Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Zappadan 2010

After last year's festival of Zappadan, I got real serious about Frank for a while, and it was winter, so I cruised on and off through everything Zappa I own, writing down songs of interest for a new compilation, planning on making a follow-up to the Zappa mix I discussed here last year. It took awhile, but I did it in stages.

I've only got four days left as I write this, so I probably won't complete the mix in time for the beginning of the festival, but maybe before it ends. The problem is that after listening to something like thirty-seven Zappa LPs and CDs, writing down song titles and running times, I had about 345 minutes of music. After several sessions of editing, I'm still only down to 210 minutes, which can be done on 3 CDs, but I really wanted to do something a bit more more concise, and sane, than that. Something that someone other than me would perhaps also enjoy.

I've also recently been reading Zappa: A Biography by Barry Miles. I've read the criticisms of the book, and they may be well founded, as I'm hardly a reader of biographies in general. But the factual basics of his life's chronology seem pretty well detailed, and as a fan that didn't know that much about the man, I'm finding it interesting. He was a different sort.

And so, to kick off the festivities of Zappadan, I give you my Top Five Favorite (not Best, not Most Important) Zappa Records in no particular order:
Weasels Ripped My Flesh 1970
The Grand Wazoo 1972
Apostrophe(') 1974
The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life 1991
One Size Fits All 1975


3 comments:

  1. I've been reading the Miles bio too. I hope you will check out my Zappadan posts at ketchupisavegetable.com, as they are based solely on the book. Lot of good stuff in there, though it's clear often that Miles is not a fan.

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  2. Enjoyed your Zappa posts.
    Thanks for the comment, and Happy Zappadan.

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  3. His name is Bobby--he looks like a potato. Happy Zappadan to one and all!

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