Twas Friday night, and I was sleeping over at my friend Jon's house. It was late, and we were hanging out in the dark living room of his parent's house, listening to KRSP FM Radio being broadcast from Salt Lake, when we heard the announcement that Frank Zappa would soon be playing at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake. I was familiar with Zappa from my John Lennon two-record set entitled, Some Time In New York with Elephants Memory and Invisible Strings, of which disc two, side two featured selections of a live performance of John and Yoko with Zappa and the Mothers. I had listened to it a million times, maybe a million-n-one, and was excited to have the opportunity to see the infamous Frank Zappa live.
The following day, Saturday, I went to Salt Lake with my mother. She drove me to the Salt Palace where I purchased two tickets for a grand total of thirteen bucks. Later, we went to the Cottonwood Mall. While my mom did her thing, I went to Raspberry Records to browse through the records, and hopefully find a Frank Zappa album to buy. I wanted to better familiarize myself with his music before the show. I had doubts that they would have any Zappa titles at all, but was pleasantly surprised to discover that they had a variety to choose from. One particular album cover caught my eye, and with no knowledge of what I was getting into, I purchased Zappa/Beefheart "Bongo Fury" which is to this day, my favorite Zappa album. I quickly became familiar with the songs, in hopes of hearing something I knew at the show.
On the night of the show, Jon's father and mine drove us to the Salt Palace and dropped us off while they went to catch a movie. We funneled into the venue with the masses, and made our way to our seats. The Salt Palace had a policy which prohibited patrons from smoking, yet, entertainers on stage were allowed to smoke. Frank made a big deal about that, and refused to go on stage unless everyone was allowed to smoke. The demands were quickly complied with and the show began with Frank giving a long lecture, and then proceeded to shred for the next two or three hours. I was surprised to find that Zappa was much more than a potty-humored musical comedian, and could actually play guitar quite well... very well in fact. He even played some material I was familiar with. The show finished with a medley of tunes including Jamrag, and an instrumental version of Muffin Man. I was especially impressed with the drummer, (Terry Bozio) who played his heart out all night. I had seen Carl Palmer a couple of months earlier, and found Bozio to be every bit as dynamic.
In the years following, I became a bit of a Zappa fan, but I must admit that I like Beefheart much more. Too often, Zappa's lyrics were just too immature for my tastes... I guess. I preferred him most when he shut up and played his guitar.
"I wish I had a pair of bongos..." The Venerable Van Vleit
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