Frank Zappa - Meat Light: The 3 cd Uncle Meat Project/Object.
The original Uncle Meat is one of my top 5 Zappa albums (Hmmm... I think if I add up all my top 5 Zappa albums it may come out greater than 5
@
This 3 cd set is great. Disc 1 is the first time the original 1969 vinyl mix has been released on cd. Disc 2 and a third of Disc 3 is the original sequence (aka alternate album) as produced by Frank Zappa and Dick Kunc before Frank took razor in hand and re-sequenced it to the original release. Yes, a lot of it is repeated, but most alternate albums do that.
The final two-thirds of Disc 3 contains material from "The Vault". These consist of different takes and mixes of some of the pieces, along with pieces never heard before.
One track that I found extremely interesting is "Echo Pie". This is a verbal only continuation of "If we'd all been living in California...". For those unfamiliar with the UM album, "IWABLIC..." was taped during a Mother's band meeting (probably unbeknownst to the band) and is primarily Jimmy Carl Black complaining to Frank about the Mothers not making enough money. In "Echo Pie", Frank is heard saying he has too much work to do in the studio and needs to take a break from touring. Then, he offers to let the Mothers tour without him! JCB, however, feels the fans only come to see Frank.
I realize that music is what should matter, but if the ZFT put out an album of (the original) Mother's taped band meetings I'd be all over that.
At any rate, if this was a poll item it would definitely get a 10 from me. Highly recommended for both the fans of the original Mother's and Zappa in general.
:music