Halloween 77

The Different Releases

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Main Versions

• Costume Box
  • (USB, 24-bit WAV, Zappa Records/UME ZR 20027, 2017)
  • (Digital Download, 2017)
• 3 CDs
  • (3CD, Zappa Records/UME ZR 20027K, 2017)
  • (Digital Download, 2017)

 

CD Version Cover Picture

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Liner notes, 2017

Photography courtesy of The Vault

Fred Midgett, Facebook, November 1, 2022

Five years ago I learned that a photograph I took of Frank Zappa at the Palladium in NYC on Halloween 1977 had become the cover photo for the "Halloween 77" CD. Even though cameras weren't allowed in those days I always tried to sneak mine in to capture the show. After this show I sent a few prints to Frank. Quite a surprise to learn my photo had stayed in the Zappa archives for 40 years and then got selected for an album cover. Pretty amazing. Recently I got access to a darkroom again through the NC State crafts center and I'm making prints from the original negative with the hope of releasing a limited edition photograph print. It feels great to be back in the darkroom again working with my old negatives. There's something about analog . . .

 

Announcements & Rumors

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Adrian Belew, Facebook, January 21, 2017

and multi-tasking on the plane by writing liner notes for a new Zappa release.
oh, I should have mentioned it a new box set all 6 shows from halloween at the palladium in new york, [1977]. 18 hours worth! it's the shows the Baby Snakes movie was made from.

Idiot, Zappateers, August 25, 2017

Halloween 77 is now listed on HMV's website in Japan.
Release date is 6 October, and there are two versions:

3 CD

and

Costume Box Set

Andrew Greenaway, Twitter, September 7, 2017

Finally, details from UMe regarding @zappa's Halloween 77 set:

Artist/Title: Frank Zappa // Halloween 77 (Costume Boxed Set)
Cat. #: ZR20027
Release Date: October 13, 2017

Artist/Title: Frank Zappa // Halloween 77 (3CD)
Cat. #: ZR20027K
Release Date: October 13, 2017

Halloween was Frank Zappa's favourite holiday & by 1977 his Halloween shows were legendary. Recorded live at The Palladium in NYC, Zappa performed six shows 28-31 October. 4 shows were filmed & resulted in Zappa's movie "Baby Snakes". The Halloween 77 3CD version includes the Halloween night show in its entirely, mixed in 2016 from original Vault masters, plus select tracks from the other 5 shows. The Halloween 77 Box Set includes all 6 shows in their entirety, mixed in 2016 from original Vault masters, on USB stick in 24-bit WAV audio with 32-page digital booklet, Zappa Halloween mask & costume. The shows rock hard & feature unreleased performances & arrangements.

3CD: 1. Show Start / 2. Peaches En Regalia / 3. The Torture Never Stops / 4. Tryin' To Grow A Chin / 5. City Of Tiny Lites / 6. Pound For A Brown / 7. The Demise Of The Imported Rubber Goods Mask / 8. Bobby Brown Goes Down / 9. Conehead / 10. Flakes / 11. Big Leg Emma / 1. Envelopes / 2. Terry's Halloween Solo / 3. Disco Boy / 4. Lather / 5. Wild Love / 6. Titties N Beer / 7. Audience Participation / 8. The Black Page #2 / 9. Jones Crusher

Boxed Set: 1. Introduction / 2. Peaches En Regalia / 3. The Torture Never Stops / 4. Tryin' To Grow A Chin / 5. City Of Tiny Lites / 6. Pound For A Brown / 7. Bobby Brown Goes Down / 8. Conehead / 9. Flakes / 10. Big Leg Emma / 11. Envelopes / 12. Terry's Solo #1 / 13. Disco Boy / 14. Lather / 15. Wild Love / 16. Titties N Beer / 17. Audience Participation #1 / 18. The Black Page #2 / 19. Jones Crusher / 20. Broken Hearts Are For Assholes

 

Mixing

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Craig Parker Adams, interviewed by Tony Bacon, Sound On Sound, August 2020

"There was a lot of cable damage, line damage, a lot of static and things of that nature that had to be removed. In fact it turned into the single biggest restoration gig I've done for the Zappa Trust. So, I had my digital 96/24 masters of reel 1, reel 2, reel 3, and so on, which I then had to put together and sync to have everything flow properly. But for whatever reason, Terry Bozzio's kick drum was not working on the B machine. I would have a reel running for about 12 minutes, and then all of a sudden the kick stops for the next 12 minutes. There's no kick drum on that reel!" Pause for Craig to scream at the memory. "This was Terry playing the hardest shit you've ever heard, all the double kicks and so on. And half of it's not there."

You could use something like Avid's SoundReplacer, right? "Well, yes, that's what I did," Craig replies, "but it's not a simple, direct replacement. You don't just zap it—no pun intended—and then all of a sudden, magically, everything's there. Oh no. I had to do it beat by beat, kick by kick. Really! One at a time, for 25 reels or whatever it was, 10 to 12 minutes per reel depending on where the edits were made. SoundReplacer could get me in the vicinity, but then you have to get off that and look at the particular beat, make sure that it's the dynamic you want, that it's placed properly, all of that. It's not like a hip-hop track or something. This kick was changing drastically from one hit to the next."

The missing kick drums had a transient in the vicinity of where the kick was, and Craig could use that as a guide, but as he says, it wasn't a direct replacement. "Every time there would be a kick drum hit, there would be a snapping sound. It had to do with one of the components in this particular tape machine—it wasn't a digital snap, and I could see on the waveform that there was an indentation. So I knew that's where the kick was going to go, and I'd zero in. It was a matter of listening and feeling to replace it properly."

Craig's trusty assistant Nicole Lexi Davis helped Craig meet the deadline, despite this lengthy and unexpected task. "We were working around the clock. Nicole would go in early, do the notes, then I'd come in and continue on, and vice versa—that's how we tag-teamed on Hollywood 77. It was something I learned from Frank's methods. He'd sleep all day, and have engineers in the studio working on his notes all day. Then he'd wake up and take over where they left off, work all night, and then leave the next set of notes for them. He'd bed down and they'd pick back up. Another example of the way he ran his business."