UPDATE: All have been identified, and very quickly at that.  See results at the bottom of this post.  Thanks to everyone who helped out.

Here’s an experiment in crowd-sourcing.  We recently acquired two original Frank Zappa music manuscripts, and a lead sheet for a third composition, all of which were handwritten by the great man himself.  The two original manuscripts are untitled, and the lead sheet is for Arabesque, a 1966 song we can find  no reference for. (These originated from the collection of ex-Mothers road manager Marty Perelis.)

We’ll happily offer $300 in Recordmecca credit to the first person who can identify these compositions (and tell us if Arabesque was ever released with a different title.)  If you can only identify one or two compositions, we’ll pro-rate the prize.

Just post a comment below, and be sure to include your email address.  And to state the obvious, only the first person who submits a correct answer through the comments section gets the prize.  And of course, the music on these manuscripts belong to the copyright holder.

We’ll post the answers here as soon as we have them.

“Part II” (first two pages; double click to enlarge)

Second Composition (first two pages)

Arabesque (Dated 1966)

We have a winners on all three manuscripts–thanks to everyone.

For Part II–Robert Mangano identified it as “The Rejected Mexican Pope Leaves the Stage” from the album “AHEAD OF THEIR TIME!”

We have a revised winner on the Second Manuscript (thanks to Matthew Galaher who pointed out his answer wasn’t exactly correct.) The new winner is Duncan James Mitchson who identified it as “Music For Electric Violin And Low Budget Orchestra” from Jean-Luc Ponty’s King Kong album (though with slightly different orchestration).

And for Arabesque–Pat Buzby, who wrote “Arabesque” was released later under the title “Toads Of The Short Forest.”

Thanks to everyone who helped out.

All the best,
Jeff Gold