Frank Zappa – Zappa In New York

Amazing album. After buying a used cassette deck, I pulled out the old cassette collection and saw this in the bin. Crazy that a cassette so old still sounds so good. Amazing album that any Zappa fan should have. 🤘🏼

I have some issues with this otherwise excellent 40th Anniversary Edition.

1 - Disc One states that it contains the original 1977 mix. It does not. It contains the 1978 CENSORED mix. Warner Brothers swiftly withdrew the album after its initial release, shortened Titties 'n Beer and removed Punky's Whips completely. They then had to shift some tracks around so as not to have completely unbalanced LP sides! I think the ZFT really missed a trick by not restoring the true original version in this collection. Yes we do have those tracks in their full unexprgated glory but they appear as bonus tracks, when they ought to have been included as per Frank's original vision. There is enough space on a CD to fit the entire double album album, so why didn't they? (Probably saving it for the 50th Anniversary Edition)

2 - In the non-40th Anniversary CD editions of this album we have four additional tracks not on the original album. I thought it was a shame we didn't get these tracks in their non-reverb'd state. We do get the original mix of Cruising For Burgers but it misses the contemporaneous guitar overdubs, and we don't get these particular takes of I'm The Slime, Pound For A Brown and The Torture Never Stops.

I realise I'm complaining about what isn't there rather than praising what IS there, but sometimes the ZFT's choices for these otherwise excellent deluxe editions confuse me.

Just bought a copy. How are we sure these are "unofficial"? The labels and packaging are certainly close to OG Discreet/WB. Mine does have handwritten matrices and no track separations...

Fantastic pressing by MPO. Deep, clear and dynamic. Love It !

I don't understand why they didn't take the original uncensored version for this reissue with "Punky's Whips" on A side ...??
Is it the same version of "Punky's Whips" on the original pressing and this one given in the bonus record ?

In the note section I was expeceted some explanations of the uncensored differences. Instead of you wrote some bullshit from the cover art. Thanks for nothing.

there are many amazing posthum releases by zappa like hammersmith 78, but this one is my favourite so far.

zappa in new york has always been in my personal top 3 of all zappa albums, i have the original 1st vinyl press, which my elder brother gave me some months ago, thanks!

i have also the expanded 2cd version...the bonus material is awesome, but i don't like the new mixing of the original tracks and the new tracklisting.
the original vinyl mix plus bonus tracks would have been better in my mind...maby because i am used to it?

however, here this is included on cd 1, i am happy!

the other 4 cds are ful of performances of the shows and they are all amazing!!!

there is a lot of discussions, which band was zappas best and it is impossible to answer, because there are a lot of them. zappa himself said, that the hammersmith odeon band of 78 was his best then, and his last one of the broadway the hardway tour, which i saw 2 times with complete different tracklists, the gig in bremen was almost to good to be true, frank was in the best mood, loved the location and the vibe and played sooo much guitar soli and more instrumentals than in hamburg, which was also great.

by the way: does somebody know, if there are bootlegs of the bremen 88 show?

i think, that the band of the these shows in ny are may favourite one, ruth is on board, ray white for the 1st time and the brass section (of saturday night live) with the brecker brothers are unbeatable, michael breckers solo on the purple lagoon is so amazing...and the whole track is the best of zappas fusion music in my mind.

there is so much to discover here including a almost 30 minutes version of black napkins and 2 piano versions of the black page 1&2 by the mighty ruth, which were recorded in a studio, not in these concerts, but are included, which is great.

zappa loved to play in new york, which he said often times, in the video baby snakes you can see why...

so everything was perfect in december 1977 in new york.

i am glad that i bought this and recommend it to every serious zappa fan, if the normal album is enough for you, then get better the vinyl version.

Sad that they used the 1977 censored version of "Titties & Beer" for this release and did not restore "Punky's Whips" to its correct location in the tracklist.

Proof again that Ahmet is an @sshole.

You have to laugh, I've been collecting Zappa well before this release, not one release has been slapped with a parental guidance sticker. Just a low key song removal to show for all that humour……..

This could have all been fit on to two LPs instead of three bringing the price down but, that is my only complaint. The sound quality is awesome and much better to my ears than the Zappa CD of the 2000s.