The last time we ventured into the Beat The Boots!<\/i> collection from the late Frank Zappa was way back in 1997, when this site was still in its infancy. Since then, a third collection was briefly available via MP3 download on Zappa\u2019s website, but seems to be sadly out of print.<\/p>\n
So, back into the Pierce Memorial Archives for another taste of forbidden vinyl\u2014this time, As An Am<\/i>, which was the most recent set of recordings in the first box set. Comprising of a mere five songs and an interview snippet from \u201cRockline,\u201d it captures Zappa and band well, if presenting an extremely limited picture of what the band was circa 1981 and 1982.<\/p>\n
Now, I\u2019m aware there are plenty of discs in Zappa\u2019s official discography that capture what the early \u201980s band sounded like, so it\u2019s not like As An Am<\/i> is an exclusive snapshot of that portion of Zappa\u2019s history. And it\u2019s not that the inclusion of tracks like \u201cYoung And Monde\u201d are poor choices; if anything, tracks like this demonstrate just how skilled of a guitarist Zappa was (to say nothing about the professionalism of his entire band).<\/p>\n
Maybe it\u2019s that songs like \u201cSharleena,\u201d \u201cBlack Napkins\u201d and \u201cThe Torture Never Stops\u201d have been featured so often that getting another dose of them feels like a bit of overkill (even though the version of \u201cThe Torture Never Stops\u201d was from Zappa\u2019s 1981 Halloween show in New York, since officially released on the Halloween \u201881<\/i> box set). Granted, I\u2019m no expert on Zappa\u2019s set lists over the years, but it\u2019s safe to say that some lesser known tracks might have gotten featured in their place. (Then again, not featuring the \u201chits\u201d might have lost the bootleggers sales.)<\/p>\n
So, we\u2019re left with two tracks from Cologne, Germany in 1982, three from New York in 1981, and the 1981 \u201cRockline\u201d snippet where, in a bit of poetic justice, Zappa blasts those profiting off him through bootlegging. And, for the loyal Zappa fan, it still remains a fairly interesting snapshot of Zappa in concert, though the sound quality seems like it was recorded off of someone\u2019s father\u2019s console TV in the living room. I know, I know\u2026 it\u2019s a bootleg, stupid\u2014and for a bootleg, it\u2019s still decent enough quality.<\/p>\n
If As An Am<\/i> has an overlying weakness, it\u2019s simply that it doesn\u2019t feature enough Zappa to keep the listener satisfied. Sure, 43 minutes was fairly common in terms of album lengths in the \u201970s and \u201980s, but this one just left me wanting more. (Again, one has to wonder why, even near the end of his life, Zappa himself didn\u2019t pad these releases with even one additional song to differentiate them from the original boots.)<\/p>\n
As An Am<\/i> is a decent enough offering, and in terms of bootlegs, it\u2019s quite listenable. But it\u2019s not quite as satisfying as one might want it to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5625],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-46555","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-frank-zappa","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46555","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=46555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46555"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}