Freak Out!

Release info

Released in July 1966.

Tracks

• Hungry Freaks, Daddy (03:29)
• I Ain't Got No Heart (02:35)
• Who Are The Brain Police? (03:33)
• Go Cry On Somebody Else's Shoulder (03:41)
• Motherly Love (02:46)
• How Could I Be Such A Fool (02:13)
• Wowie Zowie (02:53)
• You Didn't Try To Call Me (03:19)
• Any Way The Wind Blows (02:56)
• I'm Not Satisfied (02:39)
• You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here (03:38)
• Trouble Every Day (05:50)
• Help, I'm A Rock (Suite In Three Movements) (08:40)
• The Return Of The Son Of Monster Magnet (12:19)

Writing/Production credits

All compositions composed and arranged by Frank Zappa and controlled by The Zappa Family Trust d/b/a Frank Zappa Music (BMI)

Sunset-Highland Studios of TTG - March, 1966

Produced by: Tom Wilson; Director of engineering: Val Valentin; The world's most patient engineers: Ami Hadani & Tom.

Cover design: Jack Anesh; Cover photo: Ray Leong.

Players

• Frank Zappa: Musical director, guitar & vocals
• Ray Collins: Lead vocalist, harmonica, tambourine, finger cymbals, bobby pin & tweezers
• Jimmy Carl Black: Drums (also sings in some foreign language)
• Roy Estrada: Bass & guitarron; boy soprano
• Elliot Ingber: Alternate lead & rhythm guitar with clear white light

+ The "Mothers' Auxiliary"

Background

The group’s original name had been The Soul Giants. The name Mothers was short for “motherfuckers,” which meant “excellent musicians.” The name was changed to The Mothers of Invention in order to accommodate some paranoid, prudish MGM executives.

Freak Out! was the first double rock album and the first conceptual rock LP. It (and the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds) heavily inspired the Beatles’ album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Carol Kaye, frequent Phil Spector and Beach Boys session bassist (and known as the most recorded bass player in history), played many of the bass parts on this album and its follow-up, Absolutely Free. She and Frank parted company peacefully when she admitted to him that some of his lyrics bothered her.

Suzy Creamcheese is played on the album by a friend of Frank’s named Jeannie Vassoir.

Most of the "accessible" songs on this album were suited to the R&B facet of the 1966 climate, since Frank intended to infiltrate the pop music scene, changing the industry’s machinery from the inside. The same tactics led to the suit-and-tie appearance he adopted while speaking out against censorship in the 1980s. The second disc represented his first step in revealing the barrier between “high” and “low” art as being utterly false.

Relevant Quotes

Freak Out! had the kind of minute detail (sleevenotes, in-jokes, parodies) that generated instant cult appeal. What about the following "Relevant Quotes"?

• "The present-day composer refuses to die!". (Edgard Varèse, 1921)
• "I’d like to clean you boys up a bit and mold you. I believe I could make you as big as the Turtles". (a noted L.A. disc jockey - the "noted L.A. disc jockey" was Lord Tim, as explained by FZ in "Frank & Moon", an article by Michael Goldberg in Creem, November 6, 1982)
• "No commercial potential". (a very important man at Columbia Records) --> this was Vice President Clive Davis, who’d go on to sign Aerosmith and eventually start Arista Records
• "I find your approach to music to be commensurate with the major motivational forces exemplified most manifestly in the 'tragicomic' aspects of the ‘theatre of the absurd’". (David Anderle)
• "I told you so". (Billy James)

More Relevant Quotes

And there were even "More relevant quotes":

• "Straight Ahead!" (Tom Wilson, March 1966)
• "What the h--- you gonna do with all those drums at 1:00 in the morning?" (Herb Cohen (spelled "Herbie Cohen"), March 1966)
• "Tell us where those drums are... we want to repossess them... we’ll call MGM Records! We’re a multi-million dollar company and we can play havoc with you." (Laurentide Finance Co., March 1966)
• "If your children ever find out how lame you really are, they’ll murder you in your sleep". (our closing message to tourists at the Hollywood Wiskey A-Go-Go, December 1965)

The "Freak List"

In the liner notes it says: "These People Have Contributed Materially in Many Ways to Make Our Music What it is. Please Do Not Hold it Against them." ... followed by a long list of people. Here is the list, affectionately called the "Freak List!".

And then some

The Freak Out! Hot Spots...

Conceptual Continuity

Here may be some CC clues, with some explanation.

This could be a section on each album-page.

Versions

As suggested by Mik (I believe), I've added this sub-section which should appear for each album-page.