The Zappa Thread

[Nihil-Morari]

This should be here as well.


Appreciate, discuss, ask or do anything else. There can't be enough Zappa.


To start off: I'd like to present to you: A sneek peek of the new Zappa Plays Zappa DVD:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wb-b4s-0ps&fmt=22

And there's already one thing that I'm thrilled about: Billy The Mountain is on it!

[sneakyblueberry]

Yeeeee!  Whats the previous ZPZ one like?  And who's seen the latest Live in Paris DVD?

[brakkum]

Very cool to see Vai in the audience on that trailer. But i really hope the ZFT can organize another amazing gone as the first tour was, that was one of the greater musical experiences of my life.

[Nihil-Morari]

Yeeeee!  Whats the previous ZPZ one like?  And who's seen the latest Live in Paris DVD?

I guess that's one of his bootleg dvd's that are circling around.
I've got the Live in Barcelona one. What's the trackslist on this one?


I have yet to see ZPZ, they're in Holland next week, play 3 shows, and I can't come to either one of them.

The previous ZPZ dvd is playing in my DVD player right now, it's one of the best music DVD's I've ever seen. Great quality of audio and video, and great band.

[Orbert]

"Billy the Mountain" without Flo & Eddie?  Hmmm...

[sneakyblueberry]

Yeeeee!  Whats the previous ZPZ one like?  And who's seen the latest Live in Paris DVD?

I guess that's one of his bootleg dvd's that are circling around.
I've got the Live in Barcelona one. What's the trackslist on this one?


I have yet to see ZPZ, they're in Holland next week, play 3 shows, and I can't come to either one of them.

The previous ZPZ dvd is playing in my DVD player right now, it's one of the best music DVD's I've ever seen. Great quality of audio and video, and great band.

Yeah i just looked it up, its like a half hour boot from 1980 I think, not sure of the tracklist.  I think Billy the Mountain is on it?

I was considering purchasing the ZPZ dvd, might just have to now under your reccomendation. 

[Nihil-Morari]

Yeeeee!  Whats the previous ZPZ one like?  And who's seen the latest Live in Paris DVD?

I guess that's one of his bootleg dvd's that are circling around.
I've got the Live in Barcelona one. What's the trackslist on this one?


I have yet to see ZPZ, they're in Holland next week, play 3 shows, and I can't come to either one of them.

The previous ZPZ dvd is playing in my DVD player right now, it's one of the best music DVD's I've ever seen. Great quality of audio and video, and great band.

Yeah i just looked it up, its like a half hour boot from 1980 I think, not sure of the tracklist.  I think Billy the Mountain is on it?

I was considering purchasing the ZPZ dvd, might just have to now under your reccomendation. 

You should really buy it, it's fantastic.

And considering the DVD is only 30 minutes, I don't think Billy the Mountain is on it.
The shortest version is 24 minutes, and that is because it was edited really much.
The longest version was 52 minutes.

And I know it's not the same without Flo and Eddie, but I guess it rocks!

[Sigz]

The only zappa album I have is Hot Rats. I've only given it one or two spins so far, its not bad, but it seems very jam-oriented.

[brakkum]

The only zappa album I have is Hot Rats. I've only given it one or two spins so far, its not bad, but it seems very jam-oriented.

yep, but only trying that album is pretty much a sin.

[sneakyblueberry]

The only zappa album I have is Hot Rats. I've only given it one or two spins so far, its not bad, but it seems very jam-oriented.

yep, but only trying that album is pretty much a sin.

I didnt enjoy Hot Rats as much as the other Zappa fans i know.  I much prefer One Size Fits All and the whole 'Fusion' era.

[glaurung]

Where would a good place to start with Zappa be? It's kind of intimidating to get started with him because of the massive discography.

[sneakyblueberry]

Where would a good place to start with Zappa be? It's kind of intimidating to get started with him because of the massive discography.

I started with Strictly Commercial, then Hot Rats, Apostrophe, on to One Size Fits All.  I reckon the live stuff is where its at though, Roxy and Elsewhere, Baby Snakes and Live in New York are awesome

[Orbert]

That's a pretty good course right there.  It will provide a taste of different eras, different sides of Frank (and the Mothers) and both live and studio recordings, which are equally important.

[Nihil-Morari]

I'm not a fan of Hot Rats myself, and instead I'd say you should listen to Just Another Band From LA. That's a fun Mothers record.

[James007]

Two words: Lather

[Dr. SeaWolf]

I freaking love Hot Rats.  The Grand Wazoo and Apostrophe are both great albums too.  Frank was a genius on guitar, and I love his bizarre sense of humor.

[Orbert]

I'm not a fan of Hot Rats myself, and instead I'd say you should listen to Just Another Band From LA. That's a fun Mothers record.

Just Another Band from L.A. is a great record, my favorite from the Flo & Eddie period.  But there are already three live albums with crazy sketch bits in the list, and the early composer-Zappa period needs to be represented.

[Nihil-Morari]

I'm not a fan of Hot Rats myself, and instead I'd say you should listen to Just Another Band From LA. That's a fun Mothers record.

Just Another Band from L.A. is a great record, my favorite from the Flo & Eddie period.  But there are already three live albums with crazy sketch bits in the list, and the early composer-Zappa period needs to be represented.

Yeah, you're probably right. And to prove that, I'll listen to Hot Rats right now!

[monk]

I have hot rats and live in paris 1980 where to go from here?

[Orbert]

Apostrophe or Roxy & Elsewhere.

[Nihil-Morari]

Roxy is great.

Or you can start with the first three "You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore" sets.
The first is really a compilation of everything, the second is a great concert from the Roxy era, and the third is a mostly later Zappa style compilation.

[sneakyblueberry]

Get The Dub Room Special. 

[Nihil-Morari]

So now after the recommendating has been gone, we start appreciating:

Appreciate and guess this song:



"This has to be the one with all the right notes on it...

And this is a hard one to play"


I totally love it, especially this version.

[Orbert]

Be-Bop Tango (of the Old Jazzman's Church) from Roxy & Elsewhere

[Orbert]

Oops, forgot the appreciation.

"George, make them dance."

Dit!

"Now, now..."

[Nihil-Morari]

 

Everytime I hear someone introducing himself as "Carl", I immediately react with 'Rick and Jane'.

Another great thing about Zappa: there are really moments on his records that make you laugh out loud.
What about the entire 'Hi Ho Silver' joke on YCDTOSA 3? Gets me everytime.

[sneakyblueberry]

"My toilet blew up yesterday afternoon/The plumber he said 'never flush a tampoooon'"

and

"I got a job doin radio PROOOHMOOOOH"  everytime.

[Nihil-Morari]

"I got a job doin radio PROOOHMOOOOH"  everytime.

Yeah, that one is great! Especially all the different live versions. The line after it 'And none of the jocks can even tell I'm a homo', changes every night.

[sneakyblueberry]

Just listened to 'Montana for the first time in a while.  How awesome is the Ike-ettes part??  So wicked!  Don't know how they managed to sing that!

[Nihil-Morari]

I read a fun story about that in his biography.

He asked the Ikettes to sing that part, and they asked to be paid by every minute they sang on the album.
Frank warned them that there were difficult part, but they wanted to be paid for 2 minutes (or so), because they were only singing two minutes.

In the end it took them a week to learn it, and they got incredibly underpaid.
Always funny to hear people underestimate to play Franks music.

[Orbert]

Excellent!  They could have negotiated for the time it took them to learn it, but they (only) wanted to be paid for the performance time.

[sneakyblueberry]

I read a fun story about that in his biography.

He asked the Ikettes to sing that part, and they asked to be paid by every minute they sang on the album.
Frank warned them that there were difficult part, but they wanted to be paid for 2 minutes (or so), because they were only singing two minutes.

In the end it took them a week to learn it, and they got incredibly underpaid.
Always funny to hear people underestimate to play Franks music.

Hahahaha awesome.  I also remember hearing how once they'd finally nailed it, they got Ike Turner in to have a listen to it and he hated it.  "What is this shit?" or something along those lines.

[jasc15]

The only 2 Zappa albums i have are The best band you never heard in your life, and Tinseltown Rebellion which i haven't seen mentioned here.  I really like them both, but how do they compare with some of his other highly rated material?

[sneakyblueberry]

I like TBBYNHIYL.  although the version of Inca Roads is decidedly average, its fun to hear all the covers.  Tinseltown I havent really gotten into.  Brown Shoes is awesome though.  And Vinnie Colaiuta is probably my favourite Zappa drummer

[Orbert]

The only 2 Zappa albums i have are The best band you never heard in your life, and Tinseltown Rebellion which i haven't seen mentioned here.  I really like them both, but how do they compare with some of his other highly rated material?

I consider them both "later" Zappa, which isn't necessarily bad, but it has a different vibe.  Early Mothers stuff was so unstructured that a lot of it seems pretty pointless to me.  Yes, I understand what they were going for, but heck, my friends and I also recorded ourselves fucking around for a few hours with various pieces of musical equipment; that doesn't make it art.

By the early 70's, however, he'd definitely found his voice and I like just about everything from that period.  He was stretching out as a composer and had learned some things about arrangement.  It's interesting to me listening to those early "orchestral" works being performed by the what he had available to him at the time: rock ensembles.  But he was also at his most creative in terms of just plain insanely funny songs and stage shows.  The Flo & Eddie years, the Roxy & Elsewhere band.  Those are the shows that inspired the phrase "You can't do that on stage anymore".

I have the two you mention, and they're both great.  The demented cover of "Stairway to Heaven" is awesome!  But you can almost hear how Frank had started to get a bit bored with the format by then.  He was skewering a lot of topics seemingly just because he could, getting a bit political and downright cynical, and it reminds me a bit of what happened to George Carlin towards the end.  He went from funny, to funny and cynical, to just bitchy and not really very funny anymore.  Frank was still pretty funny in the 80's, but this is some of the last stuff he did before he retired from live performance and went all "serious composer" on us, and you can feel that he's taken the "funny rock" format about as far as he could go.

Seriously, if you like those two, you really need to check out some of his 70's material.  There are plenty of good suggestions already here in this thread, but man, it's hard to go wrong with Roxy & Elsewhere.  Still my all-time favorite Zappa.