| 1 | [[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Were_Only_In_It_for_the_Money_6380.jpg]] |
| 2 | [[caption-width-right:320:''"Flower power sucks!"'']] |
| 3 | |
| 4 | ->''"Unbind your mind\ |
| 5 | There is no time\ |
| 6 | Bo-i-i-i-i-n-g\ |
| 7 | To lick your stamps\ |
| 8 | And paste them in\ |
| 9 | Discorporate\ |
| 10 | And we'll begin\ |
| 11 | Freedom! Freedom!\ |
| 12 | Kindly loving\ |
| 13 | You'll be absolutely free\ |
| 14 | ONLY IF YOU WANT TO BE"'' |
| 15 | -->-- "Absolutely Free" |
| 16 | |
| 17 | ''We're Only in It for the Money'' (recorded in 1967, released in 1968 through Creator/VerveRecords) is an album by The Mothers of Invention, and one of Music/FrankZappa's most famous and popular concept albums. A scathing attack on such 1960s topics as the flower power movement, police brutality, Music/TheBeatles, PsychedelicRock, the generation gap and the growing mass commercialization of pop music. In 2005, it was among the records selected by the UsefulNotes/NationalRecordingRegistry as "culturally, historically, and aesthetically important". |
| 18 | |
| 19 | Apart from this the album also has several instrumental ''musique concrete'' tracks and songs containing inside jokes about Zappa's band and friends. According to the liner notes the listener should read the story ''In the Penal Colony'' by Creator/FranzKafka first, before listening to the final track "The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny". |
| 20 | |
| 21 | When the album went into production, it originally had a different concept and direction. In fact, the entirety of ''Money'', ''Music/CruisingWithRubenAndTheJets'', the dialogue sessions from the reissue of ''Music/LumpyGravy'', and parts of ''Music/UncleMeat'' were recorded at the same New York sessions. Music/TheBeatles' ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'' album came out while the Mothers of Invention were recording the album, and Zappa decided to change the album's concept to parody that album because he felt that in the context of late-1960s America ([[UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement widespread rioting]], UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar) the Beatles' emphasis on "love" was [[SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids dangerously naive]]. The cover is particularly memorable for offering the UrExample of the SgtPeppersShoutOut. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | The album is the {{Trope Namer|s}} for OnlyInItForTheMoney. |
| 24 | ---- |
| 25 | !! Tracklist: |
| 26 | [[AC:Side One]] |
| 27 | # "Are You Hung Up?" (1:24) |
| 28 | # "Who Needs the Peace Corps?" (2:34) |
| 29 | # "Concentration Moon" (2:22) |
| 30 | # "Mom & Dad" (2:16) |
| 31 | # "Telephone Conversation" (0:49) |
| 32 | # "Bow Tie Daddy" (0:33) |
| 33 | # "Harry, You're a Beast" (1:21) |
| 34 | # "What's the Ugliest Part of Your Body?" (1:03) |
| 35 | # "Absolutely Free" (3:24) |
| 36 | # "Flower Punk" (3:03) |
| 37 | # "Hot Poop" (0:27) |
| 38 | |
| 39 | [[AC:Side Two]] |
| 40 | # "Nasal Retentive Calliope Music" (2:03) |
| 41 | # "Let's Make the Water Turn Black" (2:01) |
| 42 | # "The Idiot Bastard Son" (3:19) |
| 43 | # "Lonely Little Girl" (1:10) |
| 44 | # "Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance" (1:33) |
| 45 | # "What's the Ugliest Part of Your Body? (Reprise)" (1:02) |
| 46 | # "Mother People" (2:26) |
| 47 | # "The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny" (6:25) |
| 48 | ---- |
| 49 | !!Personnel: |
| 50 | * Music/FrankZappa: vocals, guitar, piano, composition |
| 51 | * Roy Estrada: vocals, electric bass |
| 52 | * Dick Barber: vocals (snorks) |
| 53 | * Bunk Gardner: woodwinds, vocals (mumbling) |
| 54 | * Gary Kellgren: vocals (cheerful interruptions) |
| 55 | * Billy Mundi: drums, vocals |
| 56 | * Don Preston: keyboards |
| 57 | * Jimmy Carl Black: drums, trumpet, vocals |
| 58 | * Jim "Motorhead" Sherwood: soprano, baritone sax |
| 59 | * Sid Sharp: conductor of the orchestral segments |
| 60 | * Ronnie Williams: vocals (backwards voice) |
| 61 | * Vicki: vocals (during "Telephone Conversation") |
| 62 | * Music/EricClapton: vocals (says "God, it's God. I see God" during "Nasal Retentive Calliope Music") |
| 63 | * Cal Schenkel: album cover design |
| 64 | ---- |
| 65 | !! "The Trope-Plated Megaphone of Destiny": |
| 66 | * AccentuateTheNegative: |
| 67 | --> ''Flower power sucks, sucks, sucks...'' |
| 68 | * ActuallyPrettyFunny: The Beatles, or at any rate Music/PaulMcCartney, thought that the album sleeve photo was hilarious. |
| 69 | * AlternateAlbumCover: The cover art was designed as an unflattering, yet very thorough SgtPeppersShoutOut, which Music/PaulMcCartney reportedly approved of. However, Creator/VerveRecords changed the cover at the last minute to swap the outer art with the gatefold photo, which depicts a plain image of the Mothers of Invention against a yellow background (as a riff on the ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'' gatefold photo). When Zappa regained the rights to his back-catalog in TheEighties, he had the inner and outer art swapped back to match his original intentions. |
| 70 | * AndIMustScream: The victims in the concentration camps in "Concentration Moon" and "The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny" |
| 71 | * ArtInitiatesLife: Some of the rumors about concentration camps for hippies turned out to have some truth in them. The satires of police brutality, which many people thought were over-the-top, also wound up coming true when the Kent State shootings happened a few years later. |
| 72 | * AudienceParticipation: In the liner notes Zappa asks the audience to read Creator/FranzKafka's ''In the Penal Colony'' before starting to listen to the final track. |
| 73 | * BawdySong: |
| 74 | ** Two people collecting urine and smearing boogers on windows in "Let's Make the Water Turn Black" |
| 75 | ** Rape in "Harry, You're a Beast" |
| 76 | ** "What's the Ugliest Part of Your Body?" sounds bawdy, but the answer turns out to be [[spoiler: your mind]] |
| 77 | * BigHandsomeMan: Billy Mundi and Roy Estrada in various places in the album art. |
| 78 | * BlackComedyRape: "Harry, You’re a Beast", where a guy named Harry ravages a woman named Madge. Though it is clear that Harry is a dumb asshole. |
| 79 | * BreakingTheFourthWall: "The Idiot Bastard Son": |
| 80 | --> ''The child will grow and enter the world of liars and cheaters and people like you\ |
| 81 | Who smile and think they know\ |
| 82 | What this is about\ |
| 83 | You think you know everything\ |
| 84 | Maybe so\ |
| 85 | The song we sing\ |
| 86 | Do you know\ |
| 87 | We're listening'' |
| 88 | * BrokenRecord: The infamous needle scratch sound on "Nasal Retentive Calliope Music." |
| 89 | * BodyHorror: "What's the Ugliest Part of Your Body?" [[spoiler: Answer: your mind]]. |
| 90 | * BornUnlucky: "The Idiot Bastard Son", whose father is a Nazi "in Congress today" and whose mother is "a hooker, somewhere in L.A.". He is abandoned by his parents in the back of a car and adopted by Ronnie and Kenny who "stash him away in a jar". |
| 91 | * CallBack and ContinuityNod: |
| 92 | ** The vegetables on the front cover are a CallBack to the vegetable concepts of ''Music/AbsolutelyFree (1967)''. ''Music/WereOnlyInItForTheMoney'' even has a track named "Absolutely Free". |
| 93 | ** "What's the Ugliest Part of Your Body?" is reprised later. |
| 94 | ** The quote "Hi, boys and girls. I'm Jimmy Carl Black and I'm the Indian of the group" first appears in the track "Are You Hung Up?" and is later reprised in "Concentration Moon". Also, on ''Music/UncleMeat'' Ian Underwood introduces himself as: "I'm Ian Underwood and I'm the straight member of the group." |
| 95 | ** Engineer Gary Kellgren contributes "creepy whispering," which can be heard in "Are You Hung Up?" and "Hot Poop." |
| 96 | ** In the liner notes Zappa asks the audience "Is this phase one of ''Lumpy Gravy''?", while he asked the opposite question in the album ''Music/LumpyGravy (1968)'': "Is this phase two of ''We're Only in It for the Money''?" |
| 97 | ** The classical piece heard in "Mother People" can also be heard on the album ''Music/LumpyGravy'', as does the line about "hair getting good in the back" in "Who Needs The Peace Corps?". The line "I can't wait 'til my 'fro is full grown" in "Uncle Remus" from ''Music/{{Apostrophe}} (1974)'' is also similar. |
| 98 | ** ''Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance'' appeared earlier on ''Music/LumpyGravy'', but without lyrics. On "Eddie Are You Kidding?" from ''Music/JustAnotherBandFromLA (1972)'' there is a line about "these pants I'm wearing are double knit. They stretch in the right places", which is similar to "who cares if you can't afford a pair of mother go-go stretch-o-lastic pants?" from "Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance." |
| 99 | ** The theme of cops killing hippies is continued in "Concentration Moon" and "Mom & Dad." |
| 100 | ** Zappa would re-use the phrase ''What's a girl like you doing in a place like this?'' in "Flower Punk" on ''Music/FillmoreEastJune1971'' (1971), ''Music/SheikYerbouti'' (1979), ''Music/JoesGarage'' (1979) and ''Music/ThingFish'' (1985). The band member fantasizing about his royalty check in "Flower Punk" shares a similar theme with Billy being happy about receiving his royalty check in "Billy the Mountain" from ''Music/JustAnotherBandFromLA''. |
| 101 | ** "Who Needs the Peace Corps?" is performed live by Zappa on ''Music/TheBestBandYouNeverHeardInYourLife'' (1991). |
| 102 | * TheCameo: |
| 103 | ** Music/JimiHendrix on the album cover, standing on the far left, around the same place Sonny Liston was in the Beatles' ''Sgt. Pepper''. And yes, it's really him, not some collage cut-out. |
| 104 | ** Music/EricClapton says "God, it's God. I see God" in "Nasal Retentive Calliope Music," and contributes clichéd stoner dialogue to "Are You Hung Up?". |
| 105 | * CensorBox: The collage cut-outs on the album cover have most of the eyes of the (then) living celebrities blackboxed. Zappa also played with this, by even blackboxing the eyes of UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson and the Art/StatueOfLiberty. |
| 106 | * ConceptAlbum: The album is both an attack on hippies, rock 'n' roll, commercialization of youth subculture, parents, American womanhood, police brutality, conformist squares and ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand''.[[note]]Zappa admitted years later that he actually quite liked a lot of the Beatles' music, he just hated how they were marketed, and he assumed at the time they really were chiefly in music for the money.[[/note]] |
| 107 | * CrapsackWorld: Hippies blindly follow trends and get tortured in concentration camps, police officers kill hippies, square parents don't care until they discover their daughter is one of them, American womanhood is empty and gets raped, idiot bastard sons gets born,... [[spoiler: No wonder that the ugliest part of you body is your mind.]] |
| 108 | * CreatorCameo: |
| 109 | --> ''Hello, Frank Zappa…...'' |
| 110 | * CoolAndUnusualPunishment: The person tortured in "The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny" |
| 111 | * CoversAlwaysLie: From judging the album cover and the art work within you might expect this album to be an entire musical and lyrical parody of ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'', but it's not. The only real similarity is that "A Day in the Life", just like "The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny" are both the closing track, both closing on one note slowly fading out at the end. |
| 112 | * CrossDresser: Other than Sherwood, all of the Mothers appear in drag in the album art. |
| 113 | * CrypticConversation: At various points on the album |
| 114 | * DarkComedy: See CrapsackWorld. |
| 115 | * DramaticThunder: On the album cover. |
| 116 | * {{Eagleland}}: The political material here is a definite Type 2. |
| 117 | * ElectronicSpeechImpediment: Sped-up voices can be hear regularly on the album, mostly [[PlayedForLaughs for comedic effect]]. |
| 118 | ** "Flower Punk" is entirely sped up. |
| 119 | ** "What's the Ugliest Part of Your Body?, Part 2" slowly starts slowing down near the end. |
| 120 | * EverybodyLaughsEnding: On the final track "The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny", characters laugh demonically with the fate of the tortured person. |
| 121 | * EvilLaugh: See above. |
| 122 | * EvilTwin: Some CD packages describe this album as "''Sgt. Pepper's'' evil twin". |
| 123 | * FaceOnTheCover: Zappa and the Mothers are featured on the album cover. |
| 124 | * FadingIntoTheNextSong: Each track - it's a gapless album. |
| 125 | * FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: The parents' daughter is shot by the cops too in "Mom & Dad." |
| 126 | * FartsOnFire: "Let's Make the Water Turn Black": |
| 127 | -->''Whizzing and pasting and pooting through the day\ |
| 128 | Ronnie helping Kenny burn his poots away'' |
| 129 | * FinalSolution: From "Concentration Moon": |
| 130 | -->''AMERICAN WAY\ |
| 131 | How did it start?\ |
| 132 | Thousands of creeps\ |
| 133 | Killed in the park'' |
| 134 | * FollowTheLeader: Mocked in "Who Needs the Peace Corps?", "Absolutely Free" and "Flower Punk", where it is shown that hippies are merely following a brainless commercial trend.[[invoked]] |
| 135 | * TheFutureWillBeBetter: 'Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance." |
| 136 | --> ''There will come a time when every evil that we know will be an evil that we can rise above'' |
| 137 | --> ''Rise above'' |
| 138 | * GenreRoulette: Like every Zappa album. |
| 139 | * GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion: The drum and bass parts of the original album, as well as those on ''Music/CruisingWithRubenAndTheJets'', were re-recorded in TheEighties. While Zappa claimed the original tapes were damaged, it is believed that he hated the original performances and wanted to update them to something more suitable (and also comical.) Despite fan outcry, Zappa chastised "collectors and purists" for their reverence of the original material. The original release was re-issued after his death by Rykodisc in 1995. |
| 140 | * GrossOutShow: "Let's Make The Water Turn Black". |
| 141 | * HumansAreBastards: See CrapsackWorld. |
| 142 | * InnerMonologueConversation: |
| 143 | ** Gary Kellgren's ranting about erasing Zappa's tapes in "Are You Hung Up?" and "Hot Poop." |
| 144 | ** Rock musicians fantasize about the amount of money and groupies they'll get after the show is over on "Flower Punk" |
| 145 | * IntercourseWithYou: Harry wants sex with Madge on the track "Harry, You’re a Beast" and gets his way. |
| 146 | * JumpScare: Near the end of the first track, before Jimmy Carl Black's line: "Hi boys and girls, I'm Jimmy Carl Black and I'm the Indian of the group." |
| 147 | * LackOfEmpathy: The parents in "Mum and Dad" who feel that the police is justified in killing creeps in the park, until they find out their daughter is one of them. |
| 148 | * LastNoteNightmare: "The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny", a nightmarish track that should be understood within the context of Creator/FranzKafka's ''Literature/InThePenalColony'' and closes the album. |
| 149 | * MisogynySong: "Harry, You're a Beast", directed at "American womanhood". |
| 150 | * MyCountryTisOfTheeThatISting: |
| 151 | ** "Concentration Moon" |
| 152 | --> ''American way'' |
| 153 | --> ''How did it start?'' |
| 154 | --> ''Thousands of creeps killed in the park...'' |
| 155 | ** "Harry, You're a Beast" |
| 156 | --> ''Your whole attitude stinks, I say'' |
| 157 | --> ''And the life you lead is completely empty'' |
| 158 | --> ''You paint your head'' |
| 159 | --> ''Your mind is dead'' |
| 160 | --> ''You don't even know what I just said'' |
| 161 | --> ''That's you, American womanhood.'' |
| 162 | ** "Flower Punk" |
| 163 | --> ''The youth in America today is so wonderful. I'm glad to be part of this gigantic mass deception.'' |
| 164 | ** "The Idiot Bastard Son" - |
| 165 | --> ''The father's a Nazi in Congress today/The mother's a hooker somewhere in L.A.'' |
| 166 | * NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: Camp Reagan, named after UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan. |
| 167 | * NewAgeRetroHippie: |
| 168 | --> [...] First I'll buy some beads,\ |
| 169 | And then perhaps a leather band to go around my head.\ |
| 170 | Some [[BraidsBeadsAndBuckskins feathers and bells, and a book of Indian lore]].\ |
| 171 | I will ask the Chamber of Commerce how to get to Haight Street,\ |
| 172 | [[MushroomSamba And smoke an awful lotta' dope]].\ |
| 173 | I will [[BarefootLoon wander around barefoot]].\ |
| 174 | I will have a [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} psychedelic gleam]] in my eye [[EnforcedTrope at all times]].\ |
| 175 | I will ''love'' everyone. I will ''love'' the police as they [[LyricalDissonance kick the shit out of me on the street]]... |
| 176 | * NonAppearingTitle: The album title is never mentioned in any of the lyrics. |
| 177 | * TheNotRemix: Frank remixed and re-recorded some parts of ''We're Only in It for the Money'' and ''Music/CruisingWithRubenAndTheJets'' in 1984 with New-Wave style instrumentation. Other songs were sped-up, slowed down or had other editing adjustments. Unsurprisingly, fans were pissed; as a result, Zappa's estate restored and released ''Money'' to its original form in 1995, while the original mix of ''Ruben'' wouldn't appear again until 2010. |
| 178 | * NudeNatureDance: "Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance". |
| 179 | * OneSceneTwoMonologues: Happens during "Flower Punk" where two rock musicians are having an ImagineSpot, without listening to each other. They just jam on without concentration and fantasize about all the money and girls they're going to get. Their only thought in unison is: "Is the song over?" |
| 180 | * OneWomanSong: "Lonely Little Girl" |
| 181 | * OnlyInItForTheMoney: The [[TropeNamers Trope Namer]] |
| 182 | * OutOfClothesExperience: "Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance" |
| 183 | * ParentalHypocrisy: The parents in "Mom & Dad" think that the "creeps" who were killed in the park by the cops got what they deserved, until they find out their daughter was among them. |
| 184 | * ParentalObliviousness: "Lonely Little Girl", "Mom & Dad", "Mother People", "Bow Tie Daddy"... |
| 185 | * TheParody[=/=]WholePlotReference: The album cover and inner sleeve spoof The Beatles' ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'' |
| 186 | ** "Flower Punk" specifically is a parody of "Hey Joe"; both the Music/JimiHendrix and Music/{{Love|Band}} versions. |
| 187 | * ProperlyParanoid: The entire album has a very paranoid feeling to it complete with many conspiracy theories and tracks frequently interrupted by snippets of mumbling people. |
| 188 | * ProtestSong: Against hippie commercialization, police brutality, corrupt politicians, American womanhoodn and square civilians. |
| 189 | * QuestioningTitle: "Are You Hung Up?", "What's the Ugliest Part of Your Body?" |
| 190 | * RageAgainstTheAuthor: "Are You Hung Up?" |
| 191 | --> ''One of these days I'm going to erase all the Zappa tapes in the world'' |
| 192 | * TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: "Mom and Dad", which calls out the parents who said the hippies deserved to get shot by the cops, when it's the parents' lack of concern and love for their children that played a huge role in it happening in the first place. |
| 193 | * RealLifeWritesThePlot: This is basically the definitive critique on the late-1960s. |
| 194 | ** Several people featured on the album cover were cut-out from Zappa's high school yearbook, namely some teachers, administrational staff and high school students. Other are personal colleagues and friends, such as secretary Pauline Butcher, graphic designer Cal Schenkel, his girlfriend Sandy Hurvitz, Zappa's father Francis, Zappa's then manager Herb Cohen and his daughter Lisa. |
| 195 | ** The lyrics in "Let's Make the Water Turn Black" are about two eccentric friends of Zappa's, Ronnie and Kenny Williams, who used to collect all their urine in a giant jar and smeared their boogers on the windows. |
| 196 | ** The line "Oh my hair's getting good in the back," in "Who Needs the Peace Corps?", is something Zappa heard a New York hippie say. |
| 197 | * RecordNeedleScratch: Near the end of "Nasal Retentive Calliope Music". |
| 198 | * ReCut: The album received two levels of censoring when it was originally sold, depending on the territory it was released: a censored version and a heavily censored version, which even cut swear words out of reversed portions. Several copies over the years have included songs from different versions on one disc. |
| 199 | * ReferenceOverdosed: |
| 200 | ** ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'' on the album cover and liner notes |
| 201 | ** The album cover shows images of UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson, UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein, Music/LudwigVanBeethoven, blues singer Big Mama Thornton, Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, Creator/RodSerling, Pope Paul III, John Zacherley (best known for his single "Dinner With Drac"), Eric Burdon (Music/TheAnimals), Music/DavidCrosby, Music/ElvisPresley, Music/NancySinatra, Creator/EdWynn, Creator/LonChaney in ''Film/ThePhantomOfTheOpera1925'' and Max Schreck (best known as Orlock in ''Film/{{Nosferatu}}''), Creator/SoupySales, Creator/ThedaBara and Music/CaptainBeefheart. |
| 202 | ** Owsley Stanley in "Who Needs the Peace Corps?". |
| 203 | ** Music/JimiHendrix' "Hey Joe" from ''Music/AreYouExperienced'' and The Troggs "Wild Thing" in "Flower Punk". |
| 204 | --> ''Hey punk, where are you going with that flower in your hand?'' |
| 205 | --> ''("Wild Thing" riff) Punk, I think I love you!'' |
| 206 | ** Donovan's song "Mellow Yellow" in "Absolutely Free". |
| 207 | --> ''The dreams as they live them are all mellow yellow'' |
| 208 | ** Ronny and Kenny Williams in "Let's Make the Water Turn Black" and "The Idiot Bastard Son". |
| 209 | ** Creator/LennyBruce in "Harry, You’re a Beast". |
| 210 | ** Creator/FranzKafka in the liner notes |
| 211 | * {{Sampling}}: The opening whispering from "Are You Hung Up?" returns again during "Concentration Moon". |
| 212 | * ScareChord: All throughout the album certain chords have this effect. |
| 213 | * ScunthorpeProblem: When Zappa went to the Netherlands for their equivalent of the UsefulNotes/{{Grammy Award}}s, he discovered that they had edited the line "And I still remember momma in her apron and her pad feeding all the boys at Ed's café" in "Let's Make the Water Turn Black" because they misunderstood the word ''pad'' (as in a completely harmless ''notepad'') and thought it referred to a ''sanitary napkin''. |
| 214 | * SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: "What's the Ugliest Part of Your Body?": |
| 215 | --> ''All your children are poor unfortunate victims of systems beyond their control\ |
| 216 | A plague upon your ignorance and the gray despair of your ugly life'' |
| 217 | * SgtPeppersShoutOut: The [[TropeNamers Trope Namer]] (indirectly). |
| 218 | * ShoutOut: |
| 219 | ** Music/JimiHendrix' "Hey Joe" from ''Music/AreYouExperienced'' on "Flower Punk" |
| 220 | ** Creator/LennyBruce's routine in "Harry, You're a Beast" |
| 221 | ** ''Literature/StrangerInAStrangeLand'' in "Absolutely Free". |
| 222 | ** In the album cover art inside the booklet a text balloon has Zappa say: "Between the buttons!" This is a reference to ''Music/BetweenTheButtons'' by Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}}, which was his favorite album by this band. He even deemed it superior to ''Sgt. Peppers''. |
| 223 | * ShroudedInMyth: Zappa's strange hand gestures on the back cover of the album, while Ian Underwood holds up a piece of paper. |
| 224 | * SingerNameDrop: |
| 225 | --> "Hello, Frank Zappa!" |
| 226 | --> "Hi boys and girls, I'm Jimmy Carl Black and I'm the Indian of the group". |
| 227 | * SpokenWordInMusic |
| 228 | * StageNames: "Hi, boys and girls, I'm Jimmy Carl Black and I'm the Indian of the group." |
| 229 | * Art/StatueOfLiberty: Seen on the album cover. |
| 230 | * StudioChatter: Various moments on this album. |
| 231 | * SurprisinglyGentleSong: "Lonely Little Girl", a gentle song about a lonely girl who feels ignored about her parents. Amidst all the other anti-flower power and PoliceBrutality comedy songs it sounds very moving, as short as it is. |
| 232 | * TakeThat: |
| 233 | ** Music/TheBeatles on the album cover |
| 234 | ** Hippies in "Who Needs the Peace Corps?", "Concentration Moon", and "Absolutely Free" |
| 235 | ** The commercialization of rock 'n' roll in the album title and the tracks "Absolutely Free" and "Flower Punk" |
| 236 | ** "American womanhood" is targeted in "Harry, You're a Beast" |
| 237 | ** The police in "Concentration Moon" and "Mom & Dad" |
| 238 | ** The U.S.A in "Mom & Dad" |
| 239 | ** Ignorant parents in "Bow Tie Daddy", "Mother People", "Lonely Little Girl", "Concentration Moon", and "Mom & Dad" |
| 240 | ** Gary Kellgren's line "And tomorrow I get to work with Music/TheVelvetUnderground, which is [[SelfDeprecation just a shitty a group as Frank Zappa's group...]]". It was cut on the general release version, but some vinyl copies contained this dialogue by mistake.[[note]]Depending on who's telling it, either Creator/VerveRecords didn't give the Velvets any money because of the presence of Creator/AndyWarhol, or they didn't give Zappa any money. Choose your favorite story, but, apparently, there was something of a feud between Zappa and Music/LouReed as a result. Gail, Zappa's widow, later unsuccessfully objected to the UsefulNotes/RockAndRollHallOfFame choosing Reed to induct Zappa in 1995.[[/note]] |
| 241 | * TakeThatAudience: The listener himself is attacked in "The Idiot Bastard Son" |
| 242 | * TimeMarchesOn: The album criticizes the hippie movement and Music/TheBeatles and therefore is both very dated and a document of its era at the same time. |
| 243 | * ToiletHumour: "Let's Make the Water Turn Black", about two friends of Zappa who smeared their nose drippings on a window and collected their urine in a jar. |
| 244 | * WhatsAnXLikeYouDoingInAYLikeThis?: Phrase heard during ''Flower Punk''. |
| 245 | * WholesomeCrossdresser: Zappa and his Mothers are all dressed in female dresses on the cover. FridgeBrilliance in the sense that the band's name is "The Mothers". |
| 246 | * WhoShotJFK: Lee Harvey Oswald and the cop who accompanied him to his cell when Oswald was murdered are seen on the album cover. |
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