Getting into Frank Zappa

I cant imagine listening to 16 year old me drone on about anything music related wouldn't immediately cause douche chills. it would probably have a lot of "cools" in it and "awesomes"

 

That's 56-year -old me, too.

 

we NEED a complete discography of his studio albums box set. im not trying to buy all his 300 records individually, too time and cost prohibitive.

 

THE Project/Object

 

Don't worry....
the ZFT doesn't count the "Beat The Boots" as cannon....so, you only need 111 records!
Official Discography | Zappa.com

 

i know, i have a handwritten list of his solo, and Mothers discography, so when im ready and have the coin, ill start my journey. all i have now is Apostrophe on LP. thats all i have.
need a complete box set, like Dylan did. expensive, hell yes, worth it ...DAMN RIGHT !

 

I recommend starting on the vinyl reissues ASAP! One Size Fits All, Hot Rats, We're Only in it for the Money, Weasels Ripped My Flesh, Joe's Garage etc. Enjoy!

 

Been listening to Roxy & Elsewhere for the first time and wow! I might get Bongo Fury next if need be.

 

I will use this thread to ask a question related to Frank Zappa. I see that there are a few Zappas albums reissued on vinyl. Worth to get them or better search for the originals?

 

Reissues by a mile. They are for the most part all held to be improvements on the originals.

The reissue One Size Fits All on vinyl will blow your mind. 10/10 sound quality.

Joe's Garage, Hot Rats, Overnite Sensation, Apostrophe, and Sheik Yerbouti are other standouts for sound quality.

 

from what I have learned just recently, you will want to get the 2012 reissues as they are back to the original versions. I can't tell you about the vinyl as I gave up on vinyl a while ago, but as for the versions, get the 2012.

 

Vinyl reissue 's are the best.

 

were the vinyls reissued in 2012?
did they do the ryko remixes on vinyl?

sorry but i gave up on vinyl a while ago, so it's not info i'm familiar with

 

The lp's we're released the last 9 years. The universal cd's in 2012.

 

cheers mate, mainly for the guy wanting to know the best to get. i'm not flush with the info and all the re-issues being so all over the place can make it a little hard to pin point

 

This. The reissue vinyl is great.

 

I believe most if not all 2012 reissues revert back to source tapes from before the Ryko era. I got into FZ in the very early 1990's when he started releasing his back catalog on CD. Now, it's commonly known that Frank tweezed a bunch of his albums and made them sound slightly different for the Ryko reissues - massively different in the case of Ruben and others, but I was not aware of this at the time, and you couldn't just google these things. As a result, much of the Ryko-era stuff sounds correct to me, because it's what I am most familiar with. The original vinyl albums were hard to come by even then, and since I had no idea that some of them would sound different, I never sought them out.

Speaking of Ruben, that was the one FZ album I did own a vinyl copy of. Scored it for ten cents at a thrift shop. So when I bought the Ryko CD and spun it for the first time, you can imagine my reaction. I believe it was then that it dawned on me what Frank had done. What's really funny is that I never noticed the modern drums and bass that he overdubbed on the Ryko version of We're Only In It For The Money until then... because I had never heard the original 1968 mix. It seems obvious now, but I thought nothing of those modern drum and bass tones at the time - I just figured he was that far ahead of his time. I was, and still am, in awe of the man. By the way (and someone please correct me if I'm wrong), but isn't the original mix of Ruben now only available on the Greasy Love Songs package? I don't know if they ever fixed Ruben as a standalone album or if Frank's Ryko remix survives in any format now... or any other Ryko remixes, for that matter. Those may end up being lost to time. In most instances that's probably good, but...

Time marches on, my old CD's are packed away somewhere, and I've gotten used to the sound of the 2012 reissues - most of which, from what I've gathered, sound really close to the original vinyl, so I try to keep that in mind when I listen to them. But I'll be honest, albums like OSFA and Apostrophe sound a little dry and lacking in reverb to my ears, because Frank's tweezed versions are what I'm most familiar with. All fascinating stuff, and I wish we could experience what Frank could have done with today's musical technology.

 

AFAIK, all the recent vinyl reissues revert back to the original mixes.

As for the 2012 UMe CDs, they're the original mixes with the following exceptions:

Freak Out! (original mix available on the MOFO Project/Object set)
Ruben & The Jets (original mix available on the Greasy Love Songs set)
Uncle Meat (original mix available on the Meat Light set)
Roxy & Elsewhere (original mix - it's just one song, though - available on the first Barking Pumpkin CD)
Zappa In New York
The Man From Utopia
The London Symphony Orchestra
The Perfect Stranger (original mix available on EMI CD)
Thing-Fish (original mix available on the first 1986 Rykodisc or (UK) Zappa CD)
Does Humor Belong In Music? (original mix available on EMI CD)

 

wow, they sure make something simple really complicated don't they lol

 

Well, when an artist has this many albums in his catalog, and only so much budget can be spent on improving the worst cases, they don't all warrant the attention.

 

Original mix was also on the original (90s) European Zappa Records CD: Roxy & Elsewhere

 

It was the artist who ruined them in the first place!

 

BUT! - He didn't take the time to ruin them all!

 

I'm sure he would have given time.

 

Time Is Money.