CHEAPER THAN CHEEP

This is a curious beast. Even though all the music we see and hear seems to have been recorded in a single day (June 21st, 1974), and even if the gig mostly seems continuous (apart from a few stops and starts), the program seems to have been cobbled together by Ahmet Zappa (who is credited as 'director') from a wide variety of takes, as the original recording circumstances were far from ideal. Nevertheless, the playing usually sounds perfectly smooth to me; I certainly didn't spot any mistakes, except perhaps in one of the greatest Zappa instrumentals of all time: 'Echidna's Arf (of You)', which is included ALMOST completely (but only on the blu-ray, not on CD) and which breaks off abruptly. (What a shame it couldn't have been included on the CDs as well, as total performance time is now considerably less than two hours.)

So what's the music like and do you really need it? If I'm not mistaken, all the crucial bits can already be found - in similar versions - in THE ROXY PERFORMANCES, A TOKEN OF HIS EXTREME and YOU CAN'T DO THAT ON STAGE ANYMORE VOL. 2, all of which are seminal Zappa albums, in my opinion. If you're a Zappa newbie, I'd advise you to first explore ROXY AND ELSEWHERE or ROXY BY PROXY (both of which are devoted to much of the same material), and once you've fallen in love with those, you might start considering CHEAPER THAN CHEEP.

If, on the other hand, you're already a devoted admirer of the 1973-1974 band that had George Duke (keyboards and vocals), Napoleon Murphy Brock (tenor sax, flute and vocals), Tom Fowler (bass), Chester Thompson (drums) and Ruth Underwood (percussion) in it, you won't want to miss this - and in addition to the aforementioned you also get Jeff Simmons on guitar and vocals. (Not to mention FZ on lead guitar and vocals, of course.) Everyone involved seems to be enjoying the occasion, although I have to point out that in some of the songs (notably 'Cosmic Debris', 'Montana' and 'Penguin in Bondage'), Frank's singing seems a little 'detached': he doesn't seem to be savouring the lyrics as much as during THE ROXY PERFORMANCES.

The video quality may not be the best (typical 1970s TV-show material, I'd say) and for some reason Zappa has chosen a backdrop of kitchen foil, just like we got in ROXY: THE MOVIE, but the sound on the CDs is superb. You can clearly distinguish every single player, and I found it a delight to hear one of the greatest prog ensembles of all time making their way once again through such superb material as 'RDNZL', 'T'Mershi Duween' and 'Dupree's Paradise'. George Duke's improvised solos on synth and electric piano are magnificent, confirming that he's right up there in the Prog Pantheon with Tony Banks, Chick Corea and Patrick Moraz; Napoleon Murphy Brock never sounded better on sax and flute, and I enjoyed his singing too, even on 1960s Mothers tracks like 'Let's Make the Water Turn Black'. (I could have done without his version of 'How Could I Be Such a Fool', though.) All the other members of the band sound glorious to my ears, and what's more: Frank's lead guitar is very lively and well recorded, it has a special twang to it, and Frank plays with abandon - especially in the second half of the concert.

One final remark: where I live, CHEAPER THAN CHEEP did not exactly come cheap, you have to fork out a lot of money for it, which makes me feel a little cheated, especially since most or all of the material is freely up on YouTube and heaven knows what other channels anyway. Let's just say I'm happy to support to Zappa Family Trust - or whoever currently owns the rights to FZ's oeuvre - especially if they keep coming up with fascinating material like this.

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