Frank Zappa

I don't have anything from Zappa. What would be the best album to start with? I would be more interested in the more progressive stuff and not the obnoxious stuff.

The Grand Wazoo is a great album to start Frank Zappa with. It's along the lines of Hot Rats, very instrumental, almost no vocal. But none the less, very good.

Then you should go for either Roxy & Elsewhere, or You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore 2. Echidna's Arf (Of You) and Don't You Ever Wash That Thing are stunning ... or try my avatar (Studio Tan). Greggery Peccary is just insane, and RDNZL is one of the best Zappa songs IMO.

Ship arriving too late is also great, very complex guitar work.

If youre not a Zappa fan try and listen to One Size Fits All. Its probably
he's most commercial album, but without losing a bit of his art.

Another one that hits the spot for me - Broadway the hard way
or Roxy and Elsewhere (live). Wonderful moments, nice songs nice playing
a lot of fun - FIVE STARS MATERIAL

Maike wrote: If youre not a Zappa fan try and listen to One Size Fits All. Its probably he's most commercial album, but without losing a bit of his art. Another one that hits the spot for me - Broadway the hard way or Roxy and Elsewhere (live). Wonderful moments, nice songs nice playing a lot of fun - FIVE STARS MATERIAL

Broadway the Hard Way is actually my favorite Zappa Live album ... but there are better Zappa albums in terms of complex songs and instrumentals. Broadway has great humour and stunning vocal performances, and a big band sound - I don't know if it is just the song selection or if they played some shows differently from the others of the 88 tour: The wind instruments really shine on this album, and it all has a particular swing feel.

It seems to be my misson to promote this Zappa title:

http://globalia.net/donlope/fz/btb/piquantique.html

Actually that site is a good Zappa database:

http://globalia.net/donlope/fz/index.html

ps. Don't forget "Hot Rats" or "Weasels ripped my flesh"!

 

...my mission seems to be accomplished, as I learned to add albums to the archives!

http://www.progarchives.com/Progressive_rock_discography_CD. asp?cd_id=8304

Edited by Eetu Pellonpää

Great album - Usually available combined with Apostrophe, which is also great.

But I still think that a live album is better suited for getting to know Zappa - you get various songs from different Zappa phases. And keeping in mind that cmidkiff asked for progressive stuff with complex instrumentation, I'd really go for Make a Jazz Noise Here - it doesn't have that much improvisation, except for a few tracks like the utterly brilliant rendition of King Kong.

If you're into big (modern) orchestras, you might want to try the Yellow Shark ...

I would say that "Hot Rats" is a good album to start with. It's almost instrumental album, not to much Zappa humor, and it's very good too! It's quite jazzy, but it's still some kind of "rock group" line up, not big band things like on "The Grand Wazoo".

cmidkiff wrote: MikeEnRegalia wrote: Great album (Apostrophe) - Usually available combined with Apostrophe, which is also great. But I still think that a live album is better suited for getting to know Zappa - you get various songs from different Zappa phases. And keeping in mind that cmidkiff asked for progressive stuff with complex instrumentation, I'd really go for Make a Jazz Noise Here - it doesn't have that much improvisation, except for a few tracks like the utterly brilliant rendition of King Kong. Does this have a traditional jazz or swing jazz sound? Is there still a rock base to it? I notice Jean Luc Ponty is not on this one.

I'd say that both Apostrophe and Overnite Sensation are far from Jazz. There are many Zappa highlights on these albums - Yellow Snow, Father O'Blivion, Uncle Remus, Stinkfoot (The Poodle bites) on Apostrophe, and Montana, Zomby Woof, Camarillo Brillo etc. on Overnite Sensation. If you prefer rock, you cannot go wrong with this one!