The Composer: Post Mothers Breakup

Once the original Mothers were disbanded it wasn’t long before Zappa began assembling a new group of musicians. In 1970 he gathered a new reincarnation of the group with Ian Underwood (keyboards and alto sax), Aynsley Dunbar (drums), Jeff Simmons (bass and vocals), George Duke (keyboards and trombone) and Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman, of The Turtles fame, on vocals. Seeing as latter two could not use their real names without breaching their contract with their prior record label they decided to go under the moniker of Flo (Howard) and Eddie (Mark).

Although Zappa's new music remained complex and challenging to play, as Volman once said: “It wasn’t just taking a song and singing a verse ... It demanded learning notes, and singing those exact notes, or they wouldn’t fit” [p. 202], the lyrics started becoming ‘compromised.’ Flo and Eddie brought on a younger, dumbed down humour. With the ‘Vaudeville lineup’ (as they were dubbed by their fans) gone were the days of deep, politically-charged, thought-provoking lyrics. They were now replaced with negative, explicitly sexual themes. Healthy sex seemed to no longer take females into consideration, it was now only about guys getting what they wanted. This new ‘style’ began to alienate fans who thought that Zappa dumbed down for the money.
The first official release was Chunga’s Revenge in October of 1970 and it included new Mothers material mixed with Hot Rats group tracks.

The next release, Just Another Band from LA, was recorded live during a performance in 1971 on the UCLA campus and was seen as misogynistic and shallow, especially since feminism was booming at the time of its release.