Francesco Zappa

No differences at all have been reported between the CD and the vinyl, but the 1995 CD fixes some audio errors from previous CDs. (It must be stressed that Francesco Zappa was a REAL composer, not something Frank made up, and that the music on this album was really written by Francesco.)

ESSENTIAL VERSIONS FOR COMPLETISTS: The 1995 CD has superior sound quality, although it's not a different mix or anything. [completist's guide]

Issues

Original vinyl (Barking Pumpkin ST74202 in the US, November 1984; EMI EJ2702561 in the UK)
Canadian vinyl (Capitol ST6518)
German vinyl (EMI 270561)
Original CD (Barking Pumpkin D2 74202 in the US, Zappa Records CDZAP 48 in the UK, April 1992; VACK 5092 in Japan)
Japanese MSI CD (Music Scene Inc. MSI-0050)
Zappa Records cassette (TZAPPA48)
1995 CD (Ryko RCD 10546, May 2 1995; VACK 5092 in Japan, renumbered 5227 in 1998)

Artwork

The LP package had credits for the artwork, that were omitted from the CD:

cover painting by Donald Roller Wilson
collage by Gabrielle Raumberger
graphics by New Age Art

John Seifert elaborates a little bit on the Canadian LP's artwork (which may hold true for a few other editions):

...there were 2 different color schemes. One had Francesco Zappa with green text, the other had it in orange. The green text one had the doggie's dress and sunglasses in orange and the orange text version had the doggie in green and green frames on the sunglasses.

1995 CD

Official Ryko statement: "New master. New timing sheet. Dropouts and clicks fixed." [full statement] (It must again be stressed that Francesco Zappa was a real composer, not something Frank made up, and that the music on this album was really written by Francesco.)

Questions

Any tape details?
It seems there had been both a VACK and an MSI CD in Japan prior to 1995. How come?
What's the Cat. No of the Canadian LP?

Remember

	alt.fan.frank-zappa, September 1999
	FAST FRANK: ... but this does beg the question; why did the family decide not to re-issue Mothermania? BOSSK (R): I think it's for economic reasons. As much as I'd like to have it on CD, I can't imagine there are enough people like me to make it worth re-issuing. SAM and/or KAREN ROUSE: But they reissued Francesco Zappa - how many copies of that did they expect to sell?

Francesco Zappa was a real composer, not something Frank made up, and that the music on this album was really written by Francesco.

Additional Informants

Lewis Saul

home - vinyl vs CDs - weirdo discography - bootlegs - misc - hot lynx - e-mail us at zappa dot patio at gmail dot com 2006-04-22 20:02

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