any Frank Zappa fans out there?

I have been going thru Frank Zappa's discography and have been enjoying and even discovering a few things I missed from his career the first time around.

I am amazed by the diversity of music and one thing I should add is the man was one hell of a guitarist, any fans of Zappa out there?

A fan yes, though not a highly educated one.

DeathCult is the resident Zappa aficionado, he's got great insight into the Zappa realm.

I have been a fan since I first heard "Black Napkins" on a late night radio show in the early 80's, went out and grabbed the Zoot Allures album shortly afterward.

I have a couple of Zappa albums and there pretty damn good!

Love me some Zappa. Whether he was doing, jazz, doo wop, rock or experimenting with noise, it was pretty awesome. The only stuff I really skip over every now and then is the strictly Synclavier albums. I prefer the sound of actual instruments, even though the compositions are really good.

His albums of nothing but guitar solos are some of my favorites manny, Shup Up N Play Yer Guitar and then Guitar, just some flat out amazing stuff on there.

Yes indeed, Zappa is bad ass.
"Watch out were the huskies go!....And don't you eat that yellow snow!"

DeathCult wrote:

Love me some Zappa. Whether he was doing, jazz, doo wop, rock or experimenting with noise, it was pretty awesome. The only stuff I really skip over every now and then is the strictly Synclavier albums. I prefer the sound of actual instruments, even though the compositions are really good.

His albums of nothing but guitar solos are some of my favorites manny, Shup Up N Play Yer Guitar and then Guitar, just some flat out amazing stuff on there.

Love those albums also, just listened to the 'Guitar' album last night which serves as a sequel to those Shut Up and Play yer Guitar series. I remember picking up the tablture of the 'Shut and Play Yer Guitar' once and put it right back, I knew it could never even come close to playing any of those solos

Frank wrote so much out in standard notation, that often he'd compose pieces he didn't even feel comfortable tackling on record. Thus the need to bring in Steve Vai for those "stunt guitar" sections.

DC, I did not care for those Synclavier albums either, Jazz from Hell was interesting at the time but IMO does not hold up to well now adays.

I dig a lot of Zappa but I was very disappointed with "Shut Up...", I spent 40 bucks on it when it was repackaged. The one I listen to the most nowadays is prolly Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch.

I would say I'm a casual fan at best. I'm a fairly recent convert to his music, thanks in part to a brother in law that's a huge fan and seeing Zappa Plays Zappa live.

Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar probably gets the most spins from me, along with a comp that my bro in law made for me. That's probably about as deep as I'll go with Frank.

Joe's Garage is a great album great jams and good humor, I also really like Apostrophe this is the one my kids took a real liking to as well which is pretty cool. I only have a few albums by him, mostly from late 60s early 70s, but he's got so much to listen to, it's hard to get a hold of it all, and some stuff is just a little too far out there.

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but he's got so much to listen to, it's hard to get a hold of it all, and some stuff is just a little too far out there.

That's where I'm at with Frank too. He's got so much music out there, but for me, it's something I have to be in the right mood for, so there's no way I'm investing in a ton of releases that I won't listen to.