The Zappa family is committed to preserving the legacy of composer and rock musician Frank Zappa, who died in 1993. Every year, the family label Zappa Records features multiple reissues, concert recordings and other regularly unreleased work that workaholic Zappa recorded during his lifetime. All of this is under the supervision of widow Gail Zappa who also keeps a close eye on ensuring that no
… material appears that she did not authorize. The collector Understanding America was put together by the master himself. This double album is primarily a collection of satirical and oblique songs about America, picked from his entire oeuvre. The chosen versions and mixes sometimes deviate from the originals. For example, the piece Porn Wars from the album Frank Zappa Meets The Mothers Of Prevention (1985) was stretched to more than twenty-five minutes as Porn Wars Deluxe. This collage of Zappa's testimony in 1985 during the US hearings against censorship in rock music seems to justify the content of this complete collection of songs with explicit lyrics. But this makes Understanding America somewhat of a corny whole on which Zappa's more serious, instrumental work is missed. (MR) But this makes Understanding America somewhat of a corny whole on which Zappa's more serious, instrumental work is missed. (MR) But this makes Understanding America somewhat of a corny whole on which Zappa's more serious, instrumental work is missed. (MR)more
