It’s Mother’s Day and you should always listen to your MOTHERS!
Nobody and I mean absolutely nobody sounded like The Mothers Of Invention back in 1966 when they released their second album Absolutely Free. The Mothers offered their own brand of compositional complexity, out of the ordinary instrumentation, Doo Wop harmonies and Free Jazz wig-out all under one roof…and you could dance to it too!
Complete with paeans to vegetables, brown shoes, drinking Americans, and an endless array of characters like Suzy Creamcheese and The Duke Of Prunes, Zappa and company skewered middle class “square” America on Absolutely Free.
In fact, Mother’s Day would have been ripe for Zappa’s razor sharp commentary as well, but on this Mother’s Day, I only post this album in tribute to all mothers.
Your Mothers on this musical journey featured the sophisticated compositional talents of one Frank Zappa, who also sang and played some guitar, Jim Fielder uncredited on guitar because he left the group before the album came out the vocals of the late, great Ray Collins, Jimmy Carl Black – “The Indian of the group” on drums, Roy Estrata (currently serving 25 years in prison for child abuse) on bass, Billy Mundi also on drums, the esteemed Don Preston on keyboards and John Leon “Bunk” Gardner on Flute, piccolo, clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon and saxophone.
Today’s Song Of The Day is a jazz improvisation that is best experienced within the context of the entire record, so here it is for your utmost listening pleasure, The Mothers Of Invention’s second record in its entirety Absolutely Free. In fact, I just spun my trusty old vinyl copy of this today in preparation for Mother’s Day.
Here’s one for all mothers…Happy Mother’s Day to your Mothers, happy Mother’s Day to your mother and, especially Happy Mother’s Day to mine…I Love You Mommy!
