Dweezil Zappa Shares New Song ‘Dinosaur’ Featuring Frank Zappa Solo

Guitarist Dweezil Zappa & The Others Of Intention have shared a new track entitled “Dinosaur.” The new original composition features a solo performed live in 1977 by late guitar legend Frank Zappa.

Dweezil spoke to Rolling Stone about the process he undertook to create “Dinosaur,” which was sourced from a recording he originally made at age 13. The song was given its title because Dweezil likened the practice to that of paleontology and he’s selling the song as part of his ongoing Pledge Music campaign to raise funds to take on the Zappa Family Trust regarding a number of legal arguments.

Incorporating the guitarwork of Dweezil’s father Frank was inspired by the elder Zappa’s editing process he dubbed “xenochrony.” Here’s how Dweezil explained it to Rolling Stone:

I selected a few analog master solo tracks from live concerts and edited them together to fit over my song. This was a technique developed by my dad in the Seventies. He would collect performances he liked from his live concerts and isolate them from their origin, then pair them with an unrelated performance in the same or relative key, thereby creating a new performance or composition. He called this process “xenochrony.” It is far easier to experiment with xenochrony using computer technology. Back in the Seventies it required brilliant razor blade tape edits and ingenious fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants synchronization between three tape machines.

Also featured in the song are recordings made by guitarists who attended Dweezil’s Dweezilla music camp. Head over to Rolling Stone to read more about the creation of “Dinosaur.” The track is available to stream below, followed by the first two parts of a five-part “making of” video series Dweezil produced:

[Dinosaur]

[Making Of “Dinosaur” Episode 1]

[Making Of “Dinosaur” Episode 2]