THE MYSTERY DISC

Frank Zappa

•

RIO/Avant-Prog

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Frank Zappa The Mystery Disc album cover

2.05 | 56 ratings | 3 reviews | 5% 5 stars

Collectors/fans only

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Boxset/Compilation, released in 1998

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. Theme From Run Home Slow (1:23)
2. Original Duke Of Prunes (1:17)
3. Opening Night Party At StudioZ (1:34)
4. The Village Inn (1:17)
5. Steal Away (3:43)
6. I Was A Teen-Age Malt Shop (1:10)
7. The Birth Of Capt. Beefheart (0:18)
8. Metal Man Has Won His Wings (3:06)
9. Saint�s �N Sinners Segment (0:34)
10. Bossa Nova Pervertamento (2:15)
11. Excerpt - Uncle Frankie Show (0:40)
12. Charva (2:01)
13. Speed-Freak Boogie (4:14)
14. Original Mothers at Broadside (0:55)
15. Excerpt MONDO HOLLYWOOD (1:54)
16. Original Mothers Rehearsal (0:22)
17. How Could I Be Such A Fool? (1:49)
18. Band Intros - The Fillmore (1:10)
19. Plastic People (1:58)
20. Orig. Mothers At Fillmore East (0:50)
21. Harry You�re A Beast (0:30)
22. Don Interrupts (4:39)
23. Piece One (2:26)
24. Jim / Roy (4:04)
25. Piece Two (6:59)
26. Agency Man (3:25)
27. Agency Man (Studio Version) (3:27)
28. Lecture From Fest. Hall Show (0:21)
29. Wedding Dress Song (2:36)
30. Skweezit Skweezit Skweezit (2:57)
31. The Story Of Willie The Pimp (1:33)
32. Black Beauty (5:23)
33. Chucha (2:47)
34. Mothers At KPFK (3:26)
35. Harmonica Fun (0:41)

Total Time: 77:44

Line-up / Musicians

- Frank Zappa / guitar, keyboards, vocals

Other musicians:
- see respective albums

Releases information

CD Rykodisc RCD 10580 (1998)

Thanks to ProgLucky for the addition
and to NotAProghead for the last updates
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FRANK ZAPPA The Mystery Disc ratings distribution

2.05
(56 ratings)

Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(5%)
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(16%)
Good, but non-essential (25%)
Collectors/fans only (39%)
Poor. Only for completionists (14%)

FRANK ZAPPA The Mystery Disc reviews

Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by UMUR
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator

"The Mystery Disc" is a compilation album by US experimental rock artist Frank Zappa. The songs are compiled from the two mystery discs from "The Old Masters, Box One (1985)" and "The Old Masters, Box Two (1986)" box-sets. A few songs have been omitted from the original releases to make it fit on a single CD format. Most notably the "Big Leg Emma/Why Don'tcha Do Me Right?" single from the Mystery Disc #1 from "The Old Masters, Box One (1985)" (the two track are included on the CD version of "Absolutely Free (1967)" so no loss there if you already own that), and part of the Mothers of Invention concert from the Mystery Disc #2 from "The Old Masters, Box Two (1986)" (the omitted part of the concert is included on "Ahead of Their Time (1993)" so again no loss there, if you own that release).

"The Mystery Disc" CD album concentrates on the early output of Frank Zappa and almost all 35 tracks are pre-Mothers of Invention recordings. Most are very short dialogue pieces or badly recorded blues or r�n�b songs and the most interesting parts of the album already appear on other recordings like "Ahead of Their Time (1993)" and "Lost Episodes (1996)". So to be quite honest I find "The Mystery Disc" to be a totally dispensable album and I wouldn�t even recommend it to the hardcore fans. Sure there�s the occasional hilarious dialogue or nice little section but as mentioned the best parts have already appeared elsewhere giving this album very little value. I can�t defend giving the album more than a 1 star (20%) rating.

Review by Evolver
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Crossover & JR/F/Canterbury Teams

This disk contains most of what was on the two "Mystery Disc" LPs from the two "Old Masters" collections from the mid-eighties, the boxed sets containing Frank's earliest albums. The majority of the best tracks of this album have been released on other discs, mainly "The Lost Episodes" and "Ahead Of Their Time", rendering this CD mostly for collectors or completists. Many of the tracks have been circulaing around for years on various bootleg releases, so in that respect, it's good to have legitimate releases of them.

The best of the tracks not on the other CDs are early recordings of Zappa in various combinations. We actually get to hear him play with Johnny Franklin (mentioned in the song Village Of The Sun on "Roxy & Elsewhere"). Even so, they don't raise the value much. But AI'm glad I own it.

Latest members reviews

1 stars "Frank Zappa's Random Old Stuff That Nobody Needs" could very well be the title of this collection of totally useless tracks. Most of the album is just the Mothers or Frank by himself dicking around like usual, well not exactly like usual since a large portion of this predates the first Mother ... (read more)

Report this review (#68828) | Posted by | Wednesday, February 8, 2006 | Review Permanlink

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