Frank Zappa The Dub Room Special!

Frank Zappa's The Dub Room Special is a celebration of his career at the time of his Top 40 hit, "Valley Girl." Instead of his regular New York Halloween shows, Zappa chose to construct this documentary. It includes two concerts: the 1981 Halloween show, and a radio concert in 1974. In pure Zappa style, nothing is ordinary or dull in this full feature explorative documentary created by one of the most interesting musical minds of recent history.

Starting in 1974 and continuing for nearly a decade, Frank Zappa's annual Halloween concerts were a New York City institution. When the avant-rocker scored a Top 40 hit with "Valley Girl" in 1982, he skipped that year's Halloween performance and instead chose to premiere a 90-minute documentary called FRANK ZAPPA'S DUB ROOM at New York's Ritz Theater. Produced, directed, written, conducted, composed, arranged, and performed by Zappa, the documentary was comprised of two concerts--the 1981 Halloween show at the Palladium, and the December 1974 KCET television special, A TOKEN OF HIS EXTREME--as well as animation by claymation artist and longtime Zappa collaborator, Bruce Bickford. Released on home video in 1982, the Dub Room special has long remained a hard-to-find rarity, but this program rewards Zappa devotees with a presentation of the documentary in its entirety (albeit in a slightly different version after being remastered in 1992) for a fitting tribute to rock's ultimate renaissance man.