This is a recording of a radio show on KWST radio, 1-Nov-1975, where Zappa and Beefheart played oldies and oddities. (There is a completely unsubstantiated rumour that this radio show was actually a broadcast of a Warner Brothers promo record with these songs on it, which has never been found, and never been confirmed to have existed.)
Tracks 1, 3, 5, 10-12, 15, 19 & 20 have been officially released on Bongo Fury, The Lost Episodes, Mystery Disc and Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica. As for the other tracks:
* Track 2 was performed live in the studio; the Captain sings the song to a simple guitar backing
* Track 4 is a very strange track, announced as a recording of a group called "The Smegmates"
* Tracks 6-8 are CBS demos from 1965 - track 6 has been officially released (approximately) on the Mystery Disc. Track 8 may or may not include "Ned Has a Brainstorm".
* Track 9 recorded at Studio Z, Cucamonga, 1964
* Track 13 is from 1964 (very informative, isn't it?)
* Track 14 has been officially released (perhaps in a shorter edit) on the Mystery Disc (as "Original Mothers at the Broadside (Pomona)) it is the first live recording of the Mothers, from 1965
* Tracks 16-17 are from the first Mothers rehearsal in 1965; a small fragment of track 16 has been officially released on the Mystery Disc, as "Original Mothers Rehearsal"
* Track 18 is a 1968 rehearsal
* Track 21 is NOT directly from Bongo Fury, but a longer version from an acetate, clocking in at 07:55 instead of 04:31. What has been cut out on Bongo Fury is 39 seconds just before the guitar solo (a slide solo by Denny Walley), 2 minutes and 43 seconds just after the guitar solo (effectively a piano solo and one verse), and 2 seconds of the fade-out. It's a CD bonus track from another radio broadcast, on WPLR, New Haven, 18-Apr-1975, and it also appears on Chronicle and Bongo Fury El Paso TX.
Adding to this very impressive cast of characters, the album retains some radio-station chatter from Zappa and the Captain. From Patrick Neve:
I think the Mystery Disc tracks sound A LOT better [here] than ... on the Mystery Disc.
The cover/"booklet" is a single sheet folded once; no staples. The front of it is a black & white image of a 1950s American suburban family of 12 gatherered around a TV set; the title is printed in colour. The back of it has a black & white photograph of Zappa and Captain Beefheart sitting at a table - the Captain is brushing his moustache and product-placing a Coca-Cola can on the table; Zappa is watching him, cigarette in hand, bemused (or slightly drunk). Back cover has a colour photograph of Zappa on stage playing his guitar. The inside picture is a black & white photo of Zappa on stage, with his guitar, but with one hand held high over his head; Captain Beefheart sits in a chair on stage, surrounded by some Mothers.
1. Cucamonga [Bongo Fury version]
2. Orange Claw Hammer [Don van Vliet]
3. Debra Kadabra / Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy [Bongo Fury versions]
4. The Smegmates: Will You Drink My Water?
5. Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band: Pachuco Cadaver [Don van Vliet] [Trout Mask Replica version]
6. I Was a Teenage Maltshop
7. Status Back Baby
8. Ned the Mumbler [may or may not include "Ned Has a Brainstorm"]
9. Toads of the Short Forest
10. Charva [The Lost Episodes version]
11. Speed-Freak Boogie [Mystery Disc version]
12. Metal Man Has Won His Wings [Don van Vliet / Zappa] [Mystery Disc version]
13. Instrumental
14. Louisiana Blues [McKinley "Muddy Waters" Morganfield]
15. Instrumental ["Party Scene from Mondo Hollywood" - Mystery Disc version]
16. Studio Rehearsal ["Sandwich Song"]
17. How Could I Be Such a Fool?
18. Boogie for Berkeley
19. Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band: Neon Meat Dream of a Octafish [Don van Vliet] [Trout Mask Replica version]
20. Muffin Man [Bongo Fury version]
21. 200 Years Old [extended version]
