A story and a question for Frank Zappa fans

[Alvaro Martín Gómez A.]

Hi everybody.

Yesterday (it was a holiday here) I spent most of the day practicing, browsing TalkBass and listening to my favorite tunes from my Frank Zappa collection. I was remembering my obsession with the man and his music after I heard about him from the first time because of his death. Not that I haven't heard that name before, but I simply didn't know anything about him. It was a long and very thorough article on the April '94 issue of Guitar World what made me feel very interested about everything Zappa-related.

But there was no Internet then and it was impossible to find anything from him where I live. It was like one year after reading that article that I found some Zappa CDs in a store because its owner was a pretty cool guy who decided to take the risk of bringing some "obscure" stuff to the city.

There were several titles there and I settled on "You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 2" because I wanted to hear that solo from "Inca Roads" that the magazine praised so much.

And it was like getting under a spell! That CD turbocharged my interest and from that day I started to research about his output and found that he had a massive work but also found that he covered many fronts and maybe not all of them would be interesting for me.

So I spent the whole second half of the nineties rounding my Zappa collection. Basically, I wanted to get the works that made emphasis on musicianship, but also wanted to get the complete "Conceptual Continuity Clues". Maybe both criteria sum his whole output, but some of his earlier works with the Mothers weren't that appealing to me (still hate the disc 1 of YCDTOSA vol. 5).

After my first contact with the Internet (early '98), most of my browsing time was dedicated to visit Zappa-related sites which could give me the most information about his music (still had very few CDs). Rykodisc released his whole output and every CD had a booklet showing the whole discography with a brief description of each work. Right now I remember those days and it was such a great time to feel that excitement every time I got a new Zappa CD. I felt like a kid filling a stickers album.

And here's what I decided to get, the result of that frenetic (and cool) obsession:

Freak Out!, Absolutely Free, Lumpy Gravy, We're Only In It For The Money, Uncle Meat, Hot Rats, Burnt Weeny Sandwich, Weasels Ripped My Flesh, Chunga's Revenge, Fillmore East-June 1971, 200 Motels, Just Another Band From L.A., Waka/Jawaka, The Grand Wazoo, Over-nite Sensation, Apostrophe ('), Roxy & Elsewhere, One Size Fits All, Bongo Fury, Zoot Allures, Zappa In New York, Studio Tan, Sleep Dirt, Sheik Yerbouti, Orchestral Favorites, Joe's Garage, the Shut Up 'N' Play Yer Guitar collection, You Are What You Is, Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch, The Man From Utopia, London Symphony Orchestra vols. 1 & 2, The Perfect Stranger, Them Or Us, FZ Meets The Mothers Of Prevention, Does Humor Belong In Music?, Jazz From Hell, Guitar, the complete You Can't Do That On Stage series, Broadway The Hard Way, The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life, Make A Jazz Noise Here and The Yellow Shark.

47 titles on 63 CDs. Not bad to qualify as a true fan, I think. Oh, and add The Real Frank Zappa Book (purchased through Barnes and Noble.com) plus the Baby Snakes and Does Humor Belong In Music? videos (both downloaded from the Net - my only illegal acquisitions). Of course I know of the existence of many bootlegs, but I only wanted stuff approved and released by the man himself.

So, Zappa freaks, do you have a similar story? Which works do you own? It would be cool to know if someone owns his whole output, but please notice that I don't want to hear something like "I downloaded a big .rar file from eMule with the complete Zappa discography". One cool thing of being a true Zappa fan is that getting the bulk of his work in an educated way isn't an overnight task (it took more than six years to me). Thanks in advance for your input and thanks for reading!

[MirageBass]

Oh, dude, totally. One time, I went to a friend's house to borrow some Zappa records, and I thought he was a man, but he really was a muffin.

[Anesthesia]

Originally Posted by MirageBass

Oh, dude, totally. One time, I went to a friend's house to borrow some Zappa records, and I thought he was a man, but he really was a muffin.

you were in a.. lets say "chemically enhanced" state of mind werent you. frank zappa a muffin?

hes actually a carrot cake

[cdef]

Alvaro, if you're a Zappa completist you may be interested in this blog (or you may know about it already). The FZ Gigantic Spoken Word project currently comprises 15 freely downloadable volumes of Zappa interviews, guest spots on radio shows, DJ stints etc. compiled from his entire career. An admirable undertaking IMO, even if unauthorized by anybody.

[Alvaro Martín Gómez A.]

Originally Posted by lmoh

Alvaro, if you're a Zappa completist you may be interested in this blog (or you may know about it already). The FZ Gigantic Spoken Word project currently comprises 15 freely downloadable volumes of Zappa interviews, guest spots on radio shows, DJ stints etc. compiled from his entire career. An admirable undertaking IMO, even if unauthorized by anybody.

Wow! Didn't know about it. Such a massive job. Thank you for the info!

[discoboo]

I had the opportunity to see FZ in 1988...I went with a friend and his father...I had heard some of his music, thought it was good but a bit out there for me (i was 15 at the time). anyway, i was totally blown away by the show. the fans (i'll never forget the first titties and beer t-shirt i saw), the smells in the air and the antics on stage. the guitar playing by frank was mesmerizing, the percussion guy never stopped moving and banging on instruments the entire night, the lick bush in 88 punching bag that frank would kick periodically...one of the most influential musical moments of my young life that made me a FZ fan forever.

[MysticMichael]

Caught a Zappa concert for the first - and only - time back in like, 1973 or so. Frank had a brilliant wit - and a very cynical sense of humor - so much of his material during that period was sort of like extremely technical novelty songs, often with obscene lyrics, calculated to appeal to the masses. I didn't care much for it, frankly (pun not intended...)

I was relieved to find that, at this concert, though he started off by playing a few of his bigger "hits" - he then decided to cut the crap and play some serious music, devoting the remainder of the show to stretching out on some long instrumental jams with the band. In addition to being an excellent composer, Zappa was simply an amazing guitarist - one of the true greats of all time. Frank could play almost anything...

MM

[Alvaro Martín Gómez A.]

Originally Posted by MysticMichael

Frank could play almost anything...

MM

You reminded me of something he said in his autobiography:

I'm not a virtuoso guitar player. A virtuoso can play anything, and I can't. I can play only what I know, to the extent that I've developed enough manual dexterity to get the point across -but that has deteriorated over time.

(The Real Frank Zappa Book, by Frank Zappa and Peter Occhiogrosso. Poseidon Press, 1989. Chapter 8, P. 179)