Audio: Frank Zappa w/ Van Morrison – Dead Girls of London

When Frank Zappa came to the conclusion that he had enough of dealing with Warner Bros. Records he decided to form his own label called Zappa Records in 1977 under a deal with Phonogram Records. The first album Zappa Records released that wasn’t one of Frank’s was L. Shankar’s Touch Me There in 1979. Shankar, an Indian-born American violinist, singer and composer, worked closely with FZ who not only provided lyrics for the project but also produced it and contributed some of the music.

The opening track of Touch Me There is the bombastic Dead Girls of London featuring vocals from Ike Willis and Zappa. However the song was originally recorded with Van Morrison handling vox. Van The Man was a Warner Bros. recording artist and the label wanted no part in letting his vocals be used, probably to spite Frank after lots of legal wrangling. Thankfully, we can hear the version featuring Van Morrison as it was released on the compilation The Frank Zappa AAAFNRAAAAAM Birthday Bundle 2011. You can always count on record labels to bury great tracks. See if you agree…

Frank Zappa, L. Shankar and Van Morrison – Dead Girls of London

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