[Crudblud]

I really like the "Suites" album that came out in 2013. Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting the LA Phil in a somewhat reduced (materially, not instrumentally) version of 200 Motels. It's really great to hear all that music in good, detailed sound, and you can tell all the musicians are having a whale of a time with it, a world apart from the stuffy reception Zappa got when he was making the original album. The level of respect for Zappa's work in orchestral and chamber music has really changed a lot and for the better in the decades since his death.

 

[Xisten267]

I'm new to Zappa, and have been hearing his albums all day long. I think that the technical proficiency in his music is amazing, but I miss some changes of mood in it. Can someone please recommend me some album by him whose overall mood couldn't be labelled as "crazy fun"?

I've heard Freak Out!, We're Only In It For The Money, Hot Rats, Over-Nite Sensation and Sheik Yerbouti so far.

 

[starthrower]

Zappa didn't write a lot of dark or melancholic type music. But there are a couple pieces on the Sleep Dirt album including Filthy Habits, and the title track. Sad Jane from the LSO album. The synclavier album, Civilization Phase III is another one to explore.

 

[Barbebleu]

I'm new to Zappa, and have been hearing his albums all day long. I think that the technical proficiency in his music is amazing, but I miss some changes of mood in it. Can someone please recommend me some album by him whose overall mood couldn't be labelled as "crazy fun"?

I've heard Freak Out!, We're Only In It For The Money, Hot Rats, Over-Nite Sensation and Sheik Yerbouti so far.

Any of the 'You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore' sets would be good. Also 'The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life' and 'Make A Jazz Noise Here'.

 

[Emperor of the North]

Hot Rats, Waka/Jawaka, Grand Wazoo, Overnite Sensation, Apostrophe, and my personal favorite, Once Size Fits All. Beyond the brief "Vaudeville Band" period, there isn't much of Zappa's work that I don't like. The quality of his 80s music may not have been on the same level of that of the 70s, but it was still great. The 7-disc Roxy Performances is a must have of Zappa and his best band at the height of their powers. Also, the soundtrack, A Token Of His Extreme, is almost as good.

 

[starthrower]

Revisiting the Hot Rats Sessions box. So much good stuff!

 

[Chibi Ubu]

"Put a Motor in Yourself" by FZ, performed by The Ensemble Modern

I know I'm late to the game, but thanks for sharing this!

 

[Chibi Ubu]

Anybody paying attention to this thread?

I first saw Zappa in 1967, and I went to all of his concerts in Utah throughout his touring years. Frank's first instrument was the drums, as was mine!

 

[norman bates]

I'm new to Zappa, and have been hearing his albums all day long. I think that the technical proficiency in his music is amazing, but I miss some changes of mood in it. Can someone please recommend me some album by him whose overall mood couldn't be labelled as "crazy fun"?

I've heard Freak Out!, We're Only In It For The Money, Hot Rats, Over-Nite Sensation and Sheik Yerbouti so far.

We're only in it for the money... crazy fun? That album is actually extremely pessimistic satire in many ways.
Songs like Mom and dad, The idiot ******* son, the chrome plated megaphone... and even where the music sounds happy it's more used like a contrast.
In any case:

 

[SanAntone]

We're only in it for the money... crazy fun? That album is actually extremely pessimistic satire in many ways.
Songs like Mom and dad, The idiot ******* son, the chrome plated megaphone... and even where the music sounds happy it's more used like a contrast.
In any case:

Zappa would be unimpressed with TC's nanny software,

 

[starthrower]

I first saw Zappa in 1967, and I went to all of his concerts in Utah throughout his touring years. Frank's first instrument was the drums, as was mine!

One of the big attractions of FZ's music is the great drummers and percussionists and the music Frank wrote for the instruments. Drums was also my first instrument.

 

[Jay]

I first saw Zappa in 1967

In the 60s virtually every big city TV station had an "American Bandstand"-style dance party show. In Washington DC it was "Wing Ding," and I first saw the Mothers on it in '66, promoting Freak Out; no dance potential, no commercial potential. I saw them "live" for the first time in '69, one of the last gigs of the original Mothers.

 

[Chibi Ubu]

In the 60s virtually every big city TV station had an "American Bandstand"-style dance party show. In Washington DC it was "Wing Ding," and I first saw the Mothers on it in '66, promoting Freak Out; no dance potential, no commercial potential. I saw them "live" for the first time in '69, one of the last gigs of the original Mothers.

Great fun, wasn't it?

 

[Chibi Ubu]

One of the big attractions of FZ's music is the great drummers and percussionists and the music Frank wrote for the instruments. Drums was also my first instrument.

I couldn't agree with you more!

 

[NoCoPilot]

One of the big attractions of FZ's music is the great drummers and percussionists and the music Frank wrote for the instruments. Drums was also my first instrument.

 

[Merl]

I always wanted to see Bozzio playing drums live with Zappa but I never did.

 

[progmatist]

I mentioned on another forum many of Zappa's lyrics would never fly today. The same way, and for the same reason Norman Lear's 70s TV shows like All in Family, and The Jeffersons would never fly today.

 

[NoCoPilot]

I mentioned on another forum many of Zappa's lyrics would never fly today. The same way, and for the same reason Norman Lear's 70s TV shows like All in Family, and The Jeffersons would never fly today.

Times change. Unless you're trying to make America great again....

 

[starthrower]

Times change. Unless you're trying to make America great again....

Not always for the better. If America can't handle All In The Family, or some Zappa lyrics, too bad. In fact I don't think people really have a problem with it. It's manufactured by the politicians and activist groups.

 

[Chibi Ubu]

Zappa thoughts

We're only in it for the money... crazy fun? That album is actually extremely pessimistic satire in many ways.

Actually, Frank creates "comedy music" & was a master of selling himself to his followers. Frank called it his "conceptual continuity". He even tells us so.

Does that mean that all Zappa followers are pessimistic? Or did Frank (and his followers) like to engage in oppositional behavior? :lol: