Uncle Meat -
Hot Rats -
Burnt Weeny Sandwich -
Weasels Ripped My Flesh -
Chunga's Revenge
Fillmore East, June 1971 -
Frank Zappa's 200 Motels -
Just Another Band From L.A.
In 1968 Zappa formed with Herb Cohen a couple of record labels: Bizarre Productions and Straight Records. From Uncle Meat to The Grand Wazoo the new Zappa albums went out for the Bizarre label, distributed in the USA by Warner Bros through Reprise Records. In Europe they were published and distributed by WEA-Reprise.
In 1986 Zappa reissued all the albums from Uncle Meat to Just Another Band From L.A. in The Old Masters Box Two (for mail-order only): all albums were digitally remastered with Bob Stone. 200 Motels wasn't part of the batch because publishing rights (of the movie and the soundtrack) belonged to MGM (and still belong to: Rykodisk was able, with a special agreement with MGM, to publish the CD for the first time only in 1997 and only for 5 years).
The first CD edition of these albums followed close ('87 - '91) the Old Masters release: most albums were digitally re-EQed (by FZ with Bob Stone) and some had some major variant. Hot Rats and Weasels Ripped My Flesh went through further editing and mixing modification, Uncle Meat had one song remixed and lot of extraneous material added, while Fillmore East lost one track.
In 1995 Ryko released the "definitive" CD editions of these records with the "1993 FZ approved masters" and, as said, in 1997 published the first CD edition of 200 Motels.
In 2012 the Zappa Family Trust reached an agreement with Universal for a new CD reissue of the complete catalog, with 200 Motels not included. Except Uncle Meat none of the albums included in this batch were based on the same masters of the 1995 "definitive" CD edition. All the albums were made also available for digital download at iTunes.
After a 2009 audiophile vinyl edition of Hot Rats, restored to the original mix, in 2013 the ZFT started releasing new vinyl versions of old albums, usually based on new (sometimes digital) transfers of the original mixes.
Click on the album acronym to get the detailed real Vinyl-vs-CD album faq page at The Zappa Patio.
| Album | Year | Edition | Mix and editing differences | Other differences and relation to other albums | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UM | 2LP | 1969 | Bizarre 2MS 2024 | Australian censored version reported. | |
| 1986 | Barking Pumpkin BPR 8888-1 | Digitally remastered, close to the original mix. | |||
| 2CD | 1987 | Ryko RCD 10064/5 US | 1987 mix, digitally remastered, reverb has been added to some tracks, Mr. Green Genes has a brand new mix. Some reports say CDDZAP3 is slightly different from the others CDs, having some more reverb added to Dog Breath and other minor differences in another couple of tracks. |
Three bonus tracks added: • Tengo 'Na Minchia Tanta (recorded in 1982), • Two long spoken excerpts from Uncle Meat the movie (filmed between 1970 and 1982). |
|
| Zappa CDDZAP3 EU | |||||
| 1995 | Ryko RCD 10506/7 | ||||
| 2012 | Zappa ZR 3839 (0238392 EU) | ||||
| 2LP | 2013 | Zappa ZR 3839-1 (0238391 EU) | Original stereo mix. New 2013 digital "patchwork" master. | ||
| HR | 1LP | 1969 | Bizarre RS 6356 | ||
| 1986 | Barking Pumpkin BPR 8888-2 | Digitally remastered, close to the original mix. | |||
| 1CD | 1987 | Ryko RCD 10066 US | 1987 mix: digitally remastered, it has a very different mix from original vinyl and some major editing differences in Willie The Pimp (which is a few seconds shorter on the CD) and The Gumbo Variations (which is four minutes longer on the CD - extra material is from the original Hot Rats sessions). | The "Gold CD" (Ryko RCD10066 1988) is not different from other CD editions. | |
| Zappa CDZAP2 EU | |||||
| 1995 | Ryko RCD 10508 | ||||
| 1LP | 2009 | Barking Pumpkin RS 6356 | "Mastered in 2008 by Bernie Grundman from FZ's original edited analog master". Should be nearly identical to 1969 Bizarre RS 6356. |
||
| 1CD | 2012 | Zappa ZR 3841 (0238412 EU) | |||
| BWS | 1LP | 1970 | Bizarre RS 6370 | ||
| 1986 | Barking Pumpkin BPR 8888-3 | Digitally remastered, close to the original mix, some reverb has been added. | Every release except the very original vinyl issue is said to have a tiny error at the begin of "Little House I Used to Live In". This is apparently due to the LP production source tape used for (all?) reissues. | ||
| 1CD | 1991 | Barking Pumpkin D274239 US | |||
| Zappa CDZAP 35 EU | |||||
| 1LP | Zappa ZAPPA 35 EU | ||||
| 1CD | 1995 | Ryko RCD 10509 | |||
| 1LP | 1998 | Simply Vinyl SVLP 25 | |||
| 1CD | 2012 | Zappa ZR 3842 (0238422 EU) | Mastered by Bob Ludwig in 2012 from 1969 analog master. Should be nearly identical to 1969 Bizarre RS 6370. | ||
| WRMF | 1LP | 1970 | Bizarre MS 2028 | Weasels Ripped My Flesh shares some material with Ahead Of Their Time: • most of The Orange County Lumber Track • some of Prelude To The Afternoon Of A Sexually Aroused Gas Mask (audible as part of King Kong in Ahead Of Their Time). |
|
| 1986 | Barking Pumpkin BPR 8888-4 | Digitally remastered, close to the original mix. | |||
| 1CD | 1990 | Ryko RCD 10163 US | 1989 digital master. Some tweaking and a few edit differences. Didja Get Any Onya? is three minute longer than on original vinyl (added material comes from an unreleased Zappa album known as "We're Are The Mothers And This Is What We Sound Like"), Prelude To The Afternoon of A Sexually Aroused Gas Mask is 10 seconds longer (restoring an edit that was at about 1 minute into the song in the vinyl version), on what was side 1 most edits and segues between tracks are different: Directly From My Heart To You and Get A Little are a couple of seconds longer on the vinyl. | ||
| Zappa CDZAP24 EU | |||||
| 1995 | Ryko RCD 10510 | ||||
| 1LP | 1998 | Simply Vinyl SVLP 24 | |||
| 1CD | 2012 | Zappa ZR 3843 (0238432 EU) | Mastered by Bob Ludwig in 2012 from 1970 analog master. Should be nearly identical to 1970 Bizarre MS 2028. | ||
| CR | 1LP | 1970 | Bizarre MS 2030 | ||
| 1986 | Barking Pumpkin BPR 8888-5 | Digitally remastered, close to the original mix. | |||
| 1CD | 1990 | Ryko RCD 10164 US | Digitally remastered, same mix (or very minor changes), but digital reverb added. | ||
| Zappa CDZAP23 EU | |||||
| 1995 | Ryko RCD 10511 | ||||
| FE | 1LP | 1971 | Bizarre MS 2042 | Original vinyl exists in two or three slightly different variants: differences are in the end of side 1 and start of side 2: sometimes they fade out/in, sometimes they end/start cold. | |
| 1986 | Barking Pumpkin BPR 8888-6 | Digitally remastered, close to the original mix. | |||
| 1CD | 1990 | Ryko RCD10067 US | Digitally remastered, close to the original mix. All CD versions don't have Willie The Pimp Part 2 that opened side 2 of the vinyl version. |
||
| Zappa CDZAP29 EU | |||||
| 1995 | Ryko RCD 10512 | ||||
| 200M | 2LP | 1971 | United Artists UAS 9956 | Of the original vinyl are known an abridged single LP version and a heavy censored Australian version. | |
| 2CD | 1997 | Ryko RCD 10513/14 | Digitally remastered (by Tony Mountain), same mix than vinyl. Note that a Zappa remixed version of the first song of this album is said to be audible at the end of The True Story Of 200 Motels video. |
The CD version has added materials: • four promotional radio spots; • the single edit of Magic Finger; • a CDRom section with the original theatrical trailer. Again, from 2002 this record is no more on catalogue! |
|
| JABFLA | 1LP | 1972 | Bizarre MS 2075 | ||
| 1986 | Barking Pumpkin BPR 8888-7 | Digitally remastered, close to the original mix. | |||
| 1CD | 1990 | Ryko RCD10161 US | |||
| Zappa CDZAP25 EU | |||||
| 1995 | Ryko RCD 10515 | ||||
Disclaimer
For original vinyl version, as general rule, only the first US issue is listed.
Barking Pumpkin BPR 8888-X refer to The Old Masters Box Two vinyl edition.
For CD releases only the main US and European editions are listed.
Uncle Meat -
Hot Rats -
Burnt Weeny Sandwich -
Weasels Ripped My Flesh -
Chunga's Revenge
Fillmore East, June 1971 -
Frank Zappa's 200 Motels -
Just Another Band From L.A.
This page created on April 2005 and latest revised on February 21, 2009