Brown Shoes Don't Make It
Absolutely Free takes on straight America in the late 60's in the same way that We're Only In It For The Money satirized the paralell hippy culture. Both are fine albums("....Money" is just a little bit better though), from the Zappa period that really matters; however his humor was always right on target and topical in any era in which he was writing. My biggest complaint about the CD re-issue, which I no longer own in favor of the vintage vinyl, is that two bonus cuts were added in between side one and two of the original LP tracks, which damages the flow of a fine, very conceptual album, and neither of the bonus tracks are very good, nor do they have anything to do with the theme of the album. If they were to be added at all, they should've gone at the end; and frankly , unless someone unearths tracks of major importance, I'm always happier when they stick with the original LP in any situation. Although I suspect that the CD revolution has some people expecting longer releases just because the discs offer more time than vinyl. Me, I'm from the old school and 30-35 minutes of quality is all I expect.
Comical and Extremely Cynical
Another great Frank Zappa album. The music is topnotch (especially "Brown Shoes don't make it") and the albums lyrics range from pure silliness (Duke of Prunes) to extreme cynicism like "Uncle bernie's Farm," which includes this dialogue:"FZ: We got this car: when it hits the wall you see the guy dying . . . got the little plastic puddles of blood . . . by the car
I'M DREAMING . . .
Ray: He has intestines . . . he has plastic intestines you can
stuff back into his stomach . . ."
Everything is plastic (fake, cheesy, american) including the guy's intestines. So incredibly cynical and conceptual that it deserves respect simply for its brilliance!
I have this on Vinyl. Get the Vinyl version, the way it was originally intended.
Absolutely Indispensible
I found the vinyl version over 20 years ago. This album still represents for me one of Zappa's absolute best. From begining to end it is flawless. It is especially meaningful to those my age (46) and a bit older who have strong memories of the time period. If you buy the CD version, play it without Big Leg Emma and Why Don'tcha Do Me Right (neither on the vinyl). While good songs, they just don't fit the homogeneous feel of the rest of the work.
Put on the headphones and marvel at the quality of this mid-sixties excercise in studio wizardry. See if you can find the bit taken from Stravinsky's Rites of Spring. And for a true Zappaphile it is a treasure trove of "continuity" references. Get this album!!
An Underrated Mothers Album
Upon first hearing this album, I thought it sounded a little sloppy. After listening to it a few more times, i started thinking that maybe this "sloppiness" was part of the appeal. Finally I realized that it wasn't sloppy, but just really fun.
"Absolutely Free" is a favorite among the Mothers, and I can see why. It sounds like they really had a lot of fun recording this album. But DON'T GET ME WRONG: "Absolutely Free" is an example of true greatness. With classics like "Plastic People" and "Call Any Vegetable," it's hard not to like this album. Especially when Ray Collins' voice sounds so darn good!
It also features "Brown Shoes Don't Make It," the seven minute progressive piece that was the song that first made me recognize Zappa's sheer genius. HOWEVER, in my personal opinion, the "Tinseltown Rebellion" version of this song is better, because it makes more sense rhythmically and i think it's closer to Frank's original intention for the song. Though on "Absolutely Free," you get to hear it sung by the Mothers. I particularly enjoy Jimmy Carl Black's vocal contribution. Why didn't Frank let him sing more often?
All in all, this is an EXCELLENT album. Although it's not QUITE as good as "We're Only in it for the Money," in my opinion it's better than "Freak Out!" You need this album if you want to truly understand the Mothers. A perfect "ten."
Gotta love your mothers
Out of the first 3 MOI albums, this is my personal fav. Plastic People, Duke of Prunes, Brown Shoes Don't Make It, I could go on for hours. The cd contains 2 tracks not on the original release.
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 darn 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 out, 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 culture. With its 13-year-old "Teenage Queen" ("who's rockin' and rollin' and acting obscene"), 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 Moe Hum" or the entirety of the Fillmore East, June 1971 album--themes that became Zappa's artistic stock in trade. --Bill Holdship
