Frank Zappa didn't open his first set on the evening of July 23, 1968 at Hollywood's Whisky a Go Go with a power chord or a blues beat.  Instead, the band - Ray Collins (vocals, percussion), Ian Underwood (alto sax), Bunk Gardner (tenor sax, flute), Don Preston (keyboards, gong), Motorhead Sherwood (baritone sax, percussion), Roy Estrada (bass, vocals), Art Tripp (drum set, percussion), and Jimmy Carl Black (drum set, percussion) - opened with a clattering improvisation that was sure to separate the real fans from the casual onlookers (if there, in fact, were any present).  Drums take center stage, accented by woodwind squeals and wild percussion.  "Take your clothes off," Zappa implores over the unhinged rhythms.  Don Preston's keyboard flourishes almost seem to be taking the jam in a jazz direction before the symphony of noise resumes.  The audience is mockingly queried: "Why don't you dance?" It's an overture of strangeness and unrecognizable time signatures that opens the new 3CD set Whisky a Go Go 1968.  This long-awaited release captures Zappa and The Mothers of Invention on the Sunset Strip in full freakout - or Freak Out! - mode.

Even in these relatively early, heady days of his recording career, Zappa was thinking ahead.  An advertisement in the L.A. Free Press shared, "The Mothers of Invention cordially invite you to join them on Tuesday, July 23, 1968 when they will be taking over the Whisky a Go Go for 5 full hours of unprecedented merriment, which will be secretly recorded for an upcoming record album. Dress optional. Starting sometime in the evening. R.S.V.D.T."  The concert was listed on the club's marquee as "Mothers of Invention - Recording Session."  But the intended album never was completed by the prolific Zappa, always thinking about his next project.  Now, Frank's son Ahmet Zappa and "Vaultmeister" Joe Travers have finally restored all three of the Mothers' sets in sonic splendor, complete and beautifully remixed from hi-res digital transfers of the original one-inch, eight-track analog tapes by Craig Parker Adams and mastered by John Polito.

The bill was shared by Alice Cooper, Wild Man Fischer, The GTOs, and New Jersey guitarist Joe Piresanti, and film footage was captured, too.  Sunset Strip scenester Kim Fowley (called to the stage during "Help I'm a Rock" early in the evening) future Zappa pals The Turtles, John Mayall, ex-Mother Elliot Ingber, and members of The Rolling Stones were all in attendance to witness the "fun and merriment."  If they were all expecting something outré even by the standards of psychedelic 1968, they surely weren't disappointed.

Zappa and the Mothers gleefully romped through their early catalogue (their third album, We're Only In It for the Money, was their most recent), taking a sledgehammer to any and all preconceived notions of pop and rock in the process.  Only Zappa could have veered in the first set from the teenage lounge jazz of "America Drinks and Goes Home" to the primal "Help I'm a Rock" to a screeching goof on The Angels' "My Boyfriend's Back" that anticipates the Flo and Eddie era.  Even a lightweight, jokey vocal number such as "Bust His Head" anticipates Zappa's later, more intricate musical constructions, as it shifts musical styles numerous times in a mere minute-and-a-half. The jam on "Tiny Sick Tears" and the moody, hypnotic "Whisky Improvisation: Episode II" (of three!) showcases the interplay between the band members - expectedly tight for this iteration of The Mothers.

Fans of Zappa's early pop satires will find plenty to like here, such as "Status Back Baby" (reportedly written as part of an ultimately abandoned teenage rock opera, I Was a Teenage Malt Shop) and the biting "Hungry Freaks, Daddy," introduced by FZ as an "oldie but goodie."  (It dated back to 1966, the first song on Zappa's debut LP.)  It might as well have been; the band strikes up a hot Motown-style groove on the verse that just as quickly turns slow and woozy on the chorus.   The second set of the evening, prior to Wild Man Fischer's arrival onstage, closes with "Plastic People," a satirical lyric set to the melody of "Louie, Louie."

Similarly, the bandleader's love of doo-wop (not exactly hip in the late '60s, though a renaissance would soon take root) is in evidence on the nostalgic tribute "Memories of El Monte."  The Penguins of "Earth Angel" fame first recorded the Zappa/Ray Collins ballad in 1963.  Its lack of irony stands out, but as Zappa commenter in 1974's In His Own Words, "I could sit down and write a hundred more of the 1950s-type songs and enjoy every minute of it."  Maybe there was a spot for a slow dance at the Whisky, after all.  The rendition of Jackie and The Starlites' 1960 single "Valerie" (which would later be heard on Burnt Weeny Sandwich) that closed the first set is just as openly affectionate.  (And don't turn the CD off after "Valerie;" Frank's introduction of the fledgling Alice Cooper group adds to the you are there feeling.)  Another abiding love of Zappa's, the works of composer Edgard Varese, shows up with a brief, ominous snippet of "Octandre."  Zappa selected conductor Frederic Waldman's 1951 recording as one of his ten picks on a 1989 episode of the Desert Island Discs-inspired program Castaway's Choice.

Want Zappa the enfant terrible of highbrow music?  His oft-performed and oft-recorded "King Kong" is performed in two parts for about sixteen minutes total.  While the main theme first appeared on 1967's Lumpy Gravy, the full epic with ample soloing (including a soft-shoe-style interpolation of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Getting to Know You" from their musical The King and I and, even more kookily, Mack David and Jerry Livingston's theme to The Bugs Bunny Show, "This Is It") hadn't yet been introduced on records via 1969's Uncle Meat.  The driving, jazz-fusion instrumental offers some of the most incendiary and focused playing heard that night at the Whisky.

Zappa the composer also shines alongside The Mothers on the instrumentals "The Duke" - two takes were performed at the Whisky (the second as a redo for the ostensible live album) and both are included here - and "Khaki Sack," the latter of which has a swinging, quasi-Neal Hefti feel in the theme, and extensive solos from the Mothers including Don Preston on keys.  Both "The Duke" and "Khaki Sack" set the tone for the third set of the night which builds to its climax with the first-ever live performance of Absolutely Free favorite "Brown Shoes Don't Make It," inspiring the variations of "Brown Shoes Shuffle" as the evening's finale.

After digesting these three discs of roughly one hour apiece, it's difficult not to wonder what a tight, single-LP live album would have sounded like in 1968.  There's an embarrassment of riches here to choose from, whether one is looking for accessible jazz fusion ("Khaki Sack"), doo-wop ("Memories of El Monte"), scathing satire ("Hungry Freaks, Daddy") or free-form, avant-garde exercises (the "Whisky Improvisations") - and that's just naming a few!  The complete approach allows listeners to hear it all, as well as FZ's droll onstage patter.

The 3CD Whisky a Go Go 1968 is packaged within an eight-panel digipak.  The 40-page booklet in words and images explores the show from multiple angles, with essays from "Vaultmeister" Joe Travers and Miss Pamela of The GTO's, plus Ahmet Zappa's interview with a funny and sharp Alice Cooper.  (For those interested in vinyl, a 2LP "highlights" release draws on all three sets, as well.  A 5LP Super Deluxe Set is available exclusively via Zappa's online webstore.)  Capturing the early Mothers at their arguable peak - an artistic high point of Zappa's entire career, despite (or perhaps because of) his youth - this set instantly becomes one of the strongest entries in the ongoing archival series celebrating the composer-bandleader.  "Fun and merriment," indeed!

Whisky a Go Go 1968 is available now:

3CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Zappa Official Store
5LP Super Deluxe Edition: Zappa Online Store
2LP - Highlights: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Zappa Online Store