200 Motels: Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack [Enhanced CD] [Enhanced] [Soundtrack]

Amazon.com
Searching for this missing piece of the Frank Zappa catalog helped Rykodisc secure the rights to the United Artists and post-1985 MGM film libraries. But 200 Motels also serves as a good introduction to the late rock icon/avant-garde composer's absurd view of his world; i.e., the pop music business.

Essentially a filmed dadaist opera (the bulk of the music is performed live as the video cameras rolled, 200 Motels incorporates sporadic patches of Mothers of Inventions rock into the atonal, largely European, musical framework that Zappa was clearly more interested in. He shrewdly used contemporary pop merely as a marketing shill for the complex, often difficult, music that drove him. (For a taste of the film's uniquely skewed artistic sense, Ryko has included the original 200 Motels theatrical trailer as part of this set's enhanced-CD bonus material).

As always, the Zappa of 200 Motels sometimes confuses the profound with the obscene, but with every passing year, he seems more likely to take his place alongside the great American modernist Charles Ives, another composer whose work was every bit as commercially troubled and artistically misunderstood. --Jerry McCulley

From the Label
Originally a United Artists (now a division of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.) release features performances by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and narrator Theodore Bikel. In true Zappa form, topics such as sex, rednecks and bad food are massaged with his signature blend of humor and melodic genius. The soundtrack is a monumental pastiche of favorite Zappa musical genres, from the guitar-driven rock & roll of "Mystery Roach" to the classical gem "Strictly Genteel," captured here in its first recorded form. The album has been painstakingly remastered for its digital debut, using the original analog stereo master Zappa delivered to United Artists. The two-disc set has also been augmented with bonus audio and visual material, including an enhanced CD track featuring the original theatrical trailer, a fifty-six page booklet with extensive liner notes, all the original package art and never-before-seen photos from the MGM archives, and a foldout poster.

200 Motels: Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack [Enhanced CD],Frank Zappa,Rykodisc,Album Rock,Comedy Rock,Experimental Rock,Hard Rock,Pop,Popular Music,Prog-Rock/Art Rock,Rock,Rock/Pop

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200 Motels: Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack [Enhanced CD] [Enhanced] [Soundtrack]

Average customer rating: The best slam at VU ever It grows on you Simply the best! Flo & Eddie #3....5 Classic Songs But Out Of Print Flo and Eddie ruined the Mothers!

200 Motels: Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack [Enhanced CD] Frank Zappa Manufacturer: Rykodisc ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Traditional Folk | Folk | Styles | Music General | Rock | Styles | Music Progressive Rock | Progressive | Rock | Styles | Music General | Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music Hard Rock | Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music General | Soundtracks | Styles | Music 1970s | By Decade | Soundtracks | Styles | Music Album-Oriented Rock (AOR) | Classic Rock | Styles | Music Experimental Rock | Rock | Alternative Styles | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music Comedy Rock | Comedic Music | Comedy | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music Traditional Folk | Folk | Indie Music | Stores | Music Progressive | Rock | Indie Music | Stores | Music Similar Items: Fillmore East: June 1971 Cruising with Ruben & the Jets Chunga's Revenge Just Another Band from L.A. Bongo Fury ASIN: B0000009SB Release Date: 1997-10-14

Tracks:

1. Semi-Fraudulent/Direct-From-Hollywood Overture
2. Mystery Roach
3. Dance Of The Rock & Roll Interviewers
4. This Town Is A Sealed Tuna Sandwich (Prologue)
5. Tuna Fish Promenade
6. Dance Of The Just Plain Folks
7. This Town Is A Sealed Tuna Sandwich (Reprise)
8. The Sealed Tuna Bolero
9. Lonesome Cowboy Burt
10. Touring Can Make You Crazy
11. Would You Like A Snack?
12. Redneck Eats
13. Centerville
14. She Painted Up Her Face
15. Janet's Big Dance Number
16. Half A Dozen Provocative Squats
17. Mysterioso
18. Shove It Right In
19. Lucy's Seduction Of A Bored Violinist & Postlude

Tracks:

1. I'm Stealing The Towels
2. Dental Hygene Dilemma
3. Does This Kind Of Life Look Interesting To You?
4. Daddy, Daddy, Daddy
5. Penis Dimension
6. What Will This Evening Bring Me This Morning
7. A Nun Suit Painted On Some Old Boxes
8. Magic Fingers
9. Motorhead's Midnight Ranch
10. Dew On The Newts We Got
11. The Lad Searches The Night For His Newts
12. The Girl Wants To Fix Him Some Broth
13. The Girls Dream
14. Little Green Scratchy Sweaters & Courduroy Ponce
15. Strictly Genteel (The Finale)
16. Cut 1 'Coming Soon!...'
17. Cut 2 'The Wide Screen Erupts...'
18. Cut 3 'Coming Soon !...'
19. Cut 4 ' Frank Zappa's 200 Motels...'
20. Magic Fingers (Single Edit)

Amazon.com

Searching for this missing piece of the Frank Zappa catalog helped Rykodisc secure the rights to the United Artists and post-1985 MGM film libraries. But 200 Motels also serves as a good introduction to the late rock icon/avant-garde composer's absurd view of his world; i.e., the pop music business.

Essentially a filmed dadaist opera (the bulk of the music is performed live as the video cameras rolled, 200 Motels incorporates sporadic patches of Mothers of Inventions rock into the atonal, largely European, musical framework that Zappa was clearly more interested in. He shrewdly used contemporary pop merely as a marketing shill for the complex, often difficult, music that drove him. (For a taste of the film's uniquely skewed artistic sense, Ryko has included the original 200 Motels theatrical trailer as part of this set's enhanced-CD bonus material).

As always, the Zappa of 200 Motels sometimes confuses the profound with the obscene, but with every passing year, he seems more likely to take his place alongside the great American modernist Charles Ives, another composer whose work was every bit as commercially troubled and artistically misunderstood. --Jerry McCulley

Customer Reviews:

The best slam at VU ever.......2007-05-23

Lonesome Cowboy Burt is easily the best slam on the Velvet Underground ever. No band deserved it more. Or, wait...maybe it was the other way around.

It grows on you.......2007-03-06

The title of the review sums it all up. It does grow on you. 200 motels, as a film, is, in many ways, a dud. But if you have a taste for the bizarre, it is really, really great. Very hard to describe. You have to see it. But the music alone is another story. Incredible orchestrations, some strange dialogue, and some heavy-duty rock from the Mothers, circa early 1971. Original band members Jim Black, Euclid "Motorhead" Sherwood, and Don Preston appear, but not as musicians, but instead, as eccentric characters in the storyline. New bassist Jeff Simmons had quit the band and movie less than a week before shooting, a very dirty move, I would say, so the idea was to hire an actor to do Simmons' lines and pretend to play bass in the band sequences, to have the bass parts overdubbed later. But Martin Lickert, who worked for Ringo Starr, and by chance, played bass, was on hand, and saved the day.

The lyrics and dialogue are, typical of the time, very bawdy, some say funny, others say juvenile and dumb, and both camps are right. But, it is about touring, and as the theme of the film and soundtrack says, "Touring can make you crazy." So the sprawling, surrealistic nature of this project is, I would say, appropriate. There is often sex on the road, and the claustrophobic conditions often endured by touring musicians do take a toll. It is all a release.

To its detriment, the sound quality is poor, even for a remastered CD. That's what cost it a star in this review. And the original vinyl release sounds wretched. So, it is an improvement, warts and all. And, with the muffled sound, the odd vocal harmonies by Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, particularly on "Lonesome Cowboy Burt," sound at times like Jim Hensen's Muppets. That's the first thing I though of upon hearing it. But, the musicianship is, as with any Zappa/Mothers release, par excellence.

Very much an acquired taste, but also very entertaining.

Simply the best!.......2006-09-22

I probably own around 3000 recordings that cover jazz, rock , avant garde and some 20th century music plus some good old blues too. Of all of these 200 Motels is one of those records that 'curls up my toes' for sure every time i play it. Not so good sound , but man, what and incredible blend rof ock n roll , avant garde elements, classical music and comedy! No one could pull this off except for the man himself. For lovers of the adventureous , Henry Cow, Varese and Chuck Berry.

Flo & Eddie #3....5 Classic Songs But Out Of Print.......2006-03-14

*** Please note that FZ neither sings any songs nor speaks on this entire album. The same goes for the film 200 Motels.

This soundtrack became out of print in 2002 when Rykodisc removed it from the Zappa CD catalog.

Is it good? Well that depends if you like the Flo & Eddie era of FZ's music. I happen to enjoy this period of Zappa's musical career and this album's contents so that's why I rate this album 4 stars. If you hate Flo & Eddie, you will hate this album.

*** FZ wrote the songs and plays guitar on them but leaves it up to Flo & Eddie to deliver the vocals. This is proof that FZ never hogged the spotlight and always gave everyone in his band the opportunity to demonstrate their talents.

Most of the album is dialogue from the movie with experimental music in the background. There are only 5 "whole" songs on the entire album but ALL of them are treasures.

The best song on the album, by far, is "Lonesome Cowboy Burt" and it is sung by original mother Jimmy Carl Black. (The other 4 songs are sung by Flo & Eddie and they are "Mystery Roach" "Magic Fingers" "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy" and the "200 Motels Finale")

The best version of the "200 Motels Finale" is the live version on YCDTOSA Volume 6.

On this album, the 200 Motels Finale is preceded by a song called "Strictly Genteel" which is sung by actor Theodore Bikel. This song was never sung in concert but the name "Strictly Genteel" was used as an instrumental piece in future Zappa concerts without any lyrics. This album puts both songs together as one 11 1/2 minute track.

Flo & Eddie would return for one more album before leaving the band forever....good news for many fans. This was good news even to me because this was already the third FZ album that they dominated and too many more would have been "too much."

Flo and Eddie ruined the Mothers!.......2005-08-05

Instead of buying this sad excuse for Frank Zappa's genius, go buy something he actually put musical effort into, like Burnt Weeny Sandwich or Weasles Ripped My Flesh. While this CD and the movie can be very entertaining, it's mostly lewd, crude, immature sex jokes done by Flo and Eddie (the former singers from the Turtles, who rode off Zappa's career when the Turtles broke up...or Zappa rode off theirs, it was mutual.) with little room for the wonderful instrumentals Zappa should be known for. At least when Flo and Eddie left the Mothers Zappa began writing music to his humor (see Apostrophe). Much of this is dialogue, more spoken than sung, so you don't even get good melodies.

Rap Music:

1. 33Hz
2. All Songs Written by: Human Television [Enhanced]
3. All the Leaves Are Gone
4. Amor Prohibido
5. Angherr Shisspa
6. Another Stoney Evening [Live]
7. Anthology
8. Away From the Sun (Hybr) (Ms) [Hybrid SACD]
9. Ballads & Burlesque
10. Boom Boom Baby [Explicit Lyrics]

Rap Music

rap music

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