Entertainment For Lively Minds
Buying Zappa..any suggestions?
Posted by Grant on 15 March 2009 - 11:20pm.
I've got a few CDs - Freak Out, Bongo Fury, Weasels Ripped My Flesh, The Lost Episodes, We're only in it for the money and the Strictly Commercial compilation. I'd like to dig deeper, but his stuff is not on itunes/emusic and I'm fully aware that it can be a dangerous, wallet-skinning journey.There are all the "You can't do that on stage compilations", but which ones are the "good" ones?
Are there any other albums I should hunt down as being "essential" Zappa?
Apologies if this has been up as a thread before, but if in doubt, come to the people in the know....thanks!
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Roxy & Elsewhere
Is the Zappa album I always go back to. The band is red hot and it covers a few bases, from the comedy side of things on "Cheepnis" to some really great playing - "More Trouble Every Day" really is the contents of the canine's wrinkled retainer.
I also love "Broadway The Hard Way", late period stuff but again, a good mix. A little too mired in the politics of late 80s America for some tastes so lyrically it maybe hasnt aged that well, but "Jesus Thinks Yo're A Jerk" is still as good a response to the evangelical right as I can think of at the moment. But beware. This record contains some Sting.
Strikes me
you've already got most of the essential stuff but 'Apostrophe' and 'Hot Rats' deserve honourable mentions as does 'The Mothers Live at Fillmore East'. The latter contains a stupendous version of the Turtles' 'Happy Together' plus some of the filthiest monologues/dialogues ever committed to 'rock' tape.
if you like him for the guitar
the multi disc set shut up and play yer guitar which was on ryko is a great compilation
hot rats - honourable mention -surely a must have
Rats
Hot Rats is definately the one to get, but I also like "Chunga's revenge" a lot - some good songs, great playing, great humour. What more do you need. Often considered to be a bit low brow by some, I never fail to enjoy "Joe's garage".
YCDTOSA
I would say that the "good ones" in the You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore collection are:-
Volume 1 - a fine representation of most areas of FZ's canon
Volume 2 - Is an entire concert recorded in Helsinki 1974 by what many regard as Zappa's finest band (basically the same musicians as on the previously recommended "Roxy & Elsewhere")
Volume 6 - Lots of the funny and "dirty" stuff in one handy-dandy collection, all meticulously played and immaculately recorded.
I would suggest if you venture down the YCDTOSA road you'll end up buying all of them.
Also like to give honourable mentions to "One Size Fits All" (guest starring Donnie Vliet) and "Overnite Sensation" (containing the insanely great Fifty/Fifty and Montana)
Only rats on the menu?
I consider Hot Rats a classic and enjoy it enormously. I wonder if I could be so bold as to take the opportunity provided by this thread to ask the panel for Zappa Fans Question Time, if Zappa did any more the same or similar? I am not too fussed about the humourous stuff but would like more of his progressive guitar-based, jazzy (but not actual jazz) rock if it exists. Any recommendations?
Recommended
Waka Jawaka was billed (tenuously I think) on the sleeve as Hot Rats Part 2 although it doesn't quite match your specs as it's more horn-based than anything else. Cracking steel guitar part by Sneaky Pete Kleinow on "It Just Might Be A One-shot Deal" though. A personal favourite and well worth investigating.
Sleep Dirt is also quite jazzy with only one vocal track and probably the most mellow of FZ's oeuvre.
A Zappa Anorak writes...
I like Waka Jawaka a lot. What's odd about it is the absence of wah-wah on FZ's guitar, which so distinguished his sound. I believe this was due to his inability to manipulate a pedal following injuries sustained after being pushed off the stage at The Rainbow Theatre. Hot Rats and Overnite Sensation get my vote for the 1 and 2 spots. I could happily ramble on about Zappa all evening...
Thanks for the recommendation
I will check out those 2. Shame there's no Zappa on Spotify. There was at one time then it all disappeared. Might just have to take the plunge. I suppose what I'm really after is more soloing mainly featuring guitar, and not too much vocal. (Apologies for butting in on someone else's thread.)
If you've been intrigued by his classical work
Try the London Symphony Orchestra double CD, and The Yellow Shark with the Ensemble Modern. The side of him which was inspired by Varese and Stravinsky is fully worked out on these albums. Perhaps a bit forbidding at first if you are not that familiar with the modern classical world, but worth a try. I have about a dozen of his records, and these are the ones that I find I go back to most often ( as well as Hot Rats). They have a real depth.
I'd have to go for Sheik
I'd have to go for Sheik Yerbouti, mainly as it's the record that got me into Zappa, the band rivals the Roxy one for the best band you every heard in your life. Now, some will say, that the content is somewhat purile, and they'd be correct,but It's still has a huge place in my heart
Otherthan that you can't go wrong with the roxy ablum
better than .the 'you can't do that 2. recording of that band IMHO
One size fits all
A vote for One Size Fits All. It's the one I keep coming back to. It has good tunes, good guitar, those trademark marimba fills. Importantly - and I know some may scoff at this - it is one of the few Zappa albums I can play while my 11-year-old daughter is in the room...
Good choice sir!
Don't like much Zappa, but that's the only album of his I regularly play from beginning to end. He has good individual songs but some dodgy albums in my own humble opinion...
Thanks all!
All your comments are much appreciated!
All of them surely?!
Ok, maybe not, but I'd consider these core/representative/the best:
One Size Fits All
Roxy and Elsewhere (and if you like, buy You Can't Do That On Stage 2, although the electronic bass drum replacement throughout is v annoying)
Apostrophe
You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol 1.
Sheik Yerbouti or You Are What You Is (and if you like, buy the other, then Tinseltown Rebellion)
Then if still curious, these:
Hot Rats (if you like, proceed directly to Waka Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo)
Zoot Allures (and if you like this + One Size, buy in New York)
The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life (and if you like, buy Make a Jazz Noise Here and Broadway the Hard Way)
Fillmore East (and if you like, buy Just Another Band from LA)
Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch
If you like Weasels Ripped My Flesh, then Burnt Weeny Sandwich is v similar.
Some good tracks on Chunga's Revenge, Ahead of Their Time, lots of the rest of the YCDTOSA series (althought the 1984 stuff and some of the 'comedy' stuff outstays its welcome) and Shut Up and Play Your Guitar. You've made some fairly diverse choices, so I understand your nervousness. Of the ones you've got, Bongo Fury and Weasels are pretty good I think. Enjoy!
Check out time
The soundtrack to 200 Motels has some hot underappreciated tracks including Centerville, Lonesome Cowboy Burt and This Town Is a Sealed Tuna Sandwich. Lots of it is orchestral. The whole thing, including shooting the movie was laid down in a week using a mobile studio truck owned by the Rolling Stones. So it's raw, but in a sense raw is what FZ did best.
Läther
A much overlooked box-set, that should have come out in the mid 1970s. Many of the tracks were released in later years on albums such as Sleep Dirt, Studio Tan and Sheik Yerbouti, albeit in different versions.
Track one should have been Van Morrison singing Dead Girls Of London. It didn't appear on the 1992 official album due to contractual wrangles. It's on all of the bootleg versions. Dig it here: -
http://radio-umrk.com/media/deadgirl.ram
Best thing he did since, uh, Astral Weeks. C'mon. Yeah.