Absolutely Free

Absolutely Free
Studio album by The Mothers of Invention
Released	May 26, 1967
Recorded	November 15–18, 1966
Studio	Sunset-Highland Studios of TTG
Genre	Rock, experimental, psychedelic rock, doo-wop, avant-pop[1]
Length	38:29 43:37 (reissue)
Label	Verve
Producer	Frank Zappa, Tom Wilson
Frank Zappa chronology
Freak Out! #1 (1966)Freak Out!String Module Error: Match not found Absolutely Free #2 (1967) Lumpy Gravy #3 (1967)Lumpy GravyString Module Error: Match not found
The Mothers of Invention chronology
Freak Out! (1966) Freak Out!1966 Absolutely Free (1967) Absolutely Free1967 We're Only in It for the Money (1968) We're Only in It for the Money1968
Singles from Absolutely Free
"Son of Suzy Creamcheese" Released: 1967

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Uncut	8/10 [3]
The Village Voice	B–[4]

Absolutely Free is the second studio album by the American rock band the Mothers of Invention, led by Frank Zappa, released in 1967. 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 woodwinds player Bunk Gardner, keyboardist Don Preston, rhythm 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".^[5]

In the book Necessity Is..., former Mothers of Invention band member Ray Collins said that Absolutely Free is probably his favorite of the classic Mothers albums.^[6]

Reissues

The CD reissue adds a single that the Mothers released at the time between side one and side two. 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.

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 on any other issue.

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.

Music

"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".

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 something was wrong when the fastidiously dressed President Lyndon B. Johnson made the fashion faux pas of wearing brown shoes with a gray suit. LBJ flew to Vietnam for a surprise public relations visit later that day.

In the songs "America Drinks" and "America Drinks and Goes Home", Zappa combines a silly tune with nightclub sound effects to parody his experiences playing with drunken lounge music 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).

Cultural references

It is not unusual to find melodies or scores from other composers within the music of Frank Zappa. Absolutely Free is full of musical references to other compositions and artists, including Igor Stravinsky.

For example, "Amnesia Vivace" begins with a collage of quotations from Stravinsky ballets: first, the band plays the "Ritual Action of the Ancestors" from The Rite of Spring, Part II; then harpsichord and chattering voices evoke the pounding Dance of the Adolescents in Part I, over which sax and Zappa's voice start quoting the bassoon melody at the very opening of the Rite and continue into the lyrical Berceuse (also for bassoon) at the end of Stravinsky's The Firebird. The opening sequence of Petrouchka is quoted in the middle section of "Status Back Baby". "Soft-Sell Conclusion" ends with a version of the trombone melody that opens Stravinsky's "Marche Royale" from A Soldier's Tale.

The "Invocation & Ritual Dance of the Young Pumpkin", in the beginning of the saxophone solo (first cadence) quotes the trio directly from the fourth movement of Gustav Holst's The Planets, Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity.

The melody to "The Duke of Prunes" is the love theme from Zappa's own film score to Run Home Slow.

Track listing

All tracks written by Frank Zappa.

Personnel

The Mothers of Invention

• Frank Zappa – guitar, conductor, vocals
• Jimmy Carl Black – drums, vocals
• Ray Collins – vocals, tambourine, PRUNE
• Roy Estrada – bass, vocals
• Billy Mundi – drums, percussion
• Don Preston – keyboards
• Jim Fielder – guitar, piano
• Bunk Gardner – woodwinds

Additional musicians

Charts

References

External links

• Lyrics and information
• Release details
• "The Meaning of Cordovans" reporter Hugh Sidey recalls the event when he saw Lyndon B. Johnson wearing the wrong shoes