Frank Zappa - Where to start?

Have to say that I am loving Hot rats, just brilliant.

As far as live 80s Zappa, Make a Jazz Noise Here and The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life are where its at. The latter contains spoofs and covers whereas the former leans heavily on instrumentals. Both feature sublime work by the 1988 band.

Studiowise, this era is best approached via the early 80s satirical masterpiece You Are What You Is and the (utterly underrated) Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention. This particular album is the quintessential 80s Zappa as it features a balanced mix of humour, guitar and synclavier compositions.

well it's probably his most popular

the only albums i dont like from the 80s are The Man From Utopia and Thing-Fish. Both have a few good songs, but i cannot sit through the whole albums. YAWYI, SATLTSADW, and FZMtMoP are great 80s albums. **EDIT** Then There's Jazz From Hell, but that's only if you enjoy his syn-clavier work, which Meets the Mothers of Prevention has as well.

however i forgot to mention my favorite 80s album, not counting the ones from the '88 band. Tinseltown Rebellion. It's mostly live affair, but contains some of Frank's best compositions, and contains many humorous moments. THE BLUUUE LIIIIIGHT!!!!


Edited by darkshade - March 19 2011 at 16:24

i think i like the 80s stuff a lot is because i burnt myself out on his music back in the day, and most of the stuff i had by him was the 60s and 70s stuff. When I eventually started feeling the Zappa itch, i decided to check out his post-Skeik YerBouti stuff, and just fell back into "Frank Zappa all the time" mode , but with more selection. Im listening to Tinseltown Rebellion and it sounds so fresh, not that stuff like One Size Fits All, Lather, or Roxy isnt, but ive heard those albums a dozen x50 times.

Originally posted by WalterDigsTunes Meh, Tinseltown Rebellion is a mediocre and inessential affair featuring an unexciting lineup doing bland retreads of old material and middle of the road compositions. It's only for enthusiasts who already own a dozen other Zappa live albums.

thatd be me

but there's strong material. Easy Meat, The Blue Light, the title track, and that Peaches III is pretty cool, though a bit of a novelty. Fine Girl is a decent song. As far as older material, sure there's better versions of older songs, but it's just a fun overall album. I also think it's one of his funnier albums, as far as those go.

anyway, see my above post.....


Edited by darkshade - March 19 2011 at 16:38

Originally posted by himtroy Yeah I like Tinseltown Rebellion as well, but I listen to a lot of his albums pretty frequently.  I don't know where the complaint about redoing old songs is coming from since Zappa always did that....

The executions on TT aren't anything special, unless you consider phrases like "Let's hear it for another great Italian!" to be ROFL-worthy on a consistent basis. There's better fare out there, like the goodies on the YCDTOSA series.

Originally posted by darkshade i think the 88 band was even funnier, what with those samples. They get me every time. I never understood how it worked. Was someone on a keyboard with preset sounds and just played them? or was there some other device being used?

I'm pretty they brought the synclavier along.

Originally posted by WalterDigsTunes Meh, Tinseltown Rebellion is a mediocre and inessential affair featuring an unexciting lineup doing bland retreads of old material and middle of the road compositions. It's only for enthusiasts who already own a dozen other Zappa live albums.

I agree, except that I find the '79 lineup pretty interesting, actually. It's just that Tinseltown Rebellion features some of their least interesting material. The '60s remakes are mostly boring, "Panty Rap" and "Dance Contest" are a waste of space, and the trio of "The Blue Light", "Tinseltown Rebellion" and "Pick Me, I'm Clean" sounds like a bunch of throwaways to me. Fans should still buy it for stuff like "For the Young Sophisticate" (although since Läther was released, we have a much better version on a much better album) and the original "Bamboozled By Love" (not that awful new wave version, but it shouldn't be one of your first Zappa albums.

Originally posted by WalterDigsTunes Originally posted by himtroy Sleep Dirt is amazing if you can actually find the original one without those horrid vocals. Which means: 1) Buy the LP 2) Get Lather.

Läther isn't the real deal if you want to hear the original Sleep Dirt. Only "Time Is Money" and "Regyptian Strut" are on it in their full versions, the title track is missing entirely and the rest is cut short. Especially "Flambay" and TOITUS are much shorter than the originals. You should buy both the Sleep Dirt LP and Läther eventually.

I'd still suggest Läther as an introduction, as long as you're not intimidated by over two hours of music. It has a little bit of everything, including some of his best stuff. If you want to hear the original Mothers, try Uncle Meat. For his jazz fusion, pick up either The Grand Wazoo for the more "serious" stuff or One Size Fits All for the rock-oriented stuff. For live performances, I'd actually suggest the more comprehensive YCDTOSA2 over Roxy & Elsewhere. If only that damn Roxy DVD were released, that would be the ultimate starting point...

Also, I might be pretty alone on this, but I think that Joe's Garage might be better as a first listen than Apostrophe, even though it's a weaker album.

I can agree with the liking of YCDTOSA and his other live material more than Tinsel Town, but I still like it a lot.  It helps that it was my introduction to post 73 Zappa, and I find Blue Light and Pick Me I'm Clean to be pretty good, though I usually lean towards much more instrumental and longer of Zappas songs.  When compared to Make a Jazz Noise Here, Best Band, and You Can't Do That, most things pale in comparison.  

Edited by himtroy - March 20 2011 at 22:28

Originally posted by Logos What? No mention of Hot Rats yet? Absolutely the best Zappa album along with The Grand Wazoo and One Size Fits All.  This is probably the trio of albums that I would start with. Brilliant stuff and quite accessible for the average prog fan.

Originally posted by himtroy What an original choice to bring on board.  If somebody is reading up and trying to find out what direction to take with Zappa I think they've already had Hot Rats shoved at them enough to know of it.  It's a great album, but there are others.  Even if people are going to take the "accessible"  approach then Apostrophe and One Size are much more logical.