Frank Zappa Absolutely Free

My pet theory is this (and it's probably wrong, but Frank's dead so we'll never know): Frank realized that Absolutely Free was in fact a better album than WOIIFTM, his "masterpiece" (it was, in fact, but not quite as nice a listen as its predecessor), and so he proceeded to take the former down a notch by including the single, stuck into the middle of the album (a perverse way of doing things if there ever was one), just to really mess things up.

I like "Big Leg Emma" and all, but I much prefer the version on Lather.

 

As much as I wouldn't want to be without this album, and as much as the world is a better place for its existence, I am NOT going to join in the hosannas of praise here. It has a live, rough, feel, as if it was rushed. This is sort of okay. Freak Out is a better album. WOIIFTM is a much better album. LG is a *much* better album. So is UM, and BWS. AF sits above RATJ, but there it is. A very good album, but anyone who claims it is his favorite Zappa album is likely to be the kind of fan who says that Beatles For Sale is their favorite Beatles album, and 15 Big Ones is their favorite Beach Boys album. Impressive amongst your peer group, perhaps ... still, the world (and the FZ back catalog) is big enough to accommodate us all.

 

Anybody know how well "AF" did chart-wise ?

 

TV dinner by the pool, I'm so glad I finished school....

Be a jerk and go to woik, do your job and do it right , life's a ball, TV tonight!

Think of a vegetable, lonely at home.

I'd like to make her do a nasty on the White House lawn.

Memories, memories.

 

Typical FZ, unfortunately-- "If it ain't broken, fix it until it is."

 

no biggie... i just wanted to make that point.

 

Boy, you sure have me pegged. Psychology 101?

For myself, it is not just the musical event; it is everything that is tied to it - my blossoming into manhood and the development of my political & religious beliefs, my sexual escapades, the politics and social scene of that era and my eventual experiment with the mind altering substances prevalent during that time. Man that was all pretty heady stuff. So when I say A.F is still my favorite, by all means it is, because with that particular album comes a lifetime of memories.

 

My sentiments exactly - just insert Freak Out instead

 

Yeah, then came "Freak Out"!

 

Nobody yodels "rutabega" like Frank!

 

Some days I like this one more than We're Only in It for the Money

 

Perhaps it was J. C. Black (RIP) instead. Makes me think of Lonesome Cowboy Bert going Yodle-o-oot-ee-hey......

 

I think "rutabaga" was Ray Collins and the yodelling in Lonesome Cowboy Burt was Flo & Eddie, but I haven't listened to either of those in a while.

 

My sentiments exactly - just insert WOIIFTM instead

 

I tried to find
How my heart
Could be so blind, (wanna buy some pencils?) Dear
How could I be fooled
Just like the rest
You came on strong
With your fast car
And your class ring
Sad eyes & your bran flakes
I fell for the whole thing
I don't regret
Having met
Up with a girl who breaks
Hearts like they were
Nothing at all (here's one for mother!)
I've done it too
Now I know
Just what it feels like . . .

Boy, I miss this guy. He would probably disown these lyrics now, but there they are. "America Drinks And Goes Home".
Yowza!

 

Whoops - missed the editing end time, but here's the rest:


And just like I said
There's no regrets

. . . Well, it's about time to close . . . I hope you've had as much fun as we have. Don't forget the jam session Sunday . . . MANDY TENSION will be by, playing his xylophone troupe. It's really been a lot of fun. Monday night is the dance contest night: THE TWIST CONTEST . . . we're gonna give away peanut butter & jelly & baloney samwiches for all of ya. IT REALLY HAS BEEN FUN. I hope we've played your requests . . . the songs you like to hear . . . LAST CALL FOR ALCOHOL! Drink it up, folks. Wonnerful. Nice to see you, Bob . . . how's it goin'? How's the kids? Wonnerful. Nice to see ya. Yes. BILL BAILEY? Oh . . . we'll get to that tomorrow night. Yeah. CARAVAN (with a drum sola)? Right. Yeah . . . we'll do that. Wonnerful. Nice to see you again. Yeah.

LA LA LA LA LAH-H-H-H!
DOWN AT THE POMPADOUR A-GO-GO
LA LA LA LA LAH-H-H-H!
VO DO DEE OH PEE PEE
SHOOBE DOOT-N-DAH-DAH-DAH
YA DA DA-A-A-A-H-H-H-H-H!
NA NYA DA DA DA DA DAH-H-H-H-H-H!
Nite all.

 

From Frank's book;
MGM producer Tom Wilson saw them playing at a Sunset Strip Club and presumed they were a white boogie band and signed them, and booked some recording dates at TTG Recorders in LA, before he split back to NYC.
The band were broke and collecting coke bottles to stay alive, and their advance was in the future somwhere, so had to beg for some burger money so they could concentrate on the recording session at hand. Tom Wilson returned to LA for the sessions and was initially surprised to find during the second tune "Who Are The Brain Police?" that this WASN'T a white blooze band, per se, but quickly got on their wavelength and became continually more enthusiastic as the sessions progressed.
The sessions culminated Friday midnight with $500 of rented percussion equipment, a bunch of freaks off Sunset Blvd, and Tom Wilson on acid (unbeknownst to FZ, who already wondered what TW made of "Side 4").
Tom Wilson spent $25-30,000 of MGM's $ by the time the elpee was finished, and AF is believed to be the first double rock album.

The free-form chatter pieces were influential; you can hear something similar in the BB Smile sessions outtakes, the Rolling Stone's "Where's That Joint?", and on Jefferson Airplane's "After Bathing At Baxters", ..and Paul McCartney raves about it in his book as well.

 

Just to clarify ---Freak Out was the double-LP referenced above, not Absolutely Free.

AF has always been my favorite Mothers album and I have both stereo and mono Verve LP copies.

 

I like the first 3 Zappa/Mothers equally well, at a push WOIIFTM is possibly my fave, but AF is probably the most cohesive. Check out the mono and stereo versions, both are worth investigating. I haven't followed the CD reissues saga, so I don't know what to say about that. At one point it seemed there was a new Zappa reissue campaign every 2-3 years and I simply stopped paying attention to them. I believe I have the first Rkyo CD issue of AF and I don't remember being horrified by it in the way I was by the first(?) Ryko issue of WOIIFTM, with the re-recorded parts, yikes! I concluded that Zappa was one of those artists who shouldn't be allowed to administer his own back catalogue! It seems he simply couldn't stop himself from "improving" them.

 

Love this album, and as others have said, sometimes I find it a more consistently enjoyable listen than WOITFTM, which is usually my personal fave of the '60s Mothers.

Would love to have a MOFO-style multi CD set of this one, but unfortunately the word is that very little extra material exists. Freak Out, while decent, never thrilled me as much as Absolutely Free does.

 

>Freak Out, while decent, never thrilled me as much as Absolutely Free does<

Me neither, izgoblin. Each time I spin it I can't understand the concert of praise this one gets, and I find it sounding like a little more than a novelty record. The freak-out jam is pointless and skilless... And on the one song where Frank seems to want to deliver a true political message, Trouble Every Day, he is too much influenced by Bob Dylan to sound like himself and he fails to take up any clear stance.

I like Who Are The Brain Police?, and It Can't Happen Here. The rest generally sounds like a joke about doo-wop. It was funny, but he was going to pull that one again many times after that...

It should have a been a single, better focused, less ambitious record. Thus leaving out more cash to do a better production out of the much better AF, which record was in terrible need of, AFAIAC!

 

Yes, but were you losing status at the high school?!?!


Just kidding... Wanna buy a pencil?

 

Of course, but only because my brown shoes didn't make it! (Catholic School)

 

"only 13 and she knows how to nasty"

 

Love it.

Check out MOFO if you dig it ...