THE MAKING OF FREAK OUT! PROJECT/OBJECT

This is just another one of those classic Frank Zappa post-humous cash-in releases. There really isn't much to base a review on here, as Disc 1 is just the 'Freak Out!' album, and Disc 2 is remixes of that same album. Well Disc 2 does contain some interesting stuff, including 1970's remixes of "Help I'm A Rock" and "It Can't Happen Here", as well as some added demo tracks and sound clips.

Unless you are about to complete your Zappa collection, just do yourself a favor and buy 'Freak Out!' to hear these tracks. This bonus material disc is not worth 20 dollars. It isn't a terrible collection of music, but a one-star rating is the most I can give it because copletionists are the only people who should be buying this album.

I hate to agree with Zappa88 but what he says is true. However, for those who have heard the '66 vinyl version of Freak Out! will definitely want their hands on this edition. The common '95 re-release is actually a remix of the album's tracks and overdubs.

For the real completist of Zappa's material, I suggest the 4-CD box set of the MOFO Project/Object. Not only you get the original vinyl version on one CD, but also three discs of outtakes from the Vault, some interesting interviews by Zappa himself on creating the group and album, their '66 Fillmore West live performance, single edits, basic instrumental tracks of over half the album, and of course the unedited versions of a couple of songs, including the uninterrupted accapella "It Can't Happen Here" previously available on the "Mothermania" compilation LP.

You probably won't sit through all four CD's but it certainly is a treasure worth waiting for forty years later.

If you look carefully at the Rykodisc edition of any FZ CD, you'll see somewhere, buried amidst the credits, FZ approved master and a date. For Freak Out, that date is 1993.

MOFO (Making of Freak Out) presents the original 1966 stereo mix of the album (on Disc 1) and a second disc of assorted early tracks, outtakes, and general craziness also recorded during the sessions that produced Freak Out. So assuming you already own the Rykodisc edition (you do own it, don't you?), why should you buy it yet again in its MOFO incarnation? Is this really just another money-grab by the FZ Family Trust. In a word, no, and given that this album is one of the seminal prog albums, you should hear it in its original mix, as it was originally presented.

While the Ryko version of Freak Out does not obviously suffer from the misguided revisionism FZ applied to some of the early albums (e.g., the updated drum/bass tracks that render the Ryko version of Ruben and the Jets unlistenable), it never hurts to go back to the source to hear what someone like myself, who was a mere 13-year-old at the time, encountered upon listening to Freak Out the first time.

Frankly (pun intended), it's hard for my middle-aged ears to hear much difference in the two versions. I'd say the MOFO mix is a cruder, less clean, more in-your-face recording -- which I think was the original purpose of the album. In any case there's no disappointment in the sound: the cutting guitars of FZ and Elliot Ingber, the pachuco bass of Roy Estrada, Jimmy Carl Black's strip-club drumming, and the incomparable voice of Ray Collins; it's all here in its original glory.

Unlike other reviewers, I'm going to give this the five stars it deserves. However, if you already own Freak Out, you may want to consider whether the earlier mix, the extended liner notes, and completionism is worth your while.

This review is for the four disk deluxe version of the album. And by looking at the track listing from the two disk version, I can see why some were disappointed by it.

This is a collection of tracks celebrating Frank Zappa's groundbreaking first album, with a documentation of how it was created. As such, it's not something to listen to frequently, but it does hold somefascination forthis Zappaphile.

The first disk is the original album in all of it's glory. I have already reviewed the album on it's page, so I won't go into it, other than to say that in 1966, nothing else like it existed.

The second disk is mostly basic track versions of the songs. Some of the songs do not have vocals, some have alternate vocals, but they al provide an interesting look a the songs before they were completed. There is also a different edit of Help, I'm A Rock, and an absolute treasure, Groupie Bang Bang, a song recorded for, but left off of the original album (I can undestand why, the lyrics are quite obscene for the times).

The third disk has many of the original tracks that were manipulated and edited into help, I'm A Rock, It Can't Happen Here and the Return Of The Son Of Monster Magnet. It is here tha yo get to know just what went into the making of these legendary tracks. For the prog history buff, these are intriguing. there ae also a few live tracks, recorded at the Fillmore West, of the original Mothers playing some songs from the album.

The last disk consist of mosly intervew segments, with Zappa providing more insight about the album, along with some more remixes and re-edits of someof the tracks.

As I said, it's not easy to listen to this in one sitting, but it is quite fascinating.