AS AN AM

I have said before that the reason a Zappa collector might want bootlegs are the "eyebrows", the flourishes and improvisations that Frank encouraged the band to add. That's one of the deficiencies of this album, one of Zappa's "Beat The Boots" sets. There are no eyebrows on these songs, cut from two different shows (one of which I recorded when it was first broadcast, and it didn't sound this bad).

The other problem with this set is the sound. At best, you could call it fair. There is distortion throughout.

The album begins (I'm sure the bootlegger thought this was very funny) with a statement from an interview where Zappa complains about the bootleg release of his concerts, particularly the songs he has not officially released yet. Yeah. Very funny.

The rest of the album consists of five tracks, actually good performances of some good songs. Young & Monde, officially released as Let's Move To Cleveland was announced with a different title each night (I saw three shows on this tour). It's one of my favorite of Frank's 1980's instrumental pieces. And Black Napkins and The Black Page are also fantastic songs.

But because of the sound quality, and the fact that better versions of each song are easily available, this is only for the hard core collector.