We're Only In It For The Money

I have to apologise to Frank Zappa but I simply don’t get this one, random non-musical noises and vocals throughout. I listened to this on a flight and there was a kid who shat himself screaming like he was being exorcised and I thought it was part of the album. (I wish this was a lie)

Frank Zappa is really sticking it to big Good Music on this one

???????? i much prefer zappa when he.... actually tries to play the guitar and make interesting music. like, this music is experimental and satirical, but to no end. maybe i don't get it? i feel like i do get it, but just don't like it. what a boring bit. satire has evolved so much past this point. this is irony-poisoned nonsense. there are moments where i chuckle, but it's not enough to hold up an album that just doesn't hit the mark.

Aggressively juvenile. I guess once had to be there to get the joke. I wasn't, and I don't

тоже немного психоделичное 60е ее whats the ugliest Party of your body

Let me take a minute to tell you my friend…this was a super interesting album that I’ll probably never listen to again. 😂

I mean for a Zappa album, this is better than many. You know the father of Dwezel and Moon Unit is gonna bring the weird and this one has it in spades. The odd conversational chatter really stood out to me. Overall, it's like art at a museum where you look at it and think Well I wouldn't want it in my house, but I'm glad it exists. Like that.

The fuck is this shit? It's not making any kind of statement, so it doesn't even feel like an art piece. It's just a bunch of stupid unfunny skits and noises that they've released and called an album. It's like the secret track you find at the end of a normal album where they're just messing about with a personal in-joke or two, only, you know, doing that for the whole thing. This is utterly embarrassing and they should all be ashamed of themselves.

Maybe when this came out it was earth shattering and cool and trippy. Now it just sucks.

It thinks of itself as satire, but it’s just a cynical asshole calling everyone else dumb because it thinks that no one else is as enlightened as them. Squares: dumb. Hippies: dumb. People who enjoy listening to music: dumb.

No

I’m quite apprehensive about this album. Having heard only one Frank Zappa album before, I go into this with pretty low hopes. I actually went back to look at my last review for Joe’s Garage, and I’m surprised I rated it as highly as I did, because I thought I didn’t like it. I guess I was wrong and I just have a bad memory. Songs I already knew: none Favourites: Absolutely Free I don’t think it’s any exaggeration to say that this album was absolutely awful. There is lots of noise that I wouldn’t really consider music, parts where music is played backwards instead, and generally just comes across as really annoying. The only times where I’d find myself saying, “Well, this song is decent at least,” was only because it came after something that made my ears bleed. Taken in isolation, even the better songs on this album are still pretty bad. Don’t listen to this album. Do something better with your time.

Really enjoyed this one. Having heard some of the best and worst of San Fran psychedelia over the course of doing this, it is refreshing to hear true weirdo music that wants to poke fun at the whole scene. Who Needs The Peace Corps, Let's Make the Water Turn Black and What's The Ugliest Part of Your Body are all highlights. The album is packed too - one of those great albums where nothing sticks around longer than absolutely necessary. Hot Rats did nothing for me, I enjoyed Freak Out, but this is a bone fide classic.

"We're Only in It for the Money" is the third studio album from The Mothers of Invention. It is a concept album satirizing left and right-wing politics especially the hippie subculture and The Beatles "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." Why not? The original album cover which is now the album cover but on the initial release was not the album cover parodies that Beatles album including the band dressed in drag. At times, this album is hilarious. As with all Frank Zappa albums that I've heard, there is a lot going on. Voices and noises from everywhere, multiple instruments, time signatures, spoken word songs, telephone conversations, etc. The music is classified as experimental, rock and psychedelic. Hard to classify Frank. This album was the first album in a project called No Commercial Project which included the next two Mothers' albums and a solo instrumental Zappa album. It is included in the National Recording Registry for its "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significance" and "a scathing satire on hippiedom and America's reaction to it." "Are You Hung Up" starts things off with various people talking including a stuttering Eric Clapton. This song rolls into "Who Needs the Peace Corps" which is a satire of the hippie culture. Very funny. Sort of pyschedelic Indian-sounding music. "Absolutely Free" begins with a piano and then goes into a waltz with a harpsichord and various sound effects. Another song criticizing hippies and the Summer of Love. Next is "Flower Punk" and it is just great. It parodies garage rock and is a carnival version of Hendrix's "Hey Joe." The distorted vocals are hilarious sounding like the lead singer was huffing helium throughout. On the second side is "Let's Make the Water Turn Black" probably the song I've heard most from this album. Frank sings like a teenager/kid and it's about two kids he grew up with: how they fart, pop pills, go in the army and make alcohol with raisins turning the water black. On "Lonely Little Girl" you finally hear a Zappa electric guitar. The music and vocals kind of go pyschedelic. Definitely 60's sounding. "The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny" ends things with a piano and various noises - musique concrète - recorded sounds modified through audio techniques into a song montage. A very Frank way to finish. This is one of those albums that if you like Frank you'll like it and if you don't you won't. The parody started wearing thin on multiple listened but was initially hilarious. There's always enough going on experimentally with Zappa's music to appreciate a lot.

Sophomoric, anti-hippy sound collage psych.

This album has way too much of what I don't like about Frank Zappa. On paper, he's on the money - brassy, irreverent, stylistically eclectic, freewheelingly creative, larger than life but weirdly relatable. In reality, this may be intended as sharp satire, but it's mostly a hodgepodge of ideas that are hard on the ears. The album lacks any musicality to temper its sharp edges, and the jokes don't land 50+ years later. This just isn't fun to listen to. It doesn't even sound like it was all that fun to make, although knowing what I know about Zappa, I'm sure he was endlessly entertained at least. On behalf of weird kids everywhere though, God bless Frank Zappa. The man was one of a kind. Fave Songs: Nasal Retentive Calliope Music, Mom & Dad, Are You Hung Up?, What's the Ugliest Part of Your Body?

Just too big brain and quirky for me. Seems like interesting jazzy music, but then it is nerds doing skits and songs they think are funny. It's not that clever.

i find frank zappa's musical vision compelling enough that i regularly get re-obsessed with his music and check out a few new live records i havent heard yet, the mothers were one of his best bands (not his best tho...ull have to hit up the roxy/one size fits all era for that), and this represents a lot of his best and most memorable material in his Filtering 50s And 60s Pop Melodies Thru His Avant-Garde Stravinsky-Obsessed Hyper-Ironic lens. but its so, so hard to tolerate man...frank here shows a complete and utter unwillingness to do any material analysis of why hippies existed (multiple references and a full song about how their parents failed them, but nothing about vietnam???), and his most cogent criticism is reduced to a sexual assault joke with cartoon voices. the parody angle is frequently musically amusing, because any type of art that asks for a certain amount of buy-in can be easily detached from and made to look silly, and that is just not a style of pastiche that interests me at all anymore (unless you, say, genuinely like 70s art rock as much as ween does on the mollusk). this creates the impression that frank's problem with hippies is just that he finds them annoying and silly, which is fine as an opinion ig but rly weak for supposedly genius satire. a real criticism of hippies might be, for example, that they idolized the abstract ideal of freedom but were still mostly imperial white people whos idea of freedom was often self-centered rather then having any understanding of the shape of global power...but if zappa criticized that, the hypocrisy might be a bit too obvious!

I get that this album is supposed to be modern satire, but honestly it sounds like a couple of kids from the 60s recording fart noises into an old tape machine.

The lowest attention span of anything I've ever heard. Mostly sounded like British campfire songs mixed with noises they made with any random objects they could find around the studio

Erm, I feel like I lack the cultural context to understand the importance of this album. Nothing in here particularly stuck with me such that I would listen to it again. 2/5

There are people who are obsessed by Zappa and proclaim him a genius. Whenever I listen to him I feel like I am on the outside of some elaborate joke that is impossible for me to find funny

Just found this all a bit silly and irritating. Too jaunty!

I can appreciate what they were trying to do, but I don't think it works. It's too juvenile to be satirical.

The parts that were actually music were just ok, the rest was insufferable noise. Not at all for me

Frank is an acquired taste. This album was a little too odd for my liking

Albums like these are why people hate shit like this or why people give up.

The Mothers of Invention’s We're Only In It For The Money is such a wack show. Its like the JPEGMAFIA of the 60’s, except Peggy makes good music. This is just so unbelievably cluttered. If thats what they were going for, kudos I guess, but it was a horrible listening experience, as I didn’t get anything out of it, and the every other 30 second interlude was just stupid. All in all, We're Only In It For The Money is a horrible. Best Song: Flower Punk Worst Song: Nasal Retentive Calliope Music

Don’t imagine they got much money for this.

Man Zappa sure showed those hippies! Unlistenable and unpleasant boomer shite masquerading as lame satire that was apparently cutting-edge and biting 50 years ago.

Een soort satirisch album. Satire werkt een stuk beter als het actueel is. Dit is uit 1968. Afgeven op hippies is al meer dan een halve eeuw niet meer relevant. Wat blijft er dan over? Niet zo heel veel. Schijtlollig puberaal geëmmer over platjes met afwisselend flarden van muziek en een soort anti-muziek. Heliumstemmetjes, willekeurige overgangen, gekraak en gepiep. Hihi hoho kijk naar mij ik ben zo lekker random. Eén van onze liedjes heet 'Hot Poop' hihi hoho. Dan ga ik grappig lullen over de producer terwijl ik stiekem zelf de producer ben hihi hoho raap me op. Er is een kans dat dit stiekem geniaal is, als je er een soort studie bij pakt inclusief bronvermeldingen en referenties, maar daar hebben we nu even geen tijd voor. Ik ben hier echt veel te zuur voor. Tussen de 1 en 2 sterren. Hou het maar op 1.

Uhm, if this is a joke, I don't get it. If it's music, I don't get it either.

Juvenile crap

So what if my asshole brother revered Frank Zappa, holding his every creation as the pinnacle of music deemed to be good and worthwhile? So what? I fucking hate this shit and I'm way cooler than you, bro.

Even as a joke album, We're Only In It For The Money is a pile of hot, steaming garbage. Meandering and obnoxious, the music of the album seems to require the listener to be actively tripping on LSD or Shrooms to understand a single thing that's going on, and I simply have not fried enough of my brain cells to consider these toilet sounds 'music'

“I'm completely stoned / I'm hippy and I'm trippy / I'm a gypsy on my own / I'll stay a week and get the crabs and Take a bus back home.” That’s all I can say. It’s like Zappa was attempting to take the most drug fueled parts of the Beatles and wash it down with a speed ball and a bottle of French Absinthe. Van Gogh wasn’t making an artistic statement when chopped of his own ear, he was listening to this album. Pass…

What on God's green earth am I listening to? This is horrible and nonsensical and artistically worthless in my view. It's like a bunch of strung-out ferrets invaded a recording studio and proceeded to muck around with unknown gadgets to make random noise. (Apologies to ferrets, as this is not intended to offend you.) What a waste of my time. Why is this drivel a part of a list like this?

erm what the sigma

Okay this was just actual noise.

I always enjoy the disorienting nature of Frank Zappa albums and this one is no exception. This album is mostly a send up of late 1960s hippie culture and (rightly) critiques its superficiality and lack of nuance while wrapping the whole thing up in a delightfully experimental package punctuated by vocal effects, spoken word parts, and sound collages. The effect is overwhelming, funny, and remains relevant today.

DUH

Frank Zappa was a genius and every musician top shelf. Best, the attack on hippie culture is ruthlessly hilarious.

Pretty great stuff here. 5 stars.

Yeah, wow.

Groovy

Wonderful album.

Whoa…. I listened to this album on a treadmill while doing an entire expert sudoku perfectly, taking pride in my concentration. And I imagined Zappa saying I wasn’t listening at all. I’m going to need some time with this.

9/10

Certainly a masterpiece from Zappa and the Mothers. Brilliantly satirical, complex, innovative musical experimentation, and of course: controversy and censorship. Not everyone was ready for Zappa's scathing rebuke of both the mainstream and the counterculture of the time.

Fun and Funky

Loved it! I enjoy good avant garde rock music and Frank Zappa is the best at it.

Sehr speziell. Das ist so schräg, dass es schon wieder toll ist. Ein ganzes Album wie „A Day In The Life“.

zappa é mor doidão né

Sorry, I love this.

This shit is tight.

First, the label's inversion of the artwork was and always will be bullshit. This is not just the proper cover but the better cover. And a better indication of what you're about to get. Which is absolute madcap genius and blazing satire. This is my absolute favourite Zappa album, easy. Brilliant takedowns of hippies, right-wingers and the LAPD. There is a lot going on throughout and some of the transitions and oddities will likely drive many folks a bit bonkers, but I think it just makes the whole thing all the more brilliant.

Sick

OMG! This was amazing for the moment that I listened. I can’t quite describe it…it elevated my current state to something euphoric and I want to stay here forever..except that I want all my friends and loved ones with me!!!!

bem trippy e experimental pra epoca, gosteimas pode ter sido a maconha 5 estralas

I listened to this album so many times in high school and college that, even after not listening to it for at least 10 years, I was able to hum and sing along to every song. Great album. Satirical lyrics aside, Zappa was an excellent musical craftsman. These are really more like musical vignettes, but there's so much here in terms of melody, harmony, and instrumentation, mixing doo-wop with rock and jazz and everything in between. Excellent blast from the past.

This was a totally wild, crazy psychedelic trip that had me excited and delighted throughout!

The first real conceptual rock album? Biting satire and social commentary? Making fun of hippies (bums - bad karma thing to do)? This album has it all and is an absolute masterpiece. Zappa was a genius

Iconic.

Yes boys and girls this album was done without the use of drugs Frank Zappa was an amazing musician and composer. This album should be listened to multiple times to get all the lyrical inside jokes and the complexity of the music To use a late 60’s phrase, this album was a mind blower

If you don't love this you don't know music.

Love that album!

Oh, this one is perfect in every tiny psychedelic detail. Great!

9/10 always love hearing a Frank Zappa album don’t get me wrong, Sgt. Peppers is one of my favorite albums but it’s so much fun hearing these guys parody it

I'm convinced Zappa's brain must've naturally produced too much DMT or something. He didn't need to use them to get it. For someone who not only didn't use, but despised psychedelic drugs and its entire culture, he truly made some of the greatest psychedelic music this world has ever seen, and this unique work is absolutely no exception. "What's there to live foooorr"

Not For Me™️ The steely dan biography was actually written about mothers of invention

I don't do publicity balling for you anymore The first word in this song is "discorporate, " it means to leave your body Discorporate and come with me Shifting, drifting Cloudless, starless Velvet valleys and a sapphire sea Unbind your mind There is no time to lick your stamps And paste them in Discorporate and we'll begin Flower power sucks Zappa stands alone. This album is very much a response to the time it was created, but it stands up 55 years later. 5/5

Zappa! Experimentation and commentary. Awesome album.

Loved it! Super creative.

I don't know what else there is to say about Zappa...

I got into Zappa at the perfect time. The summer before college. I wish I could Eternal Sunshine this album out of my mind so I could hear it again for the first time. Wonder what I would think…

zappa is an acquired taste and i have acquired that taste. this album is really smart, really funny, really wild, and genuinely a fun, frenetic listen. zappa pushed the limits on what rock and roll music was, and is. i suspect that most people will not get this album or will find it annoying and weird, which, fair enough. i appreciate zappa's zanyness, his avant-garde flair, and the point he was trying to make about how society handles social issues, which i think still stands true to today.

lets make the water turb balck

4.25

this is silly

I just know that Frank would have called me a plastic person.

Frank Zappa is a brilliant guitarist and composer, and it’s hilarious that he so often uses his talents making silly dum dum music This album was thoroughly entertaining actually

A little mainstream, straightforward and poppy for my tastes. Usually find Zappa impenetrable, then he does this, what an enigma, eh?

Always have time for a hippie-bashing but Frank gets too annoying in parts.

Disco conceptual en su máxima expresión, grabado como un continuo sin diferenciación entre las canciones. Experimental y atrevido, pop psicodélico, donde la gracia está sobre todo en el discurso, que se pierde si no controlas el idioma.

Massive trip, a strong contender for the definition of cool conversation/argument

I enjoy the playfulness on display quite a bit. Maybe a bit too much in places, but overall a great album.

This album is fantastic; has all of the Zappa kookiness and is just dripping with satire, taking shots at hippies, the police, 60's rock culture and 60's consumerism all at once.

Hi i'm Jimmy Carl Black and I'm the Indian of the group Prefs: Who Needs The Peace Corps?, Concentration Moon, Mom & Dad, Bow Tie Daddy, Harry, You're a Beast, What's The Ugliest Part of Your Body?, Absolutely Free, Flower Punk, Let's Make the Water Turn Black, The Idiot Bastard Son, Lonely Little Girl, Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance, What's The Ugliest Part of Your Body (Reprise), Mother People Moins pref: Nasal Retentive Calliope Music

I get it but also ugh shut up but also I’m into it?

Is this our first Zappa? Took us long enough. His music became especially indulgent into the 70’s, but there’s already shades of that here as he keeps reminding you why he doesn’t like hippies. But damn if most the rest of the album doesn’t hold up. It’s still funny all over and the musicianship is incredible. I’ll take it over Sgt. Pepper any day. A-

Frank ❤️

Ok this is the second album from these guys here. This one was done way better - mostly because he was taking potshots at the hippies, and that's something I can stand behind completely. It sounded like late 60s bullshit but the lyrics turned it into something far better. I know Zappa is a hipster darling these days but I have to give this a 4/5 for being one of the best pisstakes I've ever heard. Can't give it the full 5 because some of it was just annoying (see: the last "song") but I was tempted.

This is not to say that frank zappa wasn't clever or funny because he was, but he wasn't close to as funny and clever as he thought he was

The bad man in the playground came up to me today He asked me if I'd like to pet his dog I went over to his car He unbuttoned his trousers A big black dog jumped out and started licking me He spat all over my face It made me happy

The first listen, I just had it on in the background and wasn't paying close attention. I could tell there was some good stuff there, but I didn't come away that impressed. I gave it one more chance and paid more attention to the lyrics, and liked it a lot better the second time.

Wild, unfiltered, and unashamedly blitzing. Sometimes it can be a little too much for me, but nobody does "too much" quite like Zappa.

Always strange and fun

I spent the better part of a week stuck on this album, trying to discover and organize my thoughts. There is a lot going on here. My initial impression was two stars. The songs are not cohesive, music changing suddenly, constantly. But then I read the Wikipedia page for both the album and Frank Zappa and my mind started to open a bit. FZ had a thought provoking stance on the world around him. This album lambasts hippies, war mongers, and 1960s culture alike. Listening more closely with this background, I appreciated the album more, a solid three. I listened quite a few more times over several days and oscillated between a 3 and a 4. I kept asking myself is FZ a genius or some drugged out, musical schizophrenic? The Chrome Plated Megaphone Of Destiny is frankly annoying. There is no way around it. It does the album a disservice by ending with a sour note. So I settled on a 3 a couple days ago and have just been waiting to find time to write this up. In fact I started writing my review and decided to listen one last time. Well, I payed closer attention. This time I listened to the album while reading the lyrics. My stance solidified just now. I can’t believe I’m writing the following: this is a 5 star album right up until the last track (which is a one star deduction). FZ believed people should have the right to do drugs, but didn’t partake himself because he thought they were a waste of time. FZ is a musical savant…maybe. One thing I do know is that I need to spend some time going through the FZ catalogue after this adventure is over.

What a ride this one was. Probably the weirdest album so far but if you ignore the tracks that are just speech or noise, you are actually left with some good psychedelic rock songs with funny/satirical and most importantly entertaining lyrics. This is definitely an album that you either love or completely hate but I'm willing to give this some credit

What a weird, wild, unique and fascinating album. Bizarrely poetic and literate lyrics that takes jabs at EVERYONE and does so with irreverance and biting dark humour. Musically the styles, production and arrangements are all ove the place but mostly interesting and engaging. My favorite Zappa album that I've heard so far and one that I think will remain in my rotation for a little while at least. As I type this is my 3rd listen. 4 stars