‘Freak Out!’ (60th Anniversary Edition) by the Mothers of Invention, plus Grey DeLisle and Flesh for Lulu
If ever an album came out of left field, it was Freak Out!, the Mothers of Invention’s 1966 debut. The record bore little resemblance to any of that year’s other popular music, but it presaged punk and art rock, as well as the entire career of bandleader, songwriter, singer, and guitarist Frank Zappa. Co-produced by him and Tom Wilson, who signed the band and worked extensively with Bob Dylan, this was among rock’s first double LPs. It was also one of the strangest releases of its time, one that satirizes genres ranging from psychedelia to doo-wop while delivering consistently innovative performances.
The music is all over the place. There are avant-garde experiments, such as “It Can’t Happen Here” and the 12-minute “Return of the Son of Monster Magnet,” some of which seem like what might have resulted if the Fugs and Edgar Varese had collaborated after ingesting LSD. There are R&B- and blues-influenced numbers, including “Any Way the Wind Blows” and “Trouble Every Day.” And there are spoofs of doo-wop, most notably the cynical but eminently listenable “Go Cry on Somebody Else’s Shoulder,” which includes a line that echoes one in Sam Cooke’s “Only Sixteen.”
Some of the lyrics embrace straightforward social commentary. “Hungry Freaks, Daddy,” for example, delivers a critique of society’s failures. (“Mr. America, walk on by, your schools that do not teach / Mr. America, walk on by, the minds that won’t be reached.”) Another such rant, the bluesy “Trouble Every Day,” offers Zappa’s anguished response to the 1965 Watts riots.
The proceedings become decidedly more abstruse, however, on numbers like “Who Are the Brain Police?,” whose post-apocalyptic lyric begins, “What will you do if we let you go home, and the plastic’s all melted and so is the chrome?” Then there are pseudo love songs such as “Wowie Zowie,” which starts with Zappa proclaiming “your love’s a treat,” followed by “I don’t even care if you shave your legs…I don’t even care if you brush your teeth.” And let’s not forget “Help, I’m a Rock!” whose lyrics consist of little more than the title plus gibberish such as “Ay-yo ee-ow-ee-ow-ee / Veni-ma-no too mah.”
Not surprisingly, the album never made Billboard’s Hot 100. Also not surprisingly, it gained a cult following that grew over the decades to the point where Freak Out! now regularly shows up on lists of the most noteworthy records of the rock era.
A new 60th anniversary edition of the album, which comes with a copiously illustrated 60-page booklet, reminds us just how inventive the Mothers of Invention could be. Three of the set’s six discs feature remasters of the LP’s original stereo and mono mixes, plus a “pre-master mix.” The latter two versions evidence minor differences that will probably interest only Zappa fanatics, but two other CDs in the set prove more valuable. They contain performances from three 1966 Fillmore Auditorium concerts, plus demos, rehearsals, outtakes, and assorted other bonus tracks. These include many noticeably different versions of numbers from Freak Out!.
A Blu-ray disc offers another large carrot to potential buyers. It adds new Dolby Atmos and surround-sound mixes, plus hi-res audio copies of the stereo, mono, and pre-master mixes.
More than half a century after its recording, virtually all this material still sounds fresh. It’s not for everyone, but if you can relate to Zappa’s worldview and musical innovations, pick up the box and prepare to freak out.
Also Noteworthy
Grey DeLisle, Don’t Turn Around. Andy Paley, who produced this record shortly before his 2024 death, proved a good match for Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Grey DeLisle. Thanks to him and band members such as Stephen McCarthy of the Long Ryders, Chris Scruggs, and Mandy Barnett, the album places her in an environment that showcases the full range of her talents. The result is DeLisle’s best album to date.
Several of the record’s 11 self-penned tracks find her smack dab in the middle of Nashville. “Every Day of the Week Ends in Why” and “There’s the Door,” for example, offer twangy guitars, wordplay-enhanced heartbreak tales, and vocals that might remind you of Tammy Wynette.
But the album also delivers satisfying side trips. The horn-spiced “You’re Driving Me Away,” a duet with Dave Alvin, features Tex-Mex instrumentation, for instance, while the excellent title track boasts a lush production that sounds reminiscent of Phil Spector’s work.
Flesh for Lulu, Long Live the New Flesh and Plastic Fantastic (Expanded Editions). Flesh for Lulu, a post-punk rock outfit that formed in South London in 1982, achieved less stateside success than it deserved. The group delivered hook-laden, beat-driven rock ’n’ roll that radiated energy, as you can hear on new expanded and remastered editions of its third and fourth full-length studio LPs.
The new version of 1987’s Long Live the New Flesh augments the original album with 15 bonus tracks, among them an expanded recording of the single “Postcards from Paradise,” a cover of Ray Davies’s “I’m Not Like Everybody Else,” and three versions of “I Go Crazy,” which garnered some chart action after being featured in the film Some Kind of Wonderful.
The reissue of 1989’s Plastic Fantastic, the last album by the band’s classic lineup, offers more ear candy. It pairs that LP with “Bloodshot Moon,” a non-album single, and a well-recorded 15-song concert at Long Island’s Malibu Club that includes some songs from both studio albums. The show ends with a frenzied five-minute cover of Prince’s “I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man.”
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Jeff Burger’s website, byjeffburger.com, contains more than four decades’ worth of music reviews and commentary. His books include Dylan on Dylan: Interviews and Encounters, Lennon on Lennon: Conversations with John Lennon, Leonard Cohen on Leonard Cohen: Interviews and Encounters, and Springsteen on Springsteen: Interviews, Speeches, and Encounters.