SAARBRUCKEN 1978

Really Frank? This bootleg album was cutting into your royalties?

I suppose, since many of the songs hadn't been released legitimately when this came out that it may have caused Frank to lose some sales. But with fairly bad sound quality, I can't imagine that it affected it that much.

Reports say that this is a soundboard recording. And without much audience noise, it may well be. But it had to be from a tape a few generations from the original. The sound is flat, instruments are muffled, and the tape speed is off (you hear sonmeone correct it about two thirds of the way through).

As for eyebrows, there are few. Since many of the songs are early versions, there is very little added into them. All can be found in better recordings in the Zappa discography.

This is another one of the bootlegs that was turned into a legal recording. This is part of the Beat the Boots Collection I. Sound quality, volume, and tape speed are all changed throughout the recording. The only good track on here is Pound for a Brown which is completely instrumental, but compared to FZ official releases, the quality on this is just garbage. Guitars are muffled, synths are way too loud and overpowering, some of the vocals are buried and hard to decipher. This one should have not been made official. There is nothing historical about this that would even make it worthwhile for collectors. All of these tracks can be found on other better recordings.

I am writing this review in defense of this "album" and the Beat The Boots series in general... Quibbling about the sound quality of these performances shows a woeful lack of appreciation for what these releases DO represent... FZ decided upon these bootlegs (presumably due to volume of circulation and quality of performance or a combination of both). For whatever reason these were relased, they largely represent very nice snapshots of Frank and/or the Mother's incarnations at that moment in time. As a vinyl collector, the fact that these "boots" are available to me in wax is awesome... This "release" in particular is a lot of fun. I like many of these tracks and while this lineup isnt represenatative of the halcyon Duke/Ponty/Underwood et al variety... It is VERY compelling and interesting. I just spun this release on vinyl with decent cans and a headphone amp and thought that the 2.05 overall rating for this "album" and many others in the beat the boots series is woefully low... This is great FZ and deserving of a higher rating in is community.