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Thread: 200 Motels: The Suites

  1. #1
    Member Oreb's Avatar
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    200 Motels: The Suites

    Esa-Pekka Salonen is a magnificent musician, particularly in 20th Century music, and the music from 200 Motels is excellent.

    This may very well be outstanding:

    http://www.superdeluxeedition.com/ne...es-two-cd-set/

    Does it matter that this waste of time is what makes a life for you?

  2. #2
    Jazzbo manqué Mister Triscuits's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Oreb View Post
    Esa-Pekka Salonen is a magnificent musician
    Saw him conducting the Firebird earlier this year, which was awesome. Can't wait for this release. There was a preview on the purple vinyl Record Store Day single.

    R-6913452-1429455663-1853.jpeg.jpg

  3. #3
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    I have always considered Motels as one of Zappa's very best moments. Motels album tops everything he did in the 60s, and much of his 70s stuff.

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    Member Steve F.'s Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by grego View Post
    I have always considered Motels as one of Zappa's very best moments. Motels album tops everything he did in the 60s, and much of his 70s stuff.
    Have to disagree with you on this one....
    Steve F.

    www.waysidemusic.com
    www.cuneiformrecords.com

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    “Remember, if it doesn't say "Cuneiform," it's not prog!” - THE Jed Levin

    Any time any one speaks to me about any musical project, the one absolute given is "it will not make big money". [tip of the hat to HK]

    "Death to false 'support the scene' prog!"

    please add 'imo' wherever you like, to avoid offending those easily offended.

  5. #5
    There are some wonderful wonderfuls on Motels. It's unique. A great pastiche.

    But it is no Uncle Meat.
    I want to dynamite your mind with love tonight.

  6. #6
    Member Oreb's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by polmico View Post
    But it is no Uncle Meat.
    Very true. I wouldn't put it in my top half-dozen Mothers/Zappa albums, but it's still damn good.

    As for Uncle Meat, well that's probably my favourite album of all time - that or Blonde on Blonde - so it's probably unfair to compare 99.999% of records to it.

    Does it matter that this waste of time is what makes a life for you?

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    Generally speaking, I know some folks that appreciate Zappa's orchestral stuff more than I do. But '200 Motels' holds a special place in my heart for reasons that I don't even understand. I look forward to hearing this.

  8. #8
    I am looking forward to hearing this in a more classical version, without the two screamers. Ensemble Modern has an excerpt from 200 Motels on their "Greggery Peccery" album, which sound great. With Esa-Pekka Salonen this can't be a too bad version.

  9. #9
    Really looking forward to this. I heard the London performance, which was great...tons of music not in the film or on the double album.

    Matt.

  10. #10
    Member Lieto's Avatar
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    Excited!!
    "Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible"
    -Frank Zappa

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    Member rcarlberg's Avatar
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    A vacuum cleaner???

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Troopers For Sound View Post
    Really looking forward to this. I heard the London performance, which was great...tons of music not in the film or on the double album.
    It turns out the orchestral music heard in the track "Duck Duck Goose" from Lather with a blues bassline dubbed over it is from the 200 Motels score. I didn't know that until a radio recording of the London performance circulated.

  13. #13
    Member Phlakaton's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by grego View Post
    I have always considered Motels as one of Zappa's very best moments. Motels album tops everything he did in the 60s, and much of his 70s stuff.
    That's one opinion I dont hear very much if ever... I dont agree but to each their own loves.

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    Listened to this today and it's marvelous. Beautifully performed and recorded. I was expecting more of an instrumental rendering than it is. The original cast of characters are all present and vocalized. If you love '200 Motels,' this is for you. If you're not fond of '200 Motels,' my guess is that this won't matter. The temptation to specify certain selections is resisted.
    I was pleasantly surprised to see that Ian Underwood plays on this, as well as Scott Thunes, Joe Travers, and Jamie Kime.

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Phlakaton View Post
    That's one opinion I dont hear very much if ever... I dont agree but to each their own loves.
    Maybe it doesn't top WOIIFTM but "Strictly Genteel" is one of his greatest tracks and the sequence beginning "She Painted Up Her Face" is stunning. I suspect that the only reason that the 200 Motels material isn't more prominent in the affections of Zappa listeners is because it's always been a rather tricky thing to get hold of in his catalogue so many of the more casual fans may never have heard it.

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    ^^^
    I'd like to think your suspicion is correct, but I don't. Zappa fans are real die hard and persistent in their pursuits of music. However, if you're right, I hope folks give this one a chance.

  17. #17
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    Got it at the ZPZ show.

    It's definitely interesting, and slightly more coherent than the original double album in places: It excerpts the whole "Pleated Gazelle" story as a thing separate from the main "touring can make you crazy" storyline, presents a complete version of the interview episode, and adds a few updates, such as incorporating bits from FZ's British obscenity trial into the interview. That said, it still doesn't make much sense, and the omission of most of the rock songs doesn't help. The Mark and Howard characters aren't played or sung nearly as well as the original Mark and Howard, but, as Scott Thunes points out in the liner notes, the classical soprano turns in quite a good performance as The Interviewer.

    It also incorporates and combines two sides of FZ that tend to get rather short shrift here: the serious, difficult avant-classical composer, and the purveyor of rude, juvenile comedy. Portions of it are unexpectedly autobiographical. Frank was, I think, essentially a lonely man, separated by barriers of class, formal education, and attitude from the people he could have actually talked to as equals, the ones who might understand what he was trying to do musically. But of course, he didn't make it easy himself.

  18. #18
    Member Steve F.'s Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Baribrotzer View Post
    It also incorporates and combines two sides of FZ that tend to get rather short shrift here: the serious, difficult avant-classical composer, and the purveyor of rude, juvenile comedy.
    Actually, I had never thought of it that way, but I think you are right.

    As far as short shrift:
    The rude stuff holds little appeal for me now that I'm not 16 and generally turns me off of a lot of post MOI FZ.
    Steve F.

    www.waysidemusic.com
    www.cuneiformrecords.com

    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    “Remember, if it doesn't say "Cuneiform," it's not prog!” - THE Jed Levin

    Any time any one speaks to me about any musical project, the one absolute given is "it will not make big money". [tip of the hat to HK]

    "Death to false 'support the scene' prog!"

    please add 'imo' wherever you like, to avoid offending those easily offended.

  19. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by Steve F. View Post
    As far as short shrift:
    The rude stuff holds little appeal for me now that I'm not 16 and generally turns me off of a lot of post MOI FZ.
    I agree. There can be found good stuff in his output, even on into the Eighties, but you have to look for it, and sometimes need to wade through a lot of his peculiar version of cheese. He seemed to do a lot less of what we here would call the "prog" material, like much of Uncle Meat or the "Village of the Sun" suite, the jazzy instrumental music of appealingly odd melodies and medium complexity. And he became increasingly focused on doing difficult classical music, mostly for himself, and rude juvenile comedy, mostly for his audience - who were essentially him twenty or thirty years younger, so he understood very well what they wanted.

  20. #20
    Interesting fact: Esa Pekka Salonen played french horn on Jukka Gustavson's "Pride's an Exalted Purchase."

  21. #21
    I received this a few days ago. It is amazing that we still get new, fresh releases so many years after Zappa passed away. This year Zappa records has released two essential, non-rock oriented albums: "Dance me this" and "200 Motels: The suites". While "Dance me this" was realised mostly in solitude by Zappa, his assistant and a machine, "200 Motels: The suites" must be the biggest Zappa production ever: 9 actors/singers, operatic soprano and bass soloists, a 5 piece rock band, a symphony orchestra with a lot of extra musicians, including a classical guitar ensemble, and a choir. It is a concert recording, with theatrical elements also. So it must have cost a fortune to realise it.

    Musically I think it is more interesting with most of the rock elements stripped away. It shows what a great classical composer Zappa was. He had a great musical imagination and the skills to compose a work comparable to those of many of the greatest C20 classical composers. He is probably the only one that could integrate rock and classical music so seamlessly. And he is the only one that could get away with such - improper - language. Personally I don't mind the lyrics, since I am mostly deaf to lyrics in music. But it is a bit strange to hear serious musicians sing dirty lyrics backed by a full orchestra and choir. Anyway, I think it is a record not to be missed for anyone interested in the "serious" composer Zappa.

  22. #22
    Recently Resurrected zombywoof's Avatar
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    Got this for Christmas and played it on New Years Eve. Man, this is a real gem! The recording quality is impeccable, but still unmistakably 'live' and 'human' and the pieces? Well ...

    It's really great to hear these pieces (and some 'new' ones!) performed with such respect to the man and the material. And the humor is off the charts! Love it.

  23. #23

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