Frank Zappa - Zappa '88: The Last U.S. Show

 

180-gram 4LP box set

Frank Zappa's final U.S. concert from 1988!

Recorded March 25 at New York's Nassau Coliseum

First-ever posthumous release of a live album from the guitar legend's 1988 touring band

Frank Zappa's final U.S. concert — a March 25, 1988 gig at New York's Nassau Coliseum — is the next archival release from the Zappa Trust and UMe.

Zappa '88: The Last U.S. Show, due out June 18, 2021 marks the first-ever posthumous release of a live album from the guitar legend's 1988 touring band and boasts 29 unreleased recordings from the concert, plus a pair of tracks culled from the same tour: Covers of the Allman Brothers Band's "Whipping Post" from the March 16 show in Providence, Rhode Island, and Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" from the March 23 Towson, Maryland, show.

In addition to a setlist that culls from all corners of the Zappa discography, the live album also sees the first-ever release of Zappa's "The Beatles Medley," which includes "Norwegian Wood," "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds," and "Strawberry Fields Forever," and is embedded with lyrics inspired by a sex scandal involving televangelist Jimmy Swaggart.

The concert took place months before the 1988 presidential election, with Zappa setting up voter registration drives at his concerts. The Synclavier piece "One Man, One Vote" that Zappa performed at the show also nodded toward the voter registration efforts, as did the performance's final song, a rendition of "America the Beautiful."

After the U.S. tour, Zappa and his band played a series of European concerts, but the touring lineup disbanded before a planned second leg of the American trek.

"Sadly after the European run was over," Zappa archivist Joe Travers writes in the live LP's liner notes, "Frank Zappa chose to disband the group and cancel the rest of the tour, reportedly forfeiting $400,000 in revenue and depriving additional audiences the opportunity to witness how special this group really was. With all of the time and money spent to prepare and promote the tour, not to mention the potential within the talented band and crew, now in 2021, it's an even more historic loss considering FZ was to never tour again."

The album — newly mixed from long-vaulted 48-track digital master tapes — features liner notes penned by Travers and 1988 touring drummer Chad Wackerman, who celebrated his 28th birthday onstage with the band during what ultimately became Zappa's final U.S. concert.

Side A

1. We Are Doing Voter Registration Here

2. The Black Page (New Age Version)

3. I Ain’t Got No Heart

4. Love Of My Life

Side B

1. Inca Roads

2. Sharleena

3. Who Needs The Peace Corps?

4. I Left My Heart In San Francisco (Cory/Cross)

Side C

1. Dickie’s Such An Asshole

2. When The Lie’s So Big

3. Jesus Thinks You’re A Jerk

4. Sofa #1

5. One Man, One Vote

Side D

1. Happy Birthday, Chad!

2. Packard Goose Pt. I

3. Royal March From “L’Histoire Du Soldat” (Stravinsky)

4. Theme From The Bartok Piano Concerto #3 (Bartok)

5. Packard Goose Pt. II

6. The Torture Never Stops Pt. I

7. Theme From “Bonanza” (Levans/livingston)

8. Lonesome Cowboy Burt

Side E

1. The Torture Never Stops Pt. II

2. City Of Tiny Lites

3. Pound For A Brown PT. I

Side F

1. Pound For A Brown PT. II

2. The Beatles Medley (Lennon/McCartney)

3. Peaches En Regalia

Side G

1. Stairway To Heaven (Page/Plant)

2. I Am The Walrus (Lennon/McCartney)**

Side H

1. Whipping Post (Allman)*

2. Bolero (Ravel)

3. America The Beautiful (Bates/Ward)

* performed live at Civic Center, Providence, RI on March 16, 1988

** performed live at Towson Center, Towson, MD on March 23, 1988

Customer Reviews (4.00 Stars) 1 person(s) rated this product.

The Family Saga Continues posted on 04/28/2021 4 Stars Reviewer: Chop aka FZMOI69 So sad to see that this dysfunctioning family can't even come together and put there differences aside to release this show in its entirety. Instead they removed the 2 songs that Dweezil played on that night (Whipping Post & Stairway) and added the same 2 songs from alternate locations all because of this family feud. It's a dam shame and I'm sure if Frank had a say he would not approve. This is why only 4 stars and not 5. I know this recording inside and out and it smokes.

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