One Shot Deal

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Released June 2008

Tracklist

  1. Bathtub Man (5:43)
  2. Space Boogers (1:24)
  3. Hermitage (2:00)
  4. Trudgin’ Across The Tundra (4:01)
  5. Occam’s Razor (9:11)
  6. Heidelberg *1987 (4:46)
  7. The Illinois Enema Bandit (9:27)
  8. Australian Yellow Snow (12:26)
  9. Rollo (2:57)

8 thoughts on “One Shot Deal”

  1. A very unessential release I would say. It has some great moments on it but the flow from track to track is disjointed to me, but I am one of the people who doesn’t really like The Dub Room Special because of the juxtoposition of the different era bands and types of music on that dvd/cd.

    Plus, it seems some of the tracks could go on longer since cds these days can be, what, 74 – 80 minutes long?

    Get it if you are a fanatic, but skip it if you are not.

  2. I really like this album. Sure it’s a bit of a random mixture, and my favourite track – Occam’s Razor – was edited with a carving knife, but it’s a nice mix of stuff and it’s mostly tracks I haven’t heard before. Occam’s Razor appears to be a fuller version of On The Bus from Joe’s Garage and I love it to bits, at least until it just … stops.

  3. Yeah Occam’s is the original on the bus intro melody with the “fuller solo”. Yeah the edits are not cool though. Why cant Mr. Travers wake up and release some astounding and essential material.

  4. i like it , nice music great guitar — good idea about releasing a cd with out damaging planet earth —-

  5. What edits in “Occam’s Razor”? It’s the complete solo. Geez. Are we already forgetting that everything on this CD was mixed, edited and assembled by FZ?

  6. Quite fantastic really. I waited months to write a review here, and this week (a business trip in the US) I was able to listen to the CD in my car, a rental car, a plane, a boat, and on headphones in a hotel. The same CD in 5 listens became progressively better and better. I agree that the edits and song order are peculiar. And the CD is far too brief. But Enema Bandit solo(s) alone are worth the price of this. We did need another release of Enema Bandit and this is it!

  7. This CD, in my opinion has the best recording of a Zappa solo ever and that is around the two minute mark of Australian Yellow Snow. It is Raw and perplexing. It actually expresses something rather than merely follow a chord progression. As good as Steve Vai is, he can’t do what Frank did. Nobody could. Worthy of the applause given at the conclusion of the all too brief aural orgasmic extravaganza. I say that this show in it’s entirety should be made available, Dupree’s Paradise is fantastic as well from that show. I’ve listened to this a few times and enjoy this release immensely. The peak of Frank’s guitar work is around this era.

  8. Possibly the best album released by the ZFT since Frank’s passing away. And it’s really good. What a relief to be able to write that! As noted above, it does have it’s ups and downs, but after several listens, it stands up pretty well.

    Bathtub Man is a bit of a strange album-opener, being merely a blues in something, but it does feature some wonderful Zappa guitar, typical of his style of this period (1974). Space Boogers and Hermitage are two short percussive pieces that, although slight in themselves, really help the overall flow of the album. Then comes the lovely Trudgin’ Across The Tundra, a 7/8 vamp with a wonderful trumpet solo.

    Next up is undoubtedly the album’s highlight: Occam’s Razor. A 1979 solo from Inca Roads later edited into Toad-O Line (a/k/a On The Bus) on Joe’s Garage. This is a real meaty piece of work which would’ve easily fitted into Shut Up ‘N Play Yer Guitar. It is a mark of the man’s genius that there are still gems like this sitting in the vault. However… the rather rapid fade out at the end is so extreme I can only liken it to that feeling you get when the plane you are sitting on suddenly drops in the middle of take-off.

    Heidelberg is another great solo, this time from 1978, which segues wonderfully into The Illinois Enema Bandit. I should mention that I was less than impressed when I noticed that this was on the track listing (“another version?? Surely there must be something else worth releasing!!?”). But it is superb, the most swaggering, ballsy version I’ve heard yet. Ray White’s voice is unbelievably good.

    My main beef comes with the next track, a Sydney 1973 recording of the Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow suite. Although it features the early idea of the opening section in double time, it continues on for some time with only very few differences to the originally released Apostrophe’ version. And then comes the nothing short of boring Mar-juh-rene section. This never fails to bore me to tears. This was a track that FZ presented on radio several times in the 1970’s (on tapes known as The Un-Concert and The Impossible Concert), so it was obviously something he was happy with, but I really feel this is the absolute low point of this album. I could certainly live without it.

    And then we finish with another recording of Rollo, possibly the same performance as on Quaudiophilliac, which is just as ok as all of the other releases of this piece.

    But there is so much great music on this album, that I just can’t help myself and play it again. There is hope (again) of great things to come!

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