During the ’80s, Frank Zappa created special boxed sets of some
\nof his earlier albums, and sold them to fans as
\nThe Old Masters<\/i>. As an incentive for fans to spend their
\nmoney on albums they undoubtedly had (albeit in nicer condition),
\nZappa included a bonus record featuring material never made before
\nelsewhere.<\/p>\n
After Zappa’s death in 1993, all but two of the cuts featured on
\nthese bonus records – known as “Mystery Discs” – were released on
\nthe CD
\nMystery Disc<\/i>. (The remaining two tracks had become bonus
\ntracks on
\nAbsolutely Free<\/i>.) Yet listening to this disc, I had to
\nwonder why many of these selections were even let out of the
\nvault.<\/p>\n
Granted, some of these have their own unique charms – “Charva,”
\n“Original Duke Of Prunes” and “Theme From ‘Run Home Slow'” all are
\ninteresting snapshots of Zappa as a young, up-and-coming artist,
\nand they are enjoyable to listen to. The same can be said for
\n“Speed Freak Boogie,” “Black Beauty” and “Wedding Dress Song \/ The
\nHandsome Cabin Boy” (which sounds exactly like the version on
\nThe Lost Sessions<\/i>), as well as early versions of “How Could
\nI Be Such A Fool” and “Plastic People”.<\/p>\n
So far, so good, right? So why would
\nMystery Disc<\/i> also include what sounds like a generous
\nportion of the on-stage play featured on
\nAhead Of Their Time<\/i> yet again? If it’s not the same
\nperformance from that night in London in 1968, it sounds damned
\nsimilar. Granted, I could say that a different version of “Charva”
\nwas on
\nThe Lost Sessions<\/i>, but this track is still pretty
\nenjoyable.<\/p>\n
What tends to drag
\nMystery Disc<\/i> down are the numerous spoken-word pieces that
\nseem to have no real place in the vast Zappa catalog, such as
\n“Opening Night Party At Studio Z” (though I understand the historic
\nsignificance of its inclusion), “I Was A Teenage Malt Shop” or
\n“Original Mothers At The Fillmore East”. Yeah, the diehard Zappa
\nfan will probably drool at hearing such historical nuggets, but to
\nmost people, these will just serve as interruptions to the musical
\nflow. (And, yes, I know that Zappa used spoken-word well in the
\ncourse of albums like
\nSheik Yerbouti<\/i>, but it just doesn’t work as well this time
\naround.)<\/p>\n
In fact, if I had to choose between
\nMystery Disc<\/i> and
\nThe Lost Sessions<\/i> as to which is the better treasure trove,
\nI’d have to pick
\nThe Lost Sessions<\/i>.
\nMystery Disc<\/i> has its moments, but turns out to be one of
\nthose discs that only Zappa completists need to own.<\/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":27215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5625],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-38565","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-frank-zappa","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38565","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=38565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38565"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}