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The Adventures of Greggery Peccary

song performed by Frank Zappa

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 16, 2026
Entity authorityQ2557151 ↗
Source-derived summary

"The Adventures of Greggery Peccary" is a musical composition by American Frank Zappa. It originally released as Greggery Peccary on the album Studio Tan in 1978. A slightly different version was also included on the Läther album; while Läther was recorded in 1977, it was officially released in 1996.

An instrumental version appears on the Wazoo CD featuring the original Wazoo ensemble; this version debuted at the Hollywood Bowl on September 10, 1972. The version is in four movements totalling 33.05 minutes on the CD. The song is an epic lasting nearly 21 minutes, mocking the rock opera style and reprising the extended story format used in "Billy the Mountain"; to some extent, it also continues the lengthy adventures outlined in the "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow Suite".

The piece required a large number of personnel to record, and received its basic tracking during The Grand Wazoo and Waka/Jawaka sessions in mid-1972. The piece remained unfinished at the time of release of those two LPs (later that year). Zappa would return to the recording on and off until its completion during the recording sessions for One Size Fits All in 1974. The long interludes of avant-garde classical arrangement that are prevalent in the track made for a much more sophisticated sound than "Billy the Mountain". Nonetheless, Zappa's use of absurdist humor and political commentary remains prominent in this piece.

Editorial summary

“The Adventures of Greggery Peccary” enters the record as song performed by Frank Zappa. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Adventures, Greggery and Peccary can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1978, 1977, 1996, 1972—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1978. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Adventures, Greggery and Peccary.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“The Adventures of Greggery Peccary” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Adventures, Greggery and Peccary provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2557151. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1978, 1977, 1996 and 1972.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Adventures of Greggery Peccary”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Adventures of Greggery Peccary primary sources, The Adventures of Greggery Peccary archive and Adventures research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Adventures of Greggery Peccary”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “The Adventures of Greggery Peccary” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.