My Musical Journey. Part 14: The Mothers of Invention.

Frank Zappa wanted to call his band "The Mothers," but Verve Records and the rest of the music industry in 1966 weren't cool with that, so the Mothers of Invention were born.

Zappa was a brilliant and innovative musician, and also an outspoken political satirist. He was angry and he was sarcastically funny. That combination was like catnip to me, since I was angry and sarcastic and I aspired to be funny.  The first three albums, "Freak Out!", "Absolutely Free," and "We're Only In It For The Money" fueled my growing disaffection with the conventional pieties of mid-sixties America with classics like "Hungry Freaks, Daddy," "Plastic People, and "Brown Shoes Don't Make It."

The wonderful "Sgt. Pepper" parody cover.

Still one of my favorite songs:

Even though Aunt Jemima is no more, I still love this song:

The lyrics and the attitude were what attracted me at first, but later I came to appreciate Zappa's compositions and the band's musicianship and tight arrangements, as well as their talent for improvisation in the albums "Uncle Meat," "Weasels Ripped My Flesh," "Burnt Weenie Sandwich," and "Hot Rats." All still masterpieces.

Zappa later became too jokey for me, pursuing money with juvenile novelty songs like "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" and "Valley Girl." I stopped listening during this phase of his career, but rediscovered him in the early 80's when he released "Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar," a triple album box set of his guitar solos.

I really have a hard time listening to his later lyrical efforts, but his instrumental albums are still excellent, especially "Make A Jazz Noise Here" and "The Grand Wazoo." I love the way he uses unusual time signatures, often having different band members play in different tempos at the same time. Really amazing stuff.

P.