The Social Critic: Album #2 – Absolutely Free

Although on later albums Zappa seemed to stay as far away as possible from politically charged messages, his second album, Absolutely Free, maintains the same journalistic quality of the debut, Freak Out!

Recorded in just four days in November of ’66, and with a new line-up which only maintained the original core of Zappa, Ray Collins (vocals), Jimmy Carl Black (drums) and Roy Estrada (bass), it includes memorable songs such as Plastic People, where Zappa calls the LAPD Nazis, and i which deals with governmental corruption. On the subject of government, Zappa’s view was strongly oppositional: “These unfortunate people manufacture inequitable laws and ordinances, perhaps unaware of the fact that the restrictions they place on the young people in a society are a result of their own hidden sexual frustration.” (Miles p. 135)

The album also features some lighter critiques of society such as America Drinks and Goes Home, which was meant to satirically mimic cocktail music so popular at that time. Last, but not least, Zappa also included some material that was autobiographical and that depicted his past. On Status Back Baby he describes his high-school experience.

As one can imagine, all of these ‘anti’ messages were not easily accepted by the band’s record label. MGM outright refused to publish the accompanying libretto, claiming that there were too many problematic, dirty words. Not to mention the slogan on the back cover, War Means Work for All, was seen as insulting. In the end, Zappa printed the libretto himself and they reached a compromise in terms of the slogan on the back cover: it was printed in a faded, barely visible, version.

The album was released in June of ’67 and made it to No. 41 on the music charts. At least some people were listening.