Anyone familiar with the brilliance of the late Frank Zappa will be everjoyed with this short but informative & enjoyable documentary celebrating perhaps his two most influential and all encompassing releases, Apostrophe and Over-Nite Sensation. Both of these albums were recorded back to back in 1973 & 1974, and featured the same band, considered by many to be Zappa's best, that included George Duke, Napolean Murphy Brock, Ruth Underwood, Ralph Humphrey, Ian Underwood, and Bruce Fowler. This 45 minute documentary (run on VH1) features interviews with the band, the Zappa family, Steve Vai, Warren Cucurullo, actor Billy Bob Thornton, Alice Cooper, and many others, who look back on the career of Frank Zappa and the two albums with plenty of insight and fond memories. Spliced around the interview segments are plenty of live, studio, and video footage of Frank and the many incarnations of his band over the years.
Hearing son Dweezil Zappa talk about how these two albums squeezed every aspect of Frank's music onto two releases, his take on rock, jazz, avant-garde, humor, etc., really is true, as both Apostrophe and Over-Nite Sensation had bits of everything. Tunes like "Montana", "I'm the Slime", "Fifty Fifty", "Zombie Woof", "Stink Foot", 'Dirty Love", "Cosmik Debris",...the list goes on and on, as Zappa combines hard rock guitar with jazz complexity and avant-garde absurdity, throwing in plenty of classical arrangements, pop hooks, and humorous lyrics to boot. Some of the live footage is pretty mind-blowing, and the "Montana" segment from the 1973 Roxy show will be of certain significance to Zappa afficionado's (luckily they include the entire clip in the bonus features!).
As wonderful as this documentary is, sadly it is under an hour, and will leave you wanting more. A good bet is after you have done viewing this DVD, you'll want to pull out the two albums from your collection and listen to them one after another, grab any other Zappa DVD's you might have and enjoy them once again, then check your local concert schedule and see if Dweezil and Co. are bringing the Zappa Plays Zappa tour to your area.
Bonus Features
Live Performance of Montana 1973
Live Performance of I'm the Slime from SNL 1976
Rehearsal Footage of Camarillo Brillo by Zappa Plays Zappa 2006
Discography
Printer Friendly Page
Send to a Friend
