Category: Frank Zappa

For many years Zappa’s best selling record, 1974’s Apostrophe holds a weird place in Zappa’s large discography. Rather than being a snapshot of where he was at the time it’s a jumbled patchwork. But looks are deceiving. The success of the goofy “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow” drove this record into the top ten and remains one of Zappa’s best-known singles. But buried beneath the silliness you find tight soulful blues, R&B, and jams. A new 50th anniversary edition expands it further with alternate takes and live sets.

Have you heard from your Mothers lately? Not far into the unmitigated archival audacity of Whisky A Go Go 1968, Frank Zappa pauses to lay out the evening’s agenda: “The purpose of this evening is supposedly to make some recordings of The Mothers live, in person…It’s pretty hard to record what we do because it gets so loud and ugly.” Originally conceived as the basis of their first live album, Whisky A Go Go 1968 presents nearly three hours of unreleased recordings of the classic Mothers lineup offering a bizarre sonic smorgasbord to a hungry throng of freakscene denizens that number Kim Fowley, members of The Rolling Stones, The Turtles, and John Mayall among among them.

The early part of 1970 has always been something of a black hole for Zappa fans. Session contracts suggested he was working, but on what exactly? Finally, with the release of Funky Nothingness, we get a look into this period. It’s not revelatory in the same way The Hot Rats Session box was, but it doesn’t feel like it’s supposed to be either. Instead it’s a peek into the studio and a look at Zappa’s music in transition, slowly moving from the jazz-rock of Hot Rats and into the harder jamming of his mid-’70s records.

When Hot Rats came out in October 1969, it showed a new side of Zappa’s music. It wasn’t poking fun at trends or mixing genres in a blender. It highlights his compositions and skill in both writing memorable songs and as a guitar hero. The lengthy guitar solos showed him emerging as more than just the scruffy leader of the Mothers of Invention, while the musicians he surrounded himself with – from session players to heavyweights like Jean-Luc Ponty – pointed to his ambitions as a musician. But when compared to the material within this box, it also shows Zappa as producer, too.

Located roughly halfway between Cleveland and Buffalo in the country side off the 1-90, Erie, Pennsylvania isn’t exactly the first place you’d go looking for rock music. But if you’re looking for Zappa? Well then, Erie has plenty for you on that front. Earlier this year, the Zappa estate released a six-CD box set of live material all recorded in the area within a three-year span: a show from May 1974, another from November 1974, and one from November 1976. All three are from Zappa’s mid-’70s prime, and two of them are great examples of bands that get short shrift in his massive discography.

Though the latest Frank Zappa archives box set The Mothers 1971 covers familiar ground, make no mistake: it’s a doozy. Offering another look at his Flo and Eddie-era band—like the Mothers 1970 set before it—this one is largely drawn from shows that were previously released, but are presented here in their entirety. This deep focus draws out new details and wrinkles, not to mention some choice cuts.

In Frank Zappa lore, 1972 is often shortchanged. The year before he toured with Flo and Eddie , witnessed a venue in Montreux burn to the ground during a gig, and closed out the year by being pushed off a London stage. In […]

Twenty-two and a half years ago, Frank Zappa sat down in a chair on a television set for a political debate show on a cable news network that was still fighting to be […]