Music writing, not-so-slight return, or, perhaps, "You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here"

I take a gander at, or, more accurately, audit, the first twelve of a proposed sixty reissues of the work of Frank Zappa, and the narrative they tell us today, for MSN Music, starting here. 

Comments

[Peter Nellhaus]

Who are the three with Zappa? Otherwise, I enjoyed your assessment of the albums. Saw the Mothers at Fillmore East in May 1970. A few months later, met and chatted with Zappa in the lobby of the 1 Fifth Avenue Hotel which also served as a dorm for NYU students.

[preston]

"Released about nine months before Miles Davis' "Bitches Brew," it deserves just as much recognition in terms of pushing forward a fusion between rock 'n' roll, jazz and classical music."
And how! The heat from 'Hot Rats' is scorching. This is one of my best go-to high energy albums.

Great write ups on this first batch of re-re-releases. Do you know if they differ from the Rykodisks that came before, in either re-mix or packaging? I know FZ did remaster most of these prior to his death. I picked up the new 'Crusing With Ruben...' and 'Burnt Weeny Sandwich' and they seem the same.

Thanks again, and I'm glad you are the one writing on this!

[J. Priest]

@preston, I found some information here: http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/archive/index.php/t-288444-p-21.html

Haven't gone through all the posts, but it looks like most (if not all) of them are definitely remastered, and they also brought back some of the original LP mixes.

[Glenn Kenny]

Preston: I salted SOME remastering info in the MSN piece, but didn't get too wonky, as it's, you know, not a wonky site. But...for you:

"Freak Out" is the '87 Zappa remix/master retransferred.
"Absolutely Free" is a whole new remaster from the ORIGINAL TAPES by Doug Sax and it's amazingly like the LP I bought back in the day.
"Lumpy Gravy" is the '93 Zappa reedit, and everything up to and including "Uncle Meat" is from a master that was on the Ryko issues. As Gail Zappa points out, the TRANSFERS of the masters are all new and this result in improved detail if you listen very hard.

"Hot Rats," however, is a new master by Bernie Grundman and is sounds magnificent. "Weasels," "Chunga" and "Weeny Sandwich" are new Bob Ludwig masters and I think they kick ass. "Fillmore" and "L.A." are new Sax and Ludwig remasters respectively.

For those who want to hear "Freak Out" "Lumpy Gravy," "We're Only In It For The Money" and "Ruben And The Jets" in digital form that hews to the original LP relelases, they should seek out the Gail-Zappa-produced "audio documentaries" "The MOFO Project," "Lumpy Money" and "Greasy Love Songs" from the Barffko Swill website.

[preston]

Thanks for the link @J. Priest. Zoot Allures! that IS a massive load of info to get through. I looked on the Zappa site as well and it doesn't appear that they have updated to reflect all the info on the new disks.

Thanks again, Glenn. This valuable info helps a lot in prioritization of future FZ purchases.

best,
wonky P

[Henry Holland]

"such a persona arguably compromised his status as a "serious" composer"

No, what compromised/es his stature was that his "serious" orchestral pieces aren't very good, the influence of Stravinsky and Varese so blatant as to be risible.

Nice overview, I'll seek out "Absolutely Free" and "We're Only In It For The Money".

[Matt Blankman]

Really good piece here. There's just so much to dive into with this topic and you keep things orderly and insightful.

The new HOT RATS & BURNT WEENY SANDWICH remasters are mind-blowingly great.
I haven't gotten to the post Weasels CDs yet, but I like those two live albums with Flo & Eddie more than you seem to. "Eddie, Are you Kidding?"