Frank Zappa History - The Mystery Box - Chapter XXVIII

Mystery Box is a 1986 bootleg consisting of ten (ten!) albums. The material spans 1968-81, mostly live but some alternate studio takes and rehearsals.  And look at that artwork! Slide this one into your stacks next to the Old Masters official release and it looks perfectly at home. These guys really put some time into this one.

Zappa hated bootleggers. An unofficial release meant no money in his pocket, and Zappa was a shrewd businessman. In ’91 he tried to beat the weasels at their own game by bootlegging himself with the Beat the Boots box set, which consisted of official releases of bootlegs that were already in circulation. Pretty clever idea, but Mystery Box is better than Beat the Boots.

Other artists aren’t so uptight about bootlegs. Peter Buck collected R.E.M. bootlegs, for example. The big daddies were the Grateful Dead, who let audience members bring professional recording equipment to their shows. Literally thousands of Dead bootlegs are floating around, which means roughly 7 Dead songs.

I love bootlegs. Many are complete junk, but a good recording of a show or some unreleased studio time fills in gaps for me as a fan. They flesh out the story, show the ragged edges that led to the polished perfection of the official releases. Listening to a bootleg is like reading a rough draft in a way. (https://wimwords.com/2015/11/15/from-the-stacks-frank-zappa-mystery-box/)

Frank Zappa - Mystery Box

Pigs 'N Repugnant (Disc 1)

Recording Date & Location:

Tracks 01-02 - Appleton, Wisconson 05/23/69

Tracks 03-06 - California State College, Fullerton, 11/08/68

Son Of Pigs 'N Repugnant (Disc 2)

Recording Date & Location:

01 -  California State College, Fullerton, 11/08/68

02-03 - Appleton, Wisconson 05/23/69

04 - Copenhagen 10/03/68 (according to Patrick Neve on the Patio)

Beyond The Fringe Of Audience Comprehension (Disc 3)

Recording Date & Location:

01-08 unknown (my guess - possibley Aug 1970 Whitney Studios)

09-12 Jan 18/Feb5, 1971 Pinewood Studios, UK

13-15 December 1974 Caribou Studios

Zut Alors (Disc 4)

Recording Date & Location:

01 03/11/73, Texas Hall Auditorium, Arlington, TX 

03 & 05 02/03/76 Kosei Nenkin Kaikan, Osaka, Japan 

04 Unknown 1974 guitar solo from More Trouble Everyday

06 10/01/75, War Memorial Gym, Vancouver, BC, Canada 

07 10/28/76 The Mike Douglas Show, NBC TV

The Rondo Hatton Band (Disc 5)

Recording Date & Location:

01 - 03/20/73 Bolic Sound, Inglewood

02-06 - 11/08/74 Capitol Theatre, Passaic, New Jersey 

07-  06/24/73 Hordern Pavilion, Sydney, Australia

A Token Of His Extreme (Disc 6)

Recording Date & Location:

August 5/6, 1974 KCET-TV Culver City

Chalk Pie (Disc 7)

Dates & Locations:

SNL Appearances

01, 02 & 04 - 12/11/76  NBC Studios NYC

03, 05 & 06 - 10/21/78 NBC Studios NYC

07 - 12/07/81 Salt Lake City 

08 - 12/11/81 Santa Monica & 12/07/81 Salt Lake City

09 - 12/12/81E guitar solo from "The Black Page #2", San Diego

10 - 11/17/81 Ritz, NYC 

Crush All Boxes (Disc 8)

Recording Date & Location:

01 - Outtake

02-05 - Studio rehearsals

06 - Outtake

07 - June, 1981 Studio FZ on piano/vocal  

08 - Unknown outtake

09-12 - Side 1 of "Crush All Boxes"

Return Of The Son Of Serious Music (Disc 9)

Recording Date & Location:

01-05 - 05/19/63 Mount St. Mary's College, LA

10 - 05/20/84 FM Broadcast

11 - 06/16/84 "A Zappa Affair"

Randomonium (Disc 10)

Recording Date & Location:

01 - 1969

02 - February 1968 (Apostolic Studio NYC)/10/25/68 (London, Royal Festival Hall)

03 - Dec. 1967-February 1968, Apostolic Studios NYC

04 - 09/10/68, Sunset Sound, Hollywood,  

05-06 - Live 1971

LINK 1

LINK 2

LINK 3

----------------------------------------------

All Zappa Discography