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Video from Hell

1987 film by Frank Zappa

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Video from Hell is a video (VHS only, no Betamax was made available) released in 1987 by Frank Zappa. It is a compilation of pieces from a series of video projects by Zappa, some of which did receive full release - including Baby Snakes, Uncle Meat and The True Story of Frank Zappa's 200 Motels - and some which remain unreleased or unfinished, including a companion video for the You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore series of albums. Many pieces from this video had appeared on a one-hour Night Flight special entitled "You Are What You Watch". The music video for the song "G-Spot Tornado" features color 8mm footage that Zappa shot at a county fair in the early 1960s. The music video for "You Are What You Is", which was banned by MTV, is also included, as is footage of a 1982 live guitar solo duet between Zappa and Steve Vai taken from the song "Stevie's Spanking", the audio of which was later released on You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 4. Video from Hell has not been released on DVD.

Titled similarly to 1986's Jazz from Hell instrumental album, the title is explained as a political reference by Zappa: "Things in America can be from hell. Right now we have a president from hell [Reagan], and a National Security Council from hell, so we should add Jazz from Hell also."

Watch videos about Video from HellExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Video from Hell, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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