Absolutely Free
Encyclopedia
Absolutely Free is the second album by The Mothers of Invention
, led by Frank Zappa
. Absolutely Free is, again, a display of complex musical composition with political and social satire. The band had been augmented since Freak Out!
by the addition of saxophone
player Bunk Gardner, keyboardist
Don Preston
, guitarist
Jim Fielder
and drummer
Billy Mundi
. Fielder quit the group before the album was released and his name was removed from the album credits.
This album's emphasis is on interconnected movements, as each side of the original vinyl LP comprises a mini-suite. It also features one of the most famous songs of Zappa's early career, "Brown Shoes Don't Make It
," a track which has been described as a "condensed two-hour musical".
The CD reissue adds a single that The Mothers released at the time between where side one would have ended and side two would have begun. It features the songs "Why Dontcha Do Me Right?" (titled "Why Don't You Do Me Right" on the 45) and "Big Leg Emma", both described as "an attempt to make dumb music to appeal to dumb teenagers". These were a rare Verve single.
In the book Necessity Is..., former Mothers of Invention
band member Ray Collins
claimed that Absolutely Free is probably his favorite of the classic Mothers albums.
The UK-67 release (Verve VLP/SVLP 9174) came in a laminated flip-back cover, with a Mike Raven poem at the reverse that was not apparent on any other issue.
The title of "Brown Shoes Don't Make It
" was inspired by an event covered by Time
reporter Hugh Sidey
in 1966. The reporter correctly guessed that something was up when the fastidiously dressed President Lyndon B. Johnson
committed the fashion faux pas of wearing brown shoes with a gray suit. LBJ flew to Vietnam for an unannounced public relations visit later that day.
In the songs "America Drinks and Goes Home
" and "America Drinks
", Zappa combines a silly tune with nightclub sound effects to parody his experiences playing with drunken bar bands during the early 1960s. Other songs recorded soon after, that used the same kinds of ideas, include "On with the Show
" by The Rolling Stones
(released in 1967), "My Friend
" by Jimi Hendrix
(recorded in 1968, released in 1971) and "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)
" by The Beatles
(recorded in 1967 and 1969, released in 1970).
"Plastic People
" begins with a mock introduction of the President of the United States, who (along with his wife) can only recite the opening notes to "Louie, Louie
". "Louie, Louie" is often interpolated in Zappa's compositions (other examples appear in the Uncle Meat
and Yellow Shark albums, among others), and when Zappa first began performing "Plastic People" around 1965, the words were set to the tune of "Louie, Louie".
In 2007, the Lagunitas Brewing Company
put out an India Pale Ale
named Kill Ugly Radio, featuring the inside art from the album on the label, one in a series of beers planned to be released on the 40th anniversary of each of Zappa's studio albums.
1967 Mothers of Invention single, bonus tracks for the 1995 Rykodisc CD reissue:
The Mothers of Invention
The Mothers of Invention were an American band active from 1964 to 1969, and again from 1970 to 1975.They mainly performed works by, and were the original recording group of, US composer and guitarist Frank Zappa , although other members have had the occasional writing credit...
, led by Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
. Absolutely Free is, again, a display of complex musical composition with political and social satire. The band had been augmented since Freak Out!
Freak Out!
Freak Out! is the debut album by American band The Mothers of Invention, released June 27, 1966 on Verve Records. Often cited as one of rock music's first concept albums, the album is a satirical expression of frontman Frank Zappa's perception of American pop culture...
by the addition of saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
player Bunk Gardner, keyboardist
Keyboardist
A keyboardist is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instruments with keyboards have come into common usage, requiring a more...
Don Preston
Don Preston
Donald Ward Preston also known as Dom DeWilde or Biff Debrie born September 21, 1932 in Flint, Michigan. Preston is an American jazz and rock and roll musician.-Biography:Preston was born into a family of musicians and began studying music at an early age...
, guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
Jim Fielder
Jim Fielder
Jim Fielder is an American bassist, best known for his work as an original member of Blood, Sweat & Tears....
and drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
Billy Mundi
Billy Mundi
Billy Mundi is an American drummer, who has played a multitude of sessions and been a member of countless bands, most notably The Mothers of Invention and Rhinoceros. He sometimes used the name Tony Schnasse.A former Hells Angel, his career dates back to the late 1950s, when he majored in music at...
. Fielder quit the group before the album was released and his name was removed from the album credits.
This album's emphasis is on interconnected movements, as each side of the original vinyl LP comprises a mini-suite. It also features one of the most famous songs of Zappa's early career, "Brown Shoes Don't Make It
Brown Shoes Don't Make It
Brown Shoes Don't Make It is a song from Frank Zappa's 1967 album Absolutely Free. It is one of his most widely renowned works, declared by the Allmusic as "Zappa's first real masterpiece"...
," a track which has been described as a "condensed two-hour musical".
The CD reissue adds a single that The Mothers released at the time between where side one would have ended and side two would have begun. It features the songs "Why Dontcha Do Me Right?" (titled "Why Don't You Do Me Right" on the 45) and "Big Leg Emma", both described as "an attempt to make dumb music to appeal to dumb teenagers". These were a rare Verve single.
In the book Necessity Is..., former Mothers of Invention
The Mothers of Invention
The Mothers of Invention were an American band active from 1964 to 1969, and again from 1970 to 1975.They mainly performed works by, and were the original recording group of, US composer and guitarist Frank Zappa , although other members have had the occasional writing credit...
band member Ray Collins
Ray Collins (rock musician)
Ray Collins was born on November 19, 1936 and grew up in Pomona, California singing in his school choir, the son of a local police officer. He quit high school to get married. He started his musical career singing falsetto backup vocals for various 'doo-wop' groups in the Los Angeles area in the...
claimed that Absolutely Free is probably his favorite of the classic Mothers albums.
The UK-67 release (Verve VLP/SVLP 9174) came in a laminated flip-back cover, with a Mike Raven poem at the reverse that was not apparent on any other issue.
The title of "Brown Shoes Don't Make It
Brown Shoes Don't Make It
Brown Shoes Don't Make It is a song from Frank Zappa's 1967 album Absolutely Free. It is one of his most widely renowned works, declared by the Allmusic as "Zappa's first real masterpiece"...
" was inspired by an event covered by Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
reporter Hugh Sidey
Hugh Sidey
Hugh Sidey was an American journalist and worked for Life magazine starting in 1955, then moved on to Time magazine in 1957.-Biography:...
in 1966. The reporter correctly guessed that something was up when the fastidiously dressed President Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
committed the fashion faux pas of wearing brown shoes with a gray suit. LBJ flew to Vietnam for an unannounced public relations visit later that day.
In the songs "America Drinks and Goes Home
America Drinks and Goes Home
"America Drinks and Goes Home" is a song written by Frank Zappa and recorded in 1966 for the Mothers of Invention album Absolutely Free. The song actually appears in two different versions on the album at the beginning of side 2 under the title "America Drinks" and finishing at the end of side 2...
" and "America Drinks
America Drinks and Goes Home
"America Drinks and Goes Home" is a song written by Frank Zappa and recorded in 1966 for the Mothers of Invention album Absolutely Free. The song actually appears in two different versions on the album at the beginning of side 2 under the title "America Drinks" and finishing at the end of side 2...
", Zappa combines a silly tune with nightclub sound effects to parody his experiences playing with drunken bar bands during the early 1960s. Other songs recorded soon after, that used the same kinds of ideas, include "On with the Show
On with the Show (song)
"On with the Show" is a song written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards which appeared on the 1967 Rolling Stones album Their Satanic Majesties Request...
" by The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
(released in 1967), "My Friend
My Friend
"My Friend" is a song written and recorded by Jimi Hendrix in New York City in 1968 during the recording sessions for Electric Ladyland. The song was first released in 1971 on the posthumous album The Cry of Love and later appeared on the CD First Rays of the New Rising Sun. It was mixed...
" by Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
(recorded in 1968, released in 1971) and "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)
You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)
"You Know My Name " is a song by The Beatles originally released as the B-side of the single "Let It Be" on 6 March 1970. Although first issued with their final single , it was recorded in four separate sessions beginning with three in May and June 1967, and one in 1969.-Composition:The song is a...
" by The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
(recorded in 1967 and 1969, released in 1970).
"Plastic People
Plastic People
"Plastic People" is the first track of the Frank Zappa album Absolutely Free. It also was featured on the You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore compilation as Track 1 on disc 2, along with a "Louie, Louie/Plastic People"-like version entitled "Ruthie, Ruthie" as Track 10 on disc 1...
" begins with a mock introduction of the President of the United States, who (along with his wife) can only recite the opening notes to "Louie, Louie
Louie Louie
"Louie Louie" is an American rock 'n' roll song written by Richard Berry in 1955. It has become a standard in pop and rock, with hundreds of versions recorded by different artists...
". "Louie, Louie" is often interpolated in Zappa's compositions (other examples appear in the Uncle Meat
Uncle Meat
Uncle Meat is the fifth studio album by the Mothers of Invention, released in 1969. It is billed as a supposed "soundtrack" to a film by The Mothers of Invention which was, in the end, never made. The front cover, designed by Cal Schenkel, included the words ""...
and Yellow Shark albums, among others), and when Zappa first began performing "Plastic People" around 1965, the words were set to the tune of "Louie, Louie".
In 2007, the Lagunitas Brewing Company
Lagunitas Brewing Company
The Lagunitas Brewing Company is a brewery founded in 1993 in Lagunitas, California, USA. They are known for iconoclastic interpretations of traditional beer styles, and irreverent descriptive text and stories on their packaging...
put out an India Pale Ale
India Pale Ale
India Pale Ale or IPA is a style of beer within the broader category of pale ale. It was first brewed in England in the 19th century.The first known use of the expression "India pale ale" comes from an advertisement in the Liverpool Mercury newspaper published January 30, 1835...
named Kill Ugly Radio, featuring the inside art from the album on the label, one in a series of beers planned to be released on the 40th anniversary of each of Zappa's studio albums.
Side one
Suite No. 1: "Absolutely Free" (1st in a Series of Underground Oratorios)- "Plastic PeoplePlastic People"Plastic People" is the first track of the Frank Zappa album Absolutely Free. It also was featured on the You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore compilation as Track 1 on disc 2, along with a "Louie, Louie/Plastic People"-like version entitled "Ruthie, Ruthie" as Track 10 on disc 1...
" – 3:42 - "The Duke of Prunes" – 2:13
- "Amnesia Vivace" – 1:01
- "The Duke Regains His Chops" – 1:52
- "Call Any Vegetable" – 2:15
- "Invocation & Ritual Dance of the Young Pumpkin" – 7:00
- "Soft-Sell Conclusion" – 1:40
1967 Mothers of Invention single, bonus tracks for the 1995 Rykodisc CD reissue:
- "Big Leg Emma" – 2:31
- "Why Don'tcha Do Me Right?" – 2:37
Side two
Suite No. 2: "The M.O.I. American Pageant" (2nd in a Series of Underground Oratorios)- "America Drinks" – 1:52
- "Status Back Baby" – 2:54
- "Uncle Bernie's Farm" – 2:10
- "Son of Suzy Creamcheese" – 1:34
- "Brown Shoes Don't Make ItBrown Shoes Don't Make ItBrown Shoes Don't Make It is a song from Frank Zappa's 1967 album Absolutely Free. It is one of his most widely renowned works, declared by the Allmusic as "Zappa's first real masterpiece"...
" – 7:30
- "America Drinks and Goes HomeAmerica Drinks and Goes Home"America Drinks and Goes Home" is a song written by Frank Zappa and recorded in 1966 for the Mothers of Invention album Absolutely Free. The song actually appears in two different versions on the album at the beginning of side 2 under the title "America Drinks" and finishing at the end of side 2...
" – 2:46
Personnel
- Frank ZappaFrank ZappaFrank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
– guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, conductor, vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments... - Jimmy Carl BlackJimmy Carl BlackJimmy Carl Black , born James Inkanish, Jr., was a drummer and vocalist for The Mothers of Invention.-Career: 1960s-1990s:Born in El Paso, Texas, Black was of Cheyenne heritage...
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, vocals - Ray CollinsRay Collins (rock musician)Ray Collins was born on November 19, 1936 and grew up in Pomona, California singing in his school choir, the son of a local police officer. He quit high school to get married. He started his musical career singing falsetto backup vocals for various 'doo-wop' groups in the Los Angeles area in the...
– vocals, tambourineTambourineThe tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all.... - Don EllisDon EllisDon Ellis was an American jazz trumpeter, drummer, composer and bandleader. He is best known for his extensive musical experimentation, particularly in the area of unusual time signatures...
– trumpet on "Brown Shoes Don't Make It" - Roy EstradaRoy EstradaRoy Estrada is an American musician and backing vocalist, best known for his bass guitar work with Frank Zappa and for co-founding Little Feat.-Biography:With drummer Jimmy Carl Black and Ray Collins, Estrada was an original member of Frank Zappa's...
– bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, vocals - Bunk Gardner – woodwinds
- Billy MundiBilly MundiBilly Mundi is an American drummer, who has played a multitude of sessions and been a member of countless bands, most notably The Mothers of Invention and Rhinoceros. He sometimes used the name Tony Schnasse.A former Hells Angel, his career dates back to the late 1950s, when he majored in music at...
– drums, percussion - Don PrestonDon PrestonDonald Ward Preston also known as Dom DeWilde or Biff Debrie born September 21, 1932 in Flint, Michigan. Preston is an American jazz and rock and roll musician.-Biography:Preston was born into a family of musicians and began studying music at an early age...
– keyboards - John Rotella – percussion
- Jim FielderJim FielderJim Fielder is an American bassist, best known for his work as an original member of Blood, Sweat & Tears....
– guitar, piano - Pamela Zarubica – vocals
Production
- Producers: Frank Zappa, Tom Wilson
- Director of engineering: Val Valentin
- Engineer: Ami Hadani
- Remixing: David Greene
- Arranger: Frank Zappa
- Cover design: Ferenc Dobronyi, Cal SchenkelCal SchenkelCal Schenkel is an artist specialising in album cover design. He was the main visual collaborator for Frank Zappa and was responsible for the art and graphic design of many of Zappa's most well-known album covers. Schenkel's work is iconic and distinctive in style; a forerunner of punk art and...
- Layout design: Frank Zappa
- Cover photo: Alice Ochs
- Cover art: Frank Zappa
- Photography: Jerry Deiter
- Artwork: Alice Ochs
- Collage: Frank Zappa
- Liner Notes: Frank Zappa
Charts
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1967 | US Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
41 |