Zappa-Little Dots and Chicago '78

[Phlakaton]

One Shot Deal

What do you guys think of this one?

I love it... but I'm easy. The full blown 'On The Bus' solo is great

[Dave (in MA)]

I love it... but I'm easy. The full blown 'On The Bus' solo is great

Which was originally in the middle of an Inca Roads performance.

It was also great to get the Yo Mama solo Heidelberg in a legitimate CD release. It was on some boots like Apocrypha and on the Guitar World cassette. (The Guitar World set would make a cool ZFT release. My cassette has some age issues these days.)

[Tim35]

Where does the beat the boots series fit into the current scheme of things. Are they being replaced with the more recent releases like buffalo and and one shot deal etc...?

[Mister Triscuits]

Where does the beat the boots series fit into the current scheme of things. Are they being replaced with the more recent releases like buffalo and and one shot deal etc...?

They are not considered part of the official discography, but the ZFT does acknowledge them, and there's a section for them on the zappa.com website separate from the official releases. The individual albums from the first two box sets are still available as downloads on Amazon and iTunes, but out of print as physical releases. The third "box," which was never released in physical form, is currently unavailable.

[Tim35]

Thanks. Have you listened to them?

[Mister Triscuits]

^ I have the physical sets in both vinyl and CD form. I never did get around to downloading BTB III, which seemed weirdly slapped together, including some material that was already available, and just appeared with no fanfare and disappeared with little notice.

[Dave (in MA)]

BTB III, which seemed weirdly slapped together.

How does that differ from BTB and BTB2?

[pb2015]

How does that differ from BTB and BTB2?

As I recall BTB III was a compilation of assorted tracks from all over the place, not a set of existing bootlegs like the previous two boxes.

[Mister Triscuits]

How does that differ from BTB and BTB2?

Those were exact replicas of existing bootlegs. A certain amount of effort went into selecting them. (A Zappa maven on Rhino's staff compiled a short list of recommended inclusions; Zappa himself vetoed some of the items the maven had hoped would make the cut; apparently they went behind Zappa's back to use a better source than the vinyl for one of the albums, which Zappa was dead set against.) The BTB3 downloads were just sets of tracks dumped on the market with generic art and no indications of what bootlegs they came from, and just seemed kind of random.

[pb2015]

apparently they went behind Zappa's back to use a better source than the vinyl for one of the albums, which Zappa was dead set against

They wanted to but Zappa didn't let them. Unmitigated Audacity, the worst sounding record from the first box.

[Mister Triscuits]

They wanted to but Zappa didn't let them. Unmitigated Audacity, the worst sounding record from the first box.

I was actually thinking of The Ark, where IIRC there is an editing difference that includes a small amount of music that wasn't on the original bootleg.

[pb2015]

I was actually thinking of The Ark, where IIRC there is an editing difference that includes a small amount of music that wasn't on the original bootleg.

Ah yes, I couldn't keep track of what people thought happened with that recording.

[Dave (in MA)]

Is the sound quality of BTB 3 better than 1 and 2?

It's odd that a download-only release would be out of print. I wonder if something is in the works?

An interesting BTB approach would have been to have released Apocrypha and Mystery Box as is, packaging and everything, except to add ZFT copyrights all over the packages. Imagine all the dough they could have raked in from us suckers.

[Phlakaton]

They wanted to but Zappa didn't let them. Unmitigated Audacity, the worst sounding record from the first box.

A version can be had from Zappateers that has better sound too... which is the case for most of those BTB ones.

[Steve F.]

I was actually thinking of The Ark, where IIRC there is an editing difference that includes a small amount of music that wasn't on the original bootleg.

There's actually quite a bit more talking and music on the 'official' version that wasn't on the boot.

[Adm.Kirk]

I bought the vinyl of the BTB sets when they were released. I think they are going for a fairly handsome price these days. I stumbled across the third set on Amazon. Wasn't aware, at the time, it even existed. I downloaded the whole thing. It's an interesting release but not quite what the first two were.

Bill