Throughout a long career that produced 62 albums during his lifetime, Frank Zappa frequently clashed with the music industry’s major labels. As recently as last year, the late musician’s estate was embroiled in a legal battle with Rykodisc, a unit of Warner Music Group. The irony had not been lost on Zappa fans when Warner acquired Ryko in 2006. After all, Warner was the label from which Zappa acrimoniously split in the late 1970s. But Ryko, one of the first-ever CD-only independent labels, had been the distributor of Zappa’s massive catalogue since 1986 and the label behind a comprehensive reissue campaign that began in 1995.
Today, the once-painstakingly-curated Zappa catalogue is in a bit of shambles, with many titles no longer readily available and fetching high prices on the secondhand market. Others have been released by the Zappa Family Trust in comprehensive, bonus-packed editions under new titles such as The MOFO Project/Object for Freak Out! and Lumpy Money for Lumpy Gravy and We’re Only In It For The Money . These deluxe “audio documentaries” restored original mixes not present on the previous, standardized CDs, and premiered unreleased material. The ZFT has also issued more rarities from the vault including a memorable 1971 live stand at Carnegie Hall and a lost Captain Beefheart album produced by Zappa. The question of just who retains the rights to the Zappa catalogue as of this writing (The Zappa Family Trust? Rykodisc?) hasn’t been fully answered in public view, though Rykodisc prevailed in many aspects of a United States District Court – Southern District of New York order dated August, 2011.
Now, news comes from our friends at MusicTAP that Zappa reissues are on the way from a new label: Universal, or UMe. It appears that June 26 will bring new editions of six early Zappa albums: Freak Out! (1966), Absolutely Free (1967), Lumpy Gravy (1967), We’re Only In It For The Money (1968), Cruising With Ruben & The Jets (1968), and Hot Rats (1969). Oddly, 1969’s Uncle Meat is apparently left out of this batch, which otherwise would contain all of Zappa’s 1960s albums with and without The Mothers of Invention. It’s also worth noting that all but one (Hot Rats) of the above-mentioned albums had releases on the Verve label, which is now part of Universal, and could possibly be reissued on CD for the first time on that imprint. (Verve was the original distributor of Zappa and Herb Cohen’s Bizarre label, which in 1970 was re-established under the Warner Bros. umbrella.)
Though these six albums are but the tip of the iceberg in Zappa’s catalogue, they already show the prolific artist breaking down the walls between rock, pop, jazz and classical music. The workaholic artist couldn’t have known that he would only live for 52 years, but he recorded with the pace of a man racing against time. A passionate defender of freedom of speech and denouncer of censorship of any kind, Zappa melded intricate, experimental melodies and arrangements with incisive, forthright lyrics that were often humorous and frequently off-color.
Zappa’s Verve debut with his group The Mothers of Invention, 1966’s Freak Out! , was a call-to-arms to the Los Angeles underground music scene. Far from traditional pop, rock or R&B, the album blended experimental sound collages with R&B and doo-wop pastiches (a particular favorite of Zappa’s) and absurdist comedy. Even today, it sounds like no other rock album, but it was just a portent of things to come from Zappa. The Mothers’ Absolutely Free (1967) not only targeted the authority but the counterculture as well, its political and social satire taking the form of mini-suites on each side of the original vinyl LP, auguring for future extended works. Lumpy Gravy (1968) was credited to Zappa solo, and took things a step further. It was an ambitious mélange of orchestral arrangements, spoken word and electronic experiments; through his use of the Synclavier, Zappa would be a pioneering musician in the latter field right up to the time of his death. Two more albums from the same year, We’re Only In It For The Money and Cruising with Ruben and the Jets, saw the auteur both expanding his sound palette and referencing the beloved music of his youth, respectively. The former was a wicked parody of flower power, complete with Sgt. Pepper-spoofing cover; no cow was too sacred for Zappa to skewer. The latter, however, was a spot-on and even affectionate doo-wop homage that showed Zappa understood the rules of pop music even as he broke them.
The original Mothers of Invention disbanded in 1969 after the release of sprawling double album Uncle Meat, which isn’t part of this reissue campaign. Zappa turned his attention to his first major symphonic work, which would be conducted by Zubin Mehta, and to his jazz-influenced, second solo album Hot Rats. Dedicated to son Dweezil, Hot Rats introduced one of Zappa’s most beloved compositions, the instrumental “Peaches En Regalia.” It was also his first album recorded with 16-track technology which allowed him to push even more musical boundaries. When Zappa reformed the Mothers in 1970, three alumni of the Turtles joined him: bassist Jim Pons and vocalists Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman, a.k.a. Flo and Eddie. That iteration of the Mothers began a new chapter in Zappa’s career.
Be sure to watch this space for answers to our questions about Universal’s Zappa reissues: Are these parts of a larger campaign? Will any bonus material be included? Which mixes will be utilized? The six titles are currently scheduled for release on June 26!
Source: SecondDisc
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