Frank Zappa Albums: Chronological List
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Topic: Frank Zappa Albums: Chronological List
Posted By: npjnpj
Subject: Frank Zappa Albums: Chronological List
Date Posted: November 26 2016 at 14:03
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For a very long time I have been irritated by the chronological lists of FZ's albums, mainly because most of them made no sense or were plainly wrong. So I went through all his albums and sorted them the way I saw the order to be correct. The list follows below and if anyone spots any errors, I would be happy if these were pointed out to me. There are several points I need to explain: 1) I have included all regular albums, all posthumous releases (marked with a 'P'), and the Beat the Boots series (marked with a 'B'). There are no unofficial bootlegs and no 'best-ofs'. 2) A large number of Zappa's albums, especially the posthumous ones, are collections that span a number of years, if not decades. I have sorted these in a way that they slot into a spot so that the latest track on that album corresponds to the chronological place in the list. Many lists don't do this, but go by the earliest track instead. This doesn't really make sense to me, because listening to the later tracks then becomes a glimpse into the future, which is quite irritating, as the groundwork to those tracks hasn't even been laid yet. The list below treats these tracks as retrospectives, which I find to be a much more natural approach. 3) There are just a handful of posthumous releases that FZ worked on during his lifetime that are original material with no indication of when they were recorded. This applies mainly to his synclavier albums. Where this is the case, I have added them to the end of the list, where they seemed to make the most sense. I assume he worked on these during the few years remaining to him after he was diagnosed, and after he gave up working in any band context. So, for those who are interested, the list is as follows: List was revised on 29.04.2018, 3 entries added. 1 Cucamonga (P) 2 Joe's Xmasage (P) 3 Joe's Corsage (P) 4 Mofo (P) 5 Freak Out! 6 Tis The Season To Be Jelly (B) 7 Absolutely Free 8 Lumpy Money (P) 9 We're Only In It For The Money 10 Lumpy Gravy 11 Greasy Love Songs (P) 12 Cruising With Ruben and The Jets 13 Road Tapes Venue 1 (P) 14 Electric Aunt Jemima (B) 15 Beat The Boots 3 Vol 4 (P,B) 16 Uncle Meat Project/Object 17 Uncle Meat 18 Mystery Disc (P) 19 Hot Rats 20 Our Man In Nirvana (B) 21 The Ark (B) 22 Burnt Weeny Sandwich 23 Weasels Ripped My Flesh 24 Ahead of their Time (P) 25 Road Tapes Venue 3 (P) 26 Chunga's Revenge 27 Freaks and Motherf**kers (B) 28 Tengo Na Minchia Tanta (B) 29 Disconnected Synapses (B) 30 Fillmore East - June 1971 31 200 Motels 32 Playground Psychotics 33 Carnegie Hall (P) 34 Swiss Cheese-Fire! (B) 35 Just Another Band From L.A. 36 Finer Moments (P) 37 Waka-Jawaka 38 The Grand Wazoo 39 Joe's Domage (P) 40 Wazoo (P) 41 Imaginary Diseases (P) 42 Little Dots (P) 43 Over-Nite Sensation 44 Piquantique (B) 45 Road Tapes Venue 2 (P) 46 Beat The Boots 3 Vol 5 (P,B) 47 The Crux Of The Biscuit (P) 48 Apostrophe 49 A Token Of His Extreme (P) 50 The Roxy Performances (P) 51 You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol 2 52 Roxy & Elsewhere 53 Roxy the Movie Complete Soundtrack (P) 54 Roxy By Proxy (P) 55 Unmitigated Audacity (B) 56 One Size Fits All 57 Bongo Fury 58 The Lost Episodes (P) 59 Joe's Menage (P) 60 Joes Camouflage (P) 61 Zoot Allures 62 Conceptual Continuity (B) 63 Philly 76 (P) 64 OZ (P) 65 One Shot Deal (P) 66 Halloween 77 (P) 67 Hammersmith Odeon (P) 68 Beat The Boots 3 Vol 1 (P,B) 69 Lather (P) 70 Zappa In New York 71 Studio Tan 72 Sleep Dirt 73 Orchestral Favorites 74 Saarbrucken 1978 (B) 75 At The Circus (B) 76 Chicago '78 (P) 77 Halloween (P) 78 Sheik Yerbouti 79 Transmissions 80 Joes Garage 81 Anyway The Wind Blows (B) 82 Frank Zappa Plays The Music Of Frank Zappa 83 Buffalo (P) 84 Tinseltown Rebellion 85 Shut Up n Play Yer Guitar 86 Quaudiophiliac 87 You Are What You Is 88 The Dub Room Special (P) 89 As An Am (B) 90 Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch 91 You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 1 92 You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 5 93 The Man From Utopia 94 Baby Snakes 95 Baby Snakes Compleat Soundtrack (P) 96 London Symphony Orchestra Vol. 1 97 Boulez Conducts Zappa 98 Beat The Boots 3 Vol 6 (P,B) 99 Them Or Us 100 Thing-Fish 101 Francesco Zappa 102 Meets the Mothers of Prevention 103 Beat The Boots 3 Vol 3 (P,B) 104 Does Humor Belong In Music? 105 Congress Shall Make No Law (P) 106 Jazz from Hell 107 London Symphony Orchestra Vol. 2 108 Beat The Boots 3 Vol 2 (P,B) 109 Guitar 110 Broadway The Hard Way 111 The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life 112 Make A Jazz Noise Here 113 You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 3 114 You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 4 115 You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol 6 116 Trance-Fusion (P) 117 Frank Zappa for President (P) 118 Feeding The Monkies At Ma Maison (P) 119 Dance Me This (P) 120 Civilization Phaze III (P) 121 Everything Is Healing Nicely (P) 122 The Yellow Shark (P) 123 Greggery Peccary & Other Persuasions (P) 124 200 Motels - The Suites (P) |
Replies:
Posted By: Quinino
Date Posted: November 26 2016 at 15:00
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No dates ? |
Posted By: EddieRUKiddingVarese
Date Posted: November 26 2016 at 15:17
Good list impressive - had me checking for some albums eg Finer Moments but it/ they were there
I wonder if Finer Moments was meant to be part of Zappa's originally planned 10 album set post original Mothers............. ------------- "Everyone is born with genius, but most people only keep it a few minutes" and I need the knits, the double knits! |
Posted By: npjnpj
Date Posted: November 26 2016 at 16:24
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Dates for (especially) the posthumous and boots releases make no sense, because each track on an album could have a different one, and the album release dates are entirely irrelevant for this list. In fact, they would be blatently incorrect in this chronological context. As for the regular releases: they can be looked up anywhere, including on this site. |
Posted By: zravkapt
Date Posted: November 26 2016 at 16:37
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Shouldn't 049 came after 050-052? ------------- Magma America Great Make Again |
Posted By: EddieRUKiddingVarese
Date Posted: November 26 2016 at 18:27
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Just realised 076 Transmissions looks a bit odd, is this the unofficial release Transmissions https://www.discogs.com/Frank-Zappa-Transmissions/release/4765896" rel="nofollow - https://www.discogs.com/Frank-Zappa-Transmissions/release/4765896 Or Transmission Impossible https://www.discogs.com/Frank-Zappa-Transmission-Impossible/release/7953258" rel="nofollow - https://www.discogs.com/Frank-Zappa-Transmission-Impossible/release/7953258 ------------- "Everyone is born with genius, but most people only keep it a few minutes" and I need the knits, the double knits! |
Posted By: npjnpj
Date Posted: November 26 2016 at 18:48
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@zravkapt: I don't believe so. Stage Anymore 2 was, according to credits, recorded sometime in 1974, whereas Roxy and Elsewhere was recorded on various dates in December 1974. It is possible, of course, but it seems unlikely that FZ crammed even more concerts into the very end of the year. Edit: just found it. The Helsinki concert was recorded in September 1974. @ EddieRUKiddingVares: it's actually the first one from those two. It must have snuck in somehow. I bought it in a small CD shop in Frankfurt when it was just released and wondered into my collection. Until you mentioned it I was under the impression it was an official release. Cheers. |
Posted By: EddieRUKiddingVarese
Date Posted: November 26 2016 at 20:06
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Thanks npjnpj , I didn't even know of that release until I saw it in your list I'll have to follow it up ------------- "Everyone is born with genius, but most people only keep it a few minutes" and I need the knits, the double knits! |
Posted By: zravkapt
Date Posted: November 27 2016 at 06:25
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[QUOTE=npjnpj]@zravkapt: I don't believe so. Stage Anymore 2 was, according to credits, recorded sometime in 1974, whereas Roxy and Elsewhere was recorded on various dates in December 1974. It is possible, of course, but it seems unlikely that FZ crammed even more concerts into the very end of the year. Edit: just found it. The Helsinki concert was recorded in September 1974. /QUOTE] Roxy was taken from two shows: one in 1973 and the other early 1974; that album has two drummers. The Helsinki concert features only one drummer and faster tempos of basically the same material. Helsinki came after Roxy. ------------- Magma America Great Make Again |
Posted By: npjnpj
Date Posted: November 27 2016 at 06:39
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Thanks, zravkapt, I just checked that, and my information was wrong. I'll change the list acordingly. |
Posted By: unclemeat69
Date Posted: April 26 2018 at 00:14
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Shouldn't Hot Rats come after Burnt Weeny Sandwich and/or Weasels Ripped My Flesh? Some parts of BWS were recorded during the HR sessions (according to IINK) so it isn't clear. Apostrophe should come after the Roxy albums if only because the recording of the basic track of Yellow Snow is documented on the Roxy box set as starting after the shows. Roxy & Elsewhere should come after the other Roxy albums (because of the May 1974 tunes ie Trouble Every Day). ------------- Follow your bliss |
Posted By: Frenetic Zetetic
Date Posted: April 26 2018 at 01:58
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Now THAT's a list of albums! ------------- "I am so prog, I listen to concept albums on shuffle." -KMac2021 |
Posted By: hellogoodbye
Date Posted: April 26 2018 at 02:31
| So much music ! I could spend weeks listening to Frank only ! |
Posted By: Rednight
Date Posted: April 26 2018 at 14:01
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Ponderous, man, ponderous! ------------- "It just has none of the qualities of your work that I find interesting. Abandon [?] it." - Eno |
Posted By: miamiscot
Date Posted: April 27 2018 at 09:24
| I need a drink. |
Posted By: npjnpj
Date Posted: April 29 2018 at 03:47
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@unclemeat69: Cheers, I'll have to check on those. I'd completely forgotten about this list, and suddenly it pops up again. For the moment though, I just revised the list by slotting in 3 entries, which are the new releases from the last 18 months or so. |
Posted By: npjnpj
Date Posted: April 29 2018 at 04:09
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Sorry, but the revised list contains 5 errors, but captcha doesn't allow me to access them, regardless of the browser I use. I'll try again later. In case you're wondering: there are 5 entries marked (RY), which have to be deleted. It stands for 'Ryko release'.
Ok, it worked, the list above is changed now. Captcha was just messing with me.
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Posted By: Salmacis72
Date Posted: August 12 2019 at 18:34
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Just came across this old(ish) thread, I found it very handy for sorting a few of my Zappa titles that I did not have in quite the right spots chronologically. One question though, why is You Can't Do That vol. 3 in with the 1988 band? Shouldn't that be a bit earlier? Just curious, I may be missing something there. ------------- 
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Posted By: mlkpad14
Date Posted: August 12 2019 at 18:56
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So many albums! Has anybody here listened to all of them? (that's the most albums I've seen from an individual besides like Buckethead) ------------- https://gamecrazyprofessional.weebly.com/ |
Posted By: TCat
Date Posted: August 12 2019 at 19:28
I did that once. .ecnis emas eht neeb t'nevah I  . ------------- https://ibb.co/8x0xjR0" rel="nofollow">  |
hellogoodbye wrote:Posted By: TCat
Date Posted: August 12 2019 at 19:30
Check out Phrozenlight if you want to see another huge discography. ------------- https://ibb.co/8x0xjR0" rel="nofollow"> |
Posted By: HolyMoly
Date Posted: August 14 2019 at 17:55
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I never knew “200 Motels-The Suites” was an actual release! I found a recording of a more recent performance by the BBC Symphony on YouTube and have been playing it a whole lot. Eager to get the CD (with a different, earlier performance by the LA Philharmonic). Nice coincidence since I just picked up a nice vinyl copy of 200 Motels today. ------------- My other avatar is a Porsche It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle if it is lightly greased. -Kehlog Albran |