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I can't really remember when I started "liking" his music.
I knew some songs, but the first full album I heard was "Tinseltown rebellion" (must have been around 2000) and I really liked it and bought some more albums the next years (Joe's Garage, Waka/Jawaka, Guitar, Sheik Yerbouti, Ship...)
But I really started "loving" his stuff when I was at the Zappanale festival in 2009.
Now I have all of his albums, many of them on CD and LP.

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Paris, France. 1973. I was chasing a French high society lady down a dead end rue when what should waft from the stereo of some quaint two-story building but the strains of Overnite Sensation, particularly 50/50. "What sort of musical bliss is this?" I enquired of myself only. Before going back to my villa I chanced upon a music store wherest I purchased O/S plus some more of the Zappa canon. I experienced sheer sonic rapture for the next 2 weeks, in which I tried to uncover the complex musicianship of said FZ and sidemen. My life had changed for the better. I moved to Nebraska in the US and became a teenager.

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when i first heard ' billy the mountain' i thought to myself........hmmm this is going to be the beginning of a great adventure !!

An older friend played WOIIFTM back in 1969 or 1970, I found it interesting and weird, but was not really enamored of The Mothers.

Flash forward to Summer 1974, under the influence of a certain mind altering substance, I heard "Apostrophe" on a Marantz Stereo with AR speakers and turntable. It was one of the best stereos systems you could own at the time.

That album left such an imprint, I just GOT that Zappa was a genius, even if I couldn't articulate why.

That was a record that went viral among my peer group before the term existed.

1966...the Freak Out! album. I was playing (drums, at that time) in a band whose members included two music majors at Ithaca College. I don't know how they knew about Zappa and The Mothers, but they turned me on to the Freak Out! album. The guitar solo in Hungry Freaks, Daddy (Track 1, Side 1) grabbed me, and it was all over. I've been hooked ever since. (For those who weren't around or don't know, music was distributed on things called "records" in thoze daze...two-sided flat, circular vinyl disks that required a kerosene powered "record player" for playback.)

Perhaps it also would be appropriate to mention, "Kansas, Kansas, doo-duh-doo-duh-doo-doo..."

I mention this as a public service for the benefit of those individuals who, like me, might be inclined to temporarily lose their ability to recall exactly where to find the "It can't happen here" sequence.

It's in "Help I'm A Rock", on the Freak Out! album.

And never let us forget to always remember not to forget that...

I remember (tu-tu)
I remember (tu-tu)
I remember (tu-tu)
They had a swimming pool

Those were the days.

I saw Absolutely Free at a flea market in '71 and bought it 'cos the cover looked wacky
I liked it's craziness, but didn't become a fanatic until Over-nite came out
I remember listening to Over-nite on the 'phones in the shop and cacking myself
Then in '76 I got to see Frank at the FZ/OZ concert
Wish I'd been more keen earlier, I mighta seen the '73 band, heh

If you got into Zappa late (post 88) I think your entry point tends to shape what bands you prefer. While I first heard Zappa with 'Valley Girl,' I really started listening when I got a VHS copy of Does Humor Belong In Music then the YCDTOSA series along with all of the 88 band live stuff. I LOVE the 88 band and sometimes the original versions of those songs sound slow and have less energy.

Maybe that leads to a question of whether you prefer Live Zappa or Studio Zappa...

I suppose there might be folks who have such a preference, but I don't. Having played in both, I know from first-hand experience that the studio and live environments are really two very different animals, with completely different kinds of energy, creative means, and inspiration.

For example, Lumpy Gravy is one of my all time favorite albums (by any artist) — an album that it would be virtually impossible to perform live. On the flip side, there is no studio environment that could ever duplicate the kind of energy that is evident on, say, Live at the Roxy. It's like saying, "Which do you prefer — ingeniously crafted creativity or brilliantly exuberant spontaneity?" I enjoy both, and they satisfy very different musical cravings.

So, for me anyway, no matter how much I love the live stuff, it simply cannot ever equal the studio works. And vice versa.

Calvin - I can't tell whether you're totally pulling our leg here, or perhaps you were an "army brat" stationed in France (or even a native Frenchman) and fancied up the details a bit. I strongly suspect the former. Either way, I'll give you an A+ for your creative writing endeavors.

However, I do suppose it's entirely possible that your family was part of the famous French immigration to Nebraska caused by the great French Fry Famine of the early '70's.

On my first day of high school in 1970 I met a girl (!) in one of my classes who was carrying around a copy of Mothermania, I asked her if it was good and she said it was "fantastic!" I'd been curious about Zappa and the Mothers for some time, but they were so mysterious--they never got played on the radio, even on the local "underground" FM station, and most of the albums didn't even display song titles on the outside. (What were they hiding?) This was the push I needed, and the first chance I got I picked up a copy of Uncle Meat. What a mind blower! That was the beginning of a lifelong obsession.

I agree that Live & Studio are sometimes apples and oranges, but usually in comparing the songs that exist in both I prefer live. That said, the things that Zappa was able to do in the studio were extremely impressive.

After seeing his name pop up in hundreds upon hundreds of articles I read in high school while my fascination with experimental rock music was rapidly growing, I decided to give him a listen. My first taste of Zappa was the complete "Call Any Vegetable" suite followed that same evening by Freak Out! As I laughed myself silly sometime during "It Can't Happen Here" I began to realize I had stumbled upon something very special. I regret waiting until the winter of 2010 (my junior year) to check him out, though I'm not really sure I would've "gotten it" if I had tried much before that.

Personally, I was (am) a big fan of a little known Italian composer called Francesco Zappa, who wrote some stuff a long time ago. One day when I was researching a thesis on compositional attitude I came across a reference to some modern pop star called [i]Frank[i] Zappa.
I checked out some of his tunes and I was hooked.
I don't like his 'toilet'songs though.

You'll get used to the toilet humour eventually, Quilt
Even harmonica virtuoso Norman Gunston was aghast at the 'poo jokes' of Cheech & Chong
Yet, he went on to work with Frank Zappa, and even cleaned up the mess afterwards
Go figure!

I had heard of Frank Zappa ever since I was a kid, but I was not too familiar with his music. I was very much into punk at the time I was introduced to Zappa's music in 2003. The first album I was Cheap Thrills and Son of Cheap Thrills. Both gave me enough of a thrill to get me excited. Sons like Joe's Garage and Catholic Girls sparked my interest enough to purchase Joe's garage (act's I, II & III), as my first venture into his studio discography. I loved however I found that more than anything I was constantly listening to Son of Cheap Thrills while playing Crash Bandicoot on PlayStation. It became a ritual for me.

However it was not until around 2010/11 that my casual fandom became Zappa fanaticism. Around this time I got my ears soaked in the You Can't Do that on Stage Anymore series. Listening to Zappa live made me start purchasing everything I could get my hands on.

While Son of Cheap Thrills is probably the most listened to (I don't care if compilations don't count), You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore is a close second. As for studio albums, Sheikh Yerbouti is a favorite, as is One Size Fits all. But I have a special place in my heart for Joe's garage.

I first started liking Zappa almost around this cold time of the year in upstate New York in February of 1988 when Frank was here rehearsing to begin the Broadway The Hard Way tour down at the Palace Theater in Albany NY where I live.

The local radio station was playing various Zappa albums each night which really caught my ear. By the time they played One Size Fits All (my favorite album) I was absolutely hooked. Here was music which effortlessly mutated ALL various styles I had ever heard before. There was rock, funk, fusion, you name it.

The musicianship on those records was fantastic. As with most music I like, I research all the players on the recordings. So I not only became fan of Frank's music but also of all the great musicians in his bands. The humor in his music was hilariously scatological, but for me the thing I liked most was the incredible music.

I started playing bass at 13....by the age of 15 I was a hardcore Primus fan. From interviews with Les and Larry LaLonde I picked up two reoccurring names...."Rush" and "Frank Zappa." I picked up a Rush greatest hits (which resulted in an obsession in it's own right, def. overshadowing the Primus obsession) and tracked down some Zappa on Limewire. Honestly I didn't get it and I was always pissed that it was usually live....plus it was Limewire, strike on my part. My senior year of highschool (2005) I went to the local music store and got the only Zappa they had in stock "Make a Jazz Noise Here." Still didn't get it, but once I started my formal music training in college and got my hands on "Filmore East," "Live In New York," and "Freak Out!" I was a fan.

It wasn't until I snagged the ZPZ dvd in 2010 that my love for Zappa opened up (it helped seeing songs I hadn't been exposed to yet being performed....like Inca Roads!) and within the last year my best friends and I have devoted waaaaay too much time getting albums. Oh, and it doesn't hurt that my wife and I first bonded over our shared love for Apostrophe/Over Nite Sensation. Discussing that album helped break the ice on our first date, which I consider a rarity in 2011.

So nice to see a lot here who were fans since the beginning. I don't feel quite as old, thanks.

I was born in 1961 and I must've been about 16 or 17 when I really experienced Zappa's music. I had started playing guitar at 15, listening to and playing pretty standard rock. AC-DC, Kiss, Zeppelin, Foghat, Queen, Aerosmith, Nugent, ..this was 1977, Chicago suburbs. Wayne's World for real. I had heard 'Don't Eat Yellow Snow' and 'I'm The Slime' on FM radio and my curiosity was piqued. I had heard of The Mothers of Invention but none of their music. I knew who Zappa was but not exactly what he did. I found out a kid I knew at school listened to Zappa and he recommended I check him out, more for the humor than anything. I think I started with 'Apostrophe', then 'Overnite Sensation', then 'Bongo Fury' I was digging it quite a bit ..
Also, this was around the first time FZ appeared on Saturday Night Live, which was the hottest show on TV then. He performed 'I'm The Slime' then some musical improvisation with Belushi. It was pretty cool TV.
I checked out more Zappa albums. I remember the 'Roxy & Elsewhere' LP was a mind-blowing listen, as was 'One Size Fits All', such rich stuff.
..Then 'Sheik Yerbouti' dropped on my 18th birthday. It was my first 'new' Zappa album, like a present. Phenomenal to experience at that time. It was in heavy rotation that entire Summer of '79. I would keep up with the new releases from there, pretty much until the end.

I was very glad to have seen FZ live a few times over the years, twice at the Uptown in Chicago and once at The Tower near Philly.

..okay, so here's the downside about the era in which I got into FZ's music; it was late enough that all the early MGM/Verve stuff was out of print and difficult to find. Also, it would be years until Frank had legal possession of those old masters, got them cleaned up and remastered, and re-released in the box sets. Consequently, for some years the earliest I could listen into Zappa's catalog was 'Hot Rats' or 'Live at the Fillmore', I didn't get to enjoy amazing albums like 'Freak Out' or 'We're Only In It For The Money' until much later. Eventually I did find original MGM/Verve Mothers releases in the rare record bins, and they remain a cherished part of my vinyl library.

First rule of French Fry Famine is don't speak of the French Fry Famine.

No, it's bullshit. My uncle had Apostrophe, played it quite a bit, and I loved it from the get-go. That was shortly after it came out.

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