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Tarfumes.com - 200 Motels: Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack [Enhanced CD]
![200 Motels: Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack [Enhanced CD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51WSQ65QB5L._SL160_.jpg)
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List Price: $34.98
Our Price: $28.99
Your Save: $ 5.99 ( 17% )
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: Rykodisc
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0014431051326
Format: Enhanced
Label: Rykodisc
Manufacturer: Rykodisc
Number Of Discs: 2
Publisher: Rykodisc
Release Date: 1997-10-14
Studio: Rykodisc
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Editorial Reviews:
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Searching for this missing piece of the Frank Zappa catalog helped Rykodisc secure the rights to the United Artists and post-1985 MGM film libraries. But 200 Motels also serves as a good introduction to the late rock icon/avant-garde composer's absurd view of his world; i.e., the pop music business. Essentially a filmed dadaist opera (the bulk of the music is performed live as the video cameras rolled, 200 Motels incorporates sporadic patches of Mothers of Inventions rock into the atonal, largely European, musical framework that Zappa was clearly more interested in. He shrewdly used contemporary pop merely as a marketing shill for the complex, often difficult, music that drove him. (For a taste of the film's uniquely skewed artistic sense, Ryko has included the original 200 Motels theatrical trailer as part of this set's enhanced-CD bonus material). As always, the Zappa of 200 Motels sometimes confuses the profound with the obscene, but with every passing year, he seems more likely to take his place alongside the great American modernist Charles Ives, another composer whose work was every bit as commercially troubled and artistically misunderstood. --Jerry McCulley
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: The best slam at VU ever
Comment: Lonesome Cowboy Burt is easily the best slam on the Velvet Underground ever. No band deserved it more. Or, wait...maybe it was the other way around.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: It grows on you
Comment: The title of the review sums it all up. It does grow on you. 200 motels, as a film, is, in many ways, a dud. But if you have a taste for the bizarre, it is really, really great. Very hard to describe. You have to see it. But the music alone is another story. Incredible orchestrations, some strange dialogue, and some heavy-duty rock from the Mothers, circa early 1971. Original band members Jim Black, Euclid "Motorhead" Sherwood, and Don Preston appear, but not as musicians, but instead, as eccentric characters in the storyline. New bassist Jeff Simmons had quit the band and movie less than a week before shooting, a very dirty move, I would say, so the idea was to hire an actor to do Simmons' lines and pretend to play bass in the band sequences, to have the bass parts overdubbed later. But Martin Lickert, who worked for Ringo Starr, and by chance, played bass, was on hand, and saved the day.
The lyrics and dialogue are, typical of the time, very bawdy, some say funny, others say juvenile and dumb, and both camps are right. But, it is about touring, and as the theme of the film and soundtrack says, "Touring can make you crazy." So the sprawling, surrealistic nature of this project is, I would say, appropriate. There is often sex on the road, and the claustrophobic conditions often endured by touring musicians do take a toll. It is all a release.
To its detriment, the sound quality is poor, even for a remastered CD. That's what cost it a star in this review. And the original vinyl release sounds wretched. So, it is an improvement, warts and all. And, with the muffled sound, the odd vocal harmonies by Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, particularly on "Lonesome Cowboy Burt," sound at times like Jim Hensen's Muppets. That's the first thing I though of upon hearing it. But, the musicianship is, as with any Zappa/Mothers release, par excellence.
Very much an acquired taste, but also very entertaining.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Simply the best!
Comment: I probably own around 3000 recordings that cover jazz, rock , avant garde and some 20th century music plus some good old blues too. Of all of these 200 Motels is one of those records that 'curls up my toes' for sure every time i play it. Not so good sound , but man, what and incredible blend rof ock n roll , avant garde elements, classical music and comedy! No one could pull this off except for the man himself. For lovers of the adventureous , Henry Cow, Varese and Chuck Berry.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Flo & Eddie #3....5 Classic Songs But Out Of Print
Comment: *** Please note that FZ neither sings any songs nor speaks on this entire album. The same goes for the film 200 Motels.
This soundtrack became out of print in 2002 when Rykodisc removed it from the Zappa CD catalog.
Is it good? Well that depends if you like the Flo & Eddie era of FZ's music. I happen to enjoy this period of Zappa's musical career and this album's contents so that's why I rate this album 4 stars. If you hate Flo & Eddie, you will hate this album.
*** FZ wrote the songs and plays guitar on them but leaves it up to Flo & Eddie to deliver the vocals. This is proof that FZ never hogged the spotlight and always gave everyone in his band the opportunity to demonstrate their talents.
Most of the album is dialogue from the movie with experimental music in the background. There are only 5 "whole" songs on the entire album but ALL of them are treasures.
The best song on the album, by far, is "Lonesome Cowboy Burt" and it is sung by original mother Jimmy Carl Black. (The other 4 songs are sung by Flo & Eddie and they are "Mystery Roach" "Magic Fingers" "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy" and the "200 Motels Finale")
The best version of the "200 Motels Finale" is the live version on YCDTOSA Volume 6.
On this album, the 200 Motels Finale is preceded by a song called "Strictly Genteel" which is sung by actor Theodore Bikel. This song was never sung in concert but the name "Strictly Genteel" was used as an instrumental piece in future Zappa concerts without any lyrics. This album puts both songs together as one 11 1/2 minute track.
Flo & Eddie would return for one more album before leaving the band forever....good news for many fans. This was good news even to me because this was already the third FZ album that they dominated and too many more would have been "too much."
Customer Rating:
Summary: Flo and Eddie ruined the Mothers!
Comment: Instead of buying this sad excuse for Frank Zappa's genius, go buy something he actually put musical effort into, like Burnt Weeny Sandwich or Weasles Ripped My Flesh. While this CD and the movie can be very entertaining, it's mostly lewd, crude, immature sex jokes done by Flo and Eddie (the former singers from the Turtles, who rode off Zappa's career when the Turtles broke up...or Zappa rode off theirs, it was mutual.) with little room for the wonderful instrumentals Zappa should be known for. At least when Flo and Eddie left the Mothers Zappa began writing music to his humor (see Apostrophe). Much of this is dialogue, more spoken than sung, so you don't even get good melodies.
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