FRANK ZAPPA
My CD collection

If you would like, you can go to the official Frank Zappa page!


In 1972, a friend of mine kept telling me that I had to listen to Frank's albums, he insisted that Frank was it. So I listened. At the time I liked the music more for the zaniness of the lyrics and weird look of the group, but grew to appreciate the talent that Frank had, including the ability to get GREAT musicians to play the music he had written. This is not a complete list of Frank's CD's, this is a list of the CD's that I own. I am adding data as fast as I can, so check back often. Please see the disclaimer at the bottom of this page for further information. Here is some information on how I created the Frank Zappa web pages.
Frank Zappa CD's that I own

'Tis The Season To Be Jelly [BTB]
200 Motels
Absolutely Free
Anyway The Wind Blows [BTB]
As An Am [BTB]
At The Circus [BTB]
Baby Snakes
Broadway The Hard Way
Burnt Weeny Sandwich
Chunga's Revenge
Civilization Phaze III
Conceptual Continuity [BTB]
Cruising With Reuben & The Jets
Disconnected Synapses [BTB]
Electric Aunt Jemima [BTB]
Francesco Zappa
Freak Out
Freaks & Motherfu*#@%!
Guitar
Have I Offended Someone?
Hot Rats
Interview Picture Disc
Jazz From Hell
Joes Garage Acts I, II, III
Make A Jazz Noise Here
Mystery Disc
Orchestral Favorites
Our Man In Nirvana [BTB]
Piquantique [BTB]
Playground Psychotics
Sheik Yerbouti
Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch
Studio Tan
Swiss Cheese / Fire [BTB]
Tengo La Minchia Tanta [BTB]
The Ark [BTB]
The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life
The Grand Wazoo
The Lost Episodes
The Yellow Shark
Them Or Us
Thing-Fish
Uncle Meat
Unmitigated Audacity [BTB]
We're Only In It For The Money / Lumpy Gravy
Weasels Ripped My Flesh
You Are What You Is
You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Volume 1
You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Volume 2
You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Volume 3
You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Volume 4
You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Volume 5
You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Volume 6
Zappa in New York
Zappa's Universe


All information contained in these pages is copyrighted by one or more of the following : Verve records, Rykodisc, Capitol Records, Barking Pumpkin Records, Warner Brothers, Zappa Family Trust, and anyone else who has the rights to the material presented here. Any errors or omissions are my fault. If a CD name ends with BTB it is a CD from the 'Beat The Boots' series of CD's, which are CD's that are officially released copies of bootleg CD's that were produced illegally.


An excerpt from 'The REAL Frank Zappa Book', by Frank Zappa with Peter Occhiogrosso. Poseidon Press, Simon and Schuster ISBN 0-671-63879-X. A GREAT book, go out and buy it today!

"Information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, wisdom is not truth, truth is not beauty, beauty is not love, love is not music. Music is the best." Frank Zappa, Joe's Garage, 1979

What Do You Do For A Living, Dad?

If any of my kids ever asked me that question, the answer would have to be : "What I do is composition." I just happen to use material other than notes for the pieces. Composition is a process of organization, very much like architecture. As long as you can conceptualize what that organizational process is, you can be a 'composer'- in any medium you want. You can be a 'video composer', a 'film composer', a 'choreography composer', a 'social engineering composer'--whatever. Just give me some stuff, and I'll organize it for you. That's what I do.
Project/Object is a term I have used to describe the overall concept of my work in various mediums. Each project (in whatever realm), or interview connected to it, is part of a larger object, for which there is no 'technical name.' Think of the connecting material in the Project/Object this way: A novelist invents a character. If the character is a good one, he takes on a life of his own. Why should he get to go to only one party? He could pop up anytime in a future novel. Or: Rembrandt got his 'look' by mixing just a little brown into every other color--he didn't do 'red' unless it had brown in it. The brown itself wasn't especially fascinating, but the result of its obsessive inclusion was that 'look.' In the case of the Project/Object, you may find a little poodle over here, a little blow job over there, etc., etc. I am not obsessed by poodles or blow jobs, however; these words (and others of equal insignificance), along with pictorial images and melodic themes, recur throughout the albums, interviews, films, videos (and this book) for no other reason than to unify the 'collection.'


The Frame

The most important thing in art is The Frame. For painting: literally; for other arts: figuratively--because, without this humble appliance, you can't know where The Art stops and The Real World begins. You have to put a 'box' around it because otherwise, what is that shit on the wall?

If John Cage, for instance, says "I'm putting a contact microphone on my throat, and I'm going to drink carrot juice, and that's my composition, " then his gurgling qualifies as his composition because he put a frame around it and said so. "Take it or leave it, I now will this to be music." After that it's a matter of taste. Without the frame-as-announced, it's a guy swallowing carrot juice.

So, if music is the best, what is music? Anything can be music, but it doesn't become music until someone wills it to be music, and the audience listening to it decides to perceive it as music. Most people can't deal with that abstraction--or don't want to. They say: "Gimme the tune. Do I like this tune? Does it sound like another tune that I like? The more familiar it is, the better I like it. Hear those three notes there? Those are the three notes I can sing along with. I like those notes very, very much. Give me a beat. Not a fancy one. Give me a GOOD BEAT--something I can dance to. It has to go boom-bap, boom-boom-BAP. If it doesn't, I will hate it very, very much. Also I want it right away--and then, write me some more songs like that-- over and over and over again, because I'm really into music.

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