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Music : Absolutely Free
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Absolutely Free by: The Mothers of Invention |
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Binding: Audio CD EAN: 0014431050220 Format: Import Label: Rykodisc Manufacturer: Rykodisc Number Of Discs: 1 Publisher: Rykodisc Release Date: April 01, 2002 Studio: Rykodisc Sales Rank: 86667 MPN: 310502 Disc 1:
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Editorial Review: : Sandwiched as it is between Freak Out!, Zappa's 1966 debut with the Mothers of Invention, and We're Only in It for the Money, arguably his artistic zenith, Absolutely Free comes in a distant third-- but that's only because the competition is so damn fierce. Absolutely Free is a continuation of the weird freakiness--both in sounds and concepts--introduced on Freak Out! "Plastic People" and "America Drinks & Goes Home" continue the artist's lampooning of Middle American values, while this time round, Zappa also seems obsessed with the fruits and vegetables that "keep you regular" ("The Duke of Prunes", "Call Any Vegetable"). The music here jumps from avant-garde jazz snippets to gritty garage rock to operatic vocals in a manner that was truly innovative at the time; in fact, it often sounded like true musical insanity. The definitive highlight here, however, is "Brown Shoes Don't Make It", a seven-and-a-half minute mini-operetta that initially ridicules America's suburban culture of the era before comically looking at the repressed sexual perversions hiding underneath that same veneer. With its 13-year-old "Teenage Queen" ("who's rockin' and rollin' and acting obscene"), and the Lolita-like obsession of the brown-shoed gentleman in the title, the track was a precursor to the naughty sexual themes later found in tracks like "Dinah Mo Hum" or the entirety of the Fillmore East, June 1971 album--themes that became Zappa's artistic stock in trade. --Bill Holdship Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
 Rating: - The Duke Meets his MatchThe swift single-album follow-up to Freak Out, setting the pace for FZ releases which has barely faltered to this day (the latest being the long-awaited "Trance-Fusion", released in October 2006), almost thirteen years after his death. More difficult to define than its predecessor, Absolutely Free is a curious mix of short "teen" vocal numbers touching on subjects ranging from high-school sensibilities to the commercialisation of Christmas, alongside several extended pieces of improvisation. It kicks off with the brilliant Plastic People, a spiteful put-down of an apathetic and robotic public-at-large. It's a shame no punk band ever covered that song. A Sex Pistols version would have been very interesting. Then we have the "Duke" trilogy, ... Read More: Rating: - Could be Zappas Secret masterpieceWhile his earlier "Freak Out" veered between straightforward parody and improvised freakiness, this is neither one nor the other, but something of an amalgamation of the two styles. The music on Absolutely Free is grouped into several "song cycles" which mix relatively straightforward song structures with some very off-the wall improv (or apparent improv made from tape-trickery). Most of it teeters dangerously on a precipice between incredibly virtuouso musicianship and slapdash amateurishness. Take the first track as a great example of the album as a whole. "Plastic People" begins with a drum roll and announcement "Ladies and gentleman, the president of the United States" before "the President" launches into a "doo-doo-doo" version ... Read More: Rating:  - "Call any Vegetable, call it on the phone!"Who else but Frank Zappa could devote almost half of an album to "your friends in the vegetable kingdom"? Due to his proliferous output not all of Zappa's music is to everyone's taste, but this album is very accessible, not too radical a change from the preceding 'Freak Out!', although it doesn't contain kickers like 'Trouble Every Day' and 'Hungry Freaks, Daddy'. That said, the sequence from 'The Duke of Prunes' to 'Soft Cell Conclusion', about the human relationship to the vegetable, how to make contact with it, and then how to groove together "at the church of your choice", is as hilarious and groovy as can be. But still the cultural criticism isn't far behind in the great tracks 'Plastic People' and 'Brown Shoes Don't Make It'. Read More: Rating: - A prune isnt really a vegetable, a cabbage is a vegetable...The second Mothers of Invention album first released in 1967 is amazing. Cutesy pop songs sit alongside avant garde nightmare parodies with lots of interspersed jazz noodlings. Zappa points his finger at various aspects of the Amrican way of life and it staggers and reels under his scrutiny. Call Any Vegetable and Brown Shoes Dont Make It are amongst his best work without a doubt A true folk musician methinks Rating: - More fine folklore from FrankThe second Mothers of Invention album first released in 1967 is amazing. Cutesy pop songs sit alongside avant garde nightmare parodies with lots of interspersed jazz noodlings. Zappa points his finger at various aspects of the Amrican way of life and it staggers and reels under his scrutiny. Call Any Vegetable and Brown Shoes Dont Make It are amongst his best work without a doubt A true folk musician methinks |
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