408: Frank Zappa and the Mothers release Freak out!
Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention’s debut Freak Out! remains one of the most ambitious debuts in rock history. A seminal concept album pre-dating Sgt. Pepper, it simultaneously foreshadowed art rock, punk and everything in between. Deconstruction abounded as all four LP sides questioned rock convention, warped assumptions about “commercial pop”, made pointed social criticism and then willfully discarded accessibility for studio-driven sonic experimentation. Somehow, despite genuine dislocation and detachment from the very idea of Top 40, Zappa managed to skillfully compose sophisticated, if very askew, pop. Far Out! virtually exploded the limitations of the album rock medium and set forth Zappa’s basic credo: acceptance of the “other” and uncensored artistic expression. Freak Out! set precedents for much of what followed in his long, prolific career. Yet few of Zappa’s records can match Freak Out’s crazed sense of unlimited possibility.
Official Website
The Making of Freak Out!
Frank Zappa on “The Monkees”
Frank Zappa on “Dance Fever”
Zappa on Zappa: A Collection of Interviews
Information Is Not Knowledge, an extensive Zappa site
Zappa Wiki
Frank Zappa Recording History
1988 Rolling Stone interview
I’ve always wanted to know what it would have been like to hear this record in 1966.
A masterpiece, really.
October 9th, 2007 at 4:33 pmI am reading a book about Zappa which notes the great similarity between the intro of “Hungry Freaks, Daddy” and the intro of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”. I never noticed it before, but it’s hard to believe the similarity is a coincidence.
October 12th, 2007 at 10:53 pmThis was the first record I ever listened to with headphones…and I think it was in 1967…
October 13th, 2007 at 7:06 pm