Beat Club October 1968 (LP)

Frank Zappa and the We’re Only In It For The Money line-up of the Mothers of Invention started their second European tour in the autumn of 1968 with a number of dates in Germany. Whilst in the country, they recorded a 35-minute session for the TV show Beat Club on October 6th consisting of a partly improvised, all instrumental piece drawing mainly on themes that would appear on their 1969 album, Uncle Meat. It also includes snatches of the Five Tinos’ Don’t Do That and Wagner’s Lohengrin, presumably played specially for their German audience. The Essen Music Festival had footed the bill for the group’s ten thousand dollar air fare and this LP features a fifteen-minute version of King Kong from that show. This is vintage Frank Zappa at his most creative and the sound quality is excellent.