Rock artist Frank Zappa hosts a concert in New York City. This movie contains tons of on-stage footage, off-stage footage, and animation.Rock artist Frank Zappa hosts a concert in New York City. This movie contains tons of on-stage footage, off-stage footage, and animation.Rock artist Frank Zappa hosts a concert in New York City. This movie contains tons of on-stage footage, off-stage footage, and animation.
Photos
Robert Leacock
- Self - Bickford's Cameraman
- (as Rob Leacock)
Warren Cuccurullo
- Self - Backstage Fan
- (as Warren Cucurullo)
Chrissie Martin
- Self - Cuccurullo's Girlfriend
- (as Chris Martin)
David B. Ditkowwich
- Self - Brooklyn For Zappa
- (as David Ditkowich)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe film had particular trouble finding a distributor. Frank Zappa tried to interest United Artists, the company that released 200 Motels (1971). Fearing that it was about to be embroiled in the Heaven's Gate (1980) fiasco, UA turned him down. Other studios followed in its footsteps, fearing that Zappa's trademark cinematic style had lost considerable appeal in post-'70s pop culture. Several European distributors told him that there might be interest if it were cut from its original 168-minute running time. The film was cut to 90 minutes and still there were no takers. Even after Bruce Bickford's sequences won first prize at a French animated film competition, there was no interest. Eventually Zappa took it upon himself to distribute the film independently via his own Intercontinental Absurdities production company. The film ran 24 hours a day at the Victoria Theater in New York City and made a handsome profit.
- Quotes
Frank Zappa: God made three mistakes. First was the man. Second was the wo-man. Third was the poodle. He meant to make a German Shepherd but he fucked up.
- Crazy creditsMovie goes on for 10 minutes after credits are over.
- Alternate versions1984 reissue was edited to 91 minutes.
- ConnectionsEdited into Video from Hell (1985)
- SoundtracksBaby Snakes
Performed by Frank Zappa
Featured review
Simply incredible.
Nearly all aspects of Zappa creativity are reflected here: Several really long guitar solos, the classic "goofy" crowd pleasing songs, amazing playing by the band (Black Page 2 and many others), funny monologues, on-stage audience participation bits as well as some amazing conducting on some free-form pieces. It's also interesting to compare this to "Does Humor..." which I also love. It's true that in "Does Humor..." the video quality is cleaner, but I actually like that slightly fuzzy older look. But more importantly, in BBSNX Zappa is much, much more energetic, and in addition, the individual talents of the band members really shine here: Tommy Mars has a truly amazing keyboard solo and Terry Bozzio is utilized to the max, including performing, possibly, the best drum solo I've seen on video. I also liked the fact that the audio/video sync is pretty much 99.9% right on. No overdubs, no nothing - what you hear is what you see ("The Song Remains The Same" comes to mind as an unfortunate example of the opposite). I read some complaints about the back stage antics and the claymation stuff (which I liked). keep in mind though, this DVD is so long that even if you skip those things you still get two full hours of first rate concert footage. Enjoy!
How I miss Frank... Can you imagine what he may have had to say today about the state of music, politics and everything in between?
How I miss Frank... Can you imagine what he may have had to say today about the state of music, politics and everything in between?
helpful•161
- jreichbart
- Oct 21, 2004
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