The Palladium, NYC

October 31, 1981 (early & late shows)
The Palladium, NYC

Footage appears in:
Music appears on:
Musicians:

FZ—lead guitar, vocals
Ray White—guitar, vocals
Steve Vai—guitar, vocals
Tommy Mars—keyboards, vocals
Bobby Martin—keyboards, vocals
Ed Mann—percussion, vocals
Scott Thunes—bass, vocals
Chad Wackerman—drums

The music played (according to Jon Naurin's FZShows):

Early show:

Late show:

For a complete list go here: Halloween 1981: official releases and videos

Future Appearances

Liner notes from The Dub Room Special! DVD (2005)

This program contains excerpted material from not one, but two performances. [...] These 2 programs are slated for DVD as whole concerts, mixed in multi-channel.

Gail Zappa, interviewed by Mike King, Music Business and Trend-Mongering, September 15, 2010

First, you have to have a context in which you can release these things. For me, I can't just put out a record and not have some background to it. Recently, we put out The Torture Never Stops as a DVD and this was made as a television show, because Frank had an idea that this would work on TV but this was very early on and nobody (in broadcasting) wanted to see these crazy edits that he was doing so there was a lot of resistance. So the concert, in different forms, ended up on USA Network and on MTV but Frank's version which he created as a television special, was one particular thing that he put together himself. So my obligation, I feel, to the audience is to put out first what Frank created and then I can go back and take all of that footage, which we intended to do and are in the process of working on, and remix it in surround and put out the whole of the concert series in a big package down the road. But first, you have to see what Frank's intention was and then you can go back to other opportunities where you can have your way with the material.

 

Zappa Halloween '81

October 31, 1981 (late show)
The Palladium, NYC
Broadcast live by MTV and Westwood One Radio simultaneously
110 min.

Hosted by Nina Blackwood

Opening Credits:

Zappa Halloween '81

MTV Music Television
Presents
StarFleet Simulcast
Zappa Halloween '81

Closing Credits:

Zappa Halloween '81

Music performed by
Frank Zappa—guitar, vocal
Ray White—guitar, vocal
Tommy Mars—keyboards, vocal
Scott Thunes—bass, vocal
Chad Wackerman—drums
Ed Mann—percussion, vocal
Bobby Martin—keyboards, sax, vocal
Steve Vai—guitar, vocal

Produced by
Bill Boggs
Richard Baker

Directed by
Clark Santee

Lighting director—Jim Tetlow
Associate producer—Karen McLaughlin
Music associate—Dee Santee
Production manager—Marty Maloney
Stage manager—Keith Kevan
Transmission supervisor—Mark Schubin
Engineering consultant—Malachy Wienges
Engineer in charge—Ed Levine
Technical director—Paul Stiegelbauer
Music audio mixer—Mark Pinske
Production audio mixer—Mike Shoskes
Audio assistant—Mel Becker
(...)

2nd MTV Broadcast

October 31, 1981 (late show)
The Palladium, NYC
Broadcast date: October 31, 1982?
MTV
88 min.?

 

You Are What You Is

October 31, 1981 (early show, except where indicated)
The Palladium, NYC
Broadcast date: Night Flight, October 30, 1982
LBS Video—Compact Video—Boggs/Baker Productions
Also broadcast at least on the Netherlands and Sweden
59 min.

Opening Credits:

You Are What You Is

Frank Zappa
Live At The Palladium
New York City
October 31, 1981

You Are What You Is

Closing Credits:

You Are What You Is

Editorial Supervisor: Frank Zappa

Music performed by
Frank Zappa—guitar, vocal
Ray White—guitar, vocal
Tommy Mars—keyboards, vocal
Scott Thunes—bass, vocal
Chad Wackerman—drums
Ed Mann—percussion, vocal
Bobby Martin—keyboards, sax, vocal
Steve Vai—guitar, vocal

Produced by
Bill Boggs
Richard Baker

Directed by
Clark Santee

Lighting director—Jim Tetlow
(...)

Night Flight
January 3, 1983
28 min. or 58 min.?
Rebroadcast?

Additional informant: Glenn Leonard

The Torture Never Stops

October 31, 1981 (early & late shows)
1982
LBS Video
116 min.

DVD Track List:

  1. 0:00:00 Black Napkins (late show)
  2. 0:04:00 Montana (late show)
  3. 0:07:48 Easy Meat (late show)
  4. 0:14:37 Beauty Knows No Pain (late show)
  5. 0:17:33 Charlie's Enormous Mouth (late show)
  6. 0:21:13 Fine Girl (late show)
  7. 0:24:26 Teen-age Wind (late show)
  8. 0:27:28 Harder Than Your Husband (late show)
  9. 0:30:02 Bamboozled By Love (late show)
  10. 0:35:33 We're Turning Again (early show)
  11. 0:40:37 Alien Orifice (early show)
  12. 0:45:51 Flakes (early show)
  13. 0:51:05 Broken Hearts Are For Assholes (early show)
  14. 0:55:11 You Are What You Is (early show)
  15. 0:58:56 Mudd Club (early show)
  16. 1:01:49 The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing (early show)
  17. 1:05:01 Dumb All Over (early show)
  18. 1:10:43 Heavenly Bank Account (early show)
  19. 1:14:49 Suicide Chump (early show)
  20. 1:16:50 Jumbo Go Away (early show)
  21. 1:20:42 Stevie's Spanking (late show)
  22. 1:26:43 The Torture Never Stops (late show)
  23. 1:38:35 Strictly Genteel (early & late show)
  24. 1:45:13 The Illinois Enema Bandit (late show)
  25. 1:56:31 (Honker Home Video Credits)
  26. 1:56:51 —end—
DVD Extras:

Opening Credits:

The Torture Never Stops

An Evening With
Frank Zappa
during which . . .
The Torture Never Stops

Closing Credits

The Torture Never Stops

Editorial Supervisor: Frank Zappa

Music performed by
Frank Zappa—guitar, vocal
Ray White—guitar, vocal
Tommy Mars—keyboards, vocal
Scott Thunes—bass, vocal
Chad Wackerman—drums
Ed Mann—percussion, vocal
Bobby Martin—keyboards, sax, vocal
Steve Vai—guitar, vocal

Produced by
Bill Boggs
Richard Baker

Directed by
Clark Santee

Lighting director—Jim Tetlow
Associate producer—Karen McLaughlin
Music associate—Dee Santee
Technical supervisor—Mark Schubin
Engineering consultant—Malachy Wienges
Production manager—Marty Maloney
Stage manager—Keith Kevan
Engineer-in-charge—Ed Levine
Technical director—Paul Stiegelbauer
Music audio mixer—Mark Pinske
Production audio mixer—Mike Shoskes
Audio assistant—Mel Becker
Video—Paul Ranieri
Camera—Juan Barrera, Peter Blank, John Feher, Ron Leacock, Mike Lieberman, Jake Ostroff
Videotape operator—Rennie Dicuia
Gaffer—Chip Foody
Utility—Rick Anderson, Andy Burnaford
Electronic Graphics—Barry Fialk
Production assistants—Sabina Barach, Susan Franks
Production facilities—Unitel Production Services, Inc.
Videotape editor—Terry Greene
Assistant videotape editor—Ron Menzies

For Intercontinental Absurdities:
Bennett Glotzer—associate producer
Alan Santos—production manager
Coy Featherstone—lighting director
Mark Pinske, George Douglas, Bob Stone—sound
Chuck Eldridge on Jack Daniels
David Robb—towel boy and Kosher guitars
Larry Griffith—industrial tenderness
Thomas Nordegg—gadgets
John Smothers—iron sausage
Wartoke Concern—public relations

All music composed and arranged by Frank Zappa

Special thanks to The Palladium, New York City

© Copyright 1982 Boggs/Baker Productions Inc. and Frank Zappa

DVD Release:

Honker Home Video HHD 1221
May 29, 2008

The Torture Never Stops

DVD ordainment & a/d/d art direction: Gail Zappa
Vaultage vaultmeisterment: Joe Travers
Art design & renderment: Keith Lawler
Liner notes: Scott Thunes
Production management: Melanie Starks

DVD development: New York DVD
Encoding/authoring: Brian Brodeur
Menu design: Galo Morales

DVD Re-release

Eagle Rock
October 14, 2013

The Torture Never Stops

Amazon.co.uk

This Special Edition 3DVD set brings together three programmes by Frank Zappa.

 

Dumb All Over

October 31, 1981 (early & late shows)
The Palladium, NYC
1982
LBS Video?—Compact Video—Boggs/Baker Productions
Broadcast at least in USA
47 min.?

Dumb All Over

Dumb All Over

Mark "mutantmoose" (Zappateers, October 23, 2008)

The Chillicothe Constitution Tribune (Chillicothe, Missouri) for August 1, 1983, has a tv listing for 7pm, Channel 41—"Frank Zappa:Dump All Over".

Can't seem to locate anything about this, it seems to have been about an hour long, and of course, I suspect it should be "Dumb" not "Dump", though I rather like Dump, to be honest.

hothcanada (Zappateers, June 11, 2010)

I think the broadcast runs roughly 45min with all commercials removed.

scans from hothcanada.


Nina Blackwood (interviewed by Jeb Wright, ClassicRockRevisited, August, 2004)

The hardest and worst interview that I have ever done was with Frank Zappa. Ugh! It was a nightmare. I feel bad saying this because he is no longer with us, but he was a nightmare. I hope I never run into anything as terrible as that again. He was deliberately being Frank Zappa. It was the first live broadcast that MTV ever did. It was his yearly concert that he used to do from The Palladium on Halloween. I was the host. Even in rehearsals Frank was really obnoxious to me. Between my lack of experience and him being obnoxious, it was just a nightmare. Enough said. It was a very bad experience. (...) It was baptism by fire. Now, with the chip on my shoulder that I have developed, I wouldn't tolerate it. Back then, I was young and we were trying to do our best. I was an easy target. It was a cheap shot and he didn't have to do that. If Frank wanted to be smart then do it to Walter Cronkite or something, but not a twenty-something little girl doing her first live broadcast.

 


Notes & Comments

From: unknown:

Songs: Interview w/ignorant MTV VJ, Black Napkins, Montana, Easy Meat, Society Pages, I'm a Beautiful Guy, Beauty Knows No Pain, Charlie's Enormous Mouth, Fine Girl, Teenage Wind, Harder Than Your Husband, Bamboozled By Love, Sinister Footwear II, Stevie's Spanking, Cocaine Decisions, Nigger Bizniss, Doreen, Goblin Girl, Black Page #2, Tryin' To Grow a Chin, Strictly Genteel, The Torture Never Stops.

There are several versions of this show; here are a few of them:

  1. "Halloween Concert" (MTV, 88 min.)
    2nd show, missing band introduction and Sinister Footwear
    3rd rebroadcast by MTV, air date 10/31/82
  2. "Dumb All Over" (LBS Video 47 min.)
    Mixed footage of 1st & 2nd shows
  3. "The Torture Never Stops" (LBS Video, 116 min.)
    Mixed footage of 1st & 2nd shows
  4. "You Are What You Is" (LBS Video, 58 min.)
    Mixed footage of 1st & 2nd shows
  5. "You Are What You Is" (Night Flight, 28 min.)
    The first 7 songs of the early show
From: Robbert Heederik

From Halloween, 1981 at the Palladium in NYC. MTV broadcast some of this show (or all of it?). It was subsequently spliced up and shown as various features such as Dumb All Over (45 minutes), You Are What You Is (45 minutes) and the Torture Never Stops (1 hour 50 minutes). Also parts are shown in Dub Room Special. Songs mainly consist of You Are What You Is plus songs from Sheik Yerbouti. Also has Strictly Genteel.

From: Zomby Woof

My Halloween '81 video, which I've been told was "The First Show", includes the following songs...

0:00—Black Napkins
3:55—Montana
7:45—Easy Meat
14:30—Society Pages
17:05—I'm A Beautiful Guy
19:00—Beauty Knows No Pain
21:55—Charlie's Enormous Mouth
25:35—Fine Girl
28:50—Teenage Wind
31:50—Harder Than Your Husband
34:25—Bamboozled By Love
39:55—Stevie's Spanking
45:50—Cocaine Decisions
48:30—Nig Biz
53:45—Doreen
55:50—Goblin Girl
57:40—The Black Page
1:04:45—Tryin' To Grow A Chin
1:07:15—Strictly Genteel
1:14:10—The Torture Never Stops
(End—1:26:40)

My question...what's in "The Second Show?"

From: Sergio Martorelli (September 8, 2005)

Just got me this DVD-R that comes with what seems to be a mix of the two shows.

It's 1h 56 minutes, the "Torture Never Stops" intro (exactly as the screencap from your site), and the following songlist:

Black Napkins
Montana
Easy Meat
Beauty Know No Pain
I'm A Beautiful Guy
Charlie's Enormous Mouth
Fine Girl
Teenage Wind
Harder Than Your Husband
Bamboozled By Love
We're Turning Again
Alien Orifice
Flakes
Broken Hearts Are For Assholes
You Are What You Is
Mudd Club
The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing
Dumb All Over
Heavenly Bank Account
Suicide Chump
Jumbo Go Away
Stevie's Spanking
The Torture Never Stops
Strictly Genteel
The Illinois Enema Bandit

From Milhouse Authentico (February 6, 2006)

From comparing the lists of songs performed at the early and late shows, I think "The Torture Never Stops" goes like this, because almost all of these songs were performed at one show, but not the other.

Black Napkins (late show)
Montana (late show)
Easy Meat (late show)

Beauty Know No Pain (late show)
I'm A Beautiful Guy (late show)
Charlie's Enormous Mouth (late show)
Fine Girl (late show)
Teenage Wind (late show)
Harder Than Your Husband (late show)
Bamboozled By Love (late show)

(10 out of the first 11 songs from the late show.. for some reason, FZ left "Society Pages" out of this video version.)

We're Turning Again (early show)
Alien Orifice (early show)
Flakes (early show)
Broken Hearts Are For Assholes (early show)

(From the approximate middle of the early show's set, though "Teenage Prostitute" was played before "Flakes" and left out of this sequence for the video release.)

You Are What You Is (early show)
Mudd Club (early show)
The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing (early show)
Dumb All Over (early show)
Heavenly Bank Account (early show)
Suicide Chump (early show)
Jumbo Go Away (early show)

(The first 7 songs from the early show. "Dumb All Over" has the guitar solo which was edited out of the YCDTOSA Vol. 1 version.)

Stevie's Spanking (late show)
The Torture Never Stops (late show)
Strictly Genteel (*pretty* sure this is from the late show.. the YCDTOSA Vol. 6 version is actually edited together from both.)
The Illinois Enema Bandit (late show)

Milhouse G (June 12, 2008)

Tiny exception being that "I'm A Beautiful Guy" isn't on the DVD. I thought it *should* have been there, but I checked by VCD copy (taken from a rip of an original VHS copy of the program) and it wasn't there. No big deal, but thought I'd point that out.

Chris West (March 15, 2006)

I just compared this 'Torture Never Stops' DVD with the DVD of the live MTV broadcast of the late show and it seems that Strictly Genteel on 'Torture' is an edit of the two shows, probably the same as YCDTOSA6 I would think. It starts with the early show and cuts to the late show just before the closing speech. (The camera angles on the two DVDs are different so it would have been hard to compare, but Tommy Mars has a silly mask on during the early show.)

Pat Buzby (March 15, 2006)

Just noticed this thread...one additional bit of info: there were two MTV broadcasts of the late show, the live one and a slightly shortened and modified rebroadcast.

The rebroadcast had the following changes (perhaps among others):

It also had the flanged guitar.

Yesterday Wafflez (July 10, 2008)

I bought [The Torture Never Stops] as 'Live at the Palladium' LBS vhs as advertised in a Playboy mag mail order only.

I got with color grid & time stamp:

LBS
Frank Zappa
You Are What You Is
Compact Video Boggs/Baker Productions

Ed. Master Stereo  59:20  1/6/82

YAWYI
MUDD
MEEK
DUMB
HEAVENLY
SUICIDE
JUMBO
TURNING
ALIEN-solo
TEENAGE PROSTY
FLAKES
BROKEN HEARTS
MONTANA
WHIPPING
-end credits

Frank Zappa
Dumb All Over
Compact Video
Boggs/Baker Productions

MONTANA
FLAKES
DUMB ALL-solo
HEAVENLY
FINE GIRL
TEENAGE WIND
HARDER THAN
CITY OF TINY-solo
YAWYI
GENTEEL-band intros-goodnight

Charles Ulrich (July 10, 2008)

Dumb All Over aired on USA. My copy has the network ID and commercials.

Whipping Post


From: ebay seller "bean4green"

This is the rarest Frank Zappa Video of all time. This one hour video is of Zappa's New York, HALLOWEEN appearance at The Palladium on October 31, 1981. This video was given to me personally by FZ and was lost until now. This is a multi-camera, superbly edited, commercial quality, final pre- release version. The digital sound quality and mixing is as good as any Zappa recording you'll ever hear. Sounds like a CD.

Originally produced for Intercontinental Absurdities (FZ's production company), and titled "You Are What You Is", this tape was never released. No one has it anywhere, except here. This video was copied from the actual 3/4 inch cassette Frank gave me. The video quality is good and the music is phenomenal. The musicians are Steve Vai, Chad Wackerman, Scott Thunes, Ike Willis, Tommy Mars, Ed Mann, Bobby Martin & FZ

. . . . . . .SONGS: You Are What You Is, Mud Club, The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing, Dumb All Over, Heavenly Bank Account, Suicide Chump, Jumbo Go Away, Turn,Turn, Instrumental, Teenage Prostitute, Flakes, Broken Hearts Are For Assholes, Montana and an incredible Whippin' Post.

As a special bonus, there is a five minute segment with "Music For a Low Budget Orchestra" being performed by an orchestra. I have used scanned and reduced labels from the original FZ cassettes and pictured them below. I was Zappa's still photographer for many years and have thousands of original photos of FZ and his mothers.

The Tape

Rusty Pipes, January 27, 2008

Bean4Green is right about everything regarding the You Are What You Is video, except that it was broadcast at least once -on January 3, 1983 it was featured on USA Network's old show Night Flight. I know because I still have the (prized) videotape of that airing. My copy is mono but it's still very clear. It's 58 minutes long and does not contain the Music for Low Budget Orchestra section, but everything else he refers to is there. What Bean labels as "Instrumental" in his song list is "Alien Orifice".

Some cuts found on the video differ somewhat on the performances on the You Can't Do That series.

Here is a bootleg version of this video which has been seen on Ebay:

Bootleg Tape

Additional Informants: Brian Lagerman, Jon Naurin, Chris Rigas

Maintained by Román García Albertos
http://globalia.net/donlope/fz/
This section formerly maintained by Reverend Neve
This dog last modified: 2017-11-10