" The name of this song, is King Kong.
It's a story of a very large gorilla who lived in the jungle. And he was doing OK until some Americans came by and thought they would take him home with them.
They took him to the United States, and they made some money by using the gorilla...then they killed him."
... Zappa's introduction to King Kong at a show in Sweden in 1967
(Zappa was a bit of a misanthrope).
This simple, sort-of modal jazz waltz was a regular inclusion in Zappa shows throughout his career, I have dozens of recorded versions of it and they are all different.
What was fun about this song was that once the band got through the head, they would be free to take the song in any direction and most versions are very long, with extended solos and group improv wank-outs.
I performed this in a theatrical show which was a redux of 'We're Only In It For The Money", one of Zappa's great concept albums.
We did King Kong as an encore.
I added the extra chords for variety and because our rock oriented band didn't have the finesse to do long, one-chord stretches without losing the beat or sounding repetitive.
I really like these chords but if you want to do it Zappa's way than only play the bracketed ones.
Here is a video of the original Mothers doing King Kong for the BBC in 1968, enjoy.
Great Song. I wasn't sure if I had a fake sheet for it or not so I grabbed this. I'm going to have fun learning this one. I see where the group Niacin with John Novello plays this on their album Organik. I also just bought the Jeff Lorber Fusion CD "Hacienda" which has a great rendition of King Kong on it.
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