Zappa was introduced to the synclavier, which did away with his need for musicians. After having discovered an 18th C. Italian Cellist from Milan under the name of Francesco Zappa, he decided to test the limits of the synclavier by recording his classical music on it. The result sounds machine-made, there is no denying it. Zappa then released Them or Us on which he involved his kids: Moon was on vocals and Dweezil is on guitar on Sharleena. Then came Thing Fish in 1984. Originally planned to be a film, the plans fell through and a three album set was released instead. Composed in a week over his Christmas break, the result is rather mediocre and not many found it appealing. All he had to say was: “Like hydrogen, stupidity is one of the building blocks of the universe. As you come to grips with the splendor of stupidity itself, the process of being alive not only becomes more tolerable, but can even be enjoyable.” [Miles p. 330]
Then came the idea to re-release his entire catalogue. Getting the master tapes from MGM (after the lawsuit had finished) he claimed that they had been badly stored and of bad quality. He never bothered to ask them to look for copy and safety masters, which they surely had, and instead decided to add new drums and bass tracks. Fans were outraged as the albums lost their character and ambiance and as Zappa freely replaced the work of the original Mothers members. Jazz from Hell from 1986 was almost entirely done on the synclavier, and sounded like it. The instrumental album garnered two Grammy nominations. He won the Best Rock Instrumental Performance.
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