With the benefit of being a whole lot older than you guys, I can say that my reaction to this song when it came out was one of hilarious applause at Zappa calling the people running the country a bunch of sickos and perverts. It was shocking, it was funny, it was 'dirty', but only in the sense of how my prudish generation had been brought up to think about sex. Kudos for reacting to a Zappa classic that I'm sure many reactors would have avoided! And discussed in a calm, rational manner too. If you read The Real Frank Zappa Book or any of the better biographies, you'll understand how important sex and sexual liberation (as it was known at the time) was to the rebellious and iconoclastic young people of the 60s as part of a whole cultural revolution. "Free love" was graffitied on walls and pastel-colour-painted on placards.
These two just seemed to find it gross, like it was some dirty immoral degenerate spew from an imbalanced mind. Very bourgeois, priggish attitude. To each his own and all but Holy Cheese n Rice! How do you get through Brown Shoes w'out laughing?
Damn. You guys are awesome. You are keeping it going. There's so much material. There are no other reactors doing Frank as much as you guys are. It's a treasure trove of material. Thanks.
This is his second album with the original MOI, and yeah, sixties mothers recording have a much more raw sound than his later work when he got better at smoothing the edges with editing. There is a couple of live versions if you want to hear how he played this live, and the 'little girl' was never heard on stage, minor adjustments were made to the lyrics. FWIW, this song is included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 songs that shaped rock and roll. The shifts in tone and style really make is seem like more than one song, and an early reviewer labelled it his first masterpiece, a two hour concert in a seven and a half minute song. FWIW.
Interestingly enough Frank found that to be a curious segment of his fandom, and he tried to disabuse people of that opinion by putting out YCDTOSA 5 so they can compare early 60s vs the 82 band. The music of Zappa is deep and wide, and there is room for all.
@@Alyks1 Yet the same Frank Zappa said his '74 band were 'boring'. He said a lot of things. A lot of things he said were mischievous or deliberately provocative. Just like most of his music.
It's from the second mother's album "Absolutely Free". My favorite album by the mothers. The last line sums up the song pretty well: "Life is such a ball, I rule the world from city hall."
I was a sophomore in college when this album came out. We used to listen to it a lot. However, I feel his best work is in the mostly instrumental albums in 1969 "Hot Rats" and "Uncle Meat" and the fabulous "Burnt Weeny Sandwich" from 1970
The first Zappa album i bought was a second hand copy of the compilation 'Mothermania', which included songs from the first three Mothers Of Invention releases! I was 17 in the summer of '83, and it was anathema to the times and the fashions. This song in particular, and front cover photo of the band was responsible for me growing my hair, and changing my outlook on everything! 16 years too late maybe, but that was my summer of love, and the start of a headshift that is still with me today. I would have to say a combination of the great man, and the satire of Monty Python transformed a 'normal' Englishman into a freak for life! Just remember that if you call any vegetable, the chances are good that it will respond to you! Peace.
My experience almost exactly. I was also 17 in '96 and my friend recorded to cassette a scratchy Mothermania LP that belonged to his dad. In upstate NY in the mid nineties, if you were a teenaged kid working in a restaurant kitchen you listened to Phish and the Grateful Dead. I was coming off a punk phase and Frank Zappa just blew everything out of the water and I began a similar headshift that has been lifelong.
The early albums were interesting. This was the second album. The one that followed it "We're Only In it for the Money" (1967) particularly so as it was Frank's take on the "Summer of Love", "Flower Power', Haight Ashbury scene. Which Frank was fairly scathing about. A song which demonstrates this well is "Who Needs the Peace Corps". This is one of those albums which is best listened to in its entirety in a single sitting if you have the time. The cover art is notable as part of it is a pastiche of the Beatle's "Sergeant Pepper" cover and features an actual appearance.of Jimi Hendrix (who was a friend of Frank).
2nd l.p. from 67 my fave from the MOI. yes Frank exposing the establishment . also in the Simpsons when Mr Burns calls his law team it's a dozen grey attorneys
Frank was of the opinion that sexual repression was behind a lot of what's wrong with American mental health, and when that unnatural repression perverts a person, it comes out in unhealthy ways. This is an ugly story about such buggy software, in conflict with the hardware, making it into public office.
This song to me always seemed to be a mini opera. It chronicles the thoughts of someone following the "correct" path in life, get an education, graduate and get that job when you wear the proper clothes, cut your hair and join in the corporate workplace. Your reward is the "TV dinner by the pool" as you are so "glad you finished school". Some will go into politics and their repressed desires manifest as the dream he recounts, a pillar of society working in city hall but having these very strange fantasies. Look at our recent administration or our gymnastic coaches who actually act out these fantasies. Anyway, our city hall Fred ends up living out his life w/o acting on these thoughts which is how it should be. Frank sings on "We're Only In It For The Money" that the ugliest part of your body is your mind and this song supports that for sure. The music is amazing, the themes will show up on other albums. Also each side of "Absolutely Free" should be taken in all at once as the songs all relate to each other, up to us to figure out how. And please stop checking to see how much of the song is left. You all do that a lot, it is very distracting and makes me think you are not enjoying the listening experience. Thanks for continuing to check out Zappa, as a long time fan I'm really enjoying it.
Yes you said it. It bothers me that Dan yawns and keeps checking in on the left time. Anyway they make up for that by being very astute and on point in their reviews. If they weren’t so, I’d have stopped watching long back, as I do the other guys out there who put out reviews thinking that their smartness lies in looking condescendingly perplexed by the music. Keep up the good work, it’s a great hearing you guys as you put out your Zappalogue
There is a live version of this on his Tinseltown Rebellion album. That performance is sonically more cohesive since it didn't have string quartets, etc. I love this version, but that one is a bit easier to listen to, especially as a first time reaction.
since you just did "Bobby Brown Goes Down", which is FZ entry level, I revisited you listening to this Lvl 10 piece of Zappa. Brave that you tackled this one so early on in your FZ journey. It's a HARD one. (Which I love).
Here's a cute litte fact... Peter Townshend is credited with writing the first Rock Opera "Tommy". Peter has said this... "My first rock opera was Rael on The Who Sell Out and nobody talked about that." The actual first Rock Opera is probably S.F. Sorrow by the Pretty Things,. and Peter Townshend mentions that in an interwiew... but THEN... he also says that F.S. Sorrow was not where he started thinking about a rock opera song... he says that Brown Shoes Don't Make It was the song that got him wanting to make a connected series of songs in one song... first Rael... then A Quick one...THEN... Tommy. (Meanwhile... Brian Wilson's "Smile" never was finished or released in 1966 so... it can't be included... but for sure it influnced the idea of a concept album from rumours.) And many consider FREAK OUT to be the first rock opera, but I've never really seen it that way. At any rate... I am VERY HAPPY that you reacted to the ORIGINAL VERSION. Frank didn't like it. Hewasn't happy with the performances, but I think it's incredible. A young Frank with these lyrics that he KNOWS are going to change the way teen-age youth in America views pop music...lol... with these musicians that are struggling to play this impossible song with a limited budget from the recording label and NO time to redo numerous takes... no auto tune... and god knows these boys needed auto tune...lol... no pro-tools... and limited tape... it's a musical miracle that this song exists, and even today... in 2021 if you never heard it... the first time is difficult... iot's unlike anytjhing you have ever hear before... it is from the future... it is from 1967.
I love the 1981 live Version from the album "Tinseltown Rebellion" (the only Zappa album I know the lyrics of by heart and can sing all melodies). Hard to imagine you could this today...
Inside the mind of a depraved individual pretty much describes the whole FZ experience. Welcome to the 60's they were wild and wacky times. I first heard this shortly after arrival and didn't understand a bit of it. But I've always wondered; where is Suzy Creamcheese?and I've never worn brown shoes. They just don't make it.
You need to segue it into the next track which totally sets that rave up at the end in context. This is the second of his albums. There's a similar track called "Magdalena" on his "Just Another Band From LA" album.
You’re so right. I always wanted them to review this masterpiece hoping that the requester asks for the next track America drinks and goes to sleep to be listened too. The two have to go together, AFAI
Having an idea of opera helps I think with this, w/ r-n-r instruments & avant-discord bits of a 2hr show compressed into 8 minutes. Yes, taking the hearer into the head of city hall fred and how he fantasizes and plays those out illicitly w/the underage girl. Interviews of the time (rec. Nov 1966 in 4 6hr sessions) has FZ explain about how he wanted the audience following along with a printed libretto and included at great expense... which would have made it more understandable... and is actually available today... but alas! the record company then hadn't the wherewithal to do that when spending money on ...advertisers. Live versions in '73, '79 and available elsewhere have different and more clarifying instrumentation but the lyrics were kept the same. I don't know of a FZ band, with actors performing on stage the parts - never heard of it done. But somebody might. Call it something like 'Gaetz Gets Got', or something. This song does fit in the catalog of Absolutely Free songs depicting aspects of let's be honest, Overfree behavior but found in the US in that era. And again, and again where other songs seem to touch on the running catalog of songs about certain kinds of people.
I LOVE this album. It's the one that had just been released, when I saw the original Mothers of Invention in Greenwich Village. My memory fails me as to the numbers they performed at that matinee, but certainly they must have played some from this LP. Frank was such a creative artist ....
@@SightAfterDark Wow! I guess I am! I saw Frank and the Mothers a couple more times, but I'm not sure of the years. I saw him at the University of Rochester, and at that show he took a short break, introducing a duo he called "Tom and Jerry" to do a couple numbers for us. It was Simon and Garfunkle! Then I saw him sometime in the 70's at the Dome Arena in Henrietta, New York. i remember at that show he called "Tricky Dicky" Nixon the "biggest asshole in the world"! LOL! I saw the Jimi Hendrix Experience twice in the Winter/Spring of 1967. The Buffalo, New York appearance was the greatest concert I ever saw in my life! We had 2nd or 3rd row seats directly in front of Jimi! He did backward somersaults, while playing the most amazing guitar, humped his guitar, played behind his neck, flicked that long tongue of his at the girls, and rapped to the audience in a friendly, casual manner throughout the concert. We had 2nd row seats at the Eastman Theater in Rochester, New York to see the Doors with the Lizard King, Jim Morrison! Our eyes must have looked like saucers as Jim slivered out onto the stage in an impossibly tight black snake skin suit! I saw Steppenwolf, Vanilla Fudge, the Chambers Brothers, the Yardbirds, and many other groups during the late 60's and early 70's at various venues in the Rochester, New York area. So, yes, I guess I am a part of Rock 'n Roll history, and I feel incredibly blessed!
C'est clair qu'un petit coup de mains n'est jamais de trop lol ^^ Cela dit, j'ai toujours adoré ce morceau (première écoute sur Tinseltown rebellion, qui m'a ouvert les portes de cet univers merveilleux qu'est la musique de Frank Zappa) 🙂
lol... When this album came out in May 1967 Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention were playing a legendary six-month gig at the Garrick Theatre in Greenwich Village with two shows a night, six nights a week and Zappa's freewheeling soundtrack of the Great American Abomination. Look for the May 25, 1967 New York Times review of the first show online.
So I was a kid in a music store in 67 and so this album cover thinking..."is this something like Vanilla Fudge?". Junior High and this was my first introduction to Frank Zappa. I did enjoy it but I was already a musician and not what I was expecting at all. Thanks for reacting to it!!!!
Absolutely Free totally blew my mind at age 13, upon its release in '67, and no song more so than Brown Shoes. It's still my fav Zappa song due to its evolving influence on me.... I had recently commenced my own first sexual relationship, with a girl of the same age. Yrs later I found out that she had been molested by a grandfather from as far back as a toddler, which in retrospect totally explained her considerable sexual knowledge when I met her. So creepy indeed.
Great reaction, as always. If the whole thing seems a bit raw, it’s because they were kicked out of the studio before they finished all the vocals, hence some of what we hear is vocals they just did for reference while recording the basic tracks. The whole album suffers from this.
About the album cover. The bands' name was The Mothers, but FZs favorite record co. said no one would play a band with that name. Hense the MOI. With their second album FZ got artistic control of the cover. MOTHERS is in colorful 3in letters with 'of invention' underneath in half in. black. Everyone called them the Mothers after that.
"A world of secret hungers Perverting the men who make your laws". "You see in the back of the City Hall mind The dream of a girl about thirteen". That this song exists is as mind-blowing NOW as it was then. Frank was "use it or lose it", and when it came to 1st Amendment Rights? He ALWAYS pushed the boundaries. Blessings.
This is from the 1967 album "Absolutely Free" and is about how phony the 50s were and how depraved Frank considered politicians. 1965-72 is the period of Frank's that I think matters most. What came after I find almost entirely antiseptic and dependent upon uber-musicianship to hide the fact. Meanwhile, this stuff is genius. The later stuff is, as well, only too emotionally sterile to rate with the early period. He ends up substituting smugness for authentic feelings the last 20 years. On a separate note, I'm not sure whether "Brown Shoes" was in the performance repertoire or not.
@Sublime Music Channel - Brown Shoes was a rare treat in the late '60s. It was performed on the European tours in '73 and '79. The '79 band performed the best version of Brown Shoes. Check out Tinseltown Rebellion if you haven't heard it.
@@Frunobulax74 Thanks. I saw Frank in the late 70s in New York and may possibly have seen them do it. It's a LONG, LONG time ago now. I'll check out Tinseltown Rebellion when I get the chance--I've never taken the time before, mostly for the reasons given above.
I would add a couple of years onto your timeline but overall I agree with you. Maybe he just became bored with the music biz. As you say, antiseptic. He also released far too many 'live' albums latterly, in my opinion.
When I saw this, I expected to see you listening to the Tinsel Town Rebellion live versions. I'd never heard this one before, as I almost prefer my Frank live. I wouldn't call it a representation of a schizophrenic mind. I think it's more of a mini rock opera, like The Who's A Quick One. Each change is a new chapter in the story.
OMG you went for Brown shoes don’t make it …..Do you love it do you hate it ? There it is the way you made it ! 😝 America drinks then goes home is another song that comes to mind , call any vegetable . The original Mothers of Invention!
I prefer the 1981 version from Tinseltown Rebellion-but generally, I think the song is an amazing tour de force. Absolutely Free is from 1967 or 68.) The man was a visionary. (The song is about child abuse.) The later version has members of his band asking: "What would you do, Frankie?"
It's a shame to react to Brown Shoes without reacting to the whole second side of Absolutely Free. The songs all synergize into an incredibly sarcastic whole. There was no skit involved here. The girl's voice was added in production and someone on stage would have faked it live or worked around it. Remember. The whole scenario is a sick fantasy!
Zappa was also an avant-garde musical experimenter, and he also wrote unlistenable music (for example, most of 200 Motels). He became interested in dodecaphony, atonal music, Luigi Nono, Luciano Berio,etc., etc.......
I get what Zappa was doing, calling out the depravity of the older generation as seen by younger people at the time, but even Zappa could hit a foul ball sometimes. I was in my teens when it came out so seen from that lens I got it, but knew even then that it would not age well.
This is album #2 which explains the poor sound. Remember this is 66 or 67. I don’t know what remix this is. Certainly not from the original release. More classical tidbits in this and remixed vocals, which is nice. On stage he played it straight from the record. I love it as it’s the FZ album I was first introduced to, as a naive sophomore in high school. 😄
Yeah there is actually a live version of it I can't remember which album it is I don't know if it's tizzle town I don't know if it's was Mother's just another band from La I can't remember now but yeah they actually did it live it might have been the Later album the best band you never heard in your life one of those anyhow now you're getting somewhere this is the stuff I heard the first time I ever heard Frank Zappa I mean this is so ahead of its time my God 1966 there's a couple other songs you need to hear there's one right before Duke of prunes they kind of Segway it's almost like Pink Floyd I wonder if what's the guy's name Alan Parsons if he got influenced by Zappa because the way that he would run one song it to another so that was probably what helps Pink Floyd and The Beatles Abbey Road and all that came from Good Old Zappa so yeah there is a lot of good songs on mishaps Lily free album you got the Duke of prunes you got call any vegetable and there's a song before Duke of prunes and if you ever get to America drinks and goes home there's America drinks that's the first song and then there's America drinks and goes home I got a story for you when you react to that one you got to realize that how many bands and even in England you know like I said the Beatles were influenced they wouldn't have done Sergeant Pepper's if it wasn't for the Mothers of Invention even Frank caught on to that after it came out he realized that they had taken his ideas and ran with it so Frank and an album that was a parody of Sergeant Pepper's and they had to turn the cover around because it looked like a Sergeant Pepper's cover and they gave him a cease-and-desist order it was the album called we're only in it for the money you know it's amazing to think Jimi Hendrix is actually on the cover of the worldly in it for the Money album and Eric Clapton even does a little bit part on that album two really great guitarist How bizarre is that? You had to cook prunes and Colony vegetable wow I think you're really see a stark difference between Frank Zappa with the Hired Guns doing his thing and Frank Zappa with the mothers it's a totally different animal but I like both I love both I mean but wow the mothers were fucking awesome should I wasn't even thirteen when I heard this for the first time I was still in grade school you know it's funny Jethro Tull was even influenced play this album and Frank Zappa and all that he talked about it it's really amazing that some crazy guy living out in Lancaster California a little shit whole town out in the desert near Mojave could influence all these great bands all around the world and change music culture in such a profound way
This is such a vicious social/political assessment of life in the late 1960s. Listen to a piece of music by Edgar Varese, Frank's hero, to understand the "structure" of the song. His first albums got me thru High School. He let me know there were other folk and other viewpoints out in the world. Next up should be It Can't Happen Here - another song as, or even more relevant today as it was then. Stay safe and Carry On!
Not gonna lie I was uncomfortable for you two, knowing this song. But as always you got through it and gave a great reaction. Proud of you for that! Frank’s music and Frank’s lyrics are always two different things and the lyrics typically get the biggest attention when it’s the music that’s truly the star. It always makes for an interesting dichotomy. It takes many listens to train yourself to ignore the lyrics and focus on the music, but it’s always worth it. Hell, Frank didn’t even want to write lyrics but realizing he had to in order to sell records, he wrote lyrics. Boy did he write lyrics.
“Republican when they go into office…it takes a certain amount of pressure to force a person to become a Republican in the first place. We have to feel a little sorry for them. And it’s a lot of terrible pressure that makes people become Democrats too. But when they get under this pressure, it explodes and their raincoat pops open.” FZ
I heard this album when I was about twelve years old, so I bought it. It drove my mom nuts. She said if I keep listening to it I will need therapy. This is what happens to men's minds when producing substance is no longer the order of the day.. Play this album at a party I will guarantee you chicks will leave.
There is a better version of this song, which was recorded live, on the Tinseltown Rebellion album. Good to see you got to the joke about what he would do if she was his daughter. Some have misunderstood that as Frank endorsing incest!
Brown Shoes Don't Make It is from The Mother's of Invention's second album Absolutely Free. I'm not sure if you recognized Captain Beefheart's gravelly voice in that but its there. Touring in 1981 he brought it back to the playlist and released it on his Tinseltown Rebellion album, you might want to check it out on your own [ ruclips.net/video/72G17JV0j2E/видео.html ]. Essentially Frank's pointing the finger at people in power and saying they are aptly capable of being degenerates whilst maintaining the facade of respectability. Another variation of the classic don't trust the government, trust even less people with governmental powers. They are more apt to hide their unsavory deeds than most. Set in an era where in America the world was socially seen under the lens of either you are straight or a hippie; if not worse, a freak! This song questions 50's/60's social standards for normality and accuses it to be a facade. In typical Frank form he exemplifies with an over the top scenario where you have the character of 'City Hall Fred' who 'runs the world from City Hall' and is seen at social events like the orchid show mentioned in song. Yet in reality, hidden by all, he gets his rocks off having sex with teenage prostitutes, again exaggerating in his examples, the character of a 13 year old girl. It's theatre in song, questioning power structure and how foolish it is to trust people just because they hold an office of any kind. My two cents on this song, anyway. Early Mothers such as this have a lot of think pieces like this one. Who Are The Brain Police, Help I'm A Rock, and possibly the most amusing of them all, America Drinks And Goes Home (which is more of a social commentary than a political statement).
@@marcribe6483 I’d be curious to know where in the song you hear him. Neither Charles Ulrich nor Scott Parker, or anybody in any book I read, ever mentioned The Captn in relation to this album, and my ears never told me I heard his voice.
@@TheUtke Just because it may not be in the literature doesn't mean you can't hear his voice in the recording; when you know his voice. In this particular song there's about five or six people that sing a line or two at least, Frank among them. The raspy voice that sounds like a drawer full of gravel is the Captain's. You hear him singing with someone else (Ray Collins?) right in the beginning 'Brown shoes don't make it. Quit school, why fake it?'. But he's up front on the line 'Do you love it, do you hate it? There it is the way you made it. Wow!' That should help you pick him out.
@@marcribe6483 according to bios, they split up after the Studio Z period, when Z moved to LA and Cptn went back to Lancaster. They didn’t meet again until Z offered him record deal to do Trout Mask in 1968
not the version from album shown..it has interesting segments but some are not intelligible. I know the lyrics but some are not clear in this version..where does this version comes from...It has such creepy interludes that are similar to movies.
Really ? There were no people doing weird shit live on stage (at least not all the time). Listen to the lyrics. EVERYTHING YOU HEARD WAS INSTRAMENTAL AND VOCAL, and a prediction of DJTT
One other thing... I don't have a credit card , I'm in Italy, and my pay pal account is tied up with an old phone number that is out of service and I haven't gotten around to working out that situation, but it is the only reason I haven't become a patron. But... if I WAS a patron, (you should chuckle, here) I would be dropping you some bucks to listen to the classical and computer works of Frank. I will eventually. You think you know Frank's music now, because you have listened to around 20 songs. LOL!!!! I say this in friendship and not to be rude...lol... but you don't know shit. Just wait until you open the pandora's box of Zappa computer music... mind melting stuff. Just wait. And the classical stuff...? Welllll , I'd say, that once you have dived head first into the classical music, and listened to it for YEARS AND YEARS... then MAYBE you can say you know Frank Zappa. I have been listening to him faithfully since 1976 and I heard the original Mothers albums when they came out, because my brother was ten years older than me. In 1967 I was 6 years old when I heard Freak Out. I have listened to ALL of his classical music that is available, and even some of it that was never released for YEARS AND YEARS... and you know what?... I don't know shit about Zappa, either. LOL.
@@SightAfterDark you don't know how true that is... in an interview about 5 years before his deat he was asked how many peices of musice were being created with the computer... he said "Around 600 at the moment". Of those 600 computer songs that are ready to be put out when Ahmet can find the money and resources... the world has gotten to hear about 30 or 40... of 600. That's just the computer stuff.
A phenomenal, complex piece (loved that little passage from Honegger's PACIFIC 231) and a great expose of the hypocrisy of all too many supposedly upright citizens, but that leering line "Only thirteeeen, and she knows how to nasty" isn't so funny to me anymore, considering the crime that then-MOI bassist Roy Estrada is serving a 25 year prison stretch for (committed against a 13 year old family member). Which is in no way Zappa's fault (from everything I've heard his kids say over the years Frank was a good if unconventional dad), or anyone's fault but Estrada's; But as an example of life imitating art it's pretty horrifying + nauseating.
Since I still have the vinyl, I'll tell you this is nothing like the original version. This must be a live version. A bad representation of one of my favorites.
Quit school! Why fake it! i know frank wasn't promoting any of the things he sang about, but as impressionable kids we took it at face value. his album should have come with a disclaimer(like a pack of cigs). the only way to get ahead is to use your mind, apply yourself, and work 2 or 3 jobs until you make it. this applies even more so today than 1968. just look at zappa himself, he worked like crazy, he never stopped. model yourself after zappa, not how his songs portray.
@Bob S - Unfortunately, Frank was very serious with his "quit school, why fake it" lyrics. Frank didn't have enough credits to graduate high school, but they didn't want him around for another year so they let him graduate. He pulled his kids out of school at 16, the earliest he could in California. The kids then got their GED. Frank truly hated the American education system.
Well, the human mind is capable of thinking up any crazy thing, and dwelling on it, and that's why it's good to pursue a hobby in your free time. I know enough to leave this topic be and not go on and on about it. And far be it for me to bring up anything controversial, but the questionable behavior in this song is perverted by a modern definition. Even though in America, the age of consent in 29 states is 16yo, modern civilization generally wants young people to remain children until they are at least 18yo. And I agree with this, and there's more than one good reason for it. But, if you take the long perspective, going back 100,000 years, give or take, the adult age of the female was about 12 or 13.
If you liked this, be sure to check out our Frank Zappa podcast!
ruclips.net/video/qyOpmQ7p-DA/видео.html
Imagine having the massive balls and skills to pull this off at the time and this early in your career. Def in the genius citations for Frank.
With the benefit of being a whole lot older than you guys, I can say that my reaction to this song when it came out was one of hilarious applause at Zappa calling the people running the country a bunch of sickos and perverts. It was shocking, it was funny, it was 'dirty', but only in the sense of how my prudish generation had been brought up to think about sex.
Kudos for reacting to a Zappa classic that I'm sure many reactors would have avoided! And discussed in a calm, rational manner too. If you read The Real Frank Zappa Book or any of the better biographies, you'll understand how important sex and sexual liberation (as it was known at the time) was to the rebellious and iconoclastic young people of the 60s as part of a whole cultural revolution. "Free love" was graffitied on walls and pastel-colour-painted on placards.
Thanks so much for sharing!
"...calling the people running the country a bunch of sickos and perverts"
Frank Zappa, accurately reporting reality half a century ago.
These two just seemed to find it gross, like it was some dirty immoral degenerate spew from an imbalanced mind. Very bourgeois, priggish attitude. To each his own and all but Holy Cheese n Rice! How do you get through Brown Shoes w'out laughing?
One of my favorite albums to put on when we returned from the field after a patrol in Nam in 1968.We played this album to death.
that mustve been crazy to hear at the time man. and hey, thanks for your service alot, you're greatly appreciated
A CLASSIC!! Zappa at his filthy, sarcastic best. Frank spent a great deal of time shining a light every damn where.
Like most of his stuff, still relevant even more so today.
Damn. You guys are awesome. You are keeping it going. There's so much material. There are no other reactors doing Frank as much as you guys are. It's a treasure trove of material. Thanks.
We love Frank! Thanks for watching Brian!
The most profound lines in this song are: 'Do you love it? Do you hate it? There it is, the way you made it.' It really says it all.
👌!
I kinda feel like this needs to be listened to within the context of the entire Absolutely Free album
We feel you
Boy does this sound like its about the 45th president. Frank knew where we were headed alright.
When I heard this 40 years ago I had no idea what to make of it. I love it now. It's a very hard "first listen".
This is his second album with the original MOI, and yeah, sixties mothers recording have a much more raw sound than his later work when he got better at smoothing the edges with editing. There is a couple of live versions if you want to hear how he played this live, and the 'little girl' was never heard on stage, minor adjustments were made to the lyrics. FWIW, this song is included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 songs that shaped rock and roll. The shifts in tone and style really make is seem like more than one song, and an early reviewer labelled it his first masterpiece, a two hour concert in a seven and a half minute song. FWIW.
Thanks for the info Peter!
That's a really succinct recap! I've loved this song since I was 13.
I would really like y’all to react to Lumpy Gravy part 1 and part 2 also by Frank Zappa. Most of the “Conceptual Continuity” comes back to this album.
He loses me with all that conceptual continuity. Personally it leaves me wanting more music, and less people in the piano.
Glad u guys finally got this one ..prob my fourth album I was introduced to Zappa wise..Thanks again
Thanks to you too!
Now you're getting into early Zappa... which I feel is some of his best work.
Yeah I think uncle meat is his best LP
Interestingly enough Frank found that to be a curious segment of his fandom, and he tried to disabuse people of that opinion by putting out YCDTOSA 5 so they can compare early 60s vs the 82 band. The music of Zappa is deep and wide, and there is room for all.
@@Alyks1 Some people can't tell the difference between nostalgia and quality.
I love this album and WOIFTM and Uncle Meat but I love the early 80's albums too
@@Alyks1 Yet the same Frank Zappa said his '74 band were 'boring'. He said a lot of things. A lot of things he said were mischievous or deliberately provocative. Just like most of his music.
It's from the second mother's album "Absolutely Free". My favorite album by the mothers. The last line sums up the song pretty well: "Life is such a ball, I rule the world from city hall."
“Plastic People” and “Call Any Vegetable” are the best songs from this album. This one is challenging, without question.
My favorite is "Invocation and Ritual Dance of a Young Pumpkin"
@@mocthezuma The first album "Freak Out!" still slays me.
This is my favorite Zappa album.
@@mocthezuma Honestly, CAV, IARDOAYP, and the soft cell conclusion are all components of Call Any Vegetable.
Some serious listening going down
I was a sophomore in college when this album came out. We used to listen to it a lot. However, I feel his best work is in the mostly instrumental albums in 1969 "Hot Rats" and "Uncle Meat" and the fabulous "Burnt Weeny Sandwich" from 1970
The first Zappa album i bought was a second hand copy of the compilation 'Mothermania', which included songs from the first three Mothers Of Invention releases! I was 17 in the summer of '83, and it was anathema to the times and the fashions. This song in particular, and front cover photo of the band was responsible for me growing my hair, and changing my outlook on everything! 16 years too late maybe, but that was my summer of love, and the start of a headshift that is still with me today. I would have to say a combination of the great man, and the satire of Monty Python transformed a 'normal' Englishman into a freak for life! Just remember that if you call any vegetable, the chances are good that it will respond to you! Peace.
You painted a great picture! Thanks Christian!
A friend of mine's older brother had Mothermania,how I got turned on to Frank back in the 70's
@@ppuerling Nice to know that somebody else discovered Zappa via that album! 👌
My experience almost exactly. I was also 17 in '96 and my friend recorded to cassette a scratchy Mothermania LP that belonged to his dad. In upstate NY in the mid nineties, if you were a teenaged kid working in a restaurant kitchen you listened to Phish and the Grateful Dead. I was coming off a punk phase and Frank Zappa just blew everything out of the water and I began a similar headshift that has been lifelong.
Welcome to memories of the world before the 1960's. Everywhere
Frank told it how it was, alas
This song is incredible
Here's Franks take on the song in his own words: ruclips.net/video/ODvISTSh0jM/видео.html
The early albums were interesting. This was the second album. The one that followed it "We're Only In it for the Money" (1967) particularly so as it was Frank's take on the "Summer of Love", "Flower Power', Haight Ashbury scene. Which Frank was fairly scathing about. A song which demonstrates this well is "Who Needs the Peace Corps". This is one of those albums which is best listened to in its entirety in a single sitting if you have the time. The cover art is notable as part of it is a pastiche of the Beatle's "Sergeant Pepper" cover and features an actual appearance.of Jimi Hendrix (who was a friend of Frank).
We definitely see how important that is, great Rock History; thanks Steve!
Loved your reaction. it was intended to make you very uncomfortable…that’s one way to educate :-)
Thanks Scott!
2nd l.p. from 67 my fave from the MOI. yes Frank exposing the establishment . also in the Simpsons when Mr Burns calls his law team it's a dozen grey attorneys
If they did not know. Matt Groening is a huge fan and has laid a few Zappa Easter eggs into his show...
We didn’t know that!
Frank was of the opinion that sexual repression was behind a lot of what's wrong with American mental health, and when that unnatural repression perverts a person, it comes out in unhealthy ways. This is an ugly story about such buggy software, in conflict with the hardware, making it into public office.
True. 👍good background note
Blast this song in your car driving down the road. I’d probably hit a tree.
This song to me always seemed to be a mini opera. It chronicles the thoughts of someone following the "correct" path in life, get an education, graduate and get that job when you wear the proper clothes, cut your hair and join in the corporate workplace. Your reward is the "TV dinner by the pool" as you are so "glad you finished school". Some will go into politics and their repressed desires manifest as the dream he recounts, a pillar of society working in city hall but having these very strange fantasies. Look at our recent administration or our gymnastic coaches who actually act out these fantasies. Anyway, our city hall Fred ends up living out his life w/o acting on these thoughts which is how it should be. Frank sings on "We're Only In It For The Money" that the ugliest part of your body is your mind and this song supports that for sure. The music is amazing, the themes will show up on other albums. Also each side of "Absolutely Free" should be taken in all at once as the songs all relate to each other, up to us to figure out how. And please stop checking to see how much of the song is left. You all do that a lot, it is very distracting and makes me think you are not enjoying the listening experience. Thanks for continuing to check out Zappa, as a long time fan I'm really enjoying it.
Yes you said it. It bothers me that Dan yawns and keeps checking in on the left time. Anyway they make up for that by being very astute and on point in their reviews. If they weren’t so, I’d have stopped watching long back, as I do the other guys out there who put out reviews thinking that their smartness lies in looking condescendingly perplexed by the music. Keep up the good work, it’s a great hearing you guys as you put out your Zappalogue
lol it was a long day of filming. We can guarantee that no yawns were because of the song :)
There is a live version of this on his Tinseltown Rebellion album. That performance is sonically more cohesive since it didn't have string quartets, etc. I love this version, but that one is a bit easier to listen to, especially as a first time reaction.
Jesus, this is weird…totally agree…from another Jim Wilson.
@@JamesWilson-ek7ko Great minds think alike
@@jimwilson5148 lol
How they did it onstage: instead of a little girl, the band members would all say "what would you do, Frankie?"
Here you go: ruclips.net/video/72G17JV0j2E/видео.html
since you just did "Bobby Brown Goes Down", which is FZ entry level, I revisited you listening to this Lvl 10 piece of Zappa. Brave that you tackled this one so early on in your FZ journey. It's a HARD one. (Which I love).
Thanks for your support Saturninebear!
May 1967 was when this was released.. ..great reactions thank you!
Thanks for watching!
Here's a cute litte fact... Peter Townshend is credited with writing the first Rock Opera "Tommy". Peter has said this... "My first rock opera was Rael on The Who Sell Out and nobody talked about that." The actual first Rock Opera is probably S.F. Sorrow by the Pretty Things,. and Peter Townshend mentions that in an interwiew... but THEN... he also says that F.S. Sorrow was not where he started thinking about a rock opera song... he says that Brown Shoes Don't Make It was the song that got him wanting to make a connected series of songs in one song... first Rael... then A Quick one...THEN... Tommy. (Meanwhile... Brian Wilson's "Smile" never was finished or released in 1966 so... it can't be included... but for sure it influnced the idea of a concept album from rumours.) And many consider FREAK OUT to be the first rock opera, but I've never really seen it that way. At any rate... I am VERY HAPPY that you reacted to the ORIGINAL VERSION. Frank didn't like it. Hewasn't happy with the performances, but I think it's incredible. A young Frank with these lyrics that he KNOWS are going to change the way teen-age youth in America views pop music...lol... with these musicians that are struggling to play this impossible song with a limited budget from the recording label and NO time to redo numerous takes... no auto tune... and god knows these boys needed auto tune...lol... no pro-tools... and limited tape... it's a musical miracle that this song exists, and even today... in 2021 if you never heard it... the first time is difficult... iot's unlike anytjhing you have ever hear before... it is from the future... it is from 1967.
Thanks so much Chris!
Thanks so much Chris!
FRANK ZAPPA IS THE BEST!!
I love the 1981 live Version from the album "Tinseltown Rebellion" (the only Zappa album I know the lyrics of by heart and can sing all melodies). Hard to imagine you could this today...
Same ^^
I've been waiting for this one!
Inside the mind of a depraved individual pretty much describes the whole FZ experience. Welcome to the 60's they were wild and wacky times. I first heard this shortly after arrival and didn't understand a bit of it. But I've always wondered; where is Suzy Creamcheese?and I've never worn brown shoes. They just don't make it.
You need to segue it into the next track which totally sets that rave up at the end in context. This is the second of his albums. There's a similar track called "Magdalena" on his "Just Another Band From LA" album.
You’re so right. I always wanted them to review this masterpiece hoping that the requester asks for the next track America drinks and goes to sleep to be listened too. The two have to go together, AFAI
Its from the perspective of the City Hall politician. Frank often took news stories and incorporated them into lyrics.
When I got this album.
It blew my mind!
Brilliant.
Having an idea of opera helps I think with this, w/ r-n-r instruments & avant-discord bits of a 2hr show compressed into 8 minutes. Yes, taking the hearer into the head of city hall fred and how he fantasizes and plays those out illicitly w/the underage girl. Interviews of the time (rec. Nov 1966 in 4 6hr sessions) has FZ explain about how he wanted the audience following along with a printed libretto and included at great expense... which would have made it more understandable... and is actually available today... but alas! the record company then hadn't the wherewithal to do that when spending money on ...advertisers. Live versions in '73, '79 and available elsewhere have different and more clarifying instrumentation but the lyrics were kept the same. I don't know of a FZ band, with actors performing on stage the parts - never heard of it done. But somebody might. Call it something like 'Gaetz Gets Got', or something. This song does fit in the catalog of Absolutely Free songs depicting aspects of let's be honest, Overfree behavior but found in the US in that era. And again, and again where other songs seem to touch on the running catalog of songs about certain kinds of people.
Ahh ok. Thanks for that info and for watching!
I LOVE this album. It's the one that had just been released, when I saw the original Mothers of Invention in Greenwich Village. My memory fails me as to the numbers they performed at that matinee, but certainly they must have played some from this LP. Frank was such a creative artist ....
You’re part of Rock History!
@@SightAfterDark Wow! I guess I am! I saw Frank and the Mothers a couple more times, but I'm not sure of the years. I saw him at the University of Rochester, and at that show he took a short break, introducing a duo he called "Tom and Jerry" to do a couple numbers for us. It was Simon and Garfunkle! Then I saw him sometime in the 70's at the Dome Arena in Henrietta, New York. i remember at that show he called "Tricky Dicky" Nixon the "biggest asshole in the world"! LOL! I saw the Jimi Hendrix Experience twice in the Winter/Spring of 1967. The Buffalo, New York appearance was the greatest concert I ever saw in my life! We had 2nd or 3rd row seats directly in front of Jimi! He did backward somersaults, while playing the most amazing guitar, humped his guitar, played behind his neck, flicked that long tongue of his at the girls, and rapped to the audience in a friendly, casual manner throughout the concert. We had 2nd row seats at the Eastman Theater in Rochester, New York to see the Doors with the Lizard King, Jim Morrison! Our eyes must have looked like saucers as Jim slivered out onto the stage in an impossibly tight black snake skin suit! I saw Steppenwolf, Vanilla Fudge, the Chambers Brothers, the Yardbirds, and many other groups during the late 60's and early 70's at various venues in the Rochester, New York area. So, yes, I guess I am a part of Rock 'n Roll history, and I feel incredibly blessed!
Zappa performed, what I call, Cartoon Rock.
We can see that
Early Zappa, my favourite.
Great suggestion, Anonymous.
Your understanding helps me a lot to understand the words of Frank. I am a francophone so I do not have all the possibilities of interpretation. Love!
How great! Merci d'avoir regardé❤️!
C'est clair qu'un petit coup de mains n'est jamais de trop lol ^^ Cela dit, j'ai toujours adoré ce morceau (première écoute sur Tinseltown rebellion, qui m'a ouvert les portes de cet univers merveilleux qu'est la musique de Frank Zappa) 🙂
Now THIS is a troll request haha love it
Lol
lol... When this album came out in May 1967 Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention were playing a legendary six-month gig at the Garrick Theatre in Greenwich Village with two shows a night, six nights a week and Zappa's freewheeling soundtrack of the Great American Abomination. Look for the May 25, 1967 New York Times review of the first show online.
Thanks Charlie!
So I was a kid in a music store in 67 and so this album cover thinking..."is this something like Vanilla Fudge?". Junior High and this was my first introduction to Frank Zappa. I did enjoy it but I was already a musician and not what I was expecting at all. Thanks for reacting to it!!!!
Thanks for watching!
Your reaction was like performance art 😂
Hahaha thank you!
Absolutely Free totally blew my mind at age 13, upon its release in '67, and no song more so than Brown Shoes. It's still my fav Zappa song due to its evolving influence on me....
I had recently commenced my own first sexual relationship, with a girl of the same age. Yrs later I found out that she had been molested by a grandfather from as far back as a toddler, which in retrospect totally explained her considerable sexual knowledge when I met her.
So creepy indeed.
Wow
Great reaction, as always. If the whole thing seems a bit raw, it’s because they were kicked out of the studio before they finished all the vocals, hence some of what we hear is vocals they just did for reference while recording the basic tracks. The whole album suffers from this.
Oh wow, great info!
About the album cover. The bands' name was The Mothers, but FZs favorite record co. said no one would play a band with that name. Hense the MOI. With their second album FZ got artistic control of the cover. MOTHERS is in colorful 3in letters with 'of invention' underneath in half in. black. Everyone called them the Mothers after that.
Nice, thanks John!
Watch 200 Motels
Thanks for the tip!
"A world of secret hungers
Perverting the men who make your laws".
"You see in the back of the City Hall mind
The dream of a girl about thirteen".
That this song exists is as mind-blowing NOW as it was then.
Frank was "use it or lose it", and when it came to 1st Amendment Rights? He ALWAYS pushed the boundaries.
Blessings.
Shout out to Frank and you Leo!
This is from the 1967 album "Absolutely Free" and is about how phony the 50s were and how depraved Frank considered politicians.
1965-72 is the period of Frank's that I think matters most. What came after I find almost entirely antiseptic and dependent upon uber-musicianship to hide the fact. Meanwhile, this stuff is genius. The later stuff is, as well, only too emotionally sterile to rate with the early period. He ends up substituting smugness for authentic feelings the last 20 years.
On a separate note, I'm not sure whether "Brown Shoes" was in the performance repertoire or not.
Great info and perspectives! Thanks!
@Sublime Music Channel - Brown Shoes was a rare treat in the late '60s. It was performed on the European tours in '73 and '79. The '79 band performed the best version of Brown Shoes. Check out Tinseltown Rebellion if you haven't heard it.
@@Frunobulax74 Thanks. I saw Frank in the late 70s in New York and may possibly have seen them do it. It's a LONG, LONG time ago now. I'll check out Tinseltown Rebellion when I get the chance--I've never taken the time before, mostly for the reasons given above.
I would add a couple of years onto your timeline but overall I agree with you. Maybe he just became bored with the music biz. As you say, antiseptic. He also released far too many 'live' albums latterly, in my opinion.
I don't know what happens around the seven and a half minute mark, but it sounds glorious.
When I saw this, I expected to see you listening to the Tinsel Town Rebellion live versions. I'd never heard this one before, as I almost prefer my Frank live.
I wouldn't call it a representation of a schizophrenic mind. I think it's more of a mini rock opera, like The Who's A Quick One. Each change is a new chapter in the story.
Lumpy Gravy
He was warning us! But we have digressed!
no females in the Mothers then . but they had a baby doll on a high hat..
OMG you went for Brown shoes don’t make it …..Do you love it do you hate it ? There it is the way you made it ! 😝 America drinks then goes home is another song that comes to mind , call any vegetable . The original Mothers of Invention!
Yes yes! Creepy as hell. Just like our (s)elected officials. Love Frank and you guys are great.
Indeed. You are too Bruce!
I think it was made from parts like an audio collage, and he glued them together. I always loved the propulsive motif at 7:25 , very threathening.
Next reaction do it for "Golden Brown" from The Stranglers please
Try the tinseltown rebellion album version to understand better the way it was played live.
For Halloween you have to review Goblin Girl.
Suggest it on patreon!
I prefer the 1981 version from Tinseltown Rebellion-but generally, I think the song is an amazing tour de force. Absolutely Free is from 1967 or 68.) The man was a visionary. (The song is about child abuse.)
The later version has members of his band asking: "What would you do, Frankie?"
It's a shame to react to Brown Shoes without reacting to the whole second side of Absolutely Free. The songs all synergize into an incredibly sarcastic whole.
There was no skit involved here. The girl's voice was added in production and someone on stage would have faked it live or worked around it.
Remember. The whole scenario is a sick fantasy!
Listen to "Peaches En Regalia" and "Abey Sea"
These guys would be lucky to get a job anywhere.Think about it.
who you talkin about Willis?
Zappa was also an avant-garde musical experimenter, and he also wrote unlistenable music (for example, most of 200 Motels). He became interested in dodecaphony, atonal music, Luigi Nono, Luciano Berio,etc., etc.......
I get what Zappa was doing, calling out the depravity of the older generation as seen by younger people at the time, but even Zappa could hit a foul ball sometimes.
I was in my teens when it came out so seen from that lens I got it, but knew even then that it would not age well.
In the 60s Frank Zappa cut a swath through American norms and sensibilities like Joshua in the promised land.
This is album #2 which explains the poor sound. Remember this is 66 or 67. I don’t know what remix this is. Certainly not from the original release. More classical tidbits in this and remixed vocals, which is nice. On stage he played it straight from the record. I love it as it’s the FZ album I was first introduced to, as a naive sophomore in high school. 😄
Yeah there is actually a live version of it I can't remember which album it is I don't know if it's tizzle town I don't know if it's was Mother's just another band from La I can't remember now but yeah they actually did it live it might have been the Later album the best band you never heard in your life one of those anyhow now you're getting somewhere this is the stuff I heard the first time I ever heard Frank Zappa I mean this is so ahead of its time my God 1966 there's a couple other songs you need to hear there's one right before Duke of prunes they kind of Segway it's almost like Pink Floyd I wonder if what's the guy's name Alan Parsons if he got influenced by Zappa because the way that he would run one song it to another so that was probably what helps Pink Floyd and The Beatles Abbey Road and all that came from Good Old Zappa so yeah there is a lot of good songs on mishaps Lily free album you got the Duke of prunes you got call any vegetable and there's a song before Duke of prunes and if you ever get to America drinks and goes home there's America drinks that's the first song and then there's America drinks and goes home I got a story for you when you react to that one you got to realize that how many bands and even in England you know like I said the Beatles were influenced they wouldn't have done Sergeant Pepper's if it wasn't for the Mothers of Invention even Frank caught on to that after it came out he realized that they had taken his ideas and ran with it so Frank and an album that was a parody of Sergeant Pepper's and they had to turn the cover around because it looked like a Sergeant Pepper's cover and they gave him a cease-and-desist order it was the album called we're only in it for the money you know it's amazing to think Jimi Hendrix is actually on the cover of the worldly in it for the Money album and Eric Clapton even does a little bit part on that album two really great guitarist How bizarre is that? You had to cook prunes and Colony vegetable wow I think you're really see a stark difference between Frank Zappa with the Hired Guns doing his thing and Frank Zappa with the mothers it's a totally different animal but I like both I love both I mean but wow the mothers were fucking awesome should I wasn't even thirteen when I heard this for the first time I was still in grade school you know it's funny Jethro Tull was even influenced play this album and Frank Zappa and all that he talked about it it's really amazing that some crazy guy living out in Lancaster California a little shit whole town out in the desert near Mojave could influence all these great bands all around the world and change music culture in such a profound way
Bryan, you blew our minds with this amazing Rock History🤯 woahhh “cease and desist?” Jimi? Jethro? wowww! Frank’s the greatest! Thanks so much!
You've never looked so concerned!
The song’s definitely a brain jerker☺️!
Look at some of the creeps who run things today and think he did this over 50 years ago!
Right!
This is such a vicious social/political assessment of life in the late 1960s. Listen to a piece of music by Edgar Varese, Frank's hero, to understand the "structure" of the song. His first albums got me thru High School. He let me know there were other folk and other viewpoints out in the world. Next up should be It Can't Happen Here - another song as, or even more relevant today as it was then.
Stay safe and Carry On!
You too Jeff, thanks!
Not gonna lie I was uncomfortable for you two, knowing this song. But as always you got through it and gave a great reaction. Proud of you for that! Frank’s music and Frank’s lyrics are always two different things and the lyrics typically get the biggest attention when it’s the music that’s truly the star. It always makes for an interesting dichotomy. It takes many listens to train yourself to ignore the lyrics and focus on the music, but it’s always worth it. Hell, Frank didn’t even want to write lyrics but realizing he had to in order to sell records, he wrote lyrics. Boy did he write lyrics.
Thanks so much for watching Thomas!
“Republican when they go into office…it takes a certain amount of pressure to force a person to become a Republican in the first place. We have to feel a little sorry for them. And it’s a lot of terrible pressure that makes people become Democrats too. But when they get under this pressure, it explodes and their raincoat pops open.” FZ
☺️yeah
Oh how they hated Frank, funny how his prostrate was´nt detected until it was to late.
I wish it went right into America drinks and go home
I heard this album when I was about twelve years old, so I bought it.
It drove my mom nuts.
She said if I keep listening to it I will need therapy.
This is what happens to men's minds when producing substance is no longer the order of the day..
Play this album at a party I will guarantee you chicks will leave.
LOL
WTF looks all around the whole song through hahaha
😆
There is a better version of this song, which was recorded live, on the Tinseltown Rebellion album.
Good to see you got to the joke about what he would do if she was his daughter. Some have misunderstood that as Frank endorsing incest!
Brown Shoes Don't Make It is from The Mother's of Invention's second album Absolutely Free. I'm not sure if you recognized Captain Beefheart's gravelly voice in that but its there. Touring in 1981 he brought it back to the playlist and released it on his Tinseltown Rebellion album, you might want to check it out on your own [ ruclips.net/video/72G17JV0j2E/видео.html ]. Essentially Frank's pointing the finger at people in power and saying they are aptly capable of being degenerates whilst maintaining the facade of respectability. Another variation of the classic don't trust the government, trust even less people with governmental powers. They are more apt to hide their unsavory deeds than most. Set in an era where in America the world was socially seen under the lens of either you are straight or a hippie; if not worse, a freak! This song questions 50's/60's social standards for normality and accuses it to be a facade. In typical Frank form he exemplifies with an over the top scenario where you have the character of 'City Hall Fred' who 'runs the world from City Hall' and is seen at social events like the orchid show mentioned in song. Yet in reality, hidden by all, he gets his rocks off having sex with teenage prostitutes, again exaggerating in his examples, the character of a 13 year old girl. It's theatre in song, questioning power structure and how foolish it is to trust people just because they hold an office of any kind. My two cents on this song, anyway. Early Mothers such as this have a lot of think pieces like this one. Who Are The Brain Police, Help I'm A Rock, and possibly the most amusing of them all, America Drinks And Goes Home (which is more of a social commentary than a political statement).
Cptn Beefheart does not appear on this song. Otherwise I agree w your comment.
@@TheUtke You can clearly hear Don Vliet's voice. No one has a voice like his. Trust your ears.
@@marcribe6483 I’d be curious to know where in the song you hear him. Neither Charles Ulrich nor Scott Parker, or anybody in any book I read, ever mentioned The Captn in relation to this album, and my ears never told me I heard his voice.
@@TheUtke Just because it may not be in the literature doesn't mean you can't hear his voice in the recording; when you know his voice. In this particular song there's about five or six people that sing a line or two at least, Frank among them. The raspy voice that sounds like a drawer full of gravel is the Captain's. You hear him singing with someone else (Ray Collins?) right in the beginning 'Brown shoes don't make it. Quit school, why fake it?'. But he's up front on the line 'Do you love it, do you hate it? There it is the way you made it. Wow!' That should help you pick him out.
@@marcribe6483 according to bios, they split up after the Studio Z period, when Z moved to LA and Cptn went back to Lancaster. They didn’t meet again until Z offered him record deal to do Trout Mask in 1968
not the version from album shown..it has interesting segments but some are not intelligible. I know the lyrics but some are not clear in this version..where does this version comes from...It has such creepy interludes that are similar to movies.
Hey Mike, thanks watching as always: we get our links from RUclips searches or directly from our patrons.
@@SightAfterDark not for you...but zappaphiles that happenstance
This sounds like a different mix.....
Zappa was shocking the pants off people before it was cool. :)
Facts
Really ? There were no people doing weird shit live on stage (at least not all the time). Listen to the lyrics. EVERYTHING YOU HEARD WAS INSTRAMENTAL AND VOCAL, and a prediction of DJTT
One other thing... I don't have a credit card , I'm in Italy, and my pay pal account is tied up with an old phone number that is out of service and I haven't gotten around to working out that situation, but it is the only reason I haven't become a patron. But... if I WAS a patron, (you should chuckle, here) I would be dropping you some bucks to listen to the classical and computer works of Frank. I will eventually.
You think you know Frank's music now, because you have listened to around 20 songs. LOL!!!!
I say this in friendship and not to be rude...lol... but you don't know shit.
Just wait until you open the pandora's box of Zappa computer music... mind melting stuff. Just wait.
And the classical stuff...? Welllll , I'd say, that once you have dived head first into the classical music, and listened to it for YEARS AND YEARS... then MAYBE you can say you know Frank Zappa. I have been listening to him faithfully since 1976 and I heard the original Mothers albums when they came out, because my brother was ten years older than me. In 1967 I was 6 years old when I heard Freak Out. I have listened to ALL of his classical music that is available, and even some of it that was never released for YEARS AND YEARS... and you know what?... I don't know shit about Zappa, either. LOL.
Lol there’s almost too much Zappa to comprehend
@@SightAfterDark you don't know how true that is... in an interview about 5 years before his deat he was asked how many peices of musice were being created with the computer... he said "Around 600 at the moment". Of those 600 computer songs that are ready to be put out when Ahmet can find the money and resources... the world has gotten to hear about 30 or 40... of 600. That's just the computer stuff.
Influences of Varese, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Doo-wop...
The Tinsel Town Rebellion live version is 100% better. Do yourself a favor and listen to it. Truly figured out how he wants it to sound.
A phenomenal, complex piece (loved that little passage from Honegger's PACIFIC 231) and a great expose of the hypocrisy of all too many supposedly upright citizens, but that leering line "Only thirteeeen, and she knows how to nasty" isn't so funny to me anymore, considering the crime that then-MOI bassist Roy Estrada is serving a 25 year prison stretch for (committed against a 13 year old family member). Which is in no way Zappa's fault (from everything I've heard his kids say over the years Frank was a good if unconventional dad), or anyone's fault but Estrada's; But as an example of life imitating art it's pretty horrifying + nauseating.
Yeah, wow, we agree. Thanks for the info Laika!
Since I still have the vinyl, I'll tell you this is nothing like the original version. This must be a live version. A bad representation of one of my favorites.
Thanks for the tip Frank!
@@SightAfterDark It is probably remastered.
You totally didn't get it.
Quit school! Why fake it! i know frank wasn't promoting any of the things he sang about, but as impressionable kids we took it at face value. his album should have come with a disclaimer(like a pack of cigs). the only way to get ahead is to use your mind, apply yourself, and work 2 or 3 jobs until you make it. this applies even more so today than 1968. just look at zappa himself, he worked like crazy, he never stopped. model yourself after zappa, not how his songs portray.
@Bob S - Unfortunately, Frank was very serious with his "quit school, why fake it" lyrics. Frank didn't have enough credits to graduate high school, but they didn't want him around for another year so they let him graduate. He pulled his kids out of school at 16, the earliest he could in California. The kids then got their GED. Frank truly hated the American education system.
Wow
Well, the human mind is capable of thinking up any crazy thing, and dwelling on it,
and that's why it's good to pursue a hobby in your free time.
I know enough to leave this topic be and not go on and on about it.
And far be it for me to bring up anything controversial,
but the questionable behavior in this song is perverted by a modern definition.
Even though in America, the age of consent in 29 states is 16yo,
modern civilization generally wants young people to remain children until they are at least 18yo.
And I agree with this, and there's more than one good reason for it. But,
if you take the long perspective, going back 100,000 years, give or take,
the adult age of the female was about 12 or 13.
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