Serious Music (LP)
* "A Zappa Affair" orchestral concert, Zellerbach Auditorium, UC Berkeley, 16-Jun-1984
* The World's Greatest Sinner film excerpt
* Basement 1978
* Studio 1972
Length: ~52 min
Sound quality: FM radio A / Soundboard? (claims "digitally remastered")
Label: ICA Masterworks Oct 31 (original vinyl)
Musicians: various
1. The World's Greatest Sinner (11:54)
2. Revenge of the Knick-Knack People (6:20) [extended version]
3 RDNZL (4:08) [longer edit of the Lost Episodes version]
4. Inca Roads (3:56) [slightly longer edit of the Lost Episodes version]
5. Sinister Footwear (26:54)
Track 1 is an excerpt from the film THE WORLD'S GREATEST SINNER that Zappa scored in 1961 - the film music was played by the Pomona Valley Symphony Orchestra conducted by Fred E Graff, recorded at Chaffey College, and the parts of Satan (the narrator) and Clarence "God" Hilliard were played by Paul Frees and Timothy A. Carey, respectively.
Track 2 is a longer version of the ballet for piano, percussion and tape effects that appears as a bonus track on Läther.
Tracks 3-4 are the versions on The Lost Episodes (although the cover boasts "WAZOO"), but these edits are a bit longer: "RDNZL" is about 04:11 (22 seconds longer than on The Lost Episodes), and the fade-out in "Inca Roads" is a couple of seconds longer, too. By the way, the Japanese CD re-issue calls this an "official unreleased album", which it is not. The original vinyl was released in 1984.
Track 5, the ballet "Sinister Footwear", was recorded at the "A Zappa Affair" concert at the Zellerbach Auditorium at UC Berkeley. It was played by the Berkely Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Kent Nagano. This is the only time "Sinister Footwear" has been performed in its entirety, and Zappa was most unhappy with the results. The orchestra plays it very, very slowly. The ballet consisted of giant puppets with dancers inside them. It is in three movements and 21 parts (averaging 7 parts per movement). The parts are named as follows:
1: Jake Who Designs It
2: Somewhere in New Jersey Where They Make Them
3: Illegal Aliens on a Lunch Break
4: At the Catering Truck
5: Jake Eats a Molded Jello Salad
6: Jake's Secretary
7: Illegal Aliens Work Slower in the Afternoon
8: Jake's Secretary Reads Her Magazine
9: Illegal Aliens Want to Go Home
10: Jake's Secretary Eats Cottage Cheese
11: Ugly Shoes on the Assembly Line
12: What You Think You Look Like When You're Wearing Them
13: Sometimes They Make You Walk Funny
14: Other People Pretend Not to Notice
15: Sometimes You Have to Take Them Off for a Minute
16: Then You Put Them Back On Because You Think They Look So Good on You
17: Children Can Also Have Ugly Shoes
18: The Foot Doctor Says You Might Need an Operation
19: But You're Going to Wear Them Anyway
20: Everybody Has a Pair Somewhere
21: A Place You Can Go When You've Got Them On
(There was for a while thought to be an unknown bootleg called "Orchestral Madness" with some of this material, but it has now been shown that it was just a case of Serious Music having a sticker on the cover saying "Orchestral Madness". There is a Son of Serious Music, though.)
http://fp.io/ma7m5e4f/
