Frank Zappa Absolutely Free

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Zinnser, Mar 6, 2009.

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  1. Fisico60

    Fisico60 New Member

    Location:
    Pisa, Italy
    KILL
    UGLY
    RADIO
     
  2. Mechanical Man

    Mechanical Man I Am Just a Mops

    Location:
    Oakland, CA, USA
    Definitely Frank's best work IMO. The whole thing works fabulously from beginning to end. Just a pity about the sound!
     
  3. Cassius

    Cassius On The Beach

    Location:
    Lafayette, Co
    My favorite Original Mothers LP
    C
     
  4. bodine

    bodine Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington DC
    Here's one for mother!
     
  5. Mechanical Man

    Mechanical Man I Am Just a Mops

    Location:
    Oakland, CA, USA
    I finally had to Google the lyrics on this one bit. And to think... All these years I've been wondering who Caledonia Mahogany was, and why her elbows were so relevant! :D


     
  6. avbuff

    avbuff Forum Resident

    Location:
    Central NY
    ... and I think I knew her well! :angel:
     
  7. Edgard Varese

    Edgard Varese Royale with Cheese

    Location:
    Te Wai Pounamu
    As the father of two girls, I find that whole passage makes for quite uncomfortable listening. But I suspect that was Zappa's intention. :agree:
     
  8. il pleut

    il pleut New Member

    abfree is easily the funniest mothers record (or zappa record for that matter). i like it better than anything before the uncle meat / weeny / weasels trilogy, and better than anything after.
     
  9. il pleut

    il pleut New Member

    i tend to agree. though i do like trouble every day better than most dylan. i think the lack of a clear stance is more like "in the end it's all bulls**t anyway, so why bother..." which is probably pretty close to the truth.

    i also like "you're probably wondering...", and "it can't happen here...", but many of the other songs were given their definitive treatments on "ruben & the jets" which was a joke about doo-wop that worked marvelously well.
     
  10. vinyldisc

    vinyldisc New Member

    Location:
    70506 :: USA
    Sure... I will take your Zappa records for absolutely free.

    :^p

    Love this record... Mothers rock!

    [​IMG]
     
  11. klownschool

    klownschool Forum Resident

    I agree, that's what makes it so twisted. The social commentary of the times. One would guess that there is a back story to this but I sure don't know what it was.

    tv dinner by the pool
    I'm so glad I finished school
    life is such a ball
    I'll run the world from city hall
     
  12. Laservampire

    Laservampire Down with this sort of thing

    Be a jerk! Go to work!
     
  13. Mechanical Man

    Mechanical Man I Am Just a Mops

    Location:
    Oakland, CA, USA
    No love for "Hungry Freaks Daddy"?! :sigh:

    The backing track to "How Could I Be Such a Fool" (as heard on the MOFO Project/Object) sounds like a Pet Sounds outtake.
     
  14. surfingelectrode

    surfingelectrode Active Member

    Location:
    Lutz, FL
    Such a great album... the first three Mothers albums are definitely some of the best to have come out of that decade.

    I do wish that we could get a MOFO/Lumpy Money-esque set of this album... I'd love to hear the mono mix.
     
  15. il pleut

    il pleut New Member

    it's ok, along with wowie zowie, and everything else. i just don't see much that distinguishes it from a lot of other pop-rock of the era, musically speaking. i like the album, i just have never been able to see it as anything but a warm-up (and a somewhat luke-warm-up at that) for the next few records.

    i agree...i was impressed by some of those backing tracks on the mofo thing. i did appreciate freak out more after playing through those cds.
     
  16. Mechanical Man

    Mechanical Man I Am Just a Mops

    Location:
    Oakland, CA, USA
    Diff'rent strokes I guess. I don't see any 1960s band other than the Mothers pulling together something like "Hungry Freaks". No other bands wrote lyrics that incendiary in '66.
     
  17. seed_drill

    seed_drill Senior Member

    Location:
    Tryon, NC, USA
    Sorry, it is my favorite, at least among the original MOI albums, and I rank For Sale as the least of Beatles albums. Well below Let It Be.

    No, it is not as professional sounding as Freak Out, but it doesn't waste my time with Help, I'm A Rock either. And I just find the songs more fun than WOITM, though I love that one too.

    The one I don't get the love for is Uncle Meat.
     
  18. avbuff

    avbuff Forum Resident

    Location:
    Central NY
    I cannot count how many times I had a copy of AF in my collection. I would loan it out, never to get it back, and having to purchase another, just to loan it out again (fool me once; shame on you - fool me twice...). I remember finding copies in the cut-out bin for 99 cents, and grabbing a couple.
    Ask me if I own a copy in vinyl now. :shake:
     
  19. seed drill: >The one I don't get the love for is Uncle Meat.<

    Any love for XXth C. chamber music, Stravinsky, Conlon Nancarow, etc.? As well as for modal or free jazz? Those are kind of "prerequisites" in a sense.

    UM is an immense (synchronic, diachronic) collage, and well recorded at that. But it is mostly instrumental music.
     
  20. Gumboo

    Gumboo Forum Resident

    Location:
    Metry, Louisiana

    Hell Yeah! :righton:
     
  21. Platterpus

    Platterpus Senior Member

    I love this album. The Ryko CD from what I read on a Zappa discography site stated that this album was not as futzed with like most of the other early Mothers CD's sans the digital reverb added.
     
  22. Mechanical Man

    Mechanical Man I Am Just a Mops

    Location:
    Oakland, CA, USA
    I was disheartened that there was no MOFO release for this, my all time favorite Mothers album. Obviously since it was recorded in a rush there wasn't a lot of bonus material they could have added, but I would have settled for stereo/ mono straight from the original masters if those could be located.

    Makes me wonder if the multis still exist? Instrumental-only Absolutely Free would be a revelation! :righton:
     
  23. Edgard Varese

    Edgard Varese Royale with Cheese

    Location:
    Te Wai Pounamu
    I suspect one other reason for the lack of bonus material is that they re-used tape and ended up recording over discarded takes and what not... their original budget had been for two albums, and they blew almost the whole thing on Freak Out.
     
  24. Which is why AFAIAC it is such a shame for Absolutely Free, given the tape wasting on Freak Out (Monster Magnet, for instance)! FO, as it is, is OK, but looks like a one-shot, novelty act to me. And outside how many rock names said they flipped on it upon release (especially in England), I would be surprised that it really had any influence at all on the emerging psychedelic scene. ...Now AF is something else and really points to the future!

    I wonder if I wouldn't like better the single-LP version they released in the UK (first pressing I think)...
     
  25. aoxomoxoa

    aoxomoxoa I'm an ear sitting in the sky

    Location:
    USA
    I just scored a Canadian copy Verve LP. Anything special about this pressing? Havent listened yet.
     
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