THE LOST EPISODES

"The Lost Episodes" is an album release by US rock artist Frank Zappa. The album was released though Rykodisc from February 1996. The Lost Episodes is a posthumous archive album released after Frank Zappa´s untimely death on the 4th of December 1993. All material on the album are unreleased or unreleased versions of previously released tracks. The tracks were recorded between 1958 and 1981.

There are some very early blues recordings by Frank Zappa and his youth friend Captain Beefheart on the album as well as some pre-Mothers of Invention recordings from the early sixties ("Fountain of Love", "Any Way the Wind Blows" are here in very early versions) and some recordings from the classical movie score Zappa made for his English teacher for his "Run Home Slow" movie. There´s an instrumental lounge jazz version of "Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance" from 1961 that deserves a mention for being very different from the version which appears on "We're Only in It for the Money (1968)".

The really interesting tracks appear towards the middle and the end of the album though. Songs like the unreleased 1967 recording of "Wedding Dress Song/Handsome Cabin Boy" and the fantastic 1973 recorded Ricky Lancelotti led version of "Wonderful Wino" are some of the highlights on The Lost Episodes. The latter would have fit right in on "Overnight Sensation (1973)". Other songs I treasure on the album are the 1972-73 band´s studio versions of "Kung Fu", "RDNZL" and "Inca Roads". Really great jazz rock/fusion/experimental rock. "I Don't Wanna Get Drafted" appears here in the single version. The original album version from "You Are What You is (1981)" is a great track, but this single version is great too. Note the excellent piano part, which sets this version apart from the album version.

The sound quality varies from rather poor on some of the early recordings to really well sounding on most of the songs. Upon conclusion "The Lost Episodes" is a good quality compilation of unreleased material by Frank Zappa. The quality is not equally high on every track though and I wouldn´t call the the compilation a mandatory listen. There are a couple of gems here though and a 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is deserved.