The Mothers of Invention - Freak Out!

The first Frank Zappa record is a tough one to judge. It manages to be both a hint of things to come, as evidenced by the acerbic social commentary of Hungry Freaks, Daddy and Trouble Every Day, while still not quite giving a very accurate idea of what form the following music would eventually take.

The album is largely performed in the style of the popular music and rock and roll of 1966. Hungry Freaks, Daddy slots in comfortably next to My Generation as a youth riot anthem aimed squarely at capitalist America. The rest of the first disc (with the exception of Who Are The Brain Police?) of the album runs through satirical approaches to the idea of Zappa’s much loathed ‘love lyrics’ in pop music. I Ain’t Got No Heart could have been written by just about anyone feeling a bit bitter at the time. By the end of the first LP we have covered groupies, suicide and not even caring “if you’re dad’s a he”.

The second disc is a much more challenging listen. Zappa begins with Trouble Every Day, probably the best individual track he’s ever written, before moving through the abstract sound collages of Help, I’m a Rock and The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet. Before beginning a rock and roll career Zappa was primarily interested in 20th Century Classical, most notably Edgar Varèse (who has a movement of Help I’m a Rock named after him). The meticulous care put into arranging these pieces reflects this interest. Where there are some lame lyrics on the first disc, the musique concrete on the final two sides, whether you personally like it or not, one has to observe that everything sound like it went EXACTLY as Zappa imagined it.

There are two widely available versions of the album on the market today; the first is the Rykodisc CD which was remixed in 1987 (along with most of the other Zappa albums).  The other is the MOFO box, which runs at 4 CD’s length and contains the original stereo LP mix of the album, a handful of mono mixes and some studio outtakes. The vocals on some of the tracks of the LP mix sound a bit muddy, but the guitar sounds cleaner. I haven’t heard all of the original mix, but from what I have heard, I prefer the remix.

Hungry Freaks, Daddy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THGjCgi6sbA
Trouble Every Day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiVFfOOm_GI
The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a1pmca5n_w