New Mothers
“I’d like to clean you boys up a bit and mold you. I believe I could make you as big as the Turtles.” --A NOTED L.A. DISC JOCKEY, quoted in the liner notes to Freak Out. “The present-day Turtle refuses to die!” -Howard Kaylan, August, 1970 Never caught without a surprise or two, Frank Zappa unveiled the most recent incarnation of his Mothers of Invention at Los Angeles’ Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on Friday, August 21.
New Mothers
“I’d like to clean you boys up a bit and mold you. I believe I could make you as big as the Turtles.”
--A NOTED L.A. DISC JOCKEY, quoted in the liner notes to Freak Out.
“The present-day Turtle refuses to die!”
-Howard Kaylan, August, 1970
Never caught without a surprise or two, Frank Zappa unveiled the most recent incarnation of his Mothers of Invention at Los Angeles’ Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on Friday, August 21. The occasion did not include the rumored appearance of Jeff Beck, but was certainly interesting enough to merit special attention, anyway.
The band was comprised of two former Turtles, vocalists Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman, British drummer Aynsley Dunbar, bassist Jeff Simmons, George Duke on keyboards and long-time Mother Ian Underwood on keyboards and guitar. Plus, of course, Zappa. Most noteworthy in the instrumental line-up was the absence of horns; possibly as a result, most of the selections were vocals. Long-time Mothers fans will recall that traditionally most of the long blowing passages have gone to the group’s virtuoso reed-and-woodwind men.