muon

So for Father's Day I was surprised with the gift of three Frank Zappa CDs: "Sheik Yerbouti", "One Size Fits All", and "Overnight Sensation". With the exception of "Montana" I had never heard any of this before.

Man, that guy could play the guitar, even if half the time I can't figure out what the lyrics are talking about!

Any Zappa fans here? What do I get next?

Equal_Mark

Joe's Garage

beastmaster

Me! Me!

Here's the "official" FAQ on what Zappa to buy next.

If you especially prefer his gtr playing over all else, I highly, highly recommend Shut Up n Play Yer Guitar.

The 1974 band is my favorite in terms of both performance and repertoire, so you can't miss Roxy and Elsewhere and You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore Vol. 2.

If you like jazz/instrumental music, you have to have Hot Rats.

If you like modern classical music (i.e., Anton Webern and Edgard Varese), you gotta get The Yellow Shark.

Of course, the correct answer is to get all 60+ albums.

There's a lot going on lyrically too. See Complete FZ lyrics with links to Notes and Comments thereupon

nogods4me

How can you not love a man who sings about draft-dodging mountains?

"Hey Ethel, there's a Howard Johnsons. Wanna get some clams?"

Marcel

I'm a big fan of his music.
I'd suggest you get his albums Guitar (all songs with long, great guitar solo's; hence the name) and Joe's Garage.

If you've gotten used to freaky sounds a bit, I'd say you should purchase Make a Jazz Noise Here (live recorded, instrumental, with a great horns section) and The Yellow Shark (also live, played by the Ensemble Moderne, arranged, managed and attended by Zappa, who was already quite sick at the time. There's some great humour there, too!). These two CD's are my favourites.

Currently a Dutch tribute to Zappa is on tour in the Netherlands. They will play his music on the North Sea Jazz Festival, and three years ago Zappa's music, also played by a classical orchestra, featured on Holland Festival.

On this CD Make a Jazz Noise Here there is a recording from Rotterdam where he expresses the wish: "May you never hear 'vloerbedekking' again!" What?! Vloerbedekking? Translation: "May you never hear 'carpet' again!" Why? Zappa's CD's are full of great nonsense and mysteries.

I love that guy.

RevDahlia

Wouldn't Zappa have been a more appropriate gift for.... Mother's Day?

*rimshot*

beastmaster

All great recommendations Marcel.

"May you never hear surf music again" is a lyric from Jimi Hendrix's Third Stone From the Sun.

During the 1988 tour, Zappa would quote that lyric during the intro riff to Theme From Lumpy Gravy, as a wry comment on the riff's mutated surf-music sound.

When the 1988 band played Rotterdam, Zappa said vloerbedekking in place of surf music to allude to the band's 1972 appearance in Rotterdam, as related and explained here.

Of course, it's all still nonsense!

Marduk

"Shut up and Play Your Guitar" is great for solos!
some old Mothers albums you might like:
Weasels rip my flesh
We're only in it for the money
Burnt weenie sandwich
and his first solo album "Hot Rats" is great!

Marcel

A coincidence is that the author of the text to which the link refers goes/went to the same university as I do (Leiden).

Now I also know why Ike Willis sings "Fick mich, du miserabler Hurensohn; aber beklecke nicht das Sofa". I always thought they made a mistake and confused k with f and that they meant "aber beflecke nicht das Sofa" = don't stain the sofa.
God knows what 'beklecken' means.

To me it's also a complete mystery what numerous passages on his double album 'Civilization Phase III' are all about. There is a person who is speaking Dutch with a strange concept of Dutch grammar and there's actually someone speaking Bavarian!
But what they're all talking about is absolute nonsense, about pigs and ponies, putting a motor in yourself, freaking out tourists, etc.
I guess if I check some discussions on the lyrics the nonsense will start making sense some more, but I kinda like sheer nonsense!

Hawkingfan

The '83 album "The Man From Utopia" kicks ass. Steve Vai plays guitar on a few tracks. Two of the tracks have this really strange, atonal, quasi-jazz, fast guitar playing that sounds improvised, but it isn't--it's doubling Frank's vocals! It's got some really cool, odd-time instrumentals too.

It sounds like you already have the "Strictly Commercial" album, yes? That's one of my favorites. And I love the song "Bobby Brown Goes Down" from Sheik Yerbouti. Have you heard it yet? It's hilarious.