Some notes about the official FZ phonography
Including a compact mini-guide to different versions of Zappa's records
This is in no way the place to discuss in deep the many differences in terms of added, modified, re-tracked, remixed, and remastered material in the various re-issue of most Zappa's album (for this you better check the original Vinyl-vs-CD faq page or my Easy Teen-Age version).
Nevertheless some major facts need to be pointed out, mainly referring to the present commercially available editions of these records.
After making clear that, as general rule, the last cd edition of every album offers, if not the best audio quality, the most complete material in terms of quantity, you also have to keep in mind that all the main different editions of any record originated from Zappa himself, so there's no sense in saying "this is the real edition". The few exceptions on this are some of the EMI cd editions for the late 70s / early 80s albums: they weren't authorized by Zappa.
In this page I also discuss some other interesting aspects of Zappa musical production.
Main facts
- Three of the historical Zappa's albums exist in two very different versions:
- WOIIFTM (originally released in 1968) has been heavily manipulated and overdubbed (bass and drums parts) in 1984 for The Old Masters Box One. The original version has been restored only for the last Rykodisc cd, but the 1984 new mix is also in the first cd edition of this album (1986, coupled with Lumpy Gravy). The reworked 1984 version of WOIIFTM has been re-released (with the 1967 mono edition) by the ZFT on The Lumpy Money Project/Object;
- CWR&TJ (originally released in 1968) has been overdubbed (bass and drums parts) in 1984 for The Old Masters Box One. All the subsequent editions, including the last Rykodisc cd, have this new version, the old mix is only available in the original vinyl;
- all cd editions of Sleep Dirt (originally released in 1979 but recorded between 1974 and 1976) have added vocals on three tracks and drums overdubs on some (recorded in the early 80's). Original version of the overdubbed tracks is only available on the original vinyl or (with some edit variants) in Läther.
- Some albums have been consistently remixed for cd edition / re-edition:
Hot Rats,
The Man From Utopia, Does Humor Belongs In Music? and
London Symphony Orchestra (apart for the remix, the last double cd version of LSO contains added material and must be considered as the "definitive" version).
- All cd editions of Fillmore East, June 1971 don't have a track that was in the original vinyl (Willie The Pimp pt. two).
- European versions of TBBYNHIYL and MAJNH don't have (for copyright reasons) some tracks. Also FZMTMOP had different regional editions, but last Rykodisc cd contains the complete material from both versions.
- The cd edition of the following albums have added material compared to original vinyl versions:
Absolutely Free,
Uncle Meat,
Hot Rats,
Weasels Ripped My Flesh,
Zappa In New York,
The Man From Utopia, Baby Snakes and, as said, LSO.
- Guitar and Broadway The Hard Way went originally out in very different versions for cd and vinyl editions, with cds having much more material than vinyls.
- Other minor differences on mixing/editing/mastering has been noted nearly on every other cd release of old Zappa's vinyl albums, in particular on:
Freak Out! (the original 1966 stereo mix is now available on disc1 of MOFO),
Uncle Meat,
Burnt Weeny Sandwich,
Chunga's Revenge,
Apostrophe ('),
Roxy & Elsewhere;
Zoot Allures,
Studio Tan,
Sheik Yerbouti,
Tinsel Town Rebellion,
The Perfect Stranger,
You Are What You Is,
Thing-Fish and
Them Or Us.
- The two compilations created by Zappa himself, Mothermania (never released on cd) and Have I Offended Someone?, contain alternate mixing/editing of some regular album's tracks (HIOS contains also two tracks not available elsewhere). This is true, even if in a minor grade, also for Strictly Commercial / The Best Of Frank Zappa (an anthology not compiled by Zappa) that, in its various regional editions, contains the "single edit" of some regular album's songs.
- Most of Läther (officially released in 1996) consist of material previously released on four Zappa albums originally published between 1977 and 1979:
Zappa In New York,
Sleep Dirt,
Studio Tan and
Orchestral Favorites. - HEY! Läther is one of the greatest album ever, you must have it anyway!
Some minor curiosities
- Baby Snakes and Broadway The Hard Way vinyl editions contain some seconds not available on the relative cds.
- You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Sampler (a 2lp/1cd promotional issue from 1988) has different edits of a couple of songs published on YCDTOSA3.
- Zappa, for the Old Masters re-issue, also planned an overdubbed version Lumpy Gravy. In the end he chose for the old mix, but a short extract from the unreleased overdubbed version is audible in the The Old Masters Box I Sampler, a promotional single album released in 1985. This reworked 1984 version of Lumpy Gravy had been finally official released by the ZFT on The Lumpy Money Project/Object.
- The promo cassette tape The Guitar World According To Frank Zappa, released in 1987, contains an otherwise unreleased guitar solo, a different edit of three Guitar tracks and an overdubbed excerpt of Revised Music for Guitar and Low-Budget Orchestra from Studio Tan.
- In December 2006 the ZFT released The Frank Zappa AAAFNRAA Birthday Bundlee, a various artists compilation available only for download at iTunes. It contains previously unreleased versions of 5 Frank Zappa's songs, including four live tracks. In December 2008 they released The Frank Zappa AAAFNRAAA Birthday Bundlee, another various artists compilation available only for download at iTunes that contains the 1979 "disco" version of Dancin' Fool, the 1980 single version of Ancient Armaments and 3 previously unavailable live tracks.
- While most of the songs published as singles by Zappa had, especially in the early Mothers times, alternate mixing and/or editing from album version (and some of them are actually available only in boots), there are a couple of them never released on any album: Junior Mintz Boogie (b-side of Tears Began To Fall released in 1971) and The Black Page #1
(sinclavier version issued as single-sided flexi-disc for Keyboard Magazine, probably in 1986).
- The John & Joko / Plastic Ono Band double album Some Time In New York City (published in 1972) contains an entire side with a Lennon/Ono/Mothers jam that Zappa published only in 1992 in Playground Psychotics with a very different mix and editing.
- In December 1978 at the Nova Convention Zappa did a lecture of The Talking Asshole, an excerpt from the book "The Naked Lunch" by William Burroughs. It was published in various editions: check them here;
- In 1986 Zappa made the production and the background sinclavier music for a Eric Bogosian performance called Blood On The Canvas, "a sort of radio play with some music". The L.A. Museum Of Modern Art released a cassette tape of it, but it was soon withdrawn.
- In 1993 Zappa appeared in A Chance Operation - The John Cage Tribute (a 2CD set) performing his interpretation of the "three movement" Cage's composition 4:33.
The Torture Never Stops
- For a nearly complete Zappa discography you should add at the official records catalogue (including the Beat The Boots series) at least the following records:
- one or more compilation from the "Cucamonga Years", the pre-Mothers Zappa era that is very under-represented in the official Zappa catalogue - see a good Cucamonga discography at the Zappa Patio or the complete list of the Cucamonga singles;
- King Kong by Jean-Luc Ponty (1969) arranged and almost entirely written by Frank Zappa (who also play guitar in the only song he didn't write).
- Touch Me There by L. Shankar (1979) produced by Frank Zappa who also made some writing and lead vocals in Dead Girls Of London.
- do yourself a favor: find the Grace Slick version of Would You Like A Snack (no apparent relation with the 200M song), recorded by Zappa in 1968 (with some of the Mothers) and first published in 1992's Jefferson Airplane Loves You (or as bonus track in the 2003 cd edition of Crown Of Creation).
- Trout Mask Replica too? Check the complete list of the other Zappa's productions and collaborations.
- 200 Motels (the movie) and nearly all the home videos officially released by Zappa also contain music not available in official released records (more details here).
- A part from the demo and/or premix and/or text pressing versions that are known of various official Zappa releases (including, but not limited to WOIIFTM, UM, TF, CPIII), there are some album that Zappa nearly completed but, for one reason or another, never went released, these unreleased projects are available in their original content from the Zappa trading community:
- Lumpy Gravy - the Capitol version (1967). The alternate all orchestral version of Lumpy Gravy that Capitol hadn't the right to publish (being Zappa under contract with Verve) and that Zappa used as basis for the later released, in a completely different way, official Lumpy Gravy. Read all about it here. This "primordial" version of Lumpy Gravy had been finally official released (in the mono version) by the ZFT on The Lumpy Money Project/Object.
- Columbia (Capitol) YSA6477 test pressing (also known as We Are The Mothers And This Is What We Sound Like! or Rustic Protrusion or No Commercial Potential - probably dating back to 1969). Supposedly one of the LPs of the never released collection "The History And Collected Improvisations Of The Mothers Of Invention". One side of it is devoted to pre Mothers materials (and has been official released in Mystery Disk and The Lost Episode), while the other side contains some early Mothers material mostly still unreleased.
- Just Another Band From L.A. 2nd LP (1971 or 1972). This contains mostly instrumental live recordings from the late 1971 band, all still officially unreleased.
- Crush All Boxes (1980). If you check closely you can see this original title hidden in the Tinsel Town Rebellion album cover. It was intended as a single album and most of it ended up on YAWYI and TTR itself, with some different edits.
- Chalk Pie (2lp, 1982). I must admit that for some reason I prefer this unreleased album to everything Zappa officially released in the early eighties. Most of it ended up in TLTSADW, TMFU, G and FZMTMOP even if in different mixes. Some of it has remained unreleased.
- The are some other recordings, form various Zappa's eras, in some cases very interesting, that even if never reached a "pre-release" album format were undoubtable edited, mixed and put together by Zappa itself and are known mainly because he sometime played them at some radio programs: see the very detailed unreleased page at FZShows.
- Apart from the official released Zappa videos, there is a lot of professional video material that documents live or studio performances of Zappa, from the 1963's "Concert for two bicycles" to the 1992's Yellow Sharks rehearsals and shows: there were live broadcast of (almost) complete shows from various Zappa bands, some studio jams specially made for tv shows, some very good documentary with live material (especially from BBC, VPRO and Austrian television) and even a couple of TV shows completely set up by Zappa himself - A Token Of His Extreme (1974 - partially available in The Dub Room Special!) and We Don't Mess Around (1978). All of this material has never been official commercially released (not to talk about the already mythical but still unreleased and invisible Roxy DVD) and only some snippets of it are available in the official Zappa videos or as audio tracks in the YCDTOSA series. There are also a couple of short videos included in the Halloween DVD-audio release.
One of the future projects for these pages is to make a credible catalogue of all this video materials. Be patient, and for now check the complete list of Frank Zappa's live performances available on Frank Zappa's official videos and the FZ live performances available on video (1966-1974).
Related links:
Corrections and additions are really welcome.
This page created on April 2005 and latest revised on February 21, 2009
Touring Can Make You Crazy