Album Details

• Artist: The Mothers Of Invention
• Album: We're Only In It For The Money
• Label: Verve
• Year of Release: 1968
• ME Rating: Indie Classic
• Reviewed by: patchen on 2007-07-06

It being the phony celebration of the 40^th anniversary of the Summer of Love, it is more than appropriate to revisit the record that tore that summer’s conceits apart–as it was happening. While there is much to commend the hippies in retrospect–when was the last time people made the mistake of erring too much on the side of love?–Zappa and company zeroed in on the hypocrisy of all involved, from the suits who discovered in Hippie a new revenue stream, as well as the teenage posers looking for a way to legitimize their own Hip by flowing into San Francisco and copping someone else’s lifestyle.

As prophetic and cruelly right-on as are his lyrics, especially on "What’s The Ugliest Part of Your Body?" and "Concentration Moon," the music is also both a devastating parody of contemporary aesthetic as well as hint of where his own muse was taking him. "Let’s Make The Water Turn Black" and "Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance" anticipate the even more layered and experimental work of "Uncle Meat" and "200 Motels" records, and of course, "The chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny"not only sums up those records before they were written, but points the way to his later classical work. An essential record that absolutely no one on this site has an excuse to be without.

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