Frank Zappa

200motels

Would anyone agree with me in saying that Frank Zappa was the greatest rock artist of them all.

big b

I won't

But I will say

he's one of the most influential of all time

he's one of the great modern music composers of all time

he's one of the greatest guitarists of all time

he assembled & developed some of the great musicians of all time


A little less of the jazz freakouts & a little less of the penchant for turning live shows into cabarets, & I'd possibly agree with you.


Here's Frank having a little guitar duel with Steve Vai

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEnzdp71U78

Beruthiel

Joe's Garage, one of my all time favourites.
What a poet. What a wit!

lee_baby_simms

Beruthiel wrote: »

Joe's Garage, one of my all time favourites.
What a poet. What a wit!

Why does it hurt when I pee?

Beruthiel

lee_baby_simms wrote: »

Why does it hurt when I pee?

My balls feel like a pair of maracas.



Titties & beer, titties & beer...

9959

200motels wrote: »

Would anyone agree with me in saying that Frank Zappa was the greatest rock artist of them all.

No, but he was a marvellous philosopher and an unparalleled anti-establishment ****-stirrer. Good on him!!

Sharktopus

Zappa's body of work is so vast (and not to everyone's taste it must be said) that it's hard to get your head around.

There are 80 albums up on eircom music - I've decided as a project to listen to an album a day, re-aquaint myself with old ones and get to know new stuff.

If anyone is interested I might post a daily review - just for the hell of it.

The version of Sofa from Live in New York is really quite something...

and he was one of the most bad-ass and out there guitar players ever. If you havent heard any of the 'Guitar' albums do so now - they are mindblowing

Penn

'My guitar wants to kill your mama' is one of my favourite songs, although I have more of a preference for the G3 (1996 album) version as that's the one I heard first

dr.bollocko

Educate me folks. For I do not understand the cult of the Zappa.

What albums should I start with?

9959

dr.bollocko wrote: »

Educate me folks. For I do not understand the cult of the Zappa.

What albums should I start with?

In my humble, his quotes are more enjoyable than his music.
Try these two for starters:

"The computer can't tell you the emotional story. It can give you the exact mathematical design, but what's missing is the eyebrows"

"My best advice to anyone who wants to raise a happy, mentally healthy child is: Keep him or her as far away from a church as you can"

Now I'll scuttle away before I'm Zapp(a)ed for my opening remark!

the culture of deference

Hot Rats is his finest work. I have about 50 albums, I would listen to about 40% of his output, certain songs and albums I will just not listen too.

Peaches in regalia is my favourite, sofa is fantastic. Here is an Austrian orchestra playing it.

He was a good guitarist, nowhere near Vai or Martino, or Coryell

9959

Sharktopus wrote: »

There are 80 albums up on eircom music - I've decided as a project to listen to an album a day, re-aquaint myself with old ones and get to know new stuff.

If anyone is interested I might post a daily review - just for the hell of it...

Wow, 80 albums in 80 days. Before signing up for that you might want to give yourself a 'cooling- off' period of at least a few weeks or months, sod that, years! However, if you eventually decide to crack open the Jack Daniels and roll up your sleeves, please feel free to give me a 'heads up' so to speak, I fear that I might have to take the aptly coincidental title of one of Jules Verne's novels as an injunction!
By the way, it may 'only' take you 80 days to complete the task, but I fear that within that time you will age far beyond your years, not to mention the 'Rip Van Winkle' effect it could have on your readers.
Good luck with it!

Beruthiel

dr.bollocko wrote: »

What albums should I start with?

Well, you could go with the one I mentioned above, Joes Garage.

Some great ditties to be found on Have I Offended Someone.

He's soooo gaaaaay

The Bishop!

Here you go Doctor Bollocko.

Dirty Love. Check out the guitar solo..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nQeYoYn03s

Rothko

dr.bollocko wrote: »

Educate me folks. For I do not understand the cult of the Zappa.

What albums should I start with?

I think Freak Out! or Overnite Sensation would be a good start.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8roUzk-0jio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THGjCgi6sbA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiVFfOOm_GI

fenris

My kids still think that "Don't eat the yellow snow" is a christmas song, its lead to two separate "conversations" with young teachers who didn't realise that the kids didn't actually make the song up.

Trick of the Tail

Good to hear a nice long Zappa track on Zenith Classic Rock this afternoon!

A.

bnt

dr.bollocko wrote: »

Educate me folks. For I do not understand the cult of the Zappa.

What albums should I start with?

Sheik Yerbouti is fun. You can measure a person's psychosexual development by how well they understand the (NSFW) lyrics to Bobby Brown Goes Down. :eek:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=her2gbf8hE8

But the album that turned me in to fan was ... Lumpy Gravy. Here's part of it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apTPXPBMBXk

200motels

dr.bollocko wrote: »

Educate me folks. For I do not understand the cult of the Zappa.

What albums should I start with?

I have every album he ever recorded and I always say to anyone who's interested in getting to know Zappa to try Apostrophe first after that just pick any and you'll either enjoy or tear your hair out, I'd love to be discovering Zappa all over again.

Son0vagun

200motels wrote: »

I have every album he ever recorded and I always say to anyone who's interested in getting to know Zappa to try Apostrophe first after that just pick any and you'll either enjoy or tear your hair out, I'd love to be discovering Zappa all over again.

I always tell people to start at Joes Garage, it's where i started. Can't remember what album i got after that but i got Lost Episopes and Playground Psychotics not long after JG. I loved those albums, not very typical Zappa but very raw and exciting, but they helped me on my journey of been a huge Zappa Fan.

I suppose by rights one should start at the start. Freak Out is very excessable dispite being over 40yrs old. All the early Mothers albums are worth starting with. To some people some of Zappas work is hard to get into and hard to listen to. I think i only have listened to Civilization Phase 3 once.

Another good place to start is the You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore series. Wide range of music covering all eras of Zappas touring bands. Worth starting there and going with what you like best.

But yes Zappa is the greatest Rock artist of all time!

Rented Mule

dr.bollocko wrote: »

Educate me folks. For I do not understand the cult of the Zappa.

What albums should I start with?

Apostrophe/Overnight Sensation is where you start with Frank.

Rented Mule

Just an FYI to anyone in the UK.

http://www.dweezilzappaworld.com/events/275-uk-tour-november-2012

Dweezil Zappa Plays Zappa kicks off his UK Tour this Saturday at the Roundhouse. There is also going to be a live stream following the events of the day.

http://www.roundhouse.org.uk/live

DZPZ have only come through Ireland twice (2006 and 2009)since they started touring, but both shows are forever burned into my psyche. I am living in the States now, and will try to make three shows over three days in December. Fargo North Dakota, Minneapolis Minnesota and Madison Wisconsin. 1325 miles over five days.

If have the means, do yourself a favour and try to make one of these UK shows.

Roanmore

Rented Mule wrote: »

Apostrophe/Overnight Sensation is where you start with Frank.

Both of these were covered in the Classic Albums series, brilliant viewing, well worth getting your hands on it,

Rented Mule

Roanmore wrote: »

Both of these were covered in the Classic Albums series, brilliant viewing, well worth getting your hands on it,

It's funny that you should mention the series. I was in San Diego last February to see DZPZ. The morning after the show, I was in a record shop just down from the bay and I came across this DVD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRgF33WfviU

The second part to the story was while I was looking through their stock of CDs and DVDs, I begin to hear 'wailing' in the background.

I start to follow the noise and I find this man standing in front of the Whitney Houston section (she had died the day before) crying his eyes out and screaming 'noooooooo!!' as 'I wanna dance with somebody' played on the video monitor overhead. He was hugging her CDs and swaying back and forth as if he was trying 'to dance with somebody'.

I was in tears laughing at the poor thing. The people in the record shop eventually had to turn off the video monitors to shut him up.

Sheik Yerbouti would be my favourite album of his. Adrian Belew's Bob Dylan impression on 'Flakes' is brilliant.

'Broken Hearts are for A$$holes' is a stand out track for me.

dom17

i want a little ***ish princess
who rattles and hums
and squeaks when she cums

kiss my aura dora
its real angora
would you all like some mora
right here on the floora
and how about you fauna
you wanna

what a legend

ceekay74

Hot Rats was the first album of his that I heard, was blown away by the solos, and the sense of humour generally.

But Strictly Commercial is probably a better starting point for Zappa.

Apostrophe is also a brilliant album. Must have a listen again, has been a while.

ceekay74

Sorry for digging up an old thread, just realising now it's years old!

cowboyBuilder

There is a legal battle going on between Zappa's children, sad really .
Ahmet published this open letter to Dweezil.

https://www.facebook.com/notes/ahmet-zappa/an-open-letter-to-my-brother/10153667213097309


btw, Zappa plays Zappa was in Dublin about 10 years ago - amazing gig.

mzungu

cowboyBuilder wrote: »

There is a legal battle going on between Zappa's children, sad really .
Ahmet published this open letter to Dweezil.

https://www.facebook.com/notes/ahmet-zappa/an-open-letter-to-my-brother/10153667213097309

A shame is right, no way FZ would have wanted things ending up like that.

btw, Zappa plays Zappa was in Dublin about 10 years ago - amazing gig.

Never got to the gigs, but have seen some clips on YT. Looked fantastic. Dweezil certainly inherited some of the Zappa magic.

Hellrun

Joe's Garage is one of my favourites, but it might blow your mind if you are just trying to start listening to Zappa. I would recommend starting with Apostrophe also.
The world is a worse place without the man in my opinion, although we have to be thankful for the wonderful musicians that he helped carve into some of the best ever (Vai and Colaiuta most notably for me).