Frank Zappa: Freak Out (2LP) [ZAPPA RECORDS]

Why you'll love it

This 2LP reissue uses the original 1966 stereo master and comes with the "Freak Out Hot Spots" map insert. Freak Out! was the first double debut album by a rock act, and it entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Gatefold jacket
• Original 1966 stereo master
• Freak Out Hot Spots map insert
• Poster included

About the album

Producer Tom Wilson signed the Mothers thinking he'd found a white blues band. What he got was Frank Zappa, a bar band formerly called the Soul Giants, and a satirical, sprawling portrait of American pop culture and the Los Angeles freak scene, often cited as one of rock's first concept albums. Zappa had joined the group and steered them away from rhythm and blues covers toward his own strange, brilliant compositions.

Ray Collins sings lead with Roy Estrada, Jimmy Carl Black and Elliot Ingber alongside Zappa, plus a roomful of session players. The music runs from doo-wop parody ("Go Cry On Somebody Else's Shoulder") to snarling rock ("Hungry Freaks, Daddy," "Who Are The Brain Police?") to "Trouble Every Day," a blistering report on the Watts riots. Side four hands everything over to "The Return Of The Son Of Monster Magnet," a percussion-and-tape collage that still sounds wild.

It caught on in Europe first, built a cult following in America, and Rolling Stone later placed it among the 500 greatest albums. The map insert lists the best places to freak out in 1966 Los Angeles, which we can't vouch for today, but we're sure the parking has got worse.

Also at Kops: more Frank Zappa on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Zappa Records (cat# ZR3834-1), a reissue of the 1966 album.