"Absolutely Free" is a song written by

Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American guitarist, composer, and bandleader. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestra ...

and released on the Mothers of Invention album '' We're Only in It for the Money'' in 1968. The song is not to be confused with the Mothers of Invention album of the same name.

Lyrics and censorship

Like many of the songs on ''We're Only in It for the Money'', "Absolutely Free" criticizes the

hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture of the mid-1960s to early 1970s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States and spread to dif ...

movement and the Summer of Love. The song's lyrics are a parody of

psychedelia Psychedelia usually refers to a Aesthetics, style or aesthetic that is resembled in the psychedelic subculture of the 1960s and the psychedelic experience produced by certain psychoactive substances. This includes psychedelic art, psychedelic ...

, especially the idea of expanding one's consciousness through the use of drugs. To this end, the song frequently mentions the word "discorporate", which is explained by Zappa in the spoken introduction to the song ("The first word in this song is discorporate. It means to leave your body"). "Discorporate" plays heavily in Robert Heinlein's science fiction novel '' Stranger in a Strange Land'', which was very popular among hippies and provided the muse for several songs by

Jefferson Airplane Jefferson Airplane was an American Rock music, rock band formed in San Francisco, California, in 1965. One of the pioneering bands of psychedelic rock, the group defined the San Francisco Sound and was the first from the San Francisco Bay Area, ...

. The lyrics also reference the song "

Mellow Yellow "Mellow Yellow" is a song written and recorded by Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. Released in the US in 1966, it reached No. 2 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Outside the US, "Mellow Yellow" peaked at No. 8 in the UK in early 1967. Content ...

" by singer-songwriter

Donovan Donovan Phillips Leitch (born 10 May 1946), known mononymously as Donovan, is a Scottish musician, songwriter and record producer. He emerged from the British folk scene in early 1965 and subsequently scored multiple international hit singles ...

, who is often associated with the hippie movement ("The dreams as they live them are all mellow yellow"). On some pressings of the album, especially on earlier releases, two lines of the lyrics were censored. The first is the sentence "I don't do publicity balling for you anymore", uttered at the very beginning of the song by the character of Suzy Creamcheese. The word "balling" was cut from this line. The other line that was censored ("Flower power sucks!") was cut entirely.Phase 315 of WOIIFTM censorship
. ''Zappa Vinyl Labels: Stuff Up the Cracks''. Retrieved January 27, 2010.

Musical structure

The song starts off with a piano intro, followed by a brief spoken part containing the aforementioned utterances by Zappa and Suzy Creamcheese. From then on, the song proper begins, a Waltz featuring a

harpsichord A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. Depressing a key raises its back end within the instrument, which in turn raises a mechanism with a small plectrum made from quill or plastic that plucks one ...

, acoustic guitar, and a heavy use of

reverb In acoustics, reverberation (commonly shortened to reverb) is a persistence of sound after it is produced. It is often created when a sound is reflected on surfaces, causing multiple reflections that build up and then decay as the sound is a ...

and other

sound effects A sound effect (or audio effect) is an artificially created or enhanced sound, or sound process used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media. In m ...

, which give the song a pseudo- psychedelic feel.

References

External links

* ''AllMusic'' review of the songbr>Explanation and debate about the song's lyrics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Absolutely Free (Song) Frank Zappa songs 1968 songs Songs written by Frank Zappa Experimental rock songs Song recordings produced by Frank Zappa Songs about hippies