Be careful: not all is great here. But in the early 80's Zappa had a great band but not too much good new material,. This album is an exception to that statement. Great songs (Stevie's spanking), funny songs( Teeth), doo wop, reggae, blues, guitartronics, the lot. This also means there may be some songs you intensely dislike.

I like the second half, the regular concert part better, but all in all this is pretty essential early Mothers' stuff. Compared to Billie, 2 years later, in Progress there seems to be more interaction with the public.

After listening to this once, in the future you will skip most of the spoken parts. The music is great however. Billy is actually better, especially the Studebaker part and the recurring Las Vegas theme. They must have performed it a lot in those days but they were still having fun performing it. No need to buy this with your first 20 Zappa cd's however.

You need this. Essential stuff from the early years, a STUNNING sharleena (the best version ever) and some Captain Beefheart thrown in for good measure.

This one doesn't get 5 stars because I happen to prefer his rock bands and arrangements. However, I may grow to appreciate it for what it is: great compositions, very well played and with that magical Zappa touch: perfection with a laugh!

Great band, but not a very good selection of tunes in my opinion. This band is better represented elsewhere. However, you should buy it for Brown shoes, which manages to get a thorough reworking and still sound alarmingly similar to that great 1967 version. Hasn't lost any of its relevance either.

You should own it, or so everyone tells you. Actually I prefer the JABFLA album by the same ensemble, but Peaches is great.

Downright silly. Not interesting musically, technically or regarding sund quality. Only thing of erit is the liner notes. Don't buy it unless you're a completist!!! I am, but I never listen to it.

I DO have trouble with the Synclavier works (I like rock band versions of these tracks, like Baltimore, Turning again and Orifice a lot better). But it cannot be denied: the compositions are very good.

Porn wars is a bit of a period piece, and relevant to the US (Tipper Gore!) only, but interesting nonetheless.

With the arrival of Leather, we finaly got to see the whole, rather than the parts. Buy Leather first. If you like it, and you should, you may want the slightly different versions of some of those tracks that can be found on Sleep Dirt. In parts un-Zappa, but very interesting.