From Newsgroup: alt.fan.frank-zappa


In December of last year I decided to get my collection of posthumous
Zappa releases up to date, which turned out to be a very expensive
project (yes, I still buy the physical CDs). I figured I might as
well make it worthwhile, so I organized my entire collection into
roughly chronological order (as close as I could get it) and then
listened to the whole thing front to back. Took 16 weeks, but I got a
much better feel for how Frank's career played out.

My Zappa fanhood didn't start until the late 80s (just in time to miss
the 1988 tour), and I bought the back catalog in mostly random order.
And then the posthumous releases also came out in fairly random order.
So this was the first time I've heard the whole thing roughly "as it
happened". It was very informative.

I started on January 1st and tried to group each week's worth of
albums into thematically related blocks as far as possible. Here's
the order I listened to them all:

Week 1 (Jan 1 - 5) pre-Mothers and early original Mothers:
Rare Meat
Cucamonga Years
Joe's Xmasage
Joe's Corsage
MOFO - The Making of Freak Out
Freak Out!
Absolutely Free
'Tis the Season to be Jelly
Lumpy Money (making of Lumpy Gravy & WOIIFtM)
Lumpy Gravy
We're Only In It For the Money
We're Only In It For the Money (1980s remix version)

Week 2 (Jan 6 - 12) original Mothers pt. 2:
Electric Aunt Jemima
The Ark
Road Tapes Venue #1 - Vancouver, 1968
Ahead of Their Time
Our Man in Nirvana
Cruising with Ruben & the Jets (original CD release)
Greasy Love Songs (Reuben & the Jets 40th anniversary release)
Meat Light (3 disc Making of Uncle Meat set)
Uncle Meat

Week 3 (Jan 13 - 20) original Mothers conclusion & Hot Rats:
Mothermania
Weasels Ripped My Flesh
You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore vol 5 disc 1
Mystery Disc
Finer Moments
The Hot Rats Sessions
Hot Rats
Burnt Weeny Sandwich

Week 4 (Jan 21 - 27) Flo & Eddie era pt. 1:
Road Tapes Venue #3 - Minneapolis July 5, 1970
The Mothers 1970 (boxed set)
Chunga's Revenge
Freaks and Motherfu*#@%!
Tengo Na Minchia Tanta
Disconnected Synapses
The Mothers 1971 (boxed set)
Fillmore East, June 1971

Week 5 (Jan 28 - Feb 2) Flo & Eddie era pt. 2:
Playground Psychotics
200 Motels Soundtrack
200 Motels 50th Anniversary Edition
Carnegie Hall
Swiss Cheese/Fire!
Just Another Band From L.A.

Week 6 (Feb 3 - 10) Wazoo big band era:
Joe's Domage
Waka/Wazoo (studio tracks)
Waka/Jawaka
Wazoo
The Grand Wazoo
Waka/Wazoo 5.1 mixes
Imaginary Diseases
Little Dots
Waka/Wazoo (live tracks)
Piquantique
Road Tapes Venue #2 - Helsinki, August 1973
Overnight Sensation

Week 7 (Feb 10 - 16) Roxy band part 1:
Halloween '73 (4 CD set)
Roxy by Proxy
Roxy - The Movie
Roxy - The Soundtrack
The Roxy Performances (7 CD set)
The Crux of the Biscuit (the making of Apostrophe('))
Apostrophe(')

Week 8 (Feb 17 - 23) Roxy band part 2:
Zappa/erie (discs 1 & 2)
Unmitigated Audacity
The Dub Room Special! DVD
The Dub Room Special! CD
A Token of His Extreme (soundtrack CD, don't have the DVD)
Roxy & Elsewhere
You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore vol 2
Zappa/Erie (discs 3 & 4)
One Size Fits All
Joe's Camouflage

Week 9 (Feb 24 - Mar 2) mid-70s:
Bongo Fury
Joe's Menage
Zappa A75: Zagreb/Ljubljana
FZ:OZ
Zoot Allures
Philly '76
Zappa/erie (discs 5 & 6)
Conceptual Continuity
Zappa in New York
Zappa in New York 40th Anniversary

Week 10 (Mar 3 - 10) Baby Snakes concerts:
Halloween 77 (USB stick costume box)
Baby Snakes DVD
Halloween 77 (3 CD)
Baby Snakes CD

Week 11 (Mar 11 - 17) late 70s:
Frank Zappa Plays the Music of Frank Zappa
Hammersmith Odeon
Saarbrucken 1978
At the Circus
Studio Tan
Sleep Dirt
Orchestral Favorites
Orchestral Favorites 40th Anniversary
LEther
Chicago '78

Week 12 (Mar 18 - 23) end of the 70s:
Halloween
QuAUDIOPHILIAc
Any Way the Wind Blows
Sheik Yerbouti
Joe's Garage
The Lost Episodes
One Shot Deal

Week 13 (Mar 24 - 31) early 80s:
Mudd Club/Munich
Buffalo
Tinseltown Rebellion
Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar
You Are What You Is
Halloween '81
As An Am
Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch
You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore vol 5 disc 2
The Man From Utopia

Week 14 (Apr 1 - 7) mid-80s, orchestral and synclavier:
London Symphony Orchestra Vol I & II
Boulez Conducts Zappa: The Perfect Stranger
Them or Us
Francesco Zappa
Thing-Fish
Does Humor Belong in Music? CD
Does Humor Belong in Music? DVD
Congress Shall Make No Law...
Meets the Mothers of Prevention
Jazz From Hell
Feeding the Monkies at Ma Maison
Guitar

Week 15 (Apr 8 - 14) '88 tour & YCDTOSA:
Broadway the Hard Way
The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life
Make a Jazz Noise Here
Trance-Fusion
Zappa '88: The Last U.S. Show
You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore vol 1
You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore vol 3
You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore vol 4
You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore vol 6
Understanding America (compilation)

Week 16 (Apr 15 - 19) final orchestral & synclavier & misc:
Everything is Healing Nicely
The Yellow Shark
Dance Me This
Civilization Phaze III
Frank Zappa For President
200 Motels - The Suites
Zappa - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Give it a try, it's a way of life.

-- Bob

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