DVD Does Humor Belong in Music? Frank Zappa Live
Digital Life Average Rating:

Rating: - No laser weapons, no fog and no-overdubs
Wonderful addition to my already huge Zappa music collection. I wore out the VHS of this concert so having the DVD allows me to sleep better and stop worrying.
Frank with one of the most amazing bands I've ever heard is truly a wonder to see as well as hear. Do yourself and your senses a favor and GET THIS DVD NOW! great music and commentary, what else do you need?

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Rating: - Decent show, solid DVD
One of the best things about Zappa's 84 touring band was the fact that, for the most part, they appeared to have a good time on stage. Most of the band had worked with Frank for several years, which led to a more relaxed, free-form attitude on stage. This led to a lot of "secret word" shenanigans, with band members frequently changing the lyrics to (somewhat tired) songs to make the other band members laugh. For an excellent example of what I'm talking about, see the first disc of "You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 3".

Unfortunately, that humor is in short supply on this disc. The titular humor is only evident in the songs themselves which are, admittedly, juvenile, and widely available. The attraction of a Zappa live set is the element of surprise, of the spontaneous, not just run-throughs of songs you've already heard.

The master tapes of this must exist somewhere, and I was hoping for extra footage (two nights were actually filmed). A lot of material was left out of the final movie (we get the last few seconds of "The Deathless Horsie", but we get all of "The Dangerous Kitchen". Frank, why?). However, since this was released by Virgin/EMI and not by The Zappa Family Trust, the likelihood of those performances ever making it to DVD are very slim.

The sound and video on the disc are solid.

For the price, it's worth seeing the 84 band in action. Just don't expect to see anything you haven't already heard.

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Rating: - Do This Better!
I'm happy that Zappa stuff is finally starting to get to DVD but disappointed by this one. Not only do they decide to put less than an hour of music from a "very long" show but then they cut into some of the songs and only have "snippets" of some of them. The cuts are done by going to two very short Zappa interview segments that would have been fabulous if presented in their entirety as bonus materials.

Don't the video masters of this show exist? Zappa was pretty good at saving things. Why not put the whole show on DVD or at least more than this sampling? My guess is that this video was meant, at the time, to be a "teaser" to get newer fans interested in Zappa's more accessible stuff and to promote the, very great, skills of his later live bands. Perhaps this is why that this is one of the first releases to DVD. If so, I was wrong to spend the money on it as I am a long LONG time fan of Zappa's who finds most of this material unchallenging and of limited interest.

It *is* great to see the band making the music and seeing Zappa being "into it" that night. I only got to attend one Zappa concert. It was the Zappa/Beefheart tour when it stopped in Cincinnati around 1976 (or about). He was just "phoning it in" that night and only played for 50 minutes.

The recording and video is well done for the time and the material is picked from songs that are MUCH better to see/hear performed live than to only listen to on CD. There is some good Zappa music on this however a main point that Zappa seems to want to get across is "musical chops are good" and he proves his point by having a number of tunes that have no real value other than the impressive skill that his band shows in performing them.

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Rating: - Hope you like '80s nostalgia
I'm glad this video is back in print and all, but Frank's 1984 touring band wasn't exactly the source of his most timeless recordings. Plagued with cheesy (and I mean CHEESY) keyboards and electric drums, this DVD doesn't do a whole lot to win me over. In addition, a few of the band members go out of their way to act "crazy" for the cameras, with Alan Zavod being the main perpetrator. In every frame he's in, it seems like he's making a stupid face in front of the camera, making you feel like you're watching a bunch of middle-aged guys going out of their way to act CUH-RAZY. Also, the picture quality of the DVD is far from great. In fact, it looks like it was transferred directly from an old VHS copy. On the positive side, there's some good stuff here. We get a good performance of Zoot Allures with some nice guitar playing by Zappa. Plus, the short little interview bits are really entertaining. I personally would like to have been able to see the band play some more complex stuff, but almost all of the DVD is devoted to light novelty songs, which ARE fun. However, I'd take Baby Snakes over this stuff any day of the week. Sure, Does Humor Belong In Music has less extra fat in it, but the good stuff in Baby Snakes beats the crap of of this.