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Song of Two Hundred Fifty-Four Days Ago: Bowling on Charen (from Trance-Fusion)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiCLzh2b890" data-time="

OK, so here's a description of the structure of the six versions of "Wild Love" on Halloween 77 (this is going to get a bit confusing, apologies for that). First the song is played as it is on Sheik Yerbouti, with minor differences: after the line "But that's the way it goes sometimes," there's no "That's the way!" exclamation. (Sidenote: with all the mocking of disco Frank was doing during this era, could this exclamation be a reference to "That's the Way [I Like It]" by KC and the Sunshine Band? I dunno, I was just reminded of this song.) Then we get into the solo section. In the solo section, we first get a Peter Wolf keyboard solo, then a Tommy Mars keyboard solo, then an Ed Mann marimba solo (at least I think it's a marimba; it doesn't quite sound like a vibraphone). Then, unfortunately, we always get the only low point of these jams: Terry Bozzio starts playing a quite simple 4/4 rock groove over which Adrian Belew gets to take a guitar solo. While Adrian solos, Terry beats this very boring groove to death. In this song Adrian's solos always start off sounding very spacey and King Crimson-ish, with lots of pedal effects, and then get into more regular rock territory. Adrian's playing is not bad at all, but obviously suffers from Bozzio's terrible rhythmic support (not blaming him; obviously Frank told him to play the groove and not deviate from it but for what reason, we'll probably never know). Luckily, things get better when the solo section concludes with a Frank guitar solo, and this is where this "Bowling on Charen" track starts (taken from the 10/28 early show). For this solo, we basically get a prototype version of what would later become "Yo' Mama." Terry plays the slow drum beat that would later appear at the start of "Yo' Mama," and over this Frank plays his solo. For his solo, Frank sort of plays what he would later title "The Sheik Yerbouti Tango." While the solo is obviously not over a tango groove, he plays dissonant licks that would later appear on the Sheik Yerbouti track (which was performed on the first '78 tour), and variations thereon. After awhile - at the 1:12 point in "Bowling on Charen" - the band starts playing the two-chord vamp that appears in the Sheik Yerbouti version of "Yo' Mama" as the third vamp Frank's guitar solo is over, after the spacey part and the one-chord part. Note that this transition to this two-chord vamp only happens in the first four versions of "Wild Love" on Halloween 77; for some reason they never make it to the second vamp in the last two versions, so the Frank solos in those versions are over just one vamp. In comparison to the "Wild Love" solo as it appears on Halloween 77, there's a bunch of stuff cut from the solo as it appears in the "Bowling on Charen" track. After Frank's solo, the main melodies from "Wild Love" are played through once more (without vocals), and then the song segues into "Titties & Beer."

The full versions of "Wild Love" on Halloween 77 are definitely worth hearing, containing some fine solos by Frank and his bandmates.
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