200 Motels Box Set

In celebration of the "200 Motels" golden anniversary, Zappa Records, Universal Music and MGM have assembled a definitive super deluxe 6 disc box set of the beloved, yet hard to find, soundtrack, available November 19th, 2021.

This monstrous "200 Motels 50th Anniversary Edition" brings together the original soundtrack, newly remastered by Bernie Grundman, along with a staggering amount of unreleased and rare material unearthed from FZ’s Vault, including original demos, studio outtakes, work mixes, interviews and movie ads, along with newly discovered dialog reels, revealing an early audio edit of the film. Also included is a wealth of never before heard audio documentary material surrounding the project.
Discs 1 and 2 feature the remastered soundtrack with the 2nd half of the 2nd disc consisting of demos and demo outtakes, 2 of the many highlights from these sessions include unreleased alternative mixes and alternative takes of the "Chunga’s Revenge" tunes, “Road Ladies” and “Tell Me You Love Me”. Discs 3 and 4 contain the “Dialog Protection Reels”, which reveal an early version of the movie, while disc 5 and 6 present unreleased outtakes, alternates and historical nuggets sequenced in the order of the original shooting script, the way Zappa originally envisioned before he ran into time and budget constraints. These illuminating discs reveal Zappa’s original intent for the film for the first time.

The 6 disc set will be housed in a 64 page hardcover book in a handsome 12” x 12” slipcase. The packaging replicates the original booklet updated with revealing new liner notes from Pamela Des Barres, Ruth Underwood and Joe Travers, as well as Patrick Pending’s essay from the 1997 reissue, and is chock full of motion picture artwork, stills and images, from the film and its making, many which have never been seen before. This must have collector’s release will also include a custom “200 Motels” keychain and "Do No Disturb" motel door hanger and a full size replica of the original movie poster. Years in the making, all the audio was meticulously identified and transferred over several years, as Travers dug through the vault to create a new high resolution 96K/24B digital patchwork stereo master from the original analog tapes. The vault material was mastered by John Polito in 2021.