I need to buy one Frank Zappa CD - what do you recommend

[LynneSin]

I've found that my CD collection is void of any artist starting with the letter "Z" (BTW, I fill all my CDs as 'lastname, firstname')

So considering what is out there for "Z" based bands I'm either buying something by Frank Zappa or something by ZZTop. ANd knowing that I've grown out of ZZTop when I turned like 14 I'm guess I have to go with Frank Zappa (unless someone has another "Z" band to recommend)

So what CD should I buy. The CD should be something relatively easy to find in most record stores. (ie - no rare japanese import bootleg copy of something stuff)

[kwassa]

1. Hot Rats

[KitchenWitch]

2. Joe's Garage

[Beer Snob-50]

4. I second Joe's Garage....

[BigMcLargehuge]

20. Thirded

[satireV]

33. YES! Joe's Garage! The Central Scrutinizer!

Catholic Girls

Chorus:
In a little white dress
Catholic girls
They never confess
Catholic girls
I got one for a cousin
I love how they go
So send me a dozen
Catholic girls
Ooooooh!
Catholic girls
Ooooooh!

[Rabrrrrrr]

3. Make a Jazz Noise Here

Some of the purists may laugh at me because it's not his "best", but for the Zappa newbie (though I know you aren't quite a newbie), it's an awesome entry path into the Zappa oeuvre - it has the classics, as well as some of the new, with some bitchin' solos, and a band that was fucking on top of things musically, and it has some of the Zappa weirdness, but as not as much as, say, "Weasels Ripped my Flesh".

[Initech]

5. One Size Fits All, plus some other suggestions:

Studio album - One Size Fits All, Freak Out!, or Zoot Allures

Live Album - You Cant Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 4, Roxy & Elsewhere, or Make A Jazz Noise Here

Instrumental album - Shut Up N Play Yer Guitar

Compilation - Lather

[Rabrrrrrr]

6. I would recommend Vol. 2 over Vol. 4, but yes, all great choices

[Initech]

8. I usually listen to Vol. 1, Vol. 5, and Vol. 4 the most

2 has quite a few good tracks on it, but those three are the best of that series, IMO.

[eeyore]

7. Sheik Yerbouti or Just Another Band From LA

That's my humble opinion, but I'm not a huge Zappa freak - just an occasional dabbler.

Sheik Yerbouti has a couple of classics, Bobby Brown Goes Down and Jewish Princess. Both are totally offensive but funny as hell.

My brothers used to play Billy the Mountain from the album Just Another Band From LA - that to me is the best Zappa around. Billy the Mountain takes up an entire side of the album at 26 minutes, but it's fucking brilliant - musically and comedically. It's live so you get a sense of what he and his band were really capable of in 1972.

[maxsolomon]

9. Strictly Commercial

its a greatest hits, its long, its got valley girl & muffin man & yellow snow.

the snobs will disparage me, but its fine for zappa grazers.

i'd recommend a mothers of invention album, but that wouldn't be filed under 'Z'.

[LynneSin]

10. You guys are giving me too many choices, I might have to buy a ZZTop

:scared:

[Initech]

28. If you wanted to start from the top, get Freak Out!

It's easily the best Zappa album ever made, but it's definately not the most accessible!

[SteppingRazor]

11. I agree with Maxsolomon -- go Strictly Commercial...

It's actually a really good greatest hits album, as far as those go, and provides a great introduction to the man's work. If you dig it, then you can expand from there.

That said, what about some Warren Zevon? Guy was an awesome songwriter. "Lawyers, Guns and Money" remains one of my favorite tunes. Others like "Exciteable Boy," "Roland the headless Thompson Gunner" and, natch, "Werewolves of London" are also memorable. Also noteworthy -- "You're a Whole Different Person When You're Scared," in which Zevon shared songwriting credits with Hunter Thompson. Also, off his final record "Keep Me IN Your Heart for a While," which he wrote after knowing he was dying of cancer, is a shockingly serious and heart-rending note from a man who spent his entire career swinging in the opposite direction. OK, that's all I'll say about that :hi:

[anarch]

12. wow, I never thought about this...if you arrange your music alphabetically

it's incredibly easy to find your ZZ Top records. :D

[LynneSin]

14. Yes, but I have my Led Zeppelin Box Set in front of it

got tired of looking at the ZZTop album.

The top row of albums stop at Plant, Robert with the nice picture of him on front of his Manic Nirvana album

[mikeytherat]

13. Apostrophe/Overnight Sensation

Released shortly as a "two-fer" disc, you get Apostrophe and Overnight Sensation on one disc. An excellent Zappa primer.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000008MLS/qid=1138137496/sr=8-3/ref=pd_bbs_3/103-1973773-3331040?n=507846&s=music&v=glance

mikey_the_rat

[Burma Jones]

17. Seconded

[BobEPeru]

23. Even just Apostrophe on it own is great

Can't recommend highly enough

[evlbstrd]

15. All of the above are excellent suggestions.

You might also try Warren Zevon.

[khashka]

24. Warren Zevon - good reccomendation!

:)

Khash.

[scruffy]

16. Get a Mothers Of Invention CD instead

The label will read Zappa/Mothers, so you can fake it. :)

Try Cruising With Rueben And The Jets, or Weasels Ripped My Flesh.

edit: This is DancingBear - I'm just on scruffy's (Mrs. DB) computer.

[tigereye]

18. get some Zevon AND Zappa

they were both quite good songwriters...

[bbernardini]

19. THE BEST BAND YOU NEVER HEARD IN YOUR LIFE

Almost a "greatest hits" with a 12-piece band.

[graywarrior]

32. I second that.

[HughBeaumont]

21. We're Only In It For the Money.

One of the greatest albums of the 60s and of all time. It's influence on modern avant-garde rock, along with Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band are timeless.

Can't believe no one mentioned this one.

[khashka]

22. I'm no expert but.....

Joe's Garage, Sheik Yerbouti, A Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch.


Khash.

[SouthoftheBorderPaul]

25. Zumpano

they used to be on Subpop. When I first heard The Shins, I thought it was a Zumpano spin off. Great, great music. The former from man is Carl Newman who went on to firm The NEw Pornographers.

[asthmaticeog]

26. You should get some Zeni Geva.

The bludgeoning twin-guitar attack of Kazuyuki Null and Mitsuru Tabata, combined with Null's earthquake-inducing vocal growl makes their Desire For Agony album a scorcher from beginning to end. Their debut, Maximum Money Monster, leads off with the classic 18-minute Japanese doom-metal dirge "Slamking." Unconditionally recommended.

[no name no slogan]

27. None. Frank Zappa sucks (even more than Zeppelin)

:popcorn:

[fudge stripe cookays]

29. Ha!

I knew there was a reason I liked you! :toast:

[no name no slogan]

31. All this, and I'm a fuckhead too!

:hug:

[asthmaticeog]

34. Heh heh.

I suspect you're probably fishing for one of Lynne's lengthy, Patrick Bateman-esque defenses of the Zep, but I gotta chime in: I can't fucking stand Zappa. I'm a Captain Beefheart man, myself, full-on. :thumbsup:

[no name no slogan]

35. Yeah, I don't mind Zappa, but Beefheart's better

Zappa is a little too clever by half IMHO-- his music's okay, if you like Emerson, Lake and Palmer type stroking, but it always struck me as a little too "inside jokey" to me. Okay, we get it, you're clever, you can make complicated music, SFW? Go listen to your quadrophonic copy of "Dark Side of the Moon" already.

Now Beefheart, OTOH... :thumbsup:

[MrBenchley]

30. We're Only in it for the Money

"The idiot bastard son:
(THE FATHER'S A NAZI IN CONGRESS TODAY . . .
THE MOTHER'S A HOOKER SOMEWHERE IN L.A.)

The idiot bastard son:
(ABANDONED TO PERISH IN BACK OF A CAR . . .
KENNY WILL STASH HIM AWAY IN A JAR)
THE IDIOT BOY!

Try and imagine
The window all covered in green
All the time he would spend
At the church he'd attend . . .
Warming his pew

Kenny will feed him & Ronnie will watch
THE CHILD WILL THRIVE & GROW
And enter the world
Of liars & cheaters & people like you
Who smile & think you know
What this is about

(YOU THINK YOU KNOW EVERYTHING . . . maybe so)
The song we sing: DO YOU KNOW?
We're listening . . .
THE IDIOT BOY!

Try and imagine
The window all covered in green
All the time he would spend
All the colors he'd blend . . .
Where are they now? "