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Frank Zappa Showcase

Ranked #6,720 in Music, #184,178 overall

Frank Vincent Zappa

A composer is a guy who goes around forcing his will on unsuspecting air molecules, often with the assistance of unsuspecting musicians. ~ Frank Zappa

I have been a huge FZ fan for years. He has a whole shelf to himself in my CD and album collection. He was a guitarist, songwriter, composer, band-leader, film producer with a prolific output but little commercial success. He covered musical genres from rock, jazz, doo-wop, electronic, experimental and classical among others.

There will be a little bit of everything here: music videos, lots of concert footage, cover tunes, interviews, tv and documentaries. Some of them are rather lengthy but Zappa did a lot more than the standard 3-minute radio format stuff. So bookmark this page because you're going to be coming back again and again.

CAUTION: Please be aware that there may be the occasional objectionable lyric.

"Popular" FZ Tracks

Let's start out with some Zappa tunes that you may have heard before. Frank didn't have a lot of commercial success, but several songs, phrases, and musical concepts have become part of our lexicon and seeped into the social fabric.

**Notes For This Module**
There were not actual videos for "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow" and "Valley Girl" so I chose the ones with the best audio so you can enjoy the song.

"Valley Girl", recorded with his daughter Moon Unit, was Frank's only single that made it onto the charts.

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Dancing fool Zappa 1 point

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Dont eat that yellow snow 1 point

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Frank Zappa - Montana - Stockholm 73 1 point

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Valley Girl by Frank and Moon Zappa 1 point

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Frank Zappa Stinkfoot 0 points

Frank Zappa Albums

On Amazon.com

The albums containing the songs in the above module are available on amazon.com.
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A Personal Favorite

One of my favorite Frank Zappa songs.

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Frank Zappa - Watermelon in Easter Hay 0 points

Watermelon In Easter Hay

On Amazon.com

Here are albums available on Amazon.com containing Watermelon In Easter Hay.
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Streaming Zappa

Concert Vault at Wolfgangsvault.com

Here's some great streaming audio from Wolfgang's Vault

Mothers Of Invention - Filmore West Nov 1970

Interview - Nov 1970

Frank Zappa - Paladium Halloween 1977

Wolfgang's Vault now offering full concert downloads!

Early Zappa

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Frank Zappa - King Kong (BBC records 1968) 1 point

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zappa 1970, 71 france pt1 1 point

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Frank Zappa - oct 68, TV Paris 1/2 parts 0 points

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The Mothers of Invention Frank Zappa 0 points

Frank Zappa Biography

And Autobiography

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Zappa Interviews, TV Shows, Documentaries...

Frank Zappa interview 1974
by cosmicrat | video info

1,108 ratings | 393,771 views
curated content from YouTube

YCDTOSA

You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore

This is the six installments of FZ's mammoth live retrospective, proving he could do anything on stage and did. Each set contains over 2 hours of music on 2 CDs; all performances are previously unreleased. Zappa intentionally didn't organize the material chronologically, pointing out in the liner notes, "The performance of any band from any year can be (and often is) edited to the performance of any other band from any other year, sometimes in the middle of a song." Indeed, some of the after-the-fact musical segues (everything runs continuously) are no less ingenious than the playing.

Zappa Covers

Frank occasionally played other people's songs and music. He always added his own unique touch.

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I'm the walrus Frank Zappa 1 point

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Frank Zappa - Stairway To Heaven - Cleveland 3/5/88 1 point

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Frank Zappa - Whippin' Post 0 points

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Frank Zappa "Bolero" 5/17/88 0 points

Frank Zappa Items To Bid For

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Original Clips, Trailers, Promos and Videos

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200 MOTELS 0 points

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Frank Zappa - Roxy Trailer 0 points

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Frank Zappa Apostrophe (') album promo 0 points

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Baby Snakes Trailer 0 points

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Frank Zappa / Amazing Mr. Bickford "Dupree's Paradise" 0 points

More Great Zappa Video

Here's a few more videos from YouTube.com of some great Frank Zappa music.

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Zoot Allures & Trouble Every Day 0 points

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Frank Zappa - Inca Roads 0 points

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Frank Zappa -Black Napkins, Lie So Big 0 points

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Frank Zappa - G-Spot Tornado 0 points

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Frank Zappa-Cosmic Debris 0 points

FZ Showcase Guestbook

Please leave your comments about this lens here. Comments, criticisms, your Zappa stories, etc. If you have a request for a video you would like to see here, let me know and I'll do my best to find it.

  • California_Dreamin May 11, 2009 @ 9:42 am | delete
    Wow! Fantastic tribute to Zappa. I will come back again.
  • Jul 3, 2008 @ 7:26 pm | delete
    Frank Zappa, one of the hardest foundation of rock music and an "all-in-one" musician: guitarist, composer, music engineer, producer, legend, you name it, he has it! thanks for your feature on Frank Zappa! Your mega-super lens is highly appreciated! Thanks for sharing.

    -Mark Serra ( order business checks here )
  • GypsyPirate Nov 3, 2007 @ 9:50 pm | delete
    Great videos and info here - I'll definitely have to visit often to see everything. Super lens!

    rms: Okay - you're a dancing fool!
  • rms Nov 2, 2007 @ 4:52 pm | delete
    Call me a dancing fool, but I love this lens!
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BigJim

They call me Big Jim. I am a lensmaster, the founder of the TCOF Directory, a musician and much more. Thanks for looking at my lenses. more »

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