Frank Zappa - Son Of Hot Rats (1970) UPDATE

The big news this year for Zappaholics was the announcement that there would be a 'Hot Rats' box set towards the end of the year, which would include hours of recordings made during the 'Hot Rats' sessions. It's finally here, and we have not been let down by what's on it. The 6CD box documents and compiles every composition recorded during several days in July 1969 when Zappa recorded a wealth of material that ended up being used not only for the 'Hot Rats' album, but throughout multiple releases during his lifetime. It's filled with an abundance of rare and unedited mixes, work mixes, relevant Vault nuggets and complete basic tracks mixed from the original multi-track master tapes by Craig Parker Adams and mastered by Bob Ludwig. The collection provides a fascinating look into the making of this classic album, and includes essentially every musical entity that was recorded during these iconic sessions, including tracks which would subsequently become part of Zappa’s albums 'Burnt Weeny Sandwich', 'Weasels Ripped My Flesh', 'Studio Tan', and 'Chunga’s Revenge'. After working my way through them and finding recordings that I never knew existed, I've decided to update my 'Son Of Hot Rats' album to replace some of the tracks whch didn't really fit the original concept with versions that I now know were definitely recorded at the same time as the final 'Hot Rats' tracks. I've therefore replaced 'Lemme Take You To The Beach' with the original instrumental backing before the vocals were added in the early 70's, and added the full eight minute 1970 mix of 'Bognor Regis'. As it was now turning into an almost completely instrumental album, and getting longer all the time, I decided to remove the vocal parts from 'Sharleena' and just leave the solos, add the unedited take of 'Lil' Clanton Shuffle', remove 'Excentrifugal Forz' completely, and replace 'Twenty Small Cigars' with the original 'Transition', but as it was almost musically identical I've kept the title. After a little re-jigging of the running order it sounded pretty good, and so here is the updated album. I'm leaving the original post in place in case anyone still wants to hear that, and the other good news is that there are enough tracks left over to compile a third album in the trilogy, which will follow when I've put it together. 

Track listing

01 Bognor Regis
02 Dame Margret's Son To Be A Bride
03 Twenty Small Cigars
04 Chunga Basement
05 Introducing The Toads Of The Short Forest>
06 Sharleena
07 Lil' Clanton Shuffle