Zappa in New York

Zappa in New York
Live album by Frank Zappa
Released	March 3, 1978
Recorded	December 26–29, 1976 Palladium, New York City
Genre	Jazz fusion, comedy rock, hard rock, progressive rock
Label	DiscReet
Producer	Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa chronology
Bongo Fury (1975) Zappa in New York (1978) Sheik Yerbouti (1979)

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Allmusic

Zappa in New York is a live double album by Frank Zappa. It was recorded at a series of concerts at the Palladium in New York City in December 1976. The creation of this album spurred from Warner Bros.' rejection of his Läther album, leading Zappa to re-edit the 4-LP set into four separate albums to fufill his contract, which stated that he owed Warner Bros. four more albums.

Zappa in New York was released by Zappa's DiscReet Records label in 1977, then quickly withdrawn. A second version was re-released in March 1978 with changes ordered by DiscReet's distributor, Warner Bros. Records. The 1978 edition reached #57 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.

Background

In early 1976 Zappa's relationship with manager and business partner Herb Cohen ended in litigation. Zappa and Cohen's company DiscReet Records was distributed by Warner Bros. Records. When Zappa asked for a re-assignment of his contract from DiscReet to Warner in order to advance the possibility of doing special projects without Cohen's involvement, Warner briefly agreed. This led to the 1976 release of Zoot Allures on Warner.

Early in 1977, Zappa delivered the master tapes for a quadruple-LP set, entitled Läther, which he intended as his "swan song" for Warner Bros. However, Warner changed its position following legal action from Cohen, and refused to release the album, claiming that Zappa was contractually bound to deliver four more albums to Warner for the DiscReet label.

During 1977 Zappa created the individual albums Zappa In New York, Studio Tan, Sleep Dirt and Orchestral Favorites by re-editing recordings from same batch of tapes that made up the 4-LP configuration. After Warner Bros. released Zappa In New York, they told him that he still owed them four more albums. He then attempted to get a distribution deal with Phonogram to release Läther on the new Zappa Records label. This led Warner to threaten legal action, preventing the release of Läther and forcing Zappa to shelve the project.

Musical and lyrical content

Immediately following the 1976 concerts Zappa spent time in the studio adding a significant number of overdubs to the live recordings. Several of these recordings were originally intended for the shelved album Läther, including "The Illinois Enema Bandit" (originally titled "The Legend of the Illinois Enema Bandit"), "The Black Page #1", "Big Leg Emma", "Punky's Whips", "The Purple Lagoon" and "I Promise Not To Come In Your Mouth" (originally titled "Läther").

The album is notable for the presence of members of the Saturday Night Live band, including Lou Marini and Tom Malone, as well as the Brecker Brothers. In addition, Don Pardo was invited by Zappa to the Palladium concert, and he provides introductory narrations to Punky's Whips and The Illinois Enema Bandit. On the CD version Pardo also delivers a verse of I'm the Slime (he did the same for Zappa's 1976 Saturday Night Live appearance).

The lyrics of Punky's Whips were intended as an inside joke regarding drummer Terry Bozzio's purported infatuation with Punky Meadows, lead guitarist of the band Angel. Titties and Beer also features Bozzio in the role of the Devil, with whom Zappa tries to negotiate in order to reacquire the titular possessions. The song references "Milhous Nixon" and "Agnew" whose souls are supposedly taken by the Devil. This is a clear re-interpretation of Histoire du soldat by Igor Stravinsky, one of Zappa's favorite classical composers.

The "favorite group" of the girl portrayed in "Honey Don't You Want a Man Like Me?" is said to be Helen Reddy. In concert performances from the 1980s Zappa would change the name to Twisted Sister or Echo & the Bunnymen. The lyrics of The Illinois Enema Bandit are based on facts about the criminal actions of Michael H. Kenyon.

Alongside humorous lyrics, Zappa presented many musically complex instrumental passages which stretched the band's skill to the absolute limit. Among the most complicated parts are the instrumentals The Black Page and Manx Needs Women. This title references the 1967 science fiction B-movie Mars Needs Women. The Purple Lagoon is an extended instrumental which takes up an entire side of vinyl. It features a complicated opening theme (based on Zappa's earlier composition Approximate) and jazz-like solos from the Brecker Brothers, bassist Patrick O'Hearn and saxophonist Ronnie Cuber.

Release history

Zappa in New York was first released in early 1977 with Zappa's original intended track listing. A small number of LP copies reached stores in England before the album was quickly withdrawn. In 1978 some original cassette copies also appeared in the United States, though, apparently this was by mistake. Before re-issuing the album Warner removed one of the longest songs, Punky's Whips. This reduced the playing time of side one to a mere ten minutes. Warner also re-sequenced some of the remaining songs and edited Titties & Beer. This also violated Zappa's contract, which gave him complete artistic control over album content.

When Zappa's distribution agreement with Warner ended in 1982 all release rights reverted to him. Zappa re-issued Zappa in New York as a double CD in 1991 with the addition of 4 bonus tracks. The CD reissue was remixed to feature guitar overdubs that were recorded at the time of the album's issue but not included on the original vinyl, and contained a different recording of Punky's Whips and the full-length Titties & Beer.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Frank Zappa. 

Original vinyl side one
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Titties & Beer"	5:39
2.	"I Promise Not to Come in Your Mouth"	2:50
3.	"Punky's Whips"	10:51

Original vinyl side two
No.	Title	Length
4.	"Sofa"	3:15
5.	"Manx Needs Women"	1:40
6.	"The Black Page Drum Solo/Black Page #1"	4:06
7.	"Big Leg Emma"	2:17
8.	"Black Page #2"	10:31

Original vinyl side three
No.	Title	Length
9.	"Honey, Don't You Want a Man Like Me?"	4:15
10.	"The Illinois Enema Bandit"	12:31

Original vinyl side four
No.	Title	Length
11.	"The Purple Lagoon"	16:57
Total length:		69:05

Censored vinyl side one
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Titties & Beer"	4:59
2.	"I Promise Not to Come in Your Mouth"	2:50
3.	"Big Leg Emma"	2:17

Censored vinyl side two
No.	Title	Length
4.	"Sofa"	3:15
5.	"Manx Needs Women"	1:40
6.	"The Black Page Drum Solo/Black Page #1"	4:06
7.	"Black Page #2"	10:31
Total length:		59:08

CD 1
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Titties & Beer"	7:36
2.	"Cruising For Burgers"	9:12
3.	"I Promise Not to Come in Your Mouth"	3:32
4.	"Punky's Whips"	10:51
5.	"Honey, Don't You Want a Man Like Me?"	4:12
6.	"The Illinois Enema Bandit"	12:41
Total length:		48:02

CD 2
No.	Title	Length
1.	"I'm the Slime"	4:24
2.	"Pound for a Brown"	3:41
3.	"Manx Needs Women"	1:51
4.	"The Black Page Drum Solo/Black Page #1"	3:50
5.	"Big Leg Emma"	2:17
6.	"Sofa"	2:56
7.	"Black Page #2"	5:36
8.	"The Torture Never Stops"	12:35
9.	"The Purple Lagoon/Approximate"	16:40
Total length:		54:04

Personnel

Musicians

• Frank Zappa – conductor, keyboards, lead guitar, vocals, producer
• Ray White – rhythm guitar, vocals
• Eddie Jobson – keyboards, violin, vocals
• Patrick O'Hearn – bass guitar, vocals
• Terry Bozzio – drums, vocals
• Ruth Underwood – percussion, synthesizer, overdubs
• Don Pardo – narration
• Dave Samuels – timpani, vibes
• Randy Brecker – trumpet
• Mike Brecker – tenor saxophone, flute
• Lou Marini – alto saxophone, flute
• Ronnie Cuber – baritone saxophone, clarinet
• Tom Malone – trombone, trumpet, piccolo

• John Bergamo – percussion overdubs
• Ed Mann – percussion overdubs
• Lou Anne Neill – osmotic harp overdub

Production staff

• Frank Zappa – Production
• Bob Liftin – NYC live remote engineer
• Davey Moire – NYC live concert mix, studio engineer (overdubs)
• Rick Smith – Studio engineer (overdubs)
• John Williams – Package design
• Dweezil Zappa – Cover photo
• Gail Zappa – Other photos

Charts

Album – Billboard (North America)

Year	Chart	Position
1978	Pop Albums	57