200 Motels: Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack [Enhanced CD]
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Free Music Notes for 200 Motels: Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack [Enhanced CD]
Free Music Review: Flo & Eddie #3....5 Classic Songs But Out Of Print
Hit: 4 Stars
*** Please note that FZ neither sings any songs nor speaks on this entire album. The same goes for the film 200 Motels.
This soundtrack became out of print in 2002 when Rykodisc removed it from the Zappa CD catalog.
Is it good? Well that depends if you like the Flo & Eddie era of FZ's music. I happen to enjoy this period of Zappa's musical career and this album's contents so that's why I rate this album 4 stars. If you hate Flo & Eddie, you will hate this album.
*** FZ wrote the songs and plays guitar on them but leaves it up to Flo & Eddie to deliver the vocals. This is proof that FZ never hogged the spotlight and always gave everyone in his band the opportunity to demonstrate their talents.
Most of the album is dialogue from the movie with experimental music in the background. There are only 5 "whole" songs on the entire album but ALL of them are treasures.
The best song on the album, by far, is "Lonesome Cowboy Burt" and it is sung by original mother Jimmy Carl Black. (The other 4 songs are sung by Flo & Eddie and they are "Mystery Roach" "Magic Fingers" "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy" and the "200 Motels Finale")
The best version of the "200 Motels Finale" is the live version on YCDTOSA Volume 6.
On this album, the 200 Motels Finale is preceded by a song called "Strictly Genteel" which is sung by actor Theodore Bikel. This song was never sung in concert but the name "Strictly Genteel" was used as an instrumental piece in future Zappa concerts without any lyrics. This album puts both songs together as one 11 1/2 minute track.
Flo & Eddie would return for one more album before leaving the band forever....good news for many fans. This was good news even to me because this was already the third FZ album that they dominated and too many more would have been "too much."
Free Music Review: Zappa brimming with ideas
Hit: 4 Stars
I may be one of the few people who think that 200 Motels is a brilliant, albeit very low budget, movie. There has never been a film structure like this one: a town made of cheap plastic with an orchestra behind barbed wire (to indicate their artistic slavery to the composer)forms the background set for a number of absurdist/vulgar/sophomoric vignettes showing the ugliness behind the American dream. A parade/hymn to the obsession with, er, male personal dimensions tops off this loud, silly, clever, original commentary on all things both American and popular culture. There isn't anything like this film. It is one of a kind. Because it was so cheaply made (it was filmed on videotape) it looks ugly and cheesy (perhaps appropriately so, given the subject matter here)as all get out. And yet, it works-simply because it is like nothing else ever released through Hollywood. The music contains everything from ersatz western to orchestral weirdness and is generally ugly and heavy handed. I don't think that this music will stand the test of time but the whole 200 Motels package of music and video is original and shows a unique, astute, and, yes, vulgar intelligence at work. Interestingly, Zappa lampoons American culture and in the process reveals himself to be thoroughly American to the core. Only an American would take popular culture so seriously that they would write an epic musical composition as a critique of it, showing the hold of that culture on the minds of Americans, even those who pretend that it is not worth any consideration.Free Music Review: high highs, and low lows
Hit: 4 Stars
This is most definitely a great Zappa recording. It contains some of the greatest and most absurd songs in his whole catalog. We're talking pop songs, mind you, but in Zappa's own unique style. The album also contains many lenghty exercizes in (my opinion) classical flatulence. I understand that Zappa was a great and prolific composer of difficult classical pieces. I, though, being a typical human, do not enjoy intensely difficult classical music. I own 27 Zappa albums, and I bought them all for the same thing, the great amount of LISTENABLE music that fills them, some more than others. Be forewarned, this album contains some greatly enjoyable music, but it also contains many vignettes of classical music which is not only unenjoyable, but unlistenable. That is the way that most Zappa albums are, you will find certain things to fall in love with, and other things that you may only listen to once, if at all. For the Zappa virgin, I would recommend We're only in it for the money, or Sheik Yerbouti for good vocal songs, or Burnt Weeny Sandwich or Hot Rats for good instrumental. Still, I give this album 4 stars for all of it's highlights, and there are an abundance of them. One last thing, don't kill yourself trying to find the video of 200 Motels, it's really not worth it. The album contains many different and more complete elements of the story than the movie does, therefore making it a much better investment.Free Music Review: Four and a half stars, actually.
Hit: 4 Stars
This was, as the hype proclaimed, the "holy grail" for most Zappa fans when it was released on CD finally, a few years ago. An amazing, assaulting, insulting, awe-inspiring work, "200 Motels" proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Zappa could probably write avant-garde orchestral music in his sleep--and good music at that.
The compositions on this LP are even more amazing when you consider that he wrote a LOT of this music in hotel rooms (hence the name) between shows on various tours.
Take a listen to the first and last tracks first, "Overture" and "Genteel." Hilarious and wonderful. "Nun Suit" is the song that separates the men from the boys when it comes to deciding if you like Zappa's avant-garde side or not.
Turtles fans, you have plenty of Flo and Eddie here, too, as well as appearances by such "love Frank/hate Frank" members of the Mothers as Ian Underwood, Jimmy Carl Black, Motorhead Sherwood (at least in the movie, if not on the CD) and Aynsley Dunbar, George Duke, Ruth Underwood and the rest.
Before you go searching the night for your newts, get the music to go along with it. "200 Motels" is a must.
Free Music Review: a zappa masterpiece, not for the patience-challenged
Hit: 4 Stars
Although it has been a while since I've actually heard these discs, they have left quite an impression. For the ardent Frank Zappa fan, this record probably deserves a five-star review, but with Joe Blow music fan in mind, I issue this warning: brace yourself or be destroyed! The first period of Zappaesque musical madness is fully encapsulated in this package, and it does absolute justice to nearly everything that Frank had done up to about 1972. The quirky yet enthralling orchestral bits, the hilarious antics of Flo and Eddie and of course Frank's positively diseased guitar work are all well represented, and this is only the tip of the iceberg. If this sounds cool to you, that's great, but beware! Buy Hot Rats or Just Another Band from LA first if you need something a little more accessible. They will either completely warm you up or totally turn you off to the wizardry, madness and genius of Frank which 200 Motels is bursting at the seams with. Pick 'em up and proceed with caution...