Vinyl Spins - Zappa

The Mothers of Invention's Freak Out released in June 1966 was the first full album I went out and bought with my own money... my first real album. I had been buying singles but this was different. This was a 2 LP set. I used some money from my birthday and got it for myself for Christmas 1966.  I'm not sure where I first heard about it. I was 15, hanging out in neighborhood record stores and very impressionable. I also read record reviews about all kinds of music anywhere I could find it.

I loved this album as a teenager because it had so much of almost everything I was into at the time. Four sides of rock, doo-wop, psychedelic weirdness and wild avant-garde craziness. I would have friends over in our basement rec room and play records. Usually I would play lots of Motown, garage rock and British Invasion records and people would be dancing but then I would always throw in a little Zappa… Help I’m A Rock.

The first song Those Hungry Freaks Daddy had me. I was hooked. Who Are The Brain Police, Help I'm A Rock, Your Probably Wondering Why I'm Here all had me wondering what the heck I was listening too but knew it was important.  I liked how the album was musically all over the place. I especially loved the doowop songs as much as the weird psychedelic music.

This was the beginning of a long appreciation of Frank Zappa and the start of a large collection of his work. I first saw The Mothers of Invention perform in 1968, then at the Atlantic City Pop Festival in 1969.  Another memorable concert was seeing them in 1974 on the Apostrophe tour. The opening band that night was a very intense Mahavishnu Orchestra.

I have 40 Zappa albums including compilations, live albums and box sets. This was the first.