This 50th anniversary fete for Frank Zappa’s most commercially successful album of all time, at the very least, serves as a reminder that a narrative including canine urination, rancid foot odor, and cosmik debris not only passed as socially acceptable in 1974, but ultimately widely appealing. The best explanation for why such boundary-pushing lyrical observations attracted so many- aside from being bitingly clever- was their parallel positioning to perhaps Zappa’s most talented ensemble of players. In other words, even Frank’s cautions against yellow snow couldn’t detract or distract from the virtuosic performances of a band that included keyboardist George Duke, percussionist Ruth Underwood, and a battery of stellar drummers and bassists, such as Jim Gordon, Aynsley Dunbar, and Ralph Humphrey, and Jack Bruce and Tom Fowler, respectively. Listen to the madcap frenzy of “St. Alfonzo’s Pancake Breakfast,” -in this newly restored presentation, remastered by the famed Bernie Grundman- and watch the jaws drop all over again.
Zappa takes his satirical shots- at phony gurus and racism- amidst the absurdity, and his guitar-playing is, as always, singularly unique, at its best pushing, shifting, and riding the charcoal, looping groove of the instrumental title track into space only Frank could find. And that’s just the proper album. The rest of the six-disc set is loaded up with studio outtakes, as expected, and is exceptional on four discs that contain two full concerts from the 1974 supporting tour- March, in Colorado Springs, and November, in Dayton, Ohio. There is, as well, a Blu-ray Audio disc and its Atmos mix, included.
The Dayton show benefits from a sonically superior capture, showing off the ensemble in a sharper light, not to mention eight months stronger into the trek. Even so, there may no more stupefying and surreal a jam offered here than from the 20-minute, Colorado version of “Dupree’s Paradise,” split between disc 2 and 3, that, for trombonist Bruce Fowler’s workout (and Zappa’s scorching answer), combined, are worth the ticket price. Coupled with expanded notes, essays, and photos that have become customary of these Zappa collections from the Estate and its label partner, Universal Music Enterprises, it is yet another gleaming entry in the growing list of celebratory sets. Five decades hence, the crux of the biscuit remains the apostrophe.
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