Beat The Boots re-released on iTunes

The Zappa Family Trust has made Frank Zappa's Beat The Boots series for sale online through iTunes.
The Beat The Boots albums were originally released by Frank in the early 1990's to try to supress bootleggers. The first release was a box of eight bootleg albums, and the second one included seven albums. Later the albums were reissued separately but have never been reissued this century.

New Zappa release from the vault

This just in from http://www.zappa.com/
A new CD with stuff from the Zappa Family Trust vault.
Parts of this seems to be taken from The Impossible Concert, a collection of outtakes first put together by Frank Zappa ca 1976.
All tracks on the CD are produced by Frank. The CD is produced by Gail Zappa and Joe Travers.

The tracks:
01. Bathtub Man
02. Space Boogers
03. Hermitage
04. Trudgin' Across The Tundra
05. Occam's Razor
06. Heidelberg
07. The Illinois Enema Bandit
08. Australian Yellow Snow
09. Rollo

Since the Radio Dupree staff has heard several versions of some of this stuff that has been circulating for years we dare to speculate a little:
The title Space Boogers sounds like it might be another example of George Duke improvisations on the theme of space ships, booger bears and various touring folklore, a tradition during the fall 1974 tours.
Hermitage is probably a hard driving funk jam from 1974-75.
Occam's Razor might be a guitar solo from More Trouble Every Day 1974.
Heidelberg is most likely the 77/78 Yo' Mama (?) guitar solo included on the Guitar World cassette released in 1987.
Australian Yellow Snow must be from June 1973, a funny tape that has been around for a while but really deserves an official release like this.
Hey, Gail! The nest project would be a complete show with this lineup, the band with Jean-Luc Ponty!
Rollo, the last piece, probably works as the coda for the Yellow Snow suite. It can't be nothing else but a recording from Royce Hall (the two Orchestral Favorites concerts that took place in 1975).

Zappa Halloween show on DVD!

A long awaited one - in your DVD player - soon!
http://barfkoswill.shop.musictoday.com/Product.aspx?cp=971_4044&pc=ZPAM22

What's new in Baltimore? = A Zappa bust

The city of Baltimore (Maryland, US) erects a bronze bust of rock artist and composer Frank Zappa.
Zappa was born there in 1940 and lived in the city until the age of ten when his family moved to California.
The bust project is supported by Lithuanian fans (!) who put up their own Zappa bust in their capital Vilnius in 1995.
Read the article from The Baltimore Sun here:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-zappa0507,0,5047730.story

Zappa's Stage series celebrating 20 years

I can still remember the excitement when I got it in my hand...the first volume of Frank Zappa's You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore. And that is 20 years ago now.
It was just around the time of the European leg of Zappa's 1988 tour. (His last tour.)
I recall sitting in the lobby of the Falkoner Theatret in Copenhagen just before the concert when someone pulled out a copy of the two brand new 2 CD sets, You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore (YCDTOSA) and Guitar. I was very excited just to be able to read through the song titles. The excitement may also have depended on the fact that I had tickets for three different Zappa shows that week!

Great mix
Anyway, the first volume of YCDTOSA, the retrospective collection of live tracks from Frank's entire carreer, was awaited for a long time by the fans, and I think most of us loved it.
Unfortunately, some of the following YCDTOSA volumes were not of similar standards.
Volume 1 is a great mix of different bands and great performances and it included several unexpected tracks as the previouosly unreleased song Rollo that came at the end of the Yellow Snow suite (London 1979).
So along with all this live King Crimson stuff, Steely Dan and David Bowie, you can also expect some You Can't Do That On Stage music on Radio Dupree in May.

Becker's Circus Money arrives June 10

It's official and up on walterbecker.com:

The Release Date for CIRCUS MONEY is June 10, 2008.

So a mere 11 weeks to go until we can hear what Walter has come up with for his second solo album.

That also means that he'll have a chance to promote the record during the Steely Dan summer tour, a tour that looks like it'll be named Think fast, Steely Dan.

And in related Walter Becker news the signature wlm posted on the BlueBook that he/she had found the link to Walter's recent memo and the title of the solo album; 1950's monologist Lord Buckley!

The memo on walterbecker.com starts To: My Lords, My Ladies of the Royal Court. A direct quote from Lord Buckley's The Hip Ghan. A monologue where you also find the following lines:

Knock a little patch on the cat's pants,
Swing a coat on grandma,
Get a little juice on the table,
Swang up get a little circus money.

We have to admit that we were unfamiliar with Lord Buckley's work, but will add a few choice numbers to the Radio Dupree playlist this week.
Both Zappa and The Beatles seem to have been fans of his spoken word performances. Zappa compiled an album; A Most Immaculately Hip Aristocrat, in 1969 and Buckley sort of pops up in the outro to the Beatles Hey Jude. And George Harrison wrote a song named after Buckley's home; Crackerjack Palace (1977).

Idiot Bastard orgy on one disc

We just received the 20 Extraordinary Renditions CD in the mail today. It's a CD featuring 20 artists doing their own interpretations of Frank Zappa's song The Idiot Bastard Son.
Some of the artists may be familiar to Radio Dupree listeners: Nigey Lennon, John Tabacco and Ensemble Ambrosius.
We've just added a couple of tracks from the disc and more will follow. How appropriate since we are commemorating the 40 year anniversary of the release of the Zappa/Mothers album We're Only In It For The Money where the original version of the song is found.
The 20 Extraordinary Renditions CD is released on the Cordelia Records label and it started out as an idea by Andrew Greenaway who is the guy behind the excellent website http://www.idiotbastard.com/
Enjoy!

'66 Mothers show on Wolfgang's Vault

The web site Wolfgang's Vault offers yeat another Zappa/Mothers live recording. It's a tape from Fillmore Auditorium, San Fransisco June 24, 1966.
This is said to be the earliest Mothers of Invention concert in the Wolfgang's Vault archives. "It was recorded on an evening when the Mothers opened for comedian Lenny Bruce."
This concert took place the night before the one that wound up on disc 3 of the Zappa Family Trust's release MOFO (the Making Of Freak Out!)
It's a rather short tape, only 13 minutes. It is divided into four tracks:
1. Zappa Talks To Crowd 0:20
2. Toads Of The Short Forest 0:48
3. I'm Not Satisfied 2:20
4. Handsome Cabin Boy Jam 10:07

Two more Zappa shows are already available for listening on the site http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/sc/about/wolfgangs-vault.html
One from 1970 and one from 1977.
Wolfgang was the legendary concert promoter that is well known as Bill Graham. Over the years he preserved lots of stuff that came from all the shows he arranged (art, photography and recordings).

Zappa Plays Zappa 2008

Dweezil Zappa hits the road again with the Zappa Plays Zappa Project: "You can expect many new songs as well as a lot of fan favorites from the first two tours."
The band is a seven piece one plus special guest Ray White on guitar and vocals.
The tour includes the US and Canada and starts off in Minneapolis, MN, on June 6.
The tour then goes south to Missouri and Louisiana etc, then to Canada for shows in Ottawa and Quebec. The last concert (that we know so far) takes place in Peekskill, NY, on August 9.
For complete touring schedule and list of band members go to http://www.zappa.com/

Radio Dupree slows down Mother People

Since Radio Dupree has chosen We're Only In It For The Money as Album of the Month we figured "What extra stuff can we offer our listeners except just playing the songs from this classic Zappa/Mothers album?"
How about a version of Mother People slowed down to its "original" pitch?
Well there are a number of cover versions of "Money" songs around, performed by Jean-Luc Ponty, Meridian Arts Ensemble, Ensemble Ambrosius and not to forget the brand new various artists CD with 20 different versions of The Idiot Bastard Son. It's entitled 20 Extraordinary Renditions and is released on Cordelia Records to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of the release of the album it first appeared on.
There are also other versions of the "Money" songs performed by Zappa live.
But we have allowed ourselves to experiment with one of the songs on the album. Since Zappa chose to speed up a couple of them we thought we could try to pitch them back to "normal" again, just for fun.
Such a version of Mother People is now spinning on Radio Dupree. The vocals sound "normal" and the key seems reasonable if you play along on a guitar, but the orchestral interlude may have now been pitched down below its original speed, I don't know, it's hard to tell. I'm so used to hear it the way its done on the CD.

/Siggy

Zappa Plays Zappa DVD out now

The Zappa Plays Zappa live DVD is available now. The 2 DVD set features more than 3 hours of music.
For more information: Check out http://www.zappa.com/ or http://www.barfkoswill.shop.musictoday.com/
Three concert dates of Japan are added to the Zappa Plays Zappa tour schedule:
January 21, 2008 Osaka
January 22, 2008 Tokyo
January 23, 2008 Yokohama

New Zappa CD from the vault!

There is a new Frank Zappa CD out. It is a 2 CD set with the Grand Wazoo Orchestra recorded live in Boston on the 24 of September 1972.
http://www.zappa.com/ is taking pre-orders. On the site you can also hear a couple of minutes of music from the album. Sound quality and sound mix seem to be of similar quality as on the album Imaginary Diseases, recorded the same year and released on the same label (Vaulternative Records) last year; Some balance problems since it's a recording of a "big band" with a lot of instruments, but certainly not bad for a '72 road tape.

Track list disc 1: Intro, The Grand Wazoo, Approximate, Big Swifty

Track list disc 2: "Ulterior Motive", The Adventures of Greggery Peccary (4 movements), Penis Dimension, Variant I Processional March

Weekly Top 10 - October 28

1. Frank Zappa - He's So Gay - Thing-Fish
=. David Bowie - Come And Buy My Toys - David Bowie
3. King Crimson - Neal And Jack And Me - Beat
4. Genesis - Broadway Melody Of 1974 - The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
=. Frank Zappa & The Mothers - Cheepnis - Roxy & Elsewhere
=. David Bowie - Warszawa - Low
7. Steely Dan - Kid Charlemagne - The Royal Scam
=. Frank Zappa - Tush Tush Tush/Stinkfoot - You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore - Vol. 2
9. The Velvet Underground - I'm Waiting For The Man - Live At Max's Kansas City
=. Frank Zappa - Friendly Little Finger - Zoot Allures

Weekly Top 10 - September 30, 2007

1. Frank Zappa - Watermelon In Easter Hay - Guitar
=. Bowie, David - We Are The Dead - Diamond Dogs
3. Soft Machine - Facelift (excerpt) - Third
=. Quant - Miracle Man - Getting Out
=. Bob Dylan - Nettie Moore - Modern Times
6. The Rolling Stones - In Another Land - Their Satanic Majesties Request
=. The Persuasions - My Guitar - The Persuasions Sing Zappa
=. The Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star - The Age of Plastic
=. Frank Zappa - Twenty Small Cigars - Chunga's Revenge
10. David Bowie - Across The Universe - Young Americans
=. Bo Hansson - Before The Rain - Magician's Hat

Here's an opportunity to check out what songs on this weekly chart makes it to the monthly chart published tomorrow (October 1) on the updated Radio Dupree homepage. That is if everything works out as planned and we get the update out October 1. Otherwise you might have to wait a day or three.
If we look at the chart above it's all well-known names with one exception; Quant.
Quant is actually Jonas Quant from Gothenburg, Sweden. The song is from his 2004 album Getting Out.

Weekly Top 10 - September 9

1. Frank Zappa & The Mothers - Be-bop Tango (Of The Old Jazzmen's Church) - Roxy & Elsewhere
2. Robert Plant - Let's Have A Party - The Last Temptation Of Elvis
=. Peter Gabriel - Down The Dolce Vita - Peter Gabriel (1)
=. King Crimson - Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream - Thrak
=. John Fogerty - Summer Of Love - Revival
=. Frank Zappa - Black Napkins - Make A Jazz Noise Here
=. David Bowie - It Ain't Easy - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars
8. The Undisputed Truth - Smiling Faces Sometimes - 35 Soulklassiker
=. The Rolling Stones - I Wanna Be Your Man - Singles Collection - The London Years
=. Frank Zappa - Pick Me, I'm Clean - Tinseltown Rebellion
=. David Bowie - Bombers (bonus track) - Hunky Dory
=. David Bowie - Suffragette City - Bowie At The Beeb

Zappa on top another week. This time with a little number from Roxy & Elsewhere. There's a bunch sharing second and eight position. We just couldn't separate them. But where ae the women??? It's not a male-only playlist on Radio Dupree, but by looking at the charts you could almost be fooled into believing that all you hear are men, men and more men.

The only "new" recording on the Top 10 this week is Summer Of Love from 62 year old John Fogerty and his upcoming album Revival. And with the rumoured news of a Led Zeppelin reunion being unveiled at a press junket this coming Wednesday it is somewhat fitting to have Robert Plant near the top this week.

Finally; if you wonder what strangely titled album that Undisputed Truth track is from, it's a Swedish compilation of 35 soul classics by various artists.

Weekly Top 10 - September 2

Hey! We've just entered a new month and that means a new Album of the month. We added a couple of songs from it yesterday and what a quick and positive reaction we got! One of the songs from our Album of the month is on this weeks weekly Top 10. That actually is a Top 11 thanks to a shared 10 position.

Learn more about the Album of the month on our homepage as soon as we update it. And yes, in a perfect world it would be updated on the 1st of every month, but we're happy to be around to update it at all. So it's business as usual and expect it to morph into its September guise in another day or three. But feel free to check it out as it looks right now. OK. Here's the weekly chart as determined by our listeners:

1. Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention - It Can't Happen Here - 'Tis The Season To Be Jelly (Beat The Boots 1)
=. Frank Zappa - Dog Meat - The Dub Room Special (DVD)
=. Frank Zappa - Jesus Thinks You're A Jerk - Broadway The Hard Way
4. The Rolling Stones - Stoned - Singles Collection - The London Years
=. Genesis - That's Me (bonus track) - From Genesis To Revelation
6. The Jesus And Mary Chain - Guitar Man - The Last Temptation Of Elvis
=. David Bowie - The London Boys - Another Face
=. Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band - Sun Zoom Spark - Clear Spot
=. Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe - Birthright - Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe
10. Steely Dan - Your Gold Teeth - Countdown To Ecstasy
=. Juicy Lucy - Willie The Pimp - Lie Back And Enjoy It

And here's a bonus: The view from one of the windows this chilly Sunday afternoon. Had to get the mobile/cellphone camera out just to catch the final rays of the sun as they bounce off the trunks and leaves. A sight that will become rare as the autumn and winter takes over here in Radio Dupree-land.

Weekend music: NMKY

Yes, it's been around on YouTube for 2,5 months now, but we just found it. And since it's from our next-door neighbours in Finland and also has a thin but still connection to Frank Zappa, we decided to link it here as our Weekend Music. We're sure others - like us - has missed it and it is fun.

The Zappa connection? According to the site Killuglyradio the bass player is none other than Pekka Pohjola, who's played with Finnish prog band Wigwam and Mike Oldfield just to name two. Zappa had met Pekka in Finland and planned to record something with him. Plans that never was realised.

Go Finland!

Top 10 - August 26

l. Frank Zappa - Pick Me, I'm Clean - Tinseltown Rebellion
2. Steely Dan - Android Warehouse - Catalyst (The Original Recordings 1968 - 71)
= Frank Zappa - Stink-Foot - FZ:OZ
4. Marillion - Fugazi - Fugazi
=. Magma - La Dawotsin - Retrospective Vol. 3
6. Stevie Wonder - You've Got It Bad Girl - Talking Book
=. Rod Stewart - (I Know) I'm Losing You - Every Picture Tells A Story
8. Robert Plant - Let's Have A Party - The Last Temptation Of Elvis
=. Jimi Hendrix - Purple Haze/Wild Thing - More Experience
=. Frank Zappa - Friendly Little Finger - Zoot Allures

The past weeks favourites as voted by our listeners by pressing those thumbs up/down and buy/wish-buttons. = of course means that the song shares the position. This week we have two at 2, two at 4, two at 6 and three at 8.

Dub Room Special on CD

www.zappa.com is now taking pre-orders for the audio CD version of The Dub Room Special:
"Directly from the Vault and for a limited time, your actual 'recorded tape' souvenir from UMRK. First come, first served. Originally produced for Vinyl by FZ. Liner notes by John Frusciante.
Shipping August 24, 2007!"

Track List:
1. A Token of My Extreme (Vamp)
2. Stevie's Spanking
3. The Dog Breath Variations
4. Uncle Meat
5. Stink-Foot
6. Easy Meat
7. Montana
8. Inca Roots
9. Room Service
10. Cosmik Debris
11. Florentine Pogen

Zappa Street

Frank Zappa has his own street on the eastern outskirts of Berlin. Suitably named Frank Zappa Strasse was formerly known as Strasse 13.
Musicians living in the Orwo Haus - a film factory turned practice studios for bands - have campaigned for two years to get the street renamed.