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Frank Zappa (1940-1993) The composer is dead Long live the music The present day composer refuses to die Saltavit. Placuit. Mortuus est. R.I.P. Frank Zappa A Personal Discovery of Zappa's Music I first discovered Zappa's music, way back in 1971, my final year of high school. The album was Chunga's Revenge. I knew nothing about it, but I was intrigued by the cover when I spotted it in my parents' record shop. I had this habit of playing music because of the cover. Around the same time, I discovered King Crimson because of the bizarre cover of In The Court Of The Crimson King. I played Chunga's Revenge, gasped, and taped it, and played it to death in secret while away at boarding school. It was like nothing I'd ever heard before. Next year was my first year at Uni, and I was out there collecting any Zappa I could find. Over the next few years, I managed to get all the Zappa that had been released, and I kept up with the new releases. This was in North Queensland, and it was hard to find the releases. It proved easier in the late 70s when Gary Hunn opened up Wavelength records and catered for people like me. He did a marvelous job and I managed to get the Zappa colection completely in shape. Later, I managed to find another Zappaphile. In a city of 100,000, there appeared to be only two people interested in Zappa's music. It took me ages to find the other guy, but Gary Hunn kept telling me about this guy and arranged a meeting. Noel Grant was a bit older than me, and had been listening to Zappa's music almost from the beginning. He taught me heaps, and got me to listen to the very early stuff. Until then, I favoured the mid-70s stuff and the new releases. Noel persuaded me to listen thoroughly to the early lps, and develop an appreciation for it. Now I live in Sydney, a city of 4,000,000+ people, and I know no-one else here who likes Zappa's music. This is probably more to do with me being a hermit, than the lack of Zappafans in Sydney. When I moved to Sydney in 1988, I did some foolish things with my Zappa collection. I gave Noel my early compilation lps. I don't begrudge that so much, because I know they went to a very good home where they were appreciated. But I started doing the record fairs and selling off my vinyl, including my Zappa vinyl. Stupidly, I assumed that the Zappa cds that were coming out would be exactly the same as the lps. Silly me. They were different, usually in small ways, often in gross ways. By the time I discovered this, about half my vinyl was gone. Since then, I've been trying to recover it all. So far, I'm only missing the boxed sets of Shut Up'N Play yer Guitar, and Thing-Fish. And wouldn't you know it, these are the most expensive items to get back in good condition. Not to worry. I'll get them all soon. Listening to Zappa's Music There are many ways of appreciation Frank Zappa's releases. Firstly, there is the pleasure in listening to the music. 60 official cd releases, with 18 of them double cds, and two triple cds, provides a lot of listening pleasure. Add to that all the bootlegs and tapes of life performances, and there is a huge amount of happy listening to get through. And the variety!! Rock, classical, musique concrete, jazz, musicals, instrumentals, synthesiser music, experimental music, freak music. Such variety. I play more of Zappa's music than any other composer/performer because I never get bored with it. It usually takes me ages to absorb a new bit of Zappa's music. Some of the early stuff, like Burnt Weeny Sandwich, I never really adapted to, and I'm just discovering the music now. The recent releases that broke new Zappa ground, like Yellow Shark and the posthumous Civilization Phaze III, I didn't like much when I first heard them, but now, a few years down the track, I have absorbed the new sounds, and am starting to like them. In a few more years, they will be old hat and I will love them and hum them and jiggle to them and recognise them whenever they appear unexpectedly. Perhaps the only common thread throughout all Zappa's music, is humour. In all his music, you can tell that he is a person who enjoyed life, the good bits and the silly bits. In his music, he mocked the stupidity he saw, he sang about funny incidents, and generally had a good time. He enjoyed himself, and it came through clearly in his music. The answer to that album title, Does Humor Belong In Music? is obviously Yes. One of the things that I liked about collecting Zappa's music, was that as I got older, I found more to appreciate in the early music, and the new music was getting more and more complex. As I age, my tastes are changing so that I seek out the more complex in all forms. I enjoy more complex books, more complex films, and complex music. And Zappa complemented my search for the more complex, by producing more complex music as he aged. I never considered that this mutual satisfaction would end: Zappa producing more complex music while I sought more complex music. I never considered that he would die so young. There were rumours of cancer, around 1991, but I heard nothing specific till 1993 when he died. I had to face up to the fact that there would be more music from Zappa despite his death, but that the complexity of it would be frozen in 1993. Yellow Shark and Civilization Phaze III showed me where he was heading, and that he was capable of producing better and better works as he got older. I was very sad that I was going to be denied the pleasure of hearing some fabulous new work in 2020. This is, of course, very selfish of me. He was deprived of the pleasure of breathing in the year 2020, and all I am concerned about is my own musical listening pleasure. Collecting Zappa's Music The second way of appreciating Zappa's releases, is collecting. I am a collector. I collect things. I collect stamps, books, cds, comics, anything that takes my fancy. As I have become older and found that there is a limit to the amount of space I can afford, I have refined my collecting to specifics. I collect Cerebus comics, not just any comics. I collect Australian MUH stamps, not just anything. I collect Zappa lps and cds, and specific things that I am interested in, not just any old lp or cd. Zappa is great for collecting because everything changed so much. Early stuff was censored in different ways and in different countries. The cd releases were different to the vinyl, and the final cd releases were different to the first cds. I have decided on collecting one of each of the vinyl and cd releases from Australia, Britain and the USA, and whatever European items that come my way. That means a couple of hundred lps, and about 300 cds. I'm half way there. Sometime later when it's translated to HTML, I will put my detailed discography here. In the meantime, for those of you who are interested in collecting Zappa, here is a simplified discography. Note that you won't be able to get Mothermania from your local cd shop. It isn't available on cd yet. It probably never will be, but you shouldn't worry as the music is found on other releases (avoiding the version variations - this is a simplified listing. If you are new to Zappa, might I recommend Strictly Commercial, a best-of release. If you like that, try Broadway the Hard Way, Hot Rats, then Roxy & Elsewhere and Sheik Yerbouti. If you still like what you are hearing, buy the rest of the cds in any order. They are all great bits of music, and trying to choose one above the other when you're working out what will be your 25th purchase is ludicrous. A Detailed Discography Click here for a detailed discography of Zappa's long play releases. A Simplified Discography Sequence Year Title Common Type 1 1966 Freak Out! CD 2 1967 Absolutely Free CD 3 1968 Lumpy Gravy CD 4 1968 We're Only In It For The Money CD 5 1968 Cruising With Ruben And The Jets CD 6 1969 Uncle Meat CD 7 1969 Hot Rats CD 8 1969 Burnt Weeny Sandwich CD 9 1970 Weasels Ripped My Flesh CD   1969 Mothermania LP 10 1970 Chunga's Revenge CD 11 1971 Fillmore East - 1971 CD 12 1971 200 Motels 2CD 13 1972 Just Another Band From LA CD 14 1972 Waka/Jawaka CD 15 1972 The Grand Wazoo CD 16 1973 Overnite Sensation CD 17 1974 Apostrophe CD 18 1974 Roxy & Elsewhere CD 19 1975 One Size Fits All CD 20 1975 Bongo Fury CD 21 1976 Zoot Allures CD 22 1978 Zappa In New York 2CD 23 1978 Studio Tan CD 24 1979 Sleep Dirt CD 25 1979 Sheik Yerbouti CD 26 1979 Orchestral Favorites CD 27 1979 Joes Garage Acts 1,2 & 3 2CD 28 1981 Tinseltown Rebellion CD 29 1981 Shut Up N Play Yer Guitar 3CD 30 1981 You Are What You Is CD 31 1982 Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch CD 32 1983 The Man From Utopia CD 33 1983 Baby Snakes CD 34 1983 London Symphony Orchestra Vols 1 & 2 2CD 35 1984 The Perfect Stranger CD 36 1984 Them Or Us CD 37 1984 Thingfish 2CD 38 1984 Francesco Zappa CD 39 1985 Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention CD 40 1986 Does Humor Belong in Music CD 41 1986 Jazz From Hell CD 42 1988 Guitar 2CD 43 1988 Broadway the Hard Way CD 44 1991 The Best Band You've Never Heard In Your Life 2CD 45 1991 Make a Jazz Noise Here 2CD 46 1992 Playground Psychotics 2CD 47 1993 Ahead Of Their Time CD 48 1988 You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Volume 1 2CD 49 1988 You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Volume 2 - The Helsinki Tapes 2CD 50 1989 You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Volume 3 2CD 51 1991 You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Volume 4 2CD 52 1992 You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Volume 5 2CD 53 1992 You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Volume 6 2CD 54 1993 Yellow Shark CD 55 1994 Civilization Phaze III 2CD 56 1995 Strictly Commercial 2CD 57 1996 The Lost Episodes CD 58 1996 Lather 3CD 59 1996 Frank Zappa Plays The Music Of Frank Zappa CD 60 1997 Have I Offended Someone? CD 61 1997 Strictly Genteel CD 62 1998 Cheap Thrills CD 63 1998 Mystery Disc CD 64 1999 Son of Cheap Thrills CD Other Links These are a few other links to Zappa pages that could help. The REAL Frank Zappa Home Page Run by Zappa's family Frank Zappa: Rykodisc Zappa's record company St. Alphonzo's Pancake Homepage A top Zappa site with all the information you could possibly want The ZAPPA Instrumentaale Australia's Zappa tribute band