Frank Zappa - Warts 'n All

I pulled the downloads from most of my Frank Zappa posts awhile ago because I wanted to respect something Gail Zappa wrote, but in retrospect I think it was unnecessary because I'm not sharing anything that's being released and all of the content is available elsewhere. On top of that, I still stand by my statement that I will pull anything down if I'm requested to do so, and since there was no request from anyone, I'm going to put those Zappa downloads back online. Before doing so though, I want to share a hell of a find that I received from the Zappateers community.

Apparently Frank was compiling a very large live album for release named Warts 'n All, presumably in the very early eighties. As Frank had a habit of assembling very large albums, it's no surprise to find that this one never came out, at least not in it's original form. Some of the tracks ended up on Tinseltown Rebellion and the Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar series, but the grand majority remain unreleased.

One very important thing to understand about this post is that the version of Warts 'n All presented here isn't necessarily the finished version that may have been released, and there may not be a finished version either. As this collection has been presented and shared with fans, it appears to be organized for a seven sided vinyl release. A lot of speculation has been made about this odd number of sides and it is generally assumed that Frank may have created a test version of the album for his and other folks examination, possibly to have some of the content released if not all of it, but the only people living who might know are Joe Travers and the Zappa family, and that most likely would be based upon any data they found in the vault. What we do know though is that all of these recordings were assembled, edited and mixed by Frank himself, and even if they weren't 100% ready for prime-time, they're still pretty damn fascinating.

So, for your listening pleasure, I present all seven sides of the proposed Warts 'n All album. I've split this into two zip files and labeled each side as it's own disc, although if you listen to the whole thing you'll hear fade-outs at the end of what would be each side. On top of that, if you'd like more information on this project and the sources of the recordings, you can visit The Zappa Patio's Unreleased Records page for all that and more. There is lots of incredible information at The Zappa Patio and if you're a fan of Frank, you'll be wonderfully entertained by the copious amount of detail contained therein!

And in regards to the reposts, there will be a very simple, no frills post here, probably tomorrow, that will contain links for those items previously removed and a few other gems I dug out. Hope you enjoy them!


Frank Zappa - Warts 'n All

Sides 1 through 4

Side 1:
01 Band Intros
02 Dead Girls Of London
03 Suicide Chump
04 Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar

Side 2:
01 Thirteen
02 Magic Fingers
03 Ancient Armaments

Side 3:
01 Ms. X
02 Little House I Used To Live In
03 Lobster Girl
04 Thirteen (Keyboard Solos)

Side 4:
01 The Deathless Horsie
02 The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing
03 For The Young Sophisticate
04 Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar Some More


Sides 5 through 7

Side 5:
01 Conehead
02 Jumbo Go Away
03 Mo Mama
04 Persona Non Grata

Side 6:
01 Bamboozled By Love
02 I Ain't Got No Heart
03 Easy Meat

Side 7:
01 Dance Contest
02 A Pound For A Brown (Solos)
03 Rubber Girl
04 Peaches III


PS - This has nothing to do with the above post but I wanted to say RIP to Guru of Gang Starr. On top of that, FUCK SOLAR, his controlling methods will soon lead to the unravelling of his so-called career. Whatever he is, it will be revealed soon enough. And to anyone bothered by the venom in these words, my apologies, but I'm so upset by the blatant abuse caused by this fool which probably assisted in Guru's death that I had to say it and let anyone who cares know my position. Okay, rant over.