After they had learned the script of "Billy The Mountain", Flo & Eddie (and Jim Pons!) were encouraged to improvise, inserting local references into their spoken lines. The following table shows some of the more interesting variations among performances of "Billy The Mountain". If you can decipher any of the lines that I couldn't, please let me know.
The version of "Billy The Mountain" that appears on Just Another Band From L.A. is heavily edited from the 8/7/71 Los Angeles performance. The solos have been omitted, as have all mentions of the name "George Putnam". The 8/7/71 Los Angeles column in the following table is based on the unedited audience tape.
On the other hand, no audience tape of the 6/71 Fillmore East performance is in circulation. So the 6/5-6/71 New York column is based on Playground Psychotics, which may or may not be edited.
A third official release appears on Carnegie Hall: the performance from 10/11/71 (late) New York, unedited.
| Date | 5/18/71 Claremont | 5/21/71 Chicago | 5/22/71 Delaware | 5/23/71 Columbus | 6/5-6/71 New York [PP] | 8/7/71 Los Angeles [JABFLA] | 10/6/71 Boston | 10/11/71 New York [CH] | 10/13/71 Toronto | 10/16/71 (late) Stony Brook | 10/23/71 (late) Kansas City | 11/24/71 Berlin | 11/27/71 Rotterdam | 11/28/71 (late) Frankfurt |
| "Low Budget" intro | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | no | no | no | no | no | [not on tape] | no | no |
| Take it away, | George Putnam | George Putnam | George Putnam | George Putnam | George Putnam | George Putnam | George Pontoon | George Pontoon | George Pontoon | George Pontoon | Pierce Foreskin | [not on tape] | George Pontoon | George Pontoon |
| Word just in to the | KTTV news service | KTTV news service | KTTV news service | KTTV news service | KTTV news service | KTTV news service | WBZ news service | NEW nurz service | CHUM news service | WOR news service | [not on tape] | [not on tape] | AVRO radio | Armed Forces Radio |
| as part of a | San Joaquin Valley smut ring | San Joaquin Valley smut ring | San Joaquin Valley smut ring | San Joaquin Valley smut ring | San Joaquin Valley smut ring | San Joaquin Valley smut ring | Massachusetts smut ring | Staten Island smut ring | sex circus in Winnipeg | Manhattan Island smut ring | [not on tape] | [not on tape] | Alkmaar cheese-smuggling ring | Rotterdam smut ring |
| a recent narcotics crackdown in | Torrance, Hawthorne, and Lomita | Torrance, Hawthorne, and Lomita | Torrance, Hawthorne, and Lomita | Torrance, Hawthorne, and Lomita | Torrance, Hawthorne, and Lomita | Torrance, Hawthorne, Lomita, Westchester, Playa del Rey, Santa Monica, Tujunga, Sunland, San Fernando, Pacoima, Sylmar, Newhall, Canoga Park, Palmdale, Glendale, Irwindale, Rolling Hills, Granada Hills, Shadow Hills, Cheviot Hills | Cambridge, Framingham, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Roxbury, Somerville, Westrock Hills? and as far north as South Boston | Philadelphia, Kansas City, Denver, Indianapolis, Queens, the Bronx, and other important cities in New York State | Vancouver, Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Manitoba, Montreal, Quebec, and as far out of it as St. Johns, Newfoundland | the Bronx, Queens, Boston, Cambridge, Seconk, Saskatoon, and as near as Billy Mundi's house | ...Manhattan, and as near as that sophisticated city across the bridge | [not on tape] | Amsterdam, Delft, Scheveningen, ??, the tiny town of Madurodam, and several others this reporter can't begin to pronounce | Luxemburg, Wittenburg, Nuremburg, Diesenburg, Duesenburg, and in the nearby town of Limburg |
| provide the secret evidence ___ has needed | the Palmdale Grand Jury | the Palmdale Grand Jury | the Palmdale Grand Jury | the Palmdale Grand Jury | Palmdale Grand Jury | the Palmdale Grand Jury | Governor Sargent | Mayor Lindsay | Prime Minister Trudeau | Governor Rockefeller | Governor Hearn | [not on tape] | Queen Juliana | [not on tape] |
| and avert a crippling strike of | bartenders and vet'inarians | bartenders and vet'inarians | bartenders and vet'inarians | bartenders and vet'inarians | bartenders and vet'inarians | bartenders and vet'inarians | pre-potted bakeries and baked bean farmers | high school teachers and taxi drivers | glass blowers and pig butchers | cafeteria workers and homosexual science majors | finally enable the meeting between the Vietnamese representatives and Mayor Wheeler to come to pass | [not on tape] | dike-pluggers and hotel chambermaids | [not on tape] |
| throughout | the Inland Empire | the Inland Empire | the Inland Empire | the Inland Empire | the Inland Empire | the Inland Empire | New England | the Empire State | Ontario | the entire campus | in Paris | [not on tape] | the Netherlands | [not on tape] |
| an informed | Orange County minister | Orange County minister | Orange County minister | Orange County minister | Orange County minister | Norfolk County minister | Lutheran minister in Pontiac, Michigan | Presbyterian minister in New York City | Emperor Haile Selassie | St. Louis minister | [not on tape] | desk correspondent, Jip Golsteijn | the endowed correspondent from Hamburg, Florentine Papp | |
| he looked like | Marshall Brevitz | Iggy Stooge | Marshall Brevitz | Marshall Brevitz | Felix Pappalardi | Zubin Mehta | Tom Rush | Iggy Stooge | [not on tape] | Felix Pappalardi | James Arness | [not on tape] | Heintje | Frank Chop??? |
| Tibetan Memory Trick | no | no | no | no | no | no | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | [not on tape] | yes | yes |
| A frozen beef pie for | no | no | no | no | no | David Crosby | David Crosby | Elliot Roberts | Randy Bachman | David Crosby | Kansas City, Missouri | [not on tape] | Leon Russell | Heintje |
| Suite: Judy Blue Eyes | no | no | no | no | no | Joni Mitchell, Elliot Roberts, Crosby, Neil Young | Joni Mitchell, ?, Crosby, Carole King, Moody Blues, ? | Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Carole King, David Crosby, McGuinn | David Crosby, Carole King, Joni Mitchell, McGuinn | Joni Mitchell, Asshole? King, James Taylor, David Crosby, McGuinn, Elliot Roberts | Joni Mitchell, Carole King, James Taylor, David Crosby, ?, ? | [not on tape] | David Crosby, Carole King, James Taylor, Joni, David Crosby, David Geffen, Neil Young without Crazy Horse, Joni Mitchell | Joni Mitchell, ???, Carole King, David Crosby |
| he ran around the back of | the May Company | the nearest Montgomery Ward | the K-Mart | the K-Mart | Gimbel's | Broadway at Hollywood Boulevard and Vine | any nearest Sears | the nearest A & P | the nearest A&P market | the nearest Safeway | nearest Mayfair or A&P Market | [not on tape] | the nearest market | the nearest PX |
| after which he hit up | Ralphs Market | the nearest Safeway store | Ralphs Market or the nearest thing to it | the A&P | Gristede's | the Ralphs on Sunset | the local Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. | the nearest Gristede's | yes, and in that very same store, secured the presence | he went into the city and hit up Gristede's | the nearest Safeway store | [not on tape] | that very supermarkt | the local supermarkt |
| solos | Harris Underwood (sax) FZ | Underwood (sax) Harris FZ | Harris FZ | Harris Underwood (sax) FZ | Harris Preston? | Preston Underwood (sax) FZ | FZ | Preston, Underwood (sax), Dunbar, FZ | FZ | Preston Underwood (synth) FZ | Preston Underwood (synth) FZ | [start of tape] Underwood (sax) FZ | Preston Underwood (sax) Dunbar FZ | Preston Underwood (sax) [end of tape] |
| miscellaneous | Hoch's speech first. ends after solos. Ronnie Cook. | ends after solos. Ronnie Cook. no Hoch's speech. | starts at beginning; ends after solos. Ronnie Cook. | Hoch's speech first. ends after solos. | "Tambourine Man". Ronnie Cook. | large El Dorado Cadillac leased from Bob Spreen (where the freeways meet in Downey). right near the Jack-In-The-Box on Glenoaks. not Chief Reddin. Dudley Do-Right wristwatch. Eddie, are you kidding? | closed the squeakin' door. swash-buckling flies. L. Ron Hubbard scientology seventeen-hundred-dollars-to-clear type voice. don't putz around. | Ethell--and Alice [Cooper]'s snake--said they weren't going to let him go. rumors appeared in Screw. "Joy To The World", "One", "Liar". | "Ballad Of Bilbo Baggins". | on the head of a pizza. "Joy To The World". "One". | "Bali Ha'i" (old birds). Jeff Simmons and his wife Brena. many mentions of Brena. published recently in Crawdaddy. "One". very, very clear, L. Ron Hubbard-like voice. | foreign aid. Shocking Blue. The George Baker Selection. The Tee Set. published recently in De Telegraaf. "One". "Joy To The World". "Celebrate". If they think they're gonna draft me, they are Nuts. | she also practices Hexerei. |
Thanks to Hanzo, Aad Hoogesteger, Jeroen Janssens, and Charles Pater for help with Rotterdam, and to Chris West for Chicago.