Sorry for the old thread, but I had some thoughts that came up just now on these two. Mainly due to the extra material that came out of the Roxy sets and the movie as well.
So I've been just sampling the 7 disc set of Roxy and was a little annoyed at the sort of lesser guitar parts, in length. Then I watched the movie and it became clear to me why these are so different. Zappa was doing what naturally came to a musician. He has a lot of people on stage them gave them a lot of space.
Though the Helsinki set has sax, it is clearly a rock band plus percussion album, whereas the Roxy material is jazz heavy. It also had more "performance" type of elements, the stripper and all the other participation. There just was not that much room for extra playful stuff. Other than the Finnish elements on disc 2.
If you wanted to imagine the band on stage in the Helsinki sets, you would have to watch the Token Of His Extreme videos. That also has a Pygmy Twylyte that closely resembles the Helsinki version.
In Helsinki, there is a lot of stage banter, but nearly as much as in Roxy. Not that the audience was less able to "get" everything in Helsinki, but Zappa knew the songs that worked well everywhere and then the ones that were best left for US audiences when decorated with lengthier monologs and dialogs. Room Service in Helsinki, however, is my favorite of that ever. There are some cultural aspects that come out of that very well.
Zappa in Helsinki/Finland is explained in this column by two Finns.
https://www.palasokeri.com/artikkeli/1126This thought process all came out because, even though I've had these songs in my head for decades, the last month or so I developed an obsession with Pygmy Twylyte that makes it almost as valuable as Inca Roads in my mind. I already was quite attached to Inca Roads when the LP of One Size came out, due to the Helsinki solo. I definitely did not have all the LPs when they came out, probably about 10-12 LPs in all before the CD era.
I'm Finnish so if you have any trivia you need explained in YCDTOSA vol 2, I will keep track of this thread. I was not at the concert, I was in Ohio at the time, but I did meet (and lose touch as he moved apartments) the Juhani of the link above. He gave me my first Zappa bootlegs (and the only ones I still have on CDR).
The tango Satumaa on Disc 2 in its original Finnish. An evergreen still sung at tango/dance events. This recording is from 1955. Accordion and strings was standard for all tango recordings. I prefer the accordion alone, with some minimal other instruments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMbOKgG_8gA