The front cover photograph was taken by actress, director, writer, jeweler and photographer
Alice Elizabeth Skinner Ochs, the wife of folk singer
Phil Ochs from 1962 to 1976. She died on November 27, 2010.
The most famous song on the album is
Brown Shoes Don't Make It, a track which has been described as a "condensed two-hour musical" and by
AllMusic
as "Zappa's first real masterpiece". The song features 2 violins, 1
viola, 1 cello, 1 trumpet and 1 contra-bass clarinet. How's that for a
mix?
The title for
Brown Shoes was inspired by an event covered by
Time magazine reporter
Hugh Sidey in 1966. The reporter correctly guessed that something was amiss when the fastidiously dressed President
Lyndon B. Johnson made the sartorial faux pas of wearing brown shoes with a gray suit.
The lyrics start off as a general attack on suburban American society:
TV, greed and
conformity are all mocked openly in the song. It then shifts in tone, dealing with a
city hall official fantasizing about
having sex with a thirteen-year-old girl.
The music makes several stylistic shifts, covering
hard rock,
classical,
psychedelic rock,
music hall and
jazz. The song lasts 7:30 and is the twelfth track on
Absolutely Free. According to Zappa, the beginning background music was inspired by the song
Have Your Way by
Lightnin' Slim (
link below).
Frank Vincent Zappa was born in
Baltimore,
Maryland on December 21, 1940. He was an American musician,
activist and filmmaker. His work was characterized by nonconformity,
free-form improvisation, sound experiments, musical virtuosity, and
satire of American culture. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed
rock,
pop,
jazz,
jazz fusion,
orchestral and
musique concrète works, and produced almost all of the 60-plus albums that he released with his band
the Mothers of Invention
and as a solo artist. Zappa also directed feature-length films and
music videos, and designed album covers. He is considered one of the
most innovative and stylistically diverse rock musicians of his
generation.
Zappa's output is unified by a conceptual continuity he termed
"Project/Object", with numerous musical phrases, ideas, and characters
reappearing across his albums.
[2] His lyrics reflected his
iconoclastic
views of established social and political processes, structures and
movements, often humorously so. He was a strident critic of mainstream
education and
organized religion, and a forthright and passionate advocate for
freedom of speech,
self-education,
political participation and the abolition of censorship. Unlike many
other rock musicians of his era, he personally disapproved of and seldom
used drugs, but supported their decriminalization and regulation.
Zappa died on December 4, 1993 at his home with his wife and children by
his side. At a private ceremony the following day, his body was buried
in a grave at the
Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, in
Los Angeles,
California. The grave is unmarked.
On December 6, his family publicly announced that "Composer Frank Zappa
left for his final tour just before 6:00 pm on Saturday".
Tracklist:
Side one: "Absolutely Free" (#1 in a Series of Underground Oratorios)
A1 Plastic People 3:40
A2 The Duke Of Prunes 2:12
A3 Amnesia Vivace 1:01
A4 The Duke Regains His Chops 1:45
A5 Call Any Vegetable 2:19
A6 Invocation And Ritual Dance Of The Young Pumpkin 6:57
A7 Soft-Sell Conclusion & Ending Of Side #1 1:40
Side two: "The M.O.I. American Pageant" (#2 in a Series of Underground Oratorios)
B1 America Drinks 1:52
B2 Status Back Baby 2:52
B3 Uncle Bernie's Farm 2:09
B4 Son Of Suzy Creamcheese 1:33
B5 Brown Shoes Don't Make It 7:26
B6 America Drinks & Goes Home 2:43
Personnel:
The Mothers of Invention
Additional musicians:
- Suzy Creamcheese (Lisa Cohen) – vocals on "Brown Shoes Don't Make It"
- John Balkin – bass on "Invocation & Ritual Dance of the Young Pumpkin" and "America Drinks"
- Jim Getzoff – violin on "Brown Shoes Don't Make It"
- Marshall Sosson – violin on "Brown Shoes Don't Make It"
- Alvin Dinkin – viola on "Brown Shoes Don't Make It"
- Armand Kaproff – cello on "Brown Shoes Don't Make It"
- Don Ellis – trumpet on "Brown Shoes Don't Make It"
- John Rotella – contrabass clarinet on "Brown Shoes Don't Make It"
- Herb Cohen – cash register machine sounds on "America Drinks & Goes Home"
- Terry Gilliam, girlfriend and others – voices in "America Drinks & Goes Home"
Credits:
Composed By, Arranged By, Conductor, Performer – Frank Zappa
Producer -
Tom Wilson
Mastering -
Doug Sax
Engineer [Director Of Engineering] –
Val Valentin
Engineer [Remix] – David Greene
Engineer, Recorded By – Ami Hadani
Layout, Artwork By [Cover Art, Collages], Liner Notes – Zappa*
Performers – Billy Mundi, Bunk Gardner, Don Preston, Jim Black*, Jim Sherwood*, Ray Collins, Roy Estrada
Performer [Uncredited] – Jim Fielder
Photography By [Front] –
Alice Ochs
Photography By [Other] – Jerry Deiter, Marshal Harmon
Notes:
Gatefold sleeve, top-opening on back, sealed with a small flap. Titles on spine.
Both sides with tracks normally banded.
Cat.no. on label is V6/5013, on front cover it is V/V6-5013.
Barcode and Other Identifiers
Matrix / Runout (Run-out info [hand-etched] side A): V6-5013 SIDE 1 M𝒢S672
Matrix / Runout (Run-out info [hand-etched] side B): V6-5013 SIDE 2 M𝒢S673
Matrix / Runout ((Variant) Run-out info [hand-etched] side A): V6-5013 SIDE 1 M𝒢S-672
Matrix / Runout ((Variant) Run-out info [hand-etched] side B): V6-5013 SIDE 2 M𝒢S-673
The Mothers Of Invention* – Absolutely Free
Label: Verve Records – V6/5013, Verve Records – V/V6-5013
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Stereo, Gatefold
Country: US
Released: 26 May 1967
Genre: Rock
Style: Blues Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Avantgarde
Net links:
Songs on YouTube:
Absolutely Free (Full Stereo Album)
Invocation & Ritual Dance of the Young Pumpkin
Brown Shoes Don't Make It
Lightnin' Slim ~ Have Your Way
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