Zappa.com

Driving in the car with my mom when I was about 12, listening to a college radio station on the way home from school. "Ms Pinky" came on the radio (this is about 1978) and we listened to most of it before my mom changed the station. I remember thinking it was the most bizarre song I had ever heard and didnt know what the song was about but I remember the line "69.95...give er a try" sticking in my head for years. I didnt know it was Zappa and years later when I got into Hendrix I thought it may have been "if 6 was 9".
The next song I probably heard was 'Valley girl' a few years later on the Dr Demento radio show. Then I didnt pay much attention until I started getting into guitar and learned Vai was from Zappa's band. Then I took him more seriously as a musician (why it took Vai to convince me I dont know) and bought "Guitar" thinking he would be shredding like Vai. Instead I heard someone playing guitar like a madman and couldnt get enough of it. It took me years to realize the song I first heard was "Little Rubber Girl" but that line "69.95 boy...give her a try" must have really made an impression on me.

edited because im a dumbass and called the song little rubber girl and then a typo

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Music > Everything
CLETUS must now, regretfully, dispose of the ones who refuse to alter their unmusical ways.
http://www.vulturesawait.com

I think most of us here can relate to this. During certain periods of my life i just could not tolerate anything but Zappa. Punk rockers have no idea the intensity of hatred towards mainstream music I developed thanks to Zappa.

_________________
Music > Everything
CLETUS must now, regretfully, dispose of the ones who refuse to alter their unmusical ways.
http://www.vulturesawait.com

Too funny. I think that's where I first heard Valley Girl too. Loved the Doc.

For me, it was the other way round. I didn't take give a shit about Vai until I realised he'd played with Zappa. Stevie's Spanking...

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When the going gets weird the weird turn pro - HST

Miasma!

Must have been Ms. Pinky, right? - The first song I heard was Honey, Don't You Want A Man Like Me from ZINY, which I also taped from radio, 1978. Before that I had gotten an interest in Zappa from the cover of OSFA in a local record shop. Fascinating stuff for the pre-teen comics fan mind.

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We make a special art in an environment hostile to dreamers. Frank Zappa, 1971

Didn't lose my virginity to it, but I DID intentionally play Dina Moe Hum while in the act during an early conquest. She was game.

I was in junior high school in 1982.

I don't know which came first. Either I saw a PM Magazine segment on the "Valley Girl" phenomenon or a friend of mine played me "Titties & Beer" on his walkman as we were walking to school. (His uncle had given him a copy of Zappa In New York. It was a Reprise cassette. I can still remember what it looked like.)

I didn't start buying anything until 1986, either in high school or starting college. My first purchase was Ship Arriving Too Late To Save a Drowning Witch on EMI cassette. I still have it. Lost the case years ago, though.

Growing up in the 70s I remember hearing 'Dancing Fool' a lot on the radio, and always liking it. Here in Seattle the University of Washington football team is the "Huskies" so there was an AM news radio station that would play the jingle from Apostrophe(') "Watch out where the Huskies go, don't you eat that yellow snow" every time they'd announce news from the team. I always thought it was cool.

Then when I was 12 my friends dad (who was a guitar player and had a 1964 Stratocaster), had Joe's Garage and we thought it was pretty cool to listen to "Wet T-Shirt Nite" but we didn't listen to the rest of the album until we were 15, when we realized that there was some pretty incredible music and musicianship there.

From there I began buying my own Zappa records (this was in 1984) and Joe's Garage was the first one. We were lucky to see Frank when he came to Seattle during the 1984 tour, in December, 1984. By then I had about 6 Zappa records (JG, Tinseltown, Sheik Yerbouti, You Are What You Is, Them or Us, and JG Act 2) so I knew around half the material he played.

I was lucky back then in the 80s as there were 3 or 4 good used record stores near the UW in Seattle that I would shop at once a month when I had money to spend. Fortunately I have most of the records I bought back then (except for Uncle Meat, which I really regret selling). And by now I have most all the CDs as well.

Oh and also, I did once hear a track from Freak Out! on the radio. It was 'Return of the Son of Monster Magnet'. It was so bizarre, it made The Beatles 'Revolution #9' sound normal

Winter of '66. I was a junior in high school. Saw Freak Out! in the record bin at Safeway, of all places, and had to have it. The draw was the utter ugliness of the band. After playing it, I liked about half of it. My dad hated it, so I liked it even more after that. We're Only In I For The Money is when I became a true believer.

In 2010, my friend put one of his earbuds in my ear and played Valley Girl. I fell in love forever more.

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You should spend more time on your music because the youth of America is depending on you to show the way.

apostrophe(') was the first fz album i bought and i had a similar experience with side 1. well i didn't almost puke, but i was floored by the musicianship! as soon as the side was over i immediately replayed it. and after it ended the second time i replayed it again.

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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.

Before I started playing guitar in 2000 at age 15, I only really listened to popular oldies radio stuff (Beatles, Elvis, one hit wonders, you know the stuff) and owned probably 60 CDs at most, with half of them being The Beatles / solo Beatles!

Getting a guitar opened me up to a whole world of new stuff, through suggestions from guitar playing friends, guitar magazines and allmusic.com (which was my bible in those early internet days!)

After reading a little about Zappa I decided to start from the beginning and get Freak Out. Because I didn't have much money back then, every CD purchase was a special occasion, and deciding where to spend my cash was a long process. Being in Australia, those Rykos imports were over $30 each so it took me a few months of checking the racks at my local JB Hi-Fi every single week until it was affordable. One week I checked the racks and almost all the Zappa stuff was gone so I went directly to the discount bin to see if I could find it, and there it was in it's strange green jewelcase, for $12.99. Finally!

As soon as I got home I rushed to my friend's place to listen to it. We were baffled to say the least, considering what we'd both read about FZ.

(A description I'd written down in a schoolbook at the time was "Doo-wop music by a group of people who don't seem to like doo-wop music")

I didn't really enjoy it at first listen but I found myself listening to it more and more over the next few months. Our band even performed "Trouble Every Day" at the school concert, which ended in a huge feedback and drum-solo freak out


It was at least 3 years later before I stumbled across Absolutely Free and Money by accident at a discount CD store, my girlfriend at the time was laughing her ass off at the cover of Money and said "I don't even know who this is, but it has to be awesome! Buy it!"

Those two never left my CD changer for the next couple of months

First Song Heard: Dancin' Fool in 1979
First Album Owned: Absolutely Free

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Hi-ho Silver!

Well, I guess I can't count "Valley Girl," even though that was probably the first Frank Zappa that I ever heard (on the radio). "SARTLTSADW" is one of my favourite albums, though.

For me, I think it was my stepbrother who lent me You Are What You Is on cassette back in about 1986 or 87, I think it was, and then that was followed up with Overnite Sensation not much more after that, and from there I was into it, once I stopped laughing, that is! From there, while I still had a turntable, I started buying vinyl first and making tapes (You Are What You Is, SARTLTSADW, FZ Meets the Mothers of Prevention). Once the turntable bit the dust, I started dabbling in the Ryko discs (Joe's Garage, Strictly Genteel, Just Another Band from L.A., and 200 Motels, I think, as well as some samplers).

With the new reissues, though, it looks like I am gonna go after all of them (including the ones I already got on Ryko) and try to get them all! Compared to what I used to pay for Ryko discs, these are a steal!!! So why not do it?

glad to know fans were still losing their virginity in the 90's. Im only 17 but had the fortune to have a father who owns every single Ryko disc Zappa release. When i was a kid the album i can first remember hearing (must've been 3) was We're Only In It For The Money (1984 UMRK mix that's the one i love and will always be my personal favorite, though dad has both and he prefers the original) I thought it was the most amazing album, the songs flowed together so well as a kid i thought it was just one gigantically long song, when i was an early teen and learned that i could choose tracks on it it freaked me out i thought you should always just listen to it all the way through thats how its meant to be played. I started getting into more of his music when i was 14, and then now 3 years later have heard almost every note ever released by the genius, i now fully understand what a gift it is to have such a fucking great dad who gave me access to his CD collection and who had such great taste.

I have a vague memory of listening to Bobby Brown Goes Down in like first or second grade in school (!!!). But it might just being my brain playing tricks on me.

My first true exposure to Zappa was through the greatest "hits"-collection The Best of Frank Zappa, on which the first song was Peaches en Regalia, and after listening to that song, I was hooked. The rest of the songs on that CD were great as well.

http://www.fotos.org/galeria/data/897/medium/Frank-Zappa-The-Best-Of-Frank-Zappa-Del-2004-Trasera.jpg

Bought most of the albums on CD (the Ryko-discs), have every one from Freak Out! to SATLTSADW, except Ruben the Filmore East-album and Orchestral Favorites. I also got You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore Vol. 1 (great!).

And now, with these new reissues, I've bought four so far.