Beat The Boots One – Two

Beat The Boots One
Released 1991
Tis The Season To Be Jelly
The Ark
Freaks And Motherfu#@%!
Piquantique
Unmitigated Audacity
Saarbrücken 1978
Any Way The Wind Blows
As An Am

Beat The Boots Two
Released 1992
Electric Aunt Jemima
Our Man In Nirvana
Tengo Na Minchia Tanta
Disconnected Synapses
Swiss Cheese/Fire!
Conceptual Continuity
At The Circus

12 thoughts on “Beat The Boots One – Two”

  1. Nice collections of some of the better bootlegs, essential for the serious collector and they fill some historical gaps in the official releases.

  2. ANYWAY THE WIND BLOWS – This is sort of a 2-CD version of TINSEL TOWN REBELLION. “Sort of” is due to the fact that this was a bootleg that Zappa later reissued legally as part of the Beat The Boots box set. A great concert. This boot contains what is probably the best sound quality of the first Beat The Boots box.

  3. ThingFish,

    I think the sound quality and music on Saarbrucken is much better than A.W.T.W.B. I’ve only heard 1 other from BTB Vol.1 and that was Unmitigated Audacity – great band, but the sound is atrocious and the songs heavily edited. So, in conlusion – get yer mits on Saarbrucken.

  5. Sorry. I didn’t finish reading your post before I sent my reply. But, I will get Saarbrücken one day.

  6. Before BTB I had only listened to few bootlegs. Piquantique features the “pre-Roxy” (minus Brock) mothers that are not really covered by the official releases – little singing, lots of instrumentals (Dupree’s, T’Mershi, RDNZL, Kung Fu) – for me a 10/10

  7. From what I’ve heard of these, they are a pretty interesting selection. They seem to have been chosen to fill in the gaps where (presumably) no really high quality recording exists. Saying that, ‘The Ark’ has great sound, nice to hear MOI really going for it in the 20 minute Uncle Meat/King Kong medly.
    ‘As An Am’ is Ok, but no major surprises. It features the early 80s line up with Vai & Co.
    ‘Anyway The Wind Blows’ rocks, ‘Piquantique’ has mediocre sound, but more interesting music and ‘Freaks & Mother—-ers’ is Flo & Eddie, not my favourite era, but some good tunes (including an early version of ‘Wonderful Wino’).

    Great stuff, on the whole.

  8. I love all the Zappa lineups, and this gives me a nice smattering of each band. The Flo and Eddie stuff is hilarious, the early Mothers stuff is just incredible, the Roxy stuff is badass, and I love just about any version of Call any Vegetable. A+ material, Frank.

  9. I like the rawness of the “Beat the Boots” series. Yeah, a good deal of the sound quality really varies, but the variety is astounding. I particularly like the early Mothers discs (“Ark”, “Jelly”, “Aunt Jemima”), and I personally wish that Frank had mined more of this kind of stuff for Vol. 5 of the “You Can’t Do That On Stage” disc one collection.

    It’s all very fascinating for the hard-core fan, and the “Flo and Eddie” Mothers stuff is historically ESSENTIAL, especially the “Cheese/Fire!” boot, where you can hear Frank calmly helping everyone get out safely, and the moment when “Smoke on the Water” actually HAPPENED.

    Sound quality is only part of the whole Conceptual Continuity thing, and I am very glad Frank approved these releases.

    P.S. I still own my complimentary beret and pin from buying the original set!!!

  10. May I ask how the sound quality on Unmitigated Audacity is? Is it terrible, or just a bit bad?

  11. Why does that question mark appear when people type the word ‘Saarbrucken’? How does a letter ‘u’ become a question mark? Anyway, Zappa’s own interview(s) at the time Beast The Boots was released clearly pointed out that original released boots were used–presumably the vinyl versions–to master the series. That is, not the master plates or tapes. So I have strong doubts as to any released Beat versions sounding better if indeed they were just re-booted from a bootleg release of the time.

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