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Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention: Royal Albert Hall, London

Geoffrey Cannon, The Guardian, 12 June 1969

Update, 2019. FRANK ZAPPA was always friendly when he and I met, between 1968 and 1970. This may have been because I took him seriously, but without solemnity. The second of three pieces on rock I wrote for The Listener in late 1967 (archived in RBP) was about the Mothers of Invention's Freak Out! And Absolutely Free. I contrasted him with Dylan, who sings of the president of the USA being naked, whereas Zappa has him vomiting on the podium; and I compared "Who are the brain police?" with the surrealistic horror of Chester Gould's comic strip Dick Tracy.

Total word count of piece: 1107

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