TwentySmallCigars wrote:
I'm not trying to berate anyone. It's your money, spend it how you like. If you bought your LP as an investment or you just like the cover, knock yourself out, but you don't strike me as a collector. I certainly have a TON of bootlegs, some of which I'm happy with and some of which I feel pretty ripped off about. But I also own the complete Zappa catalogue, which should be a person's focus before venturing out into the grey world of unofficial releases.
However, it seems there are more than a few young and new Zappa fans here (God bless you, the world needs more of you) that I feel could use a little advice to keep them from getting ripped off as much as I did back in the pre-internet days. If you're unsure about what's on a bootleg title, the Zappa Patio is still a great resource although it hasn't been updated for a while.
For the record, although I don't own the Lone Ranger LP, I do own Leatherette, Pa's Nose Fell Off at Breakfast, the Edison 4-LP box and the 4CD Läther-Box, all of which I was thrilled to own at one time and none of which I play anymore once the ZFT released Läther officially. If you're truly interested in the music this is the only one you need to listen to.
Universal Music has re-released (pretty much) the entire Zappa catalogue in the best quality currently available. The ZFT gets royalties from sales of this stuff and this allows them to keep releasing the fantastic stuff they do. Don't give money to anyone else, everything else is available for free elsewhere.
Fair enough. I am a collector but my entire zappa collection was stolen from me about a year ago so I became very uninterested in starting that climb again until now. I had about half of his records at the time