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: This album is a sealed tuna sandwich (in a good way!)
Hit: 4 Stars
I remember when I finally found this album after a couple of years of searching. It was in the early 80's, and 200 Motels had already been out of print for a long while. The album was more of a legend, like Bigfoot or the Lochness Monster to me then, but I knew it actually existed so I pressed on. When I saw it hanging on a used record store wall it was like I'd found the Holy Grail! I bought it for $60 which was a lot of money for this college student at the time, but I would have paid twice that. Nothing I'd heard or read about 200 Motels quite prepared me for that first listen. I had to try to keep my jaw from constantly dropping open. The combination of Anton Webern meets Fillmore East still blows me away. This album is experimental even for Frank, so I can't really recommend this for the uninitiated. It might scare you away from one of the musical geniuses of our time. But for Zappa fanatics, this is an important and previously rare piece of the conceptual continuity.Free Music Review: Frank Zappa - '200 Motels' (Rykodisc)
Hit: 4 Stars
This 2-CD box set has to be the first Zappa release I've had in YEARS.I remember when this movie and lp first came out.Several Zappa fans told me as to how it was an obscure look at the world and it's funky people through Zappa's eyes.The most memorable tunes are "Lonesome Cowboy Burt",the kick-ass "She Painted Up Her Face","Half A Dozen Provocative Squats","Shove It Right In" and the finale "Strictly Genteel".I could maybe do another review of '200 Motels' six months down the line and come up with something totally different.The REALLY odd sounding tracks are "Does This Kind Of Life","Daddy,Daddy,Daddy" and "A Nun Suit Painted On Some Old Boxes".There's also five different versions of the movie's trailer,a poster and a 56-page booklet of photos with inside info along with a complete Zappa back catalog listing.If you're a true Zappa fan,you'll flip over this title.Free Music Review: FZ admirers need this to better understand his Universe during the Flo and Eddie period
Hit: 4 Stars
How does one rate any Zappa album? And by whose standards? I guess it's a 5 star album in the sense of it being essential to understanding this era of the Mothers; but on the other hand it's really more of a companion to the movie which is still unavailable as of this writing.*
The packaging is terrific and the 2 c.d.'s are quite wonderfully insane, but for those looking for a FZ jazz or rock guitar oriented album, be forwarned that this is nothing of the sort. This album is a collage of snippets of activity surrounding the film of the same name.
The review of 200 Motels on this site by "a customer" on 1/8/2004 is a better explanation than any I have read before. My rationale for 4 stars versus 5 is based on my personal view of how often I am likely to listen to this soundtrack as compared to many other Zappa releases.
*[Update 5/12/10: The film of 2000 Motels is now available on DVD]
Free Music Review: good.
Hit: 3 Stars
This is one of the strangest Zappa albums that I own, and he Frank has some strange stuff! It is almost worth buying just to have Lonesome Burt the Cowboy. That song cracks me up every time. If you are buying your first Zappa album, I would suggest picking either Apostrophe, Zoot Allures, or Strictly Commercial. If you have never heard Zappa before, this album can kind of freak you out. It is really a good album though.Free Music Review: Flo and Eddie ruined the Mothers!
Hit: 2 Stars
Instead of buying this sad excuse for Frank Zappa's genius, go buy something he actually put musical effort into, like Burnt Weeny Sandwich or Weasles Ripped My Flesh. While this CD and the movie can be very entertaining, it's mostly lewd, crude, immature sex jokes done by Flo and Eddie (the former singers from the Turtles, who rode off Zappa's career when the Turtles broke up...or Zappa rode off theirs, it was mutual.) with little room for the wonderful instrumentals Zappa should be known for. At least when Flo and Eddie left the Mothers Zappa began writing music to his humor (see Apostrophe). Much of this is dialogue, more spoken than sung, so you don't even get good melodies.