Watch Rare Footage Of Frank Zappa Performing ‘Mudd Club’ Live In 1980
The track features on the latest archival release from The Vault, ‘Zappa 80: Mudd Club/Munich.’
Rare footage of Frank Zappa performing “Mudd Club” from the New York venue of the same name has been released. The film of the typically satirical, reggae-tinged track was shot by Rudi Dolezal and Hannes Rossacher (DoRo Productions) on May 8, 1980 and edited by J. Warner and you can watch it below.
“Mudd Club” features the latest exciting live collection to be released from The Vault, Zappa 80: Mudd Club/Munich, which offers fans an opportunity to hear two blistering shows recorded in two distinct settings: the intimate 240-capacity Mudd Club in New York City and the massive 12,000 seat German arena, Olympiahalle in Munich.
Produced by Ahmet Zappa and Zappa Vaultmeister Joe Travers – and out now – this historically significant release is now available, digitally, on 3CD, and now on vinyl via Zappa Records/UMe. Its release marks the first time that full concerts have ever been released featuring the 1980 lineup of Zappa leading the five-strong band which included the dual vocal attack of Ike Willis and Ray White, Arthur Barrow on bass, Tommy Mars on keyboards, and newcomer David Logeman on drums.
The Mudd Club was a happening, underground venue in lower Manhattan best known for being a popular hangout for the counterculture and a bastion of new wave and punk which dominated NYC’s music and fashion scene. As Travers writes in the liners, “celebrities and musicians alike would frequent the ‘art bar cabaret’ during its heyday between 1979 and 1983, dancing, drinking and making the scene amongst the New York City denizens of the deep.” Zappa loved the small, seedy club and the punks, posers, and hipsters that called it home, and so made it a priority to play there while on tour.
At the Mudd Club show, Zappa and his five-piece band treated the sweaty, packed club to a thrilling 15-song, hour-long set filled with tracks from the recently released 1979 albums, the triple LP rock opera, Joe’s Garage (“Joe’s Garage,” “Keep It Greasy,” “Outside Now,” “Why Does It Hurt When I Pee?”), and Sheik Yerbuti (“Bobby Brown Goes Down,” “City Of Tiny Lites”), along with songs from across his prolific catalog, including “I Ain’t Got No Heart” and “You Didn’t Try To Call Me” from 1966’s Freak Out!, and the title track from 1970’s Chunga’s Revenge.
Zappa’s Mudd Club show was recorded on May 8, 1980 by Klaus Weidemann on a 2-track Nagra tape recorder while the Munich show at Olympiahalle was recorded and mixed by engineer Mick Glossop direct to digital 2-track stereo and has the distinction of being the first digital live recording of Zappa ever. The Maestro was early to embrace the emerging technology and shifted to it upon its availability.
