The Mothers Of Invention* – Weasels Ripped My Flesh

Official Release #10

The layered drum passage, some 3:40 to 4:40 within "Didja Get Any Onya?" - the first track on Weasels Ripped My Flesh - can be heard in its infancy as the 'backing track' to "The Blimp" on the Frank Zappa-produced Trout Mask Replica album from Captain Beefheart. The work, by members of The Mothers, was resident on a tape channel when Zappa used the tape to capture the field-recording of 'The Blimp' lyrics, which were read over a telephone to him in the studio. Zappa's comment can be heard at the end of 'The Blimp'.

"Didja Get Any Onya" is also reprised in a reworking as "Charles Ives", which can be found on You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 5. The modernist composer Charles Ives had a strong influence on Zappa's work.

A related and singular item, in private collection and unlikely to surface, but which is interesting:
A single test-press vinyl LP exists entitled "Weasel Music", made for Bizarre Records by LRS (Location Recording Services) . The title & band name, on a black & red printed white label, is simply typewritten. Encased in an ivory 'Audiodiscs' sleeve it was sent from "World Pacific Records, 6920 Sunset, L.A. 90028" to "Frank Zappa, 7885 Woodrow Wilson Dr., Los Angeles".

It was later scheduled to appear in a 12xLP box set in 1970 under the title "The History & Collected Improvisations Of The Mothers Of Invention", covering work from 1963 - 1969. FZ's ads in "Playboy" failed to raise interest - the set was culled, producing "Weasels Ripped My Flesh" & Burnt Weeny Sandwich - the balance to become the non-starter No Commercial Potential (bootlegged) and later, in 1974 but another non-starter set, "Four Generations Of The Mothers".

Rykodisc CD reissues from 1990 employed Bob Stone, formerly Chief Engineer for Larrabee Sound, to remaster all of Frank's catalog. The Ryko CD reissues of Weasels Ripped My Flesh, credit Stone with the phrase "Digital Art" instead of Digital Mastering or Remastering, but this phrase actually refers to the remastering for CD of the release.