Background
In 1967, while recording We're Only in It for the Money with the Mothers of Invention, Frank Zappa discovered that the strings of Apostolic Studios' grand piano would resonate if a person spoke near those strings. The "piano people" experiment involved Zappa having various speakers improvise dialogue using topics offered by Zappa. Various people contributed to these sessions, including Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart and Tim Buckley. [3] The "piano people" voices primarily consisted of Mothers of Invention bandmembers Motorhead Sherwood and Roy Estrada, Spider Barbour (leader of the rock band Chrysalis), All-Night John (the manager of the studio) and Louis Cuneo, who was noted for his laugh, which sounded like a "psychotic turkey". [4]
In 1992, Zappa recorded The Yellow Shark with the Ensemble Modern orchestra, and sampled their instrumentation with his Synclavier. After revisiting his archives, he decided to create an album which would combine the 1967 "piano people" dialogue, Synclavier music, performances by the Ensemble Modern, and newly recorded dialogue. [5] [6] The project began under the title Lumpy Gravy, Phase 3 (with phase one being We're Only in It for the Money and phase two being the 1968 version of Lumpy Gravy), but was later changed to Civilization Phaze III. [7]
Zappa recorded new dialogue segments to accompany the original "piano people" recordings. The new dialogue speakers included members of the Ensemble Modern, [8] Moon Zappa, [9] Dweezil Zappa [10] and actor Michael Rapaport. [9]
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by nonconformity, free-form improvisation, sound experimentation, musical virtuosity and satire of American culture. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed rock, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestral and musique concrète works; he also produced almost all of the 60-plus albums that he released with his band the Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist. Zappa also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed album covers. He is considered one of the most innovative and stylistically diverse musicians of his generation.
We're Only in It for the Money is the third album by American rock band the Mothers of Invention, released on March 4, 1968, by Verve Records. As with the band's first two efforts, it is a concept album, and satirizes left- and right-wing politics, particularly the hippie subculture, as well as the Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It was conceived as part of a project called No Commercial Potential, which produced three other albums: Lumpy Gravy, Cruising with Ruben & the Jets, and Uncle Meat.
Them or Us is an album by American musician Frank Zappa, released in October 1984 by Barking Pumpkin Records.
Lumpy Gravy is a 1968 solo album by Frank Zappa, written by Zappa and performed by a group of session players he dubbed the Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra. Zappa conducted the orchestra but did not perform on the album. It is his fourth album overall: his previous releases had been under the name of his group, the Mothers of Invention.
Cruising with Ruben & the Jets is the fourth album by the Mothers of Invention, and fifth overall by Frank Zappa, released under the alias Ruben and the Jets. Released on December 2, 1968 on Bizarre and Verve Records with distribution by MGM Records, it is a concept album, influenced by 1950s doo-wop and rock and roll. The album's concept deals with a fictitious Chicano doo-wop band called Ruben & the Jets, represented by the cover illustration by Cal Schenkel, which depicts the Mothers of Invention as anthropomorphic dogs. It was conceived as part of a project called No Commercial Potential, which produced three other albums: Lumpy Gravy, We're Only in It for the Money and Uncle Meat.
Quaudiophiliac is a compilation album featuring music by Frank Zappa, released in DVD-Audio format by Barking Pumpkin Records in 2004. It compiles recordings he made while experimenting with quadraphonic, or four-channel, sound in the 1970s. Zappa prepared quadraphonic mixes of a number of his 1970s albums, with both Over-Nite Sensation (1973) and Apostrophe (') (1974) being released in discrete quadraphonic on Zappa's DiscReet Records label.
The project Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar consisting of Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar, Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar Some More and Return of the Son of Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar is a series of albums by Frank Zappa. The albums consist solely of electric guitar instrumentals and improvised solos (mostly) played live by Zappa and featuring a wide variety of backing musicians.
Jazz from Hell is an instrumental album whose selections were all composed and recorded by American musician Frank Zappa. It was released on November 15, 1986, by Barking Pumpkin Records on vinyl and cassette, and in 1987 by Rykodisc on CD.
The Yellow Shark is an album of orchestral music by American musician Frank Zappa. Released in November 1993, it was the last Zappa album released in his lifetime, almost exactly a month before he died of the cancer from which he had suffered for several years. It features live recordings from the Ensemble Modern's 1992 performances of Zappa's compositions. In the album's notes, Zappa describes The Yellow Shark as one of the most fulfilling projects of his career, and as the best representation of his orchestral works.
Thing-Fish is an album by Frank Zappa, originally released as a triple album box set on Barking Pumpkin Records in 1984. It was billed as a cast recording for a proposed musical of the same name, which was ultimately not produced by Zappa, but later performed partially in 2003, ten years after his death.
The Perfect Stranger is a 1984 album featuring the music of Frank Zappa, conducted in part by Pierre Boulez. It was originally issued on vinyl in 1984 and on CD in 1985 by Angel, and then in remixed and resequenced form on CD by Barking Pumpkin in 1991. Later reissues were by Rykodisc in 1995 and Zappa/Universal in 2012.
Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention is a 1985 album by American musician Frank Zappa. The album was originally released in two slightly different versions in the US and Europe.
Trance-Fusion is an album by Frank Zappa. Released posthumously in 2006, 13 years after the musician's death, the album forms the third in a trilogy of instrumental albums which focus on Zappa's improvised guitar solos, after Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar (1981) and Guitar (1988). Trance-Fusion was among the last albums completed by Zappa before his death, along with The Rage & The Fury: The Music Of Edgard Varèse, Dance Me This and Civilization Phaze III. It was also among the first releases by Zappa to be made available digitally via iTunes through Gail Zappa's distribution deal with Universal Music Enterprises.
"Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance" is a song written by Frank Zappa, with the first officially available version being recorded and released by The Mothers of Invention on their 1968 album We're Only in It for the Money. The song was originally recorded as an instrumental by Frank Zappa in 1961 at Pal Recording Studio.
The Lumpy Money Project/Object is a compilation album by Frank Zappa. Released posthumously on January 23, 2009 as Official Release #85, it compiles the releases Lumpy Gravy and We're Only in It for the Money with previously unreleased material, with the overall package serving as an audio documentary of the production of the two albums, which share conceptual continuity themes. It is project/object #2 in a series of 40th Anniversary FZ Audio Documentaries, following MOFO (2006).
The Old Masters is a box set series by Frank Zappa, released in three volumes on Barking Pumpkin Records from April 1985 to December 1987, consisting of studio and live albums by Zappa and The Mothers of Invention originally released from 1966 to 1976 on other labels, as well as "Mystery Discs" which contained previously unreleased material. The graphics on all three sets was airbrush illustrated by Larry Grossman. 200 Motels was not included in the series as it was the only Zappa/Mothers album for which Zappa was unable to secure the rights.
Jim "Motorhead" Sherwood was an American rock musician notable for playing soprano, tenor and baritone saxophone, tambourine, vocals and vocal sound effects in Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention. He appeared on all the albums of the original Mothers line-up and the 'posthumous' releases Burnt Weeny Sandwich and Weasels Ripped My Flesh, as well as certain subsequent Zappa albums. He also appeared in the films 200 Motels, Video from Hell and Uncle Meat.
Feeding the Monkies at Ma Maison is an album by Frank Zappa, which was released posthumously in 2011 by The Zappa Family Trust on Zappa Records.
Dance Me This is an album by Frank Zappa. Released posthumously in June 2015, it was among the last releases completed by Zappa before his death, along with The Rage & The Fury: The Music Of Edgard Varèse, Trance-Fusion and Civilization Phaze III.
Lumpy Gravy, also known as Lumpy Gravy (Primordial), is the recalled original debut solo album by Frank Zappa. It is an entirely orchestral recording written by Zappa and performed by a group of session players he dubbed the Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra. Zappa conducted the orchestra but did not perform on the album. It was commissioned and briefly released, on August 7, 1967, by Capitol Records in the 4-track Stereo-Pak format only and then withdrawn due to a lawsuit from MGM Records. MGM claimed that the album violated Zappa's contract with their subsidiary, Verve Records, and the album was recalled.
