What is the worst album you've heard

AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: Easy Money wrote: AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: I don't know thing fish but what do you guys think of lumpy gravy? It's been a long time since I played it. I actually think it's good despite all the spoken word stuff (I actually happen to like spoken word to a point although he sort of pushes the limit on that one). I like the musical parts to Lumpy Gravy a lot, but don't care for the cringe spoken parts, that stuff worked back in that time period, but not anymore. Why not now? Too cheesey? There's modern prog that has spoken word in it you know. I will admit that on Lumpy Gravy the spoken word stuff sounded very random and didn't seem to have any purpose.

Hard to explain really, I was a teenager when that album came out and a lot of that might have seemed funny back then, but not so much now. Its very time period stuff. A lot of hippy era things have not aged well, but then again some hippy things have.

Grumpyprogfan wrote: Paul is correct about Thing Fish. Does anyone here like it more than one star?

Awesoreno wrote: Grumpyprogfan wrote: Paul is correct about Thing Fish. Does anyone here like it more than one star? Me. Although I prefer most of the non-original tracks in other contexts.

moshkito wrote: Hi, I'm guessing that no one has heard The GTO's. I keep thinking that sometimes, crap will remain crap ... even when colored funny!  PS: I think the album is a rarity and not suited for the toob, unless it is censored in parts. But a lot of the stuff in it is very boring and I think that the really meaty and strong stuff was taken out so the album could be heard, instead of immediately dumped. The problem was that making the stuff here something like R rated instead of the X it should have to give it some validity ... ends up making the album ... rather boring, and the women/girls looking just plain boring and silly.  PS2: And there are some bio's out there that are really strong and way better, and some are down right pornographic, a feeling that you would expect from some of these women, instead of what we got in the GTO's.

Oddly I recall being age 14 or 15 , (early 70s) and collecting everything I could find released on Zappa's first label. He signed several people who were defined as Outsider Music.Captain Beefheart, GTO's, Wild Man Fischer, Lord Buckley came across in a manner which involved more than just the tip of thee iceberg insanity.

Even Alice Cooper Pretties For You was off beat? I'm not a fan of his music..but I do think that Pretties For You is odd for Alice Cooper and is somewhat more representative of Syd Barrett ( earlyFloyd), than anything else circulating then.

In some cases these particular artists which Zappa promoted ( in his own way) had to be dealt with by Mr. Zappa himself...especially when they got heated up . For example..Wild Man Fischer throwing a bottle ( I believe?) and missing Moon Unit's head by an inch or two...and Zappa telling him to hit the road for good...

The drama was on going. For example the living conditions that Captain Beefheart subjected his band members to were a bit like the gnostics living in the desert and he punished his band mates like a cult leader.

It seemed to me that Zappa was a good parent and a conservative even though much of his music would suggest that he was a nut..it was in fact the people around him who truly displayed actions of being an ideal candidate for psychiatric treatment.

Roy Estrada unfortunately turned out to be a pedophile and Jim Gordon ( drums on Apostrophe and Imaginary Diseases) chopped his mother into little pieces...and all because he heard voices instructing him to do it.

Some of the people Zappa signed or hired could have easily been institutionalized and simply based on how their actions /behavior was telling and revealing how dangerous they could be to innocent people around them...bystanders...Zappa was probably the only musician in Rock Music to have hired quite a few of them and witnessed real life experiences that were perhaps too over the top and insane for him. Not artists theatrically playing that role but instead the real thing. Ed Sanders who was signed to Warner Brothers came across with that certain Outsider Music vibe however not completely insane like some of the artists on Bizzare Records.

moshkito wrote: Hi, I'm guessing that no one has heard The GTO's. I keep thinking that sometimes, crap will remain crap ... even when colored funny!  PS: I think the album is a rarity and not suited for the toob, unless it is censored in parts. But a lot of the stuff in it is very boring and I think that the really meaty and strong stuff was taken out so the album could be heard, instead of immediately dumped. The problem was that making the stuff here something like R rated instead of the X it should have to give it some validity ... ends up making the album ... rather boring, and the women/girls looking just plain boring and silly.  PS2: And there are some bio's out there that are really strong and way better, and some are down right pornographic, a feeling that you would expect from some of these women, instead of what we got in the GTO's.

Starshiper wrote: 1981 double album "You Are What You Is" comes to mind immediately; it embodies Frank Zappa's then-new 80s philosophy, which, regrettably, will follow him throughout the rest of his career. It's not as complicated as it sounds—"You Are What You Is" is just another boring pop-rock record with an "artistic" feel and forced and long outdated Frank's jokes.

Nothing outdated about his lyrics about religion and televangelists.

Edited by Grumpyprogfan - September 30 2024 at 12:06

I defy anyone who calls a single album by Zappa "pop rock." Some of his albums are more accessible than others undoubtedly. But You Are What You Is is in no way just a pop rock record. It's too weird, calls on too many genres and styles, and is too involved compositionally. If one doesn't like the ironic lyrics, that's fine. Many can't handle the maximalism apparent in the compositions as well. Listen to the suite on side 2 of disc 1. Crazy stuff going on, particularly on I'm a Beautiful Guy and Beauty Knows No Pain. Not traditional "prog" to be sure, but progressive and fusing multiple styles.

[/QUOTE]Didn't Zappa actually do a lot of tacky pop music during his entire career? He recorded a lot of crappy 1950s doo-wop with The Mothers, for example, at a time when that genre was naff.[/QUOTE]

Zappa and many of his band members back then were very much into doo wop and even scored a couple of regional hits with songs from "Rueben and the Jets", in fact Zappa had written a couple other regional hits when he was younger. This was the music he grew up on.
There are some jokey elements to "Rueben and the Jets", but its actually a very good doo wop album, the vocal arrangements are outstanding. Doo wop music in general may sound 'jokey' to post hippie sensibilities, but it was the music of the day when Frank was young.

My worst "prog" albums of 1990:-