Listen to I Ain't Got No Heart, from Zappa's performance at New York's Nassau Coliseum in 1988
(Image credit: Paul Bergen/Redferns)
Frank Zappa's last ever show – which he played with his 11-piece band at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York on March 25, 1988 – will be released as a new live album, Zappa ’88: The Last U.S. Show.
Arriving via Zappa Records/UMC on June 18, the live album is the first posthumous archival release from Zappa's ‘88 touring band, and features 29 unreleased performances including two additional ones from the same tour.
They are Zappa's rendition of the Allman Brothers Band's Whipping Post from a show in Providence, Rhode Island on March 16, and a version of Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven from the band's show at March 23 show in Towson, Maryland.
The album will also feature the first official release of Zappa's much-talked-about The Beatles Medley, as well as a performance of I Ain't Got No Heart – taken from The Mothers of Invention's debut album Freak Out! You can listen to that below.
The show itself was recorded using two Sony PCM-3324 DASH 24 track tape recorders synced together using a Lynx Time Code Module, and have been mixed by engineer Craig Parker Adams.
In terms of format, the album will be released digitally, on 2CD and as a 4LP vinyl box. Variants of the latter include black and purple vinyl discs. The physical formats include detailed liner notes by Zappa Vaultmeister Joe Travers and Zappa ’88 drummer Chad Wackerman, as well as photos from the tour.
Shortly after the show at the Nassau Coliseum, Zappa's band headed to Europe for a string of shows, but split up during the run. At the time, no-one knew the show would be Zappa's last in the US.
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Check out the tracklisting for Zappa ’88: The Last U.S. Show below.
Sam was Staff Writer at GuitarWorld.com from 2019 to 2023, and also created content for Total Guitar, Guitarist and Guitar Player. He has well over 15 years of guitar playing under his belt, as well as a degree in Music Technology (Mixing and Mastering). He's a metalhead through and through, but has a thorough appreciation for all genres of music. In his spare time, Sam creates point-of-view guitar lesson videos on YouTube under the name Sightline Guitar.
