Frank Zappa‘s 1974 TV special, A Token Of His Extreme, is to be released officially for the first time on June 3 via Eagle Rock.
The show, which was recorded on August 27, 1974 at KCET in Hollywood, featured Zappa alongside George Duke (keyboards, finger cymbals, tambourine, vocals), Napoleon Murphy Brock (sax, vocals), Ruth Underwood (percussion), Tom Fowler (bass) and Chester Thompson (drums).
Speaking on the Mike Douglas Show in 1976, Zappa said, “This was put together with my own money and my own time and it’s been offered to television networks and to syndication and it has been steadfastly rejected by the American television industry. It has been shown in primetime in France and Switzerland, with marvelous results. It’s probably one of the finest pieces of video work that any human being has ever done. I did it myself. And the animation that you’re gonna see in this was done by a guy named Bruce Bickford, and I hope he is watching the show, because it’s probably the first time that a lot of people in America got a chance to see it.”
The track listing for A Token of His Extreme includes: “The Dog Breath Variations”/”Uncle Meat”, “Montana”, “Florentine Pogen”, “Stink-Foot”, “Pygmy Twylyte”, “Room Service, “Inca Roads”, “Oh No”, “Son Of Orange County”, “More Trouble Every Day”, “A Token Of My Extreme”.
The show has never been officially released on video or DVD before.
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