Disclaimer: Technically, Lumpy Gravy is the third Zappa album. We're Only in It for the Money was supposed to come out earlier than it did, but the release was delayed due to issues with the cover art (the original cover parodied the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's album, and will actually come up more often than the above cover art in Google searches for We're Only in It for the Money). For this reason, and the fact that We're Only in It for the Money is considered "Part 1" in a trilogy with Lumpy Gravy being "Part 2" (Civilization Phaze III is "Part 3", but I won't review that until 2028 during the Robot Reagan administration), AND the fact that my Rykodisc CD editions puts We're Only in It for the Money before Lumpy Gravy, bite me I'm putting this one first.
I have not listened to The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band enough at this point to comment on it intelligently, or especially draw comparisons between it and We're Only in It for the Money. I have no idea, honestly, how much of a mockery the latter is to the former in terms of the music, concept, and lyrics. So allow me to review this album on it's own merits instead! Good idea, huh??
We're Only in It for the Money is the final album in a series of three "early-Mothers" albums. Stylistically, these first three albums do follow a loose concept of satire, social commentary, and general snobbery. Freak Out! dealt with trivial teenage issues and some political musings, and Absolutely Free dealt with goddamn fucking vegetables. We're Only in It for the Money's main target is hippie-culture, a good a target as any at the time considering hippie-culture was at its peak during the recording of the album. Other targets include authority figures such as law enforcement, the military, and parental units. Basically, Frank still has an angsty bone to pick with the kind of people he should have gotten over already by now. But don't let me shit all over it! This album is pretty nifty! And of some minor historical importance to boot! You won't get that out of a lousy Goldfrapp record, that's for damn sure!
OK, so it's easy to notice right away that we're back actual distinct songs again after the swirling toilet of clumsy melodies that was Absolutely Free. 19 songs, to be exact, and if you listen reeeeaaallllly carefully you might even discover that there are actual hooks in most of them! And none of the songs are all that long either, so you just get punch after punch of memorable melodies. Take "Bow Tie Daddy", for example, which gets its dig in at old people over an old-timey-singing-through-a-megaphone-type plinky backdrop and its over and out in half a minute. "Harry, You're a Beast" is a rape-y, slightly misogynist comment on women (is it truly misogynist or is it satirizing misogyny? Who knows! Likely the former though!). "Absolutely Free" (hey, that's the name of the previous album!) is a fun little knock at capitalism by using the word "discorporate" as a pun. You'll have to listen to the song to figure out what's fun about it, though. "Mom and Dad" and "The Idiot Bastard Son" are two more songs at the expense of old fart parental figures. And all these songs I'm mentioning, they sound upbeat. The music itself doesn't betray the song's message, not always. Sometimes the music will creepify at the drop of hat, like the end of "What's the Ugliest Part of Your Body (Reprise)" where the melody melts away and devolves into an almost accusatory stance against the listener ("I think it's your miiiiiiind/I think it's your miiiiiiind").
Some songs aren't very hooky, of course, and act more as transition pieces. This is Frank Zappa we're talking about, he's not going to make it entirely easy for you. "Are You Hung Up?" and "Telephone Conversation" are similar spoken word "skits". "Nasal Retentive Calliope Music" is a bit of freaking out à la the good parts of Freak Out!, except in this case I find it rather disposable and uninteresting. "The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny" is a 6-minute slog through some Beatles "Revolution 9" sound collage-esque bullshit that, luckily, concludes the album so it's easily skippable. I'm definitely not one to snub some good ol' fashioned avant-garde rub-my-dick-on-the-guitar-strings musings, but this track in particular never did it for me. I'd rather listen to the 12-minute "Return of the Son of Monster Magnet" from Freak Out! three times in a row than sit through "The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny" once. Does that just go to show how highly I think of the former, or how poorly I think of the latter? Not for you to decide. Or me for that matter. Who cares, ultimately?
Historical significance? Well, the modern age of rock and roll as we know it wasn't rife with jokey funny-boy prankster-types like Frank Zappa as much in 1968 as you see these days, at least not ones as well-known or influential. Considering that this was a direct mockery of Sgt. Pepper's, an album that tops a lot of lists of the best albums of all time, and it wasn't written off completely as bunk, speaks a lot for its historical significance alone in my opinion. How many other albums can you think of that were borne out of a desire to ridicule someone else's musical expression and ended up being legitimate in its own right? Did someone in the back say "Weird Al Yankovic's Bad Hair Day"? Get the fuck out.
Of the first three early-Mothers albums, hardcore and casual fans alike tend to pick this one as the gold medal winner. I say they're full of beans! Freak Out! is more consistent and cohesive, Absolutely Free is more fun and experimental, We're Only in It for the Money sucks! But not really. Any music fan worth his or her salt will enjoy all three and worry not about ranking them. Unless you're a nerd like me who would rank them (this one would be 3rd), but I'm not worth any goddamn salt.
GOOD
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