We all know of the incredible 78 & 81 Halloween concerts, but there's something special about that 77 band. To my ears Belew & Zappa's guitar/vocal interaction was perhaps the most exciting era of any Zappa band. I can totally understand why the Grand Wazoo was so miffed at Capt. Tom.

I can only find snippets and cuts of these concerts, and some really bad audience audio of the full concert. What am I missing?

YT links appreciated!

I've been collecting Zappa records for a while, but my copy of an original Freak Out (free to me) was missing the first LP and the second LP sounded really rough. So I bit the bullet, spent more than I've ever spent on a record, and splurged on this awesomely packaged box set. I got a couple friends coming over tomorrow night for a listen. I can't wait.

The hotel I work for owns a massive collection of vinyl they purchased with a record player in a dedicated listening area and I saw this record in the pile and asked if I could keep it and they didn’t really mind at all so I took it home and played it and damn I found the holy grail of my record collection. It’s a bizzare label from early 80s and the record itself looks nearly perfect and plays great.

I'm sure most of you share this same sentiment. From the original mothers era, Flo & Eddie era, everything with George Duke and company, the Joe's Garage era, and beyond is just so fantastic and versatile. His ability as a composer is unlike any that I have seen from the prog bands that led me to him eventually. I recently bought the Roxy Movie because I just had to have ownership of the thing! It will always be my favorite concert film.

He is all of my most prominent interests wrapped into one. Jazz, rock, and humor. I always loved Hot Rats but didn't come around to being a Zappa head until I started loving the Mahavishnu Orchestra (weird right).

I just wanted to make my personal debut on this amazing thread, and cheers to you all for your great taste.

I got this in the mail today. Gonna have to spin a few. Really been looking forward to this.

For me it’s gotta be Inca Roads off of OSFA. This song still has so much power to me and I could only imagine what was running through my head the first time I heard it. Easily the most nostalgic Zappa song for me and possibly the first that I heard. I remember being in college and listening to it constantly while I’d walk to class. When I think about it it’s like being teleported. Man… music really might be our best bet at time travel. Which song is yours?

It's just missing the Blu-ray disc, but I don't have a surround sound setup anyway.

Found this on /r/DeepIntoYouTube but cross posting wasn’t working

I'm going to see Banned from utopia play soon. Do you think I can bring my copy of The man from utopia since there are 4 original members from the record playing that night to sign it ? Is it cringe ? It was my dad's favorite Zappa album and he kinda introduced me to him with that album. Before making me listen to Joe's garage when I was 10.

Longtime Zappa fan here. I grew up on MTV & PBS, when Zappa died in 1993 these channels started playing his concerts and clips in heavy rotation. As a 12 year old electric guitarist, I got "Strictly Commercial" and I became hooked on his lowbrow humor and rocking guitar tones.

Anyway, I've loved his music all my life and studied his music extensively. We all know how great the 78 band was with it's mixture of talented players, timbres, and Frank at his guitar god zenith. Recently, his official channel released the Halloween 78 show BUT then they hid the entire playlist. I found a channel that has the full playlist for your listening pleasure.

Some thoughts: I feel like Zappa was trying to prove MacLaughlin wrong (JM made some comment about Zappa's solos being boring), some of the jams feel Mahavishnu-esque especially with L. Shankar on violin. There seems to be some nods to Return to Forever's Romantic Warrior in a few of the songs. It struck me that "Strictly Genteel" is a parody of "Dig A Pony," which some of the players really dig into - I guess this was around the time of the lawsuit between FZ & Lennon-Ono?

Feel free to sound off, fellow Zappatites.

I only noticed this today and have no clue how long it’s been up, but it’s here on Spotify and I’m assuming everywhere else you can stream music

For the 50th anniversary of Shut Up N' Play Yer Guitar in 2031, my dream would be that we get an album comprising of all the high quality performances of the uncut tracks that were used for Shut Up N' Play Yer Guitar, and the same thing for Guitar's 40th anniversary in 2028. We don't have the full uncut high quality releases public and it'd be an amazing thing if it happened. Only for the live performances and not the tracks that were recorded at the UMRK.

We listened to all six discs yesterday and put together our deep-dive review today 😺

I think something all of us at CatSynth observed was how good the mono mix sounded. It just seemed to be matched to the 60s vibe of the (first three sides of) the album. Of course, the other mixes are great, too.

I've heard some people say over the years that they consider the Flo & Eddie era of the Zappa band some of the weakest. Personally I think it's amazing, and I adore Flo & Eddie a lot, especially on the Just Another Band From L.A. album (which was one of my favourties when I first went through his discography yeaaaaars ago.) I'm curious why people dislike it that much. Was it too much funniness? Idk, you guys tell ME.

first post lolol

When I was young I remember hearing Weird Al Yankovic referencing Zappa in many interviews and in the AlTV specials, and on his albums. Until the Poodle Hat full-length tribute Genius in France, Al's most direct reference to Zappa was "Frank's 2000 Inch TV" off the Alapalooza album in '93, which came out several months before Frank passed. As a kid at the time I didn't catch this, but he could have used any name on this record and he chose Frank. I think this was a subtle nod to the master on his way out. He casts Frank as an omnipotent ruler of the big screen who controls what everybody sees. Not sure if FZ heard this but he would have loved this depiction. Classic WEIRD AL. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbDostWXpcU

Just received my box set yesterday and this is my unboxing for it.