THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION: FREAK OUT!

How people can rate this masterpiece of social satire disguised in the form of tongue-in-cheek song style imitations less than four stars is beyond me! The chameleonic versatility alone is worthy of high marks and recommendations to others. But then throw in the outstanding musicianship, the on-point renderings of a multitude of "pop" styles and the fact that this was a double-length (4-sided) concept album (one of pop/prog's first) qualifies it for superlatives accorded to sheer genius! Plus, it is a highly entertaining, highly enjoyable and consistently surprising collection of high quality music. And Frank's humor has not (yet) slid into the realms of silly, sophomoric potty humor--but his cutting, literate satire is unmistakable. Plus he's got some great, memorable melodies! There's even a 12-minute "epic"! Come on people! This is a masterpiece of music--of what music is capable of doing--with every moment of it intentional and full of intention. We call it progressive because like so many others (yet to come) he was using music to express and explore ideas on a non-pop way for an intellectual anti-establishment audience. (Himself).