Ruth Underwood

The 1974 unreleased made-for-TV concert movie ‘Cheaper Than Cheep’ is finally being released 50 years later! This never-before-heard-or-seen two-hour concert reveals the most intimate performance ever captured from the 1974 Mothers line-up, direct from the lovingly resurrected and restored original vault audio and videotape masters.

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This programme tells the story behind the conception, recording and release of this groundbreaking album. By use of interviews, musical demonstration, performance, archive footage and returning to the multi tracks with Ahmet Zappa and Joe Travers we discover how Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention created the album with the help of legendary African- American producer Tom Wilson.

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With the help of more than 10,000 dedicated Zappa fans, this is the long-awaited definitive documentary project of Alex Winter documenting the life and career of enigmatic groundbreaking rock star Frank Zappa. Alex also utilizes in this picture thousands of hours of painstakingly digitized videos, photos, audio, writing, and everything in between from Zappa's private archives. These chronicles have never been brought to a public audience before, until now.

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Utilizing potent TV interviews and many forgotten performances from his 30-year career, we are immersed into Frank Zappa’s world while experiencing two distinct facets of his complex character. At once Zappa was both a charismatic composer who reveled in the joy of performing and, in the next moment, a fiercely intelligent and brutally honest interviewee whose convictions only got stronger as his career ascended.

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A Frank Zappa show goes way beyond a mere concert – it is an experience…a flight of improvisation, musicianship, and cerebral cynicism. An unparalleled Composer and Guitarist, Zappa redefined rock n roll paradigms by introducing into the mix his favorite influences from classical music, jazz, blues, Doo-wop, traditional and non-traditional music. And he did so with unparalleled humor and audacity. But it was the music itself that influenced generations of musicians and, quite frankly, blew minds. Roxy: The Movie, filmed over three nights in December 1973, at the Roxy Theatre in Hollywood, CA, is a powerful display of this experience, and reveals what made him such a pioneering musical revolutionary.

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Featuring the only footage Zappa cut together from his legendary 1973 Roxy concerts, "Cheepnis" sings the praises of low-budget monster movies. This short documents the director, bandleader, songwriter and musician at work. (American Cinematheque program notes)

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Frank Zappa: A Token of his Extreme is the 1974 television special recorded at Kcet in Hollywood that was produced by Zappa and aired only in France and Switzerland. The program, as thoroughly tweezed and produced by Zappa for his own Honker Home Video label, includes the following musical performances by Zappa and his band: T”he Dog Breath Variations/ Uncle Meat,” “Montana,” “Florentine Pogen,” “Stink-Foot,” “Pygmy Twylyte,” “Room Service,” “Inca Roads,” “Oh No,” Son of Orange County,” “More Trouble Every Day” and “A Token of My Extreme.” In the words of Zappa himself as he said it on The Mike Douglas Show in 1976, “This is put together with my own money and my own time and it’s been offered to television networks and to syndication and it has been steadfastly rejected by the American television industry.

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This DVD features performances and interviews with some of the best drummers to ever work with Frank Zappa: Terry Bozzio, Chester Thompson, Chad Wackerman, Ruth Underwood, and Ralph Humphrey.

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Frank Zappa - The Broadcast Archives is a collection of live performances from the master of experimental and comedy rock. These Saturday Night Live performances demonstrate the musical genius and the progressive jazz-rock arrangements that were the signature of the phenomenal Frank Zappa. Featured tracks include: Peaches En Regalia I Am The Slime Purple Lagoon Dancing Fool The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing St Alphonso's Pancake Breakfast

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This episode focuses on Zappa's early 70s albums, Overnight Sensation (1973) and Apostrophy (') (1974). Together they encapsulate Zappa's extraordinary musical diversity and were also the 2 most commercially successful albums that he released in his prolific career. Included are interviews, musical demonstrations, rare archive & home movie footage, plus live performances to tell the story behind the conception and recording of these groundbreaking albums. Extras include additional interviews and demonstrations not included in the broadcast version, 2 full performances from the Roxy in 1973 and Saturday Night Live in 1976, and new full live performance done specially for these Classic Albums.

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On April 1, 2007, Zappa.com unveiled a redesigned website, which included the 30-minute segment from the Roxy performances, which had been used at the Zappa Plays Zappa concerts, on its new videos page. The clip for "Montana" was included as a bonus feature of the Classic Albums: Apostrophe(')/Over-Nite Sensation DVD, which was released on May 1, 2007. Neither song was included in ROXY the Movie

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From "The Dub Room Special": 1.Approximate (3:56) 2.Cosmik Debris (5:14) 3.Room Service (5:58) Not For Broadcast 4.Stinkfoot (5:44) 5.Inca Roads (9:55) 6.Pygmy Twylyte (3:53) 7.Room Service (5:18) Song Selection 8.Dog Meat (4:10) - Dog Breath and Uncle Meat 9.More Trouble Every Day (13:07) 10.Montana (4:50) 11.George Duke Solo (7:40) 12.Florentine Pogen (8:15) 13.Oh No (4:54) 14.Pygmy Twylyte (9:46) 15.Stinkfoot (8:48) 16.Inca Roads (8:41)

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A documentary series about pop and rock albums that are considered the best or most distinctive of a well-known band or musician or that exemplify a stage in the history of music.

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An American Dissident: un tributo a Frank Zappa is an Italian documentary that aired on the Videomusic channel on January 7, 1994. It includes footage from Zappa's Universe, Video From Hell, Does Humor Belong In Music?, Baby Snakes, The True Story Of 200 Motels, The Late Show, Zappa's May 17, 1988 show at Palacio de Deportes in Barcelona, Spain, The Dub Room Special, various other interviews and performances.

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A one-hour documentary on the making of Frank Zappa's bizarre 1971 comic musical. Vintage private footage from Frank's personal archives plus behind-the-scenes of the actual shooting and recording. With Ringo Starr, Theodore Bikel, Keith Moon and such songs as "Sleeping in a Jar," and "Strictly Genteel." The inside history of the first feature-length film to be shot on video in 6 days.

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In a little over an hour, 'VIDEO FROM HELL' provides a preview of current and projected Honker releases, including 'BABY SNAKES', 'THE TRUE STORY OF 200 MOTELS' and 'UNCLE MEAT' (all 1987 releases) along with segments of 1988 shows still in preparation ('YOU CAN'T DO THAT ON STAGE ANYMORE'- which will be released after the multi-CD package, 'I NEED YOUR LOVE' - the homespun philosophy of Al Malkin, and 'AN AMERICAN DISSIDENT' - the homespun philosophy of Frank Zappa).

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Produced by Frank Zappa in 1982, The Dub Room Special combines footage from a performance at the KCET studios in Los Angeles on August 27, 1974, a concert performed at The Palladium, NYC on October 31, 1981, some clay animation by Bruce Bickford, and several interviews. Previously only available through mail-order, it was made widely available on DVD on October 17, 2005.

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TV concert from Zappa, footage from the warm-up was also tapped

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"Touring makes you crazy," Frank Zappa says, explaining that the idea for this film came to him while the Mothers of Invention were touring. The story, interspersed with performances by the Mothers and the Royal Symphony Orchestra, is a tale of life on the road. The band members' main concerns are the search for groupies and the desire to get paid.

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