With all due respect to the Amazon reviewer above...he may be one of the vegetables Zappa is referring to in "Call Any Vegetable" ("...and the chances are good...that the vegetable will respond to you...) if he is truly unable to respond to a brilliant and timeless array of great music, biting satire, and screamingly funny lyrics like "Absolutely Free." "Freak Out," by comparison, is a wonderful but profoundly uneven effort; while "We're Only In It For The Money" is an angry, lame and embittered polemic (Zappa's "artistic zenith"? More like his nadir).
Meanwhile....WHY has Amazon suddenly stopped stating which of these CD's have been REMASTERED? What is the reason? Is there a reason? Is there a GOOD reason?

I found the vinyl version over 20 years ago. This album still represents for me one of Zappa's absolute best. From begining to end it is flawless. It is especially meaningful to those my age (46) and a bit older who have strong memories of the time period. If you buy the CD version, play it without Big Leg Emma and Why Don'tcha Do Me Right (neither on the vinyl). While good songs, they just don't fit the homogeneous feel of the rest of the work.
Put on the headphones and marvel at the quality of this mid-sixties excercise in studio wizardry. See if you can find the bit taken from Stravinsky's Rites of Spring. And for a true Zappaphile it is a treasure trove of "continuity" references. Get this album!!

Upon first hearing this album, I thought it sounded a little sloppy. After listening to it a few more times, i started thinking that maybe this "sloppiness" was part of the appeal. Finally I realized that it wasn't sloppy, but just really fun.
"Absolutely Free" is a favorite among the Mothers, and I can see why. It sounds like they really had a lot of fun recording this album. But DON'T GET ME WRONG: "Absolutely Free" is an example of true greatness. With classics like "Plastic People" and "Call Any Vegetable," it's hard not to like this album. Especially when Ray Collins' voice sounds so darn good!
It also features "Brown Shoes Don't Make It," the seven minute progressive piece that was the song that first made me recognize Zappa's sheer genius. HOWEVER, in my personal opinion, the "Tinseltown Rebellion" version of this song is better, because it makes more sense rhythmically and i think it's closer to Frank's original intention for the song. Though on "Absolutely Free," you get to hear it sung by the Mothers. I particularly enjoy Jimmy Carl Black's vocal contribution. Why didn't Frank let him sing more often?
All in all, this is an EXCELLENT album. Although it's not QUITE as good as "We're Only in it for the Money," in my opinion it's better than "Freak Out!" You need this album if you want to truly understand the Mothers. A perfect "ten."

Another great Frank Zappa album. The music is topnotch (especially "Brown Shoes don't make it") and the albums lyrics range from pure silliness (Duke of Prunes) to extreme cynicism like "Uncle bernie's Farm," which includes this dialogue:

"FZ: We got this car: when it hits the wall you see the guy dying . . . got the little plastic puddles of blood . . . by the car
I'M DREAMING . . .
Ray: He has intestines . . . he has plastic intestines you can
stuff back into his stomach . . ."

Everything is plastic (fake, cheesy, american) including the guy's intestines. So incredibly cynical and conceptual that it deserves respect simply for its brilliance!

I have this on Vinyl. Get the Vinyl version, the way it was originally intended.

Out of the first 3 MOI albums, this is my personal fav. Plastic People, Duke of Prunes, Brown Shoes Don't Make It, I could go on for hours. The cd contains 2 tracks not on the original release.