As a musician Zappa ensured to use his music to make commentaries on what he saw, and despised, around him. This made Freak Out! an extremely biographical album which documented Zappa’s life until the point of its recording. It contains some of his most influential compositions of all, such as Trouble Every Day which is often considered the first ever recorded rap song. As a composer Zappa was an experimental man, never settling for techniques that were tried-and-true. During the recording of Freak Out! at one point he brought in a twenty-two piece orchestra into the studio and at another it was a group of one hundred freaks who were asked to go wild and do what they pleased.
Despite its eccentricities, Freak Out! is often considered to be one of the best albums ever made, and it is also the first ever concept rock album and first rock double album (two albums at a single album price was a revolutionary idea!)
Zappa saw himself as a teacher, meant to help the world see its mistakes, and he used his music to do just that.
As for the performance side of things, The Mothers consistently had trouble getting gigs as their music was too difficult, if not impossible, to dance to. Zappa tried writing songs with a danceable structure, such as Plastic People which had the same structure as one of the favorites of the day, Louie Louie, but audiences were still hostile towards the group. The situation was never helped by the fact that, as Zappa explained in 1968, The Mothers weren’t too concerned about what their audience wanted. Most groups tried their best to please their audiences, “We didn’t do that,” said Zappa and added, “We told the audience to get fucked.” [Miles p. 132]
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