Your opinion of the 2012 Zappa remasters

I bought mine from amazon.com in November 2015. It plays beautifully.

 

His Master's Voice. The dog looking at the horn speaker logo. Longstanding record label but in this context now a chain of high street music retailers in the UK, and yes they have a big online business.

 

Good to know, thanks.

 

DO (Disco-Outfreakage)

 

Just picked up SY, AF, A', OS, GW and CR. Having only heard the '95 Ryko cds, these are amazing improvements. Sheik just blows me away.

 

Frank has said in the past that no single show met his standards for release. That's why he'd cut and paste different versions together for the YCDTOSA series. Only recently has the ZFT started issuing complete shows: FZ:OZ, Wazoo and the newish Road Tapes series. Most of these were released for their historical significance rather than their sound quality.

 

Um, yeah. Well Frank was a perfectionist, but clearly people love hearing complete concerts, so why not put them out?

 

Frank Zappa said a lot of stuff.

One that I remember was in an interview a few months before he died. He said that he had gone through his tapes and had prepared for release all of the music that was worth releasing. That task was complete.

I think that other's might disagree with Frank's accessment on that.

 

I owned the Ryko versions of Sheik Yerbouti and Joe's Garage before stumbling onto the first batch of the 2012 remasters at Best Buy when they were released. I thought for a no frills $10.99 standard CD they sounded fantastic. So when Sheik and Garage were released I decided to pick them up, even though I already owned them. Was blown away at good the 2012 version of Sheik sounds, it isn't muddy and I don't have to crank the volume up. Joe's Garage was also sounded great.

I guess I don't really have any prior knowledge, but I was very impressed with the sound quality of pretty much all the remasters in the series. I own all 60, can't remember if there was more than that but they are affordable and really do sound great. Plus they turned me into a huge fan of Zappa's work, so those are some of my favorite reissues/remasters that I can think of.

 

Because Frank told them not to, simple as that. Even today they are only really releasing things that he put together and sequenced before he died. At some point those have to run out, then what? Gail always said she wanted his music to live on...yet she's the one who would shut people down for playing it. Frank and the ZFT lived inside a bubble and sorta lost touch with the real World for a while. Several people left the circle after getting too brainwashed by their views.

 

This was basically my own experience, too -- and my own conclusion: the Zappa 2012 remasters are an outstanding example of a reissue-series done right, at least from the perspective of sound quality.

 

I wouldn't go as far as calling it "outstanding". It was a very good job, the titles that were restored sound amazing, that's true, but Freak Out!, Ruben & the Jets, Uncle Meat, Roxy & Elsewhere, Zappa in NY and The Man From Utopia (I might be forgetting some) could have been re-released using the original mixes, but they weren't. The first two, in order for you to be still forced to buy the overpriced MOFO, and Greasy Love Songs (I'm one of those who paid for them). The rest, who knows, maybe not to spoil future project/object releases (I can't imagine a re-relese of that sort done with The Man From Utopia, though).

 

I never got that one. They seemed to sell like hot cakes, then overnight they pulled the plug on carrying them. One employee even told me that to her knowledge these CDs (I repeat, which sold well) would never be back on their racks again! I've always found this ironically funny in a way...

 

I've never thought that Fillmore East '71 sounded great. It's a boxy dull recoding that features a very entertaining concert performance. Maybe the newest remaster fixes everything? I doubt it.

But anyway, the blue label Bizarre period is my current favorite to listen to. Chunga, Rats, Uncle Meat, weenies, Weezels, and Wazoo are amazing albums (that are low on cheap humour that can grate after a few listens).

 

My favorite era too. And Cal Shenkel's peak as a Zappa album artwork artist/designer! Even the original inner sleeve (entire Bizarre era) was awesome!

 

Yes, the artwork too, and most all have gatefold covers, so you felt immersed with each of these releases. The brown inner-sleeves are an important park of the package. And to top it off, the sound quality of these albums was never topped. Sure there are other very high quality recordings that came later (One Size, etc.), but Weenies is pure analog demo material.

There are so many fine Zappa albums from various eras, but the Bizarre era is a clear cut classic era with a string of very important albums all on that blue label.

 

No, they have been putting out releases like the Wazoo CD and the Road Tapes volumes that Zappa would have probably never agreed to release unless he changed his mind after 1993. It's just that they haven't put out as many of them as some fans want, yet.

 

I don't know if they sold like hotcakes but it was surreal to see Burnt Weeny Sandwich in the bins at my local Best Buy where ordinarily a Hendrix greatest hits CD would be the closest thing you'd see to that type of music.

 

Heck, I recall reading that Zappa told Gail, in his death-bed, to SELL the entire VAULT, and get out of the 'Frank Zappa'- selling business!!

 

Not really brown, is it? Perhaps you are thinking of the antique-looking Burbank Warner/Reprise one. I'm talking about the one with the strange "B&W/solarized" photo of Zappa and Herbie.

 

Yeah, she wanted her out of the music business entirely.

 

Nope. It's the brown one with vintage record press on it and the comment about freedom of speech I think.

It's in all original Bizarre LPs and sometimes the brown is so dark it looks like black and white. But brown is the intention. This in the inner sleeve, it might have Straight Records on one side, Bizarre on the other.

I've always grabbed the nice ones without splits. And replaced mine with the nicer ones. As I have been through several copies of these albums to get near mint vinyl and jackets.

It's kinda sad that I don't do upgrades anymore, no more Zappa needed, I got all 56 albums and it is over now, except the loud rocking listening sessions that will continue until I drop.

 

I pulled out all my 2012 remasters last night and had a question. What label or label series does the best (or worst) job of listing the provenance of a reissue on the packaging.

ie. the source material, who did the remaster, how it was done etc. The 2012 Zappa's have a lot of info on the tray card while others seem to just appear with no info other than saying 'remastered.'

 

I can't check at the moment, so I'll go with brown then. I've been told this machine is an ancient stock ticker.

 

I remember the Bizarre inner sleeve being black, but the first time I saw one was in the 80's.