Post FZ’s best!
Quote:
“Rock journalism is people who can’t write, interviewing people who can’t talk, for people who can’t read”
Lyric:
“A dungeon, like a sin,
Requires nought but lockin’ in”
Has it really been nearly 15 years since he died? And at the age I am now … damn shame.
“It looks just like a Telefunken U-47. You’ll love it!”
In my family, none of us can hear the word “poncho” without asking rhetorically, “Is that a real poncho, or is that a Sears poncho?”
For years, my younger brother, a role-playing game designer, thought Zappa had meant “seer’s poncho,” so he incorporated it into several of his games as an armor for seers to equip.
Aber beklecker nicht das sofa.
Sofa!
That is frickin’ hilarious!! 
I have no quotes and lyrics, but Mr. Zappa’s original band had my all-time fave record title: “Weasles Ripped My Flesh.” I’ve never heard this album (or anything else by Zappa, come to think of it) but I think the cover would make an awesome T-shirt.
Continuing with the slight hijack, let me ask all the Zappa experts out there:
My best buddy used to listen to Zappa constantly, and although I had minimal interest, eventually he did start to get in my head a little bit. I especially liked “Freak Out.” My best friend, unfortunately, is no longer with us; so now that I’m craving something new musically, I don’t have his guidance to tell me what would be a good starting point (he, although only 21 at the time, had one of those large CD books filled with Zappa albums).
Any suggestions for albums, along with the OP’s original point?
Don’t get no jizzum on that sofa, sofa!
Why does it hurt when I pee?
“Let’s not be too tough on our own ignorance. It’s the thing that makes America great. If America weren’t incomparably ignorant, how could we have tolerated the last eight years?”
– Frank Zappa, in 1988
I suppose that rings kind of true today. As for a lyric, what makes you smile more than a muffin?
“Some people . . . some people like cupcakes exclusively,
While I myself say there is naught nor ought there be
Nothing so exalted on the faceof God’s grey earth
As that prince of foods . . . The Muffin!”
“If you want to get laid, go to college, but if you want an education, go to the library.”
-FZ
Yippy-Ty-O-Ty-Ay
“We’re Only in it for the Money” is a good place to start.
Quote: “Suzy Creamcheese, what’s gotten into you?”
Lyric:
Whizzing & pasting & pooting through the day . . .
(Ronnie helping Kenny helping burn his poots away!)
And all the while on a shelf in the shed:
KENNY’S LITTLE CREATURES ON DISPLAY!
God made us to be just like him. . .
So maybe if we’re dumb. . .
Then God is dumb.
And maybe even a little bit ugly on the side.
Quote:
"Most people wouldn’t know good music if it came up and bit them in the ass ".
Lyric:
“Y’know people,I’m not black but there are times I wish I wasn’t white”.
mshar253,check out “Burnt Weenie Sandwich”. It is largely compositional and shows Stravinsky and Varese influence.
He’s different all the way through…
Pure music wise, early 70’s style: Hot Rats
Early 80’s humour based stuff, with heavy music: Them or Us, Sheik Yerbooti, You are what you is
Personally? The combined CD of Apostrophe/Overnight Sensation
Most of his later stuff was pretty much live shows, which were mixes of all his albums…
“Watch me now, I’m gonna eat the label.”
Since there are so many to choose from, you can easily start off on the wrong foot. I’d recommend starting with something from the following list, in a half-assed order sorta resembling what I’d recommend first:
Frank Zappa
Joe’s Garage
You Are What You Is
Them Or Us
Overnite Sensation
Apostrophe
One Size Fits All
Zoot Allures
Sheik Yerbouti
Mothers of Invention
Hot Rats
Roxy & Elsewhere
Chunga’s Revenge
Absolutely Free
We’re Only In it For The Money
The Grand Wazoo
Flo & Eddie
Just Another Band From LA
Fillmore East, June 1971
The first section is classic Zappa. They all share a similar sound, having all been released in around a 5 year span in the late 70s to early 80s. The Mother’s stuff has a radically different sound, deeply enmeshed in the 60s era in which it was released. I broke off the Flo & Eddie stuff – the guys from The Turtles – because they brought a sound to the early Mothers that was also radically different.
Anyway, these 16 would give you a decent start. If you find yourself thirsting for more after hearing each new album, much like I was, I’ll be happy to offer up a bunch more I think are awesome.
My favorite sound of all time was the late 70s “Frank Zappa” era, but my two favorite albums (by far) are Hot Rats and Roxy & Elsewhere.
Forgot about the OP. My all-time favorite Zappa quotes are much easier to pick than they would be to guess:
“I can’t wait till my Fro is full-grown”
and
“Wisdom reekin’ outa me”
ETA: Oops, my bad, Roxy & Elsewhere isn’t a Mothers album; it belongs in the Frank Zappa group. I always mix that up.
Quote (from the PMRC hearings):
“I wrote a song about dental floss but did anyone’s teeth get cleaner?”
Lyric:
“Listen you communist son of a bitch! You’d better get your ass down there for your fucking physical, or I’ll see to it that you get used for fill dirt at some impending New Jersey marsh reclamation, and your girlfriend here will wind up disguised as a series of brooms, primitive ironing boards, or a doghouse! Get the picture?”
Eliot Spitzer, Bill Clinton,et al, and this thread made me think of this one from “Brown Shoes Don’t Make It”:
" A world of secret hungers,
Perverting the men who make your laws.
Every desire is hidden away
In a drawer,
In a desk,
By a Naugahide chair,
On a rug where they gawk, and drool,
At the girls in the office."
And various “Christian-Right” Republicans caught with their hands(and other parts) in the interns and pages reminded me of the next verse:
“We see in the back of his pit-i-ful mind,
The dream of a girl,
A-bout thir-teen.
Off with her clothes,
And in-to a bed,
Where she tickles his fan-cy,
All night looong!”
Lyric, from “Jewish Princess” -
I want a funky little Jewish Princess
A grinder; a bumper, with a pre-moistened dumper
Favorite quote? I’d have to re-read “The Frank Zappa Book” and then I’d still have a hard time picking a favorite.
