I never checked out Frank Zappa's material so I was wondering what's recommended & what are his must haves?

I already have this 1:

Aww Zappa in my top 10 musicians of all time he is absolutely incredible!

And my ex boyfriend's Dad Bobby Martin was Frank's keyboard player in the 80's and i got to hear about the genius of Zappa. He was WAY ahead of his time

FIRST OFF

YOU NEED

We're only in it for the money it's an absolute masterpiece funny, epic, great social commentary etc. It is a must have

Hot Rats- it has some of his best instrumentals, and this was also his first real ''solo'' Album after the mothers of invention disbanded.

Joes Garage- A 3 act story very funny, dirty, full of social and political commentary. And it has the great Iki Willis on a few vocal parts.

Weasels Ripped my Flesh- A Strang instrumental piece, that will lead you into the crazy mind of Zappa. and some of his funniest song titles

Sheik Yerbouti- What could be considered Zappa's commercial album ahah if you can call anything he did commercial. but it did have a semi hit Dancing Fool which made fun of disco. And the zany Bobby brown Goes Down is a fan favorite

Those would be my suggestions for a start=]

Here's a helpful link - Why not start here:

Frank Zappa

PDogz said:

Here's a helpful link - Why not start here:

Frank Zappa

Thank you, I needed to get into him too but I wasn't sure where to start.

And thanx to JBoogiee for starting this thread.

Wow Guns,it must have been cool hearing the stories. I will check these out,thanks.

Gunsnhalen said:

Thanks

PDogz said:

Your welcome,we must have been thinking alike,lol.

Some recent Frank Zappa news:

Frank Zappa would have been 70 this year – his life and music are being celebrated in Britain and the US, 17 years after his death. Chris Hall meets his widow, Gail, and their children
Zappas ... Gail (mum) with daughter Diva and Dweezil in Los Angeles.



Gail Zappa and her youngest daughter, Diva, still live at the family home in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles where the musician and composer Frank Zappa lived and died. "I suppose some people would think it's kind of like a museum," says Gail, 65, "but this is my house too. I've lived here for more than 40 years. There's no reason for me to suddenly put all these things away – they mean things to me too. We had parallel but shared lives. I am very much visually oriented so if you put something in a cupboard, I'll forget about it. If I leave it up on the wall, I'll always know exactly what that's about. I don't forget it."

Diva agrees that her father, who died of prostate cancer in 1993 and would have been 70 in December, still has a strong presence for them: "Even if you took everything of his out of the house, you'd still sense him here, especially downstairs [where he had his studio]. There's electricity in the air."

Frank Zappa on his own and with his band, the Mothers of Invention, made more than 60 albums from Freak Out! and Hot Rats in the 60s to Joe's Garage and Jazz from Hell in the 70s and 80s and The Yellow Shark in the 90s. His music is complex, satirical, funny and life-affirming. He was one of the most iconoclastic, intelligent and innovative musicians of the 20th century who also collaborated with and produced Captain Beefheart. He was a great defender of freedom of speech, battling a legendary obscenity trial in the Old Bailey in 1975 (in which the judge had to be shown a "phonograph record" as an exhibit so that he could comprehend what they were talking about). In 1985, he also gave a statement to congress arguing against the censorship of the Parents' Music Resource Center, which tried to put warning labels on records with "explicit sexual or violent lyrics". The Czech president, Vaclav Havel, even claimed that Zappa's music was part of the inspiration for the anti-communist revolution in 1989, and briefly made him a special cultural ambassador.

Gail laughs easily and readily and often uses the present tense when she talks about her late husband, who is being celebrated at a special weekend of events at the Roundhouse in London next week. Along with appearances by Gail and talks, films and exhibitions, his eldest son Dweezil is going to be performing his father's work, Zappa Plays Zappa, which will include some of the original members of Frank's bands. The Mighty Boosh Band will also be playing several Zappa tracks.

Last month, Gail and three of their four children – Dweezil, 41, Ahmet, 36, and Diva, 31 – went to the unveiling of a statue in honour of Frank in Baltimore, where he was born. The city also declared it Frank Zappa day. "There were 5,000 people in the street. It was amazing," says Gail, and they are all still clearly very touched by it. Things are busy in the world of Brand Zappa.

The usual story with dead rock stars is one of bitter feuds over their estates and interminable internecine conflict. In John Lennon's case there has been more bad blood than a B-movie horror film. Though, miraculously, Julian Lennon said last month that he's finally made peace with his stepmother, Yoko Ono, because he doesn't want to hurt his younger brother, Sean. At the same time he is publishing Beatles Memorabilia: The Julian Lennon Collection.

The saga of Jimi Hendrix, who died 40 years ago last month saw his family, who eventually took over the musician's estate in 1990, locked in legal wrangling with outside parties. Inevitably there is going to be a release of previously unreleased material – a box set, West Coast Seattle Boy: The Jimi Hendrix Anthology – and an "Experience Hendrix" tour in the US. In many such cases it seems to be one long repackaging and selling of a brand, rather than a real sense of fresh audiences discovering the music.

But while Julian Lennon has had to separate out his father from his father's music – he said recently: "Now more than ever I look back with a great deal of respect for this man and his work. But not necessarily as a father" – for Frank Zappa's family, there has been no such division. And if there is such a thing as Brand Zappa, then it's one that feels as if it has integrity. Gail runs the Zappa Family Trust, and has been releasing Frank Zappa records since he died. The trust exists to protect Frank's legacy and to make sure that there is no unauthorised use of his work.

Gail sees unauthorised tribute bands as committing "virtual identity theft". "I'm just defending the audience's right to hear Frank's music the way he intended it," she says passionately, if a little defensively. "It's not just for Frank that I do this, it's also for the potential audience out there. I'm still putting out records, but I have to say very few finished records remain."

Clearly the Zappas have valued and nurtured their children's individuality. "I view my children not as one of four but, for example, Diva is the only fourth child I've ever had," says Gail. "It's a different way of looking at it. I'm certain my mother didn't see things that way. Frank and I had a very different view [from our parents] of how we were going to do things. The main thing is, you just try to avoid being your parents. Be who you are and you hope your kids will learn that as an example so they can be who they are."

Of course, the Zappa children are famous for their unusual names. Dweezil was named after one of Gail's toes. Moon Unit prefers to be known as just Moon these days. Ahmet briefly changed his name to Rick, and then back again. Diva was so named because she was "the loudest baby in the hospital", according to Frank. "I did decide when I was eight that I wanted a new name for about a week – Jessica or Jennifer," Diva admits.

Dweezil has two daughters, Zola, four, and Ceylon, two; Moon Zappa, 43, the eldest, also has a daughter, Mathilda, five (who shares a birthday with Frank). Ahmet has a baby on the way too. Does Gail see a lot of her children and grandchildren? "You know, I do and I don't. I feel like the way Frank was in many ways [he was on tour for six months of each year]. The closer they are, they're practically down the street, it's like feast or famine – sometimes I see them a lot, sometime you don't see them for months."

There is a sense in which Dweezil and Gail, especially in taking on this kind of custodial role, are still living in Frank's shadow, but Gail bridles at the suggestion: "I never felt like that. Frank's not the sort of person who would promote something like that. I mean, look at the band members, they're not in his shadow, he extracted every single ounce of what he could get from them in terms of revealing to the world and themselves what they were capable of doing."

She does, however, admit that she's trying to figure out how to run the trust so that it's not so time-consuming: "At this time of my life I'm really interested in writing and being an artist in my own right."

I ask Dweezil, 41, who also lives in Los Angeles, how he feels on stage with a video of his dad playing along with him, which he calls, with typically irreverent Zappa humour, "from grave to stage". "It's bittersweet," he says. "Playing the music is already a way to continue my relationship with my dad but when he is on screen it's like he's back and in his prime for just a short, fleeting moment. It's emotional for me – and the audience."

For Dweezil and his younger brother Ahmet, 36, getting into music was a way of connecting with their dad, though Dweezil has said that his Zappa Plays Zappa band is like training for the Olympics. The whole family take their father's legacy extremely seriously. "My father and I have a very strong connection to the music and there is a level of detail we operate on that no cover band or tribute band could ever get to," he has said before. "We'll listen to the original master tapes and take every individual track and transcribe exactly, so there's a level of commitment, detail and respect of the music that goes beyond anything that a cover band would ever do."


Diva, 31, the youngest of the Zappa children, is a textile artist and photographer who makes "one-of-a-kind wearable pieces of art – Noel Fielding [of The Mighty Boosh] has one of my full-length capes". She is busy preparing for an exhibition of her artwork in London in February and still lives at home with Gail but says she's saving up to move into her own house.

She admits she was a daddy's girl. "He was my dad," she says simply. "I got to hang out with him – he was on tour a lot of the time with everybody else, but I had a dad. We would watch the Simpsons together – that was our date. Sometimes I'd have to bring him cigarettes and coffee. I learned how to make an espresso when I was about five. Or in the middle of the night there would be a request for chilli to be made, so I'd make chilli for him."

Didn't she go through a rebellious phase? "In terms of rebelling in the family, what's the point? That would make me dumb. Where would you go from there when you already have every opportunity to be inspired?"

A household with few rules was one that Diva enjoyed immensely. "We were free to say whatever we wanted – there were no 'bad words', except if you used them intentionally to hurt somebody. We could go to bed whenever we liked, and I would play in the rain for hours in my underwear – it didn't matter, and it was fun."

Are all the Zappa children like that? "Moon loves rules to organise her day, and there's a schedule. In that sense, she rebelled. Very much 'strict strict strict', which is really funny to me," says Diva. But she does have a few regrets about her upbringing. "We weren't forced to go out and learn about the real world – I kind of wish I had because I don't know much about it and now I'm learning and I'm 31," she says, only half-joking in self-deprecation. "I'm like 'bank account? Huh?' It's not the normal way to raise kids but it worked for us – we're fine."

Dweezil is clearly keen that his own children get a strong sense of his father. "He would have definitely enjoyed being a grandfather," he says. "I think my kids are really missing out by not having the opportunity to know him. I do my best to give them an idea about him. When they get older I think they will really appreciate him."


Frank Zappa – 70th Birthday Celebration, the Roundhouse, London NW1 8EH 5-7 November; roundhouse.org.uk/frank-zappa, box office: 0844 482 8008 and then touring zappaplays–zappa.com/tourdates.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/ ... ouse/print

Harlepolis said:

Zappa has always been one of my favorites, right along side Stevie Wonder, George Clinton, Prince, and a handful of others. I probably own between 40 and 50 Zappa LP's & CD's. And much of his music was the soundtrack for my early adulthood, like between 19 and 22. A lot of "Joe's Garage", "Sheik Yerbouti", "Apostrophe", "Tinseltown Rebellion", "Hot Rats", and all that stuff with Captain Beefheart and "The Mothers of Invention". Also had the great opportunity to see him perform live at the Hollywood Palace back in the 80's. What a great night that was, I'm so glad I had that experience.

The thing that blew me away about Zappa was; as chaotic as some of his most complex arrangements were, he had all that shit written out on sheet music, and on a whim he could reassign all the parts out to different instruments, so the song was the same, but it sounded completely different, or in some cases; upside down, lol. Zappa had COMPLETE control over his music, how it was produced, and how it was distributed. To this day new Zappa CD's of previously unheard material keep coming out all the time, lol. Zappa set his business up so that HIS vault of music would take care of his family through a few generations.

Zappa was genius.

Would have LOVED for him and Prince to have spent some time together. Would have loved to have heard a Zappa/George Clinton production too.

.

[Edited 11/2/10 13:47pm]

Jboogiee said:

Some recent Frank Zappa news: Frank Zappa would have been 70 this year – his life and music are being celebrated in Britain and the US, 17 years after his death. Chris Hall meets his widow, Gail, and their children Zappas ... Gail (mum) with daughter Diva and Dweezil in Los Angeles.
[img:$uid]http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2010/10/27/1288185905061/Zappa-family-006.jpg[/img:$uid]

This was a thoroughly interesting interview/article, even explained in detail about how I was saying new Zappa music was still coming out. His family sounds tight. I think Zappa did good for himself.

Jboogiee said:

Wow Guns,it must have been cool hearing the stories. I will check these out,thanks. Gunsnhalen said:

Aww Zappa in my top 10 musicians of all time he is absolutely incredible!

And my ex boyfriend's Dad Bobby Martin was Frank's keyboard player in the 80's and i got to hear about the genius of Zappa. He was WAY ahead of his time

FIRST OFF

YOU NEED

We're only in it for the money it's an absolute masterpiece funny, epic, great social commentary etc. It is a must have

Hot Rats- it has some of his best instrumentals, and this was also his first real ''solo'' Album after the mothers of invention disbanded.

Joes Garage- A 3 act story very funny, dirty, full of social and political commentary. And it has the great Iki Willis on a few vocal parts.

Weasels Ripped my Flesh- A Strang instrumental piece, that will lead you into the crazy mind of Zappa. and some of his funniest song titles

Sheik Yerbouti- What could be considered Zappa's commercial album ahah if you can call anything he did commercial. but it did have a semi hit Dancing Fool which made fun of disco. And the zany Bobby brown Goes Down is a fan favorite

Those would be my suggestions for a start=]

It was very cool=] he was an amazing guy

Hope you have fun on your Zappa journey!

He has so many different albums, i have personally not even begun to totally chip them all out yet