Frank Zappa With John Lennon and Yoko Ono

As an encore on one of the two nights of this Fillmore East appearance John Lennon and Yoko Ono emerged from the wings to play 30 minutes set with the The Mothers.

Fillmore East appearance John Lennon and Yoko Ono

Frank Zappa obviously never thought much of The Beatles. His "We’re Only In For The Money" is  parody of the well-known Beatles’ album "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". However, on June 6th, 1971, Lennon and Zappa appeared live together at the Fillmore East in New York City. It stands as John Lennon's most daring live performance. Lennon released the tapes on Some Time in New York City/Live Jam in 1972. Zappa re-edited the material 20 years later for his own Playground Psychotics.

The Mothers at this time were comprised of Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman on vocals, Bob Harris—keyboards, Don Preston—Minimoog, Ian Underwood—keyboards, alto sax, Jim Pons—bass, vocals and Aynsley Dunbar on drums.

FZ "I thought he [Lennon] had a pretty good sense of humour, so I invited him to come down and jam with us at the Fillmore East. We had already book in a recording truck because we were making the Live At The Fillmore album at the time. After they had sat in with us, an arrangement was made that we would both have access to the tapes. He wanted to release it with his mix and I had the right to release it with my mix - so that's how that one section came out."