| Funky Nothingness | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Compilation album by | ||||
| Released | June 30, 2023 | |||
| Recorded | February–March 1970 | |||
| Studio | Record Plant, Los Angeles, California, Frank Zappa's basement, Los Angeles, California | |||
| Length | 210:54 (3CD) 74:58 (2LP) | |||
| Label | Zappa Records | |||
| Producer |
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| Frank Zappa chronology | ||||
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Funky Nothingness is an album by Frank Zappa, released on June 30, 2023. It is a 3CD set that primarily contains unreleased songs written and recorded in 1970, shortly after sessions concluded for the album Hot Rats . [1] [2]
After the first incarnation of the Mothers of Invention disbanded, Frank Zappa embarked on a solo career and created the predominantly instrumental and jazz oriented Hot Rats , which would become one of his most acclaimed works. The album, rather than having a core group of musicians, utilized various session players from track to track. From these sessions, Zappa assembled a core group to record new material in February and March of 1970. The group consisted of Ian Underwood, Max Bennett and Don "Sugarcane" Harris, as well as newcomer Aynsley Dunbar, who had recently relocated to Los Angeles and moved in with Zappa. [1]
Much of the tracks on Funky Nothingness were recorded by the five-piece group at the newly opened Record Plant studio, some of which appearing in edited forms on other Zappa albums produced around the same time. A longer version of "Chunga's Revenge (Basement Version)" was released on the DVD-Audio album Quaudiophiliac (2004), under the title "Chunga's Basement". Much shorter edits of "Transylvania Boogie" and "The Clap" appeared as the first and eighth tracks on Chunga's Revenge (1970). "Sharleena (1970 Record Plant Mix)" appeared on the posthumous compilation The Lost Episodes (1996). The title track originates from 1967, at the end of a recording session for Uncle Meat . It features the original Mothers' bassist, and James "Motorhead" Sherwood on rhythm guitar. [3]
All songs written by Frank Zappa except where noted.
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Funky Nothingness" | 1:49 | |
| 2. | "Tommy/Vincent Duo I" | 0:45 | |
| 3. | "Love Will Make Your Mind Go Wild" | 2:46 | |
| 4. | "I'm a Rollin' Stone" | Jerry West, Otis Hicks | 12:20 |
| 5. | "Chunga's Revenge" (Basement Version) | 9:22 | |
| 6. | "Basement Jam" | 6:27 | |
| 7. | "Work with Me Annie / Annie Had a Baby" | Henry Ballard, Jerry West / Henry Glover, Sydney Nathan | 2:48 |
| 8. | "Tommy/Vincent Duo II" | 6:42 | |
| 9. | "Sharleena" (1970 Record Plant Mix) | 12:15 | |
| 10. | "Khaki Sack" | 8:09 | |
| 11. | "Twinkle Tits" | 11:35 | |
| Total length: | 74:58 | ||
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Chunga's Revenge" (Take 5) | 16:16 | |
| 2. | "Love Will Make Your Mind Go Wild" (Take 4) | 3:16 | |
| 3. | "Transylvania Boogie" (Unedited Master) | 18:13 | |
| 4. | "Sharleena" (Unedited Master) | 14:56 | |
| 5. | "Work with Me Annie/Annie Had a Baby" (alternate edit) | Henry Ballard, Jerry West / Henry Glover, Sydney Nathan | 4:29 |
| 6. | "Twinkle Tits" (Take 1, False Start) | 0:48 | |
| 7. | "Twinkle Tits" (Take 2) | 13:00 | |
| Total length: | 70:58 | ||
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "The Clap" (Unedited Master – Part I) | 11:28 |
| 2. | "The Clap" (Unedited Master – Part II) | 4:38 |
| 3. | "Tommy/Vincent Duo" (Unedited Master) | 21:53 |
| 4. | "Chunga's Revenge" (Take 8) | 19:48 |
| 5. | "Halos and Arrows" | 3:03 |
| 6. | "Moldred" | 3:22 |
| 7. | "Fast Funky Nothingness" | 0:46 |
| Total length: | 64:58 | |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Funky Nothingness" | 1:49 | |
| 2. | "Tommy/Vincent Duo I" | 0:45 | |
| 3. | "Love Will Make Your Mind Go Wild" | 2:46 | |
| 4. | "I'm a Rollin' Stone" | Jerry West, Otis Hicks | 12:20 |
| Total length: | 17:40 | ||
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Chunga's Revenge" (Basement Version) | 9:22 |
| 2. | "Basement Jam" | 6:27 |
| Total length: | 15:49 | |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Work with Me Annie / Annie Had a Baby" | Henry Ballard, Jerry West / Henry Glover, Sydney Nathan | 2:48 |
| 2. | "Tommy/Vincent Duo II" | 6:42 | |
| 3. | "Sharleena" (1970 Record Plant Mix) | 12:15 | |
| Total length: | 21:45 | ||
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Khaki Sack" | 8:09 |
| 2. | "Twinkle Tits" | 11:35 |
| Total length: | 19:44 | |
| Chart (2023) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) [4] | 36 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia) [5] | 174 |
| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) [6] | 35 |
| French Albums (SNEP) [7] | 171 |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) [8] | 15 |
| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) [9] | 21 |
| Scottish Albums (OCC) [10] | 29 |
| UK Rock & Metal Albums (OCC) [11] | 4 |
Sheik Yerbouti is a double album by American musician Frank Zappa, released in March 1979 as the first release on Zappa Records, distributed by Phonogram Inc. in the United States and Canada. The album was released in other countries by CBS Records. It is mostly made up of live material recorded in 1977 and 1978, with extensive overdubs added in the studio. In an October 1978 interview, Zappa gave the working album title as Martian Love Secrets. It was later released on a single CD.
Hot Rats is the second solo album by Frank Zappa, released in October 1969. It was Zappa's first recording project after the dissolution of the original version of the Mothers of Invention. Five of the six songs are instrumental, while "Willie the Pimp" features vocals by Captain Beefheart. In his original sleeve notes, Zappa described the album as "a movie for your ears".
Chunga's Revenge is the third solo album, and eleventh album counting the work of his band The Mothers of Invention, by Frank Zappa, released on October 23, 1970. Zappa's first effort of the 1970s marks the first appearance of former Turtles members Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan - nicknamed Flo & Eddie - on a Zappa record, and signals the dawn of a controversial epoch in Zappa's history. Chunga's Revenge represents a shift from both the satirical political commentary of his 1960s work with The Mothers of Invention, and the jazz fusion of Hot Rats.
Apostrophe (') is the sixth solo album and eighteenth in total by Frank Zappa, released in March 1974 in both stereo and quadraphonic formats. An edited version of its lead-off track, "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow", was the first of Zappa's three Billboard Top 100 hits, ultimately peaking at number 86. The album itself became the biggest commercial success of Zappa's career, reaching number 10 on the US Billboard 200.
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Weasels Ripped My Flesh is the eighth album by the American rock group the Mothers of Invention, and the tenth overall by Frank Zappa, released in 1970. Following the Mothers' late 1969 split, Zappa assembled two albums - Burnt Weeny Sandwich and Weasels Ripped My Flesh - from unreleased studio and live recordings by the band, as well as some outtakes/leftovers from his 1969 solo album Hot Rats. While Burnt Weeny Sandwich focuses mostly on studio recordings and tightly arranged compositions, Weasels Ripped My Flesh focuses mostly on live recordings and loose/improvisational pieces.
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.
Don Francis Bowman "Sugarcane" Harris was an American blues and rock and roll violinist and guitarist. He is considered a pioneer in the amplification of the violin.
Aynsley Thomas Dunbar is an English drummer. He has worked with John Mayall, Frank Zappa, Jeff Beck, Journey, Jefferson Starship, Nils Lofgren, Eric Burdon, Shuggie Otis, Ian Hunter, Lou Reed, David Bowie, Mick Ronson, Whitesnake, Pat Travers, Sammy Hagar, Michael Schenker, UFO, Michael Chapman, Jake E. Lee, Leslie West, Kathi McDonald, Keith Emerson, Mike Onesko, Herbie Mann and Flo & Eddie. Dunbar was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Journey in 2017.
Strictly Commercial is a compilation album by Frank Zappa. It was released in 1995, two years after his death. The album was named as part of a 2011 lawsuit by Gail Zappa towards Rykodisc, claiming the label released several vault masters without the permission of the Zappa Family Trust on this and other releases, specifically the single edits of some songs, such as the 12" disco Remix of "Dancin' Fool". The disc is currently out of print and has been replaced in Zappa's catalog by the 2016 compilation album ZAPPAtite.
The Lost Episodes is a 1996 posthumous album by Frank Zappa which compiles previously unreleased material. Much of the material covered dates from early in his career, and as early as 1958, into the mid-1970s. Zappa had been working on these tracks in the years before his death in 1993.
Asshole is the second solo studio album by Kiss's Gene Simmons and it was released in 2004 on Sanctuary Records. Its controversial title does not appear on the front cover. On the side of the CD case the title reads "asshole". "It's just another way of me saying, 'I don't care what anyone says about me," Simmons declared. "I'm preempting what people say and therefore diffusing the power of my detractors."
200 Motels, the soundtrack album to Frank Zappa's film of the same name, was released by United Artists Records in 1971. The original vinyl release was a two-record set, largely containing alternating tracks of rock music performed by the Mothers of Invention and symphonic music performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Elgar Howarth, all composed and orchestrated by Zappa. The album peaked at No. 59 on the Billboard 200, though reviewers deemed it a peripheral part of Zappa's catalog. Like the film, the album involves the theme of a rock band on tour and a loose storyline about The Mothers of Invention going crazy in the small town of Centerville and bassist Jeff quitting the group, as did his real life counterpart, Jeff Simmons, who left the group before the film began shooting and was replaced by actor Martin Lickert for the film.
"Willie the Pimp" is a song from Frank Zappa's 1969 album Hot Rats. It features an idiosyncratic Captain Beefheart vocal and one of Zappa's classic guitar solos. It is the only track that is not instrumental on the album, though the track features a long guitar solo.
The **** of the Mothers is an out-of-print compilation album of early works by The Mothers of Invention, an American rock band. The album features a gatefold featuring some of the contemporary band members such as Ian Underwood, Art Tripp, and Motorhead Sherwood. This was the first of numerous repackaged "Best Of" LPs put out by MGM that were not authorized by Frank Zappa; Mothermania is the only one that Zappa worked on and approved.
Finer Moments is a compilation album by Frank Zappa. It was compiled and mastered by Zappa in 1972 and released posthumously in 2012.
Road Tapes, Venue #3 is a posthumous album of Frank Zappa, released in May 2016, consisting of the recording of the two shows on July 5, 1970, at Tyrone Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis, MN. The album was recorded as one of the first shows with the (then) newly formed Mothers of Invention featuring Flo & Eddie, Aynsley Dunbar, George Duke, Jeff Simmons and returning member Ian Underwood. This release is notable for being one of the few tapes in the Zappa Vault from this time period, and line up. It is the ninth installment on the Vaulternative Records label that is dedicated to the posthumous release of complete Zappa concerts, following the releases of FZ:OZ (2002), Buffalo (2007), Wazoo (2007), Philly '76 (2009), Hammersmith Odeon (2010), Carnegie Hall (2011), Road Tapes, Venue #1 (2012) and Road Tapes, Venue #2 (2013).
Under Cöver is a covers compilation album by the band Motörhead, released on 1 September 2017.
Zappa '88: The Last U.S. Show is a live album released June 18, 2021, by Frank Zappa. It contains mostly previously unreleased recordings of the last concert he would ever play in the US at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York.
The Mothers 1970 is a 4-CD box set celebrating the 50th anniversary of the short-lived 1970 line-up of Rock-band The Mothers. It compiles 70 unreleased tracks recorded during this era of the band.