Frank Zappa - Entire Catalogue Remastered and Reissued

Decided to jump on the new AF, Hot Rats, BWS and Weazels.

I can't see myself owning a copy of Uncle Meat on CD until the original version gets reissued. I'll stick with my 1st pressing needledrop.

 

One of my favorite Zappa LP's; glad to hear it!

I likewise ordered all twelve from BB, and expect them to arrive later this PM. Happy to report re: quality/damage control.

\../

 

And yet they STILL managed to completely forget about the libretto for 'Absolutely Free' and the poster from 'Burnt Weeny.'

 

Someone asked:

Any chance for a reissue of An Evening with Wildman Fischer?

And Gail's response......

Yes!!!!

Wow. She has previously stated they had no interest in releasing that because she didn't consider it to be "Frank's" best work.

 

Looks like Amazon has lowered some of the prices on the new ones

 

She didn't even answer that guys question about the status of ROXY!!!!! Grrrrrrrrrr.

 

ABSOLUTELY FREE sounds good.

Next ...

 

Yeah, but you can still get all 12, including the double Uncle Meat for $9.99 each with free shipping from bestbuy.com. I waited until late Friday to place my order and I'm still getting them delivered today. That's as well as I would have done with my Amazon Prime membership.

Amazon really screwed the pooch on this one.

 

How do Weeny & Weasels sound ?

 

Or maybe Best Buy is treating Zappa disks as lost leaders and Amazon isn't interested in selling them at a loss. Best Buy as a company is in a death spiral -Amazon is not.

 

I've noticed that the second wave discs are NOT $9.99 at Best Buy yet.

 

Good question. I suspect more compression rather than better source tapes, but I am still waiting for some detailed sound reviews to make an informed decision.

 

First thoughts/observations:

Cruisin with Ruben and the Jets has the 80s overdubs
No crossfade at the beginning of "King Kong" on Uncle Meat

That's all for now.

<edit> I should have stated that the beginning of "King Kong" doesn't appear to have been covered up by dialogue.

 

Nothing in the retail racks anywhere here in downtown Toronto.

 

My suspicion is that these Zappa releases won't exactly be filling shelves. The internet may end up being your friend on these.

In fact, I will be trying to get these as they come out since the current state of the CD industry makes me concerned that they will be gone before too much time passes.

 

I really hope they do. On the other hand, its still up in the air what will be remastered properly in the second batch.

 

On the 1987 CD, the beginning of "King Kong" is not covered up by dialogue. However, if you fast forward to the first track of "King Kong" (disc two track four) you hear a bit of noise left over from the ending of the previous track before "King Kong" itself starts.

BTW I stopped by the Best Buy next to Golf Mill and they had six of the reissues in stock.

 

Yeah, that's what I was trying to say. No leftover dialogue at the beginning of "King Kong". Even though the digiverb appears to have been retained, I've never found it as intrusive as others find it. I'd prefer that it were gone, but I'm not too bent out of shape about it.

Also, the spine of each CD is numbered according to its sequential position in the Zappa catalog (Freak Out! is #1, etc.). Numbers 7 and 13 are missing and would appear to coincide with Mothermania and 200 Motels

 

First thoughts on AbFree through super-****** workplace speakers:

The "bassiness" that people seem to be referring to sounds, on first blush, like a simple reversion to the way the album sounded on LP. The Ryko reissue had a brighter EQ along with the digital reverb sheen (much in the way that Freak Out sounded *markedly* different in its Ryko incarnation, even though most of those adjustments were also just EQ and reverb). I'm pleased on first listen. We'll see if that holds up under a better listening environment.

 

I don't think BWS has the glitch in "House."

 

Some further news:

Andrew Greenaway's site says Sheik Yerbouti will include the full length "I'm So Cute."

Strangely, UK Amazon has posted samples of a much later batch of reissues: Baby Snakes, LSO, Francesco, Mothers Of Prevention, Jazz From Hell, Guitar and Broadway The Hard Way. Tracklists all same as the 95 Rykos as far as I know. I haven't listened to them yet.

 

The original LP was on crappy Verve vinyl, so some may have grown accustomed to the trebly sound. Your analysis of the Ryko CD further indicates that the album has not previously been presented well. The UMe CD may be one of the few masterings of AF that brings out its full sound. Of course, this means that some will find it too bassy.

 

Went and picked up Hot Rats at BB while it was on sale. Basically just the vinyl mix on CD, but welcomed. It could do with a slight remix IMO, as the snare always sounds as if it is inside a cardboard box.

 

My Zappas are here!!!

Absolutely Free first in line

 

Good to hear! Can you elaborate a bit more? Is it louder/more compressed, the EQ natural? Anything really?