Watson Ben - Frank Zappa: the complete guide to his music

I N THE LATE 80 S AND EARLY 90 S, WHEN Z APPAS BACK CATALOGUE WAS out of print, second-hand copies of The Mothers of Invention albums soared to the 50 mark. Now that Rykodisc has made the whole oeuvre available in conscientously repackaged CDs often with extra tracks and additional artwork the prices of the original vinyl has stabilized, and in some cases fallen.

Vinyl 7 singles by Zappa are highly prized. Novelty singles cut with Paul Buff and Ray Collins at PAL Studios (later Studio Z) on the Original Sound label are now as rare as the proverbial hens teeth, likewise How Could I Be Such A Fool?, Who Are The Brain Police? and Big Leg Emma b/w Why Dont You Do Me Right? on Verve. Throughout Zappas career, a single was usually issued to go with an album, but on the rare occasions singles were played on the radio, the audiences response was to buy the album rather than the single. The popularity of Sheik Yerbouti in continental Europe spawned some hits, so that Bobby Brown and Stick It Out may be obtained as singles in Scandinavia and Germany. Because it was issued as a single with an urgent message (and a great pic-sleeve by Cal Schenkel), I Dont Wanna Get Drafted is worth obtaining. Valley Girl was a bona fide hit, so copies of this have some meaning beyond completist fetishism.

Some collectors go for 12 vinyl singles. Ones to look out for: Dancin Fool, with a fine portrait la Sheik Yerbouti, with a tarbooshed Zappa smoking a Winston through a cigarette holder, and some extra beats (is that a hoover huffing and puffing like Donna Summer?) edited in to make the song disco length; True Glove, with Zappa fisting an oven glove, contained a backwards version of No Not Now called Won Ton On with Johnny GuitarWatsons verbal ejectamenta (rather than Harry & Rhondas, as on Thing-Fish); Zappas interview picture-disc from Talking Pictures; Valley Girl with a touching father/daughter photo on the cover; and finally Stairway To Heaven/ Bolero from 1991, with its satirical, anti-transcendent cover photo of iron fire-escapes leadingnowhere (a visual complement to the opening of Broadway The Hard Way, the album of Zappa originals played by the same band on the 1988 tour:Elvis has just left the building/ To climb up that heavenly stair).

In 1969, Zappa and Herbie Cohen founded two labels, Straight and Bizarre. Some fascinating albums resulted. Trout Mask Replica [Warner/Reprise 2027] by Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band is acknowledged as a classic (shortly before his untimely death in 2004, John Peel named it as his favourite rock record of all time).Theres been a lot of anti-Zappa (and anti-Beefheart) moaning issuing from members of the original Mothers (and the Magic Band), but no-one seems able to explain why Zappa should have produced the Captains masterpiece. Perhaps because, unlike other producers, he saw that Van Vliets music was unique, recorded it clearly and let it speak for itself. Zappa did not try and bend it towards soul or pop formats. Anyway, no self-respecting Zappaphile should persist without a copy. Luckily its out on CD (with a transcription of the words in the booklet, a luxury denied original purchasers, although fans dispute many details). An Evening With Wild Man Fischer(1969) was a double album documenting a certified lunatic who sold songs for a dime on the streets of Hollywood: by turns funny, insightful and scary. A CD version of Permanent Damage (1970) by The GTOs appeared briefly, but is now almost as rare as the vinyl: this collection of songs and statements by a gang of L.A. groupies (with contributions by Lowell George, Don Preston, Rod Stewart and Jeff Beck) is a favourite among Zappa cognoscenti (punk principles notwithstanding, cartoonist Savage Pencil admits he cannot hear it without weeping tiny sick tears of nostalgia). If you see the vinyl of Permanent Damage, make sure the deluxe booklet of photos and lyrics is included.

Released at the same time was bassist Jeff Simmons collaboration with guitarist Craig Tarwater, Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up (1969). Zappa salvaged the album, donating the title song and producing this fine collection of power chord-driven, jazzy psychedelia. Other releases on Straight (with less active involvement on the part of Zappa, but certainly interest) include spoken word by Lord Buckley (A Most Immaculately Hip Aristocrat) and Lenny Bruce (The Berkeley Concert); medieval folk-rock by Judy Henske and Jerry Yester (Farewell Aldebaran); shock rock by Alice Cooper (Easy Action); modal folk extensions by Tim Buckley (Blue Afternoon); and Dylanesque musings by Tim Dawe (Penrod). All these acts could be heard, along with Holiday In Berlin and Willie The Pimp by the Mothers, on Zappd, a budget sampler LP issued by Warner Brothers.

When Zappa and Herbie Cohen formed DiscReet Records, they issued albums by Ted Nugent & The Amboy Dukes (Call Of The Wild; Tooth, Fang And Claw) and Kathy Dalton (Boogie Bands And One Night Stands). These were hardly special; even the presence of Little Feat alumni on the latter failed to make it anything extraordinary. Other production dates by Zappa included Grand Funk Railroads Good Singin Good Playin for EMI in 1976, to which Zappa contributed a guitar solo (something he regretted, as reviewers tended to use his solo to damn the playing on the rest of the record, and he liked Grand Funk a great deal), and violinist L. Shankars Touch Me There for Zappa Records. Zappa and Ike Willis guested on the latter for Zappas Dead Girls Of London, singing jointly under the alias Stucco Homes. Zappa performed under another alias Obdewll X on two tracks of George Dukes Feel for MPS in 1974. Still harder to find is the CD by Prazsky Vyber named Adieu CA [AP 0001-2311], with Zappa playing guitar at Michael Kocbs concert to celebrate the evacuation of Russian troops from Prague on 24 June, 1991 (Zappa only plays on one number,Blaznivy Reggae, and was mortified, because he hadnt touched the guitar in years).

Perhaps the most sublimely insane guest appearance by Zappa is his version of Johns Cages silent composition 433, contributed to A Chance Operation: The John Cage Tribute [Koch 3-7238] curated for Koch International Classics by Gary Davis in 1993, with booklet essays by David Revill and Richard Kostelanetz. Strangely enough, the track is great: you can actually hear Frank keep silent!

Zappa has been bootlegged throughout his career, a practice he detested. In July 1991, Zappa licensed Rhino Records to bootleg his bootleggers, and release a boxed set of reproductions of his eight most famous illegal albums. Sound was slightly tweezed, but was derived from whatever the bootleggers had issued, often of fairly dubious quality (Zappa did not burrow into his archive and find his mixing-desk masters for these items; indeed, the whole project was handled by Rhino).The first Beat The Boots set was issued on both vinyl and CD: As An Am Zappa (31 Oct 81), The Ark: Mothers Of Invention (Jul 68), Freaks & Motherfu*%!!@# (11 May 70), Unmitigated Audacity (12 May 74), Anyway The Wind Blows (24 Feb 79), Tis The Season To Be Jelly (30 Sep 67), Saarbrucken 1979 (3 Sep 78) and Piquantique (21 Aug 73). The box included a cartoon representation of the Over-Nite Sensation Mothers in concert: the band were portrayed on the inside lid, with a pop-up audience including Rhino Records logo-rhino gleefully snipping the mic lead of a naughty bootlegger.

Fans bought these burnished turds (as Zappa called them), so a second box was issued in 1992: