1968

Believe it or not but there are people out there who believe Frank Zappa was a hippie. Of course nothing could be further from the truth. Zappa hated the hippies, and no album shows it better than 1968's "We're Only In It For The Money" by his band The Mothers of Invention. The album cover is a parody of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and his mockery of hippiedom in tracks like 'Who Needs The Peace Corps?', 'Absolutely Free' and the hilarious 'Flower Punk' can only be described as downright vicious. Upon first hearing the music is pretty funny with all its weird rhythms and cartoon voices, but the subject matter is dark. Not only hippies get it but also their parents and the authority figures kicking the shit out of them. Wild and wacky as the music may be, Zappa's world view is actually pretty bleak. Album closer "The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny" is a piece of musique concrete where Zappa insists the listener reads Kafka's gruesome short story 'In The Penal Colony' before listening to it. Although always too good a musician to be a punk there was never any punk or hardcore band so harsh in its criticism as Zappa in top form, as he is here. Not to mention the fact that he makes THE BUTTHOLE SURFERS sound like CROWDED HOUSE.

Picks of the litter, 1968: