Welcome once again, this time with a new album forgotten called: “Crush All Boxes”.
It was the name of an album that Zappa planned to release in late 1980. The original album title was "Fred Zeppelin", but when the record had been completely finished Led Zeppelin's drummer John Bonham suddenly passed away. The pun wasn't that funny anymore and at the last minute Frank decided to change the original record title by "Crush All Boxes"
Here´s the quick story...
The songs were recorded between
July and September 1980 al The Utility Muffin Research Kitchen (UMRK) is the name of
the recording studio that Frank
Zappa built and
used extensively for many of his musical recordings, at his home in the
Hollywood Hills
But Zappa decided not to release it after he had played it on the radio FZ, KUNM, Albuquerque, NM, October 11, 1980, and it had been bootlegged. bit.ly/Fz-Cb The songs were released later on “Tinsel Town Rebellion”, May 17.1981 and “You Are What You Is”, on September 23, 1981 but in different mixes.
Here is an extract from that radio broadcast that left this album unpublished.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is Frank Zappa, and I wanna tell you you're about to hear the world premiere of our new album which is called Crush All Boxes. This is the first time on Earth where this record has ever been played on a radio station and you got it. This is cut one, side one, and it's a song called "Doreen."
[...] Now we're going to play some more stuff from my new album which is called Crush All Boxes. This three songs are heard together so you won't hear me talk for a while. In fact you won't hear nothing but these songs for a while. And the names of the songs in their order are, "Some More Like That," followed by "Easy Meat," followed by our Halloween special song, "Goblin Girl."
[...] Some of the new songs were written within the last few days. We have a song called "The Dangerous Kitchen," that I think you will enjoy. It's a tragic tale of what happens when you come home late at night to your house and you go in the kitchen and get something to eat and find out that somebody has left this total mess all over the place. It talks about the soft things that you step on on the floor that you don't know what they are, and the meat, you know, wrapped up in paper that's sitting out on the counter and the cats get to it and they have torn a hole in it and there's this stuff hanging out. And the stuff in the strainer that has a mind of its own. We have very wholesome material.
Anyway, I wanna play you side two of the new album which probably will be coming out by the end of October. It's called Crush All Boxes, and all these songs segue together and you should hear them in this one continuous blotch. And the titles are "Society Pages," "I'm A Beautiful Guy," Beauty Knows No Pain," "Charlie's Enormous Mouth," "Any Downers?," and "Conehead."
[...] This is Frank Zappa and you're listening to KUNM, and you've just heard side two of my new album which is called Crushed All Boxes, and the names of the tunes you've just listened to were "Society Pages," "I'm A Beautiful Guy," "Beauty Knows No Pain," "Charlie's Enormous Mouth," "Any Downers?," and "Conehead."
The album was revised and completed with this new line-up but a few days later was canceled because the acetate was hacked.
Side A: (19:54)
1.Doreen (Part 1) (2:47)
2. Something Like That (A.k.a: "Fine Girl") (3:30)
3. Easy Meat (9:19)
4. Goblin Girl (4:17)
Side B: (19:25)
1. Society Pages (2:26)
2. Beautiful Guy (1:56)
3. Beauty Knows No Pain (3:04)
4. Charlie's Enormous Mouth (3:36)
5. Any Downers? (2:08)
6. Conehead (4:17)
7..Doreen (Part 2) (1:56)
Frank Zappa was overconfident when he allowed the record's acetate to be broadcast on the radio without considering the consequences it could bring.A silly big mistake.
“Tinsel Town Rebellion” originally to be titled "Crush All Boxes". Shortly before being published Frank Zappa decided to change the title to "Tinseltown Rebellion". Cal Schenkel had to change the already done artwork by overpainting the original title with the letters of "Tinseltown Rebellion". A close look to the title on front still reveals the remains of the original writing underneath.
Ok!, that´s all for now, see you soon and enjoy it.