ZAPPA ROXY AND ELSEWHERE DVD TV

The performances here are astounding and the songs that were included on The Dub Room Special! take on an entirely new life in context of the program. So the question that remains is, is this release worthwhile to someone who owns The Dub Room Special!? I’d say so. Due to this, A Token of his Extreme is one of the most sought after programs in the entire Zappa canon. Adding even further to it’s value, two of the recordings presented here were used as ‘basic tracks’ for One Size Fits All (1975), “Inca Roads” and “Florentine Pogen”, furthering the special’s importance in Zappa’s catalog. Though much of it did show up on the mail-order only The Dub Room Special! (1985, with a wider release on DVD in 2005), it was largely edited for the Laser Disc format and jarringly intercut with footage from Zappa’s 1981 Halloween performances – much of which has been commercially released on The Torture Never Stops (2008).

ZAPPA ROXY AND ELSEWHERE DVD TV

The program was then offered to various television networks in the US, but was (in Frank’s own words), “steadfastly rejected by the American television industry”, but “shown in primetime in France and Switzerland, with marvelous results.” Unfortunately due to this, it has never appeared on US TV and has been widely bootlegged since the advent of the VHS tape. So what makes this band so special? Well, read on…Ī Token of his Extreme was filmed at KCET Studios, Los Angeles, on August 27th, 1974 and was initially envisioned as a 90 minute TV special that, in addition to highlights from the Mothers performance, would also showcase the claymation talents of “The Amazing” Bruce Bickford. The band documented here is quite possibly the finest group of musicians the man ever assembled – Napoleon Murphy Brock (tenor sax, flute, vocals), George Duke (keyboards, finger cymbal, tambourine, vocals), Tom Fowler (bass), Chester Thompson (drums), and the always sensational Ruth Underwood (percussion) to many fans, the ultimate Mothers lineup. After spending years in bootleg circulation, an official release of Frank Zappa’s A Token of his Extreme DVD is here! So what is this, you might ask? Well, it is a television special produced by Zappa in 1974 featuring the Roxy and Elsewhere version of the Mothers of Invention in all of its glory.

Zappa roxy and elsewhere dvd