I want to wrap up my Zappa project with a bit of an oddity. This box set contained three CDs and it’s the way I heard a couple of early Zappa albums. This contains both the original 1968 mono version & the 1984 remix by Zappa of We’re Only In It for the Money; the differences aren’t all that stark between these two. The set also contains an unreleased version of Lumpy Gravy from 1967 as well as the 1980s remix of the 1968 version. The Lumpy Gravy differences are quite stark; the 1967 version ended up being recalled due to legal issues and the 1968 version was very different, something like a solid ten minutes longer and it contains none of the track titles from the 1967 version. I was very positive on We’re Only In It for the Money and fairly negative on Lumpy Gravy, but I liked hearing them this way. The third disc is a ton of bonus tracks ranging from 25 seconds to 25 minutes. There’s a lot of real gold here, from a lengthy studio session on the 25 minute track to a lot of interview snippets and elements of the collages Zappa liked to put together. The instrumental tracks are pretty great too. I actually really enjoyed this set. Much as I wouldn’t really like listening to the elements on the third disc either when integrated into collages or just on their own as music, it was an interesting peek into Zappa’s process. It’s a good way to catch up to Lumpy Gravy (if you must) and We’re Only In It for the Money and get some extra insights as well. 3 stars.
tl;dr – box set has a couple of Zappa albums in different forms and includes an entire bonus disc of fascinating behind the scenes material; a fun peek into the process of creating Zappa’s music. 3 stars.