Whiskey a Go Go 1968

The Mothers of Invention took over The Whiskey a Go Go on July 25th 1968 for a recording session. The played three sets. Other stars were The GTO's , Alice Cooper and Wild Man Fisher. Finally it's released. A three disc set with the three sets the Mothers played. Informative booklet with essays by joe Travers and Pamela DeBarre and an interview of Alice Cooper. Sterling sound and nice artwork. Impressive.

This cd. Should have come out ten year ago But it great set will worth it.

I am a long time Zappa fan. Yet I was really quite surprised as to how innovative and creative this performance was. Thank you Zappa Family Trust (ZFT), for releasing this performaance.

After many many years of so, so re-releases (some of which were greatly overpriced) Ahmet and Joe Travers have finally released a box set that, given the time and situ, is historically, musically and financially worth every penny and the sound quality is as good as any I’ve heard anywhere! There are long instrumental pieces and guitar solos, in fact everything you could wish for in a Zappa release. If you like Zappa and particularly early Zappa this is for you! What a ‘freak out’ album it could have made - it is wonderful!

Brillgic

There have been early Mother’s releases before, aside of course the main early albums one might be familiar with. However from one listen to this it is certainly one of the better releases. Ahead of Their Time, Playground Psychotics and Lost Episodes did not really capture the best of the early Mothers. And while there have been some fair live performances in the form of the Road Tapes #2 release and some of the You Can’t Do That on Stage Anymore releases, this release is - I would argue - the best Mothers live performance thus far. The quality of the recording is fair to good and the performances are well executed. Many of the songs are drawn from Freak Out, Absolutely Free and Uncle Meat, so if you like that period of Zappa’s career, grab this. Of course it won’t be to everyone’s taste, even hardcore Zappa fans. While Zappa’s early albums were refined and heavily produced, live performances were a little rough and ready in those early days. That said there is still some of the Zappa most will be familiar with. There is a tendency over the last few years for the ZFT to put out concerts in their entirety rather than create a tight edit as Zappa himself might have done. Thus there are some rather drawn out gaps of silence and elements that could have easily been discarded. There is a case for both an edited highlights album and the full concert. Of course one could rip it and create your own favourite mix. Perhaps more a historical document than an album you’ll constantly dig out for entertainment. On the whole it’s not bad. But neither is it brilliant. More for completists and hardcore Zappa fans. But it is nonetheless probably the best live example of the 1968 Mothers period. Packaging is a gatefold card affair with three, difficult to remove discs - and a booklet with liner notes written by Joe Travers, Ahmet Zappa, who also produced the album, and Pamela Des Barres. It also features an interview with Alice Cooper who performed the night the album was recorded at the Sunset Strip.

This recording is very good.However the content is pretty turgid.Long pauses account for a cd or so.This is useful for people who enjoy waiting for stuff to happen. However Mr Zappa left this recording in the attic or basement presumably not interested in releasing it.That would have saved me a few quid and Frank from turning in his grave wherever that is?