FRANK ZAPPA

200 Motels ZAPPA RECORDS/UME/MGM

Zappa gets stuck in the smut.

Based on this six-disc CD set, there can’t be anything left in the Zappa vault relating to 200 Motels. Frank Zappa’s bizarre 1971 film about life on tour attracted controversy from the outset – the Royal Albert Hall cancelled a sold-out performance of the material citing the obscene lyrics with the venue’s manager calling it “filth for filth’s sake”, while the lead trumpeter walked out in disgust. Like the film itself, much of the material has not aged well. The obsession with dick jokes and misogynistic sex gags seem like the product of an overheated adolescent mind. ‘I did a wee-wee in your hair,’ is the stuff of sniggering schoolboys.

Alongside the remastered original soundtrack, the set includes demo versions and outtakes of many of the tracks, which are mildly diverting. Two full discs are devoted to audio extracts from the film, including unused cuts, although it’s hard to see any but the most devoted fans listening to these more than once as, again, the puerile jokes and misogyny are inescapable and sour the experience. But there are moments to enjoy here, at least where the music is concerned. It’s a good band that includes George Duke, Ian Underwood, Aynsley Dunbar, Ruth Underwood, and main vocalists Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan of The Turtles. Zappa spoofs country music on Lonesome Cowboy Burt, with Jimmy Carl Black singing about beating up Communists in a syrupy drawl, mocking the political conservatism of the American south. Subtle it’s not, but still a decent pastiche of a country song.

Working with the Royal Philharmonic allowed Zappa to create his most ambitious arrangements yet on tracks like the contemporary classical of

Dance Of The Just Plain Folks or

Strictly Genteel, presaging his love for composing for orchestras that he’d pursue in the future. It’s a shame there wasn’t more of that and less of the nonsense like Penis Dimension. While the set is exhaustively comprehensive, this version of 200 Motels is strictly for the diehard collectors.