Cheaper Than Cheep, a never-before-seen concert film by Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention, filmed at the height of their powers in their modest Hollywood rehearsal space on June 21, 1974, was released June 27 via Zappa Records/UMe.
Cheaper Than Cheep was directed and produced by Ahmet Zappa and produced by Frank Zappa and Zappa Vaultmeister Joe Travers. The project was a labor of love for Ahmet who has a special connection to this period of his father’s music, having been born just a month prior.
A news announcement from Zappa Records/UMe details the endeavor.
“Bringing Cheaper Than Cheep to life has been one of the most emotional and meaningful experiences of my life—both as a director and as Frank Zappa’s son,” said Ahmet Zappa. “I’ve wanted to complete this project for over 12 years. The 1970s Mothers lineup featured in this film is my favorite era of my dad’s music. The band, the vibe, the arrangements—this is the stuff I grew up revering. It’s the soundtrack of my DNA. But this performance was tragically shelved back in 1974 after the audio and video fell out of sync. That crushed my father. And for decades, it stayed buried.
“What makes this concert even more sacred to me is the timing of it all. My dad filmed this just weeks after I was born—at a time when both my mother and I almost didn’t make it. I had a collapsed lung that no one caught—except for my dad. He heard something the doctors didn’t. He saved my life. Meanwhile, he was coming off the 10-year anniversary tour of The Mothers and mounting this wildly ambitious concert film with his own gear, lights, crew—his rehearsal space turned into a full-blown soundstage. He was juggling life and art in the most intense way possible. And when he found out the film wasn’t in sync, after everything he’d gone through, I can only imagine the disappointment.
“Finishing this film was a personal mission. He saved me. So, I did the best I could to save this. For me, this is art and not commerce, and I did not take a fee to direct and produce. This was a pure labor of love and I poured myself into every frame, every audio match, every restoration choice. It was brutal at times—we had to fight through decades of decay, glitches, missing pieces—but I wanted to do it right. I probably drove the team crazy with how meticulous I was, but that’s the only way I know how to work when it comes to honoring my dad.
“This is more than just a concert film—it’s a thank-you note to my father, and a love letter to the fans who’ve kept his music alive. I hope longtime fans lose their minds when they see it, and I hope new fans get a sense of just how fearless and brilliant this band was. Cheaper Than Cheep is funny, chaotic, tight as hell, and joyously weird—everything a great Zappa experience should be.
Cheaper Than Cheep is available in a variety of formats, including a special, limited edition multi-format Super Deluxe box set featuring the concert film on Blu-ray with Dolby Atmos, 5.1 surround and stereo mixes, a companion stereo soundtrack presented on both 2CD and 180-gram 3LP black vinyl, plus an extensive 12-page booklet with rare, unseen images and informative liner notes from Travers alongside a detailed and heartfelt remembrance from musician Ruth Komanoff Underwood who performed percussion that evening. The set will be housed in a telescoping slipcase and include four bonus lithographs. The Blu-ray includes four extras – two performances, a blooper reel, and a deep excerpt from the out-of-print Claymation film, “The Amazing Mr. Bickford.” Additional options include a Blu-ray video + 2CD set, a standalone soundtrack on 180-gram 3LP black vinyl and a limited edition 3LP picture disc Super Deluxe box set, exclusively available via Zappa.com, uDiscover Music and Sound of Vinyl.”
“For most of my life, Freak Out! and We’re Only In It For the Money have been my go-to albums for introducing friends to Frank Zappa’s genius,” enthused writer, poet and deejay, Dr. James Cushing.
“Today, Cheaper than Cheep makes it a triple. The two-hour Blu-ray of the never-before-seen 1974 TV special and the double-CD of the music played during the show presents Frank Zappa leading an amazing band, including George Duke, Chester Thompson, and Ruth Underwood, presenting music full of all the melodic complexity and grouchy humor he became famous for. We see Frank’s effortless authority as he directs the group onstage, plays astonishing guitar, talks with Cal Schenkel, and encourages Napoleon Murphy Brock to go deeply into his dance routines. We see Ruth Underwood play a marimba solo on ‘RDNZL’ — her hands move so fast, they become a blur.”
On the first day of summer, June 21, 1974, Zappa and his band,theMothers of Invention, invited a small audience to their humble rehearsal hall on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, Calif., for what would be an intoxicating, sweat-drenched two-hour-plus performance. A small film crew equipped with multiple cameras captured every riveting musical moment while the audio was recorded by a mobile recording truck. Unfortunately, when Zappa watched the footage, he was devastated to learn, that similar to his Roxy project before it, the audio and video weren’t synchronized. Two months later, Zappa would team up with the Los Angeles-based PBS station KCET and get the sought-after TV special he wanted, later released commercially as The Dub Room Special. As a result, the June concert that he planned to shop to major TV networks was shelved, never to be revisited by Zappa in his lifetime. It languished in The Vault for more than five decades.
Every aspect of the DIY taping, from the psychedelic light show and stage setup, to the camera crew and audio recording, was self-funded by Zappa, who jokes at the beginning of the concert that it’s “cheaper than cheap.” The use of the intentionally misspelled “Cheep” in the title is both a nod to his song “Cheepnis,” about his love for cheaply made monster movies of the ‘50s and ‘60s and their inherent charm, as well as a tongue-in-cheek mistake to underscore the shoestring budget it was made on. Inside the hall, the stage was implemented with the band’s current touring equipment, including a basic backdrop and lighting. The concert was captured on multi-camera direct to 2” Quad Videotape, the industry standard at the time, with the audio recorded by the Wally Heider Remote Truck outfitted with two 16-track tape machines, with Kerry McNabb in the engineer’s seat.
Cheaper Than Cheep was assembled by adhering to Zappa’s lead, incorporating all of the planned segments, while sequencing the live material based on performance order and typical 1974 live set lists. A team, led by Ahmet Zappa in the directorial role and Joe Travers as a producer, was assembled to bring the project to life. John Albarian, who worked on “Roxy: The Movie,” edited the performance footage and perfectly and painstakingly matched picture to audio for the first time. Jeremy Rhodes handled additional editing and sweetening while acclaimed audio engineer team Erich Gobel and Karma Auger mixed the concert in immersive Dolby Atmos as well as 5.1 and stereo.
As Zappa Vaultmeister, Travers often came across the audio and video masters, with “June 21st, 1974,” prominently written on the spines, in The Vault, but it was years before he ever discovered the treasure that awaited. As he writes in the liners, “I had no idea what they were or what they were for. They remained a mystery for years. The digital transfers of the elements happened over a long period of time, mostly due to budget and priority. Some were done for identification purposes while Gail Zappa was alive during the 2000s. Imagine how exciting it was for us to finally discover what this stuff actually looked like for the first time. It was a gold mine waiting to be unearthed. Most of the masters were transferred during the ‘Save The Vault’ Kickstarter campaign by Alex Winter circa 2017 or so.”
Zappa’s lineups were ever evolving as members came and went based on The Maestros needs and ever-changing musical direction, and this incarnation of The Mothers of Invention was no exception. Personnel had expanded for a 10 Year Anniversary Tour in March and by June the band had downsized. The lineup, which consisted of Zappa (guitar, vocals), Chester Thompson (drums), George Duke (keyboards, vocals), Jeff Simmons (guitar, vocals), Napoleon Murphy Brock (tenor sax, flute, vocals), Ruth Underwood (percussion) and Tom Fowler (bass), were still finding their groove together and Underwood, who left for several months due to personal reasons, which she beautifully writes about in her essay in the booklet, was re-familiarizing herself with the complex material. On top of that, there were other issues with the shoot, including intense heat from the lighting which at one point made Duke’s keyboards too hot to play.
As Underwood remembers, “We had a long rehearsal and a detailed soundcheck that morning. With the lights set, and the photographers and audience crammed into our modest space, the heat in the room became extremely problematic,” adding, “Frank insisted on doing several takes of specific pieces, which added to our general exhaustion.”
"My enthusiasm for Zappa's music waxes and wanes depending upon which platoon has been recruited to carry out the Commandant's orders,” offered author and musician Kenneth Kubernik.
“He hit paydirt with June, 1974's dirty septet, a whip-cracking ensemble of some of his most gifted subordinates. Cheaper Than Cheep finds them zigging and zagging through some of Frank's most beguiling charts, sticking the landings like the Allies at Anzio. Mostly instrumentals, the band navigates the wickedly entangled rhythmic components - 'RDNZL,' yeow! - with the alacrity of a schoolgirl hopscotch. Lieutenants George Duke and Ruth Underwood deploy their unique talents throughout; bassist Tom Fowler and newcomer, drummer Chester Thompson, provide a musky groove, leaving Zappa et al to fire at will. Hill taken." (Fun fact: It was Thompson's work with Zappa that compelled Phil Collins to ask him to join Genesis.)”
Songs range from “Cosmik Debris” and the title track from his Apostrophe (‘) album released a few months prior in March, to early versions of the then-unreleased “Village of the Sun” and “RDNZL,” the latter which especially allowed Underwood to shine on marimba, to “Montana” and “Camarillo Brillo” from 1973’s Over-Nite Sensation to Uncle Meat (1969) cuts “The Dog Breath Variations” and “Uncle Meat.” Zappa’s debut album, 1966’s Freak Out!, is represented with three tracks – “How Could I Be Such A Fool,” “I’m Not Satisfied” and “Wowie Zowie – while several songs that would end up on Roxy & Elsewhere a few months later in September were played that night, including “Son of Orange Country” and “More Trouble Every Day.” Other highlights include “Let’s Make The Water Turn Black” from 1968’s We’re Only In It For The Money, live favorites “Dupree’s Paradise” and “Penguin In Bondage” and “Inca Roads,” which would be released the following year on the studio album One Size Fits All. The concert bursts with stunning musical improvisation from all musicians, capped off by Zappa’s legendary guitar workouts.
Interspersed throughout the concert are segments with artist Cal Schenkel, who created many of Zappa’s album covers and Claymation animator and director Bruce Bickford who would collaborate with Zappa for many years on a number of projects, most notably A Token Of His Extreme (1976) and Baby Snakes – The Movie (1979). This footage is the earliest known of Bickford who had only just recently signed on to Zappa’s production company, Intercontinental Absurdities.
“Cheaper Than Cheep documents the second of three attempts that FZ made during 1973-1974 to visually record his music as played by one of his greatest bands,” explained Zappa collector/scholar, Alan Watts.
“The first attempt was the famous Roxy shows in December 1973, a landmark extravaganza that was finally released in 2016 after years of digital wizardry and fan clamoring. The Cheaper event in June 1974, like the Roxy shows, never made it to release at the time because of the overwhelming technical problems of synching the audio and video recordings, and so it was lost until recently in the depths of The Vault. Only his third attempt—A Token of his Extreme, recorded in the KCET Studios in August 1974—overcame these technical difficulties. But because FZ couldn’t gather sufficient commercial interest, this successfully recorded show wasn’t commercially released until 2013.
“Cheaper Than Cheep therefore completes this movie trilogy of what many consider to be FZ’s greatest band. Once 1974 was over FZ didn’t gather a similarly applauded band until 1978. Those two bands (73/74 and 78) remain to this day at the peak of fan appreciation.
“The genesis of Cheaper Than Cheep can be found in early 1973 with the band that FZ formed after the second of the two Wazoo combos folded during the previous December. These two bands—the Grand and Petit Wazoo—marked FZ’s return to composing and performing as he recovered from being assaulted in London’s Rainbow Theatre in December 1971. Although the Wazoos were large ensembles (the Grand Wazoo had about 20 musicians) and so were different beasts from the more streamlined 73/74 bands, they were the laboratories for the sometimes ridiculously complex and dissonant compositions that FZ was experimenting with, and which eventually developed into some of the musical extravaganzas seen on Cheaper: ‘T’Mershi Duween,’ ‘RDNZL,’ ‘Dupree’s Paradise.’ Other 1972 tunes became fan favorites into 1974 and beyond: ‘Montana,’ ‘Cosmik Debris,’ ‘Don’t You Ever Wash That Thing?’
“Although FZ had tried out a few vocalist options during the Spring of 1973, including himself, George Duke, and Kin Vassy (who apparently was fired after a show at Ohio State University because of an extortionate bar tab), the lack of a seriously capable vocalist limited what FZ could do with the new compositions he was trying out.
“The problem was solved with the game-changing addition of Napoleon Murphy-Brock to the combo in late 1973. Apparently, FZ first heard him at a club in Honolulu as the band made their way to Australia for a tour. N-MB’s first gig was at the end of October 1973 at the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin, TX, the same venue where Bongo Fury was recorded two years later. NM-B was also an accomplished tenor sax player and a natural showman.
“The relentless touring during this time (over 200 shows on three continents during 1973 and 1974) meant that by the time FZ had added NM-B, completed the Roxy shows, and then headed into 1974, the band—with a few ins, outs, and back ins again, most notably Ruth Underwood for the Cheaper than Cheep date and the following tour—were about to reach their peak with an astonishing blend of musicality, virtuosity, and performance theater. Not least of these progressions was the flowering of FZ from a great guitarist to a true master, which is clearly evident on Cheaper than Cheap, and a skill that only continued to flourish during the rest of the 1970s.
“FZ now had a band that was not only sufficiently talented and disciplined to play his complex and challenging compositions, but was also one that was highly entertaining as a stage show, something the previous post-Rainbow shows lacked. This is clearly evident in the Spring of 1974 tracks on Roxy and Elsewhere, but also in the 1974 Denver and Dayton shows recently released in the 50th anniversary Apostrophe’ set, where the whole band is enjoying interacting with themselves and audiences with lots of humor and banter. Placed together with the other live recordings from this period, Cheaper than Cheep offers an invaluable and incredibly welcome take on this peak period of FZ’s output; a time when creativity in music thrived in a different world from that of today.
“Wow! I’m lost for words after watching the video! The music alone is fantastic, but to see the whole band working full tilt under FZ’s direction is just jaw-dropping, particularly George Duke (who, AFAIK, has not previously been seen this prominently with FZ), Ruth Underwood, and of course Napoleon Murphy Brock. Since Frank’s death in 1993 the Zappa Family Trust and now UMG, have released almost 70 albums. I would place CtC in the top five of these. Not only because the quality of the performance is stellar from one of Frank’s best bands, but also because the video shows that it was exactly how the audience heard and saw it; no overdubs, no tweaks or tweezing by FZ. I guess that came about because FZ quickly dumped it deep in the vault when the audio and video were deemed unsyncable. Only a few of the posthumous albums released on the VAULTernative label have been straight live recordings, which is the type of release that many fans have craved. The music on CtC—having come out of nowhere for most fans—now easily sits well with the best of these live recordings. But the video uniquely adds that extra dimension.”
“What I love about Zappa is the way he connects to the pre-Beatle world of American bohemianism,” observed writer and novelist Daniel Weizmann.
“Even long after he became the reluctant king of hippiedom, Zappa always struck me as a beatnik at heart, with that same Mad [magazine] trickster spirit of Lenny Bruce, Russ Meyers, early Bukowski, Venice cats like Lawrence Lipton and Stuart Z. Perkoff, and the whole crosshatch of subcultures that were just under the surface in Cali ’59 to ’63—bikers, surfers, poets, bongo-heads all pulling for exotica, for erotica, for something else—‘the left behinds of the Great So-ci-e-ty!’
“His trip was never just about music, no way. Zappa was a straight-up tummler—the Yiddish word for soup spoon—a stirrer of pots.”
On September 26th, Frank Zappa’s 1975 album, One Size Fits Allwill get a resized, re-upholstered and remastered for 50th anniversary with suite of new releases including super deluxe edition box set, I LP and 2 LP black and white vinyl.
One Size Fits All has been expanded with 49 additional unreleased live and rare studio tracks.
The 58-track five-disc super deluxe edition contains four CDs and Blu-ray audio disc with outtakes, alternate edits, 2024 mixes, and unedited bonus vault masters plus one previously unreleased complete show recorded in Rotterdam, Amsterdam.
The Blu-ray boasts new surround sound and Dolby Atmos mixes of the core album, plus two bonus surround tracks from the vault.
In other exciting news, Honker Home Video, founded by Zappa in 1985 to sell his VHS releases direct to fans, has been resurrected 40 years later as a one-stop digital shop where fans can now digitally rent such favorites as the 1987 documentary, The True Story Of Frank Zappa’s 200 Motels, the 2008 live concert movie The Torture Never Stops shot in 1981 at the Palladium in NYC on Halloween night, the odds and ends compilation Video From Hell, and the latest release in Zappa’s video catalog, Cheaper Than Cheep. https://Zappa.lnk.to/HonkerHomeVideoPR.
(Harvey Kubernik is the author of 20 books, including 2009’s Canyon Of Dreams: The Magic And The Music Of Laurel Canyon, 2014’s Turn Up The Radio! Rock, Pop and Roll In Los Angeles 1956-1972, 2015's Every Body Knows: Leonard Cohen, 2016's Heart of Gold Neil Young and 2017's 1967: A Complete Rock Music History of the Summer of Love. Sterling/Barnes and Noble in 2018 published Harvey and Kenneth Kubernik’s The Story Of The Band: From Big Pink To The Last Waltz. In 2021 the duo wrote Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child for Sterling/Barnes and Noble.
Otherworld Cottage Industries in 2020 published Harvey’s Docs That Rock, Music That Matters. His Screen Gems: (Pop Music Documentaries and Rock ‘n’ Roll TV Scenes) is scheduled for 2025 publication. 2 Kubernik 2027 book titles will be announced in the future.
Harvey wrote the liner notes to CD re-releases of Carole King’s Tapestry, The Essential Carole King, Allen Ginsberg’s Kaddish, Elvis Presley The ’68 Comeback Special, The Ramones’ End of the Century and Big Brother & the Holding Company Captured Live at The Monterey International Pop Festival.
During 2006 Kubernik appeared at the special hearings by The Library of Congress in Hollywood, California, discussing archiving practices and audiotape preservation. In 2017 he lectured at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, in their Distinguished Speakers Series. Amidst 2023, Harvey spoke at The Grammy Museum in Los Angeles discussing director Martin Scorsese's The Last Waltz music documentary.
During 2007 Kubernik was interviewed in the M-G-M/Sony Pictures New Wave Productions Deluxe Edition DVD of Jailhouse Rock starring Elvis Presley. He was seen in the video short The Scene That Stole Jailhouse Rock. In 2014, Kubernik was a consultant and interviewed for an examination of the musical legacy of Los Angeles for the Australia television series Great Music Cities for Australian subscription television broadcaster XYZnetworks Pty Ltd (www.xyznetworks.com.au). Slash, Brian Wilson, Steve Lukather and Keith Richards were also lensed for the project. Senior Producer is Wade Goring for the music channel.
Kubernik appeared as an interview subject for director Matt O’Casey in 2019 on his BBC4-TV digital arts channel Christine McVie, Fleetwood Mac’s Songbird. The cast includes Christine McVie, Stan Webb of Chicken Shack, Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks, John McVie, Christine’s family members, Heart’s Nancy Wilson, Mike Campbell, and Neil Finn. Harvey was lensed for the 2013 BBC-TV documentary on Bobby Womack Across 110th Street, directed by James Meycock. Bobby Womack, the Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood, Regina Womack, Damon Albarn of Blur/the Gorillaz, and actor Antonio Vargas are spotlighted. Kubernik served as Consulting Producer on the 2010 singer-songwriter documentary, Troubadours: Carole King/James Taylor & the Rise of the Singer-Songwriter, directed by Morgan Neville.
Kubernik was interviewed for the August 2025 documentary, The Sound of Protest being broadcast on the TVOD Apple TV broadcasting service. https://tv.apple.com › us › movie › the-sound-of-protest. Director Siobhan Logue’s endeavor features Smokey Robinson, Hozier, Skin (Skunk Anansie), Two-Tone's Jerry Dammers, Angélique Kidjo, Nina Simone, Holly Johnson, David McAlmont, Rhiannon Giddens, and more.
Harvey is also an interview subject with Iggy Pop, the Beach Boys’ Bruce Johnston, Love’s Johnny Echols, the Bangles' Susanna Hoffs and Victoria Peterson, and the founding members of the Seeds in director Neil Norman’s documentary The Seeds - The Seeds: Pushin' Too Hard. This November 2025, a DVD with bonus footage will be released via the GNP Crescendo Company.
The New York City Department of Education is publishing in 2025 the social studies textbook Hidden Voices: Jewish Americans in United States History. Harvey Kubernik’s 1976 interview with music promoter Bill Graham on the Best Classic Bands website Bill Graham Interview on the Rock ’n’ Roll Revolution, 1976, is included).
