In October, the second solo album by Frank Zappa, Hot Rats, celebrated its 50th birthday. On Friday, in honor of the anniversary, the Zappa Trust released The Hot Rats Sessions, a new deluxe box set featuring 59 unreleased tracks, alternate mixes, unseen photos, and a Candyland-style board game. Overseen by the Zappa Trust and produced by Frank’s son, Ahmet Zappa, and Zappa Vaultmeister Joe Travers, The Hot Rats Sessions is now available both digitally and as a 6-CD box set.
Frank Zappa – Hot Rats Sessions – Promo Video
According to a post on the Frank Zappa Facebook page,
This creatively fertile time in Zappa’s career is visually brought to life through a beautiful 28-page booklet featuring striking never-before-seen images of the recording sessions by Bill Gubbins, photographs of the master tapes and tape boxes, and stunning outtakes from original Hot Rats cover photographer, Andee Nathanson’s shoot with Miss Christine. Nathanson provides the collection’s new cover image and several unreleased photos, all from the same photo shoot, captured on Infrared film which gave the original album its otherworldly look. The photographer vividly details the shoot in the liner notes which also includes essays by Zappa collaborator Ian Underwood and Vaultmeister Travers and an appreciation from “The Simpsons” creator and lifelong Zappa fan Matt Groening, who recounts his first time listening to Hot Rats as a teenager: “From the opening moments of that unforgettable drum fill, I was transported. The kaleidoscopic, calliopean, dare-I-say-callipygian, mini-masterpiece ‘Peaches En Regalia’ elevated my scrawny body into the air, spun me around like a propeller beanie, and melted my brain.”
You can stream the 67-track Frank Zappa The Hot Rats Sessions compilation in its entirety below. To order a physical copy of The Hot Rats Sessions deluxe box set, head here.
Frank Zappa – The Hot Rats Sessions – Full Compilation