Sonic Youth Gossip - NR Essentials #24: The Mothers Of Invention

The Mothers Of Invention
We're Only In It For The Money
1968, Bizarre Records

For a long long time I assumed that Frank Zappa was somehow both too stuffy (due to his technical playing) and too silly for me (due to his humor-belongs-in-music phase). I have no idea what made me decide to even give him a fair chance. All I remember is that WE'RE ONLY IN IT FOR THE MONEY was the only FZ album my library had, so that was the one I first heard. Since then I've become a total convert. I love a lot of his albums: HOT RATS, SHIP ARRIVING TOO LATE TO SAVE A DROWNING WITCH, PICANTIQUE, IMAGINARY DISEASES, etc. But this Mothers' album is the one that just blew me away. I'm not even sure what to say about it, but I'll try.

First of all it's a parody album, but not in a Weird Al kind of way. It pokes fun at the hippy idealism of the day while at the same time embracing the music of the scene. Which means, there are psychedelic hippy songs that would appeal to hippies but the songs are making fun of psychedelic hippy songs... and hippies. Sounds simple right? It's not. See FZ also seems to empathisize with certain aspects of hippy idealism and hits on serious subjects like police brutality. Let me run-down some of my favorite parts of this insane audio-experience:

"Who Needs The Peace Corps?" is briliant with it's visions of a "phony hippy" moving to San Francisco and getting Native American clothes, beads, the shit kicked out of him by the cops and the crabs just to fit in the with rest of the "phoney hippies." So awesome.

"Concentration Moon" sounds like it could've been from YELLOW SUBMARINE. About being happier in the alley than in the valley.

"Mom & Dad" is one of my all time favorite FZ songs EVER. It's sooooooo creepy sounding. A far more apt "protest song" than anything CSN&Y. And the simple bass part that seperates the verses is haunting.

"What's The Ugliest Part Of Your Body?" is a doo-wop track about ugly minds. Juxtaposes the old-music with the (then) new.

"Flower Punk" is BRILLIANT. OMG. Okay, so he takes the chord progression from "Hey Joe" and the same verse layout and writes a song about a punk heading down to Cisco. Whatever. But then so as not to get sued, he just speeds the tape up. What you have is the groundwork for Ween. It's so amazing sounding.

"Let's Make The Water Turn Black" is so gross. But I guess shows the really nasty side of embracing your body in its natural-ness. Awesome melody though.

Anyway these are just things that standout, but ther'es tons more. The guitar sounds in "Lonely Girl" or the creepy recorded phone call about a dude with a gun in the valley or ..... agh! Whateve. The whole album is crazy and awesome. Get it!