Daniel Kreps
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Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention Ken Goodrich Frank Zappa’s estate will mark the 60th anniversary of the Mothers of Invention’s debut album Freak Out! with a deluxe reissue featuring the LP’s long-lost mono mix, unreleased 1966 performances, and other outtakes from the vault.
Freak Out!: 60th Anniversary Edition, out Sept. 25 via Zappa Records/UMe, features the band’s pioneering 1966 double-LP — an album that Paul McCartney credited with inspiring the Beatles own “concept album” Sgt. Pepper’s — in three formats: A newly remastered stereo mix, a pre-master mix culled from unearthed 1966 tapes, and a full-album mono mix which remained unavailable for decades, as Zappa “vaultmeister” Joe Travers explained:
Ahead of the reissue’s release, check out the mono version of Freak Out!’s opening track, “Hungry Freaks, Daddy”:
In addition to the three varieties of Freak Out!, the 5CD/1Blu-ray reissue also comes with two additional discs featuring portions of three Mothers of Invention’s live performances at the Fillmore West in 1966, as well as an early Freak Out! rehearsal tape, demos, vocal references and other outtakes from the era.
As Zappa explained of the album’s title, “On a personal level, Freaking Out is a process whereby an individual casts off outmoded and restricting standards of thinking, dress, and social etiquette in order to express creatively his relationship to his immediate environment and the social structure as a whole.”
Freak Out!: 60th Anniversary Edition is available to preorder now in a variety of formats, including the Super Deluxe 5CD/1Blu-ray, a 5LP version with the pre-mix and mono mixes alongside a disc of unreleased highlights, and a 2LP multi-colored vinyl version. The super deluxe editions also come with a litho print and 26-page booklet featuring unseen photos from the archives of Ray Leong, little-seen session photos by David Anderle, and liner notes and new historical essays by Leong, music journalist Jason Pettigrew, and “The Vaultmeister” Travers.
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Freak Out!: 60th Anniversary Edition Track List
CD 1 – Freak Out! – The Original Album – 1966 Stereo Mix (2026 Remaster) 1. “Hungry Freaks, Daddy” 2. “I Ain’t Got No Heart” 3. “Who Are the Brain Police?” 4. “Go Cry on Somebody Else’s Shoulder” 5. “Motherly Love” 6. “How Could I Be Such a Fool” 7. “Wowie Zowie” 8. “You Didn’t Try to Call Me” 9. “Any Way the Wind Blows” 10. “I’m Not Satisfied” 11. “You’re Probably Wondering Why I’m Here” 12. “Trouble Every Day” 13. “Help, I’m a Rock” 14. “It Can’t Happen Here” 15. “The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet”
CD 2 – 1966 Pre-Master Mix 1. “Hungry Freaks, Daddy” 2. “I Ain’t Got No Heart” 3. “Who Are the Brain Police?” 4. “Go Cry on Somebody Else’s Shoulder” 5. “Motherly Love” 6. “How Could I Be Such a Fool” 7. “Wowie Zowie” 8. “You Didn’t Try to Call Me” 9. “Any Way the Wind Blows” 10. “I’m Not Satisfied” 11. “You’re Probably Wondering Why I’m Here” 12. “Trouble Every Day” 13. “Help, I’m a Rock” 14. “It Can’t Happen Here” 15. “The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet”
CD 3 – 1966 Mono Mix 1. “Hungry Freaks, Daddy” 2. “I Ain’t Got No Heart” 3. “Who Are the Brain Police?” 4. “Go Cry on Somebody Else’s Shoulder” 5. “Motherly Love” 6. “How Could I Be Such a Fool” 7. “Wowie Zowie” 8. “You Didn’t Try to Call Me” 9. “Any Way the Wind Blows” 10. “I’m Not Satisfied” 11. “You’re Probably Wondering Why I’m Here” 12. “Trouble Every Day” 13. “Help, I’m a Rock” 14. “It Can’t Happen Here” 15. “The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet”
