Frank Zappa & Captain Beefheart's 'Bongo Fury' Returns With New 50th Anniversary Editions

Official Announcement | Published: Mar 22, 2026 12:35 PM EDT

(UMe) Available now via Zappa Records/UMe, Bongo Fury (50th Anniversary Edition) shines a spotlight on Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart's creative partnership that peaked in 1975 with their joint album, Bongo Fury. A new six-disc (5CD/1 Blu-ray) Super Deluxe Edition box set celebrates this iconic collaboration through a wealth of rare recordings, including two full unreleased concerts.

Produced by Zappa Vaultmeister Joe Travers, this new, expanded collection boasts Bob Ludwig's 2012 master of the core album's nine tracks, along with five additional session outtakes and oddities from The Vault (a.k.a. "Bonus Fury"), and 2025 stereo mixes of the live material from the 16-track masters by Craig Parker Adams, all of it remastered in 2025 by John Polito at Audio Mechanics. The set features 57 tracks in total, of which more than 80% has never been released.

Notably included in the expanded collection are two full, unreleased concerts from Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin, Texas, on May 20 and 21, 1975, which spawned much of the recordings on Bongo Fury, plus a trio of live cuts recorded during the tour's opening gambit on April 10, 1975 at Pomona College's Bridges Auditorium in Claremont, Calif. One of them, "Portuguese Lunar Landing," is a true Vault treasure - a rehearsal composition that has never been heard officially until now. As Travers reveals in the liners, "Claremont CA were the first shows of the tour. Of the master tapes, FZ only saved one rehearsal reel and the first reel of show 1. The rehearsal reel is clearly marked "Save Port. Lunar Landing." With the release of this rehearsal version, it's the first time this composition has been heard officially! A Nugget!"

The Blu-ray contains the core album newly remixed in immersive Dolby Atmos and 5.1 surround sound by Karma Auger and Erich Gobel at Studio1LA, the same team behind the acclaimed Dolby Atmos and surround mixes of 2022's Waka/Wazoo, 2023's Over-Nite Sensation, 2024's Apostrophe ('), and 2025's One Size Fits All releases. Auger and Gobel mixed directly from the 16-track album master tapes, along with the hi-res stereo 2025 remaster at 24-bit/192kHz and 24-bit/96kHz options for the main album, plus three bonus Vault-culled surround tracks. One is for the original version of "The Torture Never Stops," while the other two are six-channel surround sound mixes done by Zappa himself at UMRK in 1993 - "Debra Kadabra" and "Poofter's Froth Wyoming Plans Ahead"- during the last year of his life for a rumored project for Disney that never came to fruition.

The lavish Super Deluxe Edition box comes complete with an 18-page booklet and unseen black and white photos from the archives of Sam Emerson plus rare color and live photos by John Williams, as well as liner notes and new historical essays by Zappa/Mothers Bongo Fury bandmember Denny Walley, and, as always, The Vaultmeister Travers.

Bongo Fury has also been newly mastered for vinyl in all analog from the original tapes by Bernie Grundman and is available in three separate vinyl offerings: a 2LP on 180-gram black vinyl, with the main album and a bonus record of highlights from the box set, plus a booklet and a frameable black and white lithograph of Zappa and Beefheart; a 1LP on 180-gram black vinyl; and a limited edition 1LP color pressing on 180-gram "Orange & Black Galaxy" vinyl, with a black and white lithograph of Zappa, Beefheart and the Mothers, that is available exclusively at Zappa.com, uDiscover Music, and Sound of Vinyl. For more information or to order, visit: https://zappa.lnk.to/BongoFury50thPR

Additionally, the Super Deluxe Edition is available digitally, with all 57 tracks available in both hi-res 24-bit/96kHz and standard-res 16-bit/44.1kHz options. A standalone Dolby Atmos mix of the core album's nine tracks is also available on all Atmos-supporting hi-res streaming services, including Amazon Music, Apple Music and Tidal.