1977 + 1978 Frank Zappa Mixed 1 Disc 1 - 71.51 1 Black Napkins 14.37 77-Jan-27 2 Black Napkins 13.53 77-Jan-30 3 Black Napkins 4.48 77-Oct-17 4 Persona Non Grata 8.59 78-Oct-28 1st show 5 band intros .34 " 6 Watermelon In Easter Hay 8.30 78-Oct-29 7 Easy Meat 7.05 " 8 Yo Mama 13.22 " 77-Jan-27: Philipshalle - Duesseldorf, Germany 77-Jan-30: Rhein-Main-Halle - Wiesbaden, Germany 77-Oct-17: Civic Center - Hartford, CT 78-Oct-28: Palladium - New York, NY 78-Oct-29: Palladium - New York, NY Notes on this material from the Frank Zappa Tape Reviewing Society (I only picked the parts of the reviews that actually apply to the tracks above): 77-Jan-27: A very good show so far, but with the following Black Napkins, it reaches "excellent" status. I'm part of the camp that maintains that this band did the best Napkins of all Frank's teenage combos, and here's a prime example. The first solo is FZ at his eclectic best, switching between aggressive and mellow, between different styles and techniques, but never losing that beautiful Napkins-feeling. Then Eddie's violin solo, and well...how to describe this. I will admit that mr. Jobson's workouts with the bow are among the few things in the Zappa oeuvre that still give me goose bumps. Sure, many of his pyrotechnic effects are the same every night, but I don't care when the outcome is so friggin' beautiful! Together with Terry, Patrick and Ray, he builds two astonishing climaxes, and the whole thing ends with a beautiful violin/bass flageolet duet. The response from the audience is overwhelming, and Frank chooses to return to the head rather than trying to top Eddie's solo off. 77-Jan-30: The next couple songs serve merely as foreplay leading up to the set closing Black Napkins. Jobson’s solo impresses as always, and includes a nice Ponty-esque build-up that leads to an even nicer anti-Pontyesque meltdown. Frank steps forward out of Jobson’s debris and wraps things up with a four and half minute blues mediation that ranks up there with Pink Napkins as one of Frank’s more meditative and reflective solos. It is not until 4 min in that Bozzio begins kicking the solo into high gear, and unfortunately, Frank does not know what to do when this happens, and quickly concludes things. Kind of disappointing, but almost inevitable considering the intensity of everything that came before. 77-Oct-17: The encores dish up the goodies as expected, though sadly my tape lacks the closing Black Napkins, which could be one of those monster solos the '77 and '78 tours typically brought about in that vehicle. 78-Oct-28 (1st show): The opening solo has the Persona Non Grata vamp, and Frank turns in an excellent effort, using the whole guitar. 78-Oct-29: The show starts with Watermelon, which, like Deathless Horsie the night before, wanders away from the structure and barely returns. One wonders if this is why FZ neglected these 1978 shows on the guitar albums - just too wild. This is also perhaps FZ's best overall night of the run guitarwise (even Easy Meat and Tiny Lites get class treatment), and he brings this point home with the much-praised set-closing Yo Mama.