Well, it has finally happened . . .

The Zappa Family Trust has released the first two ZAPPA videos on DVD --- the legendary BABY SNAKES 1977 Halloween show and the DOES HUMOR BELONG IN MUSIC? concert video.

I have been a ZAPPA fan for over thirty years now, and one of my sadnesses of today is that we don't have FRANK around to help us understand how far along the NEW WORLD ODOR road we have travelled.

The better of these two videos is BABY SNAKES --- a 2 hrs. 23 mins. DVD containing my favorite lineup of all the bands ZAPPA fronted --- the SHEIK YERBOUTI band --- featuring the always- great ADRIAN BELEW. In fact, BABY SNAKES contains a red-hot ten minute version of CITY OF TINY LIGHTS --- my all-time favorite song that came out of the collaboration between ZAPPA and BELEW.

The other DVD is sadly only 60 mins. long, which is part of an August 26, 1984 performance in New York City.

However, on the BABY SNAKES DVD there is a three and a half minute trailer for the third ZAPPA DVD release --- THE ROXY PERFORMANCES --- taken from three shows on December 8, 9, and 10, 1973. This DVD will contain all three shows completely uncut and they will have a running time of 4 hours. Twenty original songs are included in these performances.

The band that appears on this DVD is THE MOTHERS, which in late 1973 featured the following players:

FZ / George Duke / Tom Fowler / Napoleon Murphy Brock / Chester Thompson / Ruth Underwood / Ralph Humphrey / Bruce Fowler /

Yesterday, January 28, 2004, I spoke on the telephone with GAIL ZAPPA about this and she told me that THE ROXY PERFORMANCES DVD would be released either late this year or early next year.

So, if any of you out there are fans of ZAPPA --- please be sure to check out these three DVD's. I promise that you will not be disappointed!

KDB Rating = 200 Motels (out of a possible 200)!!