Well it depends on the quality of the 1974 live recordings.
More details on the two live concert recordings included on the CDs:
https://allabouttherock.co.uk/frank...th-new-50th-anniversary-super-deluxe-edition/
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 tapesâthe venue is technically unidentified but is believed to have been Zappaâs March 21 appearance at Civic Auditoriumâoffers 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 Mothersâ Salt Lake City, Utah show from March 18.)
For the â74 tour run, Zappa constructed a number of new compositions and refinements.
âIs There Anything Good Inside Of You?â (a.k.a.
âAndyâ) and
âFlorentine Pogenâ were brand new, while the rarely played
âBabbetteâ was connected to the still fairly new
âApproximateâ in a genius way. And, of course,
âInca Roadsâ underwent constant change.
As per usual,
Zappa was recording every show on his œ-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 musiciansâas witnessed by their expert execution of songs like
âPenguin In Bondage,â âDinah-Moe Humm,â and â
Pygmy Twylyteââand itâs the gig that also concurrently signaled the end of an incredibly successful chapter in Zappa history.