Frank Zappa: 200 Motels 50th Anniversary Edition
By Ryan Reed
Touring life can be monotonous and mind-numbing for even the biggest rock bands, full of subpar motel continental breakfasts, bad sleep, rushed soundchecks and the dislocating sensation that every town has blurred together. Frank Zappa was already a road-worn pro by 1971, the year he decided to translate that general premise into his debut feature film. But anyone who had experienced the music of this mustachioed maestro – a collision of blues, doowop, jazz, prog, satire and sound collage – knew that the result couldn’t possibly be that straightforward. 200 Motels used touring tedium as the backdrop to a surreal descent into madness: a very loose story that incorporated the real-life members of Zappa’s band, guest spots from rock legends Ringo Starr (dressed as a Zappa lookalike named “Larry the Dwarf”) and Keith Moon, animated interludes, experimental visual tricks, a bar-set sequence involving “Lonesome Cowboy Burt” and, crucially, a part-orchestral/part-rock soundtrack that pulled from most corners of Zappa's catalog. It could have been a masterpiece, musically and narratively, but both the album and film collapsed under the weight of such absurdity. This LP’s expansive 50th anniversary edition only adds more layers of crazy, stretching out to six discs by adding unreleased alternate mixes, film dialog, interview snippets and other intriguing but unnecessary bonus nuggets. The remastering does at least enhance the odd spark of brilliance – like the blues guitar majesty of “Magic Fingers” – scattered between the cringeworthy groupie jokes and overblown orchestral fanfare.