Frank Zappa Mystery Box TEN LPs ORIGINAL

$

215

Here is a great find; a  beautiful copy of  Frank Zappa's "Mystery Box," a very rare TEN-LP box set in its original pressing on the Nifty Tuff & B1tchin' label. I am grading the LPs as the strongest EX; eight out of the ten LPs are M- and perfect, and two of them are the strongest EX with only one or two of the tiniest, faintest hairline sleeve scuffs visible under closest scrutiny. Many sellers would not hesitate to grade this set at M- overall. REALLY NICE. Outer box is VG overall; there is some light surface wear and I would normally grade the box as VG+, but there are two taped corner splits on the lower two corners, and that is what made me take the grading into VG territory. It really doesn't look too bad overall, and the LPs themselves are gorgeous. "LAST" vinyl preservative treatment has been used on these LPs. Really nice overall, and very hard to find. Do not pass this up! A must for Zappa fanatics, and these don't come around too often.

NOTE:

PLEASE CONTACT US AT THE AUCTION'S END FOR SHIPPING TOTALS. THIS BOX SET WILL OBVIOUSLY COST MORE TO SHIP THAN THE AUTOMATIC TOTALS EBAY GIVES FOR LP SHIPPING. THANKS.

Nifty Tuff & B1tchin'

Vinyl: EX (strongest EX overall; 8 LPs M-, two LPs just barely short of M-)

Box: VG

LP 1: Pigs 'N Repugnant

Side One:
1. The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue (10:01)
2. Hungry Freaks, Daddy (03:36)
3. The Wild Man Fischer Story (Fischer) (03:34)
4. I'm The Meany (Fischer) (01:34)
5. Bacon Fat (Andre Williams / Brown) (03:32)

Side Two:
6. King Kong (28:41)

LP 2: Son Of Pigs 'N Repugnant

Side One:
1. The String Quartet (24:05)

Side Two:
2. The Duke (08:46) (Including Aybe Sea & Transylvania Boogie)
3. Help, I'm A Rock (04:55)
4. The Return Of The Son Of Monster Magnet (10:02)

LP 3: Beyond The Fringe Of Audience Comprehension

Side One:
1. What Will This Morning Bring Me This Evening?
2. Watering Holes
3. What Kind Of Girl Do You Think We Are?
4. Bwana Dik
5. Latex Solar Beef
6. Daddy Daddy Daddy
7. Do You Like My New Car?
8. Magic Fingers
9. What Will This Evening Bring Me This Morning?

Side Two:
10. Interview (Part 1)
11. The Final Solution
12. Interview (Part 2)
13. Penis Dimension
14. Time Is Money
15. Flambay
16. Spider Of Destiny
17. Space Boy

LP 4: Zut Alors

Side One:
1. Mr. Green Genes
2. King Kong
3. Chunga's Revenge

Side Two:
4. Sink Trap
5. Ship Ahoy
6. Munchkin Tits
7. Drum Solo
8. T'Mershi Duween
9. Black Napkins

LP 5: The Rondo Hatton Band

Side One:
1. I'm The Slime
2. Ruthie-Ruthie
3. No, Babette
4. Boogers Of Marty Perellis
5. White Juice on His Beard
6. Smell My Beard

Side Two:
7. Father O'Blivion
8. Don't Eat The Yellow Snow
9. Nanook Rubs It
10. St. Alphonzo's Pancake Breakfast
11. Mar-Juh-Rene
12. Penguin In Bondage
13. T'Mershi Duween / The Dog Breath Variations / Uncle Meat

LP 6: A Token Of His Extreme

Side One:
1. Montana (03:58)
2. Stink-Foot (03:56)
3. Inca Roads (09:38)
4. Dog Breath / Uncle Meat (03:53)

Side Two:
5. Approximate (01:25)
6. Cosmik Debris (07:39)
7. Florentine Pogen (10:09)

LP 7: Chalk Pie

Side One:
1. I'm The Slime
2. Peaches En Regalia
3. Dancin' Fool
4. The Purple Lagoon
5. The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing
6. St. Alphonzo's Pancake Breakfast/Rollo

Side Two:
7. Chalk Pie
8. We're Turning Again
9. Them Or Us
10. Clowns On Velvet

LP 8: Crush All Boxes

Side One:
1. Fine Girl
2. Pick Me, I'm Clean!
3. Teen-age Wind
4. Harder Than Your Husband
5. Bamboozled By Love
6. Drafted Again
7. Falling In Love Is A Stupid Habit

Side Two:
8. Teen-age Wind
9. Doreen
10. Fine Girl
11. Easy Meat
12. Goblin Girl

LP 9: Return Of The Son Of Serious Music

Side One:
1. Piece #1
2. Piano Piece
3. Piece #2
4. Collage One
5. Opus 5

Side Two:
6. While You Were Art #1
7. Francesco Opus 1, No. 1, 2nd Movement Allegro con Brio (Francesco Zappa)
8. Francesco Opus 1, #3, 2nd Movement Presto (Francesco Zappa)
9. Francesco Opus 1, #6, 2nd Movement Minuet (Francesco Zappa)
10. Francesco Rock, Opus 1, #1, 1st Movement Andante (Francesco Zappa)
11. Pedro's Dowry

LP 10: Randomonium

Side One:
1. America Drinks And Goes Home
2. Agency Man
3. Randomonium
4. My Head
5. Studebaker Hoch
6. Don't Fuck Around
7. Well (Please Don't Go) (Ward)

Side Two:
8. In Memoriam: Hieronymous Bosch
9. Two on the Town
10. Suicide Chump
11. Truck Driver Divorce
12. Frogs With Dirty Little Lips (Frank/Ahmet Zappa)
13. The Kronos Quartet: None of the Above

Background

Pigs 'N Repugnant:
Tracks 1-2 are live in Appleton 1969, taken from Gas Mask. Track 1 begins with "The Jelly" and cuts to "The Eric Dolphy Memroial Barbecue" at 02:20. Tracks 3-6 taken from Our Man in Nirvana (Fullerton College, 08-Nov-1968). "King Kong" is 31 minutes long on Our Man in Nirvana, here it is 28 minutes and 41 seconds. It IS the same recording, yet it is slower here (and in a lower key, of course) and includes a final "goodnight" which is cut from Our Man in Nirvana. So one part has been edited out of this version, and the edit occurs at 14:24.

Son Of Pigs 'N Repugnant:
Track 1 is "A Pound for a Brown on the Bus" plus "Sleeping in a Jar", taken from Our Man in Nirvana (Fullerton College, 08-Nov-1968). At the time, Zappa called this conglomeration "The String Quartet". Tracks 2-4 are live in Appleton 1969, the recording that also appeared on Gas Mask. Track 2 is like "Return of the Hunch-Back Duke" on Stage #5 and includes "Aybe Sea" and "Transylvania Boogie", and track 4 is an instrumental jam. This side is a real live segued sequence.

Beyond The Fringe Of Audience Comprehension:
The Mystery Box version has these liner notes: "Tracks 1-4 [of side 2] are from the film 200 motels. Tracks 5-7 are from Hunchentoot." "'Space Boy' is the rarest track in this entire box. It was recorded for the Curtis Harrington film, Queen of Blood. Words, music and vocals by Florence Marley. Orchestration and additional instruments by FZ. Sound effects by Ackerman & Cole." Tracks 14-16 have been said to be the remixed Sleep Dirt versions. The suite on side 1 (often called "The Groupie Opera") has been circulated as either "unknown live 1970/1971" and "Butte, Montana 1970/1971" (they do sing "this is the swingingest place in Butte, Montana"), but sounds more like a studio job without an audible live audience. The title is from one of Zappa's catch-phrases: "Some of us live beyond the fringe of audience comprehension. The air is better here."

Zut Alors:
Track 4 is probably from the 1975 UCLA Royce Hall concert (the same concert as on Orchestral Favorites). The same recordingalso appears on Apocrypha, where it's listed as "Gypsy Airs". (The piece was originally recorded in 1967 for an unreleased single, which was planned for release on Capitol Records together with the all-orchestral original version of Lumpy Gravy, which was only released on 8-track.) Track 5 is a longer edit of the Shut Up & Play Yer Guitar version (Osaka 3-Feb-1976). Longer, but still edited; perhaps a tape edited by Zappa himself somehow found its way here. Track 6 is a guitar solo from "More Trouble Every Day". Track 7 is a different edit of "Hands with a Hammer" on Stage #3 (Osaka 3-Feb-1976). Those two are also what is listed as "Guitar Improvisation" on the Wanna Buy Some Acid? bootleg. Track 8 is live in Vancouver 1-Oct-1975. Track 9 is a version with the Mike Douglas band (from a 1976 TV show) backing Frank Zappa (also released on Apocrypha). According to the liner notes on the Mystery Box version, "Tracks 1-4 [on side 2] are the entire side 3 of the unreleased double album version of Zoot Allures". This may not be not correct, but there were serious plans for a double album version of Zoot Allures.

The Rondo Hatton Band:
Track 1 is the single version, with a different guitar solo from the album version. Tracks 2-6 are live at the Capitol Theater in Passaic 08-Nov-1974. Tracks 7-11 are live in Sydney 24-Jun-1973, also issued on Nifty (track 11 is Zappa improvising around the letters MAR-JUH-RENE) - from the "Un-Concert". Tracks 12-13 are December 1973 bonus tracks.

A Token Of His Extreme:
On both sides everything is adjusted to have an "all segue", but edits between songs are of course clear. Audience is only audible in the middle of "Approximate" and after "Florentine Pogen" (the song finish at 9:55). Most songs on side 1 (and expecially the second half of "Inca Roads") are overcrowded of crazy rumours overdubs. "Stinkfoot" is the "Tom Waits version" ("right around the corner ... over by Tom Waits's Restaurant"] and is sung through the voice modifier. "Approximate" is, of course, just a little bit of the song, with first the theme illustration by the whole band, then a vocal extravaganza (Zappa: "That's the melody"), after which Zappa says "Ok, this can also be danced" but "Cosmik Debris" starts.

Chalk Pie:
Track 7 has been officially released on Guitar in a slightly different mix; it's from Salt Lake City 07-Dec-1981. Track 8 is an officially unreleased live version edited together from Santa Monica 11-Dec-1981 (early show) and Salt Lake City 07-Dec-1981. Track 9 is an officially unreleased guitar solo from "The Black Page #2", from San Diego 12-Dec-1981, early show. Track 10 is from the Ritz show in New York on 17-Nov-1981 when Al DiMeola sat in (bootlegged on Assault on New York - The Toxic Shock Trilogy).

Crush All Boxes:
Quoth the liner notes: "'Fine Girl' and 'Drafted Again' are outtakes. Tracks 2-5 are studio rehearsals with drum machine. ('Teenage Wind' and 'Harder Than Your Husband' are instrumentals. 'Falling in Love Is a Stupid Habit' is a demo for Jimmy Carl Black (FZ: piano & vocal)." Zappa later denied that he ever wrote that last song in an interview published in the fanzine Society Pages. Tracks 2-5 and 7 also appear on Apocrypha.Tracks 9-12 on side two represent the entire side one of the unreleased Crush All Boxes. Bonus track 'Teenage Wind' is an outtake. It does not feature Bob Harris on vocals.

Return Of The Son Of Serious Music:
Side 1 is from an orchestral situation with the Pomona Valley Symphony Orchestra at Mount Saint Mary's College, Claremont, California in 1963, conducted by Frank Zappa. A small part of this has been officially released on The Lost Episodes, as "Mount Saint Mary's Concert Excerpt". According to the liner notes on the Mystery Box, "While You Were Art #1" is the "original, stripped-down version", and the Francesco tracks are out-takes. They sound like different orchestrations of Francesco Zappa album tracks. "Francesco Rock" has a drum track. The notes also claim that "Pedro's Dowry" was played by the Berkely Symphony Orchestra in June 1981, but it's from "A Zappa Affair", June 16, 1984. Anyway, this release may or may not be related to the bootlegs Serious Music and Son of Serious Music - it's certainly supposed to look that way.

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