“Joe’s Xmasage” – mostly from 1963, with some detours along the way.

1) Mormon Xmas Dance Report – Kay Sherman, Frank’s first wife, introduces and interviews Frank about a 1962 Christmastime dance at the Mormon Church Recreation Hall (Pomona, CA) from which Frank had just returned.

2) Prelude To “The Purse” – Ray Collins is mainly speaking here, along with Al Surratt, FZ and someone else. The topic of discussion is a purse that they obtained from a teenage high schooler. Frank gave Al time to peruse everything while taking a leak!

3) Mr. Clean (Alternate Mix) – The same as the single, except that Frank’s backing vocals are way too loud. We DO in fact know who Mr. Clean was: Lee Davis – leader of Mr. Lee And The Exotics and Mr. Clean & The Cleansers. Both acts were based in Seattle, Washington. Davis had a shaved head and did wear an earring!

4) Why Don’t You Do Me Right – This is the original version with Frank on lead vocal and acoustic guitar and some guy Floyd on backing vocals. The mic that picked up Frank’s voice and guitar has an annoying distortion throughout, and it’s something that also affects Floyd’s vocal. The piano and drums are completely buried in the mix. The last half of the song is improvised. There is some tape oxide shedding throughout the track that spoils the already doomed sound quality.

5) The Muthers/Power Trio – One of three stereo tracks on the disc. The bass (Paul Woods) on the right channel is distorted, with Frank’s vocal and guitar and the drums (Les Papp) on the left channel. The track starts off with the end of a blues before launching into a spoken word bit by Frank and the band’s honoring of a request to play “Caravan.” Not related to the track on “Mystery Disc.”

6) The Purse – Still edited at 11:38, but still too arcane for anyone to appreciate all these years later. Al Surratt goes through a teenager’s purse, which includes a letter from a girl in Barstow. Apparently, desert-bound Barstow residents were considered a bit behind mentally by Frank and his friends. This is somewhat surprising, since Frank lived for a good time in desert areas like Lancaster. The mention of Barstow could also be a reference to the Harry Partch piece of the same name. There is a reference in a letter in the girl’s purse about DeMolay. Still, much of the “humor” is forced and could not be considered funny then or even over 42 years later.

7) The Moon Will Never Be The Same – A brief Varèsian combo of “Poeme Electronique”-styled effects on the left channel with Varèse orchestration (a la “Integrales”) on the right channel. This and “Mousie’s First Xmas” are both stereo sound experiments on the same demo tape, and the electronics on the left channel of the both tracks drop out toward the end, leaving the orchestration to carry on without it. Absolutely fascinating tracks, especially considering when they were done.

8) GTR Trio – This is a session tape with tuning and a few false starts. Along with Frank on acoustic guitar, Les Papp is on drums with Bobby Saldana on bass. FZ says “320” near the beginning – this could be the date in 1965, which would disagree with his statement years later that this was recorded the day before the bust. (The bust took place on March 26, 1965). Papp’s drumming is somewhat spasmodic, and Saldana’s bass is almost the same throughout, but Frank’s noodling is mesmerizing. This is the full version of “Bossa Nova Pervertamento” on “Mystery Disc.”

9) Suckit Rockit – Frank Zappa as Paul Jackets interviews Ray Collins as the title character. This is a mock interview using multiple edits and Suckit talks about his frustrating recording career and musical offering for shut-ins. A little more editing would have made this an even more entertaining experiment.

10) Mousie’s First Xmas – see #7.

11) The Uncle Frankie Show – Frank recorded a weekly program from PAL Studios for KSPC (88.7FM) at Pomona College in Claremont, California on Saturday nights from 11PM-1AM. On this particular show, FZ talks about his intentions to submit “I Was A Teenage Maltshop” to CBS-TV. He mentioned a proposed Valentine’s Day 1964 airing date. It was also mentioned that “Charva” was part of the show. The airing of “Charva” and the “Mystery Disc” clip of the show are not included here, but the individual tracks of “Charva” are included here. It is obvious that the drum track has leakage of the lead vocal, the piano alone is very clear; the backing vocals have drum leakage. FZ half-seriously spent a lot of time discussing potential follow-ups to this rock opera. Towards the end of the show, FZ played a blues on acoustic guitar.

Of course Frank would have packaged and written about all this stuff in a different way, but we have a lot to appreciate here. In terms of archival excitement, this CD falls in-between the first two volumes in the Corsaga, but just behind “Joe’s Corsage.” The upcoming “Imaginary Diseases” could be the winner of the saga.