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Mike Keneally
In Zappa's Universe

ZAPPA'S UNIVERSE (Verve/PolyGram) released in 1993

CD song list:

1. Elvis Has Just Left The Building 2:48
2. Brown Shoes Don't Make It 7:26
3. Jazz Discharge Party Hats 4:48
4. Inca Roads 9:38
5. Moggio 2:46
6. Night School 5:00
7. Echidna's Arf (Of You) 3:53
8. Hungry Freaks, Daddy 3:28
9. Heavenly Bank Account 4:12
10. The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing 2:54
11. Waka Jawaka (Edit) 3:28
12. Sofa 3:51
13. Dirty Love 7:03
14. Hot Plate Heaven At The Green Hotel 6:28

MK involvement:
Guitar, vocals, keys on the fast sevens after Mats' solo in "Inca", leader of rock band.

Comments:
You may well be aware that my feelings about this enterprise are mixed at best. I get a lot of comments from people who are extremely complimentary of my work on the project and love this album a lot, and I'm really glad that they do, but boy, did this ever not meet my expectations. I don't want to come down too hard on the performance itself, because everyone involved put forth a gargantuan effort to make it work, but what was done after the fact borders on the criminal. Suffice it to say that PolyGram were less than utterly concerned with paying tribute to Frank and treating his music respectfully. I'll limit my derisive comments to that, in case PolyGram has lawyers floating around out there in cyberspace (which wouldn't surprise me).

I will say that if you don't already own the album, I believe the video to be a much more entertaining investment---it also sounds better than the CD (unthinkably, though, it doesn't contain "Night School", which was one of the video highlights, as anyone who saw the unedited Swedish TV broadcast will attest). And I will admit to being very proud of my performance of "Jazz Discharge" and the solo in "Hot Plate Heaven", so, even if only for those reasons, I'm grateful that this thing exists. I kicked in a window in New York City when it won a Grammy, however.

(readily available in record stores)

[For Mike's complete story of the kicked-in window, check out Really, Keneally? And Steve Vai takes Mike to task about his ZU 'tude at Mike's Expression Session.]

CD song list:

1. Sofa 3:51
2. Jazz Discharge Party Hats 4:48
3. Night School 5:00
4. Echidna's Arf (Of You) 3:53
5. Hungry Freaks, Daddy 3:28

This was a promo teaser distributed just before the release of the album proper, and is actually a nice selection of some of the better material. There is solid evidence of the earlier release of a PolyGram sampler CD which contains a rough mix of our version of "Can't Afford No Shoes", a song which was subsequently never officially released, but when I called PolyGram to find out about it, they lied to me and said it didn't exist. It does, somewhere.