Baby Snakes

This is a three hour,two tape set of a Frank Zappa concert in 1977 and there is just a lot of fun here. Not for every taste but any real music fan should find this inspired to say the least. There are many scenes of Bill Bickford's clay animation and it is truly incredible. That alone is worth seeking out the original uncut version,not the newer edited 90 minute version because it puts all other claymation to shame. If your not a Zappa fan,take it with a big grain of salt. If you are,you don't want to miss this. It's a lot better than "200 Motels". Enjoy!

Zappa was great. An okay guitarist, but a genius composer/band leader. He was the Miles Davis of rock- finding the best young musicians and pushing them to the next level. That's what he did with Terry Bozzio, who (in my opinion) steals the show(DVD). Highlights are 'Pound for a Brown' with Bozzio, Mars and O'hearn getting real intense, the pre-'Disco-boy' drum solo, Bozzio's awesome performance on 'Punky's Whips,' and of course the great abstract claymation. I'd be happy if this video was all claymation and drum solos, but most of the rest of the movie is cool too. The dood with the blow-up doll and gas mask gets kinda annoying, but the DVD makes up for it by having Adrian Belew dance around in a dress. I'd strongly recommend this to any drummer because there are some great close-ups on Bozzio as he hurts the feelings of other drummers by keeping perfect grooves and being funny at the same time. That's what I'm talking' about.

Zappa has the best band out there. Incredible artistic talent and imagination throughout the whole film. The movie contains backstage footage, live performances and much more. And the animation! So unique, I personally haven't seen anything like it. You got to watch this if you're a Zappa fan or a fan of experimental art.

Nearly all aspects of Zappa creativity are reflected here: Several really long guitar solos, the classic "goofy" crowd pleasing songs, amazing playing by the band (Black Page 2 and many others), funny monologues, on-stage audience participation bits as well as some amazing conducting on some free-form pieces. It's also interesting to compare this to "Does Humor..." which I also love. It's true that in "Does Humor..." the video quality is cleaner, but I actually like that slightly fuzzy older look. But more importantly, in BBSNX Zappa is much, much more energetic, and in addition, the individual talents of the band members really shine here: Tommy Mars has a truly amazing keyboard solo and Terry Bozzio is utilized to the max, including performing, possibly, the best drum solo I've seen on video. I also liked the fact that the audio/video sync is pretty much 99.9% right on. No overdubs, no nothing - what you hear is what you see ("The Song Remains The Same" comes to mind as an unfortunate example of the opposite). I read some complaints about the back stage antics and the claymation stuff (which I liked). keep in mind though, this DVD is so long that even if you skip those things you still get two full hours of first rate concert footage. Enjoy!

How I miss Frank... Can you imagine what he may have had to say today about the state of music, politics and everything in between?

Like anything else that Frank Zappa did, if you don't understand it you won't like it. And it's really easy to miss Frank's point sometimes. "Baby Snakes" is simply footage of a Zappa Halloween show cut with Bickford claymation footage. Good if you like that kinda stuff, but dreadfully dull for everyone else. The best place to start learning about Frank Zappa is from his albums, NOT from the videos.

For Zappa fans, the footage is great, and the sound quality is excellent (much better than "200 Motels"). The animation doesn't make much sense. Plus, this video has the great scene of legendary drummer Terry Bozzio singing "T*****s and Beer" in a devil mask.