ALBUM OF THE MONTH

Siggy clutching at his ol' vinyl copy of Freak Out!

Detail from back cover

Album # 53 is Freak Out! - Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention

It is now 40 years since it was first released! This was Frank Zappa's debut on a long play album and the first release of his group The Mothers Of Invention.
Freak Out! sounds very 60's and does not sound too much like any other Zappa album. But it is obvious that it pointed out the direction for Zappa & The Mothers and it sure was a bitchen start.
The Mothers chocked the audience. They had way longer hair than The Beatles and they were not cute. Their lyrics were nasty and critical to much of what was going on in society. The music was weird. The songs were interrupted by screams and loud noises and some of the singing was out of tune, obviously on purpose.
Detroit Free Press wrote "Their hair and beards are filthy. They smell bad. You just can't believe it -- So, Mothers and Dads, next time the Beatles, the Stones, or Sonny & Cher come to town, welcome them with open arms."

Freak Out! is considered one of the first rock music concept albums. It wasn't a collection of disparate songs.
Many of the songs reflects Zappa's love for rhythm & blues and doo-wop. He wrote songs about things that he saw were happening in society in the mid 60's (the LA freak scene, the Watts riots etc).

Zappa must have liked these early Mothers songs. Versions of them kept popping up here and there during his carreer, on albums like Cruising With Ruben & The Jets and Tinseltown Rebellion, on several live tours (spring tour of 74 and fall 75/winter of 76 most noticeable).

The original release was a double album on the Verve label. In Europe the record company pricks crammed as much as possible onto a single album. In the late 70's Freak Out! became a hard to get item since Zappa couldn't release any new editions. He was in a fight with Warner Brothers and they would not let him have the master tapes of the early albums.

Zappa finally got rid of his record contract and got the masters back. Then he began re-releasing the back catalogue. 1985 saw the release of a boxed set of the first albums (The Old Masters, Volume One). In 1987 Freak Out! was finally released on CD (one disc).

Essential Zappa! Rock history!

S.H.