Frank Zappa - 200 Motels (1971) (24-96 2xLP French Vinyl)

The soundtrack to Frank Zappa's strange early-'70s film 200 Motels was always doomed to be a peripheral entry in his discography. The movie's story was not easy to follow, and neither is the record (not that plot was ever a big focus of the production). It's typically wacky Zappa of the era, with unpredictable sharp turns between crunchy rock bombast, orchestration, and jazz/classical influences, as well as interjections of wacky spoken dialogue. Those who like his late-'60s/early-'70s work – not as song-oriented as his first albums, in other words, but not as "serious" or as silly as his later records – will probably like this fine, although it's not up to the level of Uncle Meat.

It's funny in spots as well, especially the part where a disgruntled sideman gets tempted away from the band to do his own thing (a libretto that was, apparently, based on real-life incidents concerning Zappa sideman Jeff Simmons, who left during the project). On the other hand, there's a growing tendency to deploy the smutty, cheap humor that would soon dominate much of Zappa's work.

This has been the most difficult album for me to rip to date. It features 34 tracks on 4 sides; a lot of the tracks were less than one minute long; there was almost no space between tracks - one track led directly into the next [like most of Zappa's work]. The record, even at near-mint condition, was 41 years old and rather noisy. I did my best to manually remove all the pops and clicks…however, this was the first album I've ripped that I had problems actually finding the pops! I'd hear them, but I couldn't locate them visually. Ideally, you only want to remove the .001 seconds the pop exists in, but this album had many little pops that I simply couldn't locate, so instead of messing up the integrity of the recording, I left the little pops in.

This is an album that mixes a gigantic orchestra with a rock band. Zappa has the orchestra people clap hands, snap fingers, stomp on the floor with their feet. Its during these bits that any record noise is really noticeable. A bunch of people snapping their fingers at once, with no other sounds in the background, can be misconstrued as record clicks and such.

Nevertheless, this rip sounds much, MUCH better than the overly-compressed CD version. I remember the first time I heard the CD: there were simply too many layers of sound to fit within the 24 kHz frequency range that CD's are stuck in. This is definitely Zappa's most dense and multi-layered work, and it sounds fantastic on vinyl at 24/96.

tracklist:
A1 Semi-Fraudulent / Direct-From-Hollywood Overture 1:59
A2 Mystery Roach 2:33
A3 Dance Of The Rock & Roll Interviewers 0:48
A4 This Town Is A Sealed Tuna Sandwich (Prologue) 0:56
A5 Tuna Fish Promenade 2:30
A6 Dance Of The Just Plain Folks 4:39
A7 This Town Is A Sealed Tuna Sandwich (Reprise) 0:59
A8 The Sealed Tuna Bolero 1:40
A9 Lonesome Cowboy Burt Vocals [The Mothers] – Jimmy Carl Black 3:51

B1 Touring Can Make You Crazy 2:53
B2 Would You Like A Snack? 1:23
B3 Redneck Eats 3:03
B4 Centerville 2:31
B5 She Painted Up Her Face 1:42
B6 Janet's Big Dance Number 1:18
B7 Half A Dozen Provocative Squats 1:57
B8 Mysterioso 0:48
B9 Shove It Right In 2:32
B10 Lucy's Seduction Of A Bored Violinist & Postlude 4:00

C1 I'm Stealing The Towels 2:14
C2 Dental Hygiene Dilemma 5:12
C3 Does This Kind Of Life Look Interesting To You? 3:00
C4 Daddy, Daddy, Daddy 3:11
C5 Penis Dimension 4:35
C6 What Will This Evening Bring Me This Morning 3:27

D1 A Nun Suit Painted On Some Old Boxes 1:09
D2 Magic Fingers 3:55
D3 Motorhead's Midnight Ranch 1:30
D4 Dew On The Newts We Got 1:10
D5 The Lad Searches The Night For His Newts 0:41
D6 The Girl Wants To Fix Him Some Broth 1:10
D7 The Girl's Dream 0:55
D8 Little Green Scratchy Sweaters & Courduroy Ponce 1:01
D9 Strictly Genteel (The Finale) 11:09






Special thanks to fooeee123!