"Freak Out!" by THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION [featuring FRANK ZAPPA] – 27 June 1966 DEBUT US 2LP set on Verve Records in Stereo – featuring Frank Zappa, Roy Estrada, Elliot Ingber, Ray Collins, Jim Black and many guests (30 July 2012 Universal/Zappa Records CD Reissue – Transfer in 2011 by JOE TRAVERS based on the FZ-Approved "1987 1630 Digital Source") - A Review by Mark Barry...

This Review and Over 400 More Like It

Are Available In My E-Book 

NO NEED TO BE 
NERVOUS! 
THE GROOVIEST 1960s MUSIC ON CD 

Your All-Genres Guide To 

Exceptional Reissues and Remasters 

"...Wowie Zowie..."

In the sheer pandemic hysteria that is February 2020 - looking back on "Freak Out!" in all its June 1966 double-album Avant Garde glory (with a healthy dose of parody thrown in too) - it still feels staggeringly ahead of its time, indulgent, crap and darn it – just plain weird. 

"Freak Out!" feels like "2001: A Space Odyssey" did in 1968 or "Never Mind The Bollox..." in 1977 – outstanding in a field of its own – snarling at the world and it decriers like some demented banshee most sane-minded folks would want to go away. A heady mix of 60ts Psych, Symphonic Rock, Vocal Groups, R'n'B, Experimental and other nutty soundscapes (all of it wrapped around attacking dude lyrics few had heard before) – for sure "Freak Out!" is not for everyone, and yet Zappa's band debut still feels like a game changer…

It's digital history however is one of multiple-version nightmare - we got the American Rykodisc reissue in 1985, followed by Zappa Records in 1987, back to Rykodisc in 1995, another reissue from Ryko in 2002 only to arrive at his catalogue finally passing on to the Universal Music Group in 2012.

Bizarrely though and after all these decades in the digital domain, even now the 2012 CD reissue is still based on the '1987 1630 Digital Source' as per Zappa's instructions. Using the 1987 artwork that now credits the album as by 'Frank Zappa/The Mothers Of Invention' when of course it was originally just 'The Mothers Of Invention' – we do however get a new 2011 transfer by Audio Engineer Joe Travers. 

So without further riot gear intervention - let's get to Monster Magnet, Wowie Zowie, Suzy Creamcheese and The Brain Police...

UK released 30 July 2012 - "Freak Out! by THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION on Universal/Zappa Records 0238342 (Barcode 824302383421) offers the original 1966 double-album in full remastered onto 1 CD (No. 1 in a Series of Official ZAPPA Records releases) that plays out as follows (60:33 minutes):

1. Hungry Freaks, Daddy [Side 1]

2. I Ain't Got No Heart

3. Who Are The Brain Police?

4. Go Cry On Somebody Else's Shoulder

5. Motherly Love

6. How Could I Be Such A Fool

7. Wowie Zowie [Side 2]

8. You Didn't Try To Call Me

9. Any Way The Wind Blows

10. I'm Not Satisfied

11. You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here

12. Trouble Every Day [Side 3]

13. Help, I'm A Rock

14. It Can't Happen Here

15. The Return Of The Son Of Monster Magnet [Side 4]

Tracks 1 to 15 are the double-album "Freak Out!" by THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION - released 27 June 1966 in the USA on Verve Records V6-5005-2 in Stereo Only and March 1967 in the UK as a single LP in Mono and Stereo on Verve Records VLP 9154 (Mono) and SVLP 9154 (Stereo) - finally issued as a double-album in the UK December 1971 on Verve Records 2683 004. It has the distinction of being Rock's second 2LP set after Bob Dylan's "Blonde On Blonde" which was released one week earlier, 20 June 1966.

NOTES:

When originally released Side 3 had two tracks - "Trouble Every Day" at 6:10 minutes and "Help, I'm A Rock (Suite In Three Movements)" at 8:10 minutes. "Help, I'm A Rock..." was in fact divided into three parts or movements - 1st Movement: Okay To Tap Dance, 2nd Movement: In Memoriam, Edgar Varese and 3rd Movement: It Can't Happen Here. At 12:16 minutes, Side 4 was credited as "The Return Of The Son Of Monster Magnet (Unfinished Ballet In Two Tableaus)" which had two parts (i) Ritual Dance Of The Child Killers and (ii) Nullis Pretii (No Commercial Potential). These have been edited, renamed and re-arranged by Zappa for the CD reissue as per the 1-15 track list above.

THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION were:

FRANK ZAPPA – Guitar, Vocals (Wrote All Songs, Arranged & Conducted)

ELLIOT INGBER – Lead And Rhythm Guitars

RAY COLLINS – Lead Vocals, Harmonica, Tambourine, Finger Cymbals

RAY ESTRADA – Bass, Guitarron and Vocals

JIM BLACK – Drums and Vocals

Guests included:

David Wells on Trombone, Art Maebe on Horns, Kim Fowley on Hypophone

The double-sided four-leaf foldout inlay reproduces the original double-album’s zany and provocative liner notes and the short mainly technical notes on the 1987 Digital Remix by FZ. But the key element this time is ‘Transfers in 2011 by JOE TRAVERS’ which feel way better than before. I know it's a mid-price CD and all that value-for-money shtick - but it's a damn share that the inlay hasn't been upgraded with some discography history - and its always struck me as odd that this important release hasn’t been given a 2CD Deluxe Edition treatment along the way (FZ probably wanted it that way).

The bass thumps convincingly on the opener "Hungry Freaks, Daddy" as it jumps out of your speakers - lyrics having a go at "Mister America" and his blinkered great society - those guitars still distant though. No angels singing up above in the very Cream-sounding "I Ain't Got No Heart" - a lover's declarations of undying fealty falling on deaf ears and a pig-oinking vocal ending. With guitars properly freaking out half way through, things get even weirder with "Who Are The Brain Police?" - a song that set up that 'Zappa' sound for decades to come.

To the vocal group oohs and aahs of his 50ts youth, "Go Cry On Somebody Else's Shoulder" is filled with the opposite of romance - our Saturday Night At The Movies hero a bit more grown up and perhaps a little embittered despite the nicety of the tune. Both "Motherly Love" and "How Could I Be Such A Fool" contain that strange mixture of anger and genuine hurt abutting each other while those horn players swoon in the background. Frank doesn't care if "Wowie Zowie" doesn't brush her teeth or even shave her legs - he stills wants to visit in the afternoon and again that night. Working on his car (fixing the seat and front fender) and even though they've been going steady for six weeks – another untrue girl gets a lyrical drubbing in "You Didn't Try To Call Me".

The 2LP set gets its most commercial in the decidedly poppy "Any Way The Wind Blows" while Frank bemoans the fact that no one wants him - life abusing him in "I'm Not Satisfied" (and who would care if he was gone). More pop but this time with a tongue firmly planted in its cheek as Frank wonders why he and his band are with the hip gang – "You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here" taking no prisoners in its vicious attack. Far better for me is the guitar and harmonica wail of "Trouble Every Day" - a five and half-minute bluesy romp with a fantastic driving hook and truly great multitudinous lyrics about riots on the streets and colours of skin that don't appeal to everyone and coverage of the same on establishment TV.

The homeward stretch comes in the grunting/different language groove of "Help, I'm A Rock" - a very Captain Beefheart slice of entertainment. Frank checked it out a couple of times so he reassures his baby in Kansas, Minnesota (and the rest of the world for that matter) that thankfully "It Can't Happen Here". The album dips over the edge completely for the final near 13-minutes of "The Return Of The Son Of Monster Magnet" - a romp too far for me frankly.

"Freak Out!" regularly receives five-stars from its many adorers and ridicule from the rest - a Bovril double. Musically it's a bit of both for me. "Suzy Creamcheese, what's got into you?" The Mothers Of Invention sang on that last mad stretch on Side 4. I doubt they knew in 1966 and in 2020, I'm personally none the wiser. But would I have it any other way!