One Shot Deal (Audio CD)

As Gail Zappa's liner notes inform us, this material was all recorded, mixed and produced by FZ and then set aside... It was then much later compiled into this '08 release, and I bet it won't be reissued any time soon, hence the apt title. So, for any FZ fan this is definitely worth getting. It has some great music, with "Occam's Razor" being the crowning jewel (a 9 minute long "Inca Roads" guitar solo from '79, able to be heard on Youtube). The other guitar highlights are "Bathtub Man" (from '74, also on Youtube) and "Heidelberg" (from '78).The mostly live, well segued, performances here cover a pretty wide range (recordings from '72, 73, 74, 75, 78, 79 & 81), from highlighting instrumental guitar, horn and keyboard soloing, to studio and stage noodling madness, to vocal "hits" ("Illinois Enema Bandit" and a "Yellow Snow" suite), to symphonic virtuosity ("Rollo").One of my biggest regrets in life is never having seen FZ play live, and so these snippets of...Read more