Eh eh, Frank Zappa… Non mi aspettavo un disco normale da Frank Zappa, ma addirittura un disco che non è un disco… Sì, perché questo “We’re only in it for the money” è un’opera che non è riconducibile al termine disco, ma è qualcosa di completamente diverso, che con un album normale ha in comune solo le note (e talvolta manco quelle).
Quest’album esce nel ’68, in piena epopea hippie: Zappa dovrebbe esserne un portabandiera, in quanto freak ante-litteram, e invece… Invece, dà alle stampe un disco che fin dalla copertina, una parodia di quell’arcinota del beatlesiano “Sgt. Pepper”, prende per il culo la psichedelia; è se l’ involucro è semplicemente ironico e irriverente, i solchi del vinile sono caustici, e probabilmente senza precedenti. I testi parlano, con una maturità inaspettata, degli effetti sulla popolazione giovane e non delle proteste dei capelloni, del perché e del percome la società induca i giovani alla droga, di come il consumismo abbia stritolato la famiglia americana (vedi la rappresentazione tragicomica della violenza domestica in “Harry you’re a beast” ), ne abbia distrutto principi e valori, e di come infine anche la protesta stessa portata avanti dai giovani del ’68 sia diventata parte del sistema: in “Flower punk”, come in “Who needs the peace corps”, Zappa tratteggia una gioventù che viene a San Francisco non per i sit-in, ma solo per scopare, drogarsi, entrare in una band psichedelica per avere più droga, per scopare di più e così via.
Ma anche musicalmente, il disco è una bomba, un pugno allo stomaco: non c’è una canzone vera e propria, solo sketch sonori della durata compresa tra un minuto ed i tre minuti; ed il bello è che sono tutti di una qualità compositiva elevatissima, oltre che di una varietà incredibile, a confermare il genio musicale del nostro; di più, le note stesse diventano sfottò, sberleffo, parodia di mille e mille melodie tutte uguali fra loro, di migliaia di suite pseudo sperimentali in voga in quegli anni: basti infatti ascoltare i sei minuti vuoti ed inutili di “The Chrome Plated Megaphone Of Destiny”, piena di rumori insulsi e di risate che nell’ intenzione dei gruppi dell’ epoca volevano risultare inquietanti, che invece Zappa, intermezzandole con colpi di tosse, rende ridicole più del dovuto.
Non è un disco, questo, è un’invettiva dura e pura sia ad una società della quale Zappa non ha mai fatto parte che al movimento che la vorrebbe criticare, e merita un posto d’ onore nella discografia zappiana.
Elenco tracce testi samples e video
02 Who Needs the Peace Corps? (02:35)
Frank Zappa (guitar, piano, lead vocals)
Billy Mundi (drums, vocals, yak)
Bunk Gardner (woodwinds)
Roy Estrada (electric bass, vocals)
Don Preston (retired)
Jimmy Carl Black (drums, trumpet, vocals)
Ian Underwood (piano, woodwinds)
Motorhead Sherwood (soprano, baritone saxophone)
Suzy Creamcheese (telephone)
Dick Barber (snorks)
What's there to live for?
Who needs the peace corps?
Think I'll just DROP OUT
I'll go to Frisco
Buy a wig & sleep
On Owsley's floor
Walked past the wig store
Danced at the Fillmore
I'm completely stoned
I'm hippy & I'm trippy
I'm a gypsy on my own
I'll stay a week & get the crabs &
Take a bus back home
I'm really just a phony
But forgive me
'Cause I'm stoned
Every town must have a place
Where phony hippies meet
Psychedelic dungeons
Popping up every street
GO TO SAN FRANCISCO
How I love ya, How I love ya
How I love ya, How I love ya Frisco!
How I love ya, How I love ya
How I love ya, How I love ya
Oh, my hair is getting good in the back! Every town must have a place
Where phony hippies meet
Psychedelic dungeons
Popping up on every street
GO TO SAN FRANCISCO...
Hotcha!
First I'll buy some beads
And then perhaps a leather band
To go around my head
Some feathers and bells
And a book of Indian lure
I will ask the Chamber Of Commerce
How to get to Height Street
And smoke an awful lot of dope
I will wander around barefoot
I will have a psychedelic gleam in my eye at all times
I will love everyone
I will love the police as they kick the shit out of me on the street
I will sleep...
I will, I will go to a house
That's, that's what I will do
I will go to a house
Where there's a rock roll band
'Cause the groups all live together
And I will join a rock & roll band
I will be their road manager
And I will stay there with them
And I will get the crabs
But I won't care
04 Mom & Dad (02:20)
Mama! Mama!
Someone said they made some noise
The cops have shot some girls & boys
You'll sit home & drink all night
They looked too weird... it served them right
Mama! Mama!
Someone said they made some noise
The cops have shot some girls & boys
You'll sit home & drink all night
They looked too weird... it served them right
Ever take a minute just to show a real emotion
In between the moisture cream & velvet facial lotion?
Ever tell your kids you're glad that they can think?
Ever say you loved 'em? Ever let 'em watch you drink?
Ever wonder why your daughter looked so sad?
It's such a drag to have to love a plastic Mom & Dad
Mama! Mama!
Your child was killed in the park today
Shot by the cops as she quietly lay
By the side of the creeps she knew...
They killed her too
05 Telephone Conversation (00:45)
Pam: Well -just . . . operator? Hold for a minute, please . . .
FZ: Hello?
Operator: Yes, sir . . .
FZ: Ah, can you call 6-7-8-9-8-6-6?
Operator: Same area code?
FZ: Yes
Operator: Alright
FZ: Is that Vickie?
Pam: Yeah . . . He's gonna bump you off yet, he's got a gun, you know . . . (heh heh heh . . . ) If he didn't get ya in Laurel Canyon, he won't get you here
Vickie: Hello?
Pam: Vickie?
Vickie: Yeah
Pam: What's happening?
Vickie: Listen: your father has called me up this . . .
Pam: Now look, just don't panic but just tell me . . .
Vickie: I'm not panicking!
Pam: OK
Vickie: I think my phone's tapped too
Pam: Well don't worry, that's quite alright
Vickie: Alright . . . Your father called me up this afternoon
Pam: Just a second . . .
09 Absolutely Free (03:28)
I don't do publicity balling for you anymore...
The first word in this song is discorporate.
It means: to leave your body
Discorporate & come with me
Shifting; drifting
Cloudless; starless
Velvet valleys & a sapphire
Sea: wah wah
Unbind your mind
There is no time
To lick your stamps
And paste them in
Discorporate
And we will begin...wah wah!
Flower power sucks!
Diamonds on velvets on goldens on vixen
On comet on cupid on donner & blitzen
On up & away & afar & a go-go
Escape from the weight of your corporate logo!
Unbind your mind
There is no time
Boin-n-n-n-n-n-g
To lick your stamps
And paste them in
Discorporate
And we'll begin
Freedom! freedom!
Kindly loving!
You'll be absolutely free
Only if you want to be
Dreaming on cushions of velvet & satin
To music by magic by people that happen
To enter the world of a strange purple
Jello
The dreams as they live them are all
Mellow yellow
Unbind your mind
There is no time
Boin-n-n-n-n-n-g
To lick your stamps
And paste them in
Discorporate
And we'll begin
Freedom! freedom!
Kindly loving!
You'll be absolutely free
Only if you want to be
You'll be absolutely free
Only if you want to be
10 Flower Punk (03:04)
Hey Punk, where you goin' with that
flower in your hand?
Hey Punk, where you goin' with that
flower in your hand?
Well, I'm goin' up to Frisco to join a
psychedelic band.
I'm goin' up to Frisco to join a
psychedelic band.
Hey Punk, where you goin' with that
button on your shirt?
Hey Punk, where you goin' with that
button on your shirt?
I'm goin' to the love-in to sit & play
my bongos in the dirt.
Yes, I'm goin' to the love-in to sit & play
my bongos in the dirt.
Hey Punk, where you goin' with that
hair on your head?
Hey Punk, where you goin' with that
hair on your head?
I'm goin' to the dance to get some action,
then I'm goin' home to bed.
I'm goin' to the dance to get some action,
then I'm goin' home to bed.
Hey Punk, where you goin' with those
beads around your neck?
Hey Punk, where you goin' with those
beads around your neck?
I'm goin' to the shrink so he can help me
be a nervous wreck...
(Just at this moment, the 2700 microgram dose of STP ingested by FLOWER PUNK shortly before the song began TAKES EFFECT: before your very ears his head blows up... leaving a bizarre audial residue all over your teen-age record player!)
Hey Punk! Hey Punk! Hey Punk!
Punky! Punk! Hey Punk! Punky!
Come and go...come and go...
Polly, do I ever have a lot of soul?
I think I love you!
Questi dominga?
Have you seen that nose eating?
I wanna know for sure!
Leave my nose alone please!
What 're you trying to do?
Listen! ...
This is one of the most
exciting things that's ever
happened to me
You know, every time I think
about how lucky I am to be in
the rock & roll industry
It's SO exciting
You know, when I first got into
the rock & roll business
I could barely even play the
changes to this song on my, on my guitar
But now I'm very professional
I can play the guitar
I can strum it rhythmically
I can sing along with my guitar as I strum
I can strum, sing, dance,
I can make merry fun all over the stage
And you know, it's so wonderful to...
It's wonderful to feel that I'm
doing something for the kids
Because I know that the kids
and their music are where it's at
The youth of America today is
so wonderful
And I'm proud to be a part of
this gigantic mass deception
I hope she sees me thrilling,
yes...
I hope she sees me dancing and
thrilling
I will say: "Hello Dolly!"
Is the song over?
Boy, this is really exciting,
making a rock & roll record
I can't even wait until our
record comes out and teen-agers
start to buy it
We'll all be rich and famous!
And when my royalty check comes
I think I'm going to buy a Mustang
No, I think I'll...I think I'll get a Corvette
No, I think I'll get a Harley Davidson
No, I don't think I'll buy any of those cars
I think what I will do is I will buy both
No, I don't do that either
I think, ah, I'll go into real estate
I think I'd like to...
I think I'd like to buy a house in ... Boulevard
No, that wouldn't do any good
Gee, I wonder if they can see
me up here, twirling that
tambourine and dancing...
Maybe after the show
One of the girls who sees me up
here, singing and thrilling my
tambourine and dancing, will
like me
And she will come over to me
And I will walk
I will walk up to her and I
will smile at her
And I will impress her and I
will say: "Hello, baby,
What's a girl like you doing in
a place like this?
I'm from a rock & roll band,
I think we should..."
Is the song over?
14 The Idiot Bastard Son (02:44)
The idiot bastard son
(THE FATHER'S A NAZI IN CONGRESS TODAY
THE MOTHER'S A HOOKER SOMEWHERE IN L.A.)
The idiot bastard son
(ABANDONED TO PERISH IN BACK OF A CAR
KENNY WILL STASH HIM AWAY IN A JAR)
THE IDIOT BOY!
(all the time he would spend at the church he'd attend...
warming his pew)
Kenny will feed him & Ronnie will watch
THE CHILD WILL THRIVE & GROW
And enter the world
Of liars & cheaters & people like you
Who smile & think you know
What this is about
(YOU THINK YOU KNOW EVERYTHING... maybe so)
The song we sing, DO YOU KNOW?
We're listening...
THE IDIOT BOY!
(all the time he would spend all the colors he'd blend...
where are they now?)
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