Freak Out! [ORIGINAL RECORDING REISSUED] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]

Frank Zappa

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 2, 1995)
• Original Release Date: July 1966
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Label: Zappa Records
• ASIN: B0000009RT
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (67 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,351 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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  #3 in	Music > Indie Music > Rock > Progressive
  #8 in	Music > Jazz > Avant Garde & Free Jazz
  #11 in	Music > Pop > Oldies > Doo Wop

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording
"This is the voice of your conscience, baby..." The recording debut of the Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention is a brilliantly wicked counter-strike to the flower power sensibilities prevalent at the time of it's release in 1966. Arguably rock music's first true "concept album," Zappa's aural collage mashes together chunks of psychedelic guitars, outspoken political commentary, cultural satire, and avant-garde musical sensibilities, and then hides it all under cleverly crafted pop melodies. Not diminished in the slightest by the passage of time, Freak Out! remains as vital and relevant today as it was in the 1960's. --Andrew Boscardin

From the Label
The Greenwich Meridian from which all Zappa navigations begin. Originally released in 1966, it's the first Mothers of Invention record & just possibly the first rock "concept" album -- it purportedly inspired Paul McCartney to start writing SGT. PEPPER. A consciousness-raiser, now with 2 Lps on 1 CD. Just try to imagine the '60s (or the world, for that matter) without "Hungry Freaks, Daddy," "Who Are the Brain Police," or "Trouble Every Day," the latter a concert fave well into the '80s. The big finale, "Return of the Son of Monster Magnet," is also here in all its dissonant glory.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

97 of 104 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the mother of them all, February 27, 2000

By	Pete Gooch (Fort Worth, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Frank Zappa's extraordinary 60+album output is, in essence, one single thematically related piece of music. True Zappaphiles (of which I am one) appreciate all aspects of this remarkable lifetime achievement, but the point of reviews like this are to point out the salient characteristics of individual albums.

Released in 1966, Freak Out! presented itself as the annunciation of a cultural revolution. Much like the Sex Pistols' Never Mind the Bollocks (1977), this was pop music as threat. But its scope goes far beyond this. The album begins with the proto-punk anthem, "Hungry Freaks, Daddy," a raw, blistering electric rave-up that works as well as "Anarchy in the U.K.," and stands up just as well. If this was all that remained of Freak Out!, it would still be a classic, but the album goes much deeper. Zappa works dilligently on perfectly realized pop songs built on cliche's, contrasting them with "reality songs" like "Motherly Love" (a brutal rocker that appeals for groupies to have sex with the band members), "You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here" (a savage attack on the shallowness of the youth culture likely to consume the album), and most importantly, the strange, enigmatic "Who Are the Brain Police?" (in which people and objects are unreal, manufactured, interchangeable and subject to melting). The overly arranged love songs sit side by side with material that deconstructs them as false representations (particularly the '50s doo-wop parody "Go Cry on Somebody Else's Shoulder."

I'll never complain about 2 LPs on one CD, but the breakup of the two sections does hurt the psychological impact of the album somewhat. Keep in mind that Side 3 of the LP was where Freak Out! began moving the listener into deeper territory, throwing more light upon what had already occured. The sprawling, grungy blues of "More Trouble Every Day" kicks this off, with a savage, biting report of the Watts riots and the media coverage in a racially and economically divided America that has not changed much. Here, we're a million miles from the pop gleen of "Wowie Zowie" and "How Could I Be Such a Fool?" The next step takes us where no "popular" artist had dared step before.

"Help, I'm a Rock" is musical event in stasis, relieved by shock. Everything the album has been so far has mutated into a new form, an "abstract" pop where representations become more difficult to pin down. The "freak" threat now arises full-blown: but what is it? (These are not hippies, friends--but they are the dissafected, the "left behinds" who are rising up to claim a stake in the American dream--and they will transform it in a new image.) An atonal barbershop quartet taunts, "You're safe, mama. You're safe, baby." (Meaning of course, quite the opposite.)

Did Zappa believe this was actually going to happen? Possibly in 1966 he did, but not much longer. The message of Freak Out! is much larger than that--it amounts to nothing less than a demand for complete social/sexual/aesthetic emancipation. His conclusion lies in the side-long epic, "The Return of the Son of the Monster Magnet" Often castigated/dismissed as chaotic noise, close listening will reveal a very controlled hand at work. This is the soundtrack of the awakening of a new individual sensibility. Section 1 ("Ritual Dance of the Child-Killer") is a destruction of the innocence that allows people to accept a prefabricated reality (the "Brain Police"), while the avant-garde Section 2 ("Nullis Prettii") translates "No Commercial Potential," a slogan Zappa wore as his badge of honor.

Now or in 1966, this album is an audacious, vital masterpiece by one of the greatest artists of the century. (And did I forget to mention it's melodic, catchy and funny, too?)For the uninitiated, or the underinitiated, this is the perfect place to start what could be a lifelong dialectic with the most challenging, exciting and rewarding musicians/composers you will ever encounter.

The present-day composer refuses to die! Long live Frank Zappa.

27 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars So here it is, Zappa's first album., May 27, 2003

By	Mark Pollock "educator" (Davis, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

What a freshman release! Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention created one heck of a first album. It was one of the first double albums in rock history, and certainly one of the wierdest.

My approach to this review is to look at (a) the attractiveness of this release for the Zappa novice, (b) the attractiveness of this album for the Zappa devotee, and (c) the quality of the release.

(a) If you are just getting interested in Zappa, this is not really the best place to start. While there are some interesting tracks here, there's also a lot of what at first appears to be just wierd noise and people freaking out tracks too. Those tracks are not available as samples on www.Amazon.com, so proceed carefully.

(b) Of course you need this! It's great! The mix is a bit different from the original vinyl, with a lot more reverb than before. I'd say that the original vinyl is probably the way to go, but the cd is very good too. (Besides, the cd saves you flipping records over.)

(c) The sound quality is superb, although, as noted before, the mix differs from the original vinyl. The packaging includes all of the original elements, which helps you relate to what the heck the mood was in 1966.

Enjoy!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The First Album I ever bought!, October 8, 2004

By	William Parks Boovey (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was in the Seminary in Richmond,Va. I was 15 and the priest who taught Latin and Spanish was a crazy man very impressed with this album. My formative mind was deftly and definitely warped by this album...I was never the same. I believe I can sing most of the songs from this album although it's been 25 years since I've heard any of it. I can't describe this album musically or historically. I can say that it is funny and extremely well done and the quality is something that was so visual...well since it was my first album, I sort of expected all music to be this way or at least all rock and roll. It took a while to figure out that it was the genius of Frank that made this album so special.
I think there is more than sarcasm in his critic of the musical and social times, you can find out what that other is for yourself if you can...By the way, Frank, I told everyone I ran into that Mr. GreenJeans was your dad, even though I didn't believe it. Love, WPB.