Release History
THE DUB ROOM SPECIAL!
The CD.
From the unreleased soundtrack produced by FZ in 1982
Yes! These are yer ackshul tape segments from the Vault, floor, reels of UMRK. Live on the road until 24 August.
Heighdy! I just got back from the ZPZ show in New Hampshire, and was surprised to find that they were selling a CD of the Dub Room Special. I think the ZFT hinted that such a thing might be released back when the DVD came out last year. Apparently, it's only being sold at the shows, at least for now.
Here's the track list:
A Token of My Extreme (Vamp): 2:29
Stevie's Spanking: 5:54
The Dog Breath Variations: 1.42
Uncle Meat: 2:16
Stink-Foot: 3:58
Easy Meat: 6:51
Montana: 4:24
Inca Roads: 9:46
Room Service: 9:15
Cosmik Debris: 7:44
Florentine Pogen: 10:13
total time: 64:28
Not included from the video: Approximate (from the '74 band) and Flakes, Cocaine Decisions & Nig Biz (from the '81 band). A Token of My Extreme wasn't on the video, but is on the CD. And, of course, the track order is completely different.
The album was "produced, mixed and edited by FZ." I'm not certain, but just going by the track times, it looks like the song edits are probably the same as on the video. Montana, for instance, has the solo edited out, just like on the video. And Room Service seems to match the video transcript. However, as I suspect many of you will be relieved to learn, there are no sound effects on the CD.
Gail takes a page of liner notes to express herself. As ever, she is somewhat inscrutable, but she does mention that the CD and the DVD were supposed to be released simultaneously, along with releases on vinyl and iTunes. However, that fell through. No word if the vinyl or iTunes versions might still happen. One of the only promotional ideas that did work out was to rope in Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante, who takes another page of liner notes to tell his story of teenage Zappa fanaticism. It's a nice little appreciation.
Summer Surprise! Directly from the Vault and for a limited time, your actual 'recorded tape' souvenir from UMRK. First come, first served. Originally produced for Vinyl by FZ. Liner notes by John Frusciante. Close your eyes and imagine how listening an album used to be.
Try it. You'll like it.
Shipping August 24, 2007!
Track List:
1. A Token of My Extreme (Vamp)
2. Stevie's Spanking
3. The Dog Breath Variations
4. Uncle Meat
5. Stink-Foot
6. Easy Meat
7. Montana
8. Inca Roots
9. Room Service
10. Cosmik Debris
11. Florentine Pogen
9. Room Service
And the whole thing about the 'Room Service' routine, that was all ad-lib—we ad-libbed that every day. There was a basic format: "You call me up and tell me what you want"; and we would bounce off of each other. By the time we did that, we had a camaraderie where we would challenge each other without saying "I'm gonna challenge you." We would just challenge each other. Because he would challenge me to see if I was gonna fuck up. And I would challenge him to say "Okay. Not only am I not gonna fuck up, but I'm gonna throw something different at you every day. Let's see if you can deal with it." We would kind of look at each other out of the corner of our eyes—because we were basically challenging each other. At that point I was like "Okay, I've learned your music to the point where you're allowing me to ad-lib now. And so I'm gonna show you that you made the right decision when you chose me. Because, yes, I do have these qualities and abilities that you recognise that you have yourself. I'm not you, and you're not me, but I can do this and let's go. Here's another night, this is another show—let's see where we can go."
Napoleon: Room service! This is not only room service, this is your automatic and responsible doo-doo room service.
FZ: Yeah, the whole idea of Do-Do room service is something that Napoleon came up with, and I don't know where that stems from.
GZ: Dogs, probably.
FZ: That's probably what it was, yeah. Oh, I could tell ya another story that . . . I don't know whether that's where that actually came from, but it shoulda been. (laughter) Perellis had another girlfriend, that he met in Ohio, who had a cockapoo. [...] Well, I believe we were in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the girl, the cockapoo, and Perellis were in a Holiday Inn, and, uh, it was discovered that the cockapoo had worms, and this was Sunday. So, in an emergency effort, he wanted to do something about the dog's worms, and called a veterinarian. I don't know how he managed to do all this, but the net result was, they recommended that they give the dog a Fleet enema . . . in the bathtub. [...] It's one of those prepackaged chemical enemas that you buy at the store. By the way, Fleet enemas are manufactured in Lynchburg, Virginia. (laughter) [...] So, they wound up (laughs) filling this bathtub with dog do-do and worms, (much laughter) in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Napoleon: I saw you when you registered, don't tell me . . . the dogs . . . oh, those were two boogers and one dog, I'm sorry.
FZ: The dogs did not register with me.
Napoleon: Oh, okay.
FZ: There's only one person the dogs register with.
Perellis was our road manager, and there was an occasion where he met some girl, I think it was in Memphis, who had a great Dane. Apparently, this girl, uh, liked to do things in conjunction with the great Dane, and Marty brought the girl and the dog to his room, and that's how that . . .