Joe's Garage...

[FlamTriplet]

Shut Up And Play Your Guitar has Vinnie doing all the stuff.
Joe's Garage is great as well. Tinseltown Rebellion is good. And a couple of tunes off Man from Utopia.
That's it, aside from the YCDTOS series, for his official releases.
Now, there are many bootlegs out. I'm looking for the ultra rare Warts and All 2, which has the song Persona Non Grata, which is transcribed in the Frank Zappa Guitar book. This book has many trans of Vinnie's drum parts from Shut up and Joe's G.

I don't remember, but I think Bozz did do a track on Joe's G.

[sean b. tinio]

thanks for the info guys...

is vinnie the only drummer who played on 'joe's garage'?

pls list the top 5 zappa albums (from the freakin hottest to the not so) drumming show off of vinnie's stuff:

just another vinnie drum poll...

[buga]

The ultimate first album for a beginning Zappa fan would be "L?ther", originally recorded between 1973 and 1975. I know most people reading this will not buy this album, however. L?ther is a 3 disc set that covers pretty much 100% of Zappa's style. There's some of just about everything on there. From his 'serious' orchestral works [eg "Music For Guitar and Low Budget Orchestra], to the goofiest of lyrical rock songs [eg "Broken Hearts Are For Assholes"], it's all pretty well covered here. After hearing all of L?ther, you'll have a good idea of what sides of Zappa's music you like, and which you dislike, and it will be easy to choose your next album. Like I said, I doubt any of you will shell out the $35 to buy this 3 record set, so you'll have to find something else to start you off.
In that case, your first purchase will depend greatly on your taste in music. For a fan of 1960's rock [Hendrix or Beatles fan, for example], my best suggestion for a starter would be 1966's "Freak Out!". For a fan of instrumental jazz fusion, a great album to start off with would be "Hot Rats" from 1969. Guitar players will love 1981's "Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar", although this wouldn't be a great gateway into further discovering Zappa's music...it's 3 discs of guitar solos. Fans of progressive rock might want to give "One Size Fits All", Frank's 1975 masterpiece, a try. "One Size..." is a good starter for just about anyone, as is 1973's "Over-Nite Sensation". For the stripped down Rock 'n Roll fan with a taste for crude humor, "Sheik Yerbouti" would be a great start. If you like your rock music with some strange, orchestral stuff accompanying the band [or just the orchestral stuff alone] "The London Symphony Orchestra Volumes 1 & 2" or "The 200 Motels Soundtrack" are places to start. Whatever you do, do not buy "Strictly Commercial". This 'Best of Album' is terribly put together, and while it may get you into Zappa's music, it's better to just skip it. I really hate compilations , but if you must get a compilation go with both"Cheep Thrills" and "Son of Cheep Thrills".

[FlamTriplet]

My first Zappa album was Man From Utopia and it remains one of my favorites. But the only problem is that the CD version's production is all screwed up. You really need to get a hold of a mint vinal LP, as it actually sounds WAY better. Also, the Steve Vai guitar parts on Dangerous Kitchen and Jazz Cischarge Party Hats virually non existant on the CD, whereas the Vinal has his guitar pumped. This is the only album with serious problems in the CD version--bad orchestration and production.

I also like Ship Arriving Too Late, as it has Drowning Witch, which is one of his greatest songs, as well as Valley Girl, his most prosperous song, that enabled him to record the Symphony albums.

Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention has two crucial instrumentals, Alien Orifce(sp) and What's New in Baltimore.

My favorite instrumental of all time is the Sinister Footwear Part2, and that's on Them or US, and Son of Cheap Thrills(live) The most acrurate version of this song can be found on the latest release of the group Banned In Utopia. Chad told me that the 13-tuplets were the tightest ever recorded in this 2002 album.

Also, You Are What You Is is a good one, it has the Society Pages Suite which kicks ass. As well as Sinister Footwear part 3, which actually is the guitar solo from Persona Non Grata with everything overdubbed on it. Vinnie recorded the original drum track that is transcribed in the Zappa Guitar Book, but it is only available on extremely rare vinal Warts and All 2, and some other bootleg.

Please stop me...... [img]graemlins/devil.gif[/img]

[ptrack]

Yeah JG is a great album...
"Shut up..." is one of my all time favorites as well...But I keep finding myself listening to "Saarbrucken 78".. Young crazy VC playing his butt off!!!! This was one of the first gigs he played with Zappa...I recommend this album to everybody..

[Burzmali]

Has anyone else seen the "We don't fool around" video w/ Vinnie on drums???
I think it's from his very first tour w/ Zappa, and has some really funny moments in it, including the world famous "Seal Call Fusion Music" featuring a then bearded Vinnie on seal calls and tiny percussion...
Not to mention when a german reporter interviews John Smothers (long time Zappa body guard, also featured on JG in the song "Dong Work For Yuda" where Bozzio does an imitation of him, his character being Bald-Headed John..)
and asks him who's the craziest guy in the band, and John answers:
"It's that crazy drummer with his crazy beard, he's always drumming on stuff... I don't know who pays for the stuff that he breaks.. but I guess Frank's ok with it..." (mind you, this not a verbatim quote, I'm just trying to get the essence of his statement...)

Anyway... it's great stuff so if you haven't seen it already you should definitely check it out...

[FlamTriplet]

The piece of music you refering to is actually called Mo's Vacation. It was the first version of the first movement of Mo 'N Herbs vacation, and it is a bit different. It only had drums, bass, and mallets.
It was performed three times live, two as a duet with drums and bass, and once with mallets.
Unfortunately, Mo 'N Herbs Vacation was recorded for release and most of the drum parts were deleted. Chad Wackerman told me there is a chamber version that was recorded with a quintet, and it has the complete drum part. It will probably never see the light of day.

[five eight]

Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar features Vinnie really smokin' as does Joe's Garage. I wonder if he was using 13" hi-hats on the Shut Up stuff? He said he did on Joe's Garage. Saarbruken '78 disappointed me although it was nice to hear him play Keep It Greasy live and the Apostrophe material. Speaking of Zappa, Steve Vai told an hilarious Vinnie story to Modern Drummer not long ago: “He’s one of the most amazing sight readers that ever existed on the instrument. One day we were in a Frank rehearsal, this was early 80s, and Frank brought in this piece called Mo ‘n Herb’s Vacation. Just unbelievably complex. All the drums were written out, just like The Black Page except even more complex. There were these runs of like 17 over 3 and every drumhead is notated differently. And there were a whole bunch of people there, I think Bozzio was there. Vinnie had this piece of music on a stand to his right. To his left he had another music stand with a plate of sushi on it, okay? Now the tempo was very slow, like The Black Page. And then the first riff came in (mimics bizarre Zappa-esque drum rhythm patterns) with all these choking of cymbals, and hi-hat ruffs, spinning of roto-toms and all this crazy stuff. And I saw Vinnie reading this thing. Now Vinnie has this habit of pushing his glasses up with the middle finger of his right hand. Well I saw him look at this one bar of music, it was the last bar on the page. He started to play it as he was turning the page with one hand, and then once the page was turned he continued playing the riff with his right hand, as he reached over with his left hand, grabbed a piece of sushi and put it in his mouth, continued the riff with his left hand and feet, pushed his glasses up, and then played the remaining part of the bar. It was the sickest thing I’ve ever seen. Frank threw his music up in the air. Bozzio turned around and walked away.”

[five eight]

That's good to know, FlamTriplet; I'd love to hear the quintet version.

I still love that story though (and I apologize for repeating it here.) It doesn't compare however to the one about Vinnie doing a bit of raving and punching out Sting! Did that really happen? What's the whole story? I know I should dwell on the music but the vicissitudes of showbiz are well-known. It's a stressful occupation, often with reputations and big money on the line, especially a high-profile situation like Sting. We all know we have to have our business end of things together as well as the music. A story like that can be enlightening and that's what interests me, not the tawdry "Keef" Richards-like legend aspect of it (blood transfusions anyone!?) Similiar would be the tale of Steve Smith getting fired from Journey and how he dealt with it, including therapy.

But I can't help but wonder how an employee gets away with hitting an employer without getting sacked. Bet the V-man never took a poke a Frank!

[FlamTriplet]

The Quintet version is in the vaults. I've heard all three versions of Mo's Vacation, and they are way out.