1980 Fall tour trivia & statistics

1980 Fall tour: main page and map - itinerary and recordings - repertoire - official releases


Tour statistics

Number of states visited: 26 (USA 23 + DC, Canada: 2)
Number of cities visited: 44 (USA 41; Canada 3)
Max number of cities visited in one state: 4 (CA, IL, NY, TX)

Real playing days: 47
Days with two shows: 16
Total number of shows: 63

Max number of shows in the same state: 9 New York, 7 Illinois
Max number of shows in the same city: 5 New York City, 4 Chicago

Number of shows recorded: 43 (12 sbd)
Number of shows with complete complete recording: 33 (including Buffalo)


Repertoire facts, trivia and statistics

Shows length
Between 90 and 140 minutes.
Number of songs played in one show
Usually about 20-22 songs were played in each show. The longest set list available is the Halloween one with 29 regular songs played.
Songs played
In this tour the band played 56 different "regular" songs, 27 previously released and 29 previously unreleased (see the Repertoire page). Of these songs just one, Nite Owl (present in only one tape) is not written by Zappa.
In this tour also first appeared the lyrics of three more original songs: Drowning Witch, Truck Driver Divorce and Luigi & The Wise Guys.
A part from the regular songs, as usual, Zappa included many quotes of songs and classical themes during improvised part of regular numbers or as very short numbers in segue with other songs: I've counted about 25 of these themes, but sure they are more...
Also Zappa, especially during guitar solos and the "dangerous singing", did some 'previews' of some his own compositions to be fully released in the future or that, in some case, remained unreleased songs.
Most played song of the tour
Tinsel Town Rebellion appears on 34 tapes while the other more frequently played songs reach 25 tapes. It had different riff and arrangements through the tour, just compare the official releases in Buffalo (October 25) and Tinsel-Town Rebellion (December 05).
Favorite opener
Chunga's Revenge is the opener in 2/3 of the gigs of which we know the first song. Black Napkins has 10 entries. It has to be noted that all the known songs used as the opening number for this tour were only performed in this set list position, mainly as a mere pretext for guitar solos. The only exception is Black Napkins which was also played, in few occasions, in the body of the shows.
Favorite 2nd song
You Are What You Is was played 24 times as the second song after the opener and the band intro. Tell Me You Love Me has 7 entries in this position.
Last song of regular set list
The favorite closing song before the encore(s) was Andy (on 22 tapes).
Favorite closer and encore items
The Illinois Enema Bandit is the last song on 19 tapes. Other favorite 'encore only items' were Joe's Garage, Dancin' Fool, Bobby Brown, Ms Pinky. Some songs were played sometimes during regular set list, sometimes during encore: I Don't Wanna Get Drafted, Stick It Out, Love Of My Life, Don't Eat The Yellow Snow, Tell Me You Love Me, Easy Meat.
Songs in which the band would probably go on various improvisations and "quoting"
Mainly The Torture Never Stops, Pick Me I'm Clean, City Of Tiny Lights, Andy.
Zappa previewing and quoting himself
In this tour, for the first time ever, appears the theme of Alien Orifice, shortly previewed during The Torture Never Stops in the Oct 30 NYC show.
Another sneak preview was from Sinister Footwear included in the Easy Meat performance of Phoenix late show (Oct 13).
Two unreleased Zappa themes ("Mystery Song #3" and "Mystery Song #4") surface during different performances of regular songs.
The lyrics of Drowning Witch and Truck Driver Divorce where previewed during some "dangerous singing".
In the recently surfaced tape of the St. Louis late show (Nov 11) you can ear for the first time the riff of Stevie's Spanking.
Last, Uncle Meat and A Pound For A Brown, never played in this tour as regular songs, were both quoted during the performance of other songs: Uncle Meat during the Torture performance of the last show of the tour in Santa Monica; Pound during the guitar solo of If Only She Woulda at the Detroit 11/26 late show. Also King Kong doesn't appear in any available tape, but is quoted at the Upper Darby 11/07 late show and you can clearly a King Kong reagge vamp in the officially released solo Now You See It - Now You Don't.
The dangerous singing
In this tour make his first apparition "the dangerous singing" typical of The Dangerous Kitchen (FZ and others refer to this way of singing as sprechstimme). Especially during the first half of the tour, FZ used reciting text over a more or less improvised accompaniment not only during The Dangerous Kitchen vamp, but also during other songs. Drowning Witch lyrics made their first appearance this way, but also Truck Driver Divorce and Luigi & The Wise Guys received a similar treatment (cf. Buffalo).
One time only performances
The songs later released as Luigi & The Wise Guys and The Jazz Discharge Party Hats originated from unique performances of this tour. Also, on Nov 18 in Minneapolis, the band played a fake jingle for Republic Airlines. For guitar solos and other improvisations later officially released check the official released recordings section.
Preferred quoted tunes
In the available tapes themes played more than one time are: Wagner's Prelude from Lohengrin Act III, Santana's She's Not There, Von Suppé's Light Cavalry Overture, Verdi's Royal March from Aida, the south Italian traditional folk song Funiculì Funiculà, Brahms's Lullaby, Schubert's Ave Maria, Iron Butterfly's In A Gadda Da Vida and the theme from the Tv show I Love Lucy. One time only quoted themes include Louie Louie, Ride Like The Wind and Perry Mason Theme.
The most deranged set list
At the Nov 30 Des Moines gig the band, after a short regular set list, went in overdrive playing an unrepeatable sequence of improvisations and strange themes, including, but not limited to: Black Magic Woman, My Sharona, Macho Man, In The Navy, White Christmas, Oh Susanna, Sweet Leilani, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, I Love Lucy. Most probably this sequence was played as a follow up of the Torture Never Stops guitar solo (the song itself is not on the audience recording, probably due to some recorder problem).
Audience participation
Not very relevant in this tour, being replaced by "The Panty Collection" (see below); sometimes Zappa liked to have Love Of My Life sung by the audience and during one of the Chicago gigs he tried to have different sections of the audience sing four songs at the same time (including a Beatles medley of Eleanor Rigby, Yesterday and I'm The Walrus).
The Panty Collection
In this tour Zappa was collecting female underwear to let Emily James build a quilt of it (read all abbout it here, see all about it here). In most shows Zappa made an intro rap explaining the initiative, usually in the end of the opening number, after the band intro (hear Panty Rap in Tinsel-Town Rebellion). Sometimes, later in the show, Zappa made another rap commenting the stuff arrived on stage (hear The Madison Panty-Sniffing Festival in YCDTOSA6).

For some different info about this tour and an account of how the band approached the featured repertoire,
check Foggy G's We're Only In It For The Touring Fall '80 tour page.


1980 Fall tour main page and map

Corrections and additions are really welcome.

This page created on March 2005 and latest revised on July 14, 2008

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