Frank Zappa Estate Announces New Way to Officially Watch His Long Lost Movies
For the longest time, the only way to see some of Frank Zappa’s off-the-wall video projects was getting a bootleg VHS from a local hippie shop, all while hoping that this copy-of-a-copy-of-a-copy had some halfway decent quality to it (and that your ancient VCR wouldn’t break, forcing you to find a replacement at the local thrift store). And even in this digital age, bootlegged streaming versions are just VHS rips thrown up by a fly-by-night app with an odd name.
Thankfully, the estate of Frank Zappa has finally heard the call. On July 22, they officially announced Honker Home Video, the first official way to watch some of Frank Zappa’s long-out-of-print video projects.
“For those daring enough to watch, Zappa.com is proud to present the return of HONKER HOME VIDEO: The Last Frontier of Home entertainment,” the Zappa estate said in a new press release. The late Frank Zappa founded Honker Home Video in 1985 as a way to produce and distribute his video products directly to his fans. “Now, 40 years later, we have unearthed videos of historic interest.”
The first titles available to rent—for the first time officially on any streaming platform—are: 1987’s Video From Hell, a compilation of video projects that Zappa was working on at the time, including Baby Snakes and Uncle Meat, as well as footage of live performances; The True Story of Frank Zappa’s 200 Motels, a behind-the-scenes documentary of Zappa’s surrealistic, meta commentary on the rock and roll lifestyle, 200 Motels.
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Fans can also rent The Torture Never Stops, a concert movie taken from Zappa’s Halloween 1981 shows at The Palladium in New York City, and Cheaper Than Cheep, a previously unreleased 1974 made-for-TV concert movie featuring “the most intimate performance ever captured from the 1974 Mothers line-up.”
Honker Home Video rentals cost $6.99 each, and fans have access to the video for 72 hours (afterwards, the rental will expire).
Considering how Zappa recorded everything (his family is still releasing new music decades after his death in 1993), it’s likely that more will come to Honker Home Video. Until then, fans can finally enjoy an official way to watch these videos and leave the bootlegs behind.