Roddus Album Of The Century
OK, finally I get round to reviewing this. Haven't heard it for a while and after Iban asked me what was the weirdest song I had heard, I recommended the Mothers "Help I'm A Rock" from this debut album from the legendary Frank Zappa and The Mothers Of Invention. This inspired me to dust it off last night and give it a blast while Mrs Roddus was in the city.After discovering it nearly 25 years ago I can confirm absolutely and positively, that this is STILL my ALL TIME Number One Favorite album.
First thing about this groundbreaking record is that it is one of those completely unique musical statements of which there is nothing else with which to compare .Second is that it was the first ever Rock double album, especially for a debut .Thirdly it launched the prolific career of rocks most iconoclastic, talented, cynical and individual artistic musical freak in Frank Zappa. While the Beatles were laying down the template for future popular music with Revolver, Zappa was taking that template, chewing it up and spitting it back out into the face of the teenage record buying public.The result is this warped piece of total brilliance.
My conversion to Mothermania and Zappology took place late one night when I was about 19, listening to our local Student radio station, armed with my trusty old top loading tape deck, which I use to sit in front of the radio speaker to record any weird and wonderful freaky tracks they might play that night. The night in question I had the massive good fortune to get down on that deck the most totally awesome, mindblowingly brilliant piece of 60s rock ever committed to record in the form of "Trouble Every Day".I was still a big Punk fan back then , but I was really starting to explore the sounds from the time I was brought into this world. The discovery of the Mothers music was heaven. I was lucky enough to actually find a second hand copy of this album soon after my conversion . Paid big money for it back then as none of their 60s catalogue was available freely here. By the time I finished with it there wasn't much left of the cover, but the record still played OK.
The first half of this record is a brilliant blend of Zappa's beloved Doo-Wop, infused with some incendiary 60s garage sounding guitar and blended with psychedelic weirdness and raw passion. Elements of Jazz and blues are also apparent. The second half kicks off with the aforementioned "Trouble..." before entering the freakout territory implied in the album title with a sound collage of Avant-guarde jazz/classical strongly influenced by Zappa's love of the music of Edgard Varese. Considering Zappa's reputation of being Drug free, this album is a real full on journey to tripout city.
So to a more detailed look at the wonderful music contained on this awesome record, we start with the opening track , the anti-establishment psychedelic romp of "Hungry Freaks Daddy".Opening with the lyric"Mister America Walk on by your schools that do not teach. Mister America Walk on by the minds that won't be reached". Zappa unequivocally takes the stand that he will take throughout his career untill His early demise from cancer in 1993. The song itself is more of a salute to the Freaks that were appearing in the alternative cultural happenings of the time and the anti establishment stands they were making and how mister America reacted to them..He soon changed his tune though as the hippy culture became more widespread and popular and he turned his cynicism, wit and humor onto them with The Mothers "We're only In It For The Money" Album a couple or years later.Anyhow this is the first of a whole album of outstanding tracks and kicks off with cool rhythms and guitar and has an excellent 60s garage sounding guitar sound with the guitar break in the middle part of the song, giving us a taste of what was to come later in Zappa's career.Other instruments prominent here include Vibes and kazoo, just to make it different.
Track two introduces us to a different aspect of Zappa's musical influences and lyrical content. This wonderfully constructed Teenage angst ballad is vocally rooted firmly in the doo-wop that Zappa Loved so much..This gives it a real sing-a-long quality and is one of the tracks I can never resist singing. The vocal melodies are delivered with such force that you can almost feel the angst of the teenage boy as he tells the girl how he really feels about her and I get goosebumps the way he sings the lines " I think that life with you, would be just not quite the thing for me, Why is it so hard to see my way. Why should I be stuck with you, It just not what I want to do...." as the song climaxes,then descends briefly into musical chaos before ending on a sort of orchestral fanfare.The rest of the song is a musically complex psychedelic twisted stab at writing a commercial song. Although it fails(deliberately) in this, nether the less the song is brilliant.
"Who Are The Brain Police" is Classic Psychedelia in title and Zappa's twisted version in effect. Starting of with an incredible slow pulsating base line before the guitars chime in in unison,distorted and raw, followed by a moaning vocal and other noises, we then then get hit with an amazing slow psych bass melody as the first lyrics are sung in unison.before we get the "Who Are The Brain Police" lyric. The song then descends into some more of Zappa's organised musical chaos before reverting back to that incredible bass line.This is the weirdest track so far and lyrically I am not too sure what they are getting at but the song is brilliant all the same and has a totally 60s feel but doesn't sound at all stale today.
Back to the ballads for the next track, slower again than "I Ain't Got No Heart" and musically tamer and quieter.The doo-woop is more pronounced on this one and also we are back with Zappa's tongue-in-cheek teenage angst again.A good song and easy to sing along with it's nice melodies. Again Zappa trying to be commercial and deliberately failing, though not totally.
"Motherly Love" is the Mothers ode to Groupies, or, more like them bragging about their sexual prowess, their size("Natures been good to this here band") and their willingness to show the girls a good time. Supposedly written because they figured they weren't getting the attention from the groupies that they thought they should have been getting. Another brilliant Psyched out song and I love the guitar refrain they use and the ending is way cool.
"How Could I Be Such A Fool" continues the pattern here of one Psych track followed by one teen angst doo-wop track and from memory closes side one of the vinyl version. Another slow ballad type which I love to sing along to and I dig the melancholic sounding trumpet in the second half of the song. The Mothers Pull these tracks of magnificently.
Side two kicks off with the novelty "Wowie Zowie" with its funny piano refrain and more Doo-wop with psychedelic overtones.. A bit silly and for me the weakest track on the album. Still a good song though and catchy.
"No matter who I take home, I keep On calling your Name... Tell me tell me who's loving you now, cos it worries my mind and I can't sleep at all... And you didn't try to call me", another brilliant skewed pop song again filled with the passion of the rejected and offset with Zappa's cynical take on teenage romance.
"Any way the wind blows" is along the same lines but more positive and more uptempo with a real catchy bass melody.Still dealing with a failed romance but this time the hero has found a better match and is declaring to his EX how much better the new girl is.
I just love the opening lines sung by Zappa with his distinct baritone, "Got no place to go, I'm tired of walking up and down this street all by myself." Another down on his luck character, the hero of this song is almost suicidal, but the song is musically more positive and upbeat,
"Your Probably Wondering While I'm Here" ends side two and also ends the Doo-Wop related material and Zappa's stab at commercialbiliity. Another cynical dig at the social behaviour and fashion ("Plastic Boots and plastic hat, and you think you know where its at") of teenage America. And just like the rest of this first record, a catchy, warped slab of psychedelic Doo-pop, which keeps up the consistence of pure genius of of the music so far.
Things shift gear considerably with the start of side three, kicking off with the incredible, amazing, brilliant and awesome "Trouble Every Day" A insightful piece of social commentary, picking on the media, violence, racism and other ills of 60s America, set to a fantastic rhythm and blues drenched psychedelia which encapsulates, for me, the sound of the sixties and yet still sounds great today and the commentary is still relevant today.
"Help I'm A Rock" kicks off the weirder stuff with its unusual rhythms and weird vocal effects in the background. Still assessable to those who like some melody in their music and a very groovy song indeed "Help I'm A Cop.... it's a drag being a cop!!!" songs ends in total weirdness before fusing into the psychedelic acapella of " It cant happen here" before degenerating into a bit of freeform avant jazz and finishing on some tripped out sixties speak. The last part of the song introduces us to Suzi Creemcheese, who becomes a fictitious part of sixties music folk law.
Side four continues on with the Varese inspire weirdness with the side long finally of " The return of the son of Monster Magnet".Twelve minutes of organised musical chaos fuelled by percussion, electronic sounds and acid drenched sounding vocal noises. The sort of thing that no doubt inspired John Lennon to go ahead and record something like "Revolution no.9".John couldn't pull that off as well as the mothers do here.
My Roddus Rating 5++/5
So to a more detailed look at the wonderful music contained on this awesome record, we start with the opening track , the anti-establishment psychedelic romp of "Hungry Freaks Daddy".Opening with the lyric"Mister America Walk on by your schools that do not teach. Mister America Walk on by the minds that won't be reached". Zappa unequivocally takes the stand that he will take throughout his career untill His early demise from cancer in 1993. The song itself is more of a salute to the Freaks that were appearing in the alternative cultural happenings of the time and the anti establishment stands they were making and how mister America reacted to them..He soon changed his tune though as the hippy culture became more widespread and popular and he turned his cynicism, wit and humor onto them with The Mothers "We're only In It For The Money" Album a couple or years later.Anyhow this is the first of a whole album of outstanding tracks and kicks off with cool rhythms and guitar and has an excellent 60s garage sounding guitar sound with the guitar break in the middle part of the song, giving us a taste of what was to come later in Zappa's career.Other instruments prominent here include Vibes and kazoo, just to make it different.
Track two introduces us to a different aspect of Zappa's musical influences and lyrical content. This wonderfully constructed Teenage angst ballad is vocally rooted firmly in the doo-wop that Zappa Loved so much..This gives it a real sing-a-long quality and is one of the tracks I can never resist singing. The vocal melodies are delivered with such force that you can almost feel the angst of the teenage boy as he tells the girl how he really feels about her and I get goosebumps the way he sings the lines " I think that life with you, would be just not quite the thing for me, Why is it so hard to see my way. Why should I be stuck with you, It just not what I want to do...." as the song climaxes,then descends briefly into musical chaos before ending on a sort of orchestral fanfare.The rest of the song is a musically complex psychedelic twisted stab at writing a commercial song. Although it fails(deliberately) in this, nether the less the song is brilliant.
"Who Are The Brain Police" is Classic Psychedelia in title and Zappa's twisted version in effect. Starting of with an incredible slow pulsating base line before the guitars chime in in unison,distorted and raw, followed by a moaning vocal and other noises, we then then get hit with an amazing slow psych bass melody as the first lyrics are sung in unison.before we get the "Who Are The Brain Police" lyric. The song then descends into some more of Zappa's organised musical chaos before reverting back to that incredible bass line.This is the weirdest track so far and lyrically I am not too sure what they are getting at but the song is brilliant all the same and has a totally 60s feel but doesn't sound at all stale today.
Back to the ballads for the next track, slower again than "I Ain't Got No Heart" and musically tamer and quieter.The doo-woop is more pronounced on this one and also we are back with Zappa's tongue-in-cheek teenage angst again.A good song and easy to sing along with it's nice melodies. Again Zappa trying to be commercial and deliberately failing, though not totally.
"Motherly Love" is the Mothers ode to Groupies, or, more like them bragging about their sexual prowess, their size("Natures been good to this here band") and their willingness to show the girls a good time. Supposedly written because they figured they weren't getting the attention from the groupies that they thought they should have been getting. Another brilliant Psyched out song and I love the guitar refrain they use and the ending is way cool.
"How Could I Be Such A Fool" continues the pattern here of one Psych track followed by one teen angst doo-wop track and from memory closes side one of the vinyl version. Another slow ballad type which I love to sing along to and I dig the melancholic sounding trumpet in the second half of the song. The Mothers Pull these tracks of magnificently.
Side two kicks off with the novelty "Wowie Zowie" with its funny piano refrain and more Doo-wop with psychedelic overtones.. A bit silly and for me the weakest track on the album. Still a good song though and catchy.
"No matter who I take home, I keep On calling your Name... Tell me tell me who's loving you now, cos it worries my mind and I can't sleep at all... And you didn't try to call me", another brilliant skewed pop song again filled with the passion of the rejected and offset with Zappa's cynical take on teenage romance.
"Any way the wind blows" is along the same lines but more positive and more uptempo with a real catchy bass melody.Still dealing with a failed romance but this time the hero has found a better match and is declaring to his EX how much better the new girl is.
I just love the opening lines sung by Zappa with his distinct baritone, "Got no place to go, I'm tired of walking up and down this street all by myself." Another down on his luck character, the hero of this song is almost suicidal, but the song is musically more positive and upbeat,
"Your Probably Wondering While I'm Here" ends side two and also ends the Doo-Wop related material and Zappa's stab at commercialbiliity. Another cynical dig at the social behaviour and fashion ("Plastic Boots and plastic hat, and you think you know where its at") of teenage America. And just like the rest of this first record, a catchy, warped slab of psychedelic Doo-pop, which keeps up the consistence of pure genius of of the music so far.
Things shift gear considerably with the start of side three, kicking off with the incredible, amazing, brilliant and awesome "Trouble Every Day" A insightful piece of social commentary, picking on the media, violence, racism and other ills of 60s America, set to a fantastic rhythm and blues drenched psychedelia which encapsulates, for me, the sound of the sixties and yet still sounds great today and the commentary is still relevant today.
"Help I'm A Rock" kicks off the weirder stuff with its unusual rhythms and weird vocal effects in the background. Still assessable to those who like some melody in their music and a very groovy song indeed "Help I'm A Cop.... it's a drag being a cop!!!" songs ends in total weirdness before fusing into the psychedelic acapella of " It cant happen here" before degenerating into a bit of freeform avant jazz and finishing on some tripped out sixties speak. The last part of the song introduces us to Suzi Creemcheese, who becomes a fictitious part of sixties music folk law.
Side four continues on with the Varese inspire weirdness with the side long finally of " The return of the son of Monster Magnet".Twelve minutes of organised musical chaos fuelled by percussion, electronic sounds and acid drenched sounding vocal noises. The sort of thing that no doubt inspired John Lennon to go ahead and record something like "Revolution no.9".John couldn't pull that off as well as the mothers do here.
My Roddus Rating 5++/5
2 comments:
Really lovely review. I totally agree with you. Its one of the most important albums and it never gets boring. Love it!!!!
if only the kids today gave this a listen. its still current. that being said i was born in '76 and first heard this album in middle school.
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