It was a bit more than fifty years ago, on the evening of June 18th, 1974 that Frank Zappa decided to produce a TV special without getting ready for such a thing. He and THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION simply had the next two days off and could film, on five cameras, and record, with Wally Heider’s remote truck, their performance for an invited audience in Los Angeles’ DiscReet Rehearsal Studio. And they did – only the results of their effort got shelved for some reason, and the footage is said to have never even been edited. Until now, that is.
At the time, something went wrong to an extent that Zappa and his posse weren’t able to properly show the concert they tapes under the title of “A Token Of His Extreme” two month later, on August 27th, 1974 at KCET Studios, but May 16th, 2025 is when the June gig will be out as “Cheaper Than Cheep” in a variety of formats, including the “Super Deluxe” version with two CDs, three LPs and Blu-ray video mixed in Dolby Atmos. Strangely, this news didn’t get an official airing yet, despite some respectable vendors offering a pre-order.
Cheaper Than Cheep
1. Intro / Cheepnis – Percussion / “Cheaper Than Cheep”
2. Cosmik Debris
3. Band Introductions
4. RDNZL
5. Village Of The Sun
6. Montana
7. Duke Goes Out
8. A Visit To The Art Studio
9. Inca Roads
10. “Get Down Simmons”
11. Penguin In Bondage
12. T’Mershi Duween
13. The Dog Breath Variations
14. Uncle Meat
15. How Could I Be Such A Fool
16. I’m Not Satisfied
17. Wowie Zowie
18. I Don’t Even Care
19. Let’s Make The Water Turn Black
20. Dupree’s Paradise Introduction
21. Dupree’s Paradise
22. Oh No
23. Son Of Orange County
24. More Trouble Every Day
25. Apostrophe’
26. Camarillo Brillo
bonus tracks:
27. Time Is Money (excerpt)
28. Echidna’s Arf (Of You) (incomplete)
29. Art Studio Outtakes
30. The Amazing Mr. Bickford (excerpt)
