Frank Zappa fans of the lounge - what would you consider his definitive masterwork?

[Initech]

Poll question: Frank Zappa fans of the lounge - what would you consider his definitive masterwork?

1. Freak Out!



2. We're Only In It For The Money / Lumpy Gravy



3. The Early 70's Albums




4. Sheik Yerbouti



5. Broadway The Hard Way



6. Civilization Phase III



7. Joe's Garage



8. The "You Cant Do That On Stage Anymore" Series



9. 200 Motels



10. Other / Not Listed / Some obscure album I'm overlooking

[DS1]

1. Miami Vice

[Bennyboy]

2. YCDTOSA...All of the great bands, cool covers and great songs...

Purple Haze, Willie mays, helen hayes.... Hilarious.

really though, it is hard to pick one. One day it is this one and the next another.

[Initech]

3. That it is.

As much as I love Freak Out, WOIIFTM is actually beating it. I just bought the uber-deluxe reissue which pairs it with Lumpy Gravy as FZ had originally intended it and it is fuckin' awesome.

[mikeytherat]

4. "Apostrophe" and "Over-Nite Sensation"

Just my opinion, but that's "the stuff" for me.

mikey_the_rat

[Witchy_Dem]

18. My vote as well but only because Apostrophe was my first Zappa experience.

[Initech]

29. Same.

My dad got me hooked on that album when I was like 10.

[MrSlayer]

32. A third vote for Apostrophe/Over Nite.

Some fantastic guitar work on there as well as some of the funniest songs.


"Now scientists call this disease Bromidrosis but us regular folk who might wear tennis shoes or the occasional python boot......"

[brentspeak]

5. His work on "Trout Mask Replica" would be a runner-up

Even though Captain Beefheart wasn't happy about Zappa's "anthropological field recording" approach.

[Initech]

36. That is a strange fuckin' album.

I have a hard time listening to it. I should try to tackle the whole thing some time.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

6. Volume 1 of YCDTOSA...the one you have pictured...BECAUSE...

...it contains one of the single most hair-raising Zappa performances I've ever heard, "The Torture Never Stops" from West Germany, March 1977. FZ on lead guitar and vocal, Adrian Belew on guitar and vocal, Tommy Mars on keyboards, Peter Wolf on keyboards, Ed Mann on percussion, Patrick O'Hearn on bass, and Terry Bozzio on drums.

As much as I love Zappa, he would occasionally go off on a tangent and have a less-than-smooth journey back to home plate. OR, as we all know, he'd sometimes stop solos dead in their tracks, or do his "March of the Wooden Soldiers meets Doo-Wop" kind of "henarenahunahena" kiss-off before lurching into the next song.

Not here.

This is 15 minutes of deadly, precision, aggressive, ride you hard and put you away wet band interplay.

Near the end, when Frank's repeating the "that's what's the deal we're dealin' is" refrain, Bozzio caps each of these lines with what sounds like a gunshot. I've seen him perform with Zappa. He's a little guy. When he smacks the drums, he stands up and it's "CRACK!" on the way down.

There really is no other single performance in Frank's officially-released catalog that compares to this one. Fans who have heard the track know EXACTLY what I'm talking about.

On my compilation CD that I made of the six YCDTOSA volumes, I have "Torture" fade seamlessly into "The Mammy Anthem." It goes from the "Oh, oh, oh, ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..." ending into the "rrrrrrowwwwwwwwwrrrrrrrr BLAM" opening guitar of "Mammy." It's a sublime little 21-minute medley.

:toast:

[Initech]

7. I have listened to the YCDTOSA series extensively over the last 8 years.

It has provided me with a lot of sanity and its proof that Zappa is/was a voice of reason in this country during a time when few were afraid to speak out against the government, and his trio of "Dumb All Over" / "Heavenly Bank Account" / "Suicide Chump" on the first volume was so ahead of its time... hell it is as relevant today as it was when it was recorded. Viva Zappa!

[Amerigo Vespucci]

14. He wanted a document, a statement, of his life on the road, and he succeeded...

...I remember an interview with Frank in the last years of his life...not near the end, when he was sick and frail, but shortly after his diagnosis. He was talking about the archives and unreleased performances he had "in the can."

The interviewer asked "how much do you have?" He replied "It's a pretty big can."

For a long time I resented the fact that Gail, Dweezil, and the powers-that-be at Zappa Family Trust have doled out posthumous releases with an eyedropper, but when you think about it, that was probably a smart move. The power of YCDTOSA wasn't in the music...it was in the way Frank assembled the music, and no one else has that gift. Anyone could scoop the ice cream into the dish. Only Frank could place the cherry atop the sundae.

:toast:

[Rabrrrrrr]

16. I remember in an interview from his last years, he said he'd released about 2% of his can.

[Rabrrrrrr]

19. Yes, absolutely! That is probably my favorite Zappa track of all.

I also really like the guitar solo (or, really, conglomeration of solos) in Yo Mama from Sheik Yerbouti.

But WOW, that solo on Torture from Vol. 1 is WHY THE ELECTRIC GUITAR WAS INVENTED.

Seriously. As you say, it's that fucking good.



On edit: also want to add that the solo in "Outside Now" from Broadway the Hard Way is amazingly hot, and though short, the enraged solo in "Son of Orange County" on Roxy and Elsewhere is a heart stopper.

[Zomby Woof]

8. Läther

It was put together by Dweezil shortly after Frank died per his detailed instructions. It is as close to the originally intended release as one will ever get.



I can also put "Uncle Meat" near the top. I still have my vinyl copy, and every now and then treat myself to "King Kong" in all its 20-minute-plus glory. Plenty of gems on that one.



Then let's add "Weasels Ripped My Flesh", "Hot Rats", "Shut Up And Play Yer Guitar" and "The Yellow Shark".

[Initech]

9. Damn it, I forgot Hot Rats. Too late to edit too.

[Zomby Woof]

13. I love just about anything with Sugarcane Harris on violin

[many a good man]

31. Hot Rats

Greatest rock album eveh.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

15. Also, during his lifetime, he gave away Lather for free on the radio

For those who may not know the whole story behind the album, let me fill you in. Zappa originally conceived Lather as a 4-record box set. FZ's record company at the time (Discreet - a now defunct subsidiary of Warner Brothers), didn't want to release it. Zappa then tried to release it with another record company (Polygram) as a 'special project'. Polygram briefly agreed to release the box set, then reneged on the deal, due to legal complications with Discreet.

Discreet told Zappa that he owed them four more records under his present contract. In an attempt to fulfill his contractual obligation, Zappa reformatted Lather and delivered the remaining four albums all at once. They wouldn't pay him, nor would they release him from his contract. Never one to be pushed around by the record labels, Zappa took Lather to a local radio station in December of 1977 and asked them to play the entire thing. Frank assumed the role of "temporary bogus disc jockey" for this special broadcast. After asking listeners to get their tape decks set up, he delivered Lather to the radio audience for free.

Soon after the radio broadcast, Lather saw it's first release as a bootleg 4LP box set. There was also a double-LP bootleg called Leatherette. It featured songs from Lather, plus tracks alleged to be from the same sessions (including the still-unreleased studio version of "Dead Girls of London" with Van Morrison on vocals). Commercially, the material ended up being spread out over a number of albums. The final four Zappa releases on Discreet all had tracks from Lather, as did the excellent Shut Up and Play Your Guitar series. Sheik Yerbouti and Tinseltown Rebellion both featured cuts as well.

http://www.thenightowl.com/reviews/fzlather.htm

:toast:

[Zomby Woof]

17. Yep!

That is mentioned in the liner notes of the CD. I wonder if anyone still has their copies? That would be something to hear. :-)

[tigereye]

34. I love Weasels Ripped My Flesh...

[brentspeak]

10. Concerning the album jacket for "One Size Fits All":

[Initech]

21. Interesting. An homage perhaps?

[Sky Masterson]

11. 4. Sheik Yerbouti

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K_Cj5QkfRo
Bobby Brown- Zappa
Love this album (It's so wrong but it's funny)

(edited to add Flakes and Broken hearts are for assholes)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sga0rA_UHe4

[bluesbassman]

12. Have to go with Apostrophe and Over-nite Sensation.

Musicianship and writing sharp. Other works of course have great merit, but those two define Zappa to me.

[Initech]

22. I seriously thought about using "St. Alfonso" as my new username.

[bluesbassman]

24. rofl... Awesome, you could have used this as your avatar..

[Initech]

25. Father O'Blivion would have been a good one too.

[bluesbassman]

27. For the Ladies of course...

Dinah Moe Hum!





























:hide:

[Initech]

28. I got a $40 bill...

[buzzycrumbhunger]

20. Too eclectic to pick one incarnation

Freak Out! was my first album purchase ever (I was 7 :) ), so it has a special place in my heart, but I probably reach for One Size Fits All if I have a Zappa craving, or Roxy & Elsewhere if I need "silly." Hell, I even love Studio Tan, though I think he considered it one of his throwaways to wrap up that contract. The fact that Ensemble Moderne chose to cover that album confirms it for me.

[kimmerspixelated]

23. Raising My Lonely Dental Floss!

Movin' to Montana....

[bbernardini]

26. I ADORE the '88 band, but that's because "Broadway The Hard Way" was my first Zappa album.

Possibly the greatest ever performance of "Outside Now," and one of the most perfect guitar solos ever on "Any Kind Of Pain". (So much a part of the fabric of the song that Mike Keneally learned it note for note for the "Zappa's Universe" shows in '91.)

[tekisui]

30. What's the ugliest part of your body?

We're Only In It For The Money.

Best ever.

Although, I really like Freak Out!, Weasels Ripped my Flesh and Hot Rats.

[Initech]

35. The idiot baaaaaaaaaaaaastard son...

I just got the 3 disc reissue of We're Only In It For The Money. Sounds better than the Rykodisc version.

[tekisui]

37. Oh? I wasn't aware of that.

Is there different songs, or just different versions?

[Initech]

38. This is the break down:

Disc 1 is a complete reissue / remastering of both Lumpy Gravy / We're Only In It For The Money in the original sequence as FZ had intended it.

Disc 2 is the 1984 Rykodisc reissue of both albums on one disc.

Disc 3 is b-sides, outtakes, alternate versions, interviews, and general studio talk while FZ was making the album. It's intended to be like a "making of" documentary.

You can get it here: http://barfkoswill.shop.musictoday.com/Dept.aspx?cp=971_15819

The four disc MOFO (Making Of Freak Out) is worth it as well but you have to really like Freak Out in order to justify the cost.

[Burma Jones]

33. Wildman Fischer.....

actually, I think he was kind of ashamed of producing this album....but I love it.



Seriously, I would have to go with Apostrophe/Overnight Sensation, but there's so much to enjoy and admire