Frank Zappa: the 75th anniversary album by album thread

Ooh, I actually get to get in on the ground floor of one of these threads for once. Fun!

I taped a copy of my dad's LP and played it constantly the summer after 6th grade. I don't listen past "Trouble Every Day" too often these days, but man, I still love the first half to pieces.

 

I have nothing against a new Zappa/Mothers album-by-album thread, but what happened to the old one? I found it one of the most informative discussions ever on this forum.

 

Never enough.

 

A brilliant debut, I can't even imagine what it must have been like at the time it was released, I was only 5 at the time. According to Zappa, producer Tom Wilson was tripping on acid in the recording studio listening to them lay down these tracks. He was probably never the same after that experience.

 

Freak Out! is an extraordinary accomplishment for a debut release. I think maybe some novices have trouble appreciating its impact because it seems a little more conventional on the surface. . . at first, but it gets progressively weirder as it goes along. It also demonstrates that Zappa always had a strong knack for writing catchy albeit unconventional pop tracks. I have the two disc MOFO edition and really enjoy some of the extras, including the remixes and the backing tracks. Frank would go on to greater accomplishments, but he sure kicked things off with a bang here.

 

That could be dangerous. Those "official release" numbers are kind of messed up. Come on, they give 'Joe's Garage Act I' its own number and then give 'Joe's Garage Acts II & III' its own number and then give 'Joe's Garage Acts I, II & III' its own number!

 

I inherited my grandmother's record collection, and this album was part of it. I was curious, so I read some of the liner notes, decided to put on "Wowie Zowie," and I disliked it pretty much immediately. I let the album side continue to play, but I was still not impressed. I put it back on the shelf and didn't come back to this album until a few years later when they started to reissue his music on Universal. For whatever reason, I gave Freak Out! another chance and actually started to like it. So, once those CDs began showing up at my local BestBuy, I started buying a bunch of them.

Happy to be along for the ride!

 

Celebrated the day by having a friend over and sharing our first viewing of the Roxy DVD. Wow!

(Oops, thought this was 75th birthday thread)

 

Freak Out has some quite good stuff (most of side 1 and 2), some great stuff (side 3), and some stuff I can do without on side 4. Not my fav FZ, but I enjoy it overall.

Could have been a kick ass single album release, don't know why he pushed to make it a double even after running out of money to finish side 4 as intended. Sides 1-3 run just over 47 minutes, which could fit one one LP - or cut one tune (make Mother People a b side) and get better fidelity on one LP.

 

I love Freak Out, but I'd have loved to have been able to hear it way back when and had my sensibilities completely rearranged, you know?

 

Although I agree that this is silly, the two separate albums were actually reissued as a 3LP box, thus making it another official release, I guess.

 

Kudos should also be given to the record label for having the guts to back such an album back in '66.

 

Verve had also acquired The Velvets.... quite a coup!
Hard to believe the A&R's of the majors had a sort-of 'gold-rush' for 'strange' back then!
Perhaps their kids were into it.... maybe.

 

The first disc of this 2 LP set is already classic Zappa. "Hungry Freaks Daddy", "Who Are The Brain Police" and "You Didn't Try To Call Me" still rank among the finest things Zappa ever did. Recording technology makes this sound a bit dated, but musically this would still be ahead of its time had it been released today instead of nearly 50 years ago. How many 2015 rock albums are there that feature vibraphone, avant garde experiments, out of tune singing, all within the context of a pop song?

As weird as that was, it doesn't prepare the listener for the 2nd disc. In my opinion, not everything works, but the Suzy Creamcheese sections are quite funny and "Trouble Every Day" is a classic Zappa piece. I agree that this original is the best version of the song.

Zappa would have better bands than this one and his experiments would become more succesful on later albums, but this is still an excellent debut and a great taste of things to come.

 

I hardly listen to the early (pre-Hot Rats) studio albums anymore. My preference is the live material for that era (or any era really). That said, FO is probably my favorite of the early MOI albums, which probably puts me in a minority as a few of the subsequent early albums are held in much higher regard by most fans.

Trouble Every Day was probably one of the first tracks I ever heard from FZ/MOI sometime around 83-84. It left such an impression, I had to seek out more from FZ, and thus it began.

I love the rocking live version of Who Are the Brain Police performed during the Flo & Eddie tours. Kind of odd this song never showed up on later tours.

 

ABSOLUTELY FREE

Released: May 26 1967
Label: Verve Records
Producer: Frank Zappa, Tom Wilson

Musicians:

The Mothers of Invention
Frank Zappa: Guitar, Conductor, Vocals
Jimmy Carl Black: Drums, Vocals
Ray Collins: Vocals, Tambourine, Prune
Roy Estrada: Bass, Vocals
Billy Mundi: Drums, Percussion
Don Preston: Keyboards
Jim Fielder: Guitar, Piano
Bunk Gardner: Woodwinds

Additional Personnel:
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 on "America Drinks & Goes Home"

All songs by Frank Zappa

Side 1
1.Plastic People (3:40)
2.The Duke of Prunes (2:12)
3.Amnesia Vivace (1:01)
4.The Duke Regains His Chops (1:45)
5.Call Any Vegetable (2:19)
6.Invocation & Ritual Dance of the Young Pumpkin (6:57)
7.Soft-Sell Conclusion (1:40)

Side 2
7.America Drinks (1:52)
8.Status Back Baby (2:52)
9.Uncle Bernie's Farm (2:09
10.Son Of Suzy Creamcheese (1:33)
11.Brown Shoes Don't Make It (7:26)
12.America Drinks & Goes Home (2:43)

 

A long time ago, in the early '80's, my local rock radio station (WBAB) played "Brown Shoes Don't Make It"
Loved it from the second I heard it!
"AF" is a perfect little album.... short, sweet, and leaves you wanting more!

 

Thank you for doing this -- I wasn't around for the other thread I guess #@%! it.

One of my favorite Zappa albums, especially the second side. "Brown Shoes" perfectly encapsulates the Zappa/Mothers ethos of the era, which was probably his most fertile musically.

 

Now this album is a tour de force that really shows what FZ could do. Recorded in a very short time too as I recall.

Especially love the last two tunes.

Worth mentioning that there was a single added to the CD: Big Leg Emma amd Why Don't You Do Me Right.

Are we covering unique single tracks and mixes too?

 

Yes and they were also on the Barking Pumpkin cassette from the 80's which was my first copy of the album. Some fans disliked the placement of those songs in the middle of the record but I think of it as "intermission music."

I agree with the comments above. Adding Mundi, Preston and Gardner to the band made a difference.

It's too bad there hasn't been a deluxe version of this album but Joe Travers has said that not enough outtakes survived to make it possible.

 

Side One of the second Mothers Of Invention album marks Frank Zappa's first experiment with side long suites without breaks in between songs, a concept he'd return to many times later on in his career. The songs aren't up to the standards of those on his first album, but they work within the context of the suite. It's hard to tell when we move on to the next song, in a way it reminds me of Todd Rundgren's A Wizard/A True Star. With "Invocation & Ritual Dance Of The Young Pumpkin" it does feature Zappa's first instrumental masterpiece. Bunk Gardner's soprano sax is something even John Coltrane would be proud of.

No in between song breaks either on side 2. "Status Back Baby" features some more lovely Bunk Gardner's sax playing, "Uncle Bernie's Farm" reminds me of the debut, while "Son Of Suzy Creamcheese" is a nice . Once again the longest song is also the best. "Brown Shoes Don't Make It" has Zappa fusing avant garde, modern classical music, psychedelic sounds and lots of other things on the album's most ambitious piece of music. It's nteresting to note that the album's final song "America Drinks & Goes Home" features future Python member Terry Gilliam in the background.

All in all, in terms of songwriting not as strong as its predecessor, but it's clear that Zappa is more interested in discovering new things than to repeat the formula of his debut, which is a good thing. Also, Zappa's experiments work a lot better here than they did on Freak Out and the addition of woodwinds and strings to his band opens new doors for his music.

 

discogs.com has some interesting info about different versions of the LP:

The gatefold sleeves of "Absolutely Free" vinyl, with the spine to the left, have the front image/title rotated right. When oriented to view correctly - and you turn over - the back is also viewed correctly. On the back, the original art signature of Zappa ("FVZ 12/66") has been removed from the bottom-right corner. Censorship was applied to some issues; On the back cover, above the "Buy America" American flag illustration, the words "War Means Work For All" was either 'ghosted' or removed from Zappa's art. Nor does it appear in later CD images, or on the 2012 reissue.

'Absolutely Free' was recorded at T.T.G. in L.A., during the week before Thanksgiving, Nov 1966. Zappa's comments, within the Libretto, indicate the release of this work was delayed until May 1967 due to the label wishing to apply censorship to the words. Originally intended for inclusion, the Libretto was independently-funded and produced by Zappa as a US mail-order item - including its reproduction in UK's September '67 issue of International Times. Some vinyl is also 'un-banded' [no visible track separation].

On the inner spread Gail Zappa is credited as "My Pumpkin", also relating to the track "Invocation & Ritual Dance Of The Young Pumpkin".

http://www.discogs.com/The-Mothers-Of-Invention-Absolutely-Free/master/36721

 

Has anyone ever listed all the 'classical' references on this album?

 

Another interesting thing to note is that Jim Sherwood does get credited on the album's original release, even though he does play on the album. Jim Fielder (founding member of Blood, Sweat & Tears and session player for Buffalo Springfield) plays guitar and piano, but does not get credited, having already left the Mothers when the album came out.