About These Disks

Way Back, a long time ago, at the start of the 1990's, a couple of well known artists released a few recordings from small, obscure performances and made a big fuss about how they were beating the bootleggers by releasing authorized versions of the performances before the scum bags could release stolen versions.

In 1991, Frank gave a new twist to the whole affair when he decided to team up with Rhino Records (themselves often accused by artists of being nothing more than a bunch of bootleggers) to slightly enhance, press and release several of the bootleg recordings that he had collected over the years, - in essence, bootlegging the bootleggers.

Thus, the now legendary two-box set of uncharacteristicly low-fi Zappa recordings, Beat The Boots, was born.

For the true audiophile, these disks probably rank as the worst sounding recordings that you could ever inflict upon your CD player, but to the true Zappaphile, This set of CD's is a priceless collection of all too rare glimpses into un-edited, raw performances by various Zappa incarnations.

Dig in and enjoy!

 
Penis Dimension
The Air
dog Breath/Mother People
You Didn't Try To call Me
King Kong
Who Are The Brain Police?
If You've read through some of my other reviews, then you are well aware that I'm a big fan of Frank's Flo & Eddie period. Disconnected Synapses is no exception.

This disk provides a rare glimpse of an earlier incarnation of the band featuring Jeff Simmons on bass, George Duke on keyboards/trombone and Jean Luc Ponty on electric violin.

While every tune is powerfully delivered, and plenty of Zappa's guitar abounds, the real gem is the blues-rock rendition of Brain Police that closes the performance. This track is so good that it makes me wonder why Frank never included it on one of his legitimate releases.

 

 
Happy Together
Wino Man - with Doctor John routine
Concentration Moon
Pallidan Routine
Call any Vegetable
Little House I Used To Live In
Mudshark Variations
Holiday In Berlin
Sleeping In a Jar
Cruising For Burgers
Featuring the same line-up as the previous disk (minus Ponty), Freaks and Motherfu*#@%! is another solid performance, even if somewhat lacking in the fidelity department.

Of note are Wino Man (sung by Simmons), Holiday In Berlin (complete with lyrics), and the small snippet of Pallidan Routine.

 

 
Does This Kind Of Life Look Interesting To You
A pound For A Brown (On The Bus)
Sleeping In A Jar (with extensions)
Sharleena
The Sanzini Brothers
What Will This Morning Bring Me This Evening?
What Kind Of Girl Do You Think We are?
Bwana Dik
Latex Solar Beef
Daddy, Daddy, Daddy
Little House I Used To Live In
Holiday In Berlin
Inca Roads/Easy Meat
Cruisin' For Burgers
You guessed it... another glowing review. Tengo Na' Minchia Tanta contains even more great performances by the Flo & Eddie band.

The entire selection of songs from Sharleena through Daddy, Daddy, Daddy are the reason to get your hands on this disk.

You won't be disappointed.

 

 
Disc 1

Intro
Peaches En Regalia
Tears Began To Fall
She Painted Up Her Face
Half-A-Dozen Provocative Squats
Call Any Vegetable
Any Way The Wind Blows

 Disc 2

Magdalena
Dog Breath
Sofa
A Pound For A Brown (On The Bus)
Wonderful Wino
Sharleena
Cruisin' For Burgers
King Kong
Fire
This two-disk set is the combination of the separate albums Swiss Cheese and Fire, though I think they are both from the same performance and may represent the entirety of the ill-fated Montreux, Switzerland show that ended with the venue burning to the ground, the Mothers losing all of their equipment and Deep Purple penning Smoke On The Water.

If this alone isn't enough to convince you to add this set to your collection, consider that the sound quality of these recordings is superb (all things considered) and so are the musical performances.

Disk two contains the only known full performance of Sofa from this incarnation, although a part of this piece made its way onto YCDTOSA Vol I, and another part can be heard on Playground Psychotics.

 

 
Kung Fu
Redunzl
Dupree's Paradise
T'Mershi Duween
Father Oblivion
A purely instrumental offering from the '73 incarnation, Piquantique offers a rare glimpse at early versions of both the band and some well known material. Most of the music on this disk eventually resurfaced among Zappa's legitimate releases, but here we get to hear them in a less evolved state. Check out Father Oblivion which, instead of being the familiar piece from Apostrophe', is an amalgamation of themes that eventually turned into Greggery Peccary and the Bebop Tango.

Jean-Luc Ponty Returns to the fold and is the featured soloist throughout. It would have been nice to hear a little more of Franks guitar, but from the sounds of things, his fingers were probably frozen.

 

 
Dupree's Paradise
It Can't Happen Here
Hungry Freaks, daddy
You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here
How Could I Be Such A Fool
I ain't Got No Heart
I'm Not Satisfied
Wowie Zowie
Let's Make The Water Turn Black
Harry, You're A Beast
Oh No
More Trouble Every day
Louie Louie
Camarillo Brillo
Unmitigated Audacity suffers from a horrible, mono, off-to-the-left sound quality and a great band reduced to rehashing a bunch of old MOI vocal tunes, but Franks guitar work in Oh No and More Trouble Every day are definitely worth checking out.

Aside from the version found on YCDTOSA VOL. 6, this is the only live rendition of Camarillo Brillo that you will find within the Zappa Catalog. That alone is enough of a reason to grab this disk.

Check out Jeff Simmon's funky guitar licks throughout.