The Mothers Of Invention - Live In London 1968 

F.Z., Roy Estrada, Don Preston, Ian Underwood, Bunk Gardner, Jimmy Sherwood, Art Tripp and Jimmy Carl Black... what a line-up!

THAT MOMENT at 2:03 when you can hear what a really properly rehearsed band sounds like, just at the moment when you think they don't know what they are doing...mesmerising.

In my humble opinion there is nothing on RU-vid which comes within a million miles of the sheer brilliance of this amazing recording!

Music is a way to decorate time.

This stuff is still way ahead of its time

Started listening to this and was really tired. Couldn't turn it off because even though it's a video it would've been rude of me to walk out on this incredible performance.

"I'm Jimmy Carl Black; I'm the Indian of the group."

A few years ago my g/f and I were walking down Sierra Madre Blvd one evening and as we approached this bar what do I hear? King Kong! It was the Don Preston Quartet. Piano, trombone, bass and drums. We spent the rest of the night enjoying some terrific music.

Someone in BeatleDelirium doesn't know jazz. It's called improvisation. It's all based on a theme, but you don't get verse chorus verse chorus in this sort of material. I was just amazed at the quality of the musicianship. I became a Zappa fan back in high school, and actually spent half an hour interviewing him for the Dallas Iconoclast when I was merely twenty, a baby. He was strictly genteel. Oh, and this song, King Kong, was voted the greatest jazz song of the 1960s in ... now someone refresh my memory, but it was a major magazine for jazz at the time, and a great many critics weighed in. As Zappa once said, "Jazz is not dead. It just smells funny." Live and learn.

If you don't own Uncle Meat, RUN, don't walk, to your nearest used CD store and buy it. It's a top-5 album for FZ, and contains too many of his best songs in their original versions not to have in your possession.

I like the way that despite having a huge ego, Zappa always put the spotlight on his band and what was happening around him rather than on himself yet remained central to the mayhem. Ego gets a bad press, rightly so in most cases but in its' proper place, not dictating for its' own glorification, it can be a marvelous part of the psyche.

That this video exists just made my day.

This is far and away (and I like Frank's records) far and away one of the more enjoyable live pieces I've seen heard from Zappa/Mothers.

as much as I love his '82, '79 and '74 lineups, there was something special about 1968

Absolutely. The years from 1964 to 69 were mind boggling. 30 years of progression in a few short years

A masterpiece. Tapped from the inner depths of Southern California sound in exactly that timeline moment. Little tasties of Mark Volman humor with huge brush stroke touches of Mayall, Manzarek, Getz, and Coltrane. The chemistry, clarity, phrasing, intensity and perfection... pure Zappa.

R.I.P. Ray Collins - 11/19/36-12/24/12. This is the stuff that really pissed off the Como/Welk crowd in the late 60's. We Loved It! Thanks for the incredibility!

frank plays a long solo and…… the camera is stuck on the tambourine

I met Don Preston on Oct 7 , 2016 in Ottawa , Canada. ..Age 84. Still could whip out those mini- moog solos....along with piano. He was performing with Ike Willis and Project Object. This is a real treat. Roy Estrada's laugh kills me...:)))))))

I got to stand floor level not 10 feet away and watch n listen to Frank and the Mothers play at a hall in Eureka California during the very early 70's. I WISH I HAD A CAMERA and always have. Feel very lucky to have been there.

A little free jazz, a little Schonberg, a little fusion, a little theater, Uncle Dada.

From time to time it sounds chaotic, but actually Zappa demanded accuracy.

I was one of the lucky few to be at the Festival Hall for the concert 2 days after this. Also saw them at the Royal Albert Hall, the following year, and still have all my original vinyls of their early stuff. Just stunning, and I play it much more frequently than any more recent stuff.

Thanks for sharing this. I was exposed to this experimental stuff as an 8 yr old and didn't know what the fuck my brothers were into! Now, as a 55 yr old I appreciate every aspect. I am so glad Frank was filmed recording this early stuff for us to soak up. I love the guys who still keep his vibe alive, but this stuff shows where it started from and has a beauty of its own. x

I was too busy unraveling 2001 A Space Odyssey at the time, but did catch up with these guys some time later.

I was on the flight to L.A. after this gig, Frank had a nice antique toy in a glass box that he had bought in London, we watched customs destroy it to find nothing inside, if looks could kill....

Arthur Dyer Tripp, (Ed Marimba / Art Tripp) is another legend in this long list of fine musicians, his work on Clear spot for Beefheart was unmatched to that point.

How can anyone say for ever more...I'm Jimmy Carl Black....and not add... I'm the Indian of the group?

I didn't know what to make of these, way back when I was a mere teen, but now in my old age, you cannot but admire how audaciously, Zappa set about, to break barriers with his style of music...and so the legend lives on.......

14:15 Playing the sax through the effects box gives a sound which is very much like Jean Luc Ponty's electic violin in the early '70s lineup of the Mothers of Invention.

King Kong forever! Zappa could play the guitar. His son is pretty good too, saw him not long ago. Guys remember this was 1968, rock was emerging wit The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, The Animals(second group) Hendrix, The Cream, The divine Janis, but This blew our minds!

I Love the outstanding musical tension buildup , nothing like it

Can't believe we lost Frank when we did. So much brilliance. 😔

Best version of King Kong ever. Thank you Frank

RIP FZ, Motorhead andJimmy Carl Black,

Excellent. The prison theme shown here appears again in 200 Motels. Clearly, as Barry Miles pointed out, Frank's early prison experience had a lasting impact.

Zappa was a real genius. Amazing!

Very professional. These are such great musicians! Zappa was a genius!

My sister is 1 years old and she's dancing

FIRST concert I ever saw , I was 15 and it was at the Royal Albert Hall, London. It hit me like a ton of bricks, not totally sure what happened but it changed my musical taste for ever. Thank you Mr. Zappa.

I wannna hear Caravan with a drum solo

This was a brilliant line up of musicians!!

Zappa and The Mothers were freaking awesome in this performance!

This is 1968 - NOBODY was even thinking this kind of music back then. But Zappa was already making it....

shame no one wears striped trousers these days

cant believe they didnt zoom in on frank on his solo

Is it me or has Frank always existed and will always exist! I think we have been graced by something otherworldly!

This is great! Also Bunk is the coolest looking guy ever.

from a jazz lover wow this is gooood

Thanks tomfiddler1 for posting the entire performance of "King Kong" (if I'm not mistaken). Besides being incredibly good musicians who could switch widely varying styles on a dime, Frank Zappa and The Mothers were quite entertaining visually -- the part near the end was pretty funny. Some of the parts (for instance around 2:30 to 5 minutes remind me of Soft Machine during the period when they had the horn section in the early 70s). Does anyone know if Robert Wyatt era Soft Machine and Frank Zappa/The Mothers of Invention played any shows together, because in many ways, they seem to be kindred spirits (pioneering, experimental, use of humour in lyrics, critical of mainstream society).

Holy wow, Batman!! Finally complete!! And it doesn't hurt!! Actually, it heals!! Still best King Kong ever!!

King Kong in all its magnificence!, The original is on the 1969 Mothers 'Uncle Meat' album. Still 20 years ahead of its time now. 90% of 60's pop music was so naff and then the Mothers played and blew your mind. Shame about the occasional naff TOTP-type camera work. A sign of the times. FZ is a genius. This is my favourite King Kong take. Why is it not on CD? Ruben

Amazing quality for 1968, very sharp, nice sound. King Kong is no less a great choice of song, too.

My mentor was from same breed, I was lucky i wasnt natural by any means but he lallowed me to play with him....said I had one thing alot dony heart....Thank God...he opened my mind musically...made us practice sometimes 8 hrs......awesome...miss him dearly....R.I.P. Big Rick Storm Spradlin......Kenton,OH........

Zappa, like everyone wasn't perfect, so I don't idolize him, but he had more than just music, he had an undisturbed attitude, satirical humour, critical common sense, he is still unique and produced very beautiful music

Ain't nothing now or since like The Mothers of Invention. Definitely needed at the time...

I'm not sure which is more amazing. That these guys could play this stuff, or that Zappa wrote the score? One of them once said in an interview. "This music is extremely complex". Ya think?

I love Bunk and Ian's take on sax playing! Refreshing to hear some notes of conviction - as opposed to the endless stream; bezillions of notes... the damn sax can throw forth. Charlie Parker wouldn't like it but I do!

The man was a genus.Still figuring out what kind of genus he was.Like rain falling on summer snow :-)

Yumper-guggy. Fiddle-dutch. Musical burlesque. The verve of youth was undeniable. RIP.

Best piece of Zappa video I've ever seen. I was too young to have seen the original Mothers live but the M.O.I. concert in 1974 in DeKalb, IL. including Don Preston, George Duke, Roy Estrada and Napoleon Murphy Brock remains to this day the best live concert I've seen in my entire life. He played most of Freak Out as an encore and Franks tape of the set were stolen. It Can't Happen Here.

Damn, what a motley crew. Playing stuff that sounds better than Soft Machine's first few jazz-rock albums.

Gotta love Jim Sherwood on the tambourine here. One cool cat!

Had the honour of meeting J C Black, what a nice man He was and what BIG hands he had !!!

I saw Jimmy Carl Black at the grocery store in Mill Valley years ago ('790. He was in line in front of me, complaining about his kids to the cashier.

wow this is a very great display of musicianship ! Hard to even compare this to any "pop" music of this time.

I discovered this today after seeing the movie "Eat that Question". Outstanding.

I love this version of the Mothers. Love the little snarks, the avant guarde, atonal shit.

I remember watching this on BBC2 at the time I was 16 I bet the BBC managed to lose the tapes

One of the great moments in My life was getting to talk to Jimmy Carl Black.

Went to a Grandmothers show recently. Stuck around after the show and had a chance to chat with Don Preston (Napoleon Murphy Brock too). It was the coolest thing ever and I'll remember it for the rest of my life.

I did not know this recorded show. But it is definitely great. I played the Uncle Meat album to dust. Great musicians started in Zappa's Mothers. The sound is fine. Well recorded. Leave that to Frank :-)

Ahh Roy Estrada... And you were such a good bassist.

CALL ANY VEGETABLE, CALL IT BY NAME !

i remember watching this....1 was 14 and thought it was wonderful......,my dad however was underwhelmed jim.

Terry Gilliam and Hunt Emerson were at this show

I met Ray Collins outside the Music Machine on Pico in West L.A. in 1990 after a Grandmother's gig. Still have the picture. Mellow guy.

Thanks for posting this! One of my favorite pieces!

Ian Underwood really gets freaky! Mental institution screaming is very good. Zappa had his complete and exclusive method of directing the band. He was the master of puppets. Allways in control. Respect forever to the zappa family.

Fantastic performance. Incredible base line powerful drums melodic wind instrumental and a crazy screaming guitar...what else would you ask for?

"If we can't be free, at least we can be cheap" FZ dixit.

was too lazy for a decade to check Zappa and everything related. mind is blown.

A very inventive bunch they are ;-). I love this early crew.

Sinceramente, esta banda SI SUPERA A LOS BEATLES!!!

This is so awesome! This was few years before "Weasels Ripped My Flesh" Love Zappa!

Frank love from Croatia RIP

19:30 genius. Really spoke to me on an emotional level.

Don Preston nos teclados (keyboards) e Roy Estrada no baixo (bass). Recentemente eles integraram o projeto "Grandmothers" junto a Napoleon Murphy Brock. Amazing performance! Zappa is the Best!

happy birthday Frank 72 yrs. old on Dec. 21st , 2012 ( in spirit ) we miss ya!

This is class - Zappa like Beefheart would produce tracks with a lot of seeming anarch or chaos in it but it is all as tight as it gets. Wonderful stuff and still sounds avant garde today. :)

Amazing how clueless they were about shooting video of a rock band in those days. Rule #1 appears to be: NEVER show Zappa when he's soloing. Nice shot of his wah-wah at one point though. When he wasn't using it. Brilliant!

Very tech, and artistically groovy masterpiece. If your into this kind of thing.

I think this may be where Soft Machine got their signature sound, especially since Frank's guitar really sounds like Mike Ratledge's distorted organ.

So much good stuff to say about this but what really wowed me was the line up. I mean Jimmy Carl Black AND Art Tripp on percussion. I'm a big fan of Art Tripp in particular after he literally blew my mind with his drumming on Golden Birdies. (This is when he was with Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band) during their Clear Spot\Spotlight Kid tour at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester 1972 (or 1971 not certain of the year).

a page of blotter would come in handy right about now

Happy Mother's Day!

A lot of disciplined cacophony!!

My favorite Mothers (66-69).

This is the genius Zappa.

this is on a very different level then most!