Zappa.com

Hi ladies and gentlemen,

New to the board here. I'm glad to find this place exists.

I just recently agreed to compile an introductory mix of Zappa songs for a friend, to show him the best way I could why Zappa was the amazing musician he was, and of course, to convert another person, lol

Anyway, this has turned into a huge project whereby I'm wanting to compile a 4 disk essentials compilation separated by eras of Zappa work.

I decided that I would split it up by

FIRST PERIOD

-Freak Out
-Absolutely Free
-We're Only In it for the money
-Cruising with Ruben and the Jets
-Weasels Ripped My Flesh
-Burnt Weeney Sandwich

SECOND PERIOD

-Chunga's Revenge
-200 Motels
-Live from the Filmore East
-Just Another Band from L.A.
-Over-Nite Sensation
-Apostrophe???
-One Size Fits All
-Roxy and Elsewhere
-Bongo Fury
-Zoot Allures
-Zappa in New York
-Läther

LATE PERIOD

-Shiek Yer Bouti
-Joe's Garage I, II, III
-Tinseltown Rebellion
-You Are What You Is
-Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch
-The Man from Utopia
-Thing Fish
-Them or Us

SOLO

-Lumpy Gravy
-Hot Rats
-Waka Jawaka
-The Grand Wazoo
-Apostrophe
-Studio Tan
-Sleep Dirt
-Shut Up 'n' Play series
-London Symphony Orchestra
-Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention
-Jazz from Hell

Does this seems like a good way to seperate the 4 disks? Is there any really easy way to seperate his eras? I tried to do it by the band, but it's so hard because people come and go.

Thanks for your help, I want to put some real time into this. I know just 4 disks isn't really enough, but that's the point of an essentials collection: Parsing things down.

Chronologically is as good a way as any I suppose. IMO no need to differentiate between Mothers, solo, orchestral or whatever. It's all Frank. Maybe something like this:

Disc 1: Early recordings thru 60's: Cucamonga through early Mothers.

Disc 2: Early 70's: Flo & Eddie era thru Bongo Fury.

Disc 3: Late 70's: Zoot Allures thru Joe's Garage.

Disc 4: The 80's and beyond.

Any posthumous material should be put into the appropriate era of when it was originally recorded if you think it demands inclusion. Just one man's opinion. Have fun!

I vote for a chronologically arranged compilation. Or a complete mix. Tell us the tracklists when your finished!

_________________
"Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny"

Since this is for the new FZ listener, unless that person is a musician, you might as well title disk 4 "The one you will hardly ever listen to". You gotta mix up the instrumentals with the others or new listeners will tune out.

_________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Don't Be Stupid Unless You Want To

I think i´m gonna do one called underrated Zappa with Metal Man, Planet of my Dreams and many others.

Good point. As I mentioned though in my original post, that disk will contain some of the best stuff: Hot Rats. That sort of stuff will be mixed in with things that new FZ listener will get more into as they progress in fandom.

I think you should take all those songs and cut 'em up William Burroughs style and digitally edit all of the pieces in random order, spread out over 4 cds.

For instance, sneaky Pete's solo from One Shot Deal could come right after the final 20 seconds of The Chrome Plated Megaphone Of Destiny, which perhaps would come in directly following the lines His hair is so pretty . . . I'd like to bite his neck....I've heard a rumor he's more fluid than Jeff Beck. Maybe the intro of Peaches abruptly cut by a George Duke solo from Inca Roads. The possibilities are almost endless.

_________________
Make your checks payable to QUENTIN ROBERT DeNAMELAND, Greatest Living Philostopher Known to Mankind.

No, not quite. Look under the last category.

*Like*

_________________
"Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny"

ehhh if you look Hot Rats is in the solo CD, who sucks now?

_________________
http://www.facebook.com/hakantunamusic

I would go for a shorter one Disc job, i know you can't get a lot of Zappa onto one disc but your aim is to convert a friend not scare him away. i think you should do one disc give the sucker a week or so and then hit him with disc 2. i think for this project less is more, but thats just my opinion. good luck and take care.

_________________
http://www.facebook.com/hakantunamusic

That's sort of how i'm going to do this. Even though it will be many disks, i'm not going to present them all at once.

Eventually he'll have all 4 though, obviously.