![]() ![]() Indeed much of the performance seems composed and selected just to see if his backing band can play it. As he was in between his more complex, composed instrumental period and just post Overnight Sensation, there’s a strong mix of the musically and lyrically absurd. Throughout, comical asides are supplemented by assorted sound effects, odd measures, breakneck tempo shifts and deadpan lyrics essentially what one would expect from Zappa at this time. Opening with an appropriate spoken introduction by Zappa entitled, “Something Terrible Has Happened…” the band proceeds to vamp into a nearly ten-minute version of “Cosmik Debris” that finds them delivering a simmering funk blues behind a blistering guitar solo from Zappa. And while these “new” versions may vary only slightly due to Zappa’s densely structured compositional approach to his music, it’s still something to hear them performed in a live setting without the benefit of the studio overdubs ostensibly applied to Roxy & Elsewhere. Here, listeners are provided alternate versions of the majority of the tracks on 1974’s Roxy & Elsewhere. ![]() Along with the film’s release, an accompanying soundtrack has also been made available. With the release of the fabled concerts this year, longtime fans and neophytes alike are finally able to actually see what they’ve been hearing for all these years, taking in the sinuously dexterous playing of Zappa and his backing band, the Mothers. Sure Roxy & Elsewhere has been available for years, offering an aural glimpse of some of the most technically demanding music Zappa ever penned performed in front of a rabid audience, but simply hearing it is a far different experience than hearing and seeing it. Yet so devout is the cult of Zappa that, for more than 40 years fans have been clamoring for the release of the ill-fated footage from Zappa’s December 1973 run of shows at Hollywood’s Roxy Theater. Having composed and released a staggering amount of music over the course of his sadly truncated career, one would be hard-pressed to make the time to listen to everything the man recorded and released, officially or otherwise. Frank Zappa is, without question, one of if not the most prolific artists of the 20th century.
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