VIA PRESS RELEASE | As the calendar turned to 1974, Frank Zappa was riding high. His revised rethink of The Mothers collective had begat the stone-cold classic known as September 1973’s Over-Nite Sensation, the album generally acknowledged by both the cognoscenti and the layman as the gateway listening experience that invited the world writ large into the ever-expanding Zappaverse.
Over-Nite Sensation also served as a direct bridge to Zappa’s follow-up solo release, March 1974’s Apostrophe (’). In turn, Apostrophe (’) also became Zappa’s most successful venture to date—strictly commercially speaking, that is. Apostrophe (’) was Zappa’s first Gold-selling record in the United States, ultimately peaking at #10 on the Billboard 200 chart. The forever prescient and perpetually catchy single “Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow” made its own splash on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, duly marking its territory at #87.
Key Apostrophe (’) favorites—such as the seething indictment of flim-flam gurus and phony psychics in “Cosmik Debris,” the ongoing exploration of racial inequality in “Uncle Remus,” and the examination of the unending olfactory horrors of “Stink-Foot”—further solidified Zappa’s hold on the public consciousness and subconsciousness alike. A half-century on Apostrophe (’) remains a consistent go-to release in the extensive Zappa catalog, not to mention being one of its top-tier bestsellers.
In proper celebration of 50 years of Apostrophe (’), a newly expanded 50th anniversary edition will be released on September 13 via Zappa Records/UMe in a variety of formats, including a six-disc (5CD/1Blu-ray Audio) Super Deluxe Edition that features 75 tracks in total. Produced by Ahmet Zappa and Zappa Vaultmeister Joe Travers, this new, expanded collection titled Apostrophe (’): 50th Anniversary Edition, sports the 2024 remaster of the original album by Bernie Grundman, along with scores of additional session outtakes from The Vault, alternate takes, and 2024 mixes remixed and restored by Craig Parker Adams and remastered by John Polito.
Also included are two historical live concert recordings from 1974—one show captured at an unidentified venue in Colorado Springs, Colo., and the other recorded at Hara Arena in Dayton, Ohio, on November 20, 1974. Seven of these tracks were first released on the 40th celebration, the now out-of-print collection, The Crux of the Biscuit, in 2016.
The Blu-ray contains the core album newly remixed in Dolby Atmos and 5.1 surround sound by Karma Auger and Erich Gobel at Studio1LA, the same team behind the acclaimed Dolby Atmos and surround mixes of 2022’s Waka/Wazoo and 2023’s Over-Nite Sensation releases, respectively, plus it includes Zappa’s original 4-channel Quadraphonic mix (available again for the first time since 1974) as well as the hi-res stereo 2024 remaster at both 24-bit/192kHz and 24-bit/96kHz. The lavish Super Deluxe Edition box comes complete with a 52-page booklet and unseen photos from the archives of Sam Emerson, the man who shot the now-iconic close-up cover image of Zappa, in addition to liner notes and new essays by noted British journalist Simon Prentis and, as always, Vaultmeister Travers.
Beginning today, fans can hear a previously unreleased take of “Uncle Remus (Piano and Vocal Mix 2024).” This newly mixed version is culled from the original 16-track master, featuring isolated piano and tack piano tracks by George Duke along with a spotlighting of FZ and The Ikettes’ vocal master tracks. It’s but one of the multiple versions of this classic Zappa/Duke joint composition that appears in the Super Deluxe Edition box set.
In addition to the Super Deluxe Edition box set, there will be two separate vinyl releases: a 2LP + 7-inch single edition with both 180-gram audiophile LPs appearing on white vinyl with yellow-snow splatter, as cut from the original analog tape by Bernie Grundman at Bernie Grundman Mastering in 2024. The 7-inch of “Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow” is a reproduction of the original 1974 single with “Cosmik Debris”—but this time, it comes on cosmic glow in the dark with yellow-snow splatter vinyl. The 1LP edition features the original album’s nine tracks on 180-gram audiophile Gold Nugget vinyl. The 2LP + 7-inch edition is available exclusively at Zappa.com, uDiscover Music, and Sound of Vinyl and available to pre-order now.
Additionally, the Super Deluxe Edition will be available digitally, with all 75 tracks available in both hi-res 24-bit/96kHz and standard-res 16-bit/44.1kHz options. A standalone Dolby Atmos mix of the core album’s nine tracks will also be available on all Atmos-supporting hi-res streaming services.
As both an album title and concept, Apostrophe (’) looks to have initially appeared in The Vault on a few 2-inch 16-track masters that were essentially Zappa’s “Build Reels” created in 1971. They contain multi-track master sources of a variety of selections from the Hot Rats sessions of 1969, the Record Plant Sessions from 1970, and Fillmore East live tracks from 1971. It wasn’t until early 1974 that the all-lowercase and additionally punctuated Apostrophe (’) album title was fully appropriated, with then-current session masters from Bolic Studios in Inglewood, Calif., combined with other archive recordings dating from 1970 to 1972. The master tapes for Apostrophe (’) were handed in on February 7, 1974. Vinyl acetates and mastering were completed at Artisan Sound Recorders, and the album’s March 22 release date was officially set.
For the balance of the bonus live material contained herein throughout Discs 2-5, Travers explained that the goal was to represent what Zappa achieved during his live concerts throughout 1974 by focusing on shows at the beginning and the end of the year. For the March tour tapes, it was hard to find a show that had releasable sound quality and featured all the music special to that particular time period. The Colorado Springs tapes—the venue is technically unidentified but is believed to have been Zappa’s March 21 appearance at Civic Auditorium—offers a number of great performances of the repertoire along with a presentable sounding recording. (The patches that fill in the gaps left by reels of tape running out were taken from The Mothers’ Salt Lake City, Utah show from March 18.)
For the ’74 tour run, Zappa constructed a number of new compositions and refinements. “Is There Anything Good Inside Of You?” (a.k.a. “Andy”) and “Florentine Pogen” were brand new, while the rarely played “Babbette” was connected to the still fairly new “Approximate” in a genius way. And, of course, “Inca Roads” underwent constant change. As per usual, Zappa was recording every show on his ½-inch 4-track tape machine. While the tapes are not of the highest sound quality, historically speaking these particular shows contain variants of songs that never repeated on any other tours.
As for the Dayton, Ohio show from November 20 that appears on Discs 4 and 5, it is featured here for many reasons. The tapes sound very good, even though there was intermittent distortion in the right channel throughout. The band itself had transmogrified a number of times during the year, with the later configuration existing as a six-piece collective. The core group of Zappa, keyboardist/vocalist George Duke, tenor saxophonist/flautist/vocalist Napoleon Murphy Brock, bassist Tom Fowler, drummer Chester Thompson, and percussionist Ruth Underwood has long since been acknowledged as a fan-favorite and is largely considered one of the best and most popular groups Zappa ever compiled.
They were well-trained, as most of them had worked with Zappa off and on for almost two years. They had great chemistry and produced a special sound, with The Maestro leading the way as the singular guitar player. By the time the Dayton show came around that November, there was only about a week and a half left before the tour was scheduled to end. The Dayton show is the last surviving live document of an amazingly talented group of musicians—as witnessed by their expert execution of songs like “Penguin In Bondage,” “Dinah-Moe Humm,” and “Pygmy Twylyte”—and it’s the gig that also concurrently signaled the end of an incredibly successful chapter in Zappa history.
The crux of the biscuit is, Apostrophe (’) continued the commercial penetration of Frank Zappa, who entered the mid-1970s further unbeholden to the whims and wiles of the corporate slime that always seemed to be knocking at his studio door. The 50th anniversary Super Deluxe Edition of Apostrophe (’) is an amazing celebration of half a century of one of Zappa’s best, rife with even more songs and stories set to Zappa-directed music and dutifully performed for your dining and dancing pleasure.
On July 19th, Frank Zappa For President, a compilation originally released in 2016 showcasing Zappa’s political side and a nod to his political ambitions (he explored running for president in 1991), will be released widely on vinyl for the first time, following it’s Record Store Day exclusive in April on red, white and blue splatter vinyl.
The album, comprised of unreleased compositions performed on the Synclavier, along with other relevant tracks mined from The Vault, with a political thread tying it all together, will be released on 180-gram black 2LP vinyl with three sides of music and a silk screened FZ image on side 4. The record will also be released exclusively in a Mystery Vinyl Edition via Zappa.com, uDiscover Music and Sound of Vinyl. Limited to 3,000 units worldwide, fans will randomly receive the double platter on red vinyl, white vinyl or blue vinyl, each capped at 1,000 units. Pre-order here and remember to participate in democracy and vote.
