Frank Zappa - Entire Catalogue Remastered and Reissued

I've been to two stores. Nada.

But, one of them was nice enough to take back my cracked Chunga's Revenge and credit my account.

 

Same here in Wilmington, not even FYE had them.
I had to get mine though Amazon

 

By the way, all five discs and cases arrived in perfect condition. Amazon US.

 

Doesn't it just print the lyrics, same as the last two Ryko CD editions? The libretto is a LOT more detailed. http://www.afka.net/books/Absolutely Free - The Complete Libretto.htm

 

I ordered all 12 from Best Buy. They arrived today, no damage. However CHUNGA was missing and there were two copies of JUST ANOTHER BAND! Frustrating, but BB is sending me Chunga via Expedited Shipping.

 

It includes the foreword from the libretto along with the lyrics in lieu of printing the entire libretto. Missing are all of the "episode" titles and the indicators of who sang what.

If anyone wants to do a compare: http://recordmecca.blogspot.com/2010/04/mothers-of-inventionabsolutely-free.html

Most fans won't care. It's enough.

 

I'm kinda surprised by this result......

http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/details.php?id=24419

 

Thanks man – good on ya!

That was my impression too, even after only comparing the title track. I've listened to this album a million times (I really believe that's a conservative estimate), and the vinyl and Ryko are both burned in my brain.

Or what's left of it.

RZZZZZZZZZZZZ

 

I went ahead and ordered these from Amazon as well.

Absolutely Free
Chunga's Revenge
Burnt Weeny Sandwich
Cruising With Ruben and the Jets

I never bought these on CD before and have the Rykos of the other new ones so I figured this was a good place to start.

I do find it funny that the extra material on Uncle Meat is referred to as penalty tracks by you guys. I guess more isn't always better.

 

When the extra material is 40 minutes of crappy dialog and a song from 1982 sung in Italian, inserted into the original playing order, there's no way in hell anyone is calling that a bonus!

 

Since that CD version is all I ever owned I just put it on and let it rip. I always looked at it as Frank being Frank.

 

I don't know when that was started, but I would not be surprised if it has been over twenty years that we have been calling them that. Obviously, it is meant as the opposite of bonus.

I realize that Frank meant those tracks to fit in as conceptual continuity with the Uncle Meat film (which was on VHS at the time), but I don't see how he expected them to flow with the rest of the program. The first film excerpt is 37 and a half minutes long. There is not really much music. It's just incoherent dialogue. "Tengo Na Minchia Tanta" is a song, but it was recorded in 1982. The song is okay, but how does it fit in with a 1969 album? The second film excerpt, which is only four minutes long, doesn't look so bad by comparison.

The other thing is that those tracks prevented Uncle Meat from being a single disc like Roxy, Sheik Yerbouti, YAWYI, and Tinsel Town Rebellion. At least when Zappa In New York was expanded, it was with material that we wanted to hear. Not so with Uncle Meat.

Fortunately, those tracks are easily skipped.

 

Luckily I've got an amazing needledrop of the US 1st press Uncle Meat. Sounds killer!

 

If this link is working, I believe it's the first usage of the term.
Biffy the Elephant Shrew in alt.fan.frank-zappa on March 12th, 1996.

 

I doubt it's digital compression. It's most likely the analogue compression done back in 1967 mixed with tape distortion over the years.

If someone could post a waveform it would probably clear things up.

 

'Invocation & Ritual Dance of the Young Pumpkin' from ZR-3835 (click for high-res):



edit: According to TT DR Meter, this is the 'loudest' track on the CD; DR EQ 6.

 

I hate waveforms. Just listen. The proof is in the pudding. The CD sounds great. End of story.

 

I'm fairly certain that Frank meant the UM "penalty tracks" to work as advance promo for the completed Uncle Meat movie, which came out on VHS in April of 1989 (well after the original Ryko UM CD). It also had the effect of lowering expectations in the film, for me anyway. If you have the penalty tracks, you do not need to see the film--unless that kind of life looks interesting to you, of course ;-)

 

Biffy originating that term is fitting.

 

I sat through the 40 minute track once or twice. One thing I found frustrating is that it opened with a segment with "The Uncle Meat Variations" playing, leading me to think there would be connections with the record throughout. Instead it veered away to long monologues by Frank's secretary, Aynsley Dunbar, and others with tenuous connections at best to the album and the 60's band.

However, I've never considered it as big a deal as other people on the Internet seem to. Just put the disc in, fast forward to track four, problem solved.

 

In Zappa's defense, in 1987 when the CD came out, the industry standard was 74:33 for a single CD. The original double album runs a few minutes over that.

Ironically, Ryko themselves broke that length barrier in 1988 (and publicized it greatly) with an 80-minute Mission Of Burma compilation, and 79 minute CDs became fairly common.

 

BURNT WEENY SANDWICH is another winner.

I am SO enjoying these reissues. Frank was so great. Gawd, what an original.

 

That's how I see it as well. Probably haven't listened to them since the film came out! I'm not big on the film, since it seems more of "an enjoyable collection of home movies" (as the Mother People review of the time put it) than a "Mothers Of Invention movie" (which implies, you know, that The Mothers Of Invention would be in it--for the most part they're not, apart from Don, Motorhead and Ray Collins).

Pat, you're most likely correct. Time filling would have been an issue back then. Good thing that Frank didn't see fit to make UM fit on a single disc by hacking things out--which COULD have happened.

 

I see what you mean. I have a copy of the libretto you linked to, but I'd forgotten how much more there is to it.

 

Ha! Mine arrived, no damage. However, I got 2 CHUNGAs and no JUST ANOTHER BAND. We should exchange!!!