Mothermania

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Mothermania
Studio album by The Mothers of Invention

Publication
(s)

March 24, 1969

Label (s) The Verve Music Group
Polydor

Format (s)

LP vinyl , CD

Genre (s)

Progressive rock

Title (number)

11

running time

41:15

production

Tom Wilson , Frank Zappa

Studio (s)

various

chronology
Cruising with Ruben & the Jets
(1968) 		Mothermania Uncle Meat
(1969)

Mothermania (subtitle: "The Best of the Mothers") is a music album by The Mothers of Invention . The sampler appeared on the Verve label in 1969 and only summarized previously published pieces by the band. The album is assigned to the progressive rock genre.

staff

occupation

production

  • Producers: Tom Wilson , Frank Zappa
  • Sound engineers: Val Valentine, Ami Hadani, Tom Hidley, David Greene, Gary Kellgren, Dick Kunc

content

Track list

All compositions are by Frank Zappa.

  1. Brown Shoes Don't Make It (7:26) criticizes the corrupt government and the mindless society in the story of Rathaus-Fred, who issues regulations for young people and dreams of sex with a 13-year-old. Musically, 20 themes are interwoven into a whole. (P. 162)
  2. Mother People (1:41) deals with how the real hippie existence was perceived and treated by the civil authorities.
  3. Duke Of Prunes (5:09) is the first piece of a three-part suite to introduce the musical theme. The surrealistic love song avoids strong sexual expressions by replacing them with words such as “Prune” (plum) or “Cheese” (cheese). (P. 58f)
  4. Call Any Vegetable (4:31) introduces the main and secondary themes of another three-part suite. The content is about the fact that inactive people are not lost to humanity from Zappa's point of view - provided that they are addressed appropriately. (P. 64f)
  5. The Idiot Bastard Son (2:26) tells with a beautiful melody in waltz time the fictional story of the illegitimate child of an ultra-right congressman and a prostitute who sets out to discover the world of "liars and cheaters" the world is made up of "people like you who smile and think they know what this is about" ("people like you, who smile and think you know, what this is about") - an example of typical zappa public abuse. (P. 122f)
  6. It Can't Happen Here (3:13) not only satirically targeting the American small-town idyll, in which you can feel really safe between the swimming pool and ready-made meals made of rotten meat, but also takes into account the freak-out feelings of the hippie scene, which in Zappa's eyes began to establish itself in the prosperity of American society.
  7. You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here (3:37) is a frontal assault on the thoughtlessness of young concertgoers. (P. 40ff)
  8. Who Are The Brain Police? (3:22) is political criticism in the form of a zappaesque radio play - a kind of "audio hallucination". (Pp. 136, 276)
  9. Plastic People (3:40), as a collage of many short pieces of music, thematizes the demonstration because of the demolition of the “Pandora's Box” coffee shop in Los Angeles, popular with freaks, on November 12, 1966 and its violent breakup by the police. (P. 158f)
  10. Hungry Freaks, Daddy (3:27) is a vicious political satire on the alcoholic "American way of life". (P. 124)
  11. America Drinks And Goes Home (2:43) parodies the pub atmosphere and bar music that Frank Zappa played with "Joe Perino and the Mellotones" at the beginning of his career. (P. 162)

meaning

Mothermania is the fifth album by the Mothers of Invention. The only sampler of this group that Frank Zappa has ever authorized contains pieces from the albums Freak Out! , Absolutely Free and We're Only in It for the Money . Zappa only agreed to the publication because it allowed him to fulfill his contractual obligations with Verve. All other records that he was supposed to release afterwards - apart from the film music for 200 motels - he only released on labels that either partially or wholly belonged to him.

Some tracks in the sampler are very different from their original versions. Mother People is completely played out, offers a differentiated mono mix, does without the sound effects cut in between, contains the original line of text "Shut your fuckin 'mouth about the length of my hair", which was originally censored by the record company don't talk about the length of my hair) and slowly fade out, while the original ended abruptly with a turntable scratching noise. Without a musical difference being audible, unlike the original, the title The Duke of Prunes hides the entire three-part Prunes suite including its parts Amnesia Vivace and The Duke Regains His Chops, which are still shown separately on the album Absolutely Free . In the Call Any Vegetable Suite, parts two and three ( Invocation & Ritual Dance of the Young Pumpkin and Soft-Sell Conclusions ) are also not specifically identified. In addition, the improvised passage with saxophone and guitar solo was cut out there. The Idiot Bastard Son is now completely played in a new mono mix . Some of the original sound effects have been cut out. It Can't Happen Here offers a completely different stereo mix. The piano / percussion section was cut out to emphasize the vocal passages. The tracks You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here , Who Are the Brain Police? Also received a new stereo mix . and Hungry Freaks, Daddy , the latter also lacks the echo effect with the words "The Great Society" that conclude this song.

successes

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Mothermania
  US 151 04/26/1969 (9 weeks)

Although it was a compilation of previously published titles, Mothermania made the leap into the US top 200, where it climbed to number 151. In contrast, the album played no role in professional criticism.

Publications

The album was released in a few different versions as a long-playing record, compact cassette , 8-track cassette and conventional tape reels , but only appeared on CD in 2009 (ZAPPA-Records 0238402). The following overview clarifies the main distinguishing features.

  • The original LP was released on the US market in a stereo version at the end of March 1969 and was equipped with a gatefold cover .
  • The following month both stereo and mono versions were released in Great Britain, but without a gatefold cover. Other variants are known from Italy, Germany, Israel, Australia and New Zealand, which differ in the type of cover and the color of the label from the original.
  • Re-releases appeared in Germany and Great Britain in the early 1970s (one of them with no dividing line between the titles).
  • Another republication appeared in 1974 on Polydor in Spain. The front of the cover was the same as the US version, while the back showed a black and white photo of Zappa holding a guitar. The title list also differed from the original:
  1. Plastic People (3:40)
  2. Who Needs The Peace Corps? (2:34)
  3. Concentration Moon (2:27)
  4. Call Any Vegetable (4:31)
  5. America Drinks & Goes Home (2:43)
  6. It Can't Happen Here (3:13)
  7. You Are Probably Wondering Why I'm Here (3:37)
  8. Who Are The Brain Police? (3:22)
  9. Hungry Freaks, Daddy (3:27)
  10. The Idiot Bastard Son (2:26)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Barry Miles : Zappa . German edition. Rogner & Bernhard at two thousand and one. 2005. ISBN 3-8077-1010-8 .
  2. ↑ Review Mother People (March 2007)
  3. ↑ a b c d Frank Zappa; Carl Weissner (transl.): Plastic People - Songbook, Corrected Copy . Two thousand and one, Frankfurt 1978.
  4. ↑ Notes on It Can't Happen Here (March 2007)
  5. ↑ Differences to the original song versions (as of March 2007)
  6. ↑ Charts US
  7. ↑ Album versions (as of March 2007)