Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

X-Rated Zappa

Thirty-nine years ago this week, on October 4, 1970, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention played the Peterson Gym at SDSU. The newly formed Mothers featured former Turtles singers Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, billed as “the Phlorescent Leech and Eddie,” or Flo and Eddie, due to Turtles-related litigation.

Before the show, many in the audience were talking about Janis Joplin’s death the Sunday prior. Hard-rock trio Head Over Heels, brought down from L.A. and paid by Zappa himself, was the opening act. Few in San Diego had heard the new Mothers, whose recorded debut, Chunga’s Revenge, was two weeks away. So, anticipation was high when Zappa took the stage: “Hi there, boys and girls!”

Sponsored
Sponsored

Wearing tie-dyed jeans and a purple T-shirt, Zappa told the audience, “I went to Grossmont High and Mission Bay High. You can see how much good it’s done for me.” Among the reported set highlights was a lengthy excerpt from the operatic 200 Motels, which had been performed and recorded with a symphony orchestra that summer but was yet unreleased. “Definitely X-rated material,” Zappa warned the crowd beforehand. “Anyone who will be offended should leave now.”

The set closed with the Turtles’ “Happy Together,” resulting in a standing ovation and a lengthy encore of “Who Are the Brain Police” (a song that inspired the name of San Diego psychedelic band the Brain Police).

A review of the show in the San Diego Union complained of Zappa’s guitar solos, “He seems to deceive himself sometimes into thinking he’s Eric Clapton or somebody and, really, he isn’t.” The Daily Aztec gave a more glowing review, though it was noted that Zappa “played for an audience a good third of which was too spaced out to perceive it as anything but ‘weird’ sounds.”

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Operatic Gender Wars

Are there any operas with all-female choruses?
Next Article

The greatest symphonist of them all

Havergal Brian wrote over 30 of them

Thirty-nine years ago this week, on October 4, 1970, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention played the Peterson Gym at SDSU. The newly formed Mothers featured former Turtles singers Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, billed as “the Phlorescent Leech and Eddie,” or Flo and Eddie, due to Turtles-related litigation.

Before the show, many in the audience were talking about Janis Joplin’s death the Sunday prior. Hard-rock trio Head Over Heels, brought down from L.A. and paid by Zappa himself, was the opening act. Few in San Diego had heard the new Mothers, whose recorded debut, Chunga’s Revenge, was two weeks away. So, anticipation was high when Zappa took the stage: “Hi there, boys and girls!”

Sponsored
Sponsored

Wearing tie-dyed jeans and a purple T-shirt, Zappa told the audience, “I went to Grossmont High and Mission Bay High. You can see how much good it’s done for me.” Among the reported set highlights was a lengthy excerpt from the operatic 200 Motels, which had been performed and recorded with a symphony orchestra that summer but was yet unreleased. “Definitely X-rated material,” Zappa warned the crowd beforehand. “Anyone who will be offended should leave now.”

The set closed with the Turtles’ “Happy Together,” resulting in a standing ovation and a lengthy encore of “Who Are the Brain Police” (a song that inspired the name of San Diego psychedelic band the Brain Police).

A review of the show in the San Diego Union complained of Zappa’s guitar solos, “He seems to deceive himself sometimes into thinking he’s Eric Clapton or somebody and, really, he isn’t.” The Daily Aztec gave a more glowing review, though it was noted that Zappa “played for an audience a good third of which was too spaced out to perceive it as anything but ‘weird’ sounds.”

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

National City to junk permissive land-use code

Airbnb regs would be like Chula Vista's
Next Article

Rapper Wax wishes his name looked like an email password

“You gotta be search-engine optimized these days”
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader