Frank Zappa - Mystery Disc

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Music reviews of Mystery Disc

Music Review: Interesting Archival Release
Rating: 3 Stars

The disc follows the earliest years of Zappa's career, featuring some pretty interesting pre-Mothers material. Film scores (RUN HOME SLOWLY, DUKE OF PRUNES), recordings of Zappa in various rock ensembles, a strange miscellany of pieces recorded at Studio Z, and even a hilarious snippet of Zappa taking over a college radio station (THE UNCLE FRANKIE SHOW). (I believe) The first recordings of Zappa with the group that would later become the Mothers is also included (AT THE BROADSIDE), and the film they played as a background group in (MONDO HOLLYWOOD) when Herb Cohen discovered them. Captain Beefheart fans will also rejoice in some of the very earliest appearances of Don Van Vliet's persona (THE BIRTH OF CAPTAIN BEEFHEART, a small snippet of Vliet reading a portion of the script to Capt. Beefheart vs. the Grunt People). There's also some early FZ guitar noodling (BOSSA NOVA) and the theme to FZ's failed rock opera, I WAS A TEENAGE MALT SHOP.

The second half of the Disc has largely seen the light of day on the aforementioned albums. Some interesting material not found elsewhere include the studio version of AGENCY MAN, the (a)typical Mothers avant-garde tickle madness of SKWEEZIT SKWEEZIT SKWEEZIT, a 1972 interview snippet in which Zappa seeks to find the story behind Willie the Pimp, and goes straight the source (THE STORY OF WILLIE THE PIMP), and the Charva-like CHUCHA (FZ following his own advice again from track 11).

This material is anything but essential -- its for the curious or hardcore fans only. The casual FZ listener will doubtless find this too strange, or stupid, to bear. Fans of the early Mothers (or Beefheart), in particular, will find it pretty interesting. Regardless of who enjoys it, its a worthwhile audio documentary of the legendary cultural/musical phenomenon that was Frank Zappa.

Description of Mystery Disc

Alternative Rock CDs

• Music > Styles
• Classic Rock
• Hard Rock & Metal
• Jazz
• Miscellaneous
• Pop
• Rock