Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Stinkfoot
2. When Yuppies Go To Hell
3. Fire And Chains
4. Let's Make The Water Turn Black
5. Harry You're A Beast
6. Orange County Lumber Truck
7. Oh No
8. Lumpy Gravy
9. Eat That Question
10. Black Napkins
11. Big Swifty
12. King Kong
13. Star Wars Won't Work

Disc 2:

1. Black Page
2. T'mershi Duween
3. Dupree's Paradise
4. City Of Tiny Lites
5. Royal March (L'Histoire Du Soldat)/Theme From Bartok's 3rd
6. Sinister Footwear
7. Stevie's Spanking
8. Alien Orifice
9. Cruisin' For Burgers
10. Advance Romance
11. Strictly Genteel

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30953 in Music
• Released on: 2004-02-16
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Live

Customer Reviews

Still The Best Band You Never Heard
Few recording artists with a career of any length manage to go out on a definite high, but Zappa managed to buck the trend. Towards the end of his life he supervised a programme of re-releases, put the final polish on some unreleased material and, as here, released live recordings that demonstrated the awesome machine that the Frank Zappa touring band had become by 1988.

This for me is Zappa's greatest live recording, featuring a twelve-piece big band of musicians playing out of their skins on music that only genuine virtuosos could tackle. Zappa himself joked that the fact that the instrumentalists were good wouldn't make any difference to the sort of people who would want to listen to his music, but when a band is this tight, you just have to sit up and take notice. The sax solos on "Sinister Footwear" are blistering: "jazz noises", maybe, but you don't have to be a jazz fan to love them. The brass is rampant throughout the album, but there's also plenty of space for the bass, drums and, of course, Zappa's own electric guitar to shine.

The fact that most of these tracks are instrumental means that you both gain and lose by not having Zappa's lyrics. If you're primarily interested in Zappa the satirist, this album may sound too sterile to you. If, on the other hand, you are one of the many classical and jazz fans drawn to the complexity and wit of Zappa's melodies and harmonies, this is a firm recommendation.

Zappa's reputation is on the up again, with a number of tribute bands and classical ensembles taking up the considerable challenge of exploring music that often pushes the boundaries of performability. No matter how well they do, this is one set of performances that it will be virtually impossible to emulate.

Sumptuous
One of the criminal aspects of Frank Zappa's lack of superstardom on an Elton John level is that most people will never get to hear this album. The band is perfect, the sound quality is perfect, the music is perfect. Even the computer samples fit in well with the quality of the music. The highlights being 'When Yuppies Go To Hell', 'Dupree's Paradise', 'Big Swifty' and 'Cruising For Burgers'

An oustanding piece of work
I borrowed this CD from a local library, expecting the usual mix of (mostly) odd, bizarre and hard-to-get-into tracks with the odd gem from FZ ... but this is outstanding stuff.
There is hardly a duff track on here, and it demands repeated listenings - and still sounds fresh upon each one.
Highly recommended.
Frank ... wherever you are ... Thanks!