Ahead of Their Time explained

Ahead of Their Time
Type:Live album
Artist:The Mothers of Invention
Cover:Frank Zappa, Ahead of Their Time.jpg
Released:March 23, 1993
Recorded:October 25, 1968
Length:67:39
Label:Barking Pumpkin
Producer:Frank Zappa
Chronology:Frank Zappa
Prev Title:Playground Psychotics
Prev Year:1992
Next Title:The Yellow Shark
Next Year:1993

Ahead of Their Time is a live album by The Mothers of Invention. It was recorded at the Royal Festival Hall, London, England, on October 25, 1968, and released in 1993 on CD by Barking Pumpkin. It was reissued on Rykodisc in 1995.

Performances

The first part of the set is a one-off performance of a musical play retrospectively entitled Progress?, and featuring members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Portions of this performance originally found their way on to the second Mystery Disc (released in 1986 as part of the box set The Old Masters Box Two and issued as an individual album in 1998) and the Honker Home Video release of Uncle Meat (1989). Much of the humour and storyline of the play is lost to the casual listener due to primitive recording techniques and the visual nature of some of the performance, necessitating extensive liner notes by Zappa.

According to Zappa's liner notes, the remainder of the set is "A fair – not outstanding – 1968 Mothers of Invention rock concert performance". Different edits of snatches from the second part of the performance ("The Orange County Lumber Truck" and "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Sexually Aroused Gas Mask") were originally released on Weasels Ripped My Flesh (1970).

Track listing

All tracks written, composed and arranged by Frank Zappa.

Personnel

External links