[fante7]

Frank Zappa is fantastic.

I want to hear his whole catalogue but I'm having a lot of trouble finding good prices for Zappa CDs, even used. Any suggestions?

In particular I want to hear what all the fuss about Civilization Phaze III is about.

 

[omedon]

I had the same problem. Luckily I discovered the Threesomes Vol. 1 & 2.

If only there were more. They are an absolute steal at that price. I also own "Sheik Yurbuti", "Apostrophe", and "Overnite Sensation". I got lucky and found those used except "Overnite Sensation" which I am pretty sure I payed full price for ~$20.

 

[jonnyhambone]

Zappa put out some great live stuff...his bands were always top-notch, esp. early to mid-70's IMO. 'Roxy and Elsewhere' is outstanding as is 'Bongo Fury'...Roxy is more orchestral in approach and just blows me away with the precision and intention the music is played with.
'Baby Snakes' has some great moments as a live DVD but is hindered by some of the backstage hoopla. I hear that the Roxy and Elsewhere concerts were similarly video'd and are set for release on DVD sometime soon. Anyone else hear a confirmation of this potentially nasty rumour??

 

[megawzrd]

I am a huge Steve Vai fan and knew vaguely about Zappa until I really started digging further into Vai's early Career. I thought it was awesome how Zappas guitar playing style, favorite scales and such is reflected so much in Vai's first album Flexible. I picked up 'Shut up and Play Yer Guitar' and see the affect that they had on eachother. Then I found out about the Zappa connection with Mike Keneally, Terry Bozzio (the black page...hehe), and a whole slew of other musicians that were a part of his band at one time or another. I don't have much Zappa stuff...mostly only Vai related and thats partly becuase his body of work is so massive I just don't know where to start. And all those album covers its nausiating looking at all those colorful/weird covers when I am browsing in a music store. Zappa is great though...and a pretty damn good guitarist in my book.

 

[OK Johansen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by megawzrd I am a huge Steve Vai fan and knew vaguely about Zappa until I really started digging further into Vai's early Career. I thought it was awesome how Zappas guitar playing style, favorite scales and such is reflected so much in Vai's first album Flexible. I picked up 'Shut up and Play Yer Guitar' and see the affect that they had on eachother. Then I found out about the Zappa connection with Mike Keneally, Terry Bozzio (the black page...hehe), and a whole slew of other musicians that were a part of his band at one time or another. I don't have much Zappa stuff...mostly only Vai related and thats partly becuase his body of work is so massive I just don't know where to start. And all those album covers its nausiating looking at all those colorful/weird covers when I am browsing in a music store. Zappa is great though...and a pretty damn good guitarist in my book.

There'll be as many opinions where to start as there are albums to choose from. Here's a suggestion (if your wallet is healthy) that I think will give you a broad idea about Zappa's music and lyrics:

- Freak Out (1967)
- We're only in it for the money (1968)
- Hot rats (1970)
- The grand wazoo (1972)
- Roxy and elsewhere (Live) (1974)
- Bongo fury (Live) (1975)
- One size fits all (1975)
- Sheik Yirbouti (1979)
- The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life (Live) (1988)
- The Yellow shark (1993)

This, of course, just a personal opinion. For someone like Zappa you really need to get about a dozen of albums to cover most of what he stood for.

Here's a link to a web page where you might get a good idea on where to start depending on your musical preferences:

http://home.epix.net/~eichler/review...a/overview.htm

 

[chadbang]

I love Zappa. I've listened to hundreds of hours of this stuff and I've adored it. I guess my only observation would be Zappa was an incredible musician with incredibly bad taste. for all his caterwauling about drugs and alcohol, i think his life would have been a lot less vengeful and distasteful if he has simply gotten stoned every now and then and relaxed a little. yeah, if you don't have any release, and his was obviously sex, given his obession with it, sadomasocism, anyone, i think you just get borish and mean. and zappa's work getting more and more vengeful and misogynistic, suggests just that.

 

[VicAjax]

eh. Zappa's ok, i guess.

 

[VicAjax]

so my real story is this:


when i was 13 years old (1984), my dad was driving me to baseball practice, which was about 20-30 minutes away. he pulled out a Maxell cassette tape and wagged it at me, saying, "do NOT tell your mother i played this for you."

he popped it in and Overnite Sensation came on. on the way back we listened to the flip side, Apostrophe.

my world was rocked.

 

[daycart1]

When we had a "list great rock guitarists" thread I listed Zappa pretty high. So I agree with those above who singled out his guitar playing. Not that he hasn't made good use of other talents as well!