Joe's Camouflage

The Recordings

Liner notes by GZ

The work cassettes of rehearsals (recorded by Denny Walley) and the analog 4 tracks Joe transferred and even mixed!

PaulB, March 17, 2014

Dates for the Camouflage album are:

8-25-' 75 for the 4-track tapes
First week of September ' 75 for the cassette recordings

 

The Band And The Rehearsals

Charles Ulrich, November 8, 2014

Froggie told me:

Both he and Denny played acoustic guitar. [...]

The last rehearsals were on a soundstage at Paramount Studios. But earlier rehearsals were at a studio FZ had built on Sunset behind the Bizarre offices.

pbuzby, Steve Hoffman Music Forums, November 29, 2013

There are two keyboardists, neither of whom have the same gear and sound as Andre Lewis. From what we know at this point it seems Napoleon and Novi were playing keyboards. (Napoleon has said he almost ended up playing keyboards on this tour before Andre Lewis joined.)

PaulB, March 18, 2014

It is Napi on keyboards and not Andre Lewis by the way.

Charles Ulrich, November 27, 2014

[Napoleon] said that he played "a synthesizer that had all the patches . . . You could get it to sound like a Clavinet. Or you could get it to sound like a Fender Rhodes . . . It was a keyboard that [FZ] had there in his arsenal of instruments."

[...] When I asked where rehearsals were held, he said (without hesitation) "5831 Sunset Boulevard." He didn't remember the name of the later rehearsal studio, but he mentioned that Elton John was rehearsing next door.

Whatever happened to Novi, Denny & Froggie?

pbuzby, Zappateers, November 30, 2013

From what I recall, Novi said she left because her group got signed to Warners. Denny went to Beefheart's band. Don't know about Robert.

Charles Ulrich, November 12, 2014

[Froggie] said André had joined before he left. He (Froggie) was the first to leave ("due to illness and I just was tired of what was going on in the group . . . the dynamic of the group was changing").

 

c. August-September 1975—Douglas Metzler Photograph Session(s)

Joe's Camouflage (2014) liner notes

[Roy Estrada, Napoleon Murphy Brock, FZ, Robert Frog Camarena, Novi Novog, Terry Bozzio, Denny Walley]

[Denny Walley, FZ, Terry Bozzio, Novi Novog, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Robert Frog Camarena, Roy Estrada]

Archive Photos (by Doug Metz) courtesy of ZFT

Understanding America (2012) liner notes

Cover photo by Doug Metz for Intercontinental Absurdities, 1975

The Real Frank Zappa Book, 1989, p. 100

PICTURE CREDITS: [...] Doug Metzler (p. 100)

Goldmine, August 18, 2010

Frank Zappa in 1975. Photo courtesy Ryko/Doug Metzler, 1975

Additional informant: Javier Marcote