Any attempt to compile a best Frank Zappa albums of all time list would be met by any of his hardcore fans with disdain and scornful eyebrows (at best). Most of us realised long ago that to make any semi-worthwhile assessment of Frank involves taking into account his ENTIRE body of work - itself a gargantuan task with some 60-odd albums released up to his death in 1993, and many others from his family's vault in Los Angeles since.
I guess the only plausible reason anybody would begin such an exercise is one borne out of nostalgia, something Frank despised in pop music consumption. In my case, I can only look back fondly at those particular occasions Frank came into my life via his albums, and the parts of my young life those albums illuminated and made infinitely more bearable.
With apologies to rabid Zappa fanatics, here are my five FZ favourites:
* Sheik Yerbouti - released on the CBS label in March 1979; contained a couple of the very few Zappa hit singles, Dancin' Fool and Bobby Brown (a No 1 song in Norway). My first introduction to Zappa - I thought the music was stunning and the lyrics......I wondered how he got away with them? Incidentally, whatever he came out with, it never offended me!
* Joe's Garage Act I - released in September 1979. My second introduction to Zappa, and by now I was convinced he was a genius and running The Beatles a very close second (that order flips every now and then). Still salacious, shocking, unbridled and musically astonishing - I'd not really heard the like of this before.
* Absolutely Free - released August 1967. A copy was lent to me by a friend in my 6th form college. Once more, I was hearing combinations of sounds that grabbed and shook my brain til it squirted. Here was a collage approach to music, with people squealing and laughing while lyrics were being sneered, cash registers were driven home and the President Of The USA was being sick and brought some chicken soup.
* One Size Fits All - released 1975. Sublime production, a funky feel to most of the material and George Duke on top form playing keyboards and synthesisers. The added bonuses of Johnny 'Guitar' Watson's superb vocals on the songs Andy and San Ber'dino give an extra sheen to an album of lustrous brilliance.
* Lumpy Gravy - Frank's first recorded foray with a symphony orchestra, entirely instrumental but interspersed with some arcane dialogue generated 'inside a piano'. It included the much-loved Theme From Lumpy Gravy
I guess the only plausible reason anybody would begin such an exercise is one borne out of nostalgia, something Frank despised in pop music consumption. In my case, I can only look back fondly at those particular occasions Frank came into my life via his albums, and the parts of my young life those albums illuminated and made infinitely more bearable.
With apologies to rabid Zappa fanatics, here are my five FZ favourites:
* Sheik Yerbouti - released on the CBS label in March 1979; contained a couple of the very few Zappa hit singles, Dancin' Fool and Bobby Brown (a No 1 song in Norway). My first introduction to Zappa - I thought the music was stunning and the lyrics......I wondered how he got away with them? Incidentally, whatever he came out with, it never offended me!
* Joe's Garage Act I - released in September 1979. My second introduction to Zappa, and by now I was convinced he was a genius and running The Beatles a very close second (that order flips every now and then). Still salacious, shocking, unbridled and musically astonishing - I'd not really heard the like of this before.
* Absolutely Free - released August 1967. A copy was lent to me by a friend in my 6th form college. Once more, I was hearing combinations of sounds that grabbed and shook my brain til it squirted. Here was a collage approach to music, with people squealing and laughing while lyrics were being sneered, cash registers were driven home and the President Of The USA was being sick and brought some chicken soup.
* One Size Fits All - released 1975. Sublime production, a funky feel to most of the material and George Duke on top form playing keyboards and synthesisers. The added bonuses of Johnny 'Guitar' Watson's superb vocals on the songs Andy and San Ber'dino give an extra sheen to an album of lustrous brilliance.
* Lumpy Gravy - Frank's first recorded foray with a symphony orchestra, entirely instrumental but interspersed with some arcane dialogue generated 'inside a piano'. It included the much-loved Theme From Lumpy Gravy
Some Zappa fans may also be partial to the work of a new UK artist, James Henry.
His latest album Overspill has a Zappa-style concept-album structure and is peppered with a wide variety of excellently produced songs, including the Lumpy Gravy-like instrumental Industrial Injury. This is available here as a free download by clicking the link below - I hope you find it very dynamite!
His latest album Overspill has a Zappa-style concept-album structure and is peppered with a wide variety of excellently produced songs, including the Lumpy Gravy-like instrumental Industrial Injury. This is available here as a free download by clicking the link below - I hope you find it very dynamite!
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