The Mothers
The name of several different Zappa bands (and even more permutations of those different bands), loosely defined by the 3 syntactual derivations below. The name reportedly means "motherfucker" as applied to a musician's slang term for any musician who could really play well; i.e. "That cat's a motherfucker!".
The Muthers
A pick-up band that FZ employed to play bar gigs in the SoCal desert.
The Mothers
Once the Soul Giants started playing FZ's compositions, they needed a more appropriate name. The Blackouts was used, as was Captain Glasspack & The Magic Mufflers. They eventually settled (on May, 10, "Mothers Day" 1964, legend has it) on The Mothers. There were some personnel changes before they recorded their first album:
- 1) The Soul Giants/Mothers = Jimmy Carl Black: drums / Ray Collins: vocals / Roy Estrada: bass / Frank Zappa: guitar.
- 2) Add Alice Stuart: guitar, vocals to the above.
- 3) Replace Stuart with Henry Vestine: guitar.
- 4) Replace Vestine with Steve Mann: guitar / Collins with Jim Guercio: guitar, vocals.
- 5) Replace Guercio with Collins / Mann with Elliott Ingber: guitar.
- 6) Add Denny Bruce: drums.
- 7) Subtract Bruce.
On March 1, 1966 The Mothers signed a two-year, five-album record deal with verve/mgm. mgm had the band change their name to the mothers of invention and they started recording their first album.
The Mothers Of Invention
The Mothers OF Invention that recorded Freak Out! were: Jimmy Carl Black: drums / Ray Collins: vocals / Roy Estrada: bass / [[Elliot Ingber: guitar / [[Frank Zappa: guitar /
2) Add Billy Mundi: drums.
3) Replace Ingber with Jim Fielder: guitar / add Don Preston: keyboards and Bunk Gardner: horns.
4)
