Frank Zappa

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Matt Wilson
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Frank Zappa

Postby Matt Wilson » 14 Jan 2022, 21:51

I'm bored. Sitting around watching two students work quietly. So I'm going to review Freak Out in my customary song-by-song manner. I don't know if I'm going to keep this thread up and do more Zappa, or just do a one-and-done, but for now:

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Freak Out! 1966
What an audacious debut! A weird combination of avant-garde, '50s doo wop, early progressive rock, and maybe even a little garage rock thrown in for good measure. Zappa's genius as a composer is in full effect. A double LP recorded in March of 1966, with the original Mothers - this is quintessential Los Angeles music, folks. I'm always a little surprised at Uncle Frank's popularity worldwide as it's difficult to come up with an artist more representative of LA than Frank Vincent Zappa. Lots of local references permeate his work, and it starts right here with Freak Out! Zappa's guitar god prowess begins here too, on "Hungry Freaks, Daddy" and "Trouble Every Day," his Gibson ES-5 Switchmaster played through a Fender Deluxe amp earmarked him as a virtuoso even if few pundits at the time were paying attention. You can get the original vinyl LP mix on the 2006 MOFO Project/Object Audio Documentary box. I think I got that right - I'm too lazy to look it up. I have the set, but it's at home. I think all other CD versions are remixes. Blonde on Blonde was released first, but Freak Out! has to be the first debut double LP I can think of.

Suzy Creamcheese makes her debut here as well, she would put in other appearances on Absolutely Free and Uncle Meat. The album had a list of 179 names of people who contributed materially or influenced the Mothers, a year before the Beatles put their heroes on the cover of Sgt Pepper's. The Varese quote about the present day composer refusing to die isn't exactly what he said, but it's close enough - and would be a Zappa hallmark statement for the rest of his life. If you sent a dollar in '66 to MGM, you got a Freak Map, which pointed out the locations of 36 places of interest in Hollywood. Anyways...

The Mothers of Invention

Frank Zappa – guitar, conductor, vocals
Jimmy Carl Black – percussion, drums, vocals
Ray Collins – vocals, harmonica, cymbals, sound effects, tambourine, finger cymbals, bobby pin & tweezers
Roy Estrada – bass & guitarrón, boy soprano
Elliot Ingber – alternate lead & rhythm guitar with clear white light

The Mothers' Auxiliary

Gene Estes – percussion
Eugene Di Novi – piano
Neil Levang – guitar
John Rotella – clarinet, bass saxophone
Carol Kaye – 12-string guitar
Kurt Reher – cello
Raymond Kelley – cello
Paul Bergstrom – cello
Emmet Sargeant – cello
Joseph Saxon – cello
Edwin V. Beach – cello
Arthur Maebe – French horn
George Price – French horn
Roy Caton – trumpet
Virgil Evans – trumpet
David Wells – trombone
Motorhead Sherwood – noises
Kim Fowley – hypophone
Mac Rebennack – piano
Paul Butterfield – vocals
Les McCann – piano
Jeannie Vassoir – voice of Suzy Creamcheese

All tracks are written by Frank Zappa except "Go Cry on Somebody Else's Shoulder", by Zappa and Ray Collins.

Side one
1. "Hungry Freaks, Daddy" 3:32
Hot damn, do I love this song! Frank and Ray sing, the music is hot, and it sure sums up what the Mothers were all about in the mid '60s. Totally fuckin' great guitar solo too, and who else could play like that at the time? Clapton, Beck, Bloomfield (and Hendrix, though this precedes his first recordings with The Experience), and precious few others. This should have been LA's national anthem.

2. "I Ain't Got No Heart" 2:34
Ray sings lead. He's probably my fave Zappa singer ever now that I think about it. Carol Kaye is on 12-string guitar. The tough-guy lyrics are typical for Zappa and his ideas of romance, but Jagger's "Heart of Stone" mined similar territory.

3. "Who Are the Brain Police?" 3:25
Another Collins/Zappa-sung duet, and a classic example of paranoia which afflicted many counter culture denizens of the time. Elliot Ingber tuned his guitar to Frank's instructions and the whole tune is about policing yourself or stopping yourself from achieving your goals in life. It was also the B-side of the "Trouble Every Day" 45.

Wiki - ""Who Are the Brain Police?" is a Frank Zappa song, performed by The Mothers of Invention, released on the Mothers' debut album, Freak Out!. It was released by Verve Records as a single in 1966. Zappa stated that the song was one of religious theme.

Zappa wrote about the song on the Freak Out! liner notes: "At five o’clock in the morning someone kept singing this in my mind and made me write it down. I will admit to being frightened when I finally played it out loud and sang the words."

In a 1988 interview, Zappa added:

A lot of people police their own brains. They're like citizen soldiers, so to speak. I've seen people who will willingly arrest, try and punish their own brains. Now that's really sad. That's vigilante brain policism. It's not even official, it's like self-imposed. ... It's hard to pin it down to one central agency when you realize that so many people are willing to do it to themselves. I mean, the people who want to become amateur brain police, their numbers grow every day – people who say to themselves, 'I couldn't possibly consider that', and then spank themselves for even getting that far. So, you don't even need to blame it on a central brain police agency. You've got plenty of people who willingly subject themselves to this self-mutilation.

The song was stated to be a "direct defiance of top 40 radio". Repetitive lyrics were noted as part of this "defiance". The song was also cited by Mojo magazine as "one of the scariest songs to ever emerge from the rock psyche". While comparing it to Kafka, Mojo described the song as "a vision of contemporary America where personal identity and individuality is erased".

4. "Go Cry on Somebody Else's Shoulder" 3:43
More machismo from our erstwhile bard and Ray, with Collins singing lead. The song originated with Ray's ideas about his ex-wife. The class ring and the crease in the khaki pants harken back to the '50s and a more innocent way of life. Getting your hair processed is something African Americans did at the time. This, along with the Spanish parts of some of these songs demonstrate an inclusiveness on the part of the Mothers which I find appealing. It's not all about white kids buying rock records in other words.

5. "Motherly Love" 2:50
I love this one too. Funny lyrics which I'll avoid typing out now - because I'm on a roll and can't be bothered with cutting and pasting! Another Mothers anthem.

6. "How Could I Be Such a Fool" 2:16
Ray on lead, Zappa doing harmony. So much of this material is a parody or homage (take your pick) of classic '50s teenage Americana which for me, works much better than the songs on the later Cruising with Ruben & The Jets. Wow, side one is finished and all the tracks are friggin' great!

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Side two
7. "Wowie Zowie" 2:55
The title was something that Pamela Zarabrica used to say (she says it on one of those Uncle Meat songs). Frank said in later interviews that the songs on Freak Out! were as commercial as he knew hot to write. Wonder if he thought this stuff would be played on local radio?

8. "You Didn't Try to Call Me" 3:21
Frank is the one reciting the pachuko outro with Collins singing falsetto (Roy Estrada handled that chore on most of these songs). What can I say - I love this one too. Why didn't you try to call me, by the way?

9. "Any Way the Wind Blows" 2:55
Neil LeVang plays the guitar solo on 12-string, and there's an allusion to the Nutmegs' "Story Untold" which I'll let you decipher. I think the songs on side two are every bit as listener-friendly as those on the first side.

10. "I'm Not Satisfied" 2:41
Carol Kaye on 12-string again. I think every song so far was performed live by the Mothers during this era. Love to hear some tapes of those performances.

11. "You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here" 3:41
LeVang on 12-string, and great lyrics once more. Words to his songs would become an issue in the '70s when Frank became more jaded and the potty humor was dominant. That's not the case here though. Another great LP-side!

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Side three
12. "Trouble Every Day" 5:53
One of the more famous cuts on an album full of great material, Frank sings (double tracked) this one himself in a kind of down-to-earth protest manner, while also adding the guitar solo. Tom Wilson gave them their MGM contract based on this song which he heard at the Whiskey a Go Go. Written after the Watts riots. Frank was expressing his distaste at rioting and revolutionary rhetoric.

Wikipedia: "Frank Zappa wrote the song in 1965 at 1819 Bellevue Avenue, Echo Park, Los Angeles, the residence of a methamphetamine chemist referred to by Zappa as "Wild Bill the Mannequin-Fucker" after watching news coverage of the Watts Riots. Originally dubbed "The Watts Riot Song", its primary lyrical themes are racial violence, social injustice, and sensationalist journalism. The musical style—featuring multiple guitar tracks and a harmonica—much more closely resembles blues than mainstream rock and roll.

Producer Tom Wilson of MGM Records signed the Mothers to a record deal on March 1, 1966, having heard only this song and believing them to be a "white blues band". Together, they released "Trouble Every Day" as a single with B-side "Who Are the Brain Police?"

A re-arranged version appeared on the Mothers' 1974 live album Roxy & Elsewhere (and on the 1991 live album The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life) as "More Trouble Every Day". These subsequent versions were more up-tempo and usually featured a strong horn intro and punctuation.

The UK underground artist Mick Farren covered the song on his album Vampires Stole My Lunch Money (1978). Australian stoner rock band Tumbleweed covered the song as a B-side on their 1993 single "Daddy Long Legs". George Thorogood and the Destroyers included a cover of the song on their 1997 album Rockin' My Life Away.

Louisa Roach, of British band She Drew The Gun, rewrote some of the lyrics to reflect recent riots and demonstrations in the UK. The rewrite received the full blessing of the Frank Zappa estate with the record being released in August 2019.

The Specials covered the song on their 2021 album Protest Songs 1924-2012.

French film maker Claire Denis named her 2001 film Trouble Every Day after the song.

The Frank Zappa tribute band Trouble Every Day named itself after this song."

13. "Help, I'm a Rock (Suite in Three Movements)
I. Okay to Tap Dance II. In Memoriam, Edgard Varèse III. It Can't Happen Here" 8:37
Play this one loud! This was recorded at the last session for the album and beside Frank and Ray, Kim Fowley is in the right speaker. Zappa got the idea for the title from a teacher named Phyllis Rubino, who had a rock in her house with a sign that said "Help, I'm a rock!" Delightful weirdness, I actually have another band covering this song on some CD, but for the life of me can't recall who the hell it is. But perhaps Wiki can help me remember: "The Mothers of Invention entered TTG Studios to record "Help, I'm a Rock"—among other tracks for the Freak Out! album—after record producer Tom Wilson signed the group to MGM Records under the incorrect assumption that they were a traditional blues ensemble. As a testament to its absurdity, Zappa explained "Help, I'm a Rock" was created spontaneously as "just a thing that spewed out. What was happening was what was in the air that night". For the composition's unusual droning background sounds, the band encompassed screams, duck calls, alien beeps and chatter, tribal chants, and erotic moans that simulated a female orgasm. In the liner notes to Freak Out!, Zappa wrote the tongue-in-cheek statement: "'Help, I'm a Rock' is dedicated to Elvis Presley. Note the interesting formal structure and the stunning four-part harmony toward the end". He concludes his comments on the song by jokingly remarking about "the obvious lack of commercial potential. Ho hum".

"Help, I'm a Rock" is a three part suite consisting of: "Okay to Tap Dance", "In Memoriam Edgar Varese" and "It Can't Happen Here". In the first pressing of Freak Out!, the song was credited simply as "Help, I'm a Rock". However, as Freak Out! reissues and compilation albums were made available, the third part, "It Can't Happen Here", has been commonly listed as a separate track. In concert, the composition was typically mixed with other band songs, most regularly "Hungry Freaks Daddy". One music critic notes "Long term, the psychedelic workout had plenty of commercial appeal, with Zappa’s bands playing it throughout the master’s career. 'Help, I’m a Rock' became one of the many catch phrases attached to Zappa over his career".

A section of "Help, I'm a Rock" called "Third Movement: It Can't Happen Here" was also featured as the B-side of the DJ-only "How Can I Be Such a Fool?" single. With a running time of nearly nine minutes, "Help, I'm a Rock" remains one of the Mothers of Invention's most lengthy and experimental pieces in their catalog.

In 1967, psychedelic rock group the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band recorded the song on their second album Part One. Richie Unterberger described the rendition as a concept that "flung them into freakier pastures", with its style being "emulated convincingly on the group original '1906', an apt soundtrack to a bummer acid trip with its constant spoken refrain, 'I don't feel well'".

Thus endeth the third side of the record. No more commercial-sounding songs, but a more adventurous vibe is certainly present.

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Side four
14. "The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet (Unfinished Ballet in Two Tableaux) I. Ritual Dance of the Child-Killer II. Nullis Pretii (No Commercial Potential)" 12:22
This was actually never completed and Frank bemoaned its inclusion on the LP for years. Definitely the freakiest track to be found - he was still talking about finishing it as late as 1982. To be honest, I usually skip it! LOL.

Wiki - "The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet" is a Frank Zappa composition, performed by The Mothers of Invention, released on the Mothers' debut album, Freak Out!. It is the longest song on the album, at 12:17, consisting of 2 parts: "Ritual Dance Of The Child-Killer", and "Nullis Pretii (No Commercial Potential)". The composition includes a musical quote from "Louie Louie" (Richard Berry).

The name of the song was probably inspired by a toy called "Monster Magnet" from the Wham-O company which was then being heavily advertised on American television.

According to Zappa himself, the Freak Out! version of this song is merely a rhythm track and was never finished as intended. Apparently for budgetary reasons, Verve executives curtailed further recording of the track even after shelling out $500 for rented percussion. Indeed, the subtitle of the track is "an Unfinished Ballet in two Tableaux". Unlike many of his extended works, Zappa never augmented or completed this piece when he had the time, money and his own recording studio.

Dr. John (Mac Rebennack) appears on piano, and his voice can be heard sporadically throughout the track. Van Dyke Parks was also present at the recording session, but it is unclear what, if anything, played by him was used for the released version.

According to Beatles author and Zappa biographer Barry Miles, the unreleased Beatles experimental track "Carnival of Light" which was recorded in January 1967 resembles "The Return of The Son of Monster Magnet", although it is believed that "Carnival of Light" is more fragmented and abstract than Zappa's effort the previous year."

The song begins with the following dialogue:

Male voice: Suzy?
Female voice: Yes?
Male voice: Suzy Creamcheese?
Female voice: Yes?
Male voice: This is the voice of your conscience baby ... uh, I just want to check one thing out with you ... you don't mind, do ya?
Female voice: What?
Male voice: Suzy Creamcheese, honey, what's got into ya?

This is the first mention of Suzy Creamcheese on any Mothers album, although a "Suzie" is mentioned on Side 3 of Freak Out! on the track, "It Can't Happen Here."

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Last edited by Matt Wilson on 15 Jan 2022, 04:43, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby Rorschach » 14 Jan 2022, 23:21

Is this podcast episode of any interest to you Matt?

Cheepniz, late of this parish and a HUGE Zappa fan enjoyed it, if that's any help ...
Bugger off.

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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby Matt Wilson » 15 Jan 2022, 00:05

Listening now, Tym, thanks.

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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby Muskrat » 15 Jan 2022, 04:28

Looking forward to the continuation of this. "Trouble every Day" may be one of my top five records ever. Dylan should have written (and recorded) something as great. Guess I like "Reuben" more than you do.
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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby C » 15 Jan 2022, 19:03

Muskrat wrote: Guess I like "Reuben" more than you do.


Probably more than the majority of Zappa fans.

It doesn't go down too well

I don't like it at all. I have well over one hundred official Zappa albums but not that one

[Nor Thing Fish]

But as my old grandmother used to say: 'It wouldn't be for us to all be the same'

Great review Matt - just another 100 plus to go!



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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby John_K » 15 Jan 2022, 20:45

Go for it Matt, keep 'em coming...

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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby Muskrat » 17 Jan 2022, 06:15

Neil LeVang, a better than average country picker, played guitar (sometimes with Buddy Merrill) for some time on Lawrence Welk’s TV show.
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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby mudshark » 18 Jan 2022, 00:13

I've got it all, and more, including Cruisin' with Ruben and Thing Fish. Don't care much for the former, but like (not love) the latter. My wife absolutely loves it though! We listen to it on road trips and still get a chuckle over the Terry/Dale dialogues. Freak Out is a masterpiece but I actually prefer Absolutely Free. If I were Matt Wilson (which I'm not, for good order) I'd jump straight to Sheik Yerbouti, because I think many juries are still out on this cornucopia of catchy tunes. I love 3/4 of it, I think. And enough has been said around here about Hot Rats I and II, Roxy, etc. I'm guessing Sheik is his best-selling album ever (with a bullet!) thanks to Bobby Brown which was wildly popular in Scandinavia (it probably was released in the winter). It begs a review by a bored professor.
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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby Hightea » 18 Jan 2022, 02:46

Freak Out was a wake up call for me. We grew up on 70's Zappa so didn't know anything prior to Hot Rats.
When I first heard Freak Out at a friends I was amazed this was an album from 66. Such a crazy album that is all over the place yet it all goes together.
Great write up - look forward to anymore Zappa albums you do, certainly not all of them .
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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby Fonz » 18 Jan 2022, 11:18

Great OP.
Yeah, I’d like to read more. Big Zappa fan here.
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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby Matt Wilson » 18 Jan 2022, 18:22

Well, an outpouring of Zappa requests shall not be dismissed I guess. I have no problem doing the '60s but we'll see about the '70s. After awhile, his output becomes overwhelming - and even though I have everything up through about the mid-eighties, I'm going to run out of things to say about those LPs, as he's no longer pushing the envelope so much as 'making a Zappa album.' Plus there's the issue of the lyrics, but for now anyway...

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Absolutely Free 1967
Like Freak Out!, entirely recorded in 1966. This really bears repeating because nothing sounded like this then. I mean - you can see his influences: Varese, '50s rock 'n roll (and culture), avant-garde music, jazz, modern rock, etc. But it's that combination of all of the above that makes it uniquely Zappa. That's Gail on the LP cover along with Frank, and he designed the cover as well. Freak Out! had a huge budget, but when sales were disappointing, MGM cut the money for Absolutely Free almost in half. I really can't tell though, as the production is pristine. Not so much a collection of cuts this time, more a seamless, long piece of music which Zappa called "a panorama of American life today." I'm using the book "The Big Note - A guide to the recordings of Frank Zappa" by Charles Ulrich, as the basis for my reviews. All facts come from Ulrich, in other words. I've got tons of books on Zappa, but this one could be my fave.

The Mothers of Invention

Frank Zappa – guitar, conductor, vocals
Jimmy Carl Black – drums, vocals
Ray Collins – vocals, tambourine, harmonica
Roy Estrada – bass, vocals
Billy Mundi – drums, percussion
Don Preston – keyboards
Jim Fielder (Uncredited) – guitar, piano
Bunk Gardner – woodwinds

Additional musicians

Suzy Creamcheese (Lisa Cohen) – vocals on "Brown Shoes Don't Make It"
John Balkin – bass on "Invocation & Ritual Dance of the Young Pumpkin" and "America Drinks"
Jim Getzoff – violin on "Brown Shoes Don't Make It"
Marshall Sosson – violin on "Brown Shoes Don't Make It"
Alvin Dinkin – viola on "Brown Shoes Don't Make It"
Armand Kaproff – cello on "Brown Shoes Don't Make It"
Don Ellis – trumpet on "Brown Shoes Don't Make It"
John Rotella – contrabass clarinet on "Brown Shoes Don't Make It"
Herb Cohen – cash register machine sounds on "America Drinks & Goes Home"
Terry Gilliam, girlfriend and others – voices in "America Drinks & Goes Home"

All tracks are written by Frank Zappa.

Side one: "Absolutely Free" (#1 in a Series of Underground Oratorios)

1. "Plastic People" 3:40
Much like "Hungry Freaks, Daddy," the LP is off to a roaring start with this commercial-sounding (for him, anyway) little "Louie, Louie" ditty about people the Mothers thought were fake, and "plastic." As usual, lots of local Los Angeles references abound. I'm tempted to explain some, but then I don't want to bore those who already know this stuff or have read about it. I wanted to go into "The Great Society" when I was reviewing Freak Out!, but lost my nerve because I'm trying to keep this about the music. Anyway, Pandora's Box was a little club at Laurel Canyon and Sunset Blvd which isn't there anymore, and he references the riots which had just happened when he wrote this album.

Wiki - "The title was the inspiration for the name of the Czech band Plastic People of the Universe. The tune is loosely based on Richard Berry's 1957 classic "Louie Louie". The song is a manifesto against conformity and materialistic culture, with Frank Zappa finally asking, "Go home/and check yourself/you think we're singing 'bout someone else?"

It is sampled throughout the GZA single "Cold World" from the Liquid Swords album."

2. "The Duke of Prunes" 2:12
Ray Collins actually wrote a lot of the words to this cut which references "Duke of Earl" by Gene Chandler. Frank had a song called "And Very True" which, surprisingly, was a more straight-forward love song (so rare for him), and Ray ad-libbed the words. He said to credit him with "Prune: Ray Collins" on the LP, and so that's what Frank did. Ulrich: FZ's "oh, no!" is a recurring element on Absolutely Free. Zappa - I had an idea of the commercial value of any phrase repeated in that context. In other words, the catch phrase of that album, that's the "Suzy Creamcheese" of that album.

The phrase is heard in "Duke of Prunes," "Soft-Cell Conclusion," "America Drinks," and "Uncle Bernie's Farm."

3. "Amnesia Vivace" 1:01
All right, this little mid-section of the suite is worth mentioning because it has musical references to Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" and "The Firebird." Zappa would throw in these allusions to classical pieces along with his constant pop culture quotes, almost as if teaching his fans about things other than the counter culture - which he seemed to despise.

4. "The Duke Regains His Chops" 1:45
This is also a short track, functioning as the end of the suite. "Baby Love" was, of course, a big Supremes hit which the Mothers actually did live on the Tis the Season to be Jelly set.

5. "Call Any Vegetable" 2:19
Love this one too. When I saw Crosby, Stills, and Nash in San Diego in the early '90s, David mentioned this song as an aside during one of his between-songs rambles, and the audience got the reference and laughed. I remember being surprised. So what exactly is a vegetable? Zappa: The best clue to this song might lie in the fact that people who are inactive in a society... people who do not live up to their responsibilities... are vegetables. I feel that these people... even if they are inactive, apathetic, or unconcerned at this point... can be motivated towards a more useful sort of existence. I believe that if you call any vegetable it will respond to you.

Also, from Ulrich again - "According to Lorraine Belcher, the inspiration for "Call Any Vegetable" came when FZ came home unexpectedly and found his first wife Kay

in the bedroom, just passed out, sound asleep, with a potato that she had carved into a dildo... Being Frank, he managed to tape record her explanation... She explained to him that she had tried out all the different vegetables... and potatoes were the most harmonious..."

So there you have it.

6. "Invocation & Ritual Dance of the Young Pumpkin" (instrumental) 6:57
Yeah, dig this one too. A rare example of the Mothers playing a long jam in a psychedelic manner. It quotes the Jupiter section of Holst's The Planets, and contains a long Frank guitar solo where he trades licks with Bunk Gardner on soprano sax.

7. "Soft-Sell Conclusion" 1:40
Zappa is lead vocal on this cut which, while short, still manages to quote "God Bless America," "America the Beautiful," the "Marine's Hymn," and Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale.

Side one was fucking epic, and for me, a clear progression from Freak Out! That doesn't mean I like it better, only that the Mother's were becoming more... I don't know, advanced maybe?

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Side two: "The M.O.I. American Pageant" (#2 in a Series of Underground Oratorios)

8. "America Drinks" 1:52
Frank seemed to have a particular aversion towards drugs and alcohol, even if he occasionally did both according to friends. Alcohol had a sort of weird, symbolic thing which represented a kind of middle-class escape from reality for the over-thirty crowd that drugs did for the younger generation. I'm rambling here, I know. Ray sings, as usual, and the opening lyrics reference "My Little Red Book" by Bacharah/David. But that's not enough, quotes from "Entry of the Gladiators" by Julius Fucik, which FZ also used in so many other songs that I'm not going to bother typing them out, are to be found in yet another short track.

9. "Status Back Baby" 2:52
A parody of '50s teenage culture, which is funny enough to make it one of my faves on Absolutely Free. This one quotes Stravinsky's Petrushka. Let's see, De Molay was a religious youth organization, and I'm sure you guys across the pond know what pom pom girls were in American high schools. Don't know if they still exist or not.

10. "Uncle Bernie's Farm" 2:09
Okay, here's Frank regarding this cut: ...is a song about ugly toys and the people who make them. Implied here is the possibility that the people who buy the ugly toys might be as ugly as the toys themselves. The "I'm dreaming" part is from "White Christmas," by Irving Berlin, obviously. This song was never performed live by the Mothers.

11. "Son of Suzy Creamcheese" 1:33
Frank again: ... is a stirring saga of a young groupie. Her actions are all motivated by a desire to be 'in' at all times. Hence the drug abuse -- blowing her mind on too much Kool Aid (acid)... stealing her boyfriend's stash (a hidden supply of drugs) and leaving Los Angeles for a protest march in Berkeley. Hmmm, what else, you guys know "The Strip" is on Sunset Blvd, and Canter's Deli is on Fairfax. Vito was a freak leader, and this track is another "Louie, Louie" rip.

12. "Brown Shoes Don't Make It" 7:26
A classic, sung by Ray, Roy, Jimmy, and Frank himself. The "What would you do, daddy" part is spoken by Lisa Cohen, daughter of Herb Cohen. Some of the bassline is based on "Little Deuce Coupe" by the Beach Boys. There's tons more references, but I'm getting tired of typing this shit out for you guys, sorry.

Zappa: ... is a song about the people who run the government, the young who make the laws the keep you from living the kind of life you know you should lead. These unfortunate people manufacture inequitable laws and ordinances, perhaps unaware of the fact that the restrictions they place on the young people in a society are a result of their own hidden sexual frustrations. Dirty old men running your country.

Wikipedia: "The title was inspired by an event covered by Time magazine reporter Hugh Sidey in 1966. The reporter correctly guessed that something was amiss when the fastidiously dressed President Lyndon B. Johnson made the sartorial faux pas of wearing brown shoes with a gray suit. Johnson flew to Vietnam for a surprise public relations visit later that day.

Live versions of this song are featured on the albums Tinsel Town Rebellion and Road Tapes, Venue 2.

The song was written in April 1966 during a trip to Honolulu where The Mothers played for a week at a club called "Da Swamp". The lyrics are derived from Zappa's belief that people who make laws are sexually maladjusted. It starts as a general attack on suburban American society: TV, greed and conformity are all mocked openly. The story then moves to a city hall official fantasizing about having sex with a thirteen-year-old girl.

The music makes several stylistic shifts, covering hard rock, classical, psychedelic rock, vaudeville and jazz. It is cited by AllMusic as being a "condensed two-hour musical". The song lasts 7:30 and is the twelfth track (fourteenth on CD reissues) on Absolutely Free. According to Zappa, the beginning background music was inspired by Lightnin' Slim's "Have Your Way".

The song has received widespread acclaim from critics, and is considered by many as "Zappa's first masterpiece". In a positive review of the album, Dominique Chevalier said "there are snatches of dodecaphonic scales, ballads, rock, R&B, Beach Boys, soap opera and more ... and ensures that this is no piece of easy listening". As well as giving its parent album 4.5 stars, AllMusic gave a very positive review of the song. It is also included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll."

13. "America Drinks & Goes Home" 2:43
Part two of the cut that opened this suite finished the album in grand fashion. Terry Gilliam is on this number - Frank later said that Brazil was his favorite film. Frank again: ... is an unsubtle parody of adult conduct in neighborhood cocktail lounges in America. The humor is aimed at 1. The type of music your parents like to listen to, 2. The manner in which they like to have it performed. 3. The manner in which the audience persists in talking above the level of the music while it is being performed -- which belies their disrespect for music as an art and for anyone involved in the performance of music.

It's also a parody of the ii-V-I chord progression which Frank saw as "the essence of bad white person music."

Wiki - "Zappa wrote the song to parody his experiences playing with drunken lounge music bands in the early 1960s. The song combines a trite love song lyric with an equally clichéd melody. In a radio interview Zappa also described the ii–V–I progression chord changes in this song as a "satire" of Jazz chord changes in that they go in unexpected or wrong directions.

The members of The Mothers perform the song in a very sloppy way on purpose. Sound effects were creatively added to the recording to give it an authentic nightclub feel. An audience member calls out, "I wanna hear Caravan with a drum solo!" At the end of the recording the audience sounds devolve into screams as lead vocalist Ray Collins says good night to the audience and tells them to "drink it up, folks."

Soon after the song was released in early 1967 a few other songs appeared which used very similar ideas such as "On with the Show" by The Rolling Stones (released in 1967), "My Friend" by Jimi Hendrix (recorded in 1968, released in 1971) and "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)" by The Beatles (recorded in 1967 and 1969, released in 1970.)"

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The excellent "Big Leg Emma/Why Don't You Do Me Right" 45 was released at about the same time and is included on the CD of Absolutely Free. I'm too burned out right now to write up a review, but I hella-love this single (both sides) and see why it's on the CD.

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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby Matt Wilson » 19 Jan 2022, 19:40

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Lumpy Gravy 1967
All right - I'm going to attempt to write about the whole convoluted Lumpy Gravy saga, which is difficult because the '67 release is not the well-known '68 LP which a lot of us know, but an orchestral music tape from Capital which wasn't even released to the general public, but only to DJs and record people as Zappa's label, Verve (MGM subsidiary) issued an injunction claiming Frank could only play on Verve recordings. Thing is - he is only the conductor on these sessions, and doesn't play a note on any instrument - so what the issue was is unknown, but the 1967 Lumpy Gravy tape certainly wasn't heard by too many people at the time, and can only be heard on CD in the Lumpy Money Project/Object 2009 box set.

With me so far? Good. Since there's no vocals to be found, I'll do my best to describe the music contained therein. The whole tape was just over 22 minutes.

Musicians - Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra (Frank named them this)

Arnold Belnick – strings
Harold Bemko – strings
Chuck Berghofer – bass
Jimmy Carl Black – chorus
Jimmy Bond – bass
Monica Boscia – chorus
Dennis Budimir – guitar
Frank Capp – drums
Donald Christlieb – woodwind
Gene Cipriano – woodwind
Vincent DeRosa – french horn
Joseph DiFiore – strings
Jesse Ehrlich – strings
Alan Estes – percussion, drums
Gene Estes – percussion
Louis "Louie the Turkey" Cuneo – chorus
Roy Estrada – bass, chorus
Larry Fanoga (Euclid James "Motorhead" Sherwood) – vocals, chorus
Victor Feldman – percussion, drums
Bunk Gardner – woodwind
James Getzoff – strings
Philip Goldberg – strings
John Guerin – drums
Bruce Hampton – chorus
Jimmy "Senyah" Haynes – guitar
Harry Hyams – strings
Jules Jacob – woodwind
Pete Jolly – piano, celeste, harpsichord
Harold Kelling - vocals
Ray Kelly – strings
Jerome Kessler – strings
Alexander Koltun – strings
Bernard Kundell – strings
William Kurasch – strings
Michael Lang – piano, celeste, harpsichord
Arthur Maebe – French horn
Leonard Malarsky – strings
Shelly Manne – drums
Lincoln Mayorga – piano, celeste, harpsichord
Ted Nash – woodwind
Richard Parissi – French horn
Glenn Phillips - vocals
Don Randi – piano
Jerome Reisler – strings
Emil Richards – percussion
Tony Rizzi – guitar
John Rotella – percussion, woodwind
Joseph Saxon – strings
Ralph Schaeffer – strings
Leonard Selic – strings
Kenny Shroyer – trombone
Paul Smith – piano, celeste, harpsichord
Tommy Tedesco – guitar
Al Viola – guitar
Bob West – bass
Tibor Zelig – strings
Jimmy Zito – trumpet

All tracks are written by Frank Zappa.

1. "Sink Trap" 2:45
Thunderous opening before the horns kick in. Lots of busyness until the familiar "Oh No" theme starts. This is actually my fave musical theme in either version of Lumpy Gravy. Complex music which the musicians had a difficult time playing. It's beautiful though.

To recap - "Lumpy Gravy is the debut solo album by Frank Zappa, written by Zappa and performed by a group of session players he dubbed the Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra. Zappa conducted the orchestra but did not perform on the album. It is his third album overall: his previous releases had been under the name of his group, the Mothers of Invention.

It was commissioned and briefly released, on August 7, 1967, by Capitol Records in the 4-track Stereo-Pak format only and then withdrawn due to a lawsuit from MGM Records. MGM claimed that the album violated Zappa's contract with their subsidiary, Verve Records. In 1968 it was reedited and released by MGM's Verve Records on May 13, 1968. The final version of the album consisted of two musique concrète pieces that combined elements from the original orchestral performance with elements of surf music and the spoken word. It was praised for its music and editing.

Produced simultaneously with We're Only in It for the Money, Zappa saw Lumpy Gravy as the second part of a conceptual continuity that later included his final album, Civilization Phaze III. - Wikipedia

2. "Gum Joy" 3:44
A more delicate motif with cool bass and marimbas, then it goes right back to "Oh No." It sounds almost exactly like "Sink Trap." The theme is picked up by the horns about half way through. Intense strings echo the vocal melody of the version on Weasels Ripped My Flesh before disintegrating into chaos. But of course, it's not chaotic at all as Frank wrote it just like that.

3. "Up and Down" 1:52
Another slow beginning. All of these tracks are mostly familiar if you know the 1968 LP. Again we hear fragments of the "Oh No" theme, but the back and forth between the horns and strings is interesting. The last part is more avant garde, like the ending of the last number.

Wiki - "Following the release of Freak Out!, the debut album of the rock band the Mothers of Invention, Capitol Records A&R representative Nick Venet commissioned an album of orchestral music composed by the Mothers of Invention's leader, Frank Zappa, a self-taught composer. Venet spent $40,000 on the album. Because Zappa's contract with Verve and MGM Records did not allow for him to perform on albums recorded for any other label, he could not play any instrument on the proposed album, and instead served as the conductor of an orchestra consisting of session musicians hired for the recording. Zappa stated that "my contract [with MGM] did not preclude me from doing that. I wasn't signed as a conductor."

Lumpy Gravy was conceived as a short oratorio, written in eleven days. Zappa named the group assembled for the sessions the "Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra".

4. "Local Butcher" 2:36
Begins with various atonal sounds (again, all written by Zappa) and no "Oh No" theme in sight. A weird cut, frankly.

5. "Gypsy Airs" 1:41
More atonal weirdness, which just sounds like Zappa music after you've heard enough of his albums. The violins are playing something which sounds like something you'd hear in a movie. This is the shortest cut on the tape.

"Percussionist Emil Richards recalled that he did not know who Zappa was and did not take him seriously as the recording sessions began, believing that Zappa was merely the guitarist for a rock band. However, upon meeting them, Zappa handed the musicians the scores for the pieces, which were dense, complex and varied in time signatures. Richards' close friend, guitarist Tommy Tedesco, was another member of the recording sessions. Tedesco mocked Zappa, believing that Zappa did not know what he was doing. The bassoonist and bass clarinetist hired for the sessions refused to perform their parts, declaring them impossible to play. Zappa responded, "If I play your part, will you at least try it?" Zappa then used his guitar to demonstrate the parts for the musicians, who then agreed to perform their assigned parts. By the end of the recording sessions, Richards and Tedesco became convinced of Zappa's talent, and became friends with the composer. Richards later performed on sessions which appeared on Zappa's album Orchestral Favorites. - Wiki

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6. "Hunchy Punchy" 2:06
Nice, forceful beginning before descending into the chaos that Frank so loved. By now one can't deny there's a certain sameness to most of these tracks. It all sounds familiar so I can't discern what was later used on the LP, and what is only heard on this tape.

Wiki: "Capitol released Lumpy Gravy on August 7, 1967, only on the 4-track cartridge format, apparently in limited numbers. This version of the album is markedly different from the Lumpy Gravy that would become an official entry in Zappa's catalog. Capitol also intended to release a single consisting of the pieces "Gypsy Airs" and "Sink Trap" to promote its release. In response to the album's release, MGM threatened a lawsuit, claiming that its release violated Zappa's contract.

During the litigation, Zappa expanded and significantly edited the album, adding spoken word and musique concrète interludes, as well as some pieces of music from his pre-Mothers archives. The original Lumpy Gravy was not re-released until 2009, with the Zappa Records triple-CD release, The Lumpy Money Project/Object.

7. "Foamy Soaky" 2:34
This one sounds more like a conventional number, though I do hear some of the "Oh No" themes again. Almost catchy enough to play on the radio! The last portion is less listener-friendly.

8. "Let's Eat Out" 1:49
A more delicate intro before the usual messy ensemble ensues. Maybe the first filler cut after "Local Butcher." Of course 'filler' is entirely subjective when discussing this music.

9. "Teenage Grand Finale" 3:30
More of the same. I told you I'd run out of things to say! Let's see what Ulrich says: "The second half of this tableau repeats most of "V Gypsy Airs," All of this tabeau is heard in "Envelops the Bath Tub" in the revised version.

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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby mudshark » 19 Jan 2022, 23:13

Now this sounds really interesting Matt! Unfortunately I don't have the time or patience to read this in detail (sitting in the lounge at IAH airport with a bourbon and a laptop waiting to find out how far delayed my flight to sunny Anchorage is going to be, We're supposed to board just about now), but I'll be sure to read it in detail after I've checked into my Igloo in Fairbanks). But it seems you're telling me something about FZ I didn't know, which is as unusual as it is great. Is the stuff on the Lumpy Money box set very different from the original Lumpy Gravy album? If yes, I need to get me that box set. I absolutely adore Lumpy Gravy and will welcome each and every angle.
There's a big difference between kneeling down and bending over

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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby Matt Wilson » 19 Jan 2022, 23:42

Like I wrote above, the 1967 Lumpy Gravy tape (it wasn't released in LP format) was just orchestral. No words, no spoken dialogue, no surf music, etc. The '68 LP used a good portion of these orchestral recordings along with a lot of newer recordings. I'll get to all that when I write a review next week. In the meantime, go to youtube and play the songs whose titles I typed above. You can hear the entire original Lumpy Gravy there.

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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby mudshark » 20 Jan 2022, 03:21

That's so awesome thank you so much!! I'll do that next week!
BTW, don't care what anybody says, Anchorage is a shithole.
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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby C » 20 Jan 2022, 09:52

You definitely need the box Muddy. The version to which Matt refers to good but nowhere near as good as the ‘Full’ version.

Lumpy Gravy is one of my favourite Zappa albums- I love it

For what it’s worth Frank doesn’t play anything on the ‘common’ version either - does he...?

It’s mono too


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Last edited by C on 20 Jan 2022, 11:09, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby C » 20 Jan 2022, 10:12

Excellent work Matt - I’m just catching up.

I’ll look at Absolutely Free later





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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby Hightea » 21 Jan 2022, 04:41

Matt Wilson wrote:Like I wrote above, the 1967 Lumpy Gravy tape (it wasn't released in LP format) was just orchestral. No words, no spoken dialogue, no surf music, etc. The '68 LP used a good portion of these orchestral recordings along with a lot of newer recordings. I'll get to all that when I write a review next week. In the meantime, go to youtube and play the songs whose titles I typed above. You can hear the entire original Lumpy Gravy there.

I was completely un aware of this. Just listened to the you tube versions. Loved it.
started with Freakout and then yesterday I did the whole AF for the first time in ages.

did have to go to some 70's live after.
Went to my favorite Zappa show I every saw.
wish they would release the video.

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Re: Frank Zappa

Postby Matt Wilson » 24 Jan 2022, 18:34

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We're Only in it for the Money 1968
The first Mothers album I ever heard or owned, and it still might be my fave - it's hard to tell. By this point in Frank's career, I'm still on board with the humor and I love the fact that he's satirizing the hippie culture of San Francisco. Never mind that I fetishize that place and era myself, it still is amusing to me that nobody took the time to write a parody of love and beads and incense, etc. You know what I'm getting at. Zappa's comments regarding the Beatles only being in it for the money remain confusing however. He had to ask permission to imitate Sgt Pepper's LP cover, so maybe he didn't like the negotiation perhaps, which took months. Entirely recorded in 1967, the only guitar solo he takes is on "Lonely Little Girl." The Mothers play on the album of course, but not to the extent that people think. Zappa: I don't think Don Preston is playing on it... Most of the people in the band couldn't play the music. So all the tracks are played by Billy Mundi on drums, and Ian Underwood on the keyboards, except for some of the clavinet parts, which I did myself. And the woodwind parts are Bunk... I can't remember whether Underwood played woodwinds or not. And Jim didn't play any drums on it either. He was only doing vocals and occasional trumpet. And in some instances I was the bass player. Although in the Ulrich book it's revealed that session tapes show that Preston did play on some of the basic tracks, as did Black on tambourine. You don't hear Ray Collins much because he quit and rejoined the band three times that year, so Frank did a lot of the vocals.

The original idea was to combine Mothers music with Lenny Bruce tapes. This didn't work out but Frank used the concentration camp song from that earlier Bruce idea, and later on Bizarre Records released a Lenny Bruce concert, so obviously Zappa is a fan. The LP was quite daring at the time, parodying both the Beatles and the counter culture. Frank's targets previously had been parents and older people in the establishment (you know, "The Man"), but attempting to sell music which makes fun of the very people who buy the records was a brilliant move, and I can't think of anyone else who attempted this at the time. The record made the US top 30 on the Billboard charts as well. The European versions of the album were censored by MGM, but Zappa himself, made some edits to even the American version before release. To further complicate matters, the Canadian version also has a unique edit. In 1984 FZ did a remix. The oxide was coming off the original tapes and he was forced to reedit the masters and put back in some of the things which were omitted in the '60s. He also rerecorded the bass and drums with new parts performed by Arthur Barrow and Chad Wackerman. Fortunately, the original 1968 mono LP mix can be found on the before-mentioned Lumpy Money Project/Object set, and supposedly, the original 1968 stereo mix can be found on the 1995 CD, but the 2012 CD release was taken from the 1993 digital master.

Frank Zappa – guitar, piano, lead vocals & editing
Jimmy Carl Black – drums, trumpet, vocals, Indian of the group
Roy Estrada – electric bass, vocals, asthma
Billy Mundi – drums, vocals, yak & black lace underwear
Don Preston – retired
Bunk Gardner – all woodwinds, mumbled weirdness
Ian Underwood – piano, woodwinds, wholesome
Euclid James "Motorhead" Sherwood – road manager, baritone saxophone, soprano saxophone, all purpose weirdness & teen appeal

(Subsequent CD releases of this album contain a paragraph on the sleeve titled "The Last Word," explaining that the Mothers band pictured on the album was not the band that played the music, and in fact all musical duties on the album were performed by Frank Zappa, Ian Underwood, Roy Estrada and Billy Mundi. Jimmy Carl Black, Don Preston, Bunk Gardner and Euclid James "Motorhead" Sherwood were all featured in some capacity on the record.)

Additional personnel
Suzy Creamcheese (Pamela Zarubica) – telephone voice
Pamela Zarubica – vocals
Dick Barber – Snorks
Eric Clapton – Male speaking part in "Are You Hung Up?" and "Nasal Retentive Calliope Music."
Gary Kellgren – "the one doing all the creepy whispering" (i.e., interstitial spoken segments)
Spider Barbour – vocals
Dick Kunc – "cheerful interruptions" vocal
Vicki Kellgren – additional telephone vocals
Ronnie Williams – backwards voice
Sid Sharp – conductor (under Frank Zappa's supervision) of the "Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra and Chorus" on "Absolutely Free", "Mother People" and "The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny"

All tracks are written by Frank Zappa.

1. "Are You Hung Up?" 1:23
Basically a musique concrete track featuring Clapton "pretending to be Eric Burdon on acid," and recording engineer Gary Kellgren whispering in an ominous manner. The female speaker could be Eric's girlfriend, Charlotte Martin.

2. "Who Needs the Peace Corps?" 2:34
Now the album proper begins. These are all short cuts which whiz by rapidly, but make an impression regardless. The tenor sax is prominent on the remix, but is less so in the mono, and virtually absent on the stereo mix. This is where the making-fun-of-hippies thing starts on the record.

Wiki- "The lyrics are a satire of the hippie and flower power movements of the era, narrated by an insincere young man who travels to San Francisco for the summer of love: "I will ask the Chamber Of Commerce how to get to Haight Street / And smoke an awful lot of dope".

The song quickly became dated when the hippie movement faded and was only performed live during the early years of the Mothers of Invention. It was briefly revived in 1988 however, as can be heard on the live album The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life. On the performance selected for the album, Mike Keneally performs the monologue at the end of the song in a style reminiscent of Johnny Cash's, who was very unlike the hippie portrayed in the song.

The song is also part of the soundtrack of the 1969 film Medium Cool.

The lyrics of "Who Needs the Peace Corps?" mock hippies and people who follow the hippie fashion (such as wearing beads, leather bands and long hair, or "smoking dope") without caring about the social reflections and political views of the concept. It includes a monologue of a stereotypical "phony hippie" who aspires to find a rock band and become their road manager in order to become part of the hippie movement.

In his 2016 book Rock, Counterculture and the Avant-Garde, 1966-1970, Doyle Greene says:

..."Peace Corps" is not necessarily referring to the U.S. government organization, but the "peace and love corps" of the hippie movement. It is a scathing critique of the counter-culture experience as migrating to San Francisco, dressing in hippie fashions, contracting sexually transmitted diseases, getting beat up by police, and high-tailing back home."

3. "Concentration Moon" 2:22
I like this one a lot. Frank: a make believe story about some very real concentration camps that the US government built to house Japanese people during WW II... but the camps are still there. And it was a popular myth -- let's hope it's a myth -- among the hippies on the west coast that very soon any dissatisfied, potentially nonconforming person in the US is about to be rounded up by the government and stashed away in these camps. That doesn't mean just hippies, but they're probably thinking that militant blacks and Latins and...anybody who doesn't go along with the main stream of hokum that the government is feeding you is gonna be stashed away.

Maybe like those cages that the Trump administration housed illegal families trying to cross the border, perhaps? Like Zappa said, "It can't happen here."

4. "Mom & Dad" 2:16
Love this one too. A rare example of Zappa being sincere/honest, with no sneering whatsoever. Zappa - It's about a middle class couple who have been informed by one of their children that their daughter has been killed in the park by the cops because she just happened to be there laying in the grass with a hippie. And the attitude of the song is that the parents say, "Well, it served her right, that she would associate with such trash." I think 'Mom and Dad' is the saddest song I ever wrote. It made me very sad when I wrote it, and it makes me sad if I sing it. But unfortunately, it's quite possible that situations like that will become more frequent in the future. Not just in the US but everywhere.

Again, I find this number prescient in light of all the police brutality which has been in the news now for decades here in LA.

5. "Telephone Conversation" (Included in "Bow Tie Daddy" on the original LP.) 0:48
Ulrich: Pamela Zarubica "He's gonna bump you off yet" calls her friend Vicki B. "Your father has called me up" with help from FZ "Can you call 678-9866?" There's more to it, but I'm not gonna type it out. Sorry. LOL.

6. "Bow Tie Daddy" 0:33
Frank is singing through a plastic coffee cup, he says: another song about those same people who didn't care when their child was killed by the police, because they were embarrassed that the child should have anything to do with a hippie.

7. "Harry, You're a Beast" 1:22
Okay, so the "Don't come in me" line is a quote from Lenny Bruce's "To Come" which Verve objected to, causing Frank to futz with the recording. The remix has the line cleanly sung. It's another diatribe against older attitudes about sex.

8. "What's the Ugliest Part of Your Body?" 1:03
It's your mind, you see... More '50s parody/homage in that doo wop manner he so loved.

9. "Absolutely Free" 3:24
The first decent length song in a while, and one of the better numbers in my estimation. Ulrich points out that "the stamps mentioned in the lyrics are not postage stamps but trading stamps, which were given free with purchase by supermarkets and gas stations. Shoppers pasted them into books, which they redeemed for merchandise.

Wikipedia: "Like many of the songs on We're Only in It for the Money, "Absolutely Free" criticizes the hippie movement and the Summer of Love. The song's lyrics are a parody of psychedelia, especially the idea of expanding one's consciousness through the use of drugs. To this end, the song frequently mentions the word "discorporate", which is explained by Zappa in the spoken introduction to the song ("The first word in this song is discorporate. It means to leave your body"). "Discorporate" plays heavily in Robert Heinlein's science fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land, which was very popular among hippies and provided the muse for several songs by Jefferson Airplane.

The lyrics also reference the song "Mellow Yellow" by singer-songwriter Donovan, who is often associated with the hippie movement ("The dreams as they live them are all mellow yellow").

On some pressings of the album, especially on earlier releases, two lines of the lyrics were censored. The first is the sentence "I don't do publicity balling for you anymore", uttered at the very beginning of the song by the character of Suzy Creamcheese. The word "balling" was cut from this line. The other line that was censored ("Flower power sucks!") was cut entirely."

10. "Flower Punk" 3:03
A "Hey Joe" satire with a little "Wild Thing" quote for good measure. Let's see, you guys know what a love-in was, STP was a drug, and uh... Uncle Frank again: I didn't really expect any group who was singing about flower power to believe in it. And that's the thing that was really bugging me about the whole thing, because the audience that was going along with the fad of flower power was being fed all this garbage, you know, and never stopped for a moment to question the integrity of the people who were whipping it on them. And when I made my statement of "Flower punk" and so on and so forth, I got cast in a negative light as being some sort of ghoul who wouldn't go along with the sweetness and light that was pervading the US in 1967.

See, it wasn't only the Velvet Underground who were going against the love and beads brigade at the time.

11. "Hot Poop" 0:26
More musique concrete. The title refers to a pornographic tape that FZ created for Sgt. Willis of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office in '65. You can read about it elswhere - not typing it up.

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12. "Nasal Retentive Calliope Music" 2:03
Mas musique concrete with Clapton seeing God. The track contains parts of "Heavies" by the Rotations, and even Davy Jones' (yes, that Davy Jones) "What are We Going to Do? from his pre-Monkees album. Or maybe it's just the scratch at the end which was recorded from his LP, I can't figure it out.

13. "Let's Make the Water Turn Black" 2:01
This one gets stuck in my head for days sometimes. It's funny too, but then so much of this record is. Ulrich: "Ronnie and Kenny Williams were acquaintances of FZ in Ontario, CA, in the early '60s. Zappa recalls: ... sitting in my living room trying to explain to me some of the things he did for recreation. One of those things was save stuff from his nose on a window in his room. Now I thought this was picturesque. And it seemed natural to me that a person, when they have this info, should write a song about it, which is exactly what I did.

14. "The Idiot Bastard Son" 3:18
Love this one too! Frank- I like what 'Idiot Bastard Son' says. I'm not too thrilled by the performance, but I like the structure, especially the talking part in the middle and the way that relates to the chord changes.

It's another Ronnie & Kenny song.

15. "Lonely Little Girl" (Listed as "It's His Voice on the Radio" on the original LP sleeve.) 1:09
It's as good a time as any to mention that most of the songs on the LP were sped up for humorous effect, or simply because that's how Zappa wanted them to sound. There's so many different variations of these songs in the different mixes that I've decided not to point them out. I wouldn't remember what I typed an hour later anyway.

Frank - It's a song about a thirteen year old girl who has parents that don't understand her, who gets her rocks off by listening to her fave singers on the radio and digging their picture on the wall, and living in that putrid world that they invent for themselves locked away in their bedrooms. It's a song that takes the attitude, 'We know where you're at, and if you need any assistance, just give us a buzz.' It's not like we say 'Come to us,' but just by saying that we know what you're doing in your bedroom, which is more than anybody else has said so far, at least we came out and said it.

16. "Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance" 1:35
Yeah, I get this one stuck in my head sometimes too. Another hippie parody, but it almost seems like he believes the lyrics though, doesn't it? LOL.

17. "What's the Ugliest Part of Your Body? (Reprise)" 0:57
Well, why not? There was a Sgt. Pepper's reprise after all.

18. "Mother People" 2:32
This was the B-side of the "Lonely Little Girl" 45, and is kind of a Mother's manifesto sung by Frank (double-tracked). Very catchy, and another highlight to these ears. They were still performing this as recently as 1970.

19. "The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny" 6:25
The longest example yet of musique concrete, and by far the lengthiest piece on the album. I usually skip it. I've read Kafka, but not "in the Penal Colony," which this track is supposed to be an aural equivalent of.

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mudshark
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Joined: 25 Jul 2003, 03:51

Re: Frank Zappa

Postby mudshark » 24 Jan 2022, 18:56

"It's all one album. All the material in the albums is organically related and if I had all the master tapes and I could take a razor blade and cut them apart and put it together again in a different order it still would make one piece of music you can listen to. Then I could take that razor blade and cut it apart and reassemble it a different way, and it still would make sense. I could do this twenty ways. The material is definitely related." FZ
There's a big difference between kneeling down and bending over


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