Okay, well starting at the top I guess we're stuck with Zappa again. It's funny: from the few albums sleeves of his I had seen when much younger I somehow had a feeling I would not like his music, and while this is certainly not a good basis upon which to form an opinion of a band, my original impressions do seem to have been borne out here, because anything I've listened to from him has either been meh or too off the charts for me. I don't quite get (though I'm sure others will explain, probably in some detail and with eyes rolling) his contribution to progressive rock. I have of course yet to listen to this album, but from what I've read about it it seems it will be the same sort of mishmash of sounds, effects, words, tapings and other assorted oddities that make up the likes of Beefheart's fearful
Trout Mask Replica and which indeed informed the second half of Zappa's
Freak out! If that's the case, I don't really see how that applies to progressive rock.
Nevertheless, many artistes prominent in the subgenre have stated him as an influence, and I guess it must be accepted that he was part of the push towards a more experimental, loose and improvisational attitude towards music, turning away from the basic rock and roll of the late fifties/early sixties and incorporating elements of jazz, blues, soul and the emerging psychedelia into compositions. The title of this journal is “I know what I like”, and I know what I don't, but in fairness I can't just listen to what I like here. This is the history of progressive rock, and there will undoubtedly be bands and artistes in there that I don't care for, but who will have to be reviewed and spoken of anyway. Guess FZ is one of those. Let's get this over with then.
Released as, as mentioned above, a kind of anti-
Sgt Peppers, The Mothers' third album featured a lot of instrumental music which appeared on Zappa's solo effort,
Lumpy gravy, which I had originally intended to cover but then backed out of (chicken gravy?), and both are seen as part of a trilogy, completed by
Cruising with Ruben and the Jets, released at the end of the year, all to be tied together under the banner title of
No Commercial Potential. Indeed.
Album title: We're only in it for the money
Artiste: The Mothers of Invention
Nationality: American
Label: Verve
Year: 1968
Grade: B
Previous Experience of this Artiste: Freak Out!
The Trollheart Factor: 1
Landmark value: Seen to be striking a blow against what was becoming to be seen as the overcommercialisation of music, and specifically against The Beatles, it's seen as a landmark album. I'll reserve judgement until I've heard it.
Tracklisting: Are you hung up?/ Who needs the Peace Corps?/ Concentration Moon/ Mom and dad/ Telephone conversation/ Bow tie daddy/ Harry, you're a beast/ What's the ugliest part of your body?/ Absolutely free/ Flower punk/ Hot poop/ Nasal retentive calliope music/ Let's make the water turn black/ The idiot bastard son/ Lonely little girl/ Take your clothes off when you dance/ What's the ugliest part of your body? (Reprise)/ Mother people/ The chrome plated megaphone of destiny
Comments: Okay, so the usual spoken-word nonsense I've to associate Zappa and to a lesser extent Beefheart with gets us under way, not exactly helping my attempts to be unbiased towards this album. At least there's music for the second track, and you can certainly see where they're slagging off the Fab Four here. Hey you know it's not bad. Like the humour:
”I will love everybody/ I will love the police/ As they're kicking the shit out of me.” “Concentration moon” is decent too, as is “Mom and dad”. This is a lot more, um, musical than I had expected, I must say! “Telephone conversation” is exactly what it says on the tin, which does not surprise me. Seems to be a 911 call though, which is interesting. “Bow tie daddy” is like a twenties song, but I actually like it. Mind you, it's only seconds long.
There's a lovely classical piano intro to “Harry, you're a beast”, and it's a good enough track to be fair. I know they're kind of slagging off the Beatles and psychedelic pop here, so maybe that's why it sounds so, ah, palatable to me? But either way, it's turning out to me a far more enjoyable experience than I expected. “Flower punk” is funny, ripping off “Hey Joe”, then it's like Vangelis's “Beauborg” (huh? Educate yourself man!) for “Nasal retentive calliope music” --- just weird to the max. Most of the album though is (dare I say it) listenable and decent music. Colour me surprised.
Favourite track(s): (Did not expect to be filling this in at all but as it happens...)
Who needs the Peace Corps?, Concentration moon, Mom and dad, Harry, you're a beast, Let's make the water turn black, Flower punk, Lonely girl, The idiot bastard son, Take your clothes off when you dance
Least favourite track(s): (And this is a lot less populated than I expected it to be...)
Hot poop, Nasal retentive calliope music, Mother people, The chrome plated megaphone of destiny
Overall impression: A lot of strange sounds but apart from that and the odd backward-masking effect, not at all bad really. I know: I'm surprised too!
Personal Rating: 
Legacy Rating:
Final Rating: