The Musician/Performer: Post Mothers Breakup

In the 70s, with the Flo and Eddie lineup, a new invention came about. Zappa began writing 'playlets', thirty minute sketches which were improvised upon, for his live shows. For example, ‘What Kind of Girl do You Think We Are?’ was always a fan favorite. Flo and Eddie pretended to be groupies who only slept with bands with records in the charts and the band improvised most of the set. These playlets were perhaps based on a similar technique implied by one of his classical idols; Stravinsky’s ever-changing operetta, The Soldier’s Tale, adapted to the city it was performed in by changing the names of the personalities and places to match those of local favorites and national landmarks.

In May 1970 Zappa was joined by the LA Philharmonic who played his orchestral piece entitled 200 Motels. “All I’m interested in doing is hearing what the music sounds like that I wrote in those motels. If I can hear it, then I can write some more,” said Zappa of the performance [p.198]. It was always believed that the only reason why Zappa ever required a band was to actually be able to hear what he was writing as he couldn't play it all by himself. If he could have it is likely that he would have taken the option and avoided taking the chance that someone might play it incorrectly or not as he expected.

For this particular performance, in addition to the Philharmonic, he also needed a nine piece electric band and that’s when he decided to reassemble a line-up similar to the original Mothers. (They even put on a mini reunion tour shortly after.) Zappa was joined by Ray Collins, Don Preston, Ian Underwood, Motorhead, Jeff Simmons, Billy Mundi and Aynsley Dunbar to interpret the piece – it’s clear to see Zappa didn’t trust his new, young 'Vaudeville band' to take on the challenges of this composition.