I'm curious about hearing more Zappa...I've heard a song or two (heard a song about Yellow Snow on Sirius) at some point, and then I heard his music being played in the movie "Rock School", and in hearing that bit, I enjoyed it very much and can tell where Steve Vai got his musical diversity bug from.

What albums would you fine folks recommend? I'm also looking at getting into some serious Bob Dylan, and I'm glad that thread is there...I'll definitely be checking some of those recommendations out.

Oh yeah...I realized I DO have a Zappa album (this just dawned on me)...it's from Steve Vai's boxed set thingy called "FRANK ZAPPA FZ Original Recordings"...and I'm assuming its not a complete album, but various songs that Vai played on.

End of message.

You could pick up Cheap Thrills which is a $6 CD of various Zappa stuff from his career. There is Son of Cheap Thrills as well.

The best thing to get as a primer is Lather. Its a 3CD set. (It was originally released as 3 Zappa albums.)

Enjoy. Oh you might want to join emusic.com. They have the entire Zappa catalog and you get 40 downloads a month for $10.

You also get 50 free downloads when you first sign up with emusic.

All I own is Joe's Garage, so that's all I can recommend.

pick up anything, not kidding
If you don't like it, don't buy another album
but if you do like it then your good
i'm not saying all Zappa albums are the same but it's an aquired taste

I only own a few Zappa releases. The first was 'You Are What You Is'. I was told by a Frank Zappa fan who owned all his albums that this was the most accessible to the uninitiated. It's a fun album filled with a lot of humor and plays around with several music styles and genres- yet each song flows from one to the next as if it's telling one large story. If you don't want a compilation of various stuff from his career, but want one solid album instead this would be a good one to try.

The second one I own is Lather. It's 3 CDs long, over 2:30 hours of music plus four bonus tracks. It's very loose musically, with long rambling lyrics, long rambling instrumentals and is very odd and experimental (in other words, exactly what Zappa known for). If you're up for a challenge and are willing to pay the extra dough for a 3 disc set, this might be a more complete picture of Zappa.

The other two CDs I own are compilations. "Strictly Commercial", a best of CD, and "Lost Episodes", a rarities CD, and both were bought used. Both are decent but the actual albums get more spin time in my CD player.

apostrophe is all i need

For first timers, I would avoid Jazz from Hell and Lumpy Gravy.

Joe's Garage and Hot Rats are two good starting points. I second emusic.com as well. I think you get 100 free downloads when you sign up now.

I've also always liked Sheik Yerbouti. It's got some terrific music under some awfully immature (and occasionally just awful) lyrics (i.e., Broken Hearts are for Assholes, Your Mama, Dirty Love, pretty much the whole album). Flakes also has a great cameo from Bob Dylan himself!



Joe's Garage is good, too, and so are the first three Mothers records - Freak Out!, Absolutely Free, and We're Only In It for the Money. Given that you liked Yellow Snow, you might want to get Apostrophe, Over-Nite Sensation, Sheik Yerbouti and Joe's Garage - those 4 are probably his funniest albums, but don't forget his earlier albums with the Mothers.

for starters, i'd suggest:

We're Only In It for the Money
Apostrophe
One Size Fits All
Hot Rats

Apostrophe
Overnight Sensation
Were Only In It For the Money

and pick up Strictly Commercial for my favorite Frank Song "Muffin Man"

I'm personally into the instrumental Zappa stuff like Black Napkins. I tend not to listen to stuff like Joe's Garage and Sheik Yerbouti as much. If it doesn't have a 5 minute Zappa solo, meh.

Two interesting titles are more recent - Make a Jazz Noise Here and The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life. Both double CDs from the '88 band which was a favorite of Zappa's.

Also, the DVD of Baby Snakes is highly recommended.

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?t=400348

> http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showpost.ph...23&postcount=8

IMO, great 1st time albums-
Apostrophe
You Are What You Is
Sheik Yerbouti
Joe's Garage
Broadway The Hard Way

Does Humor Belong In Music is a great DVD, too.

Well, I decided to go with Sheik Yerbouti. Only listened to the first 10 songs thus far, have either thought "That was awesome," or "that was pretty cool", with only the occasional "What the hell was that?". I've enjoyed it all thus far though. Looks like I'm going to have a blast getting into some other stuff as well...oh yeah...that other "album" I mentioned I already have, very cool stuff there too.

I'll have to check these...what is it you call them...."DVDs"...wonder what thats all about.

another vote for

apostrophe
overnight sensation

Is Over-Nite Sensation the one with Camarillo Brillo and Montana on it? That would be my pick.

Tinsletown Rebellion is a good one to start with as well, haven't seen that mentioned here...

Buy this:

It's a DVD, by the way.

Why does it hurt when I pee? Classic.

I don't really have a recommendation; I just wanted to say that I strongly disagree with the quote above. One could buy something from the Flo & Eddie period or one of the 80s albums & then never want to try anything else. It's not like Dylan, where you could easily tell someone to start with Bringing It All Back Home or Highway 61 Revisited & go from there. Frank's put together so many different bands & made so many different kinds of music that it's hard to know where to go.