interesting to note that the previous track and the intro to this one features FZ's voice unaltered, whereas on the official Thing-Fish, you never really hear his voice anywhere on the entire album.
Teenage Wind is another YAWYI alternation with Wackerman drums. You can hear some little bits of Steve Vai stunt guitar that aren't as audible on the more familiar version (though you can hear them a tiny bit better on the crappy old compressed and mangled YAWYI remaster.) I think the Bob Harris lead vocal is the same take as on YAWYI and, again, there is nothing overtly Thing-Fish-ified about this version at all.
Suicide Chump is kind of cool. Thing-Fish himself (Ike Willis in charachter) does his dialectical lead vocal thang, and the backing vocals are all new. In Thing-Fish, the sung is being sung to / directed at Harry-As-A-Boy, including the backing vocals. Neat. The vocal continues over Denny Walley's slide guitar solo from the YAWYI version, then said solo goes on for another 12 bars beyond the familiar version.
Jumbo Go Away sure is more tolerable without the Moon Unit vocal in the charachter of Jumbo at the end. I mean, how much more enjoyable is the complex instrumental interlude without "I THINK I HAVE WOOOOORRRRRMMMMSSSS!" over it? Phew. Thing-Fish himself takes over for the FZ vocal part near the end. Other than that, it's just a different mix of the YAWYI version with Wackerman drums and a new vocal take from Bob Harris on the "you just don't understand / the way I feel about you" bridge.
If Only She Woulda is another alternate mix of a YAWYI track with Wackerman drums and dialectical Thing-Fish lead vocal. Same backing vocals, though. Shorter, too -- no organ or guitar solo here. The track clocks in at 1:12.
I Don't Wanna Get Drafted (or "Drafted Again", if you like) is likewise. Wackerman drums, new Bob Harris lead vocal (including the "rollerskates and disco" part). Different lyrics and backing vocals in the second version. New Moon Unit vocal take on the "wars are really ugly" part, followed by something fascinating. Moon does a sort of aerobics instruction routine in the Valley Girl voice. This part was reversed and used in "Ya Hozna" from Them Or Us. Aiyeee, shot in the face-hole!
Track 10 was labeled "Instrumental". It is, in fact, the earlier Synclavier version of "Amnerika" that was used as the backing track in "That Evil Prince", as well as part of the backing track "The White Boy Troubles" (with some bass and drums atop it) and also in "Drop Dead" on Thing-Fish, minus the bass and drums that appear there. It later appeared on Zappa's final album project, Civilization, Phase III.
Drop Dead in an intersting alternate beast. From the beginning of the track with Harry and Rhonda up to the end of the conversation between Thing-Fish and the Evil Prince (voiced by Napoleon Murphy Brock), the text is the same as on the official release, but with a different sort of free-form backing track with bass and drums and some doo-wop sort of background vocals going on. I forgot how funny the Evil Prince part of this track was, with his exaggerated smoove-Broadway conversational vocal style. After that section, there's about a three-minute section of Crab-Grass Baby dialogue without Thing-Fish's interjections and with a bunch of extra dialogue that doesn't appear on the official release. The Harry and Rhonda dialogue doesn't resume after the Crab-Grass Baby part.
Another thing I can note about this partial alternate bootleg version of Thing-Fish is that it has a fucking lot of You Are What You Is on it. Zappa remixed and re-recorded a full HALF of that double album for Thing-Fish. Aside from "Teenage Wind", the official and unofficial configurations of Thing-Fish present all of sides three and four of YAWYI, for fuck's sake!
Harry and Rhonda has the same dialogue as on the official release, but different musical backing -- a darker, more sparse Synclavier piece.
Galoot Update was the real treat for me here. On the official release, the text is a little different and the backing track is some different mix of the basic tracks of "The Blue Light". This version is a little different in the text, and the backing music is a completely different piece. A little chunk of this was used in "Porn Wars" on the Meets the Mothers of Prevention album, and the backing music with some pretty wild guitar playing going on sounds like it must have come from a live tape of the 1982 band, but what song? I wondered if maybe it was an extract from a "Black Page" guitar solo. The complete song reveals itself to be some other unreleased piece of rock music, though. It must have been recorded during a sound check in 1982 (it wouldn't be the only piece of music that was, either -- the backing tracks of "I Don't Even Care" and "Baby Take Your Teeth Out" were recorded during soundchecks and not during actual concerts). It definitely has live guitar playing from Zappa, but it's not an identifiable song that was ever played live. It's nothing too complex, just a cool little vamp with FZ guitar over it. Right after the section that turned up in "Porn Wars", the backing music becomes "Approximate"! Wow.
Dumb All Over is a different mix of the You Are What You Is track. Under FZ's vocal, which is not treated at all with the weird echo/flange effect as on the familiar version, it's pretty much just bass and drums (Chad Wackerman replacing David Logemann) and all those wacky Syndrum noises. The backing vocals at the end might have been re-recorded, and there's no guitar solo.
Heavenly Bank Account gets much the same treatment. Different mix, Wackerman drums and, in fact, there is very little that is Thing-Fish-ified about this track. You can sort of hear a new Ike vocal track in there, but it's not prominent. Interesting to note that the previous track and the intro to this one features FZ's voice unaltered, whereas on the official Thing-Fish, you never really hear his voice anywhere on the entire album.
Teenage Wind is another YAWYI alternation with Wackerman drums. You can hear some little bits of Steve Vai stunt guitar that aren't as audible on the more familiar version (though you can hear them a tiny bit better on the crappy old compressed and mangled YAWYI remaster.) I think the Bob Harris lead vocal is the same take as on YAWYI and, again, there is nothing overtly Thing-Fish-ified about this version at all.
Suicide Chump is kind of cool. Thing-Fish himself (Ike Willis in charachter) does his dialectical lead vocal thang, and the backing vocals are all new. In Thing-Fish, the sung is being sung to / directed at Harry-As-A-Boy, including the backing vocals. Neat. The vocal continues over Denny Walley's slide guitar solo from the YAWYI version, then said solo goes on for another 12 bars beyond the familiar version.
Jumbo Go Away sure is more tolerable without the Moon Unit vocal in the charachter of Jumbo at the end. I mean, how much more enjoyable is the complex instrumental interlude without "I THINK I HAVE WOOOOORRRRRMMMMSSSS!" over it? Phew. Thing-Fish himself takes over for the FZ vocal part near the end. Other than that, it's just a different mix of the YAWYI version with Wackerman drums and a new vocal take from Bob Harris on the "you just don't understand / the way I feel about you" bridge.
If Only She Woulda is another alternate mix of a YAWYI track with Wackerman drums and dialectical Thing-Fish lead vocal. Same backing vocals, though. Shorter, too -- no organ or guitar solo here. The track clocks in at 1:12.
I Don't Wanna Get Drafted (or "Drafted Again", if you like) is likewise. Wackerman drums, new Bob Harris lead vocal (including the "rollerskates and disco" part). Different lyrics and backing vocals in the second version. New Moon Unit vocal take on the "wars are really ugly" part, followed by something fascinating. Moon does a sort of aerobics instruction routine in the Valley Girl voice. This part was reversed and used in "Ya Hozna" from Them Or Us. Aiyeee, shot in the face-hole!
Track 10 was labeled "Instrumental". It is, in fact, the earlier Synclavier version of "Amnerika" that was used as the backing track in "That Evil Prince", as well as part of the backing track "The White Boy Troubles" (with some bass and drums atop it) and also in "Drop Dead" on Thing-Fish, minus the bass and drums that appear there. It later appeared on Zappa's final album project, Civilization, Phase III.
Drop Dead in an intersting alternate beast. From the beginning of the track with Harry and Rhonda up to the end of the conversation between Thing-Fish and the Evil Prince (voiced by Napoleon Murphy Brock), the text is the same as on the official release, but with a different sort of free-form backing track with bass and drums and some doo-wop sort of background vocals going on. I forgot how funny the Evil Prince part of this track was, with his exaggerated smoove-Broadway conversational vocal style. After that section, there's about a three-minute section of Crab-Grass Baby dialogue without Thing-Fish's interjections and with a bunch of extra dialogue that doesn't appear on the official release. The Harry and Rhonda dialogue doesn't resume after the Crab-Grass Baby part.
Another thing I can note about this partial alternate bootleg version of Thing-Fish is that it has a fucking lot of You Are What You Is on it. Zappa remixed and re-recorded a full HALF of that double album for Thing-Fish. Aside from "Teenage Wind", the official and unofficial configurations of Thing-Fish present all of sides three and four of YAWYI, for fuck's sake!