Frank Zappa Touring Bands

Here is a good link to a site that lists the varius touring bands that frank had, at the bottom of the page on that site, is a exhaustive list of personal. Good site

http://members.shaw.ca/fz-pomd/lineups/index.html

Frank Zappa Quotes

Frank Zappa Quotes

• On a personal level, Freaking Out is a process whereby an individual casts off outmoded and restricting standards of thinking, dress, and social etiquette in order to express creatively his relationship to his immediate environment and the social structure as a whole.
  • Liner notes for the album Freak Out! (27 June 1966)

• My solos are speech-influenced rhythmically; and harmonically, the're either pentatonic, or poly-scale oriented. And there's the mixolydian mode that I also use a lot...But I'm more interested in melodic things I think the biggest challenge when you go to play a solo is trying to invent a melody on the spot.
  • Denyer, Ralph (2002). The Guitar Handbook. p. 102. ISBN 0-679-74275-1.

• Drop out of school before your mind rots from exposure to our mediocre educational system. Forget about the Senior Prom and go to the library and educate yourself if you've got any guts. Some of you like Pep rallies and plastic robots who tell you what to read. Forget I mentioned it. This song has no message. Rise for the flag salute.
  • Liner notes for the album Freak Out! (27 June 1966)

• The things that were happening in 1955 were cosmic ... in terms of music history.
  • Interview (5 March 1969), broadcast on Pop Chronicles, Show 14 - Big Rock Candy Mountain: Rock 'n' roll in the late fifties. Part 4

• Scientology, how about that? You hold on to the tin cans and then this guy asks you a bunch of questions, and if you pay enough money you get to join the master race. How's that for a religion?
  • Concert address to audience at the Rockpile, Toronto (May 1969)

• I consider that the building materials are exactly the same as what anybody else makes the thing out of. It's just the way they look at those materials is perhaps a narrower perspective. Time and those waves are at the disposal of anyone who wants to use them.
  • As quoted in No Commercial Potential : The Saga of Frank Zappa (1972) by David Walley, p. 3

• I think it's really tragic when people get serious about stuff. It's such an absurdity to take anything really seriously ... I make an honest attempt not to take anything seriously: I worked that attitude out about the time I was eighteen, I mean, what does it all mean when you get right down to it, what's the story here? Being alive is so weird.
  • As quoted in No Commercial Potential : The Saga of Frank Zappa (1972) by David Walley, p. 4

• 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…
  • Lyrics to the song Packard Goose on the album Joe's Garage: Act III (19 November 1979)

• I think that if a person doesn't feel cynical then they're out of phase with the 20th century. Being cynical is the only way to deal with modern civilization, you can't just swallow it whole.
  • The Dub Room Special (1982)

• Being interviewed is one of the most abnormal things that you can do to somebody else. It's two steps removed from the Inquisition.
  • Interview on Channel 4 (1 June 1983) - YouTube video

• I don't give a fuck if they remember me at all.
  • Interview on Nationwide (1 July 1983) - YouTube video

• I'm probably more famous for sitting on the toilet than for anything else that I do.
  • Interview on Nationwide (1 July 1983)

• I'll tell you what classical music is, for those of you who don't know. Classical music is this music that was written by a bunch of dead people a long time ago. And it's formula music, the same as top forty music is formula music. In order to have a piece be classical, it has to conform to academic standards that were the current norms of that day and age ... I think that people are entitled to be amused, and entertained. If they see deviations from this classical norm, it's probably good for their mental health.
  • Cocaine Decisions (1983)

Zappa Full Discography

Every Listing has a review  on this blog, look for the links on the right.

Frank Zappa Official albums
Released	Title
Year	Month	Title
1966	Jun	Freak Out!
1967	Apr	Absolutely Free
	Aug	Lumpy Gravy
1968	Mar	We're Only in It for the Money
	Nov	Cruising with Ruben & the Jets
1969	Mar	Uncle Meat
		Mothermania
	Oct	Hot Rats
1970	Feb	Burnt Weeny Sandwich
	Aug	Weasels Ripped My Flesh
	Oct	Chunga's Revenge
1971	Aug	Fillmore East – June 1971
	Oct	200 Motels
1972	Mar	Just Another Band from L.A.
	Jul	Waka/Jawaka
	Nov	The Grand Wazoo
1973	Sep	Over-Nite Sensation
1974	Mar	Apostrophe (')
	Jul	Roxy & Elsewhere
1975	Jun	One Size Fits All
	Oct	Bongo Fury
1976	Oct	Zoot Allures
1978	Mar	Zappa in New York
	Sep	Studio Tan
1979	Jan	Sleep Dirt
	Mar	Sheik Yerbouti
	May	Orchestral Favorites
	Sep	Joe's Garage Act I
	Nov	Joe's Garage Acts II & III
1981	May	Tinsel Town Rebellion
		Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar
		Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar Some More
		Return of the Son of Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar
	Sep	You Are What You Is
1982	May	Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch
1983	Mar	The Man from Utopia
		Baby Snakes
	Jun	London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. I
1984	Aug	Boulez Conducts Zappa: The Perfect Stranger
	Oct	Them or Us
	Nov	Thing-Fish
		Francesco Zappa
		The Old Masters, Box I
1985	Nov	Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention
1986	Jan	Does Humor Belong in Music?
	Nov	The Old Masters, Box II
		Jazz from Hell
1987	Jun	London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. II
	Dec	The Old Masters, Box III
1988	Apr	Guitar
	May	You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 1
	Oct	You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 2
		Broadway the Hard Way
1989	Nov	You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 3
1991	Apr	The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life
	Jun	Make a Jazz Noise Here
		You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 4
1992	Jul	You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 5
	—	You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 6
	Nov	Playground Psychotics
1993	Mar	Ahead of Their Time
	Oct	The Yellow Shark
Posthumous albums
1994	Dec	Civilization Phaze III
1996	Feb	The Lost Episodes
	Sep	Läther
	Oct	Frank Zappa Plays the Music of Frank Zappa: A Memorial Tribute
1997	May	Have I Offended Someone?
1998	Sep	Mystery Disc
1999	Dec	Everything Is Healing Nicely
2002	Aug	FZ:OZ
2003	Feb	Halloween
2004	May	Joe's Corsage
	Oct	Joe's Domage
	Sep	QuAUDIOPHILIAc
2005	Dec	Joe's XMASage
2006	Jan	Imaginary Diseases
	Dec	The MOFO Project/Object (2-CD set)
	—	The MOFO Project/Object (4-CD set)
	Oct	Trance-Fusion
2007	Apr	Buffalo
	Aug	The Dub Room Special!
	Oct	Wazoo
2008	Jun	One Shot Deal
	Sep	Joe's Menage
2009	Jan	Lumpy Money
	Dec	Philly '76
2010	Apr	Greasy Love Songs
	Sep	Congress Shall Make No Law...
	Nov	Hammersmith Odeon
2011	Sep	Feeding the Monkies at Ma Maison
	Oct	Carnegie Hall
Miscellaneous
1982	May	Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar (Box Set)
1987	May	Joe's Garage Acts I, II & III
1991	Jul	Beat the Boots
1992	Jun	Beat the Boots II
1995	Apr	London Symphony Orchestra, Volumes I & II
2009	Jan	Beat the Boots III
Compilation albums
Released
Year	Month
1968	Oct	The **** of the Mothers
1970	Jul	The Mothers of Invention
1971	Mar	Worst of the Mothers
1987	Jun	The Guitar World According to Frank Zappa
1995	Aug	Strictly Commercial
1997	May	Strictly Genteel
1998	Feb	Cucamonga
	Apr	Cheap Thrills
1999	Apr	Son of Cheep Thrills
2006	Dec	The Frank Zappa AAAFNRAA Birthday Bundle 2006
2008	Dec	The Frank Zappa AAAFNRAAA Birthday Bundle 2008
2010	Dec	The Frank Zappa AAAFNRAAAA Birthday Bundle 2010
2011	Dec	The Frank Zappa AAAFNRAAAAAM Birthday Bundle 2011

Frank Zappa- The playboy interview

The playboy interview

Frank Zappa

Interview in Playboy
May 2, 1993

A candid conversation with the most original mind in rock music about world affairs, jewish princesses, fighting cancer and life beyond the fringe
Few would doubt that Vaclav Havel, the Czech playwright-turned-politician, and Matt Groening, creator of "The Simpsons," make an odd pair. Yet in separate interviews, when asked which person had the greatest influence on their lives, both came up with the same name: Frank Zappa. "Who else?" wondered Groening. "I listened to the music, I dissected the lyrics and it transformed me."
Havel and Groening are not alone. In this years Playboy Music Poll, our readers chose Zappa as the 43rd inductee into the Playboy Music Hall of Fame, where he joins the likes of Frank Sinatra, John Lennon and Bruce Springsteen. But even before the votes had been counted, Playboy's editors had Zappa on their minds and had invited him to sit for the "Playboy Interview." The result is an unusual coincidence: For the first time in the magazine's history, an issue of Playboy both announces the Hall of Fame winner and features him in the interview.
What makes this occurrence even more unusual is that Frank Zappa is no mainstream musician. While he is lionized in Europe, his avant-garde compositions and pointed, satirical lyrics are seldom heard on America radio. As he admits, people are often confused and angered by his work. As the leader of the Mothers of Invention, one of the weirdest - and most brilliant - experimental bands ever, Zappa earned a prominent place in rock lore. He didn't do drugs, he fought censorship and he distributed a poster of himself sealed nude on a toilet, calling it "Phi Zappa Krappa." It's no wonder that the first chapter of his autobiography is tilled "How Weird Am I, Anyway?"
Over the course of his career, few were left unscathed by Zappa's wicked satire set to music. A Randy Newman with fangs, Zappa went after fashion, hypocrisy and stereotypes, managing to offend an amazing array of people. Women were incensed over the song "Titties and Beer," parents were horrified by such lyrics as "Watch out where the huskies go/and don't you eat that yellow snow" and gays were furious over "He's So Gay." The Anti-Defamation League of the B'nai B'rith denounced "Jewish Princess" ("with overworked gums, she squeaks when she comes") and demanded an apology. As always, Zappa refused.
Like his fans, his enemies could take some consolation in the fact that they weren't alone. Zappa's attacks crossed political and ideological lines; he skewered Jesse Jackson, former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, rednecks and televangelists.
His music confounded his fans, too. His range often seemed limitless, as he jumped successfully from rock to jazz to classical. He has released more than 50 albums, including "Freak Out," "Sheik Yerbouti," "Apostrophe," "200 Motels" (also the name of a film, now a cult classic) and "Jazz from Hell." His classical music has been lauded in stuffy circles, and he has released albums of his work performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. in Frankfurt, Germany, his soon-to-be-released "The Yellow Shark" was the highlight of a festival last fall, and earlier this year the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York presented "The Music of Frank Zappa" as part of its Great Performers series.
Zappa was able to make enemies even when he wasn't making music. He took on Tipper Gore and Susan Baker, wife of former Secretary of State James Baker, when they demanded that records be rated according to content - the same way movies are. Zappa testified before the Senate Commerce Committee, calling Gore, Baker and their committee "a group of bored Washington housewives" who wanted to "housebreak all composers and performers because of the lyrics of a few." He lost the crusade but remained a vigorous advocate of First Amendment rights.
He has also campaigned to encourage his audiences to vote. Voter registration booths were set up in the lobbies of the concert halls in which he performed. In his "Video from Hell" (the companion to "Jazz from Hell"), he included a note that read, "Register to vote and read the Constitution before it's void where prohibited by law. " His frustrations with government led him to consider being part of it: In 1991 he announced that he was running for president.
After some bad experiences in the record business (in the song "Brown Shoes Don't Make It," he memorialized the businessmen who screwed him), Zappa and his wife (and manager), Gail, formed their own record labels and merchandising operation. (There's even a Zappa hotline: 1-818-PUMPKIN.) His broad insight into economics and politics inspired the Financial News Network to ask him to guest-host a talk show. That gig took him to Czechoslovakia to meet with Havel, then the president, before the country split into two republics.
Zappa's music had been smuggled behind the iron curtain since the Sixties, and he had become a hero to the Czech people. His song "Plastic People" was an underground anthem. When he visited Prague, students told him that he had been considered one of the worst enemies of the Communist state. One student told of being arrested by the secret police, jailed and beaten. "We are going to beat the Zappa music out of your head," the officer screamed. Upon meeting Zappa, the boy said, "Our dream has come true today.
Havel was so enamored of him that he made Zappa the country's special ambassador to the West on trade, culture and tourism. Zappa had big plans to help bridge cultural and economic barriers with the West. The appointment, however, was derailed by Secretary of State Baker. Columnist Jack Anderson reported that Baker was "carrying an old grudge" from Zappa's dismissal of Susan Baker as a "bored housewife." "When [Baker] arrived in Prague," Anderson wrote, "he had his surrogates convey his displeasure to Havel." Havel succumbed to the pressure and canceled the appointment.
Zappa came far to have such high-placed enemies. A song called "Son of Mr. Green Genes" made people think his father was the character on "Captain Kangaroo," but in truth, he is the son of a meteorologist who did research on poison gases for the military. Gas masks hung on a wall of the family's home in case of an accident with the chemical weapons his father studied.
The family moved frequently before ending up in Lancaster, California, where Frank played drums in the school marching band. His musical taste, however, was eclectic; while his classmates swooned over Elvis, he listened to composers such as Edgard Varese and Anton Webern.
In Lancaster, Zappa formed his first garage band, the Black-Outs (so named after the night some of his bandmates drank too much peppermint schnapps and blacked out). He later joined the Soul Giants, which became the Mothers of Invention. With Zappa as their guitar-wielding leader, the Mothers were known for their excellent and innovative music - "Uncle Meat," "Weasels Ripped My Flesh" and "The Grand Wazoo" are classic albums - and for their antics. One of the more colorful rock legends maintains that Zappa and Alice Cooper had a gross-out contest onstage: After Cooper allegedly squashed some live baby chicks, Zappa supposedly picked up a plastic spoon and ate a plate of steaming feces. Although Zappa denies it, he's been haunted by the story for years.
While his reputation for weirdness is his trademark, his private life seems eminently sane. Now 52, he has been married to Gail for 25 years and is a devoted father to his four children - Moon Unit, 25 (she was the voice of the obnoxious "Valley Girl" in his 1982 hit song), Dweezil, 23, Ahmet, 18, and Diva, 13. It was Moon and Dweezil who shocked their father's fans in November 1991 when they announced that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. The illness forced him to drop his planned presidential campaign, and both work and travel have been disrupted. His "Playboy Interview," was conducted by Contributing Editor David Sheff, who most recently chatted with Steve Martin for the January 1993 interview. Sheff reports:
"The Zappa home is a mock-Tudor Pee-wee's Playhouse in fast-forward mode. In one room, a state-of-the-art recording studio, engineers work on computers and recording equipment, and in another room, editors pore over frames of videotape. Various assistants dash through halls decorated with memorabilia such as gold records and Zappa license plates. On one wall is a poster of Ronald Reagan as Adolf Hitler.
"I waited for Zappa in a wood-paneled room on a comfortable old couch opposite a redbrick fireplace. When Frank came in, he attempted to sit comfortably in a large purple leather chair. But comfort was impossible - Zappa explained that the pain had invaded his lower back.
"The interview was interrupted briefly by assistants bringing coffee or Frank's dinner, a bagel and cream cheese. Gail sleepily stopped in to say hello; she was exhausted after an all-night flight from Tokyo, where she had gone with Diva and Moon Unit to see Dweezil play guitar with a Japanese pop star. Later, Diva came in, flopped on her dad's lap and gave him a big kiss, telling him how much she had missed him.
"Zappa, with his trademark mustache and sideburns, chain-smoked while he spoke with unmistakable passion, and urgency, about his music, his politics, his family and his illness. Occasionally, pain overcame him and he stopped speaking. I asked if he wanted to take a break and resume later. degrees No,' he said, degrees let's keep going.'
"We finished after seven straight hours and as we wound up, I fell both inspired and deeply saddened. I thanked him and told him it was a good interview. He said, degrees As long as it goes beyond the fringe.'"