Though I will add that about a month ago "Help I'm a Rock" came up on my random shuffle @ work, I closed the office door and basked in its awesomeness.
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Though I will add that about a month ago "Help I'm a Rock" came up on my random shuffle @ work, I closed the office door and basked in its awesomeness.
Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk
Death inspires me like a dog inspires a rabbit
My favourite Zappa can be found on albums by the 60s Mothers and the 1972-5 Mothers line-ups. I'm not crazy about the Flo And Eddie era although there are gems amongst the 'overgrown frat boy' buffoonery.
Burnt Weeny Sandwich is one I heard fairly early on; that works as a good (oft-overlooked) intro, IMHO. Other than the two doo wop numbers it's instrumental.
My list - in somewhat particular order:
Uncle Meat
Grand Wazoo
Were only in it...
Absolutely Free (Actually love the collection Mothermania which was one of my first Zappas)
Hot Rats
One size fits all
Lumpy Gravy
Apostrophe
Overnite sensation
And lately I've been warming up a little to Joes Garage, used to hate it but having bought it on vinyl recently it does have some magic in it.
I didn't want to start a new thread for this, but I read the following in Wikipedia about the 6CD Zappa in New York set:
Disc 1 - (claims to be the 1977 version, but actually an edited 10 song version)
What's the deal with this? What's the track that's missing? Did the Zappa estate (or anyone) give a reason for the omission?
It also looks like the Zoot Allures LP was released with a couple of tracks omitted at one point, what was the reason for those omissions?
Punky's Whips, but it's on CD 2.
No, it would have fit. Disc one of the box is the album in its original 1977 mix, but in the form that was widely released in 1978. What it is not is the uncensored 1977 version that was prematurely released in Europe and immediately withdrawn. That version is very rare. They could have used that for the box, but then it would not reflect the album as it was first properly released and as most older fans remember it. Besides removing "Punky's Whips," the familiar version deleted a Punky Meadows reference from "Titties and Beer" and resequenced the first two sides, so it's quite different from the withdrawn version. When the album was released on CD, it was drastically changed, with added tracks, different sequencing again, longer edits, and a remix with new guitar overdubs. That's what makes the inclusion of the 1977 mix on the box significant.
Hurtleturtled Out of Heaven - an electronic music composition, on CD and vinyl
https://michaelpdawson.bandcamp.com
http://www.waysidemusic.com/Music-Pr...MCD-spc-7.aspx
^ are you talking specifically about Burgers and Punky's unused versions near the end of the set?
Hurtleturtled Out of Heaven - an electronic music composition, on CD and vinyl
https://michaelpdawson.bandcamp.com
http://www.waysidemusic.com/Music-Pr...MCD-spc-7.aspx
To be clear, those pressings have the alternate track list on the cover, but the record contains the same music as the standard version. (By contrast, some UK copies of Zappa in NY have the standard cover but the records play the uncensored version with "Punky's Whips.") Zoot Allures was originally planned to be a double LP including several tracks that later turned up on Sleep Dirt; the alternate track list on those European LPs must represent an early attempt at cutting it down to a single LP.
Hurtleturtled Out of Heaven - an electronic music composition, on CD and vinyl
https://michaelpdawson.bandcamp.com
http://www.waysidemusic.com/Music-Pr...MCD-spc-7.aspx
Frank seemed to have a hard time making up his mind when it came to deciding on track lists for his albums. He had this huge mass of unreleased recordings to choose from, and he built many "test reels" to try out ideas.
Here's a list of some examples, with explanations for why some of them were never presented to the public.
http://www.lukpac.org/~handmade/pati...nreleased.html
Is Zappa considered, in large part, to have cobbled together albums and turned them over to labels hurriedly, to satisfy contractual obligations or something? That’s often the impression I get, even though he has some albums that are carefully put together.
Steve F.
www.waysidemusic.com
www.cuneiformrecords.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
“Remember, if it doesn't say "Cuneiform," it's not prog!” - THE Jed Levin
Any time any one speaks to me about any musical project, the one absolute given is "it will not make big money". [tip of the hat to HK]
"Death to false 'support the scene' prog!"
please add 'imo' wherever you like, to avoid offending those easily offended.
You're probably thinking of the one situation where Zappa, enraged at the censorship of Zappa in New York, tried to get out of his contract with Warner Brothers by delivering three further albums at once. When those albums were not released by WB within the contractually stipulated time, he "cobbled together" Läther as a box set using most of the same music plus some new recordings, and unsuccessfully tried to get it released that way on another label. But in general Zappa was at least nominally in charge of his own labels for most of his career, ("nominally" because those earlier labels were still tied to MGM or Warner Bros.) so he had firm control of his own material. He was always prolific, and always had a backlog of material waiting for release, so there was never a question of hurriedly putting something together because he had to. He did have a fair number of "patchwork" albums that combined recordings from different sessions with different lineups. (For example, Chunga's Revenge, where half the tracks are instrumentals looking back to Hot Rats, and half are the new Flo & Eddie band.) He often claimed that his entire output was one big ongoing "Project/Object," so it was a signature of his art that anything from any year could be edited together with anything else from another year.
Hurtleturtled Out of Heaven - an electronic music composition, on CD and vinyl
https://michaelpdawson.bandcamp.com
http://www.waysidemusic.com/Music-Pr...MCD-spc-7.aspx
He eventually owned his own label and spent a ton of time and effort editing shows together, as well as using the synclavier to realize his intricate and uber-complex compositions, so his albums definitely weren't just thrown together. He worked fast and hard, so maybe that's the impression he gave. Workaholic on the level of Bach, etc.
PS....although the Zappa film by Alex Winter misses a ton of stuff, one point he does get across pretty well is the prolific nature and intense work ethic of FZ. The guy lived and breathed his art until the end ( which was tragically cut short).
All of those, and I also think he just had a hard time making a final decision on what to release at any given time. The technology of the time required him to go to some effort to put together potential releases for evaluation, and sometimes he let those slip to the press even though they never actually materialized.
He also balanced grandiose ideas like the "Collected Works of the Mothers" box that never came out or Laether with a sharp understanding of commercial necessity.
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