Tag Archives: The Mothers Of Invention

We’re Only in It for the Money ist das dritte Studioalbum von Frank Zappa und den Mothers of Invention, das im Jahr 1968 veröffentlicht wurde.

Das experimentelle Konzeptalbum, das stilistische Merkmale der amerikanischen Tanzmusik der 1950er Jahre (Doo-Wop), des Surf-Rocks und Psychedelic Rocks der 1960er Jahre, Musique concrète und moderner klassischer Musik aufweist, erreichte in den US-amerikanischen Billboard Charts Platz 30 und wurde von der amerikanischen Musikzeitschrift Rolling Stone 2003 auf Platz 296 der 500 besten Alben aller Zeiten gewählt.

Das Album parodiert in weiten Teilen die Hippie-Bewegung und äußert in satirischer Form Kritik an Lebensstil und Selbstverständnis der US-amerikanischen Gesellschaft und insbesondere der 68er-Generation. Das Cover ist eine Parodie des Beatles-Albums Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967).
Quelle: Wikipedia …

Stereogum | Bruce Hamilton, 02.03.2018:

Frank Zappa’s “We’re Only In It For The Money” Is The ’60s Psych Satire That Became A ’60s Psych Classic

Zappa’s most obviously ironic album turns 50 this weekend

Statistically, there’s a good chance that you’re familiar with the classic rock canon, even if you don’t want to be. It’s blared at football games and dive bars. It soundtracks beer commercials and movies with motorcycles. It somehow screams out of your uncle’s acoustic guitar on Christmas Eve. Familiar are the lyrical tropes (plenty of sex, a lot of drugs, sex on drugs, and drugs compared to sex) and the talking points that defend them (“real music,” “back when people played their instruments,” etc.). And yet, in spite of this — I hope I’m not alone here — from ages 10 to 23, I was fooled. I regarded the denizens of the rock canon as musically infallible legends, who, barring their occasional missteps, knew something about music, something I couldn’t put into words. They were better than your average musician, much better than me at guitar, and had something to say, or something like that.

Thankfully, Frank Zappa unfooled me with his benchmark album We’re Only In It For The Money. Had it not been for Zappa’s fourth (and most obviously ironic) record, released 50 years ago this Sunday, I may have regarded groups like Ultimate Spinach, Vanilla Fudge, and The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band as masters of their craft and not as the vapid pop groups of their time. There’s nothing wrong with that, either. If anything, it was on me to make that distinction in the first place. It’s even funnier that Zappa grouped the Beatles in with such artists, as evident by the album artwork. (I’d like to think it fooled some grandparents in its day, like your Nona buying you a Transmorphers DVD out of well-intentioned ignorance.) Nostalgia goggles don’t work on the present.
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