Lumpy Gravy – Unreleased Photos


Found on the Commodore Crush Blog:

Well, it’s about time I share these photos with everyone. I luckily found these at a yard sale in San Diego a few years ago. I bought about 10 different Frank Zappa photos, 8 of which were the original photographer’s proofs that still had red crayon circled approvals on several of the shots in the roll. I scanned them in at 600dpi (if I remember correctly) so you could still get an amazing closeup of each frame. Original cost was about 5 bucks and then bills needed to be paid and sold on eBay for $900… I think.

I believe these studio shots may be from around the time Lumpy Gravy was released. If you look closely, you can see he’s wearing the Pipco shirt underneath his cardigan. I’ll put put a new hi-res photo up every day for the next 8 days ending with the alternate versions of the Lumpy Gravy cover. As far as I know, these have never been released. Enjoy!

The parts so far: 1 | 2| 3| 4 | 5

Author: Balint

architect.

15 thoughts on “Lumpy Gravy – Unreleased Photos”

  4. Any idea where I can download the picture to actually have a look at them instead of using this *ù&ç flash viewer?

  5. Fantastic artifact, Barry! I can understand why these contact sheets only cost $5 at a yard sale, though – possessing the negatives, he didn’t think the contact sheets were of any worth or interest. Makes me think, though, of the cover of Imaginary Diseases, which obviously came from a contact sheet.

  7. It really is a shame that the images are obfuscated by that Flash interface. I asked the guy if he would be willing to offer up plain, full high-res images, but no dice:

    Unfortunately, I’d rather not list the hi-res versions anywhere else. I understand that the Zoomify widget is kinda junk though. Hahaha.

    Oh well, okay…
    If anyone feels up for it though, it is possible to make screenshots of every single picture frame! 😉

  8. [quote comment=”14268″]It really is a shame that the images are obfuscated by that Flash interface. I asked the guy if he would be willing to offer up plain, full high-res images, but no dice:

    Unfortunately, I’d rather not list the hi-res versions anywhere else. I understand that the Zoomify widget is kinda junk though. Hahaha.

    Oh well, okay…
    If anyone feels up for it though, it is possible to make screenshots of every single picture frame! ;)[/quote]

    I can understand why he wouldn’t want to offer up “plain, full high-res images” Barry because of all the tedious work involved, only to have other sites benefit from your efforts (and for what? Love of Zappa alone?)

    The thinking thus goes… These images are mine to show the way I want to (cause I paid my five dollars).

    Well, Barry, just like field recordings, these contact sheets are bootlegs of the actual images.

    Because you’re such an upstanding fellow you asked him first “if he would be willing to offer up plain, full high-res images” but he really has as much legal and moral legging as a bootlegger who holds onto a Zappa field recording hoping to sell it to the highest bidder (not that I’m accusing him of this, though – I’m of the belief that all Zappa field recordings, and field ephemera should be shared: which he has done, though he admits “the Zoomify widget is kinda junk though. Hahaha.”) So, go forth and make make screenshots of every single picture frame!

  11. [quote post=”4113″]urbangraffito says:
    October 14th, 2010 at 8:50 am » Quote
    A quote from Barry’s Imaginary Publisher:

    It really is a shame that the images are obfuscated by that Flash interface. I asked the guy if he would be willing to offer up plain, full high-res images, but no dice:

    A quote from urbangraffito:

    Unfortunately, I’d rather not list the hi-res versions anywhere else. I understand that the Zoomify widget is kinda junk though. Hahaha.

    Oh well, okay…
    If anyone feels up for it though, it is possible to make screenshots of every single picture frame!

    I can understand why he wouldn’t want to offer up “plain, full high-res images” Barry because of all the tedious work involved, only to have other sites benefit from your efforts (and for what? Love of Zappa alone?)

    The thinking thus goes… These images are mine to show the way I want to (cause I paid my five dollars).

    Well, Barry, just like field recordings, these contact sheets are bootlegs of the actual images.

    Because you’re such an upstanding fellow you asked him first “if he would be willing to offer up plain, full high-res images” but he really has as much legal and moral legging as a bootlegger who holds onto a Zappa field recording hoping to sell it to the highest bidder (not that I’m accusing him of this, though – I’m of the belief that all Zappa field recordings, and field ephemera should be shared: which he has done, though he admits “the Zoomify widget is kinda junk though. Hahaha.”) So, go forth and make make screenshots of every single picture frame![/quote]

    Hey, I just wanted to note the reason I haven’t given up the full hi-resolution pics is because people will try to profit from it. I’ve had tons of requests for the full hi-res versions that I scanned in at 600 dpi because they wanted to put it on shirts, posters etc. I just felt that everyone should be able to see them in a high resolution format, which they can. If anyone is savvy enough to rip the slices and put them back together, then more power to you. I have no problem with that.

    The other reason, is that it loads fast, you can zoom in with great detail and it doesn’t cause scrolling up, down, left and right on a web page to see it.

    I don’t know if I’d say these are “bootlegs” though. Yes, they’re copies of the negatives, made into a contact/proof sheet from the photographer that they use for further enlargement or cataloging. In some of the sheets you can see the actual wax pencil/crayon used to circle a few of the images that they planned on using.

    Thanks for posting again, and long live Zappa!

  13. [quote comment=”14323″]

    Hey, I just wanted to note the reason I haven’t given up the full hi-resolution pics is because people will try to profit from it. I’ve had tons of requests for the full hi-res versions that I scanned in at 600 dpi because they wanted to put it on shirts, posters etc. I just felt that everyone should be able to see them in a high resolution format, which they can. If anyone is savvy enough to rip the slices and put them back together, then more power to you. I have no problem with that.

    The other reason, is that it loads fast, you can zoom in with great detail and it doesn’t cause scrolling up, down, left and right on a web page to see it.

    I don’t know if I’d say these are “bootlegs” though. Yes, they’re copies of the negatives, made into a contact/proof sheet from the photographer that they use for further enlargement or cataloging. In some of the sheets you can see the actual wax pencil/crayon used to circle a few of the images that they planned on using.

    Thanks for posting again, and long live Zappa![/quote]

    Commodore Crush, I can fully appreciate your position and reasons for not offering up full hi-res versions of individual images. I’ve noticed many field recordings from Zappateers being sold on eBay by the unscrupulous to the uninformed who do not know that they are available for free as torrents. There will always be assholes trying to make a buck off Zappa’s image and legacy. One Xmas, one of sisters even bought me a bootleg Zappa T-shirt (I told her later why I wasn’t happy with it, and she returned it to the shop she bought it from). Eventually, it all comes down to personal choices, because the only ones who can stop the bootleg t-shirt trade in Zappa’s image is the ZFT. If they want to use your contact sheet as a master to make t-shirts, they’ll figure a way to do so. There’s very little today’s image applications cannot accomplish.

    Anyway, thanks for posting them!

  14. [quote comment=”14323″]Hey, I just wanted to note the reason I haven’t given up the full hi-resolution pics is because people will try to profit from it. I’ve had tons of requests for the full hi-res versions that I scanned in at 600 dpi because they wanted to put it on shirts, posters etc. I just felt that everyone should be able to see them in a high resolution format, which they can. If anyone is savvy enough to rip the slices and put them back together, then more power to you. I have no problem with that.

    The other reason, is that it loads fast, you can zoom in with great detail and it doesn’t cause scrolling up, down, left and right on a web page to see it.[/quote]
    Hey CC, thanks for your comment here. I do understand your reasons for not offering up the high-res images.

    Be aware though that someone somewhere is going to figure out how to get to them sooner or later (in fact, it looks like Hugo up there already did).

    My thinking was that, if they are going to go “in the open” (which they will), it might as well be on a site which does not attempt to make any profit out of it (i.e. KUR).

    Having said that, thanks for posting them!

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