Way back around 1992, a friend loaned me some of his Zappa to watch over a long weekend. I'm sure that 'Baby Snakes' and 'Does Humor Belong In Music?' were two of the titles. My favorite of the videos had one particular in concert scene where Zappa was jamming away on a terrific solo while his cigarette, placed near the headstock of the guitar, was burning away. At one point, Steve Vai walked behind Frank and blew the long trail of ash from his nearly burned cigarette. Does anyone know which video this concert footage is from? I'd really like to buy this one on DVD first (if it's available) as I've yet to pick up any of the three Zappa discs I'm aware of. Thanks a lot!!
That should be the 1981 Halloween concert that was originally broadcast on MTV. Lots of folks videotaped it way back then and copies have been floating around ever since. When I interviewed Dweezil a couple years ago, I brought up the fact that this is a popular concert. While Dweezil said FZ was not too pleased with the performance of that show, he conceded that there is a lot of demand to release this concert on DVD and they are considering it. In the meantime, of course, there's: Baby Snakes (DVD-Video) Does Humour Belong In Music (DVD-Video) The Dub Room Special (DVD-Video) Quadiophiliac (DVD-Audio) Halloween (DVD-Audio) The last two DVD-A discs have excellent DTS 5.1 tracks for those that don't have DVD-A players.
Thanks for the info, Felix. I think I'll pick up 'Baby Snakes' and 'Dub Room' this afternoon. My local Best Buy and Circuit City have both these in stock.