Description
Burnt Weeny Sandwich is reissued on 180-gram audiophile black vinyl via Zappa Records/UMe. Supervised by the ZFT, the record was specially mastered for this release by Bernie Grundman with all analog production and cut directly from the 1970 ¼" stereo safety master tape in 2018. Unavailable on vinyl for more than three decades, the LP includes the original album's black and white poster, which has never been reproduced in any of the album's CD editions.
Named for one of Zappa's favorite quick snacks, essentially a hot dog roasted over a flame and stuck between two pieces of bread, Burnt Weeny Sandwich was released in 1970 following Hot Rats. The album was recorded by Zappa and one of the original incarnations of his legendary combo the Mothers of Invention, whose lineup Zappa disbanded just prior to this album's release. Perhaps suggestive of its gastronomic title, the record is structured like a sandwich: it is bookended by a pair of doo wop covers of the Four Deuces' "WPLJ" and Jackie & the Starlites' "Valarie," which harks back to Zappa's earliest musical influences, and filled with an array of stylistically diverse songs that focus on structured and tightly arranged compositions featuring virtuosic performances by Zappa and his expert ensemble.
Combining studio material and live recordings, the largely instrumental album includes "Theme from Burnt Weeny Sandwich," "Holiday In Berlin Full-Blown," the two-part "Igor's Boogie" and the complex, multi-part near 20-minute centerpiece "Little House I Used to Live In." With portions recorded at Londons Royal Albert Hall in June 1969, "the song's extended improvisations," Ultimate Classic Rock remarked in their retrospective review, "provided an epic send-off to the beloved Mothers, in all of their eclectic audaciousness under the leadership and in the service of Zappa's singular vision. The recording even contains a snippet of heated repartee between Zappa and an audience member that spawned his famous critique of all the flower children present: 'Everybody in this room is wearing a uniform.'"
