Released: 1966
Tracks: Hungry Freaks, Daddy; I Ain’t Got No Heart; Who Are the Brain Police?; Go Cry On Somebody Else’s Shoulder; Motherly Love; How Could I Be Such a Fool; Wowie Zowie; You Didn’t Try to Call Me; Any Way the Wind Blows; I’m Not Satisfied; You’re Probably Wondering Why I’m Here; Trouble Every Day; Help, I’m a Rock; It Can’t Happen Here; The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet
Best track: very difficult…either Hungry Freaks, Help, I’m a Rock or Trouble Every Day
Track to skip: I think they’re all necessary
“Wow” is my immediate reaction after just finishing Return of the Son of Monster Magnet. The way this album finishes – Trouble Every Day > Help, I’m a Rock > It Can’t Happen Here > The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet – is an absolutely
brilliant ending 4 songs. It’s very mind melting and really powerful. Well, you can really extend that to the entire 2nd disc of the original vinyl release, starting with You’re Probably Wondering Why I’m Here, which has the biggest bunch of humor on the whole album. Yeah, that whole 2nd disc is astoundingly good. I know that I’m listening to this album as CD, but it was originally a double album and I like to think of these things in terms of how the composer (Zappa) planned them out. It’s still being debated if this was truly the first double album in rock (not a compilation album). I believe that Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde was the first and this followed a month or so later. This was, however, the first
debut double album in rock music history.
So, here I am thinking about this album, Frank Zappa’s debut. For the uninitiated this might just sound like a dated 60’s record with some psychedelic songs and some pop/love songs…but for those who are serious into their Zappa fandom this represents the blueprint of nearly everything that came after. Let’s see, we have anti-establishment songs, critiques of teenage culture, silly songs, jazz, electronic music, doo-wop, heavy doses of modern classical, sarcastic love songs, protest songs, blues, great guitar work…yeah, that’s pretty much everything. The only thing truly missing is the obvious insanely difficult music, but given the limitations of the band I’m not very concerned about that.
The musicians: Zappa on guitar and vocals, Ray Collins on vocals, Jimmy Carl Black on drums, Elliot Ingber on guitar & Roy Estrada on bass and high vocals + a ton of people known as the “Mothers Auxiliary”. The band themselves do great things here (as FZ mentions in the liner notes, “They are all MUSICIANS”), but so much of the grand scope of this album comes from the people in the “Auxiliary”. The extra players really fill out the sound and make this album much larger than it would be if it was only 5 people. I have to mention the liner notes. You get a better appreciation of them with the vinyl, but even on the CD they’re impressive. Some of the best liner notes I’ve ever seen on an album. Clues to the band & composer, notes (sometimes honest, sometimes sarcastic) about the songs themselves, a huge list of thank-you’s and the important Relevant Quotes (“The present-day composer refuses to die!”) – all of it gives the listener a great deal of knowledge about Zappa. It absolutely ties in perfectly with the music.
I think the main problem with this album for someone who isn’t already a huge Zappa fan is that it sounds *very* dated. I mean, it sounds like a psychedelic/pop/blues album from 1966. I don’t think this is a bad thing, but I say that really as a warning. Of course, a *lot* of the music from 1966 sounds dated. I think my only other minor complaint is that side 2 (How Could I Be Such a Fool – I’m Not Satisfied) features the most forgettable songs on the album. They’re not bad, but they’re not excellent. Specific positive mentions go out to the nice changes in How Could I Be Such a Fool & just the overall composition of Any Way the Wind Blows.
I love the way this album starts off and I think that Hungry Freaks, Daddy is a great first track and perfect introduction to the man. Killer song and it features Zappa playing a cool guitar solo. Next comes I Ain’t Got No Heart which spells out in no uncertain terms Zappa’s feeling about “love”. He’s pretty angry in that last verse of the song. Ray Collins delivers some great vocals on the silly Go Cry On Somebody Else’s Shoulder. Everyone plays and sings well on this album, but it wasn’t until listening to it last week that I really noticed Roy Estrada’s contribution on the bass. He’s a damn good bass player.
The easy answer to the eternal question (the grade) is that I like this album. It’s a fun album, but it’s also very directly serious in quite a few places and extremely weird in many others (sides 3 & 4). It really is a great blueprint of all that would come after. Besides that, it’s a good album. It isn’t Zappa’s best, but it’s certainly good enough for a purchase. Most of this album is pretty easy to grasp on the surface, but for those tracks that require *many* listens, it totally pays off when you get it. Listening to it over the past couple of weeks fairly continuously, I GET IT.
Rating: 91
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