Listening April 8 2026

Frank Zappa: Lumpy Gravy (Verve) on vinyl

Years ago, I'm thinking early 1990s, I remember being really excited to find the reissue of the Mothers of Invention's We're Only In It For the Money coupled with Frank Zappa's Lumpy Gravy on a single CD. It was released by Rykodisc. I knew WOIITFTM from a reel to reel tape my father made of borrowed Mothers records, which were current at the time. 

I knew that tape well enough that when I listened to WOIIFTM, I knew something was off. I didn't remember there being slap bass lines on that album, for example. The Rykodisc remasterings are now rather notorious for Frank's fiddling. He was known to digitally strip drums and bass from the originals and replace with re-recorded (or possibly even Synclavier-generated) parts. He claimed that the original master tapes had deteriorated, but that doesn't explain why only rhythm section parts were replaced. As far as he was concerned, they were better, why should we complain?

While Frank's music has been very important to me, this is a side of his personality I don't like. Whether or not the parts could be improved, it's highly disrespectful to the original musicians to simply toss their performances aside. Yes he was the boss, yes he expected perfection at an almost inhuman level, but the recordings were what they were and have historical value. 

I'm reminded of a story in which Frank was having a woodwind quintet performed. The group couldn't play the piece to perfection, which was doubtlessly extremely difficult. His solution: set up microphones in front of the musicians, and play a Synclavier rendering of the piece while the group pantomimed performing. He claims nobody could tell it wasn't live, which I question. And besides, the audience got to hear the piece. If I was there and figured out what was going on (I'd like to think I'd be able to tell), I would have been angry.

On the Rykodisc reissue, I've read today that the Lumpy Gravy half was pretty much left unaltered. Nonetheless, I've recently bought an original issue of the album and that's what I've been spinning.

I've been reading about the history of this album, which I'll sum up but is easily located on Wikipedia. Frank was signed to Verve (a division of MGM) but received a commission of "orchestral music" from an A&R rep from Capitol Records. The result, the original version of Lumpy Gravy, was released as a "four track tape" (I assume reel to reel) very briefly before MGM sued. Frank's rationale: He doesn't play on the album, only conducts the ensemble of largely studio musicians. His contract read that he wasn't permitted to perform on records for other labels. 

Technically, I suppose he's right, but it seems foolish to have expected any other outcome. 

When the recordings were prepared for Verve release, Frank added interjections of people speaking, and musique concrète-isized reworkings of some of the material. There are similar moments on early Mothers albums, so in that respect it's not that far astray from those albums. There's just more of it, but also no Frank vocals or guitar gymnastics. 

As for the ensemble music, there are passages of woodwind clusters, pulseless percussion, and even a few familiar melodies: "Oh No", "Take Your Clothes Off", and a little snippet of "King Kong". 

I was interested to read that the original, unaltered version briefly released by Capitol has been reissued. The Project/Object series were historical recordings, the original albums, which supplemental material. Freak Out! and Uncle Meat were given similar reissues. The Lumpy Money Project/Object might actually be worth hunting down to hear his original intentions for the work.

Additional note: Lumpy Gravy's cover names him as Francis Vincent Zappa. This isn't correct. His birth name was Frank. But then Elvis Presley's birth certificate middle name is Aron. It's spelled Aaron on his grave marker.