| Track: | Rating: | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. The Blackouts | | | | ||
| 2. Lost In A Whirlpool | | | | ||
| 3. Ronnie Sings? | | ||||
| 4. Kenny's Booger Story | | ||||
| 5. Ronnie's Booger Story | | ||||
| 6. Mount St. Mary's Concert Excerpt | | | | | |
| 7. Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance | | | | | |
| 8. Tiger Roach | | | | ||
| 9. Run Home Slow Theme | | | | | |
| 10. Fountain Of Love | | | | ||
| 11. Run Home Cues, 1/22 | | | | ||
| 12. Any Way The Wind Blows | | | | ||
| 13. Run Home Cues, 1/23 | | | | ||
| 14. Charva | | | | ||
| 15. The Dick Kunc Story | | | | ||
| 16. Wedding Dress Song | | | | | |
| 17. Handsome Cabin Boy | | | | | |
| 18. Cops & Buns | | | | ||
| 19. The Big Squeeze | | | | ||
| 20. I'm A Band Leader | | | | ||
| 21. Alley Cat | | | | ||
| 22. The Grand Wazoo | | | | | |
| 23. Wonderful Wino | | | | ||
| 24. Kung Fu | | | | | |
| 25. RDNZL | | | | | |
| 26. Basement Music 1/21 | | | | | |
| 27. Inca Roads | | | | | |
| 28. Lil' Clanton Shuffle | | | | | |
| 29. I Don't Wanna Get Drafted | | | | | |
| 30. Sharleena | | | | | |
The Lost Episodes is a compilation of various previously unreleased tracks from the Zappa archives. Taken as a whole, the album is an essential release for the diehard fan.
Most of the material on this album dates from the 1960s, much of it from Zappa's pre-Freak Out! period. The early archival material, while a bit lacking in quality at times, is extremely useful in pointing out the future career direction of Zappa (and Captain Beefheart, who guests on several tracks). The later material, by contrast, is generally both interesting and objectively very good.
This album almost defies a track-by-track description, but this reviewer will nonetheless try. Since there are thirty tracks on the album, I'll try to keep my comments brief.
"The Blackouts" is a spoken-word clip of Zappa's early 1960s band. A historically interesting intro, but of little greater value.
"Lost In A Whirlpool" features Beefheart, and merits its
I don't have anything nice to say about Ronnie and Kenny...
Given its early date of composition, The "Mount St. Mary's Concert Excerpt" is actually a surprisingly good piece of 20th century-style classical music (al a Varese, Kunst et al). The audience interaction is classic as well.
"Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance" is a subtle, laid-back version of the track we all know and love from We're Only In It For The Money. Nicely done.
"Tiger Roach" doesn't really enthrall me. A few decent hints at Beefheart's later persona aside, this is fairly insubstantial.
The "Run Home Slow" trilogy is a series of brief excepts from a Western film which Zappa scored - the first is good, the second banal, the third too short. All are interesting historically.
"Fountain Of Love" is decent doo-wop, well-composed and with enough sarcasm (as well a bit of killer bass feedback) to give it a high rating. "Any Way The Wind Blows" is a decent run-through of the track which later surfaced on Freak Out. "Charva" is amusing enough, but musically insubstantial (which -- I know -- was the idea...). Dick Kunc's spoken word story is vaguely interesting, but not overly significant.
"Wedding Dress Song" and "Handsome Cabin Boy" are decent sea shanties; I like the first better, though opinions may very. "Cops & Buns" is a hilarious dialogue between Zappa's band and some police officers, visiting the studio on the charge of a noise violation. "The Big Squeeze", originally used as music for a commercial, is decent as a "freaky novelty track" (though it might have worn thin quickly had it gone on for much longer).
"I'm A Band Leader" is a funny Beefheart monologue; sadly, though, "Alley Cat" must be regarded as a less-than-top-notch Beefheart-oriented song. Some fans might disagree, but I simply don't find enough of interest here to recommend the song highly. "The Grand Wazoo" gets things back on track, though, with a funny lodge society parody (courtesy Beefheart's vocals) and a more recent synclavier addition (courtesy Zappa) -- both aspects of the song are top notch. "Wonderful Wino" is a decent run-through of the track which eventually emerged on Zoot Allures.
At this point, things get really interesting musically. "Kung Fu", "RDNZL", "Basement Music #1" and "Inca Roads" are all "Grade A" Zappa pieces, featuring great interaction among the instruments in question. Particularly notable is the keyboard work in "Basement Music #1" (which, as another alt.fan.frank-zappa reader noted, basically drown out everything else). "Inca Roads", an instrumental in this version, is also given excellent treatment. "RDNZL" is great, as always; "Kung Fu" is just a bit too short.
"Lil' Clanton Shuffle" is a good violin-oriented piece, and certainly worthy of inclusion here. "I Don't Wanna Get Drafted" provides a bit of a stylistic shift from the rest of the album, but, viewed on its own, the novelty quasi-disco track is saved by an excellent guitar mid-section.
This version of "Sharleena" is easily the best of the three studio versions, featuring lengthy violin and guitar spotlights in an extended middle section (one might argue that these spotlights have little to do with the rest of the song, but...). Taken on its own, this middle section is probably the high point of the album.
The work, then, is a mixed bag... as well it should be. Newcomers might be advised to start with something else, but long-time fans shouldn't have any difficulty digesting this work.
(review originally posted to alt.music.yes on 24 Apr 1997)