"From Straight To Bizarre: Zappa, Beefheart, Alice Cooper, and LA's Lunatic Fringe" DVD

This nearly 3-hour unauthorized documentary does an admirable job compiling a history lesson on the short-lived, but influential labels set up by Frank Zappa and manager Herb Cohen in the late 1960s. Straight Records and Bizarre Records both were showcases for some of the wildest and most unusual sounds to come from the era.

Featured here are looks at the artists who benefit from Zappa's tutelage, from the medically-diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic Wild Man Fischer to Captain Beefheart to Alice Cooper, Lenny Bruce, Tim Buckley, and others. As with most of the releases from Sexy Intellectual, there are plenty of interviews with friends and acquaintances, though particularly absent are words from the most pivotal players. Nonetheless, this is an interesting document and a fine history lesson, especially to fans of Zappa. (Sexy Intellectual via MVD Visual)

Zappa website