Does Humor Belong In Music? is also a live video recorded at "The Pier" in New York in 1984. It was released in Europe in 1985 by EMI.
The titles at the beginning say:
ZAPPA
"The Group That Does Everything Wrong"
in a digitally recorded live performance at "The Pier", New York City, August 26, 1984
No Laser Weapons
No Fog
No Over-Dubs
And Some People Still Have The Nerve to Ask...
Does Humor Belong in Music?
The video includes the following tracks:
- Zoot Allures (5.53)
- Tinsel Town Rebellion (4:21)
- Trouble Every Day (2:14)
- Hot Plate Heaven At The Green Hotel (1:37)
- The Dangerous Kitchen (1:49)
- He's So Gay (2:34)
- Bobby Brown (2:38)
- Keep It Greasey (3:28)
- Honey, Don't You Want A Man Like Me? (4:16)
- Dinah-Moe Humm (3:24)
- Cosmik Debris (4:35)
- Be In My Video (3:13)
- Dancin' Fool (3:19)
- Whippin' Post (5:26)
All songs composed by Frank Zappa except "Whippin' Post" by Greg Allman of The Allman Brothers. Total running time: 57 minutes
Musicians:
The secret word of the night apparently is "Let's Mine The Harbor". Apart from the music, the video also has a couple of small interview excerpts, here are excerpts of the excerpts...
Audience: You have spoken out against drugs, so why do you smoke cigarettes?
Zappa: Well, to me, a cigarette is food. Now that may be a baffling concept for people in San Francisco who have this theory that they will live forever if they stamp out tobacco smoke. I find this a little bit hard to deal with. I live my live eating these things (pointing at cigarette) and drinking the black water in this cup here.
Zappa: The first thing you do is, whenever Ronald Reagan is speaking on television, turn it on and turn the sound down, and put your child in front of the set and point at him (Reagan) and say: "If he asks you to get into a car, offers you candy or tells you to go fight in Nicaragua, tell him: No!"
Interviewer: You've done a lot of video things, but have you done any commercial type MTV videos?
Zappa: We did one in 1980 for a song called "You Are What You Is". It didn't get played very much because I had a guy who looked like Ronald Reagan get in the electric chair and some people thought that was dangerous.
Interviewer: You're anti, speaking about drugs. You have spoken out against them. That's sort of not the norm for a musician.
Zappa: That's another why I don't get my music on the radio, because I'm totally out of step with reality. I'm not a religious fanatic, I don't use drugs, I'm neither a Republican or a Democrat. I'm reasonably sane.
My opinion: the performance on the video is great, though the track selection is pretty much limited to humorous tracks, just as the title suggests. More
audio material from the 1984 tour can be found on Guitar and You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore.