AHEAD OF THEIR TIME

"Ahead of Their Time" is an archival live album release by US act Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention. The album was released in 1993 through Barkin Pumpkin and reissued in 1995 by Rykodisc. The album was recorded at the Royal Festival Hall, London, England on October 28, 1968. The first 10 songs on the album feature 15 members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and together the 10 tracks form a kind of classical/avant garde/rock piece with strange but absolutely hilarious dialogue and theater performance by the band. This was a one-off performance on the 1968 Mothers of Invention European tour and according to the liner notes Frank Zappa spend about $7,000 on the event which about equalled his total income from the tour.

The remaining tracks performed at the concert includes classics like "King Kong", "Let's Make The Water Turn Black", "Harry, You're A Beast", "The Orange County Lumber Truck" and "Oh No". They are all performed in instrumental versions so don´t expect many vocals on "Ahead of Their Time" except for the weird dialogue and the occasional odd vocal part. Frank Zappa comments in the liner notes of the booklet that the second part of the concert was: "A fair but not outstanding 1968 Mothers of Invention rock concert performance".

The sound quality isn´t the best but it´s certainly acceptable for the time even though there´s a very audible hiss throughout the concert from Don Preston´s keyboard rack (that´s where the noise comes from according to the liner notes in the booklet). The skills of Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention are indisputable and their performances here are of a high quality. They were an incredibly professional and well playing band.

All songs have appeared before as part of the Mystery Disc from "The Old Masters, Box Two (1986)", which also contained the material from "Uncle Meat (1969)", "Hot Rats (1969)", "Burnt Weeny Sandwich (1970)", "Weasels Ripped My Flesh (1970)", "Chunga's Revenge (1970)", "Fillmore East, June 1971 (1971)" and "Just Another Band From L.A. (1972)". It´s still a welcome release though, to those who don´t own the boxset. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.