'' is a
Rock 'n' Roll album by
Frank Zappa and
The Mothers Of Invention . Displaying snippets of styles as diverse as 1950s
Doo-wop to 1960s
Surf Music to avant-garde orchestral doodlings, the album peaked at #30 on North America's
Billboard Music Charts pop albums chart. The album is a parody of
Hippie Culture and
Summer Of Love and a
Satire on the superficial nature of life in the United States.
First released in
1968 (see
1968 In Music ), it was rereleased by
Rykodisc in
1986 with newly recorded percussion tracks. Parts censored from the original release were also restored. The album was included in ''Q'' magazine's list of the "Best Psychedelic Albums of All Time."
The song "Flower Punk" is based upon "
Hey Joe " by
Jimi Hendrix , who himself features in the cover art.
In 1967, Zappa conceived the idea for an album, ''Our Man in Nirvana'', which would combine the music of his band '' was released and Zappa noticed its cultural effect, he felt that the then-popular
Flower Power scene had and would continue to have a major influence on popular culture. Consequently he decided to produce instead a satirical album that parodied every cynical aspect of the fad, ''Sgt. Pepper'', and 1960s US society.
The only vestige of the original album idea in ''We're Only in It...'' is the phrase "Don't come in me, in me, in me..." in the song "Harry, You're A Beast", a reference to a Lenny Bruce routine about ejaculation. [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/bruce/brucemonologues.html
Initial releases of the album had certain sections of songs edited or removed due to perceived offensiveness. These instances of "censorship" varied depending on release; general consensus is that Frank himself was responsible for the first series of cuts (perhaps in an attempt to stave off exactly what would happen later), while Verve is probably responsible for the second set. These two sets of edits are often distinguished by the monikers "censored" and "heavily censored." Tracks affected include:
- : a spoken line "I will love the police as they kick the shit out of me" was cut out of the heavily-censored version.
- : Gary Kellgren's whispered statement describing The Velvet Underground and The Mothers Of Invention as 'shitty' was cut. In one of the more interesting cases of album censorship, three different variations of the cut exist: the most common version (and the one that made it to the '95 reissue) has the line completely cut, the heavily-censored version has only the "shitty" reference cut, while Canadian LP issues seem to include the line intact.
- : The spoken word lines "I don't do publicity balling for you any more" and remark "Flower power sucks!" were removed on the heavily-censored version.
- : Several lines of the song are removed from the heavily-censored version, most notably the line about Captain Beefheart's mother ("and I still remember Mama with her Apron and her pad, feeding all the boys at Ed's Cafe") was removed due to the fact that record company execs thought the line referred to a sanitary pad.
- : a verse containing the expletives ' Fucking ' and 'shitty' was replaced with another; the original was reversed and appended to the track "Hot Poop" (even there, however, "fucking" is absent, and the heavily-censored version omits the backwards verse entirely). (The line is: "Better look around before you say you don't care/Shut your fucking mouth 'bout the length of my hair/how would you survive/if you were alive/shitty little person?")
The 1986 release with new drum and bass tracks reinstated these sections, while the 1995 release with the original musical parts reverted to the "standard" set of US censorship.
The front cover Zappa originally intended to use for the album mimics the cover of
The Beatles ' ''
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band ''. The double ''Sgt. Pepper'' cover had a collage of famous people by
Peter Blake on the outside and a portrait of the band on the inside. Zappa's record company demurred and put the ''Sgt. Pepper'' parody on the inside and the picture of the band on the outside; a later
Rykodisc release on
CD featured the original photo restored to the front cover. Next to Zappa's head, a
Speech Bubble has him questioning, "Is this phase one of
Lumpy Gravy ?"
One section of the
CD Liner Art features a series of badge,
Banknote , and facial hair cut-outs, satirising those of ''Sgt. Pepper'', with some differences; one badge features a small photograph of
Recording Engineer Gary Kellgren and the other is a nipple.
all tracks by Frank Zappa
#"Are You Hung Up?" - 1:25
#"Who Needs the Peace Corps?" - 2:34
#"Concentration Moon" - 2:22
#"Mom and Dad" - 2:16
#"Telephone Conversation" - 0:49
#"Bow Tie Daddy" - 0:33
#"Harry, You're a Beast" - 1:21
#"What's the Ugliest Part of Your Body?" - 1:03
#"Absolutely Free" - 3:24
#"
Flower Punk " - 3:03
#"Hot Poop" - 0:26
#"Nasal Retentive Calliope Music" - 2:02
#"Let's Make the Water Turn Black" - 2:01
#"The Idiot Bastard Son" - 3:18
#"Lonely Little Girl" - 1:09
#"Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance" - 1:32
#"What's the Ugliest Part of Your Body? (Reprise)" - 1:02
#"Mother People" - 2:26
#"The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny" - 6:26
- Frank Zappa - Guitar , Piano , Vocals , voices
- Dick Barber - vocals
- Jimmy Carl Black - Trumpet , Drums , vocals
- Eric Clapton - speaking part
- Roy Estrada - Electric Bass , vocals
- Bunk Gardner - Woodwind
- Gary Kellgren - whisper
- Billy Mundi - drums, vocals
- Don Preston - keyboards
- Euclid James "Motorhead" Sherwood - Baritone Saxophone , Soprano Saxophone , voices
- Spider
- Suzy Creamcheese - telephone voice
- Ian Underwood - piano, keyboards, voices, woodwind
- Pamela Zarubica - vocals
- Producer: Frank Zappa
- Executive producer: Tom Wilson
- Engineers: Gary Kellgren, Dick Kunc
- Remixing: Dick Kunc
- Editing: Dick Kunc, Frank Zappa
- Arranger: Frank Zappa
- Concept: Frank Zappa
- Art direction: Cal Schenkel
- Design: Cal Schenkel
- Artwork: Cal Schenkel
- Photography: Jerry Schatzberg
- Fashion advisor: Tiger Morse
- Wardrobe: Billy Mundi
-
Billboard (North America)
