The nice thing about artists like Frank Zappa is that they had
\nthe foresight to have a tape machine running almost constantly,
\nthereby guaranteeing the fans that they’d never run out of new
\nthings to listen to, even after the artist had long left this
\nworld.<\/p>\n
\nThe Lost Episodes<\/i>, the first posthumous disc from Zappa (
\nCivilization Phaze III<\/i> had been planned as a release prior
\nto Zappa’s death in 1993), is a surprisingly cohesive collection of
\nsongs, ranging in quality from “historical interest” to
\nstudio-polished. Why some of these cuts never saw the light of day
\nprior to the release of this disc is a mystery, but thankfully they
\nwere indeed released.<\/p>\n
Containing a lot of material from pre-1970 (including some of
\nthe earliest Zappa recordings from the ’50s), one could assume that
\nthis disc is aimed at the early Mothers Of Invention fans – but
\nthis wouldn’t be totally correct. Yes, there is plenty of material
\nhere to make fans of work like
\nFreak Out!<\/i> celebrate – an early version of “Any Way The Wind
\nBlows,” selections from Zappa’s score for the film
\nRun Home Slow<\/i> and a true jazz version of “Take Your Clothes
\nOff When You Dance” (which is an outstanding version) will
\ndefinitely be pleasing.<\/p>\n
Yet even back in the early ’60s, one could see the germination
\nof the seed that was Zappa the serious composer. Certainly the
\npieces from
\nRun Home Slow<\/i> suggest this, but so does the “Mount St.
\nMary’s Concert Excerpt,” even though it appears to have been
\nhumorous in nature. Zappa was already interested in Varese at this
\nstage in his life, so it’s not terribly surprising that he’d be
\nexperimenting with serious music even this early in his career. I
\nonly wish there was more of this particular concert featured, so I
\ncould have really gotten a feel for what Zappa was trying to
\naccomplish.<\/p>\n
There is plenty of humor abundant on
\nThe Lost Episodes<\/i>, including a hilarious doo-wop send-up on
\n“Charva,” but Zappa also shows how serious of a student he was of
\nthe genre, as heard on “Fountain Of Love,” co-written with Don
\n“Captain Beefheart” Van Vliet. Likewise, the medley of “Wedding
\nDress Song” and “Handsome Cabin Boy” provides an interesting
\nportrait of Zappa the young man, and is highly enjoyable.<\/p>\n
Even as his career progressed, the quality of the music did not
\ndiminish, as versions of “Wonderful Wino,” “RDNZL,” “Inca Roads”
\nand an 11-minute take on “Sharleena” demonstrate. Not only do these
\nversions build on their more well-established official releases,
\nbut they add whole new aspects to the songs, again making me wonder
\nwhy Zappa declared these to be not ready for the spotlight.<\/p>\n
There are a few questionable inclusions, such as “Cops And
\nBuns,” detailing one of the many warnings that Zappa and crew
\nreceived from the men in blue, as well as “Basement Music, No. 1,”
\nwhich I’m still trying to figure out. These aren’t bad tracks, but
\none wonders why they were included with such high water-marks from
\nthe Zappa archives.<\/p>\n
\nThe Lost Episodes<\/i> is the kind of disc that makes you wonder
\njust what other treasures lie hidden in the Zappa tape vaults, but
\nit also shows the high standards that Zappa had for his work. Many
\nof these tracks are excellent, yet they never saw the light until
\n1996. This is definitely not a barrel-bottom collection, and
\ndeserves to be placed among Zappa’s best releases during his
\nlifetime.<\/p>\n
2005 Christopher Thelen and “The Daily Vault.” All rights
\nreserved. Review or any portion may not be reproduced without
\nwritten permission. Cover art is the intellectual property of the
\nZappa Family Trust \/ record label, and is used for informational
\npurposes only.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5625],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-38561","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-frank-zappa","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38561"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}