It all started with We’re Only in it for the Money ten years ago or so. Before that, Zappa was some guy I’d heard of, who recorded that dentalfloss song and whose daughter did ‘Valley Girl’. Now I think he’s one of the finest composers of the 20th century. You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore, Volume 2: The Helsinki Concert is a must-hear. Ruth Underwood is one with her mallets on that one despite the slipperiness of the percussion section that night.
I was introduced to Zappa through my brother (Kilvert’s Pagan, here at the Dope) when he was in High School and I was in ELEMENTARY school. Fond memories of riding the bus home, sitting in the back and singing St Alphonso’s Pancake Breakfast.
Favorite album is probably Roxy and Elsewhere (which is also my favorite Zappa sing-along album to this day)
Between official releases and boots, I think I have about 75 FZ albums, plus the two Ed Palermo Big Band Zappa cover albums.
Zappa only came to Australia once, and that was when I was only about 10 years old and he only played Sydney IIRC. I was excited earlier this year to get to see the Dweez at Zappa Plays Zappa. An amazing concert. The band was awesome…but not quite the same.
Clearly, you can approach its statistical density.
Well, now I’m a bit more awake than the last post.
Yeah, I was a girl when being a teen Zappa fan, and he really grabbed me and woke me up then, and edumacated me a long ways musically. This coincided with a passion for George Clinton and Parliament. And that really makes so much sense, because both bands were going for a breakthrough with modern orchestral musicianship, and theatrics, due to the times. I see Zappa and Clinton as being tremendous equals in the same time frame, with great musicians to get there. Anyone else see that ?
My first album was “Live at the Fillmore East” with the Mudshark. I saw them perform it live in 1973 (I think) in Houston.
“That’s right, you heard right. The secret word for tonight is mudshark!”
“What’s a girl like you doing in a place like this?”
Good times, good times…
I was smokin’ hash and keepin’ America safe on an air force base in Germany in 1980 when I was turned on to Joes’ Garage. Saw Rocky Horror Picture Show for the first time there as well. ah, misspent youth.
Reuben and The Jets.
I have Pi Zappa Krappa hanging in my bathroom, y’all!
I LOVE Frank and The Mothers!!!
Q
My brother turned me on to Zappa when I was 12. He had the Zappa crappa poster (which our mum hated!). My first taste of FZ was Apostrophe - I used to sneak it out of my brother’s collection and play it on my parents mahogany sarcophagus. (It was a great day when he finally said 'Why don’t you bring your albums down to the basement and you can play ‘em on my stereo.’ I was in heaven, even though I later found out he was tired of the damage inflicted by the 2 pound needle on the big stereo upstairs.)
There are just so many fantastic albums, both from the standpoint of the music and the social satire, that it’s hard to know where to start, and harder still to know when to quit.
I first heard ‘Zappa in New York’ in '77, just after it had come out. Black Page was a mystical revelation, and I first heard that in the back of Al Hunchuk’s car. (we were crusing for burgers, of course.)
Sheik Yerbouti was something that I played at least once a day for a couple of years.
Tinseltown Rebellion was the first cassette I ever played in my brand new Sony Walkman.
I only got to hear him live once - Toronto, CNE, 1984. Just fantastic.
My brother gave me his copy of 200 Motels because he just hated it. I played the second side with ‘Lucy’s seduction of a bored violinist and Postlude’ for weeks, trying to figure out what was going on. And the soprano singing “Why don’t you stop on this here bunch of cardboard boxes, daddio?” to some almost Webern melody got quoted to anyone who stood still for too long in Grade 10.
He’ll have been gone for 15 years this Dec. 4 - I wonder what he would have made of my nostalgia for him and his music…
My first two Zappa records were “Sheik Yerbouti” and the “Baby Snakes” ep, around 1990-ish. They both blew me away. I wore 'em out. I love the “You Can’t Do That on Stage Anymore” sets.
I clearly don’t own enough Zappa music.
Joe
Hot Rats is my favorite. Joe’s Garage is up there too, though I don’t own enough.
Zappa was sold to me as a musician’s musician, which I can appreciate even though I’m not a musician. A lot of times I feel like the RCA pooch listening to Zappa - and I like that.
Or like Evelyn, a modified dog.
Arf.
At school a friend insisted that I borrow Weasels Ripped My Flesh, so I guess that was in 1970/71 when I was 13 or 14 or so… somewhere, I still have the reel to reel tape copy I made, but, sadly, no tape recorder.
I only saw him once, at the Edinburgh Playhouse, on 14th February 1977; my seat in the stalls was M11 and cost £2.80. I’m fairly sure they played Titties and Beer but other than that, I don’t actually remember much about the show, except enjoying it!
Later, I occasionally worked in a comic shop and we sometimes played his guitar solos lps to the customers. 
Catholic girls; with a tongue like a cow, they can make you say “Wow!”
One of the main reasons I wish I’d been born a good couple of decades earlier than I did now. Only started listening to him when he’s long gone, never managed to see him perform live. Did go to a Terry Bozzio show, though, which was absolutely mindblowing.
My favs are Hot Rats and Apostrophe (’). And I like that song ‘I’ll be harder than your husband’ (to get along with). First album I bought was Broadway the Hard way, one of his later albums, which I still listen to every once in a while.
Indeed… and my fine brother paid me back handsomely… after all, how many people have a license plate holder that says this?:PEDAL DEPRESSED
PANCHROMATIC RESONANCEI started with Apostrophe’ , which was being played by the guys I was working with in Scout Camp. One Size Fits All was next and remains my favorite (although Hot Rats and WOIIFTM are mighty close).
I saw only three FZ shows, including one he mentioned in his autobiography - in which the band was set up in Indiana University’s basketball venue, Assembly Hall, with the speakers pointing right at a huge wall that reflected all the noise right back at them. (FZ remembered that show as being in Illinois, but I was there.) Frank divided the audience into five sections, and had each group sing/perform their part when he pointed at them. The other four sections got obscure shit from Stravinsky or whomever, but our lucky section got In-a-Gadda-da-Vida.
The second show was in Boulder, when he did his Shut Up and Play Your Guitar tour. Amazing musicianship.
The third show was the ill-fated, final '88 tour (my first exposure to Mike Keneally) in Detroit.
His widow Gail game to Lexington this year and showed a family video of an interview of his which had never been shown before. It was way cool. The smouldering intensity in his eyes was truly intimidating… clearly there was a lot going on in that head. Diva came out on stage with Gail, while Gail was talking, and just worked on her knitting the entire time.
I still miss him terribly.
It looks just like a Telefunken U-47!
Love the Flo and Eddy stuff, Joe’s Garage, Apostrophe, Thingfish.
A few years ago I was working some trade show and the CEO was on stage rehearsing his opening address. I had to crawl under the stage to check on something and while I’m under there I hear him checking his mic.
CEO: Check. Check 1,2. Check, check. Evelyn, a modified dog…
Bo (from under the stage): Viewed the quivering fringe of a special doily…
CEO: Draped across the piano
CEO & Bo: With some surprise!
I’ve never seen a CEO laugh so hard in my life. He said he had been using that line for years at sound checks and had never met anyone who knew the song before. I told him I’d never met a CEO with such great taste in music before.
FTR, the Zappaness that sends me thru the roof is on the Shut Up And Play Your Guitar albums. Pure aural psychocandy!
I think my friend Ari turned me on to Zappa’s music. If you’ve got your copy of We’re Only In It for the Money handy, he looked like the guy in the yellow dress - Roy Estrada, I think. (If so, it’s fitting, because both are/were bass players.) We ended up in a band together and we played Muffin Man.
Mostly I like the guitar-based stuff, since a lot of the more involved and technical music is beyond my comprehension at this point. A couple of my favorites would be Magic Fingers, I’m the Slime, Peaches en Regalia and G-Spot Tornado. Zappa’s one of the few musicians I really miss. We could use more people with his sensibility these days.