Zappa.com

The Zappa Patio site has a lot of very helpful info on differences between releases:

http://www.lukpac.org/~handmade/patio/vinylvscds/index.html

No preamp needed. The EMI discs are just as loud as your typical CD mastered in the 80s. Frank's comments about the EMI discs should be taken with a grain of salt. They sound great.

Keneally's 88 tour diaries mention buying some of those CDs when they were in Europe. Guess he didn't tell Frank.

I have Sheik and DHBIM? on EMI CD. Sheik I got on ebay almost a decade ago, for less than $15. The artwork looked like it was in a flood. CD still plays fine. I just swapped the artwork from the Ryko and traded it in. The Humor EMI disc is shorter, but I prefer the sound on that one too. FZ's guitar on the Ryko one clips big-time during some solos.
I gave up on tracking down Drowning Witch/MFU, and YAWYI which is not needed since Ryko fixed it. Have never seen Joe's Garage and Them Or Us as an EMI CD. They must not have pressed as many as the other ones.

I don't think it's clipping. According to the engineers there were distortion issues in FZ's rig that they were able to hide through mixing in earlier releases, but for whatever reason they chose not to on this release.

Heh, that's funny. My copy of the EMI Sheik has water-damaged liner notes too, which is too bad because EMI was fancy enough to reproduce the red-on-white lyrics of the original vinyl sleeves, unlike Ryko's cheap black-and-white treatment.

I can't bust Ryko's balls too much though, considering that, just today, I found out they re-issued Sugar's Copper Blue on vinyl.

That's a good idea......she said she said

Ah, so good.

Some notable differences in regards to a couple of the EMI CDs -

Sheik Yerbouti - ESSENTIAL VERSIONS FOR COMPLETISTS: vinyl or EMI CD (all other CDs are shorter and sound worse)

Tinsel-Town Rebellion - This CD clocks in at 68:32, compared to 67:29 for the Zappa Records and Ryko CDs.

You Are What You Is - This CD clocks in at 69:54, compared to 67:24 for other CD versions.


http://www.lukpac.org/~handmade/patio/v ... index.html

This sight is a great resource with a lot of useful information about content, sound quality and mixes.

I remember when Ryko "fixed" Tinseltown Rebellion in '98. Much improved over the first versions, just like YAWYI. I actually had to buy and inspect/return a few to a Borders before I found the right one. Carefully opened and glued the wrapper back on with the store price tag intact. The fun of obsessive collecting.
There were no markings on the plastic saying "new remaster" for those, so you do what you have to. Anyways after hearing them both, the earlier Rykos are unlistenable, and probably alot ended up in used shops.

How rare is EMI version of Them Or US?

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... ' bad condition '

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Cheers for link; must've overlooked that one somehow as been keeping close tabs on Ebay amoungst other portals. Bad condition means I'll probably swerve but good to see one available.

I've got the EMI Them or us for free from our libary they sold all their cds. when i wanted to buy yellow shark and them or us they told me we can have them for free. Sounds great!

Ive got this in a bargain bin

http://www.technodisco.net/img/tracks/f/frank-zappa/1380309-frank-zappa-the-man-from-utopia--ship-arriving-too-late-to-save-a-drowning-witch.jpg

this is the only place to get the original Man from Utopia mix bar one song.