Freak Out!

We're Only in It for the Money The Mothers of Invention answer the sentiments of the suits, the suburb dwellers, and flower children of the 60's with a big fat raspberry. Considered by many to be the Mothers' (and some would say Zappa's) best album, We're Only in it for the Money deals with harsh subject matte...	Absolutely Free Sandwiched as it is between Freak Out!, Zappa's 1966 debut with the Mothers of Invention, and We're Only in It for the Money, arguably his artistic zenith, Absolutely Free comes in a distant third--but that's only because the competition is so darn fierce. Absolutely Free is a co...	Hot Rats Frank Zappa's first solo album, Hot Rats is a far-cry from the da-da adventures and audio collages of the original Mothers of Invention. Mostly instrumental and filled with long jams between Zappa, Jean-Luc Ponty and Ian Underwood, this slickly-produced album--one of the first 16...	Apostrophe (') Thanks to the surprise radio airplay of "Don't Eat that Yellow Snow," Apostrophe introduced a whole new audience to the music of Frank Zappa in the early '70s. Like its companion set, Over-Nite Sensation, this album found Zappa producing highly polished jazz-rock, mixing tales of...	Over-Nite Sensation Best known for the infamous "Dinah-Mo-Hum"--a tale of sexual depravity and bovine perspiration--Over-Nite Sensation is a flawlessly executed collection of jazz-rock Frank Zappa classics. The seven-song set, which includes backup vocals by Tina Turner and the Ikettes, equally show...
Uncle Meat The soundtrack for a film that remained incomplete for over a decade, Uncle Meat is one of the finest albums produced by Zappa and the original Mothers of Invention. Showcasing every facet of the band, Uncle Meat is filled with quirky Zappa instrumentals like the title track and ...	One Size Fits All The pinnacle of his jazz-rock work of the early '70s, One Size Fits All boasts some of the most memorable songs of Frank Zappa's career performed by one of the most beloved Mothers of Invention lineups ever assembled. This cast of musicians' musicians--including George Duke, Ruth...	Burnt Weeny Sandwich Japanese limited edition reissue of 1969 album, packaged in a miniature gatefold LP sleeve.	The Grand Wazoo Japanese exclusive reissue of 1973 album, packaged in a miniature LP sleeve.	Weasels Ripped My Flesh

The Real FREAK OUT!
The first Mother's album was a huge step outside the normal rock and roll of the mid sixties, introducing it's audience to the Psychodelic era. This album is historic if nothing else. The music is an early Frank Zappa with the current culture influence, it sounds nothing like the later Frank and has rough edges.

"These Mothers is crazy"
Debut albums are often tentative, exploratory works. They find artists refining their sound, honing their chops, getting a feel for the studio, delicately introducing themselves to their audiences, and otherwise learning to navigate the ins and outs of this whole "recorded music" thing. In the 60s, this usually made for unexciting quickies that buried two great songs under ten bits of worthless filler. Covers ruled the day, and the originals were largely dull and derivative. For his debut album, Frank Zappa ripped rock music in half and rebuilt it in his own image. Here's how he did it: He took all of the clichés, conventions, and conceits that had come to rule the pop world and he turned them inside out. He wrote doo-wop ditties with upside down harmonies and surreal narratives. He wrote catchy melodies and pureed them into white noise. He made time signatures go to war with each other. He juxtaposed cheesy pop and musique concrete. Greaseball R&B sat side-by-side with acid fried social commentary. Accessibility went one-for-one with alienation. It's hilarious, catchy, eye opening, friendly, and uncompromising, and it all goes on for over an hour. And what an hour it is! This album is just about stuffed with classic moments. I mean, who could ask for a better opening salvo than "Hungry Freaks, Daddy?" It's a stinging rocker, a furiously intelligent weirdo anthem, and a good-natured descent into the experimental. And it's catchy! Elsewhere, the album flaunts socially enraged garage rock ("Trouble Every Day"), hilarious post-modern teen pop ("Wowie Zowie," "Go Cry On Somebody Else's Shoulder"), Oedipally conflicted sex-rock ("Motherly Love"), sneering anti-love anthems ("I Ain't Got No Heart"), and whatever the hell "Who Are The Brain Police?" is. I love "Who Are The Brain Police?" But it's the album's second half that really flies the ol' freak flag. Starting with "Help, I'm A Rock," the proceedings begin a descent into a menacing world of mean-spirited sound collages, spooked acid-psych, and leering avant-garage. The structures become less linear and more freewheeling, less accessible and more violent, less friendly and more...freaky. Believe it or not, it works. The music (experimental and otherwise) has dated surprisingly well, thanks in no small part to the fact that, as subversive as he was, Frank Zappa was a great writer of pop songs, and the Mothers of Invention were a great band. The wilder elements of the record are balanced by a great sense of humor and adventure. In the end, it's actually the more conventional songs that wind up dragging Freak Out! down a peg: "I'm Not Satisfied" and "How Could I Be Such A Fool" are pretty dull, with stiff melodies and drab lyrics. "You Didn't Try To Call Me" has little more going for it than a cool-sounding intro, and "You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here" repeats the outcast-anthem message of the album without really contributing anything new. Still... classic album!

Freak Out!
Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention-Freak Out! **** Well...um...I was pretty disappointed by Freak Out! when I first heard it, so I thought this can't be right, this is nothing like everyone described it, and so I gave it a couple more listens and still nothing. So I set it aside for a while and when I finally went back to it I still felt the same way. One thing is for sure it is really one of the most original rock albums of all time, not that all of Zappa's releases aren't but this one especially. It is bizarre but not in the bizarre that I thought it would be and it is nothing like any of his other releases. The musicianship is nowhere near the level that everyone describes it as. 'I'm Not Satisfied' has some great piano work, and 'Trouble Every Day' has some great early garage rock guitar, and was really a sign of things to come. Zappa's humour in his lyrics here is great however, and actually some of the best of his career, and he clearly had his vocals down patent since phase one. But what I found most impressive about Freak Out! is that it is nothing like the hippie movement as the title implies, in fact it is almost anti that, and that is what is so brilliant, not the musicianship, but the social commentary of the time. The impressionistic ways of the youth in America and how they are so susceptible to things and how it is wrong of the capitalist ways to take advantage. 'Trouble Every Day' is fantastic, the doo-whop feel of most of the album while a tribute, Zappa makes it uniquely his own, and 'Help, I'm A Rock' is also among his all time best, so while this isn't quite the album I was hoping for but it is still a legendary effort, I mean it did inspire Srg. Pepper, so there you go!

First Mother's Album
This first from Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention is a slick yet primative piece of work. I first heard this when I was about 14; the new digital recording does the piece well. It's all a done in a satirical way but it holds up well. Recommended for Zappa fans as a period piece.

The Left-Behinds...of the Great Society
Substitute "...if another WHITE TRUCK DRIVER..." for "...if another woman driver..." and you have not the Watts riot '65 but south LA '92 -- the Rodney King riots. "Trouble Every Day" has stayed with me all this time. My band covered it, believe it or not, with that one update. It still sounds good on my sound check tapes. "Mr America, walk on by your liquor store supreme..." Has anything changed? It is difficult to take Zappa at face value when he says he was only in it for the money, so he could make the music he really wanted, string quartets, in his basement.