Frank Zappa Halloween 73 4 CD set (release date 10/25/19)

Ahmet's cheepnis and Frank's cheepnis finally converge. I think Frank would approve of this package.

 

Well, considering that the Roxy 73 release is the best Zappa money can buy, this is a welcome addition. F yeah!

 

Me every time archival FZ stuff gets announced -->

 

I will probably buy the download, not because of the package but because it's expensive. I wish the halloween 77 set wasn't $17 for each show download. I bought the 3cd of that one.

 

Nice guitar sound. Good mix.

 

awww!
no "Magic Fingers" on the highlights disc!!!!!!

booooo!

 

The official email announcement:

IT’S ALIVE! FRANK ZAPPA’S HALLOWEEN SHOWS RECORDED LIVE IN 1973 AT THE AUDITORIUM THEATER IN CHICAGO TO BE RELEASED FOR FIRST TIME AS LIMITED EDITION FOUR-DISC COSTUME BOX

FEATURES SPECIALLY DESIGNED FRANKenZAPPA MASK AND GLOVES AND MORE THAN FOUR AND A HALF HOURS OF UNRELEASED LIVE PERFORMANCES SPANNING TWO FULL SHOWS AND A BONUS DISC OF RARE REHEARSALS

HALLOWEEN 73 HIGHLIGHTS ALBUM COLLECTS PERFORMANCES FROM 
BOTH SHOWS ON SINGLE DISC

AVAILABLE OCTOBER 25 VIA ZAPPA RECORDS/UMe

Los Angeles – September 6, 2019 – Throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s, the iconoclastic composer Frank Zappa put on a series of spectacular, now legendary, shows around Halloween each year to celebrate his favorite holiday. Before settling on New York in 1974 to host his annual costume-clad festivities, which would continue until he retired the tradition in 1984, Zappa, fronting an exciting new band, performed two rousing back-to-back Halloween concerts the year prior at the Auditorium Theater in Chicago. Whereas many of the NYC shows were not recorded due to the musician’s union charging exorbitant fees making it virtually impossible to allow Zappa to record the event, there were no such restrictions at the Chicago show – in true Zappa fashion it was of course taped.

Now for the first time ever, Zappa’s two complete Halloween shows recorded on October 31, 1973 in Chicago, will be released on October 25 via Zappa Records/UMe, just in time for Halloween. These completely unreleased live recordings total more than four and a half hours and feature songs from across his prolific catalog, including his then just-released 1973 album Over-Nite Sensation and forthcoming 1974 record Apostrophe, as well as early arrangements of compositions like “Penguin In Bondage,” “Dickie’s Such An *******” and “Village Of The Sun” that would appear on later studio and live albums. Continuing the Halloween series that the Zappa Family Trust began in 2017 with the acclaimed Halloween 77 releases, Halloween 73 will be released as a specially designed, limited run four-disc costume box complete with a FRANKenZAPPA mask and gloves, housed in a dis play worthy box. Produced by Ahmet Zappa and Vaultmeister Joe Travers, the boxed set is rounded out with a 40-page booklet featuring detailed liner notes from Travers and Ruth Komanoff Underwood and Ralph Humphrey, Zappa’s bandmates who played in the shows, and a wealth of never-before-seen photos from the event.

The two full shows will be presented on discs 1-3 with the fourth disc dedicated to unreleased rehearsals recorded just before the tour started. A single CD version titled Halloween 73 Highlights, which collects together 16 handpicked performances from both shows, will also be available. The concerts were recorded on 1/2” 4-track analog tape which was stored in pristine condition in Zappa’s personal Vault. The tracks were digitally transferred in 96K/24B from the original analog tapes by Travers in 2019 and mastered and re-mixed by Craig Parker Adams. Both the deluxe boxed set and Highlights album will be available digitally for streaming and download. Preorder for all versions is available now. All boxes preordered via Zappa.com will come with an instant grat download of the song, “The Idiot Bastard Son,” taken from the first show, as well as a n additional track at a later date. Digital preorders of Halloween 73 will also come with the free downloads. Listen to “Idiot Bastard Son” now: https://UMe.lnk.to/Halloween73PR

Preorder Halloween 73 now: https://UMe.lnk.to/Halloween73PR
Preorder Halloween 73 Highlights now: https://UMe.lnk.to/Halloween73HighlightsPR



After Zappa’s European tour that ended in September of ’73, the ever-restless musician decided to shake up his lineup once again and replaced woodwind and keyboards player Ian Underwood and violinist Jean Luc-Ponty with two new members: Chester Thompson on drums and Napoleon Murphy Brock who supplied vocals, tenor sax and flute. Following a month of rehearsals, the Halloween shows in Chicago marked the second gig for this new lineup. These recordings then represent the first official recording of this new configuration which as Travers writes in the liners, “would become infamous with the shows at The Roxy Theater scheduled for that December in Los Angeles and filmed for all posterity.”

Proceeding the Roxy performances, which can be heard in full on 2018’s The Roxy Performances boxed set, as well as the 1974 double live album Roxy & Elsewhere, it’s thrilling to hear the band dynamics and evolution. As Travers writes, “the music is fresh and going through changes, along with incorporating the new funky rhythms of Chester and the dynamic lead vocals of Napoleon. And with the mallets of Ruth Underwood prominently featured in the instrumentation, Bruce Fowler’s bionic trombone, Ralph Humphrey’s technical wizardry of the drum set, Tom Fowler’s command of the bass and the keyboard mastery of George Duke, it’s a no-brainer that this line-up would go on to be a favorite among fans. The musicianship and chemistry of the personnel blended so well together with the material Frank was writing. It would prove to be a golden period in the history of Frank Zappa and these H alloween shows are proof.”

Band members Ruth Komanoff Underwood and Ralph Humphrey both provide some fascinating insight into what it was like to play with Zappa and some insightful history about these shows in the in-depth liner notes which also feature beautiful live shots and intimate backstage photos. Underwood details Zappa’s desire to constantly change up the musicians he worked with and states, “Frank, though, wasn’t looking back for a moment, but only characteristically ahead, relishing the excitement and challenge at hand. Personnel changes had become routine for him, and he thrived on the new musical possibilities and mix of personalities. It was evident, then and always, that Frank needed to live his life in a state of perpetual transition, a reality that could be as maddening to us as it was exciting for all. However unnerving these constant changes, the exertion made us better players, despite some figurative bumps and bruises.”

These concerts would be the only Halloween shows that Zappa performed in Chicago as the Halloween tradition would start the next year in NYC in 1974 and continue for the next decade. These shows would have the same unbridled, celebratory spirit of the NY gigs that David Fricke of Rolling Stone hailed as “advanced, instrumental ecstasy, cliff-edge improvisation and impromptu theatrical hijinks.”

HALLOWEEN 73 TRACK LIST
Disc 1 (Show 1)
1. “Happy Halloween To Each And Every One Of You” 4:36
2. Pygmy Twylyte 3:25
3. The Idiot Bastard Son 2:24
4. Cheepnis 3:28
5. “Another Assembly Of Items” 1:29
6. The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue 1:02
7. Kung Fu 1:32
8. Penguin In Bondage 7:12
9. T’Mershi Duween 1:46
10. The Dog Breath Variations 1:47
11. Uncle Meat 2:24
12. RDNZL 5:54
13. Village Of The Sun 4:141
14. Ecidna’s Arf (Of You) 4:11
15. Don’t You Ever Wash That Thing? 9:54
16. Montana 6:55
TRT: 62:12

Disc 2 (Show 1 Continued)
1. Dupree’s Paradise 19:12
2. “Almost Up To Date” 1:35
3. Dickie’s Such An ******* 10:04
(Show 2)
4. “That Greatest Of American Holidays” 4:50
5. Cosmik Debris 6:51
6. “We’re Hurtin’ For Tunes” 1:04
7. Pygmy Twylyte 3:40
8. The Idiot Bastard Son 2:17
9. Cheepnis 4:18
10. I’m The Slime 4:29
11. Big Swifty 9:37
TRT: 67:55

Disc 3 (Show 2 Continued)
1. The History Of The San Clemente Magnetic Deviation 1:50
2. Dickie’s Such An ******* 9:59
3. “Another New Event” :56
4. Farther O’Blivion – Part 1 9:03
5. Father O’Blivion – Part 2 10:10
6. “Pervert’s Special Holiday” 1:10
7. Penguin In Bondage 7:27
8. T’Mershi Duween 1:45
9. RDNZL 6:06
10. Inca Roads 10:55
11. Medley: Son Of Mr. Green Genes/King Kong/Chunga’s Revenge 16:23
TRT: 75:44

Disc 4 (Bonus Rehearsals 10-20/21-73)
1. The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue (10-21-73) 1:05
2. Penguin In Bondage (10-20-73) 6:45
3. T’Mershi Duween (10-20-73) 1:46
4. Dog Breath (10-20-73) 1:28
5. The Dog Breath Variations (10-20-73) 1:20
6. Uncle Meat (10-20-73) 2:18
7. RDNZL (10-20-73) 5:10
8. Magic Fingers (10-21-73) 4:47
9. Inca Roads (10-20-73) 14:38
10. Father O’Blivion (10-21-73) 17:54
11. Cosmik Debris (10-20-73) 10:36
12. Big Swifty (10-21-73) 4:41
TRT: 72:28



HALLOWEEN 73 HIGHLIGHTS TRACK LIST
1. “Happy Halloween To Each And Every One Of You” (Show 1) 4:36
2. Pygmy Twylyte (Show 2) 3:40
3. The Idiot Bastard Son (Show 2) 2:17
4. Cheepnis (Show 2) 3:18
5. “Another Assembly Of Items” (Show 1) 1:29
6. The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue (Show 1) 1:02
7. Kung Fu (Show 1) 1:32
8. Penguin In Bondage (Show 1) 7:12
9. T’Mershi Duween (Show 1) 1:46
10. The Dog Breath Variations (Show 1) 1:47
11. Uncle Meat (Show 1) 2:24
12. RDNZL (Show 1) 5:50
13. I’m The Slime (Show 2) 4:29
14. Big Swifty (Show 2) 9:25
15. “The History Of The San Clemente Magnetic Deviation (Show 2) 1:48
16. Dickie’s Such An ******* (Show 2) 10:24
TRT: 63:02

 

Do 'plastic hands' come with the box-set?

 

OK, the official email announcement really convinced me. Such a great Zappa period for me.

 

Why can't they just release it as 4 discs? I don't need the costume. It just takes up space and drives up the cost.

 

You’re in luck, the set does come with “Magic Fingers”
FEATURES SPECIALLY DESIGNED FRANKenZAPPA MASK AND GLOVES AND MORE THAN FOUR AND A HALF HOURS OF UNRELEASED LIVE PERFORMANCES SPANNING TWO FULL SHOWS AND A BONUS DISC OF RARE REHEARSALS.

 

Thanks for the heads up. I’d love to see the sets on Tidal masters too - I didn’t know they were on Spotify.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Zappa, I love Halloween, I love monsters, and I love the old school Ben Cooper costumes I grew up with. I’d like nothing more than to have the money to buy this and wear it to my local Halloween parade.

I’m just on a budget, like all of us, and what I really care about is The Music, which is why The Roxy Box and Orchestral 40 etc. hit my sweet spot - I didn’t have to think twice about hitting the purchase button at that price.

Based on the Roxy box these Halloween sets are twice as much. Glad to see CDs instead of thumb drive this time.

Regardless, have a great time with this for those that are getting. I do love Zappa and Halloween and Zappa are a match made in Frankenstein’s lab!

I love the artwork and mask design fwiw. Be fun to see them cycle frank’s image through all of the ghouls like vampire, creature, wolf, mummy, sea creature etc.

 

A ridiculous package to justify a high price again?
Not happy at all.

 

Same here....
We can all console ourselves that this won't go OOP any time soon...
I'm sure someone who loves you will get it for you as an X-mas present.... maybe....

 

I love this era in Frank's career and that's my favorite Mothers line-up, but I'll try my best not to buy it (unless the price goes down).

 

Aww thanks Vince, you’re all heart

 

Which is the point. I really hate this.

 

I don't understand it either, even marketingwise... If my wife wanted to offer me a musical present and didn't know anything about Frank Zappa, and she'd hit a Sunrise Records or something and saw that thing up on the wall, she would never dream of picking it up!

 

Yes, I know. It is the reason I got the highlights version of the Halloween show last time.

 

...anyone who preordered the Halloween 77 set from Amazon remember how low the price dropped? Just curious to compare...

 

I want to say it went down to maybe $76 ? I can't remember exactly and I did not pull the trigger.
The new halloween 73 @ bull moose $77 as of this posting
Frank Zappa - Halloween 73

 

For me, the weakest part of Roxy is the guitar. I hope on this release the guitar has a little more bite than Roxy such as heard on Road Tapes 2.