ANYWAY THE WIND BLOWS

Frank Zappa was always outspoken about the bootleg releases of his music. In particular, he was appalled that others were selling his songs before he was able to release them (I wonder how he would feel about today's Internet, where too many people think that because they can illegally share music, they should illegally share it). Zappa's response, just a few short years before his untimely death, was to take some of the illegally released CDs, and sell their recordings, warts and all, on his own label (humorously named "Foo-Eee").

One reason for wanting bootleg Zappa recordings (as opposed to most other bands), is that performances of songs could vary from concert to concert. Zappa encouraged the band to embellish the songs, or add "eyebrows" as he would put it. Also, many of the songs would go through different arrangements before or even after it was released.

This album was obviously recorded on someone's clandestine device. The recording starts during the intro song, Jumbo Go AwaY, and has many blemishes. The sound begins poorly, but gets better as the "engineer" adjusts the level. It doesn't really sound like stereo, but it may just be that there was no separation on the mics. There is also a spot where the tape was changed during a song, and another moment where someone recorded their own voice over the original tape.

As for eyebrows, there are not many here that aren't available elsewhere. There is a pretty good recording of Dead Girls Of London, a rarity, originall on L. Shankar's "Touch Me There album.

So, only fair recording, not much that can't be obtained elsewhere. Only 2 stars.

This is another one of the bootlegs that was chosen to be released as a legalized copy by itself or as part of the Beat the Boots Collection I. This one was recorded at Nouvel Hippodrome, Paris, 24-Feb- 1979. This recording varies throughout as though the bootlegger was adjusting volume and tone controls. The sound quality ranges from below fair to good, but never great. You can also hear where the tapes were changed. This is also a two-disc set which is unusual for most of the Zappa bootlegs. The bootleg was sold under different titles. The advance copy was sold as "Zapp...a....Paris", it was also released as "Frank Zappa Gets His Shit Together", one of the discs was released seperately as "Live in Schuttdorf", the first disc was released with the second disc of "Pappa Zappa" and entitled "The Best of Pappa Zappa and Any Way the Wind Blows" and also as "Super Mix". Confused yet? Just wanted to clear the air on this bootleg just incase someone out there has one of these other titles.

There really isn't a lot of historical value to this bootleg. It is very listenable throughout most of the recording, but most of the material is available on better recordings (though not the concert itself). There is a very decent recording of Honey Don't You Want a Man Like Me and also of Inca Roads. But again, there are other better versions of these songs out there. I think this one is probably one that completionists will look for but would not be of much interest for anyone else even though the sound isn't as bad as some of the other bootlegs, there just isn't much else of interest here.