Beat the Boots! is a box set by Frank Zappa. Released in 1991 through Rhino Entertainment, the set contains legal reissues of eight bootleg recordings made between 1967 and 1982 and originally distributed illegally prior to this official release. A second box set of bootleg recordings, Beat the Boots! II, was released through Rhino in June 1992.

Contents

Beat the Boots! was released so that Zappa could reclaim financial and legal ownership of the recordings. By reproducing the exact contents and artwork of bootleg albums without any alterations, Zappa could claim any further reproduction of the recordings as a counterfeit, which would make further unauthorized distribution of his music easier to prosecute. The box set was released in limited vinyl record and cassette tape runs, and the titles were also released as individual compact discs by Rhino Entertainment. Tis the Season to Be Jelly is a recording of a radio broadcast. The Ark had been produced from a soundboard recording that had been stolen from Zappa's studio. The same tapes also produced the bootleg Twenty Years Ago...Again, distributed by bootlegger Evil Records, which contains a significantly longer version of the song "My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama", which is three minutes shorter on The Ark. Piquantique contains audio from a TV broadcast highlighting a jazz-funk incarnation of Zappa's band. Unmitigated Audacity is an audience recording. As An Am contains an excerpt from a radio interview in which Zappa criticized bootleggers and bootleg recordings.

Reception

AllMusic gave the box set a rating of 4 out of 5.

Track listing

All tracks by Frank Zappa, except where noted.

As an Am

Recordings are from three separate shows. Track 1 is from May 19, 1981, at Rockline, KLOS-FM, Los Angeles; tracks 2 and 3 are from May 21, 1982, at Sporthalle in Cologne, Germany, and tracks 4–6 are from October 31, 1981, at the Palladium in New York City.

The Ark

Recorded at The Ark in Boston on July 8, 1969 (mislabeled as 1968).

Freaks & Mother*#@%!

Recorded at Fillmore East in New York City on November 14, 1970. The original bootleg version was called Freaks and Motherfuckers.

Unmitigated Audacity

Recorded at University of Notre Dame on May 12, 1974.

Anyway the Wind Blows

Recorded at Nouvel Hippodrome in Paris on February 24, 1979.

Disc one

Disc two

Tis the Season to Be Jelly

Recorded at Konserthuset in Stockholm on September 30, 1967.

Saarbrücken 1978

Recorded at Ludwigsparkstadion in Saarbrücken, Germany, on September 3, 1978.

Piquantique

Recorded at Solliden in Skansen, Sweden, on August 21, 1973, with the exception of track 4, which is taken from a concert at the Roxy, December 1973.