Freak Out!
Encyclopedia
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 album
s, the album is a satirical expression of frontman Frank Zappa
's perception of American pop culture. It was also one of the earliest double albums in rock music (although Bob Dylan
's Blonde on Blonde
preceded it by a week), and the first 2-record debut. In the UK the album was originally released as a single disc.
The album was produced by Tom Wilson, who signed The Mothers, formerly a bar band called the Soul Giants. Zappa said many years later that Wilson signed the group to a record deal in the belief that they were a white blues
band. The album features vocalist Ray Collins
, along with bass
player Roy Estrada
, drummer Jimmy Carl Black
and guitar player Elliot Ingber
, who would later join Captain Beefheart
's Magic Band under the name Winged Eel Fingerling.
The band's original repertoire consisted of rhythm and blues
covers; though after Zappa joined the band he encouraged them to play his own original material, and the name was changed to The Mothers. The musical content of Freak Out! ranges from rhythm and blues, doo-wop
and standard blues
-influenced rock to orchestral arrangements and avant-garde
sound collage
s. Although the album was initially poorly received in the United States, it was a success in Europe. It gained a cult following in America, where it continued to sell in substantial quantities until it was prematurely discontinued in the early 1970s.
The album influenced the production of The Beatles
' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
. In 1999, it was honored with the Grammy Hall of Fame Award
, and in 2003, Rolling Stone
ranked it among the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In 2006, The MOFO Project/Object, an audio documentary on the making of the album, was released in honor of its 40th anniversary.
The group moved to Los Angeles in early 1965 after Zappa got them a management contract with Herb Cohen
. They gained steady work at clubs along the Sunset Strip. MGM
staff producer Tom Wilson offered the band a record deal on the Verve Records
division in early 1966. He had heard of their growing reputation but had seen them perform only one song, "Trouble Every Day
", which concerned the Watts riots
. According to Zappa, this led Wilson to believe that they were a "white blues band." The group signed their contract on March 1, 1966 and quickly began work on their first album. This would have made them a part of the "white blues band" trend, initiated in 1965 with the debut of The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
from Chicago and the 1966 debut of the Blues Project
from New York City.
, a sardonic farce about rock music and America. "All the songs on it were about something," Zappa wrote in The Real Frank Zappa Book
. "It wasn't as if we had a hit single and we needed to build some filler around it. Each tune had a function within an overall satirical concept."
The album was recorded at TTG Studios
at the corner of Sunset and Highland in Hollywood, California, between March 9 and March 12, 1966. Some songs, such as "Motherly Love" and "I Ain't Got No Heart" had already been recorded before the Freak Out! sessions. These early recordings, said to have been made around 1965, were not officially released until 2004, when they appeared on the posthumous Zappa album Joe's Corsage
. An early version of the song "Any Way The Wind Blows," recorded in 1963, appears on another posthumous release, The Lost Episodes
. The song was written when Zappa considered divorcing first wife Kay Sherman. In the liner notes for Freak Out!, Zappa wrote "If I had never gotten divorced, this piece of trivial nonsense would never have been recorded."
Tom Wilson became more enthusiastic as the sessions continued. In the middle of the week of recording, Zappa told him "I would like to rent $500 worth of percussion equipment for a session that starts at midnight on Friday and I want to bring all the freaks from Sunset Boulevard
into the studio to do something special." Wilson agreed. The material was worked into "The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet
". According to Zappa, the record label refused to allow him the time needed to complete the composition, and so it was released in unfinished form.
Zappa later found out that when the material was recorded, Wilson had taken LSD
. "I've tried to imagine what he must have been thinking, sitting in that control room, listening to all that weird shit coming out of the speakers, and being responsible for telling the engineer, Ami Hadani (who was not on acid), what to do." By the time Freak Out! was edited and shaped into an album, Wilson had spent $25–35,000 of MGM's money. In Hit Parader
magazine, Zappa wrote "Wilson was sticking his neck out. He laid his job on the line by producing the album. MGM felt that they had spent too much money on the album."
The label requested that two lines be removed from the "It Can't Happen Here" section of "Help, I'm a Rock," (a song dedicated to Elvis Presley
) both of which had been interpreted by MGM executives to be drug references. However, the label either had no objections to, or else did not notice, a sped-up recording of Zappa shouting the word "fuck" after accidentally smashing his finger, occurring at 11 minutes and 36 seconds into "The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet". On the 1995 compact disc issue of the album, "Help, I'm a Rock" and "It Can't Happen Here" were indexed as separate tracks, as "It Can't Happen Here" had been on the 1969 vinyl compilation "Mothermania
."
MGM also told Zappa that the band would have to change their name, claiming that no DJ would play a record on the air by a group called "The Mothers."
Freak Out! was released June 27, 1966 with the band's name changed to The Mothers of Invention, a name Zappa chose in favor of MGM's original suggested name, "The Mothers Auxiliary." The album's back cover included a "letter" from Zappa-created fictional character Suzy Creamcheese
(who also appears on the album itself), which read:
Because the text was printed in a typeface resembling typewriter lettering, some people thought that Suzy Creamcheese was real, and many listeners expected to see her in concert performances. Because of this, it was decided that "it would be best to bring along a Suzy Creamcheese replica who would demonstrate once and for all the veracity of such a beast." Because the original voice of Suzy Creamcheese, Jeanne Vassoir, was unavailable, Pamela Lee Zarubica took over the part.
Early US pressings of the album included an advertisement for a "Freak Out Hot Spots!" map, which featured commentary on selected areas of 1966-era Los Angeles. The map was not offered on later pressings, but was eventually reprinted and included with The MOFO Project/Object, a four-disc audio documentary on the making of the album, released posthumously by the Zappa Family Trust in 2006.
chart, Freak Out! was neither a major commercial nor critical success when it was first released in the United States. Some listeners were convinced that the album was drug-inspired, and interpreted the album's title as slang for a bad LSD trip. In The Real Frank Zappa Book, Zappa quotes a negative review of the album by Pete Johnson of the Los Angeles Times
, who wrote:
However the album did develop a major cult following in the US by the time MGM/Verve had been merged into a division of PolyGram
in 1972. At that time many MGM/Verve releases including Freak Out! were prematurely deleted in an attempt to keep the struggling company financially solvent. Zappa had already moved on to his own companies Bizarre Records
and Straight Records
which were distributed by Warner Bros. Records
. Freak Out! was initially more successful in Europe and quickly influenced many English rock musicians. The album was a major influence on The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The album was honored with the Grammy Hall of Fame Award
in 1999, ranked at number 243 on Rolling Stone
magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" in 2003, and featured in the 2006 book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
. The album was named as one of Classic Rock magazine
s "50 Albums That Built Prog Rock".
Production
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...
, released June 27, 1966 on Verve Records
Verve Records
Verve Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded by Norman Granz in 1956, absorbing the catalogues of his earlier labels, Clef Records and Norgran Records , and material which had been licensed to Mercury previously.-Jazz and folk origins:The Verve...
. Often cited as one of rock music's first concept album
Concept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
s, the album is a satirical expression of frontman 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...
's perception of American pop culture. It was also one of the earliest double albums in rock music (although Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's Blonde on Blonde
Blonde on Blonde
Blonde on Blonde is American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's seventh studio album, released in May or June 1966 on Columbia Records and produced by Bob Johnston. Recording sessions commenced in New York in October 1965, with a plethora of backing musicians, including members of Dylan's live backing...
preceded it by a week), and the first 2-record debut. In the UK the album was originally released as a single disc.
The album was produced by Tom Wilson, who signed The Mothers, formerly a bar band called the Soul Giants. Zappa said many years later that Wilson signed the group to a record deal in the belief that they were a white blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
band. The album features vocalist 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...
, along with bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
player Roy Estrada
Roy Estrada
Roy 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...
, drummer Jimmy Carl Black
Jimmy Carl Black
Jimmy 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...
and guitar player Elliot Ingber
Elliot Ingber
Elliot Ingber is an American guitarist. In 1966, he was a founding member of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention and was featured on their debut album Freak Out! After being fired from the band by Frank Zappa, Ingber helped form Fraternity of Man, which released two albums...
, who would later join Captain Beefheart
Captain Beefheart
Don Van Vliet January 15, 1941 December 17, 2010) was an American musician, singer-songwriter and artist best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. His musical work was conducted with a rotating ensemble of musicians called The Magic Band, active between 1965 and 1982, with whom he recorded 12...
's Magic Band under the name Winged Eel Fingerling.
The band's original repertoire consisted of rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
covers; though after Zappa joined the band he encouraged them to play his own original material, and the name was changed to The Mothers. The musical content of Freak Out! ranges from rhythm and blues, doo-wop
Doo-wop
The name Doo-wop is given to a style of vocal-based rhythm and blues music that developed in African American communities in the 1940s and achieved mainstream popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s. It emerged from New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore, Newark, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and...
and standard blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
-influenced rock to orchestral arrangements and avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
sound collage
Sound collage
In music, montage or sound collage is a technique where sound objects or compositions, including songs, are created from collage, also known as montage, the use of portions of previous recordings or scores...
s. Although the album was initially poorly received in the United States, it was a success in Europe. It gained a cult following in America, where it continued to sell in substantial quantities until it was prematurely discontinued in the early 1970s.
The album influenced the production of 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...
' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the eighth studio album by the English rock band The Beatles, released on 1 June 1967 on the Parlophone label and produced by George Martin...
. In 1999, it was honored with the Grammy Hall of Fame Award
Grammy Hall of Fame Award
The Grammy Hall of Fame Award is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old and that have "qualitative or historical significance"...
, and in 2003, Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
ranked it among the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In 2006, The MOFO Project/Object, an audio documentary on the making of the album, was released in honor of its 40th anniversary.
Background
In the early 1960s, Zappa met Ray Collins. Collins supported himself by working as a carpenter, and on weekends sang with a group called the Soul Giants. Collins got into a fight with their guitar player, who quit, leaving the band in need of a substitute, and Zappa filled in. The Soul Giants' repertoire originally consisted of R&B covers; though after Zappa joined the band he encouraged them to play his own original material and try to get a record contract. While most of the bandmembers liked the idea, then-leader and saxophone player Davy Coronado felt that performing original material would cost them bookings, and quit the band. The Soul Giants became The Mothers, and Zappa took over leadership of the band.The group moved to Los Angeles in early 1965 after Zappa got them a management contract with Herb Cohen
Herb Cohen
Herbert "Herb" Cohen was an American personal manager, record company executive, and music publisher, best known as the manager of Frank Zappa, Tom Waits, and many other Los Angeles-based musicians in the 1960s and 1970s.-Life and career:Cohen was born in New York...
. They gained steady work at clubs along the Sunset Strip. MGM
MGM Records
MGM Records was a record label started by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio in 1946, for the purpose of releasing soundtrack albums of their musical films. Later it became a pop label, lasting into the 1970s...
staff producer Tom Wilson offered the band a record deal on the Verve Records
Verve Records
Verve Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded by Norman Granz in 1956, absorbing the catalogues of his earlier labels, Clef Records and Norgran Records , and material which had been licensed to Mercury previously.-Jazz and folk origins:The Verve...
division in early 1966. He had heard of their growing reputation but had seen them perform only one song, "Trouble Every Day
Trouble Every Day (song)
"Trouble Every Day" is a song by The Mothers of Invention, released on their 1966 debut album Freak Out!.Frank Zappa wrote the song in 1965 at 1819 Bellevue Avenue, Echo Park, Los Angeles after watching news coverage of the Watts Riots...
", which concerned the Watts riots
Watts Riots
The Watts Riots or the Watts Rebellion was a civil disturbance in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, California from August 11 to August 15, 1965. The 5-day riot resulted in 34 deaths, 1,032 injuries, and 3,438 arrests...
. According to Zappa, this led Wilson to believe that they were a "white blues band." The group signed their contract on March 1, 1966 and quickly began work on their first album. This would have made them a part of the "white blues band" trend, initiated in 1965 with the debut of The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Paul Butterfield
Paul Butterfield was an American blues vocalist and harmonica player, who founded the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in the early 1960s and performed at the original Woodstock Festival...
from Chicago and the 1966 debut of the Blues Project
Blues Project
The Blues Project is a band from the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City that was formed in 1965 and originally split up in 1967. While their songs drew from a wide array of musical styles, they are most remembered as one of the earliest practitioners of psychedelic rock, as well as one...
from New York City.
Production
The first two songs recorded for the album were "Any Way The Wind Blows" and "Who Are the Brain Police?" When Tom Wilson heard the latter, he realized that The Mothers were not merely a blues band. In The Real Frank Zappa Book, Zappa wrote "I could see through the window that he was scrambling toward the phone to call his boss—probably saying: 'Well, uh, not exactly a "white blues band," but...sort of.'" In a 1968 article written for Hit Parader magazine, Zappa wrote that when Wilson heard these songs, "he was so impressed he got on the phone and called New York, and as a result I got a more or less unlimited budget to do this monstrosity." Freak Out! is an early example of the concept albumConcept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
, a sardonic farce about rock music and America. "All the songs on it were about something," Zappa wrote in The Real Frank Zappa Book
The Real Frank Zappa Book
The Real Frank Zappa Book is an autobiography/memoir by Frank Zappa, co-written by Peter Occhiogrosso. The text is copyright 1989 Frank Zappa, and copyright 1990 Simon & Schuster, Inc....
. "It wasn't as if we had a hit single and we needed to build some filler around it. Each tune had a function within an overall satirical concept."
The album was recorded at TTG Studios
TTG Studios
TTG Studios was a recording studio in Los Angeles, California, founded by Ami Hadani and Tom Hidley.-Studio:"TTG" stood for "two terrible guys." The studio was first established in 1965 at the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Highland Avenue, in Hollywood section of Los Angeles...
at the corner of Sunset and Highland in Hollywood, California, between March 9 and March 12, 1966. Some songs, such as "Motherly Love" and "I Ain't Got No Heart" had already been recorded before the Freak Out! sessions. These early recordings, said to have been made around 1965, were not officially released until 2004, when they appeared on the posthumous Zappa album Joe's Corsage
Joe's Corsage
Joe's Corsage is a CD of material recorded by Frank Zappa with The Mothers of Invention in the mid-1960s, before the recording of their debut album Freak Out!...
. An early version of the song "Any Way The Wind Blows," recorded in 1963, appears on another posthumous release, The Lost Episodes
The Lost Episodes
The Lost Episodes is a 1996 posthumous album by Frank Zappa which compiles previously unreleased material. Much of the material covered dates from early in his career, and as early as 1958, into the mid-1970s...
. The song was written when Zappa considered divorcing first wife Kay Sherman. In the liner notes for Freak Out!, Zappa wrote "If I had never gotten divorced, this piece of trivial nonsense would never have been recorded."
Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard is a street in the western part of Los Angeles County, California, that stretches from Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Coast Highway at the Pacific Ocean in the Pacific Palisades...
into the studio to do something special." Wilson agreed. The material was worked into "The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet
The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet
The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet is a Frank Zappa composition, performed by the Mothers of Invention, released on the Mothers' debut album, Freak Out!...
". According to Zappa, the record label refused to allow him the time needed to complete the composition, and so it was released in unfinished form.
Zappa later found out that when the material was recorded, Wilson had taken LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
. "I've tried to imagine what he must have been thinking, sitting in that control room, listening to all that weird shit coming out of the speakers, and being responsible for telling the engineer, Ami Hadani (who was not on acid), what to do." By the time Freak Out! was edited and shaped into an album, Wilson had spent $25–35,000 of MGM's money. In Hit Parader
Hit Parader
Hit Parader is an American music magazine focusing on the genres of hard rock, pop, and heavy metal.The magazine was originally started as a pop song lyric magazine by Charlton Publications in 1942. Charlton sold off the magazine before the company went under in 1991...
magazine, Zappa wrote "Wilson was sticking his neck out. He laid his job on the line by producing the album. MGM felt that they had spent too much money on the album."
The label requested that two lines be removed from the "It Can't Happen Here" section of "Help, I'm a Rock," (a song dedicated to Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
) both of which had been interpreted by MGM executives to be drug references. However, the label either had no objections to, or else did not notice, a sped-up recording of Zappa shouting the word "fuck" after accidentally smashing his finger, occurring at 11 minutes and 36 seconds into "The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet". On the 1995 compact disc issue of the album, "Help, I'm a Rock" and "It Can't Happen Here" were indexed as separate tracks, as "It Can't Happen Here" had been on the 1969 vinyl compilation "Mothermania
Mothermania
Mothermania , subtitled The Best of the Mothers, is a compilation album by The Mothers of Invention, led by Frank Zappa. It contains tracks personally chosen by Zappa that were previously released on Freak Out!, Absolutely Free and We're Only in It for the Money...
."
MGM also told Zappa that the band would have to change their name, claiming that no DJ would play a record on the air by a group called "The Mothers."
Release
Suzy Creamcheese
Suzy Creamcheese was a fictional vocalist and character on and in a number of albums by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. On the album Freak Out! , Suzy Creamcheese was played by Jeannie Vassoir; on Absolutely Free and Mothermania it was Lisa Cohen; and on We're Only in It for the Money and...
(who also appears on the album itself), which read:
Because the text was printed in a typeface resembling typewriter lettering, some people thought that Suzy Creamcheese was real, and many listeners expected to see her in concert performances. Because of this, it was decided that "it would be best to bring along a Suzy Creamcheese replica who would demonstrate once and for all the veracity of such a beast." Because the original voice of Suzy Creamcheese, Jeanne Vassoir, was unavailable, Pamela Lee Zarubica took over the part.
Early US pressings of the album included an advertisement for a "Freak Out Hot Spots!" map, which featured commentary on selected areas of 1966-era Los Angeles. The map was not offered on later pressings, but was eventually reprinted and included with The MOFO Project/Object, a four-disc audio documentary on the making of the album, released posthumously by the Zappa Family Trust in 2006.
Response
Though it reached #130 on the BillboardBillboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
chart, Freak Out! was neither a major commercial nor critical success when it was first released in the United States. Some listeners were convinced that the album was drug-inspired, and interpreted the album's title as slang for a bad LSD trip. In The Real Frank Zappa Book, Zappa quotes a negative review of the album by Pete Johnson of the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, who wrote:
However the album did develop a major cult following in the US by the time MGM/Verve had been merged into a division of PolyGram
PolyGram
PolyGram was the name of the major label recording company started by Philips from as a holding company for its music interests in 1945. In 1999 it was sold to Seagram and merged into Universal Music Group.-Hollandsche Decca Distributie , 1929-1950:...
in 1972. At that time many MGM/Verve releases including Freak Out! were prematurely deleted in an attempt to keep the struggling company financially solvent. Zappa had already moved on to his own companies Bizarre Records
Bizarre Records
Bizarre Records was a record label formed for artists discovered by rock musician Frank Zappa and his business partner/manager Herb Cohen.Bizarre was originally formed as a production company...
and Straight Records
Straight Records
Straight Records was a record label formed in 1969 to distribute productions and discoveries of Frank Zappa and his business partner/manager Herb Cohen. Straight was formed at the same time as a companion label, Bizarre Records. Straight and Bizarre were manufactured and distributed in the U.S. by...
which were distributed by Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
. Freak Out! was initially more successful in Europe and quickly influenced many English rock musicians. The album was a major influence on The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The album was honored with the Grammy Hall of Fame Award
Grammy Hall of Fame Award
The Grammy Hall of Fame Award is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old and that have "qualitative or historical significance"...
in 1999, ranked at number 243 on Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" in 2003, and featured in the 2006 book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die is a musical reference book edited by Robert Dimery, first published in 2005. The most recent edition consists of a list of albums released between 1955 and 2010, part of a series from Quintessence Editions Ltd...
. The album was named as one of Classic Rock magazine
Classic Rock (magazine)
Classic Rock is a British magazine dedicated to the radio format of classic rock, published by Future Publishing, who are also responsible for its "sister" publication Metal Hammer. Although firmly focusing on key bands from the 1960s through early 1990s, it also includes articles and reviews of...
s "50 Albums That Built Prog Rock".
Track listing
All songs composed by Frank Zappa except "Go Cry On Somebody Else's Shoulder" composed by Frank Zappa and Ray Collins.Side one
- "Hungry Freaks, Daddy" – 3:32
- "I Ain't Got No Heart" – 2:34
- "Who Are the Brain Police?" – 3:25
- "Go Cry on Somebody Else's Shoulder" – 3:43
- "Motherly Love" – 2:50
- "How Could I Be Such a Fool?" – 2:16
Side two
- "Wowie Zowie" – 2:55
- "You Didn't Try to Call Me" – 3:21
- "Any Way the Wind Blows" – 2:55
- "I'm Not Satisfied" – 2:41
- "You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here" – 3:41
Side three
- "Trouble Every DayTrouble Every Day (song)"Trouble Every Day" is a song by The Mothers of Invention, released on their 1966 debut album Freak Out!.Frank Zappa wrote the song in 1965 at 1819 Bellevue Avenue, Echo Park, Los Angeles after watching news coverage of the Watts Riots...
" – 5:53 - "Help, I'm a Rock" – 8:37
- Okay To Tap Dance
- In Memoriam, Edgar VarèseEdgard VarèseEdgard Victor Achille Charles Varèse, , whose name was also spelled Edgar Varèse , was an innovative French-born composer who spent the greater part of his career in the United States....
- It Can't Happen Here
Side four
- "The Return of the Son of Monster MagnetThe Return of the Son of Monster MagnetThe Return of the Son of Monster Magnet is a Frank Zappa composition, performed by the Mothers of Invention, released on the Mothers' debut album, Freak Out!...
" (Unfinished Ballet in Two Tableaux) – 12:22- Ritual Dance of the Child-Killer
- Nullis Pretii (No commercial potential)
Side one
- "Hungry Freaks, Daddy" - 3:28
- "I Ain't Got No Heart" - 2:30
- "Who Are The Brain Police?" - 3:22
- "Motherly Love" - 2:45
- "Wowie Zowie" - 2:45
- "You Didn't Try To Call Me" - 3:17
- "I'm Not Satisfied" - 2:37
- "You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here" - 3:37
Side Two
- Trouble Every DayTrouble Every Day (song)"Trouble Every Day" is a song by The Mothers of Invention, released on their 1966 debut album Freak Out!.Frank Zappa wrote the song in 1965 at 1819 Bellevue Avenue, Echo Park, Los Angeles after watching news coverage of the Watts Riots...
- 2:33 - "Help, I'm A Rock (Suite In Three Movements)" - 8:33
- Okay To Tap Dance
- In Memoriam Edgar Varese
- It Can't Happen Here
- "The Return Of The Son Of Monster Magnet" - 12:15
- Ritual Dance Of The Child-Killer
- Nullis Pretii (No Commercial Potential)
Current CD
- "Hungry Freaks, Daddy" – 3:32
- "I Ain't Got No Heart" – 2:34
- "Who Are the Brain Police?" – 3:34
- "Go Cry on Somebody Else's Shoulder" – 3:43
- "Motherly Love" – 2:50
- "How Could I Be Such a Fool?" – 2:16
- "Wowie Zowie" – 2:55
- "You Didn't Try to Call Me" – 3:21
- "Any Way the Wind Blows" – 2:55
- "I'm Not Satisfied" – 2:41
- "You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here" – 3:41
- "Trouble Every DayTrouble Every Day (song)"Trouble Every Day" is a song by The Mothers of Invention, released on their 1966 debut album Freak Out!.Frank Zappa wrote the song in 1965 at 1819 Bellevue Avenue, Echo Park, Los Angeles after watching news coverage of the Watts Riots...
" – 5:53 - "Help, I'm a Rock" – 4:42
- "It Can't Happen Here" – 3:59
- "The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet" – 12:22
Credits
- 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...
– percussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
, 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...
– harmonica, cymbals, sound effects, tambourine, vocals, finger cymbals - Elliot IngberElliot IngberElliot Ingber is an American guitarist. In 1966, he was a founding member of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention and was featured on their debut album Freak Out! After being fired from the band by Frank Zappa, Ingber helped form Fraternity of Man, which released two albums...
– alternate lead & rhythm guitar - 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, guitarronGuitarrónSee also: Guitarrón ChilenoThe guitarrón mexicano or Mexican guitarron, is a very large, deep-bodied Mexican 6-string acoustic bass played in mariachi groups...
, soprano vocals - Gene Estes – percussion
- Eugene Di Novi – piano
- Neil Le VangNeil LevangNeil LeVang is an American born musician who is best known from television's The Lawrence Welk Show, playing guitar, violin and banjo.-Early years:...
– guitar - John Rotella – clarinet, sax
- Carol KayeCarol KayeCarol Kaye is an American musician, best known as one of the most prolific and widely heard bass guitarists in history, playing on an estimated 10,000 recording sessions in a 55 year career....
- 12-string guitar - Kurt Reher – cello
- Raymond Kelley – cello
- Paul Bergstrom – cello
- Emmet Sargeant – cello
- Joseph Saxon – cello
- Edwin V. Beach – cello
- Arthur Maebe – French horn, tuba
- Motorhead SherwoodEuclid James SherwoodJim "Motorhead" Sherwood is an American rock musician notable for playing soprano, tenor and baritone saxophone, tambourine, vocals and vocal sound effects in Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention...
– noises - Kim FowleyKim FowleyKim Vincent Fowley is an American record producer, impresario, songwriter, musician, film maker, and radio actor. He is best known for his role behind a string of novelty and cult rock pop singles in the 1960s, and for managing The Runaways in the 1970s...
- megaphone - Mac Rebennack – piano
- Paul ButterfieldPaul ButterfieldPaul Butterfield was an American blues vocalist and harmonica player, who founded the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in the early 1960s and performed at the original Woodstock Festival...
- Les McCannLes McCannLes McCann is an American soul jazz piano player and vocalist whose biggest successes came as a crossover artist into R&B and soul.-Biography:...
– piano - Jeannie Vassoir – (the voice of Cheese)
Production
- Producer: Tom Wilson
- Engineering director: Val Valentin
- Engineers: Ami, Tom, Val Valentin
- Assistant: Eugene Dinovi, Neil Levang, Vito, Ken Watson
- Musical director: Frank Zappa
- Orchestration: Frank Zappa
- Arranger: Frank Zappa
- Cover design: Jack Anesh
- Hair stylist: Ray Collins
Album
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1967 | Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... Pop Albums |
130 |
External links
- Conventions: the Land Around Us, a 1970 film about the 1968 war protests at the Chicago Democratic convention, features video for "Return of the Son of Monster Magnet" toward the end—one of the first music videos ever made.