In celebration of 50 years of Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart’s sentimental collaborative 1975 album Bongo Fury, a massive 50th anniversary reissue will be released via Zappa Records/UMe. Set for a March 20th release, it’s now available for pre-order.
The collection includes a six-disc (5CD/1Blu-ray Audio) Super Deluxe Edition box set that features 57 tracks, over 80 percent of which are previously unreleased. Produced by Zappa Vaultmeister Joe Travers, the expanded set features Bob Ludwig’s 2012 master of the album’s original tracks, along with five additional session outtakes and oddities from The Vault (a.k.a. “Bonus Fury”), and 2025 stereo mixes of the live material from the 16-track masters by Craig Parker Adams. The box set was all remastered by John Polito at Audio Mechanics.
One of the collection’s highlights is two unreleased concerts from Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin, Texas, on May 20 and 21, 1975, which inspired the Bongo Fury recordings, along with a trio of live tapings during the tour’s opening run on April 10, 1975, at Pomona College’s Bridges Auditorium in Claremont, Calif.
Bongo Fury has also been newly mastered in three separate vinyl offerings: a 2LP on 180-gram black vinyl, with the main album and a bonus record of highlights from the box set, along with a booklet and a frameable black and white lithograph of Zappa and Beefheart; a 1LP on 180-gram black vinyl; and a limited edition 1LP color pressing on 180-gram “Orange & Black Galaxy” vinyl, with a black and white lithograph of Zappa, Beefheart and the Mothers. Lastly, the box set comes with an 18-page booklet with unseen black and white photos from Sam Emerson’s archives, rare color and live photos by John Williams, as well as liner notes and new historical essays by Zappa/Mothers Bongo Fury bandmember Denny Walley and The Vaultmeister Joe Travers.
Bongo Fury, originally released in October 1975, encapsulated the chemistry of the lifelong friends and collaborators. Frank Zappa and Don Van Vliet (whose Captain Beefheart moniker was given to him by Zappa) met as teenagers in the late 1950s in Lancaster, Calif., bonding over their love for music. Throughout their careers, Zappa became a key Beefheart collaborator, contributing to 1969’s Trout Mask Replica. That same year, Beefheart appeared on Zappa’s Hot Rats.
Last October, Halloween 78—the first Zappa costume box set in five years—was released in honor of the late multi-hyphenate artist’s love for the holiday. It included a newly mixed and mastered version of Zappa’s Halloween show from 1978 at New York City’s The Palladium, two vinyl releases, and a 1CD edition, both containing excerpted concert performances and booklets featuring photos and artwork.
Buy the 50th anniversary editions of Frank Zappa’s Bongo Fury here.