I think he was basically oposed to hippism because of the drug abuse. He rarely took drugs (booze and tobacco apart) and had many clashes with other members of the band because of that question.
Great lyrics...Great album...had the LP when I was a teen (got it from a friend of mine who's father was a reverend) as well as the hippie counterpart album from the Beatles...I still have the advise stored somewhere in my mind...'you'll be absolutely free, only if you want to be'....etc...
The audio quality is crap. Its compressed all to hell.
But its just good to hear this again. I didnt live thru the hippie days, but I understand. I guess the modern day equivalent would be new agers, hip hop clones, boy band groupies, American Idol fetishists and fashionistas.
Zappa was amazingly bizzarre. An American original.
@fheisk i wanna buy this on vinyl so bad cause the way music was recorded back in those exciting days nothing compares to the sound of true pure vinyl bro
@jacobladders i was lucky my best friend in highschool, his dad had all sorts of great albums from the 60s and 70s on vynil... not just zappa records but yes, emerson lake & palmer, all sorts. nowadays i rarely listen to that stuff but if i do it's very nostalgic.
@fheisk thats fucking awesome man the music today fucking blows goat balls nothing like the original previous creative decades of making amazing music of all sorts,nowadays record labels pump garbage really sad if you ask me no drive whatsoever
Edgard Varese would have been proud of Zappas openmindedness and willingness to experiment and as we all know... to think outside the box. I'm so glad Frank followed his passion to make music. The world and I are better because of it.
What Zappa was trying to do was tell the people it's okay to be you and enjoy what YOU do and so he did it and made it work. Simple and clean. I once seen Zappa give a man the short off his back and that is becasue he was frank Zappa and cared about you. Not toop many musicians do that except Elvis and he to his dead.
@alrozz It happen to my friend and his name is Frank too how ironic, but it was Frank who got the shirt from Zappa and then Zapp flipped him the bird. That's Zappa all the way!
The main reason he says "Flower power sucks" in my opinion is not so much that he hated hippies (his main audience btw) as he wanted to be different and do different things - not follow the herd mentality. That was pretty radical at the time, since everybody was all dreamy-eyed and starry-headed....to just say "aaah you and your flowers suck" lol - it's very funny I think. LOL. and really grounded compared to what was happening.
Uh, it seems a bit more scathing than just a joke among good friends. Seems to me Frank Zappa did not like Hippies at all for rejecting social responsibility (the Peace Corp) in favor of an idiotic lifestyle (a lot of dope and crabs).
@LubricatedSquirm But one has to remember again that the hippies were also his main audience. And he knew that. This was a specific parody of Sgt. Pepper - all the references were references that the hippie community would get. It was written for them, but also making fun of them. Personally, I agree he did not at all identify with the hippies. Among those who worked with him, he wasn't nearly as "anti-drug" as made out to be (tho he did not partake) Check out The Mothers doc on Netflix.
yo django do your homework dweezil was born in 1970 woiiftm was released in 68 and frank didnt do lsd or any of that shite also just cause your teacher didnt imbibe had nothing to do with what franks general was and still is do some research holmes
@Django5198 That's misinformation. His personal choice was not to do drugs. To say he was anti-drug is a stretch. It ain't so. I'm speaking as someone who sat in the control room at Apostolic when this was a work in progress. It's a fact that if someone wanted to smoke a joint when Frank was around, they were asked to leave the studio. But let's get real. I'm not about to name who liked drugs in Frank's entourage. Why would anyone? If you think they all were pee tested, I've got news for you.
@Django5198 No, Richard Kunc and David Baker were the engineers. My friend John Kilgore was an apprentice back in '67 and I visited when he'd invite me. I did get to watch Frank do some solo recording from the control room, and had a very goofy conversation with him once. You're right of course that he was disgusted with people for whom drugs were their life focus, but generally he was an iconoclast and a lot of people who hung out in that scene were pretty radical, if Frank was more reserved.
Frank Zappa seemed to like to make fun of life with his music while making fun of his own music at the same time. I guess that that is what you can do when you are absolutely free.
Zappa hated non-productivity, spiritual nonsense, drug use [except for his preferred coffee and cigarettes] and sexual exploitation hidden under the label of 'free love.'
The album said Absolutely Free so I stole it off the record store. Hahahaha just kidding but what can you expect if you name your album Absolutely Free.
As much as I like Frank I kinda think he was being a bit too stereotypical on hippies here. My history teacher was a serious hippie. But she didn't do drugs cause she believed that it was not gonna save the world. She did loads of charity work and was a really great person. No slacker or stoner but just a really supportive human being. Every time we walked into her room she was wearing tie dye and blasting out Hendrix or something. Held a lot of fun charity events for the school to.
@Django5198 That is what humor is all about: Using stereotypes, don´t take songs that serious or you´ll be sick pretty soon. He likes to laugh at the generaly accepted way of thinking of his era. Think of Zappa´s Lonesome Cowboy Burt, You Are What You Is, He´s So Gay, Disco Boy, etc.
@miceskin No way man she was so open. She didn't like the headmaster (he was an asshole) and really was not afraid to tell her class that. She told us that she did do drugs when she was younger but not loads.
An open, open, mind is that of an advanced thinker. The problem with Frank's stuff is that it doesn't instantly jib with the accepted sound of the majority of the weightless pablum out there. He spoke of "playing the game" in politics and music (post 1980s) and not being willing to do so. Thank God he was around in the 60s and 70s. Today he might have never materialized on the scene. We can thank our lucky stars we have all this great stuff. Here's to your vast and open mind, Frank.
Its funny that Zappa became more and more similar to people he opposed to. He laughed about hippies but established his own commune. He was against all authorities but was the total dictator in his band. He critisized psychedelic music but, to be honest, invented it himself in 1966!
@SonofJaphet i think Zappa opposed the hippie 'movement' because of what it stood for which was a childish, unrealistic cause. i think the movement was just an excuse for people to get together, do drugs, listen to music, and rebel against what everyone considered to be normal during that time, which doesnt sound all that bad unless you have any serious life goals you'd like to achieve. but now that i say that, frank zappa did go against the seemingly conventional ways of life and he's a legend.
I had the Soviet exchange students who dropped by my folks' house smuggle in this tune behind the iron curtain. It was sandwiched between other tunes they requested. They loved this tune and they kept asking me to record other American songs. This went on for about 20 years and I enjoyed doing it . Other songs were: "Who Are The Brain Police" by the Mothers of Invention; "I'm Free" by The Who and "I Feel Free" by the Cream. They liked Fats Domino, Billy Preston, and Ray Charles too !! :D
@UnwrittenPaul It's not flower power that sucks, I personally like them little lillies very much, hahaha, what sucks is them buggers called "hippies" with their fake ideal of freedom in the front and the fascistic communes in the back. Why could german fascists in the early 70ies suddenly think about collaborating with the RAF in Lebanon sited terror school camps, he?
@inspiralroses People who smoke pot, in my opinion, are just like anybody else, but better. We think about many crazy things and have groups of close friends who spend time smiling and laughing. I usually go in beautiful trances and I feel better as a person. And i still live life and work very hard, there is a bold line between a pot smoker and a stoner. I would rather be high and love life rather than bitching about everything and hate on people who are happy with themselves.
@skovie23232 Okay with that. What disturbs me is rather the fake idea of freedom behind it all. Cause in my opinion, as soon as you're born, you're not free anymore. And freedom was what Hippies carried on their flag. Nonetheless, in the background, their communes were highly structured, not to say organized and as such always totalitaristic. That's why they were asses. They worshipped what they were not!!! Sorry to have upset you, btw.
@skovie23232 Hehehe, verrrrrry good, that one!!! The only way I didn't take it was IV, btw. And which is the way YOU avoided until now? I understand you as well.
...FLOWER POWER SUCKS...
hejafish 1 week ago
@hejafish FLOWER POWER SUCK's HA HA LOL
DrewAnti1960 1 week ago
It's amazing he was making this kind of music without being on drugs! Nice.
seasonedsevencolors 3 weeks ago
@seasonedsevencolors cuz he was insane.
swed420kid69 2 weeks ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Have your own music or band thats unique and want some feedback or more connections let me hear it!!!!
MUSICALTRONS 1 month ago
Esta canción es perfecta para empezar un día nuevo después de haber estado cagado!
mitale1 1 month ago
yeah rip motorhead ....
oldmanwyatt 2 months ago
RIP Motorhead
comikdebris 2 months ago
I think he was basically oposed to hippism because of the drug abuse. He rarely took drugs (booze and tobacco apart) and had many clashes with other members of the band because of that question.
thisisnotzimbabwe 3 months ago
Zappa's fans were hippies and he knew it...
hesteaeble 4 months ago
Great lyrics...Great album...had the LP when I was a teen (got it from a friend of mine who's father was a reverend) as well as the hippie counterpart album from the Beatles...I still have the advise stored somewhere in my mind...'you'll be absolutely free, only if you want to be'....etc...
Jofph 4 months ago
Still relevant today!
beetlebum1990 4 months ago
franks best this song fucking rules
grinhousekiller 4 months ago in playlist Frank Zappa-Were only in it for the money
This is the best therapy.
Ruuch666 4 months ago
The audio quality is crap. Its compressed all to hell.
But its just good to hear this again. I didnt live thru the hippie days, but I understand. I guess the modern day equivalent would be new agers, hip hop clones, boy band groupies, American Idol fetishists and fashionistas.
Zappa was amazingly bizzarre. An American original.
7Beyonder 5 months ago
wow o wow. We should have escaped the corporate logo before the big banks took all the money.
mermaidcandy 5 months ago
this is what my real live started with hahahaha
TheRachzerack 5 months ago
Mellow Yellow. A reference to Donovan?
sdgakatbk 5 months ago
@sdgakatbk yep, and here's another one: watch?v=RLcQG6utIIA
jfleminator 5 months ago
it sounds so awful on youtube, it sounded so much better on vinyl... so much detail is lost :(
fheisk 6 months ago
@fheisk i wanna buy this on vinyl so bad cause the way music was recorded back in those exciting days nothing compares to the sound of true pure vinyl bro
jacobladders 4 months ago
@jacobladders i was lucky my best friend in highschool, his dad had all sorts of great albums from the 60s and 70s on vynil... not just zappa records but yes, emerson lake & palmer, all sorts. nowadays i rarely listen to that stuff but if i do it's very nostalgic.
fheisk 4 months ago
@fheisk thats fucking awesome man the music today fucking blows goat balls nothing like the original previous creative decades of making amazing music of all sorts,nowadays record labels pump garbage really sad if you ask me no drive whatsoever
jacobladders 4 months ago
Thank-you again.
pfaffman100 6 months ago
Edgard Varese would have been proud of Zappas openmindedness and willingness to experiment and as we all know... to think outside the box. I'm so glad Frank followed his passion to make music. The world and I are better because of it.
MrMyfmyf 7 months ago 3
To me, this song was always a tribute to Robert Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land." You'll find much of the wording in that 1961 novel. Grok?
Renorick722 7 months ago 2
WAH WAH
mpauger15 8 months ago
NOTHING is Absolutely Free.
clockworkplumbs 8 months ago
@clockworkplumbs Get it?
clockworkplumbs 8 months ago
This is music from the warden for the prisoners. See the vegetables on the cover?
clockworkplumbs 8 months ago
What Zappa was trying to do was tell the people it's okay to be you and enjoy what YOU do and so he did it and made it work. Simple and clean. I once seen Zappa give a man the short off his back and that is becasue he was frank Zappa and cared about you. Not toop many musicians do that except Elvis and he to his dead.
alrozz 8 months ago
@alrozz It happen to my friend and his name is Frank too how ironic, but it was Frank who got the shirt from Zappa and then Zapp flipped him the bird. That's Zappa all the way!
alrozz 8 months ago
The main reason he says "Flower power sucks" in my opinion is not so much that he hated hippies (his main audience btw) as he wanted to be different and do different things - not follow the herd mentality. That was pretty radical at the time, since everybody was all dreamy-eyed and starry-headed....to just say "aaah you and your flowers suck" lol - it's very funny I think. LOL. and really grounded compared to what was happening.
huff1971 9 months ago
@huff1971
Uh, it seems a bit more scathing than just a joke among good friends. Seems to me Frank Zappa did not like Hippies at all for rejecting social responsibility (the Peace Corp) in favor of an idiotic lifestyle (a lot of dope and crabs).
LubricatedSquirm 8 months ago
@LubricatedSquirm But one has to remember again that the hippies were also his main audience. And he knew that. This was a specific parody of Sgt. Pepper - all the references were references that the hippie community would get. It was written for them, but also making fun of them. Personally, I agree he did not at all identify with the hippies. Among those who worked with him, he wasn't nearly as "anti-drug" as made out to be (tho he did not partake) Check out The Mothers doc on Netflix.
huff1971 8 months ago 2
I would love to hear what frank zappa would create under the influence of LSD.
To be sober & writing music of this level, is a genuine talent.
spider18241 10 months ago
@spider18241 He would probably have gotten way ahead of himself if he took drugs.
FetaCheese222 9 months ago
Didn't need any drugs, just wild creativity!
Theakker3 10 months ago 3
This has been flagged as spam show
He didnt forget. I think he is just making fun of everyone.
What if it means to leave the mental institution on the outside and get comitted to the one on the inside?
clockworkplumbs 1 year ago
He didnt forget. I think he is just making fun of everyone.
What if it means to leave the mental institution on the outside and get comitted to the one on the inside..
clockworkplumbs 1 year ago 2
Comment removed
clockworkplumbs 1 year ago
I thought he said to discoporate?
But you are all on youtube watching videos?
Whats going on here?
clockworkplumbs 1 year ago
@clockworkplumbs
yeah, but Frank forgot to say how - :(
SupernalOne 1 year ago
zappa was born, rock was invented
zappa got technical, metal was invented
zappa got old, classical was reinvented
zappa died, rock died
kevsterater313 1 year ago 35
@kevsterater313 You're looney.
Khultan 11 months ago 2
yo django do your homework dweezil was born in 1970 woiiftm was released in 68 and frank didnt do lsd or any of that shite also just cause your teacher didnt imbibe had nothing to do with what franks general was and still is do some research holmes
jackzapp57 1 year ago
@jackzapp57 I never said Frank did acid. He was incredibly anti-drugs and we all know that. Dweezil was born in 69 btw (I did look it up. Honest). :)
Django5198 1 year ago
@Django5198 That's misinformation. His personal choice was not to do drugs. To say he was anti-drug is a stretch. It ain't so. I'm speaking as someone who sat in the control room at Apostolic when this was a work in progress. It's a fact that if someone wanted to smoke a joint when Frank was around, they were asked to leave the studio. But let's get real. I'm not about to name who liked drugs in Frank's entourage. Why would anyone? If you think they all were pee tested, I've got news for you.
yogione 11 months ago
@yogione Jesus christ did you produce?!!!!!!
Django5198 11 months ago
@Django5198 No, Richard Kunc and David Baker were the engineers. My friend John Kilgore was an apprentice back in '67 and I visited when he'd invite me. I did get to watch Frank do some solo recording from the control room, and had a very goofy conversation with him once. You're right of course that he was disgusted with people for whom drugs were their life focus, but generally he was an iconoclast and a lot of people who hung out in that scene were pretty radical, if Frank was more reserved.
yogione 11 months ago
@yogione If you drug tested all 435 members of Congress and the boards of directors of the Fortune 500 companies the results would be scandalous.
ukkfayooyay 9 months ago 3
Frank Zappa seemed to like to make fun of life with his music while making fun of his own music at the same time. I guess that that is what you can do when you are absolutely free.
gondwanalon 1 year ago 5
Zappa hated non-productivity, spiritual nonsense, drug use [except for his preferred coffee and cigarettes] and sexual exploitation hidden under the label of 'free love.'
Fake counterculture, basically.
HonusToThe5 1 year ago 16
The album said Absolutely Free so I stole it off the record store. Hahahaha just kidding but what can you expect if you name your album Absolutely Free.
BobbyDelRiv 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Be Naughty lady Travel around the world benaughtyman.info
jenitadias 1 year ago
As much as I like Frank I kinda think he was being a bit too stereotypical on hippies here. My history teacher was a serious hippie. But she didn't do drugs cause she believed that it was not gonna save the world. She did loads of charity work and was a really great person. No slacker or stoner but just a really supportive human being. Every time we walked into her room she was wearing tie dye and blasting out Hendrix or something. Held a lot of fun charity events for the school to.
Django5198 1 year ago
@Django5198 That is what humor is all about: Using stereotypes, don´t take songs that serious or you´ll be sick pretty soon. He likes to laugh at the generaly accepted way of thinking of his era. Think of Zappa´s Lonesome Cowboy Burt, You Are What You Is, He´s So Gay, Disco Boy, etc.
Ptitchicken 1 year ago
@Django5198 she probably just didn't tell you guys she did mad drugs because she was your teacher.
miceskin 1 year ago
@miceskin No way man she was so open. She didn't like the headmaster (he was an asshole) and really was not afraid to tell her class that. She told us that she did do drugs when she was younger but not loads.
Django5198 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
My name is Mike from LA Although there busizz4me.info
amlisaduni 1 year ago
susie creamcheese
OceanderTethyseus 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Sexy Be Naughty women benaughtyman.info
mauminelunika 1 year ago
An open, open, mind is that of an advanced thinker. The problem with Frank's stuff is that it doesn't instantly jib with the accepted sound of the majority of the weightless pablum out there. He spoke of "playing the game" in politics and music (post 1980s) and not being willing to do so. Thank God he was around in the 60s and 70s. Today he might have never materialized on the scene. We can thank our lucky stars we have all this great stuff. Here's to your vast and open mind, Frank.
probrojeffro 1 year ago 4
Its funny that Zappa became more and more similar to people he opposed to. He laughed about hippies but established his own commune. He was against all authorities but was the total dictator in his band. He critisized psychedelic music but, to be honest, invented it himself in 1966!
the13er 1 year ago 2
This has been flagged as spam show
It is a good day try to find good Russain girl gettop5.info
tissa4387 1 year ago
Zappa knew that the Hippy movement was financed by the C.I.A. thats why he considered this movement to be fake
SonofJaphet 1 year ago 2
@SonofJaphet i think Zappa opposed the hippie 'movement' because of what it stood for which was a childish, unrealistic cause. i think the movement was just an excuse for people to get together, do drugs, listen to music, and rebel against what everyone considered to be normal during that time, which doesnt sound all that bad unless you have any serious life goals you'd like to achieve. but now that i say that, frank zappa did go against the seemingly conventional ways of life and he's a legend.
azurenscens 1 year ago 7
@SonofJaphet Lol....
ClockworkRevolution 1 year ago
Hippies saved the world!
Ejacka 1 year ago
I had the Soviet exchange students who dropped by my folks' house smuggle in this tune behind the iron curtain. It was sandwiched between other tunes they requested. They loved this tune and they kept asking me to record other American songs. This went on for about 20 years and I enjoyed doing it . Other songs were: "Who Are The Brain Police" by the Mothers of Invention; "I'm Free" by The Who and "I Feel Free" by the Cream. They liked Fats Domino, Billy Preston, and Ray Charles too !! :D
Nguli34689 1 year ago 2
@Nguli34689 Except The Who and Cream aren't American.
FetaCheese222 1 year ago
wah wah!
mandobanjoguitar 1 year ago 3
Like all of Frank's music, painfully beautiful.
squanto2 1 year ago 4
The present day composer refuses to die!
laylacalif 1 year ago
kinda reminds me of Jethro Tull
A year after they formed though, doubt it was a parody of them
CrimsonSteel 1 year ago
discorporate from your stamp albums!
tuffymouseart49 1 year ago
best song on album..so awesome
equallyeasilyfuqyou 1 year ago
Flower power sucks 1:16
Nguli34689 2 years ago 3
Sound movies from sonic surrealists.
Great little twists and touches!
Zapple!
voidforpurpose 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
The rest of the band should have held him down and forced 500 mics down his throat.......... Flower power doesn't suck.
Aldebaron9 2 years ago
@Aldebaron9 Flower power succeeded only in popularizing denim. The average hippie now drives an SUV.
seenherdressedinblue 2 years ago 3
The first word in this song is 'discorporate'. It means to leave your body.
"Discorporate..."
ClassicRockSovereign 2 years ago 7
You all do know the timing is a waltz ?
Zappa was a flippin genius
vegasshowgirlshoes 2 years ago 6
@vegasshowgirlshoes What is so genius about a waltz tempo (no offence)?
Reint25 1 year ago 3
First three Mothers albums were the soundtrack to my tripping! Hippies were lovely but completely lacked a concept how to change the world.
UJ96LFA 2 years ago 10
haha I approve but Zappa wouldn't
MusicIan423 2 years ago
Great sound quality! I'll check out your channel.
mickindanny 2 years ago
Flower Power SUCKS!!!
UnwrittenPaul 2 years ago 86
how would you know ?
Aldebaron9 2 years ago
@UnwrittenPaul It's not flower power that sucks, I personally like them little lillies very much, hahaha, what sucks is them buggers called "hippies" with their fake ideal of freedom in the front and the fascistic communes in the back. Why could german fascists in the early 70ies suddenly think about collaborating with the RAF in Lebanon sited terror school camps, he?
inspiralroses 1 year ago
@inspiralroses ...you are stupid.
squanto2 1 year ago
@squanto2 maybe, but at least, I am something, which cannot be said about you, pothead.
inspiralroses 1 year ago
@inspiralroses People who smoke pot, in my opinion, are just like anybody else, but better. We think about many crazy things and have groups of close friends who spend time smiling and laughing. I usually go in beautiful trances and I feel better as a person. And i still live life and work very hard, there is a bold line between a pot smoker and a stoner. I would rather be high and love life rather than bitching about everything and hate on people who are happy with themselves.
skovie23232 1 year ago
@skovie23232 Okay with that. What disturbs me is rather the fake idea of freedom behind it all. Cause in my opinion, as soon as you're born, you're not free anymore. And freedom was what Hippies carried on their flag. Nonetheless, in the background, their communes were highly structured, not to say organized and as such always totalitaristic. That's why they were asses. They worshipped what they were not!!! Sorry to have upset you, btw.
inspiralroses 1 year ago
@inspiralroses You have to smoke it to understand it, so I totally understand why you say what you do.
skovie23232 1 year ago
@skovie23232 Hehehe, verrrrrry good, that one!!! The only way I didn't take it was IV, btw. And which is the way YOU avoided until now? I understand you as well.
inspiralroses 1 year ago
@UnwrittenPaul Try the Brown acid. Susie Cream cheese is waiting for you in the tool shed.
crawlinblind 1 year ago 2
@UnwrittenPaul Hey, I was going to say that!
Theakker3 1 year ago
Comment removed
harkrum 1 year ago
@UnwrittenPaul Poppies or daisies?
HolliValsMusic 1 year ago
@UnwrittenPaul that's way Zappa wrote Flower Punk
divineprocess 6 months ago
probably one of the history of mankind's best album's too!! FZ ,RIP-you will never be forgotten!!!!
jonesowski 2 years ago 8
Comment removed
UnwrittenPaul 2 years ago
this certainly blew my mind
branfransisco9 2 years ago
Best. Song. Ever.
TiniNormi 2 years ago 35