bebop tango contest live

With the success of his Apostrophe and Roxy & Elsewhere albums, 1974 saw Frank Zappa at his commercial peak. Evidently feeling a surfeit of goodwill towards his fans, at the close of the year he prepared a personally mixed reel of live performances from the previous year for broadcast on WLIR-FM in Garden City, New York on New Year’s Eve. Not to be confused with a show he was playing the same night in Long Beach, California, this is a typically adventurous and humorous compilation, and is presented here with background notes and images.

Track Listing:

1. Announcer’s introduction
2. Zappa’s introduction – aka Tango Chat (Wayne, NJ, 73/11/11)
3. Pygmy Twylyte / Dummy Up (w/ Coffee, location & date unknown)
4. Be-Bop Tango Excerpt (location & date unknown)
5. The Story Of Dupree’s Paradise (NYC, 73/11/22)
6. Yellow Snow Suite (Sydney, Australia, 73/06/24)
7. Guitar Event (Lowell, MA, 73/11/30)
8. Bebop Tango Contest (Waterloo, Canada, 73/11/18)
9. Announcer’s closing remarks