Zappa.com

I knew that my parents were fans of Zappa, my dad especially. <br><br>I had just bought a record player (this is like 2002, mind you) and I'd already been through all my records and a few of my parents. I really wanted something new.<br><br>So I was flipping through my parents' massive collection of records and I found Freak Out! "Hungry Freaks, Daddy" was the first song I heard and I was hooked. I was a little confused about why they thought they were so weird when I was listening to "Go Cry..." or "Anyway The Wind Blows", but I definitely understood when I got to "Return of the Son of Monster Magnet"<br><br>For weeks after that I kept poring over their collection and finding new hidden nuggets like ZINY, Roxy, Wazoo, WOIIFTM, Absolutely Free, Burnt Weeny Sandwich and much more. After that I started buying CDs of the best albums I'd heard so far, but eventually it got to be an obsession and I have 39 Zappa albums to date.

I was always into guitar and was listening to Zepplin, Yes, Hendrix ect in those days (still do) and a friend of mine said you need to hear Frank Zappa if you're into guitar. So he let me borrow One Size Fits All. That was it, I got hooked. Many Zappa albums and Zappa shows later I still listen to him and twitch around the house.

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A Mountain is something, you don't want to fuck with

Welcome to the forum, Billy!

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I guess I was first aware of Frank and his work when he appeared on the Steve Allen show.  But of course, I had no idea of what would come.  I didn't listen to a FZ album for many years.  I think the first one was the WB ripoff album - 'Worst of The Mothers' as I recall.  I really thought a lot of that record.<br>

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....I was 16 or so when I bumped into a school mate one day ..I asked him what he was doin  and he said he had just scored some pot and was going to listen to this new artist he had just discovered..Frank Zappa ..I suggested he should line me up with some of this as i had done neither...he promised he would. next week we got together and I smoked pot for the first time and listened to Freak Out....I have long since got out smoking dope.. but Frank rages on...I was lucky enough to meet FZ later in life (Van BC  circa 1980)..funny how all that worked out..

First time I heard zappa It was in the summer before 4th grade.  I heard absolutely Free and Freakout.  this was in 1972.  I loved all the wierd vocals and the obscurity of it all.  It wasn't until 74 when we borrowed roxy from the same guy that i realized that this was some serious music.  My first album I ever owned myself of Frank's was One Size Fits all.  i traded it  to the same guys older brother for a Mott The Hoople record!  SUCKER!  the first record i went out and bought was Bongo Furry!<br><br>

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A few years ago, near Christmas, I was decorating the tree and sick of hearing carols. So I went into my father's music collection (CDs) and saw Apostrophe(') and Strictly Commercial. I popped in SC, and was hooked from Peaches. So I listened to that album 3 or so times, then Apostrophe 5 times straight. The first album I bought on my own was Hot Rats on CD, then vinyl. Now I have a massive collection of FZ, and am not yet completed with my official releases. The collecting of Frank is a huge undertaking, but I'm loving every minute of it.

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My tone! My precious tone! I'm going to sound plastic!

Bumpy-O

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The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true Art and Science. - Albert Einstein

That was a big one Mr GG!

Nice! Almost like ah.....oh never mind!

I was maybe 6 or 7 when i heard "Brown shoes" for the first time. It had a groovy rythm!

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"You can fly like a Penguin when you're dealing with Turkeys."

I think my original entry in this thread went away with my 03 temporary dropout... so I'll just tell it again...

When I was a little kid my father always listened to this Dutch group named Gruppo Sportivo. Said band often incorporates references to other pop/rock etc in their music: sometimes just a lyric, sometimes a few bars of music... One of their songs, Superman, starts off with 2 minutes of Take Your Clothes Off (the LG version).
I always loved that tune... I vividly recall hopping through the living room on it... Not sure how old I was when I first heard Superman, but I did see Gruppo live when I was 4 or 5.

When I was 18 I discovered it was by FZ. I really started concentrating on him just before I made the Gruppo connection, because I was interested in Primus's influences. And I never looked back.

Here's a live rendition of Superman:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq1LnUSfBNA

The record doesn't have that vocal OhWahOhHoh that I detest already...

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Spring, 1970, moved back to Canada, from Trinidad, W.I.
Discovered LP's were alot less expensive without import charges.
Summer, 1970, joined the Columbia Record Club Of Canada.
Among the "bonus for joining" choices, I picked a various artists LP called "Alternatives".
"Directly From My Heart To You" was the 3rd song in, and it was, for me, the standout cut. I hadn't heard a violin played that way, before, and the guitar was really raunchy sounding.

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Woulda been in '88....was reading my copy of the Guitar Handbook....which had a section at the front of famous and influential guitarists....and Zappa was listed. I'd heard of him but hadn't listened to the music....so I followed the recommendation and got Hot Rats.

(Gotta realise that to me, at that time, I was only interested in guitar. And good guitar was fast guitar. I loved Vai and Satriani or anything from the Shrapnel record label. So I assumed that because Zappa had been listed, then he musta be some awesome shred-demon on guitar).

When I got Hot Rats....it got one listen, maybe a few songs, and then put away in disgust. Good guitar?!?!?!?....pffffft.

<sigh...what an idiot>

Wasn't 'til mid 90's that I started opening my ears to what good music was that I rediscoverd that dusty CD at the bottom of a CD case, and from there became hooked/obessed/amazed/enthralled with Franks music. By then I realised that there was more to guitar than a saturated lead tone and 32nd notes, artifical harmonics and whammy bar trickery.

I'm happy to admit I was naive back then....cause I'm so glad I eventually 'got it' and learnt to appreciate Frankj for the unmitigated genius and extraordinary musician that he was.

Bender out.

Long time reader, 1st time poster-lol...Nov. 1990 (my 13th bday), my uncle gave me a homemade tape of WOIFTM because he thought I would enjoy it. I had never heard of FZ, but loved it the first time I heard it. I drove all of my friends crazy constantly playing it for them. Couldn't understand why they didn't like it. 14th bday- recieved another homemade tape of Apostrophe from same uncle. 15th bday- recieved homemade Bongo Fury tape. Loved them all! Up until this point I had considered myself a FZ fan, but had never actually seen any of his album covers or knew much about him other than the music my uncle sent me. When I turned 16 and got a job I began buying everything Zappa I could ahold of. (Sorry, ZFT for all the "bootlegging" my uncle did for me, but it has paid off for you. I am now 31 and have bought too many cd's to count )
Happy to say my 14 yr. old son is also a huge zappa fan, also driving his friends crazy with "you have to listen to this!"

I was into Mike Pattons work alot then I had some older guy named Bruce listen to it and he said that sounded like Captain beefheart and Frank Zappa by the way they bands loved Zappa,so went to the closest record store and got "Cheap Thrills" just because money was tight."Bobby Brown live" was fucking great Thats all I did like for awhile then I came across a mix cd,my friend called"my frank hits".there was songs I dont know the titles to plus that cd is long gone. A few years later a local top line music store that only in New England called Bullmoose Music. had a sale on Zappa stuff some fucking good prices and I liked all what I bought,great love for the man now what I needed was some fresh old school shit there he was!

My first introduction to Frank Zappa was in early 1994. I was 16 years old and on a field trip with my girlfriend's color guard unit (flags plastic swords and wooden rifles being tossed around for those who don't know). Inside my new issue of Guitar World magazine (in believe the Apr. 1994 issue, with Dimebag Darrell on the cover) was a long tribute to Frank complete with tablature of some of his solos. I read the article, having known the name Frank Zappa but not any of the music and it sounded like he was pretty good. In Montreal all I could find Make A Jazz Noise Here on CD (which I love now but didn't 'get' back then.) It didn't have the guitar heavy work I expected. My next Frank pickup, Bongo Fury, however, did. Carolina Hardcore Ecstasy's harmony vocal and the solo from Carolina and Muffin Man floored me. I jumped in with both feet, acquiring as much of his discography as I could reasonably afford, buying books about the man (The Real Frank Zappa, The Frank Zappa Companion, and Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play.) The addiciton continues to this day....

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"I drank WHAT?" - Socrates

This was my post from 2002 when I was "dean". I guess my creative juices weren't really flowing too well when I picked my original forum name.

OMG...now these freaks will know who you are!!!run for your life, or rub for your life as I mis-spelled it the first time...

I think I'm safe. There's alot of dean's in the world. Besides maybe that was an alias. It could be a Dean Martin thing. I dig Italian-American singers who like to read off of cue-cards on American comedy/variety shows.

Early 70's - round at my older cousin's house, he put on hot rats, peaches blew me away. He had his bedroom walls covered in cardboard eggboxes to improve the sound of his stereo, a very proggy rock thing to do i imagine.

I can't be exactly certain, but it was during that time period between '84 and '88 when he was very involved in fighting censorship. I think it was probably a daytime talk show, but I can't recall exactly which one came first, maybe even Crossfire but it's hard to say. I watched every show that he went on that I knew about. I remember checking the TV guide an entire week in advance and marking everything that he would be speaking on, I had never even heard his music at that time, at least not that I knew of. Later on I realized I had, but didn't know it at the time.
The first music I heard while knowing who was responsible for it was probably "Jesus Thinks You're A Jerk." Either that or "Titties and Beer." Either way the result was the same, my whole view of the world changed as a result of having listened to Frank. He got my attention during those formative teenage years. I immediately loved "Jesus Thinks You're A Jerk," because I absolutely couldn't stand what those religious fanatics were trying to force on everyone, were?, bullshit, they're still at it.
After that came the first album, "Freak Out!" I heard "Mr. America walk on by your schools that do not teach" and that was it, I had to have everything. So here we are, and the schools are teaching less than ever, and the religious nutjobs have managed to set themselves up in every single section of our government. Everything's a mess, and it ain't getting any better. I miss Frank and his voice of reason, and his kindness to give everyone something to laugh along with in the worst of times.

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"Whose foot is to be the measure to which ours are all to be cut or stretched? Is a priest to be our inquisitor, or shall a layman, simple as ourselves, set up his reason as the rule for what we are to read and what we must believe?" T.J.

[b]I love telling this story.
As a poor black kid growing up in Philadelphia...I had my favs, mostly R&B, James Brown...and the local jazz station my uncle listened to. With my trusty cassette recorder I recorded everything. One day tuning around the dial, I heard this strong masculine voice singing about a "igloo." on a local college station..... So I hit record and ran out the room.
Days later, I came across the recording. It was St. Alphonso's Pancake Breakfast being played on the Dr. Demento show. It was unlike anything I had ever heard. Listening to the tape, I thought it was possibly 4 songs by different artists, but it was all Zappa. I kept rewinding, thinking it was just several songs, but it was not. It started with a blues tempo, so I thought it was a blues tune. The first thing that stood out was the fast tempo changes. I was familiar with jazz, but they never did anything like this. And the musicians sounded like they were having fun playing this. Just the inventiveness and sense of humor changed me.

This is a very cool thread! I love reading everyone's Zappa discovery stories!

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For my clinically insane music
http://routenote.com/album/FOWL
http://www.myspace.com/fowlmusic
http://www.last.fm/music/fowl
http://www.deezer.com/en/#music/fowl
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