Zappa.com

Listening to all these reissues is definitely taking me back to the first time I heard some of these recordings. So when was your first time?

First Song Heard: Willie the Pimp from Zapped! in 1970
First Album Owned: Chunga's Revenge

First song heard: Help I'm a Rock, 1968. I was a sophomore in high school and my girl friend sat me down and made me listen.

Too bad she/we didn't work out in any other area.

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Plastic people. Oh baby now. You're such a drag.

late 2004. i bought strictly commercial. so the first track i heard was peaches. then yellow snow came on and i knew just from those 2 tracks alone that i had found the music i've been searching for since i was a kid.

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http://rodneyshifflet.bandcamp.com <---- check out my music!

first song(s) heard: wrmf, side 1, 1974. was hooked at didja get any onya.
first album bought: apostrophe(')

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I can't tell when you're telling the truth.
>I'm not.
How do I know anything you've said to me is...
>You don't.

Elsewhere I've placed my intro to Zappa in 1974. But, Zappa virginity? The first time I heard it? Probably more like 1973, when I was 17. Fillmore East - June 1971 and Just Another Band From LA were around and about in my neighbourhood being played at various parties, but I really can't remember when was the first time. So, it's not like the usual type of virginity young people discuss. Short of some kind of lobotomy, who ever forgets that?

I'm ashamed to say that my introduction to Zappa was fuelled by grass, but more importantly, FZ's world played a significant rôle in my moving away from that shit.

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The way I see it Barry, this should be a very dynamite show.

I was a wee young lad of 10. My mom's boyfriend would play WOIIFTM on vinyl from time to time, much to my mother's chagrin. I was too young to question what I was listening to but I found it to be kind gripping in a way I could not explain (how could a 10 year old?) They broke up a year or two later. I never heard him again until I was 18. I was working in a restaurant and a friend of mine was walking around singing several parts of the album. Suddenly the memories came crashing back. I demanded to know what album he was singing, as it lingered in my memory but I could not place it. He told me and I rushed out and bought the Ryko CD. I was completely blown away to be reintroduced to this as a young adult. It wasn't until I came to this site 10 years later (about 2004) that I realized the version I had was NOT the same one I had heard all those years ago. When I finally DID hear the vinyl again it was like a long lost friend. The emotional ties to both versions were too deep to cut by this time and I still love both for very different reasons. I still get chills from certain moments of both albums.

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“The power of pop music to corrupt and putrify the minds of world youth are virtually limitless."

First song heard: 1970, "Directly From My Heart to You"

First album heard: 1971, "Absolutely Free" (at a school friend's house)

First album purchased: 1972, "Uncle Meat" and "200 Motels", at the same time. $5.98 each.

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Stay with me flagrantly and we'll have ecstasy for all eternity.

I bought SHIP ARRIVING TOO LATE TO SAVE A DROWNING WITCH LP in 1982.
I was 14 at the time.
I liked the cover, never heard about FZ before.
So the first song was NO NOT NOW, played on my crappy stereo.
Although this lp is not on the top-list of many fans, it had a special flavour for me, and it always will.
Few weeks later I bought YOU ARE WHAT YOU IS and my musical taste was changed forever.
I was attending a lyceum where my classmates were listening to Duran Duran, the smartest liked Pink Floyd.
The next year I changed school.

1968 WOIIFTM

By the end of Who Needs the Peace Corps - I was hooked. The Beatles nor anyone else has ever sounded the same since.

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Bobby

First Zappa I heard was probably the Gruppo Sportivo cover of Lumpy Gravy as a bouncy kid. Not sure what would be the first time I heard them, but it was the first band I saw live when I was 4-ish.

First album was in 2001.

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I'm sure I've related this somewhere, probably on this forum, before and I'm sure to have set some of the niggling details and some of the timing adrift so any inconsistencies are mine and mine alone and I reserve the right to be as inconsistent as my memory requires me to be. But the fact remains that my introduction to Zappa coincided with my first real and enjoyable experience with radio.

It was very likely Christmas of '76 my brother and I got our very first real matching digital alarm clock/radios from my grandmother. These were the real deal; no more of that whir-whir-whir-kerchunk every minute as the numbers flipped over, these fuckers had real glow-in-the-fucking-dark numbers. I immediately traded mine, which must have had a broken antenna and no reception, for my brothers', which picked up a lot more stations. All it cost me was my new Asterix book, which I'd already read. Sucker!

I remember that weekend, fiddling with my awesome new radio for hours, going up and down the am and the fm dial with that nasty little white plastic earphone screwed into my ear. There seemed to be a lot more stations then and a lot more variety, at least so it seemed to me. Although we lived on a hill and had excellent reception, we'd never had a radio in the house, just one in the barn for the horses, so this was a wild new world for me. Sure, we had a radio in the car and some records at home but that just taught me to hate country and the saccharin crap that my mother preferred at the time. Delta fucking Dawn I never cared what the fuck that flower was you had on. Get the picture?

Yeah, so there I was, getting an earache from this nasty little earplug getting jammed up with prepubescent earwax (the worst kind dontcha know) when suddenly there was this lonely arctic wind blowing into my brain. Don't know what am station it was or how the dj got away with it but I got to hear most, if not all, of side one of Apostrophe ('). I distinctly remember hearing Father O'Blivion so it was probably the whole side. Thing was, I didn't even know the name of the band yet.

I was mesmerised. I was transfixed. I was 10.

And I didn't encounter it again until 4 years later, first year of high school, at my friends' house where a bunch of us skipped off an afternoon to go listen to his sisters' records. And as I was flipping through all these records, checking out song titles as I wasn't recognising most of the bands, there it was. I didn't get to listen to it then as all the rest of them wanted to hear was KISS and other drivel but my buddy took pity and taped it for me and even put Zoot Allures on side B. And then later he taped all his sisters' George Carlin for me too. I'd already become a huge Carlinite listening to the Sunday Night Funnies on ChumFM and then later on Q107 on my little clock radio. I lost count of how many times I fell asleep with that earplug in, rolled over and brought that heavy little bugger down on my head. Although it might explain a few things...

By this time I was heavily addicted to this new phenomena I'd recently discovered called 'stereo' and spent all my free time with our first 'real' Yorx stereo at home with some ginormous headphones that weighed in at about 12 lb. I alternated between that first Zappa tape, Carlin and the one he did for me of The Wall for months.

Yes, his sister had an excellent taste in humour as well as in music. In fact, it was her copy of Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail that got me hooked on Hunter Thompson. And the whole summer I was repeatedly getting my little mind blown apart she was in Spain, blissfully unaware of the impact she was making on a little backwards dweeb she'd never even met. Just as well, I'd probably have tried to propose to her or something...

Oops. I think this qualifies as my entry in the 'What are Zappa fans like?' thread too...

A verbal blort of Trendmongerish proportions...

Blah blah blah.

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When the going gets weird the weird turn pro - HST

Miasma!

The summer of 1968 I was 12. A friend's slightly older brother wanted my Vanilla Fudge LP and offered WOIIFTM as a trade. I put on his Pioneer headphones as he cued up side one. Since there were no silence bands between the songs I listened to it all the way through. changed my life for ever. From that moment on I couldn't take The Beatles so seriously, the Doors suddenly looked like buffoons, the Rolling Stones pompous asses... you get the idea.

First Zappa listening experience: Dancin' Fool and Jewish Princess. It was summer 1996, I was 15 years old. I'd been playing bass for about a year and getting into prog rock. I visited a friend, whose family had moved away when I was 13. His father was into prog rock and played me these two tunes.

First Zappa album listened to in its entirety: Lumpy Gravy. Fall 1996. My uncle who lived with my family at the time brought home Lumpy Gravy and said "you gotta listen to this!".

First Zappa album owned: Apostrophe ('). Christmas season 1996. My dad asked what I'd like for Christmas. I reply, "any Frank Zappa album". Lumpy Gravy piqued my interest. I wanted to see what else was out there.

First Zappa composition to change my life: St. Alfonso's Pancake Breakfast. Christmas day 1996. I popped in Apostrophe (') and listened. When the interlude to St. Alfonso came on, I almost puked because I couldn't believe these musicians were actually playing what I was hearing. As a budding musician into prog rock, I realized that nothing will ever come close to FZ's compositions and execution. I then spent the next 3 years of my life consuming nothing but FZ and collecting the Ryko CDs. (Can you imagine only listening to FZ, nothing else (and I mean NOTHING ELSE) for 3 years straight?)

Yep.

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When the going gets weird the weird turn pro - HST

Miasma!

Pretty much did that, too. No day without Zappa for years.

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I grew being fairly familiar with Hots Rats because my Dad always played loads of different stuff and I knew that strange name of Captain Beefheart from the inner sleeve.
After becoming really interested in the mid to late sixties whole scene (UK and US) I went out and bought WOIIFTM because it was the earliest Zappa by year that I could find in my local record shop and yep, it changed my life. That was October 1995. It was fuck all like Hot Rats though, hahahahaha
I used to play it to my mates and I remember driving back up from Hemel Hempstead from my Gran's 80th birthday with my Mum. My poor mum put up with all sorts of shit from my sister and I over the years (Metallica - So What (You boring little C*nt) and she sat through it no problem. She didn't like it though and when the surf intro to LMTWTB came on she got all excited. I however was waiting for the needle slip.....

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"drums are too noisy, 'n you've got no corners to hide in"

I was five years old, when I heard intro to "Ms. Pinky" on album of Czech experimental folker Jan Burian and I liked it (there was a song named "Torture", and intro of Ms. Pinky was used as intro to that song)

I became FZ fan when I was 14 after hearing it on "Zoot Allures"

Since I was 13. Wow.....36 years.

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You gotta give the people something good to read, on a Sunday

Technically, my Zappa cherry was popped when I was a baby. My Dad would periodically throw on Freak Out, Absolutely Free, and Sheik Yerbouti. I know now that he skipped over the best era ('72-'75, IMO) of Zappa's discography! Anyway, I don't think I really "got it" as a child. I thought songs like "Help, I'm a Rock", "Call Any Vegetable", "Broken Hearts..." and "Jewish Princess" were funny, but not necessarily respectable music. I was a kid, what can I say. My favorite bands were The Beatles and Joe Scruggs.

It wasn't until I was about 13 that I started collecting vinyl. I mainly bought stuff that was cheap that had neat pictures. I found a well-worn copy of Apostrophe (') in a dollar bin at the local record store (Waterloo Records, Austin, TX). I didn't have a turntable, so I dusted off my Mom's old Technics...and...well, what can I say? I've been a Zappaphile ever since. That record seriously changed my life.

I've since gone back and forth as to which album is my favorite but Apostrophe (') is ALWAYS in the top five, and "St. Alphonzo's Pancake Breakfast" is still my favorite song.

Thanks, Mom. Thanks, Dad. Thanks, Waterloo. Music is the best!

I was 15 years old, the year was 1976.

I don’t remember the first song I heard, but I do know that it was the humor in the music and Frank’s unique guitar playing and musical timing that that first caught my attention.

The first album I listened to from beginning to end was Apostrophe ('), I borrowed it from a friend, put on the ear phones and was transported into another world.

From there I purchased Over-night Sensation, Roxy and Elsewhere, Hot Rats, Bongo Fury, One Size Fits All, etc…

My very first concert was a Frank Zappa at the RPI Fieldhouse Troy, New York (November 6th, 1976). I still have the ticket stub from the event.

Same band as the “Philly '76” band, great show! My musical DNA has never been the same since that evening.

Here’s a picture of me back then with my Zappa t-shirt and my first real guitar, a 70’s Fender Stratocaster.

Don't be so hard on yourself. It was honest, coherent, well spelled and not dictatorial, the length doesn't matter if that's what it takes to tell the story. Trendy's problem is only one of proportion because there is a hugely disproportionate amount of shit in what he writes.

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The way I see it Barry, this should be a very dynamite show.

I am sure I am repeating myself, but I forged a term paper for a buddy in '69 (footnoted and all, just made the whole fucker up). He got a B and gave me Uncle Meat and a Verve compilation called the $&@&$$ of the Mothers. I listened to them every day for a month and I was just never the same.

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If we're dumb . . .
Then God is dumb . . .
(An' maybe even a little bit ugly on the side)

I was 15 years old. It was 1976. I was lying in bed listening to my clock radio.
David Marsden. CFNY-FM. from Toronto.

He played Muffin Man.
My little teenage brain was suddenly on fire!
I had never heard such a cool tune before. Ever.

The next day I bought BONGO FURY from Woolworth's.
I fell instantly in love forever.

1990.

First song heard: The radio is broken. At a friend's place. He had the Utopia album, for whatever reason, and when I asked him about Zappa, teling him I had always been curious about this musician, he wanted to show me "how dull was the music of FZ" (sic). So he put on "The radio is broken". I didn't find it dull at all, quite the contrary: I thought it was amazing and funny and I liked it a lot.

Then I bought my first FZ Lp, "Roxy & elsewhere", and ....wow !

around '88 or '89. I would of been 15 years old or so. Columbia House record club sent me the Money/Lumpy Ryko split CD and I was sold. I bought the Overnight/' split next and it was all over. Ended up picking up a handful of the rykos but got most of his albums copied from the library. I'm loving re-visiting the catalouge via these re-issues, the Rykos never seems to go on sale around here.