The Frank Zappa 2012 Re-Issues

darkshade wrote: I got Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar the other day, must have been 6-7 years since I've last heard it. New remaster sounds good, I think I prefer listening to it in it's individual albums, even though the second one is partially on both discs. I also got The Yellow Shark in the mail today. Haven't listened to it yet, but the packaging is really nice, and comes with a 53 page booklet filled with info, stories, and pictures. Never owned the older CD versions, so I don't know this is the same as those (with the book and all). My shelf filled with the FZ 2012 reissues is starting to look really good with all the numbered spines.

The Yellow Shark was playing in my house today while I was doing laundry. The booklet is incredible and the music is very much a Avant-Garde affair. If I grabbed a small stack of 20th century composers works ..this would surely be included. This is amazing music! On my lunch break today, I spent a whole hour watching interviews with Frank Zappa on Y.T.  For me personally..it's the best entertainment on earth and especially his debates. Even though the subject matters are of course dated, it's very educational and much of what he expressed politically revealed the future which is unfortunately now the present. I never realized then..how much I would miss him ..as a spokesman for various subjects which contained points of views that sent energy radar signals to awaken my poor brain. What an interesting character he was.

Have you seen many German movies? Do you like to go to the movies? 

Edited by TODDLER - February 27 2013 at 08:35

Well, he does play with a lot of bile.

HarbouringTheSoul wrote: HolyMoly wrote: There's one archival release that I'd forgotten about until now - I think it's called FZ Plays FZ and I think DZ compiled it from several versions of Zoot Allures, including the legendary '76 live version from which "Ship Ahoy" was taken. What do you all think of that album? Is it even still available? I only have a CDR copy. It's a bit of a pointless album, but I can hardly fault it when the liver performances are that good.

I always thought Frank played from his heart...

Sorry to confuse.

^ he meant that "Sleep Dirt" isn't on Lather. I was thrown by his statement at first too.

TODDLER wrote: darkshade wrote: As a self-taught guitarist myself, like Frank, I understand what it's like to be a little rough around the edges. It's just how it is sometimes. What's funny is I don't think Frank practiced the guitar much before rehearsals for the '88 tour, yet the albums that came from that tour feature some of his best solos. The '84 band is the only time I feel like Zappa's solos were lacking (and maybe early-Mothers albums because he was still improving).   That's truly interesting and I agree about the '84 band ...like his playing on Whipping Post. There are magnificent solos on the '88 tour tapes ..very true! I loved his solo on "Thirteen" from Y.C.D.T.O.S.A. VOL.6 . Was that the '88 band? I can't recall? One of my favorite Zappa solos comes from LATHER. How ignorant of me not to remember the title..but it has something to do with the ocean. Wow! that is a very beautiful high energy solo in top form!

The Ocean Is The Ultimate Solution.

It's not on Lather, but Sleep Dirt the song has a great guitar solo too. But speaking of Lather, I've always enjoyed the guitar solo in Down In The Dew. He uses that electric-acoustic sound that's on a lot of the 70s albums, particularly famous for being the sound used on his guitar for the solo in Blessed Relief.

darkshade wrote: As a self-taught guitarist myself, like Frank, I understand what it's like to be a little rough around the edges. It's just how it is sometimes. What's funny is I don't think Frank practiced the guitar much before rehearsals for the '88 tour, yet the albums that came from that tour feature some of his best solos. The '84 band is the only time I feel like Zappa's solos were lacking (and maybe early-Mothers albums because he was still improving).

Thanks for the tip. Barfkoswill had 3 copies left and I ordered 1 just in time. Last week they had 9 copies. Maybe vultures are paying the eco price at Barfkoswill and placing them on Amazon for double...actually more than double because for a sealed copy it runs about $75.00.

Here's the next batch:

We're Only In It For The Money - This one has the restored original (and better) artwork with the Sgt. Peppers parody. I read somewhere that some dialogue was cut out of the reissue, but having listened to it myself, it sounds just like the Ryko CD, which is still the slightly censored version, and not the original vinyl mix. The completely uncensored version is on Lumpy Money.

I want to mention that it's a little ridiculous these UMe reissues of Freak Out!, WOIIFTM, and Uncle Meat are not the original vinyl mixes like the other reissues. I understand the ZFT wants to continue to selling MOFO and Lumpy Money, but seriously, only completists and Zappa-fanatics are going to get them, and besides, those box sets include other rarities and goodies, so they're still worth getting. Uncle Meat doesn't even have a box set for itself, so why wasn't that one the vinyl mix???

Anyway...

Does Humor Belong In Music? - Sounds pretty good to me. However, there is a big screw up with this album. The track-listing on the back is completely wrong, the last 4 tracks are in the wrong order. Unfortunately, the track index for those songs are also wrong, so if you listen on a CD player that shows the song title, it will be wrong. Luckily when I ripped this to iTunes, it showed the correct song titles, so it didn't really affect me personally.

Ahead Of Their Time - ***update coming soon***

You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 3 - Sounds like the older CD versions. Sounds a little louder.
You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 4 - Sounds like the older CD versions. Sounds a little louder.
You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 5 - Sounds like the older CD versions. Sounds a little louder.
You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 6 - Sounds like the older CD versions. Sounds a little louder.

With each volume consisting of so much music, it may take time to note any differences between these reissues and older CDs, if there are any.

The Lost Episodes - Sounds like the older CD versions. Sounds a little louder. I imagine since this and the YCDTOSA albums were created and came out in the late 80s/early 90s, there wouldn't be much need to remaster them, I don't even think they saw a vinyl release, and just came out on CDs originally.

*** I'm going to update this post later to include Ahead of Their Time, which I still haven't had a chance to listen to yet.