Wild Freaks Run Amok To Save Mankind
By Daily Trojan
Once, maybe twice, in a lifetime, a human being is fortunate enough to see wild, exotic freakos running amok on the same bill with a light show nirvana.
Last month, in a monumental freak-out at the Shrine Exposition Hall, the Mothers of Invention and Little Gary Ferguson teamed up to make the world safe from plastic people.
PLASTIC PEOPLE
As they say “Take your little plastic boots and melt them down and send them back to the shoe store. Take your little plastic hat and crumple it up and send it back to the hat store.”
This profound bit of philosophy is aimed at all the weirdoes who wear velour sweatshirts and poor boy sweaters. These people think they are cool, but actually, in the words of the Mothers of Invention, “What will you do if the people you knew were the plastic that melted and the chromium too? Who are the brain police?”
The Mothers are far more than a mere singing group. They are in essence singing social workers who are trying to instill humanism, spirit and soul into modern man.
GROSS LYRICS
Their songs are absolutely free – unencumbered by American cultural traits (and sometimes any coherent meaning either). They make their lyrics as gross as possible because they want people to say “That's really gross.” In this way, such standards as “Hungry Freaks Daddy,” “Help, I'm Rock,” and “Wowie Zowie,” outrage society.
This outrage, in turn causes men to show spirit which the Mothers consider a major breakthrough for the “plastic robot targets of Madison Avenue who now dominate society.”
FREAK OUT
Their latest album “Freak Out!” has been called one of the greatest stimuli to the aspirin business since income tax.
One of the lead sounds is titled “The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet,” an unfinished ballet in two tableaux.
Another song “Who are the Brain Police” was reviewed as “the strangest instrumental ever recorded – unidentifiable noises superimposed on top of each other including voices babbling indistinguishable sounds, a bass guitar being tortured to death and what sounds like a factory steam whistle chorus.”
This album, however, is secondary to their major occupation – freaking out. A freak-out loosely defined is a free form nightmare during which the Mothers perform weird gyrations and even weirder sounds.
As they slither, wither and shake, strange overhead lights project colored images onto the ceiling and stage. This psychedelic experience is supposed to allow a person complete self-expression within the framework of his environment.
In order to be completely free of external contrivance, the Mothers must cast off their clothes during a freak-out. This traditional rending of garments is symbolic of grief, fear, disgust, and maybe even contrition.
For an encore, the Mothers go completely ape and hack up the furniture with pick axes. This ultimate form of self-enlightenment is supposed to symbolize all that is really good and true, in the world
And so the Mothers continue on their crusade to save the world. If you don't want to be saved, though, head mother Frank Zappa says you can burn the album and use the ashes to cure athletes feet. Just be careful you don't inhale the fumes.
Read by OCR software. If you spot errors, let me know afka (at) afka.net