Essential & Non-Essential Zappa

I don't at all agree with that (well, adding an "a" there--"a musical highlight.")

 

It was watching youtube interviews that motivated me to give him another concerted try. He's in a class by himself as an interviewee.

 

Watermelon in Easter Hay is one of his greatest guitar tracks: maybe THE greatest.

 

Not a fan of FZ gtr work outs generally, but when he's good, he's very good.

 

I have to disagree with your point that you have to have some understanding of the music to understand Zappa Freaks. I’m a huge Zappa fan, hate most of the lyrics and know nothing about the music other than I love it. I know zip about music theory but I often read statements about music I love that you can only like it if you understand it. That’s not my experience at all. With Zappa, I just ignore the vocals. That’s really true with almost all vocal music.

 

Essential imho

Freak Out!
Absolutely Free
Lumpy Gravy (Capital)
We're Only in It for the Money
Cruising with Ruben & the Jets (vinyl or Greasy Love Songs)
Uncle Meat
Burnt Weeny Sandwich
Weasels Ripped My Flesh
Hot Rats
Waka/Jawaka
The Grand Wazoo
Over-Nite Sensation
One Size Fits All
Sleep Dirt
Orchestral Favorites
Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar (3lp or cd box)
London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. I & II
Boulez Conducts Zappa: The Perfect Stranger
Jazz from Hell
The Yellow Shark



Civilization Phaze III
Wazoo
Roxy by Proxy
Dance Me This

 

That's the way I feel about Kevin Smith!
He seems like an alright guy, but, I can take-or-leave his art!

 

Aside from the beautiful WIEH noted above, it really does have a lot of great catchy tunes, particularly in Act 1. Act 1 also has a real flow that makes it difficult to stop listening midstream, a trait shared with YAWYI

 

Hot Rats would be the natural suggestion here (which only features one vocal track with Captain Beefheart) or maybe Grand Wazoo. If you like live albums, you might check out Imaginary Diseases, which showcases his more improvisational side, or Wazoo.

 

Lather was the album where it all clicked for me. I view it as essential, along with YCDTOSA 1. There are many other essential albums, but they've been more than covered in this thread.

Non-essential is difficult because every album has something wonderful to offer. I don't care for Man From Utopia very much. Some of it outright sucks. However, there are a couple songs on there (Tink Walks Amok & We Are Not Alone) which are some of his coolest songs. Eventually you'll want to hear everything and thankfully Spotify has nearly everything. As someone who's more rock & jazz oriented, Zappa's orchestral music is a lot more difficult for me to get into. I really dig his synclavier albums, but outside of The Yellow Shark, his other orchestral albums are a huge road block for me.

 

Getting into Zappa often depends on what you are bringing to the table in terms of musical interests. An easy access point for the rock fan would be - Hot Rats, Apostrophe, Overnight Sensation, Shiek Yerbouti, Joe's Garage Pt. 1, Zoot Allures and One Size Fits all. Simply put, they are not as experimental as some of the earliest stuff. Venture into Bongo Fury (I love this album) and The Grand Wazoo (A harder sell, but I love it). I remember buying Jazz From Hell when it came out. That was a stretch for me at the time, but when albums cost me so much (I had a crappy job), I was determined to like them. That opened the door to other things.

 

It depends quite a bit on how many albums you want to consider hearing or owning and obviously what your taste in music is. There's obviously a wide range of expression within the Zappa discography. I even consider the arrangements of the Omnibus Wind Ensemble's Music By Frank Zappa, an SACD on the Opus label, to be one of my personal favorites of the recordings of his music. It has percussion, but no guitar solos. For the purposes of brevity consider everything aside from what I call 'essential' to be 'non-essential.

Uncle Meat. The recent Meat Light CD release is the best sounding version of what I consider to be Zappa's best album, but you don't get the great Cal Schenkel original cover art. In addition to the complete original album there's an alternate version and some interesting outtakes.

Weasels Ripped My Flesh. This came out status post the end of the band Mothers of Invention and it's a collection of some fascinating odds and ends that holds together as one of the overall best M.O.I. albums. Has a little bit of everything and a lot of Zappa's wonderful composition-by-tape-splicing skill.

Hot Rats. Pretty much a duo album for Frank and Ian Underwood with a rhythm section from Tom Scott's LA Express if I'm not mistaken. A guest appearance on Willie the Pimp from Captain Beefheart and some outstanding Sugar Cane Harris electric violin. A great jazz rock album that was in heavy rotation during undergraduate bridge marathons.

I don't have the extensive Zappa/Mothers library that I see others listing here, probably about 20 titles or so. I don't care for him as a vocalist, My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama being a significant and maybe sole exception. I'll allow that he had some very tight and accomplished ensembles that were arguably comprised of overall 'better' musicians, well check that really just the bass and percussion parts, after M.O.I. but there's something about the original band coming together over the course of those early Verve sides that just can't be beat. And something about the scatological, adolescent, snarky humor of the later albums that's pretty much a turn off for me and easily beaten. All of the Verve M.O.I. albums plus Lumpy Gravy and Cruising with Ruben and the Jets I would place ahead of any further acquisitions, along with Burnt Weeny Sandwich.

So in short to the OP you have everything I consider to be essential and much more with the exception of Uncle Meat.

 

Acts 2 and 3 sounds like he ran out of ideas for the concept with recycled songs and more solos. I don’t mind because the solos are great. A Little Green Rosetta is 8 minutes of filler at the end.

 

Yeah Act 2 and 3 would have been better compressed into an Act 2. The plot totally gets lost as well.

 

Joe's G A R A G E
Ideally suited to cans.
Great headphone listen.

 

For my taste ALGR is one of the funniest things on there. "Ok Vinnie, where's 'five'?"

 

"................five............."

 

"even if your understanding is more from an intuitive angle"--yours may be.

 

I agree that it’s funny and the music is interesting too. It just seems to me they were playing around in the studio and Zappa cut it up to fill the album. I’d bet they had fun doing it.

 

I prefer his vocal ( suits his lyrics )to his guitar solos.

But...prefer his guitar lead, to Stevie Vai.

 

I think all of side two of SATLTSADW is some of his best music. "Teenage Prostitute" is great musically, but I can see how the lyrics might make some listeners cringe (especially after hearing 14 year old Moon earlier in the program).

 

Wrong in regards to "Ship". The title track ("Drowning Witch") might be Zappa's ultimate compositional guitar workout. Very highly regarded by his fans, it makes a concert bootleg more worth checking out when it appears in the setlist (which isn't too often).

 

If you want a better portrait of Zappa the man from his family's perspective, Summer '82: When Zappa Came To Sicily is an interesting documentary. It came out recently and has interviews with his kids and wife. Steve Vai shows up in this documentary.

Summer '82: When Zappa Came to Sicily Blu-ray Review - DoBlu.com

 

Zappa in the 80’s.

Get Stage 1 and 3 and you can get your fill of this era without delving into some of the often times dodgy quality of his rock song craft at the start of this decade.

 

"singer of such songs as Hot Rats" ???