Where to start with Zappa

Just as the thread title says. I just don't know where to start with his music.
So give me some tips please

These are my favorites:

Absolutely Free
Don't Eat the Yellow Snow
Help, I'm a Rock
Let's Make the Water Turn Black
Mammy Anthem
Mother People
Nasal Retentive Calliope Music
The Dog Breath Variations 
The Idiot Bastard's Son
The Return of the Son of the Monster Magnet
The Torture Never Stops

Zoot Alures

Hi,
 
You're going to get too many suggestions and all of them will drive you crazy ... you do not have enough money to get all those ... and you are not going to listen to them with an open mind and ear.
 
I usually say ... start in the beginning ... and the reason for it, is that there is a certain let go, and don't give a poop with the whole material that will help you understand this music better ... and by the time you hear Hot Rats, you will start to get an idea about this man and his music!
 
The only -- ONLY -- bad part of his material is that everyone gets stuck on the "guitar hero" thing, and after a while it is boring and tiring ... but he is a guitar player like no other, and unlike his son, that only knows scales and not music, this guy is more into the music than the scales. There is a difference!
 
I prefer his all out stuff ... the guitar/rock hero is not the best material he does. And ... one of my favorite movies is the one that most people can not stand because it is too weird for them ... 200 Motels ...

I have one Zappa LP and it is Chunga's Revenge.

A friend was really into Zappa and had all the LP's Zappa had out at that point.  I heard much of his music through my friend.  Personally, I found his music a bit hard to get into at the time...and Chunga was the closest I ever came to trying to "get it".


I do admit however, that Zappa was a noteworthy guitarist and played some complicated stuff. 

Guitarhacker


I have one Zappa LP and it is Chunga's Revenge.

A friend was really into Zappa and had all the LP's Zappa had out at that point.  I heard much of his music through my friend.  Personally, I found his music a bit hard to get into at the time...and Chunga was the closest I ever came to trying to "get it".


I do admit however, that Zappa was a noteworthy guitarist and played some complicated stuff. 

Chunga's Revenge, was also the first Frank Zappa I got, but after that I heard the earlier stuff, and I did not know I had already heard a bunch of it ...
 
And what got me there? A band Babe Ruth had a killer version of King Kong, and I went to see them at the Whiskey A Go Go ... and the other band in there was Iggy and the Stooges. I can tell you that Janita Haan made Iggy lookk like an idiot kid from high school trying to make an impression to the prom queen ... and I mean ... queen, not girl!

I've "exposed" many folks to Zappa w/ the "Strictly Commercial" compilation. I know, the simple notion of a "The Best" of Zappa is kind of grotesque, but I see it as little samplers... When they hooked up on a couple of songs, they could check out the particular albums those songs were taken from, and get a very broad idea of part of the ground Zappa has covered.

I'm a huge fan of Man from Utopia. And the old classics - Hot Rats, Apostrophe, and Overnite Sensation, etc... There's just so many.

Overall I must say though, even if I have nothing but respect for Zappa and I can appreciate his work, I just couldn't force myself to enjoy all he has done.  Things like Jazz from Hell for example. It is interesting and I can "appreciate" it, but there's just no way I can put on this record for my enjoyment. That's not an album I'd recommend for starters - though I guess it could be exactly what someone is looking for in Zappa. I suppose...

Stolen Moments, with Mr. Sting

Classic Mothers of Invention: live in 1968

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToQWHNFZ2RE&feature=related

Where to start with Zappa

14.3 bars into any track and work backwards.

You should be fine.

Really though I'd probably suggest start with Zoot Allures too although Overnite Sensation is probably the one I return to more often.

I agree with Pedro here that the 'guitar hero' stuff doesn't wash with me even though it may be very clever, musically I love him more because he's the only person I've ever heard that could express sarcasm musically, yeah sure many have written lyrics that can convey sarcasm but I can't think of anyone that's been able to do it with music alone.  Therein is the clue to his true genius.

Hi,

There is another "period", possibly, or material that is available in the "vaults" that is difficult to release.

On the blog by Guy Guden, he had a chance to meet Frank when he played in Santa Barbara during the Sheik days ... and Guy talks about the warm up that he had a chance to go ... and he says that warmup, which was not short, had no lyrics or words and was just an out and out jam that never stopped, and Guy's words for it were ... "sublime".

It was later when the show started that all of a sudden you had the "star", and the whole thing was not half as good as the stuff that they had done earlier, which might have also included some new things that came out later in the middle of these jams, or pieces. I'm guessing that the vaults have a lot of these bits that are difficult to label and such ... and could be considered stuff that everyone will like/love, but the trust is not sure how to handle/distribute these, because they are not short cuts, I imagine.

I agree with Pedro here that the 'guitar hero' stuff doesn't wash with me even though it may be very clever, musically I love him more because he's the only person I've ever heard that could express sarcasm musically, yeah sure many have written lyrics that can convey sarcasm but I can't think of anyone that's been able to do it with music alone. Therein is the clue to his true genius.

 
I was thinking that 10CC could do sarcasm really well too ... and I like it in the Sheet Music album ... ohhh forgot that song about radio ... play me ... play me ... we need to plug that on the other thread!
 
There are other things ... Godley and Creme when they went at it together had a lot of sarcasm hidden beneath the whole thing ... in "Consequences" there are many instances of things being done and said that are a bit ... out there. I always thought that the piece about Woodstock, also had in the background some pee'ing ... and I had a long think on that one ... and sometimes I agree with the comment! With the exception of Jimi's rendition of the anthem.
 
But I would say that Amon Duul 2 takes the cake on this one ... calling the new age stuff "divine slime" and "mona lisa you got a bird brain" ... and then "all kids have taken all the sky bites, and we're leaving for the Big Bear ... " ... or ... "the white beast is in the villages, dealing only in death, with his soul left behind him, he is the raper of women, the mutilator of children ..." in the song called "Mozambique" that Renate sings softly in the first part and as an absolute screaming beast-**** in the 2nd part! A massive blow out. And ... 3 months later, Mozambique was independent .... go figure! 
 
Even though the band has absolutely nothing on "sarcasm", Guru Guru on their album Tango Fango has a massive piece that is really neat and out right crazy ... it's the last one and it is a satire on the music scene on the East Germany and the gods of music in the West ... and how they blend the two is crazy, but funny at the same time ... so the joke is like this ... in the east they have butchokayas (spelling), harmonicas and accordions, and in the west they have electric guitars, and the gods of music? ... amplification, feedback and Chuck Berry ... it really is an amazing comment when you consider at the time, Voice of America and the other short wave station were blasting the communicast countries with Rolling Stones, Beatles, Chuck Berry and all that ... because they knew -- just like we did -- that the youngsters would eventually grow up and change things! I always thought that music -- western music -- was one of the most important "symbols" of freedom ... that helped bring down the wall and much of that old russian thing.