Freak Out!

Release info

Freak Out!

Released in July 1966.

Tracks

1. Hungry Freaks, Daddy (03:29)
2. I Ain't Got No Heart (02:35)
3. Who Are The Brain Police? (03:33)
4. Go Cry On Somebody Else's Shoulder (03:41)
5. Motherly Love (02:46)
6. How Could I Be Such A Fool (02:13)
7. Wowie Zowie (02:53)
8. You Didn't Try To Call Me (03:19)
9. Any Way The Wind Blows (02:56)
10. I'm Not Satisfied (02:39)
11. You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here (03:38)
12. Trouble Every Day (05:50)
13. Help, I'm A Rock (Suite In Three Movements) (08:40)
    1. "Okay To Tap Dance"
    2. "In Memoriam Edgar Varese"
    3. "It Can't Happen Here"
14. 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)

The quote is also attributed to Reb Foster, an L.A. disk jockey and The Turtles' manager at the time.

• "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?" (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)

And then some

• The "Freak List".
• 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

ZFT #	Mix	# discs	Format	Catalog #	Release	EAN.UCC-13 (barcode)	Artwork	Comment
1	Stereo vinyl	2	LP	MGM Verve V6-5005-2	July 1966			US edition
		2	LP	MGM Verve/Polydor 2352 024	1974?			UK edition. Polydor reissued early albums having acquired the MGM/Verve label in 1972. Set No. 2683-004
	Mono vinyl	2	LP	MGM Verve V-5005-2	1967?
	Mono vinyl shortened	1	LP	MGM Verve VLP 9154	1966?			UK edition. Matrix # V 5005 A1 / V 5005 B1
	Unknown	2	LP	Barking Pumpkin BPR 7777-1	April 19 1985			Included in The Old Masters, Box I set.
	Remix	1	CD	Rykodisc RCD 40062	1987			US edition
		1	CD	VideoArts VACK 5021	October 26 1994	4988112405240		Japanese edition
		1	CS	Rykodisc RAC 10501	May 2 1995	0014431050145		US edition
		1	CD	Rykodisc RCD 10501	May 2 1995	0014431050121		US edition
		1	CD	VideoArts VACK 5101	September 09 1995	4988112406957		Japanese edition
		1	CD	VideoArts VACK 5236	May 30 1996	4988112408364		Japanese edition
		1	CD	VideoArts VACK 1203	September 21 2001	4988112403116		Japanese edition, mini-album papersleeve
		1	CD	Rykodisc RCD 40582/1	March 21 2002	None		US edition, included in the Threesome No. 1 box set. Matrix # IFPI L502 IFPI 8708 DISCTRONICS RCD 10501 01
	Unknown	1	CD	Rykodisc RCD 10591	August 16 2005	0014431059124		Mini-album papersleeve