Review: Frank Zappa, The best band you never heard in your life [music recording, rock; compact disc]

This is one of the very best of Frank Zappa's live discs. The musicianship by this particular band, who didn't exist any longer than 8 months and never played in a large part of America - hence the title - is nothing short of magnificent. Over the course of 2 hours there's no dud in sight, it's all equally impressive, and the humour displayed on here is top-notch. They make fun of the prostitute-visiting televangelist Jimmy Swaggart in a hilarious take on 200 Motel's Lonesome Cowboy Burt and play excellent takes on classics like Ring Of Fire and Purple Haze. Much of the songs are taken from the Zoot Allures and One Size Fits All albums in their best renditions and it features a LOT of previously unissued material. This American version of the album has their excellent, reggaefied rendition of Ravel's Bolero. It doesn't appear in Europe on the last issued version (1995) because of problems with the copyrights over there, which is in hands of Ravel's estate, who weren't amused with the 'blasphemy done to the song'. Very highly recommended.

Link to recording in TIPCAT!