this album had a lot of influence on the Beatles "seargent Pepper" album, and it is quite apparant in the tunes here. It is similar in a way, but obviously weirder and I would think much better than that overrated piece of work. For one thing, the arrangements are extremely good for their time, and it is so good that it holds up extremely well today even after 40 some years. Also, Zappa and his Mothers were self deprecating and brought a lot of social commentary through their work, while making fun of it with strange and delightful arrangements that, in their words, "were designed to get 12 year olds to like the band." But you don't have to be 12 to appreciate the genius of this album. I highly recommend it as a first purchase for those who are interested in Zappa, then get Hot Rats, Apostrophe, and Sheik Yerbouti for the best music he has to offer.

Pure Genius...and I dont use that term lightly...I think that The Mother of Inventions were the true "anti-Beatles", not the Rolling Stones.

This CD is great, but is nothing like Zappa's other albums. For one, it doesn't have 8 minute guitar solos in every song. Another reason is, it doesn't swear... AT ALL. (not necessarily bad though...), and it's not as strange.

But, it's strange enough. No matter how much he denies it, half of these songs are popular, commercial 60's sounding. The other half are crazy tongue-in-cheek. One song is 12 minutes long with nothing but percussion, yelps, gibberish, and screaming of the words, "Cream cheese!"

So, in a nutshell, just get it

I was in the Seminary in Richmond,Va. I was 15 and the priest who taught Latin and Spanish was a crazy man very impressed with this album. My formative mind was deftly and definitely warped by this album...I was never the same. I believe I can sing most of the songs from this album although it's been 25 years since I've heard any of it. I can't describe this album musically or historically. I can say that it is funny and extremely well done and the quality is something that was so visual...well since it was my first album, I sort of expected all music to be this way or at least all rock and roll. It took a while to figure out that it was the genius of Frank that made this album so special.
I think there is more than sarcasm in his critic of the musical and social times, you can find out what that other is for yourself if you can...By the way, Frank, I told everyone I ran into that Mr. GreenJeans was your dad, even though I didn't believe it. Love, WPB.

The court-jester of the rock and roll world brings the stark reality of 1960' U.S. suburbia to your stereo. TV dinners, race riots and the mass slaughter of freaks - the REAL 1960's IN YOUR FACE.