Review Summary: The beginning of a legacy: Zappa’s career turns 50.
With such an immense, eclectic, and influential discography as Frank Zappa’s it is only an understatement to say that he is one of America’s musical treasures. Progressive rock, blues rock, musique concrete, doo-wop, psychedelic, funk, jazz-fusion, classical, avant-garde synth music, disco, show tunes, country and even once hip hop have all been covered masterfully by Zappa and the various talented musicians whom he had worked among. Zappa had also been the head of various record labels including Straight Records (famous for launching the careers of Alice Cooper and Tim Buckley.) Along with his penchant for experimentation, Zappa had a keen ear for pop and even charted on the Hot 100 three times as well as enjoying a surprisingly high amount of success in Norway and Sweden with his #1 single “Bobby Brown.” Black Sabbath, George Clinton of Parliament/Funkadelic, Primus, Phish, John Frusciante of The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Can, Pere Ubu, System of a Down, Devin Townsend, John Zorn, Brian Eno, and even Merzbow all claim that Zappa has been a primary influence of their work. Genesis P-Orridge, famous for starting the first Industrial act, even cited Zappa’s musique concrete experiments a huge influence on Throbbing Gristle’s music. Even Paul McCartney cited
Freak Out! As a huge influence on
Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Freak Out!, the second rock double album in music history, the Zappa album that started his career, turned 50 today and its legacy as an important part of the history of modern music has only begun.
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“Mr. America, walk on by your schools that do not teach. Mr. America, walk on by the minds that won't be reached. Mr. America, try to hide the emptiness that's you inside, but once you find that the way you lied, and all the corny tricks you tried, will not forestall the rising tide of hungry freaks daddy.”
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This is the opening verse to
Freak Out!, and it shows that even in the beginning, Zappa did not hold back with his preachy and relevant criticisms. It could easily even be argued that the lyrics to “Hungry Freaks Daddy” are still relevant in 2016. The lasting relevance of Zappa’s ideas really sticks long term. For instance the media coverage of race and anti-war riots detailed in blues folk track “Trouble Every Day” could easily be applied to today’s terrorism scares, mass shootings, and riots like Ferguson and Baltimore. We are sheltered from it as we sit at the edge of our seat waiting for the news to entertain us with violence. With lyrics like “And if another woman driver, gets machine-gunned from her seat, they'll send some joker with a brownie and you'll see it all complete” and “Hey, you know something people? I'm not black, but there's a whole lots a times I wish I could say I'm not white“ only begin to explain the intensity and insight these lyrics have on both the problems of the 1960s and everything that came after it. Another political hard hitter, “Who Are the Brain Police?” questions whether people really think for themselves, and is the first hint at the sporadic weirdness later to come on the album. In the context of 2016, these songs really raise the question: does the big picture of American society ever even change, or is it just the details that shift around?
The rest of the album takes on a less political tone and either spoofs on pop culture or just descends into madness. Almost half of the tracklist goof on the media portrayal of teen romance in the 1960s in a doo-wop style, with “Wowie Zowie” even name dropping The Beatles song “Love Me Do.” With the exception of the suicidal “I'm Not Satisfied,” most of these songs remain silly from start to finish and could be likened to being a bit shallow, but surely are all entertaining. As for the more crazy and experimental songs, which includes everything after “Trouble Everyday,” they mostly consist of nonsensical rambling and weird sound collages. The strange and dazed conversations between Frank Zappa and Suzy Creamcheese, the offbeat piano, the odd a capella sections, the screams of pain of “Help, I’m a rock,” the gibberish, the theremin, the various drum styles - it is safe to say that the last twenty minutes of this LP are a beautiful clusterfuck.
Freak Out! Has a duplicity about it, on one hand it is an album of silly doo-wop jokes, on another it’s an album of serious political blues, and yet, it is also an album of insane sound collages. Zappa was no stranger to fusing genres and
Freak Out! was an important testament to this; an influential testament in fact. It makes me wonder what
Sgt. Peppers would have sounded like if Paul McCartney had not listened to it before writing those songs. It makes me wonder how such an ambitious and influential artist as Zappa somehow flies under radar so often. With a career that now has ripened at the age of 50, and still retained its relevance in society, it is important that it continues to be preserved in American culture.
Album Highlights: "Hungry Freaks, Daddy", "Wowie Zowie", "Trouble Every Day", "Return of the Son of Monster Magnet"
