A wonderful album made in adversity, 31 Dec 2003

Beefheart had hogtied himself with contractual problems and so Frank invited him out onto the road to perform and to earn some much needed cash.

The resulting tour became a nightmare, Beefheart baiting Frank onstage and arguing with him offstage. Just look at the cover. Frank glowers unhappily at the camera as the Captain hides his face beneath his hat.

In one of Frank's last television interviews you could see that he was still fairly upset by the affair. After all, he and the Captain had grown up together in Lancaster.

But out of such seeds of discontent grew an album of fine quality. Frank's exceptional production skills made this a thrilling and inventive live document that still sounds polished but raw, inventive and yet controlled.

Captain Beefheart's contributions are truly excellent, his prose and singing effortlessly meld with the wondrous performances of the band.

And this album contains what is arguably Frank's best live guitar performance.

The legendary 'Muffin Man'.

Buy it now.

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Brilliant live album, 3 Oct 2005

It's a shame then that such a great collaboration should have ended in an acrimonious split, leaving these two childhood friends barely speaking to each other. However, it is still a great record, despite the tensions, and contains the moment in which Zappa sealed his reputation as a guitar-wizard to equal Hendrix, in the sublime "Muffin Man".

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