Freak Out!

In the early 1960s, Frank Zappa met Ray Collins. Collins supported himself by working as a carpenter, and on weekends sang with a group known as the Soul Giants. In April 1965, Collins got into a fight with their guitar player, who quit. In need of a substitute, Zappa promptly filled in. The Soul Giants' repertoire originally consisted of R&B covers. After Zappa joined the band, he encouraged them to play his own original material. While most of the band members liked his ideas, then-leader and saxophone player Davy Coronado felt that performing original material would cost them bookings, and quit the band. Zappa took over leadership of the band, who officially changed their name to the Mothers on May 10, 1965. The group moved to Los Angeles in the summer of 1965 after Zappa got them a management contract with Herb Cohen. They gained steady work at clubs along the Sunset Strip. MGM staff producer Tom Wilson offered the band a record deal with the Verve Records division in early 1966. He had heard of their growing reputation but had seen them perform only one song, "Trouble Every Day", which concerned the Watts riots. According to Zappa, this led Wilson to believe that they were a "white blues band". == Recording ==

The first two songs recorded for the album were "Any Way the Wind Blows" and "Who Are the Brain Police?" Some songs, such as "Motherly Love" and "I Ain't Got No Heart", had already been recorded in earlier versions prior to the Freak Out! sessions. These recordings, said to have been made around 1965, appears on another posthumous release, The Lost Episodes, and was originally written when Zappa considered divorcing first wife Kay Sherman. In the liner notes for Freak Out!, Zappa wrote, "If I had never gotten divorced, this piece of trivial nonsense would never have been recorded." Tom Wilson became more enthusiastic as the sessions continued. In the middle of the week of recording, Zappa told him, "I would like to rent $500 [] worth of percussion equipment for a session that starts at midnight on Friday and I want to bring all the freaks from Sunset Boulevard into the studio to do something special." Wilson agreed. The material was worked into "Cream Cheese", a "ballet in two tableaux" In addition to the Mothers, some tracks featured a "Mothers' Auxiliary" Tapes of the early sequence were eventually leaked to European collectors and bootlegged on vinyl as The Alternate Freak Out! in 2010, both of which had been interpreted by MGM executives to be drug references. However, the label either had no objections to, or else did not notice, a sped-up recording of Zappa shouting the word "fuck" after accidentally smashing his finger,) remaining under the "Help, I'm a Rock" title but with "It Can't Happen Here" becoming its own track, as "It Can't Happen Here" had been included by itself on the 1969 vinyl compilation Mothermania, where the two normally censored lines were also reinstated. ==Release==

Verve released Freak Out! on June 27, 1966. The band's name was changed to the Mothers of Invention, a name Zappa chose in favor of MGM's original suggested name, "The Mothers Auxiliary". The album's back cover included a "letter" from Zappa-created fictional character Suzy Creamcheese (who also appears on the album itself), which read: Because the text was printed in a typeface resembling typewriter lettering, some people thought that Suzy Creamcheese was real, and many listeners expected to see her in concert performances. Because of this, it was decided that "it would be best to bring along a Suzy Creamcheese replica who would demonstrate once and for all the veracity of such a beast." Because the original voice of Suzy Creamcheese, Jeannie Vassoir, was unavailable, Pamela Zarubica took over the part. It was eventually reprinted and included with The MOFO Project/Object, a four-disc audio documentary on the making of the album, released posthumously by the Zappa Family Trust in 2006, and then being included as a bonus for the 2013 vinyl reissue of the album; the original blurb has a no symbol behind it, and an addition to the text indicating its inclusion and noting that additional payment was not required. ==Reception==

Freak Out! reached No. 130 on the Billboard chart, and was not a critical success when it was first released in the United States. In The Real Frank Zappa Book, Zappa quotes a negative review of the album by Pete Johnson of the Los Angeles Times, who wrote: {{Blockquote|I guess you might call it surrealistic paintings set to music. Not content to record just two sides of musical gibberish, the MOI devote four full sides to their type of "artistry". If anyone owns this album, perhaps he can tell me what in hell is going on ... The Mothers of Invention, a talented but warped quintet, have fathered an album poetically entitled Freak Out, which could be the greatest stimulus to the aspirin industry since the income tax. Paul McCartney regarded ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' as the Beatles' Freak Out!  Zappa criticized the Beatles, as he felt they were "only in it for the money". Freak Out! was honored with the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1999, ranked at number 243 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003, and 246 in a 2012 revised list. It was also featured in the 2006 book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. The album was named as one of Classic Rock magazine's "50 Albums That Built Prog Rock". It was voted number 315 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000). == Track listing ==

• On the Side 3 label of original vinyl copies, "Trouble Every Day" is listed as "Trouble Comin' Every Day". • On the 1995 and 2012 CD releases, "Help, I'm a Rock" is indexed as two tracks: "Help, I'm a Rock" (4:43) and "It Can't Happen Here" (3:57). ==Personnel==

The Mothers of Invention • Frank Zappa – guitar, conductor, vocals • Jimmy Carl Black – percussion, drums, vocals • Ray Collins – vocals, harmonica, cymbals, sound effects, tambourine, finger cymbals, bobby pin & tweezers • Roy Estrada – bass & guitarrón, boy soprano • Elliot Ingber – alternate lead & rhythm guitar with clear white light '''The Mothers' Auxiliary''' • Gene Estes – percussion • Eugene Di Novi – piano • Neil LeVang – guitar • John Rotella – clarinet, bass saxophone • Carol Kaye – 12-string guitar • Kurt Reher – cello • Raymond Kelley – cello • Paul Bergstrom – cello • Emmet Sargeant – cello • Joseph Saxon – cello • Edwin V. Beach – cello • Arthur Maebe – French horn • George Price – French horn • Roy Caton – trumpet • Virgil Evans – trumpet • David Wells – trombone • Motorhead Sherwood – noises • Kim Fowley – hypophone • Mac Rebennack – piano • Paul Butterfield – vocals • Les McCann – piano • Jeannie Vassoir – voice of Suzy Creamcheese Production credits • Musical director, orchestrator, and arranger: Frank Zappa • Producer: Tom Wilson • Engineering director: Val Valentin • Engineers: Ami Hadani, Tom Wilson, Val Valentin • Assistants: Eugene Dinovi, Neil LeVang, Vito, Ken Watson • Cover design: Jack Anesh • Hair stylist: Ray Collins == Charts ==