Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart & The Mothers Of Invention’s Bongo Fury reviewed: Deluxe reissue of the pair’s impromptu tour of ’75, featuring bomb scares, Bicentennial musings and shopping bags

“Is that Don? Send him in.” Frank Zappa has been ad-libbing vocal prompts for a new composition, “Born To Suck”, when he spots old friend Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart, enter the studio. The pair begin improvising over the microphone – Zappa opting for humour while Beefheart seeks to overwhelm with sheer power – working together in artistic competition. That recording, “Born To Suck (Vocal Session Scoop)”, as well as the completed version of “Born To Suck” are among the previously unreleased gems to appear on Bongo Fury: 50^th Anniversary Edition, a set that pivots on the creative tension between two of music’s greatest outsiders.

Bongo Fury was released in October 1975 following an impromptu tour in the spring that saw a reimagined Mothers Of Invention add Beefheart to their lineup. Beefheart’s presence had spurred Zappa into a creative frenzy, and several new tracks were debuted on the road. Two concerts were then booked at hippie hangout Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin in May; these were recorded and the highlights culled for Bongo Fury. The new six-disc 57-track box features those two Austin concerts in full, as well as a handful of other studio outtakes and songs recorded at the pre-tour rehearsal. It includes a booklet with photos and liner notes by guitarist Denny Walley and archivist Joe Travers. A double LP version has Bongo Fury and bonus material, and there are some collectible single LPs of the album.

Bongo Fury was the final collaboration between Zappa and Beefheart in a sporadic association that went back to high school. The 1975 tour opened in Claremont, California, which was just a 90-minute drive from Lancaster, where Beefheart and Zappa first met as classmates at Antelope Valley High School in the 1950s. The pair shared a love of music, B-movies, Beat-inspired storytelling and surreal wordplay, recording their first song, “Lost In A Whirlpool” in ’58 or ’59, about a man getting flushed down the loo. Zappa gave Beefheart his stage name and in 1964 wrote him a movie script, Captain Beefheart Vs. The Grunt People!. In 1964, the duo formed an R&B band, The Soots, based on an idea they’d had at school, recording “Metal Man Has Won His Wings” and “Tiger Roach”. Zappa once claimed to have hours of material recorded by The Soots, which he threatened to release as a 15-record set.

The pair reunited in 1969 when Beefheart sang “Willie The Pimp” on Zappa’s Hot Rats and Zappa produced Trout Mask Replica. But in interviews, Beefheart criticised elements of Zappa’s production, leading to a falling out – that is until Beefheart hit another of his regular contractual problems in 1974. With Beefheart in need of money, Zappa offered to take him on tour. In January, Beefheart, credited as Bloodshot Rollin’ Red, recorded harmonica on “San Ber’dino” for 1975’s One Size Fits All then went on the road with a version of the Mothers that featured new drummer Terry Bozzio. Zappa and Beefheart’s old school friend, Denny Walley, came in on slide alongside old hands George Duke on keys, Napoleon Murphy Brock on sax, Tom Fowler on bass and his brother Bruce on trombone. When Beefheart wasn’t singing or playing sax or harmonica, he’d sit at the side of the stage sketching the band.

The centrepiece of the box are the two concerts recorded in Austin during two sweltering May evenings in 1975 – it was so hot Terry Bozzio could barely hold his sticks and was credited as playing “drums and moisture”. From these, Zappa took versions of “Debra Kadabra”, “Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy”, “Advance Romance”, “Poofter’s Froth Wyoming Plans Ahead” and “Muffin Man”, plus Beefheart’s poems “Sam With The Showing Scalp Flat Top” and “Man With The Woman Head”. “200 Years Old” and “Cucamonga” came from earlier studio sessions with Chester Thompson on drums and Beefheart on overdubs.

The box includes longer versions of “Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy” and “200 Years Old” plus the previously unreleased “Born To Suck”, which features the guitar from “Florentine Pogen” and didn’t make the album. The other song, previously unreleased in any official form, is “Portuguese Lunar Landing”. This ridiculous nine-minute shuffle celebrates an eventful meeting between a naïve Portuguese astronaut and an alien on the moon; it was played on the road but didn’t make the set at Austin and was never recorded in the studio.

Other unreleased tracks come from the shows at Austin, which had similar but not identical setlists. Both nights begin with Beefheart taking an extended improvised sax solo before he is joined by the rest of the Mothers. Both nights feature unique versions of “Velvet Sunrise”, a lounge jazz instrumental that acted as a backdrop for Zappa’s tall tales and rambling lectures. At the second show, he raps about America’s upcoming Bicentennial, something that informed two tracks on Bongo Fury – “200 Years Old” and “Poofter’s Froth Wyoming Plans Ahead” – which he was anticipating with typical cynicism. Imagine what he’d make of this year’s 250^th anniversary?

Later that first night comes “The Torture Never Stops”, a showcase for the Mothers’ improvisational qualities, with Beefheart adding harmonica to the Bo Diddley beat. This track was previously released on Zappa’s live archival series, You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore Vol 4. “Duke’s Things”, also on the first night, is an opportunity for George Duke to mess around, scatting, playing keyboard, finger cymbals and what Zappa describes as “other flower power hippie type objects” while Beefheart and Zappa rave and rant. We also get two versions apiece of Bongo Fury tracks “Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy”, “Muffin Man”, “Advance Romance” and “Debra Kadabra”, the latter a chance for Beefheart and Zappa to trade in-jokes dating back to their schooldays.

Around these new numbers and improvised moments sit a stash of older songs including “Stink-Foot”, “I’m Not Satisfied”, a fun “Camarillo Brillo”, the seemingly endless “A Pound Of Brown” and the brilliant hard groove of “Apostrophe”, an early highlight on both evenings. Both nights culminate in electrifying versions of “Willie The Pimp”, the archetype Beefheart-Zappa collaboration, with the vocalist in outrageous and barely controllable form, prompting Zappa to produce some of his greatest solos.

Both Zappa and Beefheart were experimentalists with a taste for the avant-garde but the difference between them can be seen on the second night when Zappa interrupts Beefheart’s sax solo during “A Pound Of Brown” because of a bomb threat. Zappa immediately flips into serious mode, patiently instructing the audience to leave the auditorium without inducing panic. He assures them the gig will continue and is true to his word. As soon as the police have completed what was presumably a very circumspect search, Zappa is back to reintroduce the band – now missing one key member. “Glad you could all make it back,” he drawls. “We’re going to take up where we left off, but since he’s not here you’re going to have to pretend that Captain Beefheart is still taking a solo.”

Beefheart’s unpredictability and individuality was part of the charm, but it became wearing even for Zappa. By the time the tour was completed, the pair were once again butting heads. Despite that, Beefheart played harmonica on 1976’s Zoot Allures, while Zappa agreed to release Beefheart’s next album Bat Chain Puller on his DisCreet label in 1976. Zappa then blocked the release when he discovered his manager Herb Cohen had paid for it from Zappa’s royalties. That lead to financial complications for both artists and they never worked together again; the original Bat Chain Puller went unreleased until 2012, by which time both musicians had died. But their friendship had been rekindled before the end. In 1993, when Beefheart heard Zappa was dying, he got in touch. Every week the pair would chat on the phone and play their favourite records down the telephone to each other, old friends with a long history and uncommon bonds.