TopTenREVIEWS presents the music career and reviews of Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
CAREER SPAN:
Decade
Album Score
# Albums
Ratings and rankings are based on all available critic reviews for each album.
Overall Band Score:
3.5623
Frank Zappa Album Rankings
1
So what exactly were Frank Zappa and the Mothers Of Invention aiming for when they recordedWe're Only In It For The Money? Were they trying to answer The Beatles, who had just come out with (to many p
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2
Do you know why I like Frank Zappa? It's not just because of his status as a musical revolutionary, and it's not just because of the large amount of brilliant work that attaches to his name.
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3
Just as Athena was born not as an infant but instead emerged fully grown and clothed out of the split-open skull of Zeus, Freak Out! presented Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention as a fully matur
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4
When you have a catalog that spans over 60 albums and 30 years, how do you choose one item to highlight?When your subject is the late Frank Zappa, this isn't an easy question to answer.
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5
If there's anything I've learned about Frank Zappa over the course of doing this retrospective, it's that he rarely said anything he couldn't back up.
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6
The first real exposure I had to Frank Zappa's music -- with the exception of riding in a high school friend's car, when I was too young and stupid to appreciate what I was hearing -- was thanks to a
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7
Uncle Meatwas legendary in the catalog of the Mothers Of Invention for being the soundtrack to a movie that wasn't officially completed until long after this iteration of the band had dissolved - yet
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8
It's really a shame that Frank Zappa isn't alive today, in the year 2005, to see how little some things have changed in America from when he and the Mothers Of Invention released their sophomore discA
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9
Coming off what turned out to be the final dissolution of the Mothers Of Invention and a short tour with his old friend Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa did something that many people may not have expec
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10
Anyone who is even mildly interested in Frank Zappa knows that he and mainstream record labels got along like oil and water.
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11
Today we're going to talk about a subject that has often been taboo -- even controversial -- in the music industry:bootlegs.
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12
As usual for Zappa, the lyrics and album sleeve seem to contain deeper meaning than a first glance might provide you.
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13
Track listing: 1) Teen-age Wind; 2) Harder Than Your Husband; 3) Doreen; 4) Goblin Girl; 5) Theme From The 3rd Movement Of Sinister Footwear; 6) Society Pages; 7) I'm A Beautiful Guy; 8) Beauty Knows
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14
I may as well get this out of the way right now: I loveApostrophe, the 1974 release from Frank Zappa. I mean, I love this album. Love it, love it, loveitloveitloveitlo...
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15
After all of the time that Frank Zappa spent honing his skills as a serious composer, it seems kind of ironic that his return to form,Broadway The Hard Way, was an album of pop tunes with more than a
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16
This review is eighteen months overdue.
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17
As difficult as trying to predict the next musical move Frank Zappa was going to make was, one has to wonder what brought about the short tour that Zappa did with his longtime friend Captain Beefheart
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18
Frank Zappa always proved to be a prolific artist - how else does one explain releasing over 50 albums prior to his death in 1993? But the two-month period from October to November 1984 further illust
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19
The same idea here as 'Cheap Thrills'.
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20
Lumpy Gravy, Frank Zappa's first solo album, was released months beforethe Mothers of Invention's third LP (even though its back cover asked the question: "Is this phase two ofWe're Only in It for the
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21
One of the Holy Grails for any Frank Zappa fan is to acquire a copy of his three-hour movieBaby Snakes.
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22
The first Zappa release on which he ditched avant-garde fully for commerce.
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23
Joe's Garagewas originally released in 1979 in two separate parts;Act Icame first, followed by a two-record set containingActs II & III. Rykodisc's reissue puts all three acts together on two CDs.
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24
Of the three CDs released by Frank Zappa featuring the 1988 touring band that self-destructed after four months, each disc seems to have its own flavor.
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25
Now see, this is a cool idea. This is how you should do a compilation as a primer for an artist! Released it CHEAP!! This originally retailed for the price of £3.99, or something similar.
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26
Track listing: 1) Penguin In Bondage ; 2) Pygmy Twylyte; 3) Dummy Up; 4) Village Of The Sun; 5) Echidna's Arf (Of You) ; 6) Don't You Ever Wash That Thing? ; 7) Cheepnis; 8) Son Of Orange County; 9) M
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27
This, children, is what we call a "weed-out album.
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28
This is an album of jazz-rock-oriented instrumental music that, with the exception of the track "St. Etienne," was recorded on the Synclavier music synthesizer.
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29
It's safe to say that 1971 ended on a terrible note for Frank Zappa.
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30
If anyone has followed the musical career of Frank Zappa for any length of time, they know they should expect the unexpected, much like with Neil Young.
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31
In one sense, seeing Frank Zappa put out a classical disc featuring works from an 18th Century Italian composer who shared a common name shouldn't be that big of a surprise.
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32
In a sense, callingChunga's Revengea Frank Zappa solo album is a bit of a misnomer.
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33
As the title suggests,Have I Offended Someone?contains all of Zappa's notoriously tasteless parodies and satires, from "Bobby Brown Goes Down," "Catholic Girls," and "Jewish Princess" to "He's So Gay,
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34
Any Zappa album or song on which the expert falsetto of Roy Estrada appears is at least guarranteed to contain a few grin inducing moments, and 'Ship Arriving' is no exception.
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35
Track listing: 1) The Blackouts; 2) Lost In A Whirlpool; 3) Ronny Sings?; 4) Kenny's Booger Story; 5) Ronnie's Booger Story; 6) Mount St Mary's Concert Excerpt; 7) Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance
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36
The year 1979 kicked off quite possibly what was the most fruitful year of Frank Zappa's musical life.
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37
Oh man, what a bizarre live album (at least, the first half of it is).
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38
Dhis is a bootlegged portion of a 1974 concert that Frank decided to release, completely unenhanced and unremastered, in late 1991.
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39
I first heard this dense and deliciously twisted album in October 1993 in the room where much of it was created: Frank Zappa's recording studio at his home, in Los Angeles.
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40
As the decade of the '80s hit, Frank Zappa seemed to be in a retrospective mood.
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41
Track listing: 1) The Adventures Of Greggery Peccary; 2) Revised Music For Guitar And Low-Budget Orchestra; 3) Lemme Take You To The Beach; 4) RDNZL.
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42
One could honestly question whether it was Frank Zappa's intention to releaseJust Another Band From L.A.
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43
Frank Zappa closed out 1972 - and a particularly bad year all around for him (as he was still recovering from being pushed off-stage in London in December 1971) - withThe Grand Wazoo, an album that bu
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44
Track listing: 1) Sexual Harassment In The Workplace; 2) Which One Is It?; 3) Republicans; 4) Do Not Pass Go; 5) Chalk Pie; 6) In-A-Gadda-Stravinsky; 7) That's Not Really Reggae; 8) When No One Was No
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45
By 1981, there was no doubt that Frank Zappa had achieved the title of "guitar god," and had done so fairly.
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46
The final single-album release that included the tracks from the now-legendary 4-LP setLather,Orchestral Favoritesis a release that not many Zappa fans probably get on the first listen. Or the second.
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47
It seems almost fitting that, after spending the final years of his career trying to convince the world he was a serious musician, the last album that would be released during Frank Zappa's lifetime w
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48
For the longest time,Does Humor Belong In Music?, the 1986 release that documented Frank Zappa's band circa 1984 in the live setting, was not available in the United States, but the reasons for its ab
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49
In 1978, Frank Zappa played five nights in a row in New York leading up to Halloween, some elements of which have been released before.
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50
During the '80s, Frank Zappa created special boxed sets of some of his earlier albums, and sold them to fans asThe Old Masters.
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