The Frank Zappa Thread

To avoid clogging the "Complete Albums" thread

Over-nite Sensation contains the sequence "I'm The Slime" ending in "Zomby Woof" - good songs but relative filler until we get back on track with "Dinah-Moe Humm" and then the magnificent, personal favourite of mine, "Montana". There's no doubting that Overnite is a great album but it's not 'complete'.

Even Apostrophe trumps it for consistency, even if it doesn't hit the same heights. Zoot Allures is touch behind, arguably.

However OSFA is the jewel of that era: Two relative throw away tracks, "Po-Jama People" and "Sofa No.2" (I said, relative!) widely separated by absolute classics, including "Inca Roads", "San Ber'dino" and the incomparable "Andy" - one of my favourite Zappa tracks of all time. The consistency is there, when I listen to the album - there's no waiting, no willing of the current run of tracks to end before getting to the best stuff. Overnite is just too uneven an album to be considered 'complete'.

 

I can see you are a total Zappa head so will not take issue! If you want to discuss Love on the other hand ...

 

LOL, off topic already

My bro'-in-law is the Love fan, his number one favourite album (and he owns more than twenty thousand of them) is Forever Changes.
I think it's a nice album but it wouldn't trouble my top 100

 

Yes we are, fin. It's the Zappa thread after all.

You may now supply examples of songs you think are shit and why that is so.

 

Zappa covered a lot of ground over his career, with a mind-boggling variety of different musical styles involved. It's possible to hate some of his songs and love others. On the same album.

To start with? Depends on what kind of music you like. Perhaps Hot Rats? I began with Sheik Yerbouti which is an excellent mixture of his humour, his avant garde sensibilities and his sheer musical genius (these facets don't always appear in every song). Them Or Us is another option. You Are What You Is would be a great intro into what Zappa was all about as his humour lies very close to the surface there, without it clouding the great music he was capable of.

To get an idea if some of Zappa's music would interest you, you might like to try the compilation/samplers Cheep Thrills and Son of Cheep Thrills. Don't expect to like every song on these albums, they feature elements of most of his styles - which are wildly varied. If you find that a particular track or tracks appeals to you, you can then go for the source material, the original albums the songs are taken from.

Zappa was idiosyncratic, in a way that no other artist I know ever was. There's a humour that runs through most of his work, and it is rather dry humour much of the time. Musically though - no one could match him or his chosen set of musicians for chops.

Caution: there are some albums you shouldn't start with - they are for true Zappa Heads (I don't count myself as one of those). If in doubt, just ask

 

I'm with your bro in law. I used to write a rock column so also have substantially more than a thousand vinyl LPs - half of which were freebies. Moving house is a real pain I can tell you. Especially since I have a fragile Linn deck etc. I discovered Forever Changes at 13 and have multiple copies 180gm vinyl special editions with outtakes etc - CD and DVD versions too - and rarely go a week without listening to it. Give it a few back-to-back plays and see if it becomes more rewarding.

 

I missed out word in my post, now edited in - bro'-in-law owns more than twenty thousand albums. On checking his on-line catalogue, it's 23050. Good grief.

This number represents his digital collection. I assume he still has his rare vinyl disks but he spent several years going to music fairs, selling off his collection of LPs.

Forever Changes gets its share of spins on my virtual jukebox but it has to compete against music that I enjoy far more

 

Noted.

Happily, I have yet to sample either of these so I am hopefully in for a treat or two

 

I like Zappa but his oppo - Captain Beefheart, aka Don Van Vliet - was always more off the wall for me. I saw him at Drury Lane circa 1974 then his Magic Band without him (he's a painter now) at the Grand in Clapham in the late nineties. Both incredible gigs.