Frank Zappa 1974 concert special to be released after 50 years
A new, unaired concert special featuring Frank Zappa and his band, The Mothers of Invention, is finally set for release after over 50 years.
In June 1974, Zappa and his band performed for over two hours for a small audience in a rehearsal hall on Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood. They planned to pitch the set to TV networks.
Though a film crew captured footage of the evening and a mobile recording truck picked up the audio, a technical blunder meant the two weren’t synchronised.
Until now. On May 9th, the special dubbed ‘Cheaper Than Cheep’ is set to arrive via Zappa Records/UMe.
In the trailer for the special, Zappa can be seen addressing the crowd. “Ladies and gentlemen, we’d like to welcome you to the world’s cheapest television special, which is being manufactured for your edification right here in the midst of our Mothers of Invention rehearsal hall at 5831 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, California.”
He continues: “Can you all turn around and look at each other so everybody who’s watching this can tell where we are and what the inside of this place really looks like. As you can see it’s cheaper than cheap.”
Directed by Ahmet Zappa and produced by Frank Zappa, Vaultmeister Joe Travers and Ahmet Zappa, Cheaper Than Cheep will be released exclusively on Zappa.com, uDiscover Music and Sound of Vinyl in several different formats.
Fans can get their hands on a Blu-ray version (with Dolby Atmos) of the Cheaper Than Cheap concert film as part of a deluxe box set featuring a 2CD and 3LP of the performance. The box set also comes with a 12-page booklet containing rare images and liner notes, and a heart-warming remembrance from the percussionist of the evening, Ruth Komanoff Underwood.
The musician, who released 62 albums and 67 more pieces of work in just 52 years, passed away in 1993. This footage is another artefact that confirms his legacy as an inscrutable man, a cultural oddity, and a guitar master. As he said himself: “Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.”
A trailer for the film was released on April 25th.
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